This thesis is set in the context of the automotive industry where launches of new products with high levels of technical innovations are becoming increasingly complex for consumers to comprehend. Car manufacturers need to understand consumer perceptions of new models so they can categorise their products form the consumer perspective, to obtain a more accurate indication as to where their products fit within the increasingly defined consumer segments. Situational and personal variables now play the most important roles in marketing. In the area of nested segmentation consumer variables are only concerned with their needs, attitudes, motivations and perceptions and overlook any previous experience, exposure or familiarity that a consumer may or may not have had with the product. It is argued here that consumers have differing perceptions of newness and that asking how new and new to whom would be valid questions for marketers when introducing new products. If car manufacturers can categorise their products in terms of newness for specific consumers based on their levels of Expertise, Involvement and Familiarity with the product, manufacturers will be able to target appropriate markets more effectively. To explore this area a mixed methods research approach was applied. This research found that the level of Involvement with the product, from a motivational aspect, gave rise to different levels of interest and enthusiasm between consumers and has a direct impact on how different types of consumers view new products. In addition the differing levels of consumer knowledge highlights the need to improve targeting of marketing communications so that manufacturers provide a better understanding of complex new products to consumers. Current mass marketing methods based on consumer demographics are no longer sufficient. This research found that a consumer s level of Expertise, Involvement and Familiarity (EIF) with a specific product can be captured using a multi-dimensional scale to measure consumer product knowledge and provide an accurate consumer segmentation tool. By offering different explanations of product innovations to these consumer segments, according to a customer's EIF, marketers will achieve more effective targeting, reduce marketing costs and increase marketing campaign response.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the online sales of the travel agency New Travel.cz for the past year 2010 and then use the particular results of the analysis and find out and characterize the major market segments of this company. The travel agency gets through the market segmentation better general view of it's customers and consumer's behavior and comapny can effectively focusing their marketing activities. This analysis can be regarded as pilot project of the New Travel.cz., therefore, deals only with the sale of the previous year. This analysis will serve as a source of information needed to progression of the new generation database of tours and administrative interface of travel agency New Travel.cz.

O planejamento estratégico direcionado para o produto habitacional deve ser orientado para atender expectativas de um determinado estrato de mercado, apresentando características e atributos que satisfaçam à demanda desse público alvo nele inserido. Foram desenvolvidas diretrizes para estratificar um mercado habitacional e extrair informações sobre imagens de expectativas determinantes para a compra de um imóvel. O referencial teórico construído discutiu formas de estratificar um mercado por critérios geográficos, demográficos, socioeconômicos e psicográficos ou comportamentais. Identificaram-se expectativas habitacionais a partir do atendimento de necessidades durante o processo que conduziu a decisão de compra. A enquete realizada desenvolveu um processo de estratificação de mercado a partir da caracterização de um público alvo comprador de alto poder aquisitivo dentro de uma região da cidade de São Paulo. Este estrato, também foi produzido segundo os estágios do ciclo de vida familiar definidos, expresso por gerações e por um perfil psicográfico específico identificado também pela enquete. Ao final, as imagens de expectativas identificadas a partir do segmento de mercado produzido, emularam um produto hipotético apresentado que as atendesse de forma mais eficiente. / Strategic planning directed to the housing product should be directed to meet expectations of a certain stratum of the market, presenting features and attributes that meet the demand of target inserted therein. Guidelines have been developed to stratify a housing market and extract information about images determinants of expectations for the purchase of a property. The theoretical framework discussed ways to build a market stratification by geographic criteria, demographic, socioeconomic and psychographic or behavioral. Expectations were identified from the residential care needs during the process that led to the buying decision. The poll has developed a process of stratification of the market from the characterization of a buyer audience with high purchasing power within a region of São Paulo. This stratum was also produced according to the stages of family life cycle defined for generations and expressed by a specific psychographic profile also identified by the survey. In the end, the images from the expectations identified in the industry produced, emulated a product that presented hypothetical met more efficiently.

