Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1966. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1961. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 21-24).

Consumers in the twenty-first century present many challenges for managers within the food industry. Consumers are everyday bombarded with choices, making decisions in respect of these involves an element of risk taking. Whilst the consequences of 'bad' choices infrequently prove to be life threatening, the values which collectively constitute a consumer's lifestyle, are potentially threatened by these day to day decisions. Consumers can both support and reinforce their lifestyle and values through selection and rejection of the products and services offered by the food industry. This research recognises that consumers' lifestyles and values differ and investigates the implications of these differences for consumer perceptions of food risk and risk relieving / avoiding strategies for a homogeneous sample of 215 women. An eclectic approach was adopted using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Taylor Nelson's British based Social Value Groups as reported by MacNulty (1985) were selected as the most appropriate framework for value segmentation. A screening instrument was constructed and used to identify members of the Sustenance driven, Outer directed and Inner directed social value groups described by MacNulty (1985). The relationships between these identified social values and perceptions of food risk and risk relieving / avoiding strategies were investigated. The findings support the view that consumers' food risk perceptions and risk avoiding strategies are influenced by their social values. Each of the three groups of consumers presented a specific portfolio of food risk perception and risk avoiding strategies. The perceptions of all three groups are important to understanding consumers' food choices. The Inner directed consumers do however present a set of values and perceptions predicted to increase. Furthermore the Inner directed values question the likely future success of traditional management and marketing strategies in the food industry. This research is the first to provide an insight into how social values influence food risk perceptions and risk avoiding strategies. It provides a platform for beginning to develop strategies for the management of consumers' food risk perceptions. The findings identify the need for further research into Inner directed values, particularly in the context of their implications for the management of food risk perceptions in the future. Similarly findings in respect of risk avoiding strategies need to be explored further. A significantly funded repeat of the research would be necessary to confirm the generalisability of the findings. However from a theoretical point of view it is likely that identified relationships and differences would be apparent in other sectors of the British population.

In 2007, 12.5 million South African adults were classified as being unbanked and having limited access to financial services including credit. Of the 19 million consumers who have access