Whole document restricted, see Access Instructions file below for details of how to access the print copy. / Generations X and Y have been described as constituting a ‘black hole’ in congregational life. The literature emphasises that generations X and Y are interested in spirituality but not institutional religion. There is now a substantial body of literature arguing that generations X and Y find churches ‘irrelevant’, ‘absent of God’, ‘too rigid’, and ‘laughably out of touch’ with their lives. This thesis argues that generational accounts of religion often fail to make an important distinction between the churched and unchurched in relation to generational distinctiveness. This is a distinction often drawn by sociologists of religion, pointing to two quite different cultures, one communally orientated towards faith communities and the other orientated towards personal freedom and a privatised spiritual quest. Generations X and Y in this thesis refer to a generational unit who share a particular type of faith: owned and embedded within a church community. Employing a methodological approach of in-depth religious life story interviews this thesis is a sociological investigation into the way Christian faith journeys of GenX and GenY are embedded within New Zealand church communities. It is argued that their faith does not make sense outside of this embeddedness. Embedded faith provides a framework for making sense of the participants’ religious biographies. Embedded faith is contrasted to a more privatised understanding of faith and religion popular within sociology of religion. The active dimension of embedded faith is demonstrated through an exploration of modes of engagement with worship and preaching. This thesis builds upon qualitative studies that continue to demonstrate the salience of the collective act of religious involvement and social belonging. One of the challenges of embedded faith however, is finding a church to embed it within. This thesis provides understanding and insight into the relationship between embedded faith and church switching. It explores the way that church switching is an intentional act of disembedding and re-embedding faith and the reasons for this practice.

<p>The Swedish boat industry is considered quite conservative and subject to only limited development. The purpose of the study is to explain the structure of the boat industry, to analyze and evaluate ways of competing and provide recommendations for developing a competitive strategy. The aim of this thesis is to explain how to be competitive in the Swedish boat industry. To be able to do so three areas are used to deepen as well as broaden the understanding. The three areas within competitiveness we have chosen to highlight are differentiation, individualization and distribution. Different theories on branding, differentiation strategies and generation Y are studied. Qualitative interviews within the boat industry were used to collect empirical data. The result of theories and empirical data combined is that customer satisfaction is a major factor for success. To be able to serve the customer the right product to the right price is crucial. To do so firms can either choose to deliver an additional value through interactive or physical ways. The environmental issues will also have an impact on the boat industry and therefore actions within this area can be considered as success factors.</p>

"The American Dream" is an expression familiar to all Americans and the realization of the American Dream is tied closely to homeownership (Clinton, 1995). The recent financial crisis, with the housing and financial markets at levels not seen since the Great Depression, has resulted in widespread unemployment, continually dropping home prices, escalating home foreclosures, and tightened lending standards. Significant changes in the home buying behavior of Americans since the start of the crisis are clear but it is not clear if overall perceptions of homeownership have become more negative in the wake of this catastrophe (Joint Center for Housing Studies [JCHS], 2011). Might the marriage of homeownership and the American Dream be a thing of the past? The echo-boomer generation (defined as those born after 1980) comprises the largest group of Americans ever to reach their twenties���peak household formation years. They will play a critical role in the face of American housing in the years to come (JCHS, 2011). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether homeownership remains a goal for members of the echo-boomer generation. The population of interest for this study was college students in the United States who are members of the echo-boomer generation. A chain-referral sampling technique resulted in a non-random sample of 256 participants, ranging in age from 18 to 21. Participants were predominantly white non-Hispanic, single females who rented their residences. Most were undergraduate students representing 35 majors. An on-line questionnaire was used that included both closed and open-ended questions grouped around four primary research questions. (1) Do members of this population view homeownership as a safe investment? Simply put, yes. When asked directly, most participants responded "very safe" or "somewhat safe." Stepwise logistic regression was used to explore the predictor variables for this response. Predictor variables with p<.05 included participants��� expectation of the future direction of housing prices and of the economy, their preferred housing tenure, and whether homeownership was part of their own definition of the American Dream. (2) What is the preferred housing tenure form amongst members of this population? A large majority of participants indicated that they preferred homeownership to renting. Logistic regression analysis suggested strong association between preferred housing tenure and whether the participants viewed homeownership as a safe investment, as well as their belief about which housing tenure form made the most sense for them, and the adequacy of their income. (3) Is Homeownership in the Future Plans of College Student Echo-Boomers? The answer to this question was an emphatic yes. Ninety-three percent of current renters claim future plans to own their homes and 58% of current owners say that they will never rent. Logistic regression (p<.05) found that respondents' current tenure form and tenure preference, as well as their belief in the safety of investment in homeownership were predictors of future housing tenure intentions. (4) Do members of this population view homeownership as part of the "American Dream?" When asked explicitly whether owning a home is part of their own personal American Dream, a large majority of of respondents said yes. Logistic regression analysis found that predictors of this view (p<.05) included expectations of rent prices, age, preferred tenure form, and whether participants saw homeownership as a safe investment. This study was grounded in a social constructionist theoretical framework. Among the social constructions of housing is a deep-seated preference for homeownership as the ideal tenure form. Everyday discourse serves to accentuate the positive aspects of homeownership along with the negative aspects of renting (Gurney,1999). In spite of a deep financial crisis and the heightened role of housing in it, homeownership seems to continue as the preferred housing tenure form among the echo-boom generation. Importantly, homeownership as the embodiment of the American Dream seems to have been unaffected by the crisis. / Graduation date: 2012

