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Eine steigende Anzahl Beschäftigter ist im Berufsalltag mobil. Zur Erbringung von Dienstleistungen und zum Zwecke von Geschäftsreisen führen Mitarbeiter regelmäßig Fahrten mit dem Motorisierten Individualverkehr durch. Der so entstehende Personenwirtschaftsverkehr belastet vor allem in den hochverdichteten Innenstadtbereichen die Infrastruktur, die Umwelt und die Gesellschaft. In der deutschen wie in der internationalen Forschung ist trotz seiner Relevanz wenig darüber bekannt, wie sich der Personenwirtschaftsverkehr im Straßenraum manifestiert und welche Faktoren das Verkehrsverhalten bestimmen. Die vorliegende Dissertationsschrift nutzt zwei empirische Datensätze um die Kenntnislücken zum Personenwirtschaftsverkehr zu schließen, die Studie ‚Kraftfahrzeugverkehr in Deutschland, KiD 2002‘ und die ‚Dienstleistungsverkehrsstudie, DLVS‘. Die neuen Erkenntnisse ermöglichen eine verbesserte Modellierung des (Personen-)Wirtschaftsverkehrs und erleichtern die Planung und Lenkung kommunaler (städtischer) Verkehre. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit zeigen, dass zwischen vier charakteristischen Verkehrsverhalten unterschieden werden kann. Im Rahmen des Personenwirtschaftsverkehrs gibt es sowohl Tourenmuster, die sich durch wenige Stopps und eine geringe Verkehrsleistung auszeichnen als auch Fahrzeuge, die zahlreiche Ziele am Tag ansteuern und eine hohe Verkehrsbeteiligung aufweisen. Die statistischen Analysen belegen außerdem, dass sich die Tourenmuster von Fahrzeugen unterscheiden, die entweder ausschließlich dienstlich oder aber auch privat eingesetzt werden dürfen. Die Berechnung von multivariaten Regressionsmodellen beweist, dass sowohl interne Strukturfaktoren und interne Prozessfaktoren als auch externe Strukturfaktoren und externe Prozessfaktoren eine Rolle beim Verkehrsverhalten spielen. Das bedeutet, die unternehmensbezogenen Faktoren, vor allem aber die Unternehmensstrukturen, sind mit ausschlaggebend dafür, welches der vier Verkehrsverhalten Firmenfahrzeuge aufweisen. / More and more employees are mobile during working hours. To provide services and for business trips, employees use motor vehicles regularly. The emerging service-related traffic burdens the infrastructure, the environment and the society, particularly in high density urban areas. Despite its relevance there is little German and international research on travel behavior of service-related traffic. Even less is known about what factors might influence tour characteristics of service-related traffic. To close this gap of knowledge this dissertation utilizes two data sets for empirical research, ‘Kraftfahrzeugverkehr in Deutschland, KiD 2002’ (‘Motor Vehicle Traffic in Germany’) and ‘Service-Related Traffic’. The findings allow enhanced commercial transport- and service-related traffic modeling and facilitate urban transport planning and direction. The empirical results show that four typical travel patterns can be differentiated. Against the background of service-related traffic there are on the one hand vehicles which are characterized by only a few stops and little road performance per day. On the other hand many cars visit numerous customers and participate a lot in traffic. Statistical analyses also prove that travel patterns differ, depending on an exclusive business or a permitted private use of corporate vehicles. The calculation of multivariate regression models shows that four corporate factor groups, namely internal structures and internal processes as well as external structures and external processes, play a role in travel behavior. This means that company-related factors, especially corporate structure, are decisive for corporate vehicles’ travel patterns.

Existing research suggests that when consumers encounter hybrid products or boundary-spanning products with attributes belonging to multiple categories, consumers tend to generate inferences based on only a single product category. Reliance on a single category for inferencing is termed as the “single category belief problem” which has been regarded as a vital marketing challenge because it leads consumers to underestimate the true utility of a hybrid product as certain product attributes are ignored. Our objective was to explore whether single category beliefs manifest in consumer choice for a hybrid product when strategically placed within varying contexts. The research used discrete choice experiment (DCE) to test hypotheses. Our research confirms that the single category belief is evident in consumer choice. We also found that the context the hybrid product is placed within has a major influence on what consumers preferred the most. Depending on the context a hybrid product was seen in had significant influence on how consumers evaluated product attributes and made purchase decisions. The findings for this research may be very beneficial for marketers.

PhD (Geography) / Department of Geography and Geo- Information Sciences / One of the major challenges facing all categories of farmers globally is climate change. African smallholder farmers are the most vulnerable to changes in climate. In most parts of South Africa, empirical evidence indicates the level to which climate change has impacted negatively on agricultural production. Rising temperatures, prolonged drought and decreasing rainfall have affected local farmers’ livelihood and crop production. In the Vhembe District of South Africa’s Limpopo Province, smallholder farming predominates and its vulnerability to climate change has increased for the past decades. This study, therefore, assesses the impact of climate change and adaptation strategies on smallholder farming systems in the Vhembe District To achieve this aim, qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were employed. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 224 smallholder farmers to elicit data on perceptions; climate change impacts, adaptation and IKS based strategies to deal with climatic shocks. Focus group discussions (FGDs), semi-structured interviews with the extension officers elicited thematic data that complemented the interview survey. Climate data were obtained from the South Africa Weather Service (SAWS) for the period 1980 to 2015. Smallholder farmers’ perceptions about climate change were validated by an analysis of climatic trends from 1980-2015. A thematic analysis of qualitative data and the Multi Nominal Logit (MNL) regression model was used based on socio-economic and biophysical attributes such as access to climate knowledge, gender, farm size, education level, and farmers’ experience, decreasing rainfall and increasing temperature as farmers’ determinants of their adaptation options to climate change. Furthermore, farmers’ perceptions tallied well with climatic trends that showed flood and drought cycles. Most of the smallholder farmers were aware of climate change and its impacts over the past decades. The study further indicated that, due to the marked climate change over this period, farmers have adopted different coping strategies at on-farm and off-farm levels. In terms of adaptation, the major adaptive strategies used by smallholder farmers included the use of drought-tolerant seeds; planting of short-seasoned crops; crop diversification; changing planting dates; irrigation and migrating to urban areas. The study recommends a framework that would include water conservation (rainfall harvesting); investment in irrigation schemes and other smart technologies that integrate indigenous knowledge systems and modern scientific knowledge to enhance crop production. / NRF