Thesis (MA)- Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In fulfilment of the degree of Magister in Creative Writing: Afrikaans, a novel titled Sirkus (Circus) is presented in which the main character figures as an idiot. It is accompanied by a perspicacious formal essay which maintains the relationship between theory and novel. The essay titled "Die idioot: spieël en skadu" (The idiot: mirror and shadow) reflects on the problematics concerning the representation of the idiot in literary texts. The essay investigates the phenomenon of the idiot in literature according to well-known literary texts presenting idiots. What these texts have in common is that the narrator acts on behalf of a character who does not have the ability nor the will to narrate himself. The problematics is viewed from a thematic as well as writing technique niveaux, according to insights gleaned from literature, philosophy, narratology and psychology. The argument concludes by reflecting on the responsibility of the author and the ethics of creating an effigy of the idiot. The novel Sirkus, (Circus), focuses on an idiot character with webbed hands and feet, Siegfried Landman. It is an exposition of his journey to hell starting on a farm in the Karoo. It takes him through a grotesque urban landscape where he eventually ends up in a circus of freaks. The text starts with the death of Siegfried's father and is in the form of a quest narrative, a quest for the vague image of his uncle Fischer. The tale emanates predominantly from Siegfried's consciousness. During the course of the text he is accompanied by varioius travelling companions who each fmd a voice in the text. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING Ter vervulling van die graad van Magister in Kreatiewe Afrikaanse skryfkunde is 'n roman getiteld Sirkus voorgelê waarin die hoofkarakter 'n idiotefiguur is. Dit word vergesel met 'n verbandhoudende beskoulike werkstuk: "Die idioot: spieël en skadu", wat die vorm aanneem van 'n essay oar die problematiek rondom die representasie van die idioot in literêre tekste. In die werkstuk word die verskynsel van die idioot in die letterkunde ondersoek aan die hand van bekende literêre tekste waarin idiotefigure gerepresenteer word. Hierdie tekste het dit gemeen dat die verteller optree namens 'n karakter wat nie die vermoë óf die wil het om self te vertel nie. Die problematiek word beskou op tematiese sowel as skryftegniese vlakke aan die hand van insigte uit die letterkunde, filosofie, narratologie en sielkunde. Die argument sluit uiteindelik af met 'n besinning oor die skrywerlike verantwoordelikheid en 'n skrywerlike etiek ten opsigte van die uitbeelding van die idioot. Die roman Sirkus fokus op 'n idiote-karakter met gewebde hande en voete, Siegfried Landman. Dit is 'n uitbeelding van sy hellevaart wat begin op 'n plaas in die Karoo en hom voer deur 'n groteske stadslandskap voor hy uiteindelik opeindig in 'n sirkus van fratse. Die teks begin met die dood van Siegfried se vader en is in die vorm van 'n soektognarratief, 'n soektog na die vae beeld van sy oom Fischer. Die verhaal word grotendeels vanuit Siegfried se bewussyn vertel. Hy word deur die verloop van die teks vergesel deur verskeie reisgenote wat elk ook 'n eie stem in die teks verkry.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Please refer to full text for abstract

Thesis (MA (Visual Arts))--Stellenbosch University, 2008.

These days, milk substitute products are getting more popular and exist together with milk on the market. These substitute products are appreciated by consumers due to animal welfare, environmental or health related reasons. The purpose of the investigation was to make assumptions about the future situation of farmers and which demographic, personal, sociological, cultural and psychological determinants have an impact on Swedish consumers purchasing substitute products. The proposed methodology to reveal the impact of those factors was a qualitative research. Ten semi-structured interviews with residents of Västra Götaland, aimed to gain a deeper and better understanding of the reasons for consumption of milk substitute products, were conducted in total. The existing theory and scientific articles about demographic, personal, sociological, cultural and psychological determinants of consumer behavior, in terms of food choice and consumption, were used to create an interview guide and also to compare the collected primary data in the end. Participants were asked questions regarding their demography, lifestyle, awareness and perception of milk substitute products and other reasons for their consumption of milk substitutes. The findings revealed that demographic factors such as age and gender seemed to have an impact on the consumer behavior. Moreover, personal and psychological factors were revealed to have a significant impact on the consumption behavior. In particular lifestyle, perception, attitudes and motivations, knowledge and learning had a significant influence on Swedish consumers and their food consumption behavior. Regarding sociological factors it was discovered that friends had a significant influence on food consumption. Cultural determinants were also important to consider. However, they did not have a significant influence on the participants. The findings also revealed that health and animal welfare were the main reasons for changing the consumption. Interestingly, no participant started to consume these products due to environmental reasons in the beginning. The strong competition of milk and milk substitute products on the market is most likely to continue. The future situation for farmers will look different and might get more critical as milk consumption in Sweden could change. This small scale research does not make it possible to generalize the revealed findings. Nevertheless, this qualitative investigation provided the basis for future research in the field of consumer behavior towards substitute products.