This study describes a survey of 237 first-year undergraduate students conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Through this study, the researcher aimed to fill in gaps in librarians’ knowledge about first-year students’ awareness of reference services, and students’ preferred modes of communication with librarians. The results show significant positive relationships between librarians’ verbal promotion of reference services and students’ tendency to ask reference questions in person.

This is an examination of how the fictional representation and re-creation of past wars is colliding with the personal video presentations of the Iraq War. It raises questions about how war and art are experienced in a new way and also how “instant history” is made available to the public. Personally recorded footage of the everyday experience of war has altered the way in which society views war and copes with its aftereffects because Generation Y has become a computer based generation. This is a reception study that will show how Generation Y has used the Baby Boomers’ input about the Vietnam War as a basis for its perceptions of historiography and as both a positive and negative framework for its videography.

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of Millennials' beliefs and attitudes and how that will affect their conception of the employer-employee psychological contract. This analysis should provide a greater understanding of how the childhoods of Millennials have affected their attitudes for life and career aspirations. Further, it explores retention strategies for workplace culture, management style, and growth and advancement.

Sponsring är ett marknadsföringsverktyg som används av företag för att skapa konkurrensfördelar samt för att nå en specifik målgrupp. Vi möts dagligen av sponsring i olika former och vi tar till oss denna typ av marknadsföring beroende på våra intressen och vår livsstil. På senare år har sociala medier exploderat lavinartat och gett företag ytterligare en möjlighet att kommunicera med konsumenterna. Även kända extremsportare finns idag representerade i sociala medier där de kommunicerar med sina fans genom att visa upp sig själva och företag de är sponsrade av. Företag som sponsrar extremsportare aktiva i sociala medier exponeras således i atletens meddelanden samt när den specifika målgrupp som har ett intresse i atleten. Den målgrupp som nås genom att sponsra extremsportare är till stor del generation Y (18 – 35 år) vilka karakteriseras av att de är intresserade av extremsport, stora användare av sociala medier samt drivs av livsstilar och image. Studiens övergripande syfte är att identifiera de gemensamma nämnarna inom områdena sponsring, sociala medier, konsumentbeteende, generation Y och kommunikationsprocesser. Detta med avsikt att belysa dessa befintliga teorier i en modell inom ämneskontexten extremsport. Vidare ska denna studie ge svar på hur de meddelanden/inlägg sponsrade atleter skickar via sociala medier, innehållande olika typer av stimulis, påverkar mottagarna samt mottagarnas reaktioner och återkoppling till den sponsrade atleten och sponsorn. Vi avser även studera betydelsen av överensstämmelse mellan atlet och sponsor i konsumenternas ögon. Studien har en deduktiv ansats eftersom vi utgår från befintlig teori. Insamlingen av det empiriska materialet har skett genom en kvantitativ enkätundersökning som genomförts på hemsidan freeride.se för att nå respondenter med intresse i extremsport och som följer extremsportare i sociala medier. Studiens resultat medför att en kommunikationsmodell har kunnat konstrueras vilken kan appliceras i vår ämneskontext. Vidare visar resultaten att livsstilar och image är viktigt och väcker uppmärksamhet samt att såväl atletens som sponsorns image förbättras när atleten är aktiv i sociala medier. Meddelandetyper där atleten gör reklam för produkter relaterade till atletens sport uppmärksammas i hög grad av generation Y vilket är ett tecken på att överensstämmelsen mellan atleten och sponsorn är viktig. De slutsatser vi kan dra utifrån studiens resultat är att meddelanden från extremsportare på sociala medier som innehåller stimulis i form av bilder, video och text i vilka atleten visar upp sin livsstil, image samt sponsorer väcker uppmärksamhet hos generation Y. Vidare ökar detta även chanserna till att mottagarna reagerar och återkopplar på meddelandet.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to see what implications the new communication channel of Covert Virals has on acknowledged communication strategies and whether or not these strategies are still viable within Covert Virals.   Background: The term Covert Viral has been given to pieces of advertisement, spread through the medium of electronic word of mouth over social networks, which are designed to look user made. With the defense mechanisms towards traditional advertisements in mind, and the extensive growth of the social networks, it is of high interest to understand how traditional branding strategies work in this new communication channel.  Method: To answer our research questions, and thereby conclude our purpose, we have used quantitative data which was collected through the use of non-random sampling. This was analyzed within the SPSS statistics software, using both descriptive and inferential statistics.  Conclusion: The implications this communication channel brings to traditional branding strategies has been divided into two categories, Brand Awareness strategy implications, and Brand Attitude strategy implications. Within Brand Awareness strategies it was found that Covert Virals were unfit to execute brand recall strategies. However, Brand recognition strategies were found to still apply, with a possible negative backlash of advertising for a competitor‟s brand. Within Brand Attitude Strategies, we found that a new restriction has been placed on the traditional strategies. This restriction is the obligatory use of emotional branding. Furthermore, this emotional branding must be constructed in such a way so that it caters to both the viral intent of the advertisement, and the branding intent. / Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att fasställa vilken inverkan den nya kommunikationskanalen Covert Virals har på existerande teorier gällande varumärkeskommunikation och om dessa teorier är tillämpliga på Covert Virals.  Bakgrund: Covert Virals är en term för reklam som har spridit sig via så kallad elektronisk „mun till mun‟ -marknadsföring via sociala nätverk där upphovsmannen framställs som icke företagsrelaterad. På grund av svårigheter att nå kunder via traditionell  marknadsföring och den omfattande tillväxten inom sociala nätverk på senare år, är det av största vikt att förstå hur företag ska marknadsföra sig genom denna nya kommunikationskanal.  Metod: För att uppfylla vårt syfte har vi använt oss av en kvantitativ undersökning som har samlats in genom ett icke slumpmässigt  urval. Svaren analyserades både med hjälp av trendanalys och beskrivande statistik genom mjukvaran SPSS Statistics.  Slutsats: Utfallen av undersökningen är uppdelade i medvetenhet om, respektive attityd till, varumärket. Covert Virals är inte lämpliga för att öka tittarnas förmåga att erinra sig ett varumärke, men fungerar väl för att skapa igenkännelse av varumärket. Det finns en risk att de positiva effekterna av en covert viral tillkommer konkurrenter i lika stor eller större utsträckning som det egna varumärket. När det gäller attityd till ett varumärke så har studien visat att det finns en ny begränsning i det att en Covert Viral måste använda sig av känsloladdade budskap. Detta känsloladdade budskap måste dels skapa en stark vilja att vidarebefordra meddelandet samt förmedla den känslan marknadsföraren vill associera med varumärket.

