The theoretical part of this thesis named "The Analysis of Consumer Behavior of Women in the Age of Internet" describes the contemporary state of social media. The greatest attention is devoted to Internet forums and their ability to influence the consumer behavior of women in the era of Internet. The thesis also deals with the use of Internet marketing on these social forums. The practical part of the thesis is focused on the survey centered upon the greatest Czech discussion server for women -- Omlazení.cz and carried out in the form of questionnaires. The results of the survey were analyzed and on their basis the effect of individual discussions on the purchase of certain products was revealed.

Presently there are four generational cohorts in the workplace. Born from 1977 to 1997, the youngest cohort group, referred to as Generation Y (or Gen Y) in this study, has 81 million members, of whom over 29 million are already in the workplace. The importance of leader-subordinate relationships in the workplace has been confirmed; in recognizing this, leaders must identify and adapt to the changing era-shaped needs of employees, who cannot fully participate in organizational life if their most urgent needs are not being met. Because Gen Y employees are only now entering the workforce, little is actually known about the workplace needs of this cohort group. This study attempted to determine leadership needs of a Gen Y cohort as a means to enhance workplace relationships in the 21st century organization. A sequential, mixed methods study was employed to explore leadership preferences of a Gen Y cohort. Initially, focus group interviews were used to generate leadership themes. Based on these themes, an instrument was designed, and Gen Y business students from three higher education institutions were surveyed. Confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL software was used to test the themes. The driving force behind this research design was to build a foundation of understanding through inductive research (qualitative) and to test and enrich the foundation through deductive means (quantitative).

The purpose of this research is to empirically investigate consumers' health care decision choices in a dynamic market setting. The unprecedented demands on the U.S. health care system coupled with the mounting controversies surrounding health care reform suggest that consumers' health care decisions warrant empirical research attention. Toward this end, this dissertation empirically explored (1) the characteristics of consumers who possess a willingness to use non-conventional treatments over conventional treatments, (2) the characteristics of consumers who elect self-medication in lieu of health care practitioner-directed medication, and (3) the salient dimensions of consumers' channel choice for the procurement of health care products. Each of these decision choice factors were tested across two U.S. generational segments to assess whether differences existed across Baby Boomers' and Gen Yers' health care decision choices. The conceptual framework for empirical assessment is Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory. From Bandura's social cognitive theory, a general model of healthcare decision choice is proposed to assess consumers' states of mind, states of being and states of action (decision choice). Results indicate that social cognitive factors (e.g., self-efficacy, objectivism) play an important role in each of the decision domains explored in this dissertation. Moreover, health value was found to be an important moderator between the social cognitive factors and health care decision choices. The predictors of the health care decision choices were found to vary across the Baby Boomers and Generation Yers on several dimensions, confirming the notion that generational differences may be a salient dimension of consumers' health care decision choice. The research offers several implications for practitioners, academicians and policy makers. Both descriptive and normative implications are gleaned from the research findings. Most notably, the results indicate that consumers' social cognitive factors and health value may be mechanisms for managing health care decisions.

Online marketing opportunites regarding the teenage market are often underestimated due to the fact that the general information to date is neither particular, specific nor exact. Therefore, this project aims at giving guidelines for webmarketers willing to capture the "consumers of tomorrow".

Gamification is a concept that is gaining significant recognition in the field of business administration in general and marketing in particular. Gamification has been gaining the interest of researchers recently with mostof the studies being conducted during the last three years. Gamification presents an opportunity for businesses to gain consumers’ attention and engagement through different aspects and elements of it. Organizations such as Pinchos, the restaurant have utilized those gaming elements in order to grow their revenues and keep the customers engaged while ordering food. Despite the exponential growth of gamification in the business world, studies on its marketing effectiveness and the influence of its elementsare lacking.To fill this gapin the literature, this researchaims to gain a deeper understanding of gamification and its different elements, byfocusingon the utilization of gamification as a digital marketing tool to enhance customer loyalty and retention in retail store setting. Therefore, this researchaimsfirst to identify all the factorsaffecting store choice. Second, identify and examine the different factors affecting retail store loyalty. Finally, the differentelements of gamificationare identifiedand their effect on loyalty are studied.In order to fulfil thepurpose of the studywe have collaborated with ChildrensHouse, a retail toy store located in Umea, Sweden, in order to gain insights from current and potential customers. A quantitative study was conducted,and the sample population chosen was generation Y parents, due to their digital literacy. To add a degree of credibility to the research, a short interview with Simon, the owner of ChildrensHouse, was conducted in order to gain managerial insights as well.The main conclusions of this research include,the different factors affecting retail toy store choices which were: store attributes, product attributesand demographics; the factors influencing loyaltywhich were: interpersonal communications, impersonal communications, direct experience, distance, value for moneyand engagement in gamified applications. Finally, the research results indicate that gamification when utilized as an engagement application will enhance customer retention and store loyalty.