Since the early days of corporate societal marketing, managers and researchers alike have considered perceived marketer motives as a key factor in eliciting positive consumer response. However, little is known as to how the perception of marketer motives is formed. This dissertation research looks into a number of factors that may influence the process of perceived marketer motives formation. In particular, the roles of corporate societal marketing type, cognitive capacity, ad skepticism, and cause-involvement are examined. In addition, the underlying structure of perceived marketer motives is also explored. The results showed that the effect of corporate societal marketing type on perceived marketer motives was not significant. Cognitive capacity did have a significant effect that subjects with unconstrained cognitive capacity perceived higher community-oriented motives than those with constrained cognitive capacity. The effect of ad skepticism was equivocal. Ad skepticism had a significant effect on perceived marketer motives in Study 1, but not in Study 2. The key methodological difference between the two studies is that ad skepticism was measured along with other constructs in Study 1 whereas it was measured two weeks prior to the lab experiment in Study 2. Cause-involvement had no significant effect on perceived marketer motives, although it did affect the subsequent consumer response. As for the structure of perceived marketer motives, data from both studies suggest that there are three dimensions: community-oriented motives, company-oriented motives, and manipulative motives. These three dimensions appeared to be independent from one another; each of them had unique effects on subsequent consumer response. Most notably, company-oriented motives had no significant effect on company evaluation, attitude toward the company, or purchase intent. As expected, community-oriented motives had positive effects on all three indicators of consumer response whereas manipulative motives had negative effects. Limitations in the current investigation are discussed and suggestions for future research are proposed. / text

<p> </p><p><p>Sustainability reporting has emerged as an outcome of corporate social responsibility, giving companies an opportunity to show transparency towards their stakeholders. The Global Reporting Initiative, a largely voluntary sustainability reporting standard, has become increasingly popular, providing a framework making reports consistent and comparable. However, Holmen, SAS, SKF, Vattenfall and Vin & Sprit were the only Swedish companies complying with application level A, the highest level of compliance, of the GRI framework in their 2007 sustainability reports. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to analyze why these five Swedish companies are sustainability reporting and why they are doing so according to the GRI standard.</p><p>A theoretical background regarding CSR, sustainability and GRI is provided in order to get a basic understanding of the context of the thesis. The theoretical framework for the study is based on the stakeholder concept and the legitimacy theory, utilizing the internal marketing and brand identity theories for the analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the five managers of the companies in order to gather the relevant data.</p><p>The study showed that the five companies investigated are sustainability and GRI reporting as a result of their company size, industry type, reporting tradition, ownership structure and various stakeholder-driven motives. The motives were found to be specific to either sustainability or GRI reporting, where the majority were linked to the practice of sustainability reporting.</p></p>

<p>Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) has become a key issue for today’s corporations. This type of responsibility refers to the continuing commitment of businesses to voluntarily behave ethically and contribute to economic development while simultaneously improving the quality of life of the workforce, families, local community and society at large. While traditional business models primarily emphasize the economic aspects of a company’s activities (e.g. profitability and growth), the modern one stresses the social and environmental impacts. Recent scandals have put customers’ trust on the frontline, leading to an exponential growth in the interest of corporate social responsibility. Today, unethical behavior can no longer hide in the dark waiting around for an investigation to ensue. Wrongdoings are in an instant communicated to the world via computers and broadcasted by media. Consequently, it is no longer about what corporations say they will do but rather when and how they will do it.</p><p>Findings and resulting conclusions show that although there is a lack of definitional clarity of the notion of CSR, the concept is embodied by and refers to the triple bottom line: Profit, People and Planet. CSR can be implemented through codes of conduct, contracts, education, training, guidelines and principles.</p><p>The benefits of having a CSR engagement program are numerous and include strengthening profits, enhancing brand recognition and reputation, risk management and boosting employment relations.</p><p>Motives behind having good CSR include social betterment and sustainable change. It is about building up a well-functioning corporation that possesses strong values and can manage risks and become a more competitive brand. The brands that will succeed in the future will be those that tap into the social changes that are taking place today.</p>

