The ubiquitous nature of e-commerce demands an innovative conceptualization of consumer behaviour that responds to various cultural preferences. Culture has been identified as an underlying determinant of consumer behaviour, and this extends to ecommerce. This research investigates this phenomenon for the Egyptian consumer. This research designed a plausible, integrated framework for investigating the target phenomenon, especially for un-explored cultures. To help to identify salient components of the phenomenon, a three-study exploratory phase, that included: interviews, a survey, and card sorting sessions, was undertaken. The exploratory results highlighted the roles of trust, uncertainty avoidance, Internet store familiarity, and reputation as the main salient factors affecting the perception of the targeted group toward e-commerce. The research hypotheses were then developed based on the exploratory results. Finally, a model testing phase to empirically assess the research hypotheses through a laboratory experiential survey with 370 Egyptian Internet users was undertaken. The experiential survey results support the significant role of the Internet store’s perceived familiarity and reputation as the main antecedents of online trust. The relationship between trust and its two antecedents are found to be culturally sensitive; the high uncertainty avoidance of the consumer is found to be associated with a stronger effect of the store’s reputation on trust, and a stronger effect of store’s familiarity on trust. The research also highlights the significant effect of trust on the attitude towards and the willingness to buy from an e-commerce site. This research, by providing an understanding of the cultural drivers of e-commerce, contributes to building a theory of consumer’s cultural trust within an Internet store context. The research reports on the development of an integrated cultural trust model that highlights recommendations for expanding the adoption of e-commerce. The systematic research framework, introduced by this research, can be a robust starting point for further related work in this area.

The thesis deals with marketing communications of a non-governmental, non-profit organization NaZemi, which contributes to the development of Fair Trade in the Czech republic. The thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. In the theoretical part is defined marketing, marketing mix, and various tools of marketing communications, which includes advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, direct marketing, events and experiences. Part of the theoretical part is characteristic of marketing research, modern trends in marketing communications and outline of the concept of Fair Trade. In the practical part is introduced the organization NaZemi with its tools of marketing communication. Based on the survey findings are formulated proposals, leading to possible improvements in marketing communications. In the end there is deeply descibed one proposal in detail of a particular campaingn.

The standardisations/adaptation theme is amongst the most debated within International Retailing. Much research has attended to the question of whether an MNC should adapt to local market needs or, if instead, it should emphasise the upholding of global standards to reap efficiencies. Within this debate there is much focus on resonating to market needs but less on the inheritance, history and structure of the MNC and how this affects the ability to adapt or standardise, or indeed to do both by applying the glocalisation theme. Existing research has placed less emphasis on how the MNC might be biased towards either standardising or adapting regardless of market conditions. Central to this debate is the transfer of a retail formula. It is commonly understood that the faithful replication of a retail formula means that each element of the marketing mix is copied ‘as is’ from home to host country. This can at best be a benchmark as no MNC would be able to completely copy a home-derived standard to the host market, however, some retail concepts are generically better able to perform this ideal act than others. They would attempt to standardise as much as possible, adopting a strategy that maximises replication as it seeks not to duplicate resources across borders. The key point in this attempt is whether it does so out of recognising that differences are insignificant, or if it does so because it is unable to see that the differences do matter. Seen from an institutionalisation perspective and, initially looking at the home-derived context only, one recognises the well-defined relationship and interaction between MNC and consumer culture and the position the MNC has obtained in terms of brand strength and success. It is easy to see that context will be different in the host market, but difficult to take this into account when transferring the retail formula out of the home context. More recent literature on embeddedness has addressed some of these linkages and influences which affect the way MNCs transfer their retail concepts, but the literature fails to recognise the full impact. The structural paradox embodies some of the dilemma in this discussion as it addresses the conflict between transferred operational structure and the need to adapt locally to market needs. The glocalisation theme approaches the same dilemma from a competency perspective but does not embrace what stops the MNC from being more adaptive. This research develops a model that aims to combine these perspectives. This model is deployed to three cases, all detailing the transfer of a highly standardised retail concept, hard discounting, which is an ideal platform to explore how home-derived structure is transferred and how it deals with trans-contextual dimensions across borders. The research looks critically and in-depth at how the standards applied impact on the levels of awareness paid towards the need to adapt to trans-contextual dimensions and seeks evidence that demonstrate how attention to the differences become vital to success. At the same time, the cases illustrate that the differences may alter, but the approach taken towards them remain the same. The model defines this approach as a strategic trajectory called ‘MaxRep’, which is developed out of the home context and remains aligned to this particular foreign context when transferred in on the host settings. The benchmarking of this approach against the glocalisation theme leads to the identification of gaps and definition of action to be taken to overcome these barriers to applying effective glocalisation.

The diploma thesis aims to suggest the most suitable expansion way of a specific company into the British market. There are three main parts of the work. The theoretical part presents the issue through scholarly literature and scientific articles. The purpose of the practical part is an analysis of the external and internal environment. The research of product user satisfaction as a support for expansion and the investigation of potential partners and competitors directly abroad are included. The proposal part recommends specific ways for the company to enter the UK market through the identified factors.

Выпускная квалификационная работа (магистерская диссертация) посвящена исследованию Интернет пространства как площадки коммуникации и продаж. Предметом исследования выступают коммуникационные инструменты и механизмы в рамках маркетинговой деятельности оптового предприятия ООО ТД «Сима – Ленд» в интернет – среде. Основной целью магистерской диссертации является научное обоснование теоретических положений и разработка практических рекомендаций по операционализации инструментария продвижения в интернет пространстве. / Graduate qualification work (master 's thesis) is devoted to the study of the Internet space as a platform of communication and sales. The subject of the study are communication tools and mechanisms within the marketing activity of the wholesale enterprise LLC "Sima - Land" in the Internet environment. The main purpose of the master 's thesis is scientific justification of theoretical provisions and development of practical recommendations on operationalization of tools of promotion in the Internet space.