Personalisierung ist ein wichtiger Bereich des Internet Marketings, zu dem es wenige experimentelle Untersuchungen mit großen Teilnehmerzahlen gibt. Für den erfolgreichen Einsatz von Empfehlungsverfahren sind umfangreiche Daten über das Käuferverhalten erforderlich. Diesen Problemstellungen nimmt sich die vorliegende Arbeit an. In ihr wird das Shop-übergreifende individuelle Käuferverhalten von bis zu 126.000 Newsletter-Empfängern eines deutschen Online-Bonussystems sowohl mittels ausgewählter Data-Mining-Methoden als auch experimentell untersucht. Dafür werden Prototypen eines Data-Mining-Systems, einer A/B-Test-Software-Komponente und einer Empfehlungssystem-Komponente entwickelt und im Rahmen des Data Minings und durch Online-Feldexperimente evaluiert. Dabei kann für die genannte Nutzergruppe in einem Experiment bereits mit einem einfachen Empfehlungsverfahren gezeigt werden, dass zum einen die Shop-übergreifenden individuellen Verhaltensdaten des Online-Bonus-Systems für die Erzeugung von Empfehlungen geeignet sind, und zum anderen, dass die dadurch erzeugten Empfehlungen zu signifikant mehr Bestellungen als bei der besten Empfehlung auf Basis durchschnittlichen Käuferverhaltens führten. In weiteren Experimenten im Rahmen der Evaluierung der A/B-Test-Komponente konnte gezeigt werden, dass absolute Rabattangebote nur dann zu signifikant mehr Bestellungen führten als relative Rabatt-Angebote, wenn sie mit einer Handlungsaufforderung verbunden waren. Die Arbeit ordnet sich damit in die Forschung zur Beeinflussung des Käuferverhaltens durch Personalisierung und durch unterschiedliche Rabatt-Darstellungen ein und trägt die genannten Ergebnisse und Artefakte bei.

This thesis examines the 1998 complaint of racism against the Mail & Guardian, a leading exponent of South Africa's alternative press in the 1980s, and important contemporary producer of investigative journalism. The study is framed within a cultural studies approach, analysing the Mail & Guardian as constituted by a 'circuit of production': its social context, production, texts, and audiences. The thesis makes three main arguments. First, that the claim of racism cannot be understood outside of a consideration of both the changing political milieu, and subtle changes within the Mail & Guardian itself. Significant social changes relate to the reconfiguration of racial and class identities wrought by the 'Mbeki state'. Within the Mail & Guardian, the thesis argues for the importance of the power and subjectivity of the editor as a key 'factor' shaping the identity of the paper, evidenced in its production practices and textual outputs. In this regard, the thesis departs from a functionalist analysis of particular 'roles' within the newsroom, drawing instead on a post-structuralist approach to organisational studies. Based on this production and social context, the thesis examines key texts which deal with aspects of South Africa's social transformation, and which exemplify aspects of the Mail & Guardian's reporting which led to the complaint of racism by the Black Lawyers Association (BLA) and the Association of Black Accountants (ABASA). Their complaint was that the Mail & Guardian's reporting impugned the dignity of black people, and in so doing was a violation of their rights to dignity and equality which are constitutionally guaranteed. However, as freedom of the press is also guaranteed by the South African constitution, their complaint to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) resulted in public debate about these contending rights. My second argument relates to the jurisprudential approach to racism, and the related issue of affirmative action, which informed the complaint against the paper. Contrary to the 'normative', liberal approach to these issues, this thesis highlights Critical Race Theory as the jurisprudential basis for both the claimants' accusation of racism against the Mail & Guardian, and aspects of its implicit use in South African human rights adjudication. The thesis argues that in failing to recognise these different philosophical and political bases of legal reasoning, the media, including the Mail & Guardian, in reporting on these matters failed in their purported role of serving the public interest. The thesis concludes by applying Fraser's critique of Habermas's notion of a single, bourgeois public sphere to journalism, thereby suggesting ways in which the critiques of some of the Mail & Guardian's own journalists could be employed to enlarge its approach to journalism - giving voice to constituencies seldom heard in mainstream media.