Baigiamajame magistro darbe analizuojami visuomeninių pastatų eksploatacijos periodai, vertės kitimo priežastys ir pasekmės, nusidėvėjimo tipai, pastatų gyvavimo trukmės teoriniai ir statistiniai duomenys bei jų reikšmė Lietuvai. Apibendrinamas ir pateikiamas visuomeninių pastatų Lietuvoje konversijos pagrindimas, tikslas ir reikšmė. Išskiriama ekologijos ir darnios statybos plėtros reikšmė visuomeninių pastatų rekonstrukcijos procese. Suformuluojama optimaliai visuomeninių pastatų konversijai įtaką darančių veiksnių bei motyvų schema. Atlikta pasirinktų XX a. pab. Europos ir kitose pasaulio šalyse konvertuotų visuomeninių pastatų architektūros ir konstrukcinių sprendinių analizė. Nagrinėjami šiuolaikiški ir modernūs pastatų rekonstrukcijos metodai. Remiantis teoriniais visuomeninių pastatų konversijos aspektais, analizuojama idėjinė kino teatro ,,Lietuva“ konversijos schema, atsižvelgiant į sociologinius, ekonominius, funkcinius, estetinius, darnaus vystymo principus, pateikiami pastato konversijos sklypo plano, architektūros, funkcinės, konstrukcijų dalies sprendinių pasiūlymai. Darbą sudaro įvadas, analitinė – metodinė, eksperimentinė tiriamoji, eksperimentinė projektinė dalys, išvados, naudotos literatūros sąrašas, priedai. Darbo apimtis – 65 psl. teksto be priedų, 36 iliustracijos, 35 bibliografiniai šaltiniai, 2 priedai. / The main thesis of the exploitation periods of public buildings, causes and consequences of building value changes, depreciations types and possible theoretical and statistics appliance with their importance for Lithuania are analyzd in the final master‘s study. The summarized substantiation, purpose and meaning of public building conversion is given. The environment and sustainable developments for the construction of public buildins reconstruction process are excluded. The combination of factors and reasons scheme for public building conversion process optimization is formulated. Modern architectural and structural solutions of selected converted public buildings in twentieth century end in Europe and other countries were analysed. Based on the theoretical aspects of the conversion of public buildings, ideological analysis of cinema building ,,Lietuva“ conversion landscape, architecture, functions, structural solutions deals scheme with sociological, economic, functional, aesthetic, sustainable development are made. The conclusion of analysis are formulated and recommendations for futher scientific researches are presented. The final paper consists of 65 p. exploratory text without appendixes (an introduction, analysis – methodological, experimental research, experimental design sections, conclusion), 36 pictures, 35 bibliographical entries. Appendixes included.

Physical exercise is a trend that continues to grow, especially at the gym, but there are still members that do not use their training card in full. The overall aim of this study was therefore to investigate infrequent member’s experience of their training card. To answer this, focus was on motives to card purchase and perceived opportunities and difficulties of using the training card. The data was collected at IKSU trough a group interview with four managers within the organization, a questionnaire replied by 39 infrequent members and of those 11 individual interviews. The results showed that the motives differed between the informants but the main was the physical health. The three factors that were identified as affecting were frame-, facility- and personal factors. The conclusions drawn was that training facilities can develop procedures to capture their infrequent members in three areas; the occasion for the card purchase, customized training card and follow-up.

Is the relationship between insurance consumption and its determinants spurious? Is general insurance a luxury service? Do bequest motives matter for life insurance consumption? Is private credit important for the development of life insurance? Do socioeconomic development and informal risk sharing institutions matter for formal insurance consumption? This thesis investigates these and other related issues using international datasets and relatively new panel data method, namely the Common Correlated Effects Pooled (CCEP) estimator. A novelty of the CCEP is that it takes into account the impacts of unobserved common factors. The thesis consists of an introduction, three empirical chapters and conclusions. Chapter 2 studies the relationship between nonlife insurance consumption and income/wealth per capita. Estimation results suggest that income elasticity is below unity and that nonlife insurance is positively related to GDP per capita, the law, risk aversion, infrastructural development, and negatively related to socioeconomic development. Chapter 3 explores life insurance consumption driven by bequest motives. We found that life insurance consumption is positively related to GDP per capita, old age dependency ratio, infrastructural development, and social security and welfare; and negatively related to the extended family institution, savings, inflation, and risk aversion. Estimation results suggest the presence of altruistic, and bequest as exchange old age security motives. Chapter 4 investigates the long run relationship and causality direction between private credit consumption and life insurance development. Life insurance development may be explained by GDP per capita, formal and informal credit consumption, infrastructural development, life expectancy, institutional quality, inflation, and Islam, and Orthodox being the dominant religions. Cointegration test results suggest that life and nonlife insurance consumption and its determinants exhibit a long run relationship; and that there is a long run bi-directional causality relationship between life insurance development and private credit consumption. The thesis concludes that insurance development requires institutional and infrastructural development-in particular- telecommunications infrastructure, to facilitate cost effective insurance supply.