The purpose of this dissertation is to develop and evaluate an expanded spokesperson credibility model to address issues uncovered in Ohanian's (1991) study about linkages between spokespersons ' credibility and consumers ' purchase intentions. Based on Tajfel's social categorization theory (1981), 12 hypotheses were developed to test direct and indirect relationships between spokesperson's credibility and purchase intentions. The sample for the study consisted of 1,162 respondents 82.9% students and 17.1% nonstudents; 48.2% males and 51.4% females; 31.3% Caucasian (American); 24.5% Cuban (American); 19.6% other Hispanics and 22.5% other ethnic groups. The data were collected .by having respondents either view a video tape or listen to an audio tape in a classroom or shopping mall setting. The respondents were told that they would hear a spokesperson presenting a message. After listening to the message they would then be asked to complete a questionnaire. The spokesperson credibility model was tested using covariance structure analysis as implemented in the LISREL software. A series of ANOVAs were used to test the impact of the moderating variables on purchase intentions. The findings indicate that Ohanian's (1991) credibility constructs i.e., attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise are significantly related to purchase intentions. In addition, the following interactions were found to be statistically significant:

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by Fong Sze Nga, Natalie. / Questionnaire in Chinese. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-84). / Acknowledgments --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter A. --- Overview / Chapter B. --- Purposes / Chapter C. --- Reasons for selecting television commercials / Chapter D. --- Objectives of the study / Chapter E. --- Outline of this research report / Chapter II. --- Theoretical Framework --- p.8 / Chapter A. --- Shared themes on involvement / Chapter B. --- Statement of problems / Chapter C. --- Individual-centered involvement level / Chapter D. --- Stimuli-centered involvement level --- High/low involvement product commercials / Chapter E. --- Dependent variables / Chapter F. --- Other concepts pertaining to involvement / Chapter III. --- Methodology --- p.20 / Chapter A. --- Sample / Chapter B. --- Overview of the experimental study / Chapter C. --- Modifications of pilot study / Chapter D. --- Index construction of independent variables / Chapter E. --- Index construction of dependent variables / Chapter IV. --- Hypotheses & Analysis --- p.42 / Chapter A. --- Main findings / Chapter B. --- Summary of main findings / Chapter C. --- Further Analysis on Relationships Between People Involvement Level and Information Seeking & Interest Stimulation / Chapter D. --- Other concepts pertaining to the concept of involvement / Chapter V. --- Discussions & Implications --- p.66 / Chapter A. --- What is high involvement? / Chapter B. --- Variations of personal values and product advertisements / Chapter C. --- Importance of individual-centered involvement level / Chapter D. --- Involvement is consumer-determined and situation-specific / Chapter E. --- Measurement of involvement level / Chapter F. --- Differentiation of product and commercials / Chapter G. --- Equivalence of product commercials / Chapter VI. --- Suggestions for Future Research --- p.76 / Chapter VII. --- Limitations of the Study --- p.77 / References --- p.78 / Appendices

University of Macau / Faculty of Business Administration / Department of Finance and Business Economics

This study examined the influence of state-confidence on aesthetic athletes’ precompetitive imagery function use. Important individual differences effecting functional imagery use require empirical confirmation. Proposed is state-confidence as a factor influencing the functions of imagery used immediately prior to competition. Also, sport type may also be a moderator of the relationship and thus, is constrained in this study. Female aesthetic athletes from Southern Alberta (N = 180, Mage = 14.64, SD = 1.88) completed measures of state-confidence, imagery ability, and frequency of imagery function use. One-way ANCOVA tests revealed that athletes with high state-confidence used significantly more cognitive specific, cognitive general, motivation general-arousal, and motivational general-mastery functions of imagery than low state-confident athletes. Findings imply that applied sport psychology consultants should be more encouraging of preparation strategies with low state-confident athletes. / xi, 64 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm

