As a result of three decades of rapid economic development, China has become the world’s second largest economy and the second biggest market for luxury consumer products (Chevalier & Lu, 2009; Degen, 2009). The most populous nation in the world is also a leading sports power with strong yet mythical potentials in its sports business market (Chadwick, 2008). This thesis studies the area where luxury consumption and sports business intersect in the market by examining the phenomenon of sports celebrity endorsement of luxury brands and how such endorsements lead to the intentions and decisions by Chinese consumers to purchase the endorsed brands. Employing a mixed-method approach by using qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys, this study adopts a methodological triangulation research design, which involves semi-structured interviews with brand managers and professionals to explore their knowledge and experiences, questionnaire surveys of consumers to understand their demographic characteristics and luxury consumption motives and considerations, and confirmative structured interviews with consumers to ensure the reliability of the research and expand the findings. Research data analysis generated three major findings. Firstly, the purchasing intentions and decisions of the consumers are the result of the synchronised functioning of a triad of social, personal, and commercial factors that define both the endorsers and the consumers. Secondly, the characteristics of the sports celebrity endorsers in terms of their attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise have positive relationships with the represented brand equity, which in turn has a positive relationship with the consumers’ intentions and decisions to purchase the endorsed products. Thirdly, Chinese consumers demonstrate a weak and conditional preference for local sports celebrities to endorse international luxury brands. These research findings explain why it is more difficult for luxury brand owners to sell to the consumers than to impress or interest them, particularly in the context of the Chinese market. This is a pioneering academic study, intended to provide insights into how consumers in China respond to sports celebrity endorsement of luxury brands. It 2 provides an academic understanding of a knowledge gap between the studies of luxury business and sports marketing. It may benefit the strategists and practitioners of luxury brands by providing an empirical understanding of Chinese consumers and their decision-making processes under the influences of sports celebrity endorsements, so they can develop marketing communication strategies more effectively in the emerging market.

Globalisation and stiff competition have changed the landscape of doing business. Decrease in customer loyalty and increase in customer expectations have challenged businesses to come up with unique methods of enhancing their quality of service. The same is true for airlines industry too. As a result, many airlines have transformed their marketing strategies, especially with regard to service quality, in order to compete efficiently in the global market. The marketing literature has introduced models of service quality, e.g.: SERVQUAL and AIRQUAL to help organisations measure and enhance customer experiences. SERVQUAL has been extensively researched and applied in many industries. Similarly, AIRQUAL, a model for the airline industry, has been developed but applied only in Cyprus. Moreover, the AIRQUAL scale lacks validity, as its development process is incomplete. This research, therefore, adapted 30-items of AIRQUAL and assessed and validated this revised scale. The validated scale was then applied to the airline industry of Saudi Arabia. Further, a comprehensive model is proposed, where the impact of the validated scale of service quality is tested with its impact on customer satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty, word of mouth, repurchase intentions and complaining behaviour. The assessment and validation process is divided into two main stages: first, qualitative; where four focus group interviews were undertaken that generated 46 items for the adapted scale. These items describe the perceptions of airline customers regarding service quality and were classified on the bases of the scheme proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1988). Second, a three-phase two sample, quantitative, research was performed to derive a validated 30-item scale comprising five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Further, the improved scale was tested in a new market (Saudi market) in order to assess the service quality of Saudi Airlines. A total of 500 self-administered questionnaires were distributed among airline customers. The returned questionnaires underwent thorough screening and cleaning. The reliability of the scale was tested through Cronbach’s Alpha, followed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which emerged with five dimensions. The content, convergent and discriminant validities were established. Further scale confirmation was conducted on a sample of US airline passengers. Finally, the proposed model with nine hypotheses was tested, which resulted in statistically significant results for all the proposed hypotheses.

Eating disorders can lead to a negative impact on students' academic growth, nutrition and can cause death (Claude-Pierre, 1997; Manley, Rickson, & Standeven, 2000; Romeo, 1996). Early intervention by referring students to professional counseling might help counter these negative consequences. The teacher is in the position to assist students by providing health information, identifying those with problems, and intervening for a variety of dysfunctions that may include the eating disorders called anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (Myers-Clark & Christopher, 2000). However teachers are in a difficult position to know when to address student concerns and judge what action to take (Ransley,1999). Teachers' engagement seems crucial (Smolak, Harris, Levine, & Shisslak, 2001) since eating disorders are being identified in younger children.The purpose of this study was to examine (a) the relationships of the theoretical constructs, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control of the theory of planned behavior as predictors of behavioral intention (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) of middle school teachers to identify and refer suspected anorexia nervosa (AN) and/or bulimia nervosa (BN) students for professional help; and (b) the actual behavior of middle school teachers who reported having ever referred a student suspected of having AN and BN and those teachers who reported not having made such a referral. One hundred fourteen middle school teachers in Broward County, Florida volunteered to participate in the ex post facto research. Data were collected from a questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the constructs of subjective norm (perception of what others think about one's performance of behavior combined with motivation to comply) and perceived behavioral control (perception regarding the extent of the difficulty of performing the behavior) were predictive of teachers' intent (likelihood of engaging in a behavior) to refer. However, the analysis revealed that attitude (overall positive or negative feeling with respect to performing the behavior) was not predictive of teachers' intent. Discriminant function analysis revealed that both intent and perceived behavioral control were predictive of group membership, either having referred a student suspected of having an eating disorder for counseling or not having made such a referral. Attitude and subjective norm were not predictive of group membership.