This paper provides analysis of a series of email correspondences between secondary newcomer immigrant students and Latino business professionals within the same urban community. The author, using James Gee's discourse theory (1990, 1996, 1999, 2004) contends that school-based discourses and structures have historically operated as barriers to academic success and societal acceptance for the vast majority of secondary English Language Learners, indicating the systemic perpetuation of a racist, classist, xenophobic social order through the public schools. When an attempt is made to sidestep these school-based discourses and put students in direct contact with mature, successful practitioners of English outside of the education community, the students encounter "mentor talk," a set of discourses that uncritically embrace the notions of a neutral, meritocratic, knowledge-based socioeconomic order. At the same time, students encounter language that can be appropriated for their own creative constructions of identity as they seek to position themselves in a new society. Even when there exists a strong alignment between the student's socially-situated identity presentation and the ideological thrust of "mentor talk," many societal barriers stand in the pathway of social and educational advancement. More often, the student identities express resistance, often subtle, to the standard, hegemonizing guidelines for success they have been offered. / text

This study sought to investigate the practices of citizen journalists in the Iindaba Ziyafika project. The objectives of the research were to explore the evolving practices of citizen journalism in Grahamstown and to extrapolate how citizen journalists are securing a discursive space in relationship to conventional journalism. The study investigated whether the citizen journalists based at Grocotts Mail and Radio Grahamstown are developing practices and patterns that can be distinguished from the practices of conventional journalism. It also evaluated whether the content that is produced by citizen journalists differs from the content that is produced by professional journalists, so that it can be understood as "alternative" and as promoting engaged citizenship. A sub goal was also to explore whether citizen journalism does enable the practice of citizenship through expanding the public sphere. The findings of the research are that in the Iindaba Ziyafika project, citizen journalists see news as a process and not as a series of news events. This is clear departure from event-based news conceptualisation associated with mainstream journalism. They view news as unfolding social processes, allowing citizen journalists to question the factors which would have precipitated the event and investigate the causal factors of particular phenomena. The research also reveals that citizen journalists in the project are engaging in pro-am journalism. Part of the practice of citizen journalists involves a very significant amount of collaboration between professional journalists and citizen journalists. The collaboration is in the production of content and in the presentation of radio broadcasts. Part of the findings of the study are that journalists in the Iindaba Ziyafika project work in different mediums and this calls for them to acquire the competencies of the different mediums. The same citizen journalists produce content for print, radio and for online media. The diction used in the stories published by citizen journalists is couched in struggle and revolutionary language which seems to pit the community against the authorities. The citizen journalists also make use of every daily language in their radio broadcasts and borrow from their cultural expression. This they do through populist methods. The citizen journalists have also integrated communication brokering as part and parcel of their practice. This is because the citizen journalists have also made it their mandate to enable the flow of information between the residents and the local authority. In terms of sourcing there is a deliberate stance to include those who are not ordinarily given a voice in the mainstream media. Women and the poor appear frequently in stories as sources and this is a different scenario from that prevalent in mainstream journalism which frequently covers the rich and the powerful. The citizen journalists in the Iindaba Ziyafika project have also borrowed practices from professional journalism and this has been integrated into their daily practice. This includes following strategic rituals of journalism objectivity and balance.

This study investigates Grocott’s Mail’s rape reporting through a participatory action research process. It draws on feminist cultural studies, sociology of news, and normative theories of the media to inform the research project. The participatory action research process explored three areas with the journalists at Grocott’s Mail: their understanding of the community they serve and their own professional identity as a community of practice, roles of the media in society which inform reporting, and rape as a social issue and problem. Through this process the study found that the pervasiveness of rape in the Grahamstown community, the complexities around rape reporting which include the significant legal challenges, the personal impact rape cases have on journalists, and the journalistic roles and approaches employed in rape reporting all influence how the paper covers rape. In analysing these matters the study found that the primary factor inhibiting a successful strategy for managing rape reporting was that Grocott’s Mail does not place gender-based violence on their news agenda as an issue requiring attention in order to develop the community they serve.

This study explores the financial performance measurement of South Africa's Top Companies. It aims to find a conclusion on the research problem, that is 'Do South Africa's Top Companies use the available arsenal to measure their financial performance?' Commerce and industry are the cornerstones of the economy of a country. This study purports to contribute to the ways and means of minimising the risk of business failures due to the resultant effects on the economy. The sample comprises of sixty companies. The sampling frame is the first hundred companies of the Financial Mail 200 Top Performers for 2004. The arsenal that is available to measure financial performance is researched in the financial literature. Mainly, this covers ratio analysis and interpretation, and the bankruptcy prediction models. To arrive at a conclusion on the research problem, a research instrument is developed from the host of financial ratios in the literature, including the bankruptcy prediction models. The research instrument comprises of popular ratios that are also found to be 'logical', as well as the ratios that make up the Z-Score bankruptcy prediction model. The instrument is called the Ratio Map and Z-Score and is applied to test the financial strengths/weaknesses of the Top Companies. In addition to the Ratio Map and Z-Score, the measures applied by the Top Companies as 'highlights' are analysed. This is done to determine the extent at which the measures unearth the strengths/weaknesses of the Top Companies. The conclusion drawn is that the Top Companies do not utilise the available arsenal to measure their financial performance. The supporting evidence is that the most frequently applied 'highlights' measures by the Top Companies cover only one area of the many financial fields of a company, that is, share performance. On the other hand, the analyses per Ratio Map and Z-Score have not revealed major material weaknesses in the financial position of the Top Companies. It is proposed that: ïf  More information be given in the notes to the financial statements to facilitate meaningful analysis; and ïf  A follow-up research study be done to assess the trends of the Top Companies. / Business Management / D.Comm. (Business Management)