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Motivational research has recently shifted focus to include what role teachers, and the motivational strategies they use, play in the language learning classroom (Cheng & Dörnyei, 2007; Dörnyei & Csizer, 1998). Motivational research has traditionally gathered data from either teachers or students. However, researchers have recently been calling for a shift in focus from this individualistic perspective to evaluating motivation more holistically (Dörnyei, 2001a; Oxford, 2003; Ushioda, 2006). Nevertheless, few studies have included the opinions of both the students and teachers. This study has elicited the opinions of both students and teachers to find out which teaching practices both groups believe foster motivation in the foreign language classroom. The results indicate that students and teachers alike find teaching practices related to Teacher, Rapport, and Climate as the top three most motivational conceptual domains. Furthermore, only 3 conceptual domains, out of 17, were statistically different between groups: Task, Effort, and Comparison.

This study aims at understanding the decision to buy "Made in Mozambique" products, which is important for developing marketing strategy and promoting national products. To explore the factors influencing consumers' buying decisions, means-end theory and its associated methodology provide a useful framework for understanding why people buy "Made in Mozambique" rice by characterising the relationships between the attributes, consequences associated with those attributes, and the values those consequences help reinforce. Methodology: a total of 20 consumers were interviewed. It is important to mention that only rice was used in this study. The laddering interviewing technique was then used to link these chains of meanings. Analyses and interpretation of the resulting data provide an effective complement for studying consumer purchasing motives and suggest recommendations for managerial practice and future research efforts. Summary of the study findings include: (i) Attributes: Quality, cost, national; (ii) Consequences: healthy, well-being, affordable, trust, contribution, and fulfillment; and (iii) Values: Feeling happy, longevity and self-esteem.The theoretical component of this research covers the definition and discussion of Means-end theory and consumer decision-making. / Industrial Psychology / M.A. (Industrial & Organisational Psychology)

Competition in the mobile services industry is intense, with players in the industry offering generally similar subscription plans. Opportunities are few for differentiating one service provider from another. In the light of prior research suggesting value is multi-dimensional, the present study, which examines how these dimensions impact customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions, provides differentiation opportunities for mobile service providers through focusing on value dimensions that are important to customers. Of six perceived value dimensions examined in the present research, value for money, reputation and social value dimensions had significant effects on customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions. One way for companies in the highly commoditized mobile service industry to minimize customer defection is to enhance their relationships with customers. However, as relationship building comes with a cost, it is of interest for companies to know whether certain customer groups will reciprocate more than others with loyalty if they are satisfied. The results from the present study show customer relationship inclination, the customer attribute examined, did not moderate the relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. Finally, recent studies have differentiated measures of repurchase intentions on the basis of volition levels and have suggested that better model fit can be achieved when higher volition measures are used. Intentions-as-expectations represents the lower volition end and intentions-as-wants represents the higher volition end of intention measure. However, the present study did not find any significant differences in model fit with the different intention measures used.

This study aims at understanding the decision to buy "Made in Mozambique" products, which is important for developing marketing strategy and promoting national products. To explore the factors influencing consumers' buying decisions, means-end theory and its associated methodology provide a useful framework for understanding why people buy "Made in Mozambique" rice by characterising the relationships between the attributes, consequences associated with those attributes, and the values those consequences help reinforce. Methodology: a total of 20 consumers were interviewed. It is important to mention that only rice was used in this study. The laddering interviewing technique was then used to link these chains of meanings. Analyses and interpretation of the resulting data provide an effective complement for studying consumer purchasing motives and suggest recommendations for managerial practice and future research efforts. Summary of the study findings include: (i) Attributes: Quality, cost, national; (ii) Consequences: healthy, well-being, affordable, trust, contribution, and fulfillment; and (iii) Values: Feeling happy, longevity and self-esteem.The theoretical component of this research covers the definition and discussion of Means-end theory and consumer decision-making. / Industrial Psychology / M.A. (Industrial & Organisational Psychology)