A new generation of recent graduates and young workers, the Millennials, have started entering the workforce within the last ten years and work alongside older generations, such as Generation Xers and Baby Boomers. The limited research on Millennials suggests that Millennials are significantly different from their predecessors. The lack of robust or academic findings on the subject of Millennials and their impact in the workplace form the motivation for this research. To give clarity and cohesion on the topic of Millennials and to guide the analysis, it was necessary to develop a comprehensive taxonomy, or model, of Millennials’ traits. Two aspects of the model were investigated through the use of interviews. The results of the study do not support the existence of all of the numerous and distinct traits that Millennial have, as suggested by the literature; however, the results do support a subset of the traits. Compared to other current generations and to other recent generations of youths, the results suggest that Millennials have a greater sense of entitlement, have more unrealistic expectations, and need a greater amount of management involvement, such as supervision, structure, and feedback. Some factors outside of the model were found during the course of conducting the study. These factors may have impacted the results and possibly resulted in a false rejection of the propositions of this study. This exploratory research takes a step towards getting a better understanding of Millennials by providing a comprehensive taxonomy of Millennials’ traits and some academic findings for future research to build upon. A more rigorous study with a strengthened field methodology may better explore the impact of various factors on the results of intergenerational and Millennial investigations.

The Swedish boat industry is considered quite conservative and subject to only limited development. The purpose of the study is to explain the structure of the boat industry, to analyze and evaluate ways of competing and provide recommendations for developing a competitive strategy. The aim of this thesis is to explain how to be competitive in the Swedish boat industry. To be able to do so three areas are used to deepen as well as broaden the understanding. The three areas within competitiveness we have chosen to highlight are differentiation, individualization and distribution. Different theories on branding, differentiation strategies and generation Y are studied. Qualitative interviews within the boat industry were used to collect empirical data. The result of theories and empirical data combined is that customer satisfaction is a major factor for success. To be able to serve the customer the right product to the right price is crucial. To do so firms can either choose to deliver an additional value through interactive or physical ways. The environmental issues will also have an impact on the boat industry and therefore actions within this area can be considered as success factors.