The dissertation focuses on identifying a typical generation Y representative on the financial products market and, on the basis of these characteristics, creates a model of generation Y customer on the financial products market in the context of behavioral economics. Based on the literature research, the terms "generation Y" and "selected knowledge of behavioral economics" were defined. The literature research also led to creating a questionnaire that was used to obtain primary research data. Secondary research has characterized consumers on the financial products market. Secondary research focused on the form of payment; relationship to technologies; cash and cashless payments; relation to cryptocurrencies; relation to savings; digital banking transformation; financial behavior of Czech households. Primary research has focused on obtaining information in the field of behavioral economics, specifically the prejudices of the Czech generation Y; and on what financial market products the Czech generation Y uses and generation’s relationship to risks, provided information and satisfaction with products. Primary research data was used as input data for structural equation modeling. Because of this method, mutual relationships between selected products have been found; customer characteristics and heuristics. The benefit of this work lies in the characteristics of customers in the selected market. It is a sector that is slowly entering the digitalization period, and understanding the young generation, which now accounts for a third of its customers, is crucial for companies. If companies are not able to respond to the changing needs of the younger generations, they can lose their customers and hence revenue.

Orientation: Perceived Talent Management Practices, Perceived Organizational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support are distinct but related constructs, and all of them appear to influence an employee’s intention to quit an organization. Research Purpose – The objective of this study was to investigate Generation Y’s perception of an organization’s talent management practices and to determine how it relates to their intention to quit the organization. In essence, the study aims to establish possible relationships of four constructs: Perceived Talent Management Practices, Perceived Organizational Support (POS), Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS) and Intention to Quit. The mediating/moderating characteristics of POS and PSS on the relationship between Perceived Talent Management Practices and Intention to Quit are also investigated. Motivation for the study – Talent is the new tipping point in corporate success. It has the potential to be the origin of an organisation’s demise or the reason for its continuous success. A concept that exuberates this much potential for both disaster and prosperity validates some examination into its protection. Research design, approach and method – Four Instruments (HCI Assessment of Talent Practices (HCI), Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS), Survey of Perceived Supervisor Support and an Intention to Quit Scale) was administered to a convenience sample of 135 employees from a population of 450 employees working in three provinces in which the organization was operational. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis and Multiple Regression analysis were used to investigate the structure of the integrated conceptual model on Perceived Talent Management Practices, POS, PSS and Intention to Quit. Main findings - The findings of this study indicates a strong practically significant positive correlation (r(df = 135; p < 0.001) = 0.724, large effect). between Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS). A strong practically significant positive relationship (r(df = 135; p < 0.001) = 0.640, large effect) was found between Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and the employee’s perception of the organization’s Talent Practices. The study confirmed a strong practically significant negative relationship (r(df = 135; p < 0.001) =-0.569, large effect) between Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and the employee’s Intention to Quit. A medium practically significant negative relationship (r(df = 135; p < 0.001) = -0.436, medium effect) was established between Intention to Quit and Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS). This study determined a medium practically significant positive correlation (r(df = 135; p < 0.001) = 0.471, medium effect) between Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS) and the employee’s perception of the organization’s Talent Practices. The findings also establishes a medium practically significant negative relationship (r(df = 135; p < 0.001) = -0.477, medium effect) exists between employees’ perception of the organization’s Talent Practices and their intention to quit the organization. Multiple regression confirmed that neither POS nor PSS mediates/moderates the relationship between Perceived Talent Management Practices and Intention to Quit. Practical/Managerial Implications - Cappelli (2008) stated that paradigms only come undone when they ”encounter problems that they cannot address. But before the old paradigm is overthrown, there must be an alternative, one that describes new developments better than the old one does” (Cappelli, 2008). This study provides evidence that management can use paradigm shifts as a talent retention strategy where the creation of a high perception of talent management practices will result in a lower intent to leave the organization. Contribution: The findings of this study indicate a positive relationship between perceived talent management practices, POS and PSS. The study also established a positive relationship between POS and PSS. A negative relationship was confirmed between POS, PSS and Perceived Talent Management Practices in relation to Intention to Quit. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