In Essay I, I analyze the impact of the target and bidder reference points on the probability of acquisition under general economic conditions as well as in strong/weak economic periods. I find that the target and the bidder reference points have a significant impact on the probability of a firm becoming a bidder or a target. While the target reference point also has a significant impact on the successful completion of the merger, the bidder reference point does not. In addition, I find that the target reference point is a significant determinant of management-led buyout mergers, while the bidder reference point has a significant impact on the probability of the bidder launching a hostile bid. In Essay II, I focus on the impact of the target and bidder reference points on the method of payment in the context of what the target seeks, what the bidder offers, and what the two parties use as their final method of payment. The analysis is performed under general economic conditions and in strong/weak economic periods. I find that while the target reference point has a strong impact on the method of payment agreed upon between the two parties, the bidder reference point does not. This is especially important given that the bidder reference point influences the consideration offered by the bidder but does not translate into a significant impact on the final method of payment. In essay III, I examine the impact of bidder reference point on public targets and the impact of bidder and target reference points on private firms. I analyze the aforementioned relationships under different economic conditions. Consistent with the literature on premium and public targets, I find that the target reference point has a strong and positive relationship with the premium paid for private firms. The relationship is stronger in weak economic times. / At the same time, I do not find any evidence that the bidder reference point exerts a significant influence on the premium paid for public firms. Interestingly, the relationship between the bidder reference point and the premium paid for private firms is negative and significant. / Inga Chira. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

by Fong Kwan-ting, Ronald, Koo Cheuk-wah, Anthony. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-58). / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.i / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.v / LIST OF EXHIBITS --- p.vi / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Objective of this Project --- p.2 / Planning and Allocating Resources --- p.2 / Controliing Operations --- p.3 / Evaluating the Performance of Segment Managers --- p.3 / Background of C&P Company -- a Hypothetical Case --- p.3 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.5 / Marketing Performance Assessment --- p.5 / Marketing Efficiency --- p.6 / Marketing Effectiveness --- p.7 / Marketing audit --- p.7 / Marketing effectiveness --- p.9 / Recent Developments of Marketing Performance Assessment --- p.10 / Concluding Remarks --- p.13 / Segmental Contribution Analysis --- p.14 / Terminologies Used in Segmental Contribution Analysis --- p.14 / Direct fixed costs --- p.14 / Common fixed costs- --- p.15 / Contribution margin --- p.15 / Performance margin --- p.15 / Segment margin --- p.15 / Residual income analysis --- p.16 / Net income --- p.16 / Segmental Contribution Accounting System --- p.16 / Application of the Proposed Segmental Contribution Accounting System --- p.18 / Contribution margin --- p.18 / Segment margin --- p.18 / Evaluating segment manager's performance --- p.19 / Concluding Remarks --- p.19 / Chapter III. --- SYSTEM DESIGN FOR THE C&P COMPANY --- p.21 / Prototype --- p.21 / Input Formats --- p.21 / Output Formats --- p.22 / Structure Analysis --- p.22 / Data Flow Diagram --- p.22 / System Dictionary --- p.23 / Transform Descriptions --- p.23 / Chapter IV. --- CONCLUSION & DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH --- p.24 / EXHIBITS --- p.25 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.56

abstract: 中国证券市场一直存在着双重上市公司A、H股价差异现象，这一“同股同权不同价”的现象，长期以来都是国内外学者热议的课题之一。 本文在系统性整理前人研究成果基础上，首先对造成A、H股价差效应的内在逻辑进行了系统梳理，提炼出影响双重上市公司A、H股价格差异的9个潜在因素：信息不对称、需求差异、流动性差异、投机性差异、风险差异、公司治理结构、利率差异、市场强弱差异、汇率预期。其次，本文为各潜在影响因素构建了新的代理变量，建立面板数据模型，从全市场和行业两大视角做了实证分析，验证了影响双重上市公司A、H股价格差异的可能因素，且实证结果均通过了平稳性检验。实证结果显示：全市场视角下，仅公司治理结构和市场强弱差异对A、H价格差异的影响不显著。行业视角下，对于金融行业的双重上市公司而言，影响其A、H股价格差异的因素包括：需求差异、流动性差异、风险差异、市场强弱差异、利率差异；信息不对称、投机性差异、公司治理结构、汇率预期不具有显著影响。而对于非金融行业的双重上市公司而言，影响其A、H股价格差异的因素包括：信息不对称、需求差异、流动性差异、风险差异、投机性差异、市场强弱差异、利率差异、汇率预期；公司治理结构则不是显著的影响因素。 本文在实证分析所得结论的基础上，考虑到当前A、H股市场的现状，提出了加强资本市场双向开放、大力发展以基金为代表的机构投资者、坚定推行股票发行注册制改革、推动金融创新、丰富投资工具等建议。这一研究结果对于推动我国资本市场进一步完善，具有重要的理论与现实意义。 / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2019