This study investigates the usability of the South African Super 14 Rugby franchise web sites. Web site usability is a measure of a web site user’s experience when visiting a web site. A web site user’s experience will determine how well a web site’s goals are achieved. The relevant web site goals are, having as many visitors as possible, both unique visitors and repeat visitors, and ensuring that those visitors stay on the web site for as long as possible. This study uses data generation method triangulation to enhance the validity of the findings. The data generation methods are an e-mail questionnaire survey and an expert group consensus method called the Delphi Method. This study shows that within each web site and across all five web sites, there is poor usability consistency. Management guidelines and recommendations for improvements to these web sites are presented, so that the web site goals can be achieved. / Computer Science / M.Sc. (Information Systems)

Direct response advertising in the financial services industry in South Africa has become one of the most important tactics companies utilise to build and maintain market share. Ensuring that these advertising campaigns yield optimal return on investment numbers is the responsibility of marketing departments and their partners in the marketing and sales processes, such as the creative and media agencies, the distribution force, as well as the client service area that supports the client value proposition. The marketing executive therefore is accountable for the planning, budgeting and execution of direct response campaigns, which need to deliver sufficient results to support the company’s overall business objectives. The challenge all marketers face is the lack of a proven structured and scientific methodology to facilitate this planning, budgeting and execution process. It has always been a general view in the marketing fraternity that it is extremely difficult if not impossible to combine creative output measures, which are subjective in nature, with cost, sales and profit measures, which are objective in nature. This study aims to create a structured approach to marketing strategising and planning, by creating a marketing metrics model that enables the marketing practitioner to budget according to output needed to achieve the overarching business objectives of sales, cost management and profit. This marketing metrics model therefore unpacks the business drivers in detail, but through a marketing effort lense, to link the various factors underlying successful marketing output, to the bigger business objectives. This is done by incorporating both objective (verifiable data, such as cost per sale) and subjective variables (qualitative factors, such as creative quality) into a single model, which enables the marketing practitioner to identify areas of underperformance, which can then be managed, tweaked or discontinued in order to optimise marketing return on investment. Although many marketing metrics models and variables exist, there is a gap in the combination of objective and subjective factors in a single model, such as the proposed model, which will give the marketer a single tool to plan, analyse and manage the output in relation to pre-determined performance benchmarks. / Business Management / DCOM (Business Management)

El objetivo que se persigue con esta tesina es mostrar un panorama didáctico efectivo del uso de diversas redes sociales y el correo electrónico para la adquisición del español como lengua extranjera. Se han realizado investigaciones teóricas en diversas fuentes literarias y un estudio empírico que ha arrojado datos interesantes. En este trabajo se exponen diversas aportaciones lingüísticas que dan soporte a nuestras cuatro propuestas didáctias que proponen actividades en las que se pretende la inmersión del alumno en la lengua meta de una manera auténtica y motivadora. A través de este trabajo podemos concluir que el involucrar las redes sociales en las lecciones de ELE con un uso responsable y enfocado, contribuiría a construir un entorno multicultural entre los alumnos que supere las barreras geográficas y culturales del idioma, donde podría fácilmente darse un aprendizaje mucho más efectivo. / The objective pursued with this essay is to show an efficient didactic way of how to use various social networks and e-mail in the acquisition of Spanish as a foreign language. Theoretical investigations have been conducted in various literary sources and an empirical study have been conducted that yielded interesting data. In this essay we describe various linguistic contributions that give support to our four didactic proposals in which we seek the student’s immersion in the target language in anauthentic and motivating way. With this investigation we can conclude that the responsible and focused use of the social networks in the Spanish as a foreign language lessons, contributes to building a multicultural environment among students that overcome the geographic and cultural barriers of language, which could easily make learning more efficient.

This thesis work is to do with the Information system of data boxes (ISDS) which is introduced from legislation's and user's point of view. Because the introduction of this system has influenced hundreds of thousands of subjects the main target of this thesis is to find out about the impact of the ISDS on users with the help of the analysis method. In this work firstly the data provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs are examined and interpreted, secondly the results of the poll conducted by the author and then a cost-benefit analysis of the system from the users' point of view is carried out. The results of the work show that the ISDS was at the end of the examined period (2009 -- 2013) beneficial for its users and the total economic benefit for the respective period is 3.6 billion Czech crowns. This means that every crown spent on the operation of the system by the Ministry of Internal Affairs represents savings of 2 Czech crowns. The author of this work has come to the conclusion that the system is from a legislative, technological and economic point of view very well created. The author recommends to the system administrator its further development and also recommends to use its potential among thousands of OSVČ (the self-employed).