The fast fashion companies are growing with their cheap and trendy clothing, promoting people to adapt to new trends and to consume. At the same time, many fast fashion companies have started to advertise sustainable strategies which are communicated though social media. The aim of this research is therefore to investigate social media as a channel for fast fashion companies to communicate sustainable fashion advertisement, by looking at the Swedish market and the generation Y. A qualitative method was used, and the data was collected though semi-structed interviews. The conclusion of this study is that social media as a channel for fast fashion companies to communicate sustainable fashion advertisement, is not that effective, at least not how it is used to today. The sustainable advertisement on social media is not making the consumers of generation Y to purchase sustainable and the messages and content they communicate is not affecting generation Ys intention to purchase sustainable clothing. The communication from fast fashion companies regarding sustainable advertisements on social media should either be revised in order to meet the consumers demands, or to use another media channel to reach generation Y.

Abstract Purpose - The purpose of this master thesis is to research the Generation Y’s online purchase intention for fashion items while creating and using a customised avatar. Overall, the objective is to create a better understanding of this technology’s potential, formulate managerial implications for fashion businesses and strengthen business viability. Design/Methodology/Approach - The research approach of this study is deductive, whereby hypotheses derive from the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour. After secondary data is reviewed, a single quantitative data collection is applied, thus following a mono-method. This primary data is gathered virtually through a self-administered online questionnaire. A total number of 205 qualified responses from the Generation Y are statistically analysed using a structural equation modelling. This descriptive research design is chosen to conduct the relationships between the latent variables and the behavioural intention. Findings - The empirical findings reveal, that the attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control significantly and positively influence the Generation Y’s online purchase intention to create and use a customised avatar. While the attitude, with the behavioural belief of perceived usefulness specifically, shows the strongest influence on the behavioural intention, the research sample also sees a fit to all technology facilitating conditions, affecting the perceived behavioural control. In comparison to this, the subjective norm influences the behavioural intention in a weaker manner, whereby the research sample is influenced more by external than interpersonal factors. Implications - To enlarge the Generation Y’s online fashion purchase intention while creating and using a customised avatar, fashion marketers are advised to highlight and improve the usefulness of the technology. Fashion businesses are recommended to implement interactive digital platforms, by employing influencer marketing, in order to endorse and promote the brand awareness in regard to the technology. Originality/Value - This master thesis addresses the online purchase intention for fashion items while creating and using a customised avatar from a commercial perspective. Where prior literature findings lack the link to managerial implications, this study examines the Generation Y’s behavioural intention towards this technology. The Generation Y has an immense and increasing purchasing power, which is accompanied with technical skills, thus making them crucial for the market success of online fashion businesses. Therefore, the authors examine the technology's commercial potential and encompass the whole fashion industry.

Food waste is a major issue from various perspectives. During the process from harvest to the end consumer, almost one-third of food produced is wasted. It is not just the wasted food during the process that is concerning, there are issues in sustainability related to food waste that need to be considered. Moreover, there has been little attention to the issue of food waste in the downstream part of the supply chain and how specific behaviours affect the issue of wasting food.This thesis explores the food waste of fresh fruits and vegetables from a consumer´s perspective. To specify, the purpose of the study is to investigate the drivers of the disposal pattern of fresh fruit and vegetables, with an emphasis on the behaviour of "Generation Y" (born 1980 – 1995). Therefore, a revised model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour is applied. Also, to understand the behaviour of "Generation Y" regarding disposal, it is expected to identify impacts on the supply chain.A deductive approach is applied to this thesis. The qualitative study was conducted with open-ended survey questions to supplement the results with the answers of the respondents. The empirical data is collected from consumers within the “Generation Y” who usually purchase their fresh fruits and vegetables for their respective households. The data was analysed using the coding analysis which involves summarization and categorization of data.The results of the research reveal that external attitudinal factors such as price and marketing perception, storage habits, and quality consciousness and internal attitudinal factors such as sustainable environmental awareness, health consciousness, and subjective norms influence the respondents’ disposal behaviour. Moreover, the sustainable attitude of “Generation Y’’ leads to most of the consumers’ waste reduction, and highly influences the supply chain.