Background: The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the existing research on the determinants and influential factors of eating decisions made by Aboriginal peoples and provide insight from the perspective of Aboriginal peoples living off-reserve in Ottawa, Ontario. Methods: This study was comprised of a convenience sample of 12 Aboriginal individuals from a local Aboriginal community centre. Participants were asked to conduct a personal food diary of their meals for a period of 3 days, followed by a one-on-one semi-structured interview. The interviews were designed to explore: 1) knowledge and perspectives of healthy eating 2) knowledge and perspectives of Health Canada’s Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide – First Nations, Inuit and Métis, 3) perception of influential factors 4) self-efficacy and 5) common barriers in making food choices. Results: 1) Except for the senior participants, healthy food knowledge did not translate into healthy food choices for most participants; 2) Most participants had not seen a copy of the Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide – First Nations, Inuit and Métis, and all participants felt they were not influenced by it when making eating decisions; 3) The main themes of influential factors were concluded to be: taste preference, availability, convenience, “had no choice”, health reasons, “easy to make”, low in cost, following a diet or “food schedule,” hunger or thirst, “needed something quick”, nearby location (of store or restaurant), being tired or lazy and being in a routine; 4) Most participants perceived themselves as having control over their eating decisions regardless of situational factors and level of motivation varied between participants; 5) Time, financial constraints, having a busy schedule and being unprepared for meals were identified as possible barriers. Conclusions: Either version of the food guide should be developed into a more flexible and convenient tool such as a mobile application. Local community centres should consider providing workshops in food preparation, and to strengthen skills such as understanding food labels of market foods to ease the transition to living off-reserve. Future Implications: Policy makers at the federal, provincial and municipal levels should work together and strengthen their communication strategies in order to coordinate the development and implementation of future interventions.

Patient perceptions of health care quality are critical to a health care service provider's long-term success because of the significant influence perceptions have on customer satisfaction and consequently organization financial performance. Patient satisfaction affects not only the outcome of the health care process such as patient compliance with physician advice and treatment, but also patient retention and favorable word-of-mouth. Accordingly, it is a critical strategy for health care organizations to provide quality service and address patient satisfaction. The urgent care (UC) industry is an integral part of the health care system in the United States that has been experiencing a rapid growth. UC provides a wide range of medical services for a large group of patients and now serves an increasing population. UC is becoming popular because of the convenient locations, extended hours, walk-in policy, short waiting times, and accessibility. A closer examination of the current health care research, however, indicates that there is a paucity of research on urgent care providers. Confronted with the emergence of the urgent care industry and the increasing demand for urgent care, it is necessary to understand how patients perceive urgent care providers and what influences patient satisfaction and retention. This dissertation addresses four areas relevant to the above mentioned issues: (1) development of an instrument to measure perceived service quality in the urgent care industry; (2) identification of the determinants of patient satisfaction and behavioral intentions; (3) empirical examination of the relationships among perceived service quality, patient satisfaction and behavioral intentions; and (4) comparison of the perceived service quality across several primary urgent care providers, such as urgent care centers, hospital emergency departments, and primary care physicians' offices. To validate this new instrument and examine the hypothesized relationships proposed in this study, an electronic web based survey was designed and administered to college students. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were employed to assess the reliability and validity of the developed instrument. The contextualized relationships were evaluated using structural equation modeling. The results of this research could potentially contribute to urgent care management and quality improvement.

SAMMANFATTNING Datum: 2020-06-07 Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, 15 hp Institution: Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, Mälardalens högskola Författare: Jonathan Vahlkvist – (97/12/20) Max Gren – (94/02/02) Titel: Vet du ens om att jag finns? – En utredning av studentkårens marknadskommunikation. Handledare: Aswo Safari Nyckelord: Förtroende, engagemang, Mälardalens studentkår, köpintentioner, kommunikationsstrategi, attityd Frågeställning: Vilka faktorer påverkar studenters framtida köpintentioner gentemot studentkåren? Avgränsningar: Faktorer: attityd, engagemang, förtroende, kommunikationsstrategi. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utvärdera påverkan mellan studentkårens kommunikation och studenternas upplevda förtroende, engagemang, attityd och köpintentioner. Därav ämnar denna studie att undersöka Mälardalens studentkårs kommunikation och relation till studenterna, för att bidra till förbättrade kommunikationsmöjligheter, som sedan kan resultera i en bättre studentkår för studenterna på Mälardalens högskola. Metod: Studien använder en deduktiv ansats. Empiriska data är framtagen i form av enkäter riktade till studenter på Mälardalens högskola. Slutsats: De faktorer som påverkar studenternas framtida köpintentioner gentemot studentkåren är förtroende, engagemang samt attityd. De kommunikationsstrategier som lämpar sig bäst för Mälardalens studentkår är de med fokus på att kommunicera regelbundet med medlemmarna, kommunicera med underhållande och kreativ information samt den där kommunikationen är tydlig och korrekt.