If the observations of unregulated and recently deregulated essential services were to hold for electricity reform, we could expect to see market segmentation of household customers. This is a corporate strategy aimed at the acquisition of attractive customers and the avoidance of unattractive customers. It is a function of market relations and commodification. Some markets already segment and assign unattractive customers to 'residual' markets, 'sub-prime' markets or 'markets of last resort'. Residual markets tend to involve market abuse by suppliers because these customers lack market power. It is possible therefore to suggest that segmented markets are characterised by simultaneous competition and monopoly. The implications for the supply of essential services, such as electricity, are profound. This research sought to identify whether there is evidence of emerging segmentation of the domestic electricity market in Victoria. In practice, few essential services areas are completely deregulated. The history of segmentation in the US insurance and lending industries provides valuable insights into markets, market failure and social protections. Taking this history and the more recent experiences of reforms in the US, the UK and Australia, it has been possible to identify three models of social protection: 'universal service', a 'civil rights' model, and a 'market' model. The Victorian reforms reflect some elements of each of these. The social protections included in the reform package both encourage and present barriers to market segmentation. At the time of the research, some elements of the safety net arrangements and customer inertia (born out of negative attitudes to competition) have acted to inhibit segmentation. Customer inertia in its own right poses questions for the efficacy of competition policy. The key understanding that is gained from this research is that both civil rights and socioeconomic entitlements (social rights) are required to prevent markets in essential services acting upon and exacerbating inequality. This suggests that universal service, as a model of social protection, is most likely to ameliorate the impacts of inequality.

This dissertation analyzes the complex relationships between language, immigration, and labor and housing market outcomes. First, I model the urban labor market as segmented by language barriers. The prediction of this segmentation theory is confirmed by Canadian Census data, which allow me to identify a worker's labor market segment by her work language. Second, I explore whether the housing market reflects people's willingness to pay for higher quality social-ethnic interactions. By combining housing transaction data and Census information, I am able to test such a relationship with positive results. Finally, I ask what properties housing price series have if some people have better knowledge of the future immigration/migration flows to a city. Under this setup, the price series become serially correlated and the price volatility varies over time. The model also explains the long-standing price-volume relationship in housing transaction data.

Given the recent abundance of brand choice data from scanner panels market researchers have neglected the measurement and analysis of perceptions. Heterogeneity of perceptions is still a largely unexplored issue in market structure and segmentation studies. Over the last decade various parametric approaches toward modelling segmented perception-preference structures such as combined MDS and Latent Class procedures have been introduced. These methods, however, are not taylored for qualitative data describing consumers' redundant and fuzzy perceptions of brand images. A completely different method is based on topology-sensitive vector quantization (VQ) for consumers-by-brands-by-attributes data. It maps the segment-specific perceptual structures into bubble-pie-bar charts with multiple brand positions demonstrating perceptual distinctiveness or similarity. Though the analysis proceeds without any distributional assumptions it allows for significance testing. The application of exploratory and inferential data processing steps to the same data base is statistically sound and particularly attractive for market structure analysts. A brief outline of the VQ method is followed by a sample study with travel market data which proved to be particularly troublesome for conventional processing tools. (author's abstract) / Series: Report Series SFB "Adaptive Information Systems and Modelling in Economics and Management Science"

Background: It has been shown that people travel much more nowadays than ever before. Since the Internet and the e-commerce have been developed the ability to book trips online has been enabled. There are now two dominant ways of buying trips, online or offline. The survival of traditional travel agencies has been questioned and some thinks that there will be no need for them in the future. Therefore it would be interesting to see who books trips at traditional and online travel agencies.  Purpose: The purpose with this study is to understand which segments that are purchasing travels at traditional travel agencies and online travel agencies by examine demographic, psychographic and behaviouristic segmentation in the region of Jönköping. Further, in the region of Jönköping, examine advantages and disadvantages of buying trips at an online versus offline travel agency.  Method: In order to fulfil the purpose and answer the research questions the authors will use a quantitative method. The quantitative data will be gathered through a questionnaire after pilot studies have been conducted. SPSS 19.0 will be used in order to analyse the data from the questionnaires.  Conclusion: The segment of traditional travel agencies is older people with high income while the segment of online travel agencies is younger people with lower income. Advantages of traditional travel agencies are their ability to provide service, customize a trip and give expert advice. Online travel agencies have its availability, price comparison service and comfortable way to buying trips as their advantages