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Syfte: Studiens syfte var att öka förståelsens för unga vuxnas förhållningsätt till kreditkort som genomfördes genom att undersöka dess attityder, köpintentioner och kunskaper. Studiens resultat kan vara betydande för banksektorn som har en potentiell lång affärsrelation med kundsegmentet.   För att syftet skulle kunde uppnås ställdes tre olika forskningsfrågor:   Hur kan unga vuxnas attityder till kreditkort beskrivas? Hur kan unga vuxnas köpintentioner till kreditkort beskrivas? Hur kan kunskapsnivån hos unga vuxna gällande kreditkort beskrivas?   Metod: Fallstudie med kvalitativ ansats genom enskilda intervjuer.   Resultat: Studiens resultat visade att det föreligger en korrelation mellan bristfällig kunskap och negativ attityd, som även påverkar köpintentionen. Dessutom visade fallstudiens resultat att rädsla var den betydande attityden mot kreditkort som produkt. Ett fynd var att WOMM (Word of Mouth Marketing) påverkade köpintentionen till att teckna kreditkort samtidigt som bankernas marknadsföring inte alls påverkade köpintentionen. / Purpose: This study aimed to find out young adults’ approach regarding credit cards which was done by studying their attitudes, purchase intentions and knowledge towards the product. The results from the study could be of importance for the bank sector which have a potentially long business relation with the youth segment.   The research questions that needed to be answered to reach the purpose was as follows:   How can young adults’ attitudes be described? How can young adults’ purchase intentions be described? How can the knowledge level from young adults’ regarding credit cards be described?   Method: Case study with qualitive approach though separate interviews.   Results: The results from the case study suggested that there was a connection between inadequate knowledge and negative attitude towards credit cards, which in turn effect the purchase intention. Also, fear was the most common attitude against credit card as a product. A finding was that WOMM (Word of Mouth Marketing) affected the purchase intention to sign up for a credit card, while the bank marketing did not affect the purchase intention at all.

A rising problem for social enterprises within South Africa is that consumers tend to display mixed interests towards their marketing campaigns. The technological revolution has allowed consumers to become more adept and ethically sensitised at identifying deceptive marketing ploys. In light of the growing competition among many SSEs in attaining donations, managers of these organisations have realised the value in managing their organisations as brands. However, SSEs should remain aware of distinguishing their marketing from corporate brands. Past literature revealed that organisations which behave socially responsibly elicit more positive attitudes from consumers. Thus, SSEs adopting socially responsible marketing could allow them to be perceived as devoted towards their social missions, which could attract more volunteering and monetary donations. The study investigated the impact of branding on support intentions towards supported social enterprises: the case of The Big Issue South Africa. A descriptive research design was adopted. This included an online survey method that was used to acquire quantitative data from 200 participants in Cape Town, which was required to interpret conclusive findings to this investigation. The findings of the study were that consumer-brand relational authenticity (CBRA), brand trust, and customer-brand identification (CBI)] had a direct positive influence on support intentions. Attitude toward helping others (ATHO) was determined as a negative moderator between the relationship of CBI and support intentions. Alternatively, altruistic values were determined to not possess any moderating influence on the relationship between brand trust and support intentions. The findings therefore fill theoretical gaps on CBRA, brand trust and altruistic values that remained unexplored in the past. The study produced a conceptual framework explaining the branding factors that have the most significant impact in driving support intentions. This framework can be beneficial to managers of SSEs with regard to leveraging support from a local and international standpoint. However, marketers in the corporate field who are designated to attracting corporate social investment (CSI) can also draw on insights from the study in order to attract support for these CSI initiatives. The study is thus beneficial to corporate organisations as well.

Background Social media has increased tremendously in users during the last years, which consequently has transformed the way people create, collaborate and communicate information. Given the wide usage, the opportunity for businesses to listen and analyze consumers' opinions online has increased. The technique of analyzing user-generated content from various social media channels is a tactic where companies can utilize their capacity and improve future business. Social listening is an active process where companies can attend, observe, interpret and respond to a variety of stimuli created by consumers on social media platforms.   Purpose The purpose of this research is to understand how organizations manage social listening and how the activities in the process can be implemented to leverage impacts for organizations’ marketing strategies. The purpose is refined by addressing the research questions:      -       How do organizations manage the social listening process?   -       How can the activities in the social listening process be implemented to enhance the leverage of impacts on the organization’s marketing strategy? Method To carry out the research purpose, a qualitative research through a descriptive multiple case study design was performed. Empirical data was collected through eight semi-structured interviews with professionals within the field. The primary data was reviewed in relation to previously conducted research by thematic analysis to answer the research questions.   Conclusion              The research finds that organizations’ intention of integrating social listening is to deepen the understanding of the market to incorporate the results in their marketing strategy. Empirical findings explain the social listening process by emphasizing on the importance of establishing intentions to facilitate the choice of process, separating qualitative and quantitative data, and to carefully chosen dissemination strategy, to leverage the impacts on marketing strategies as a result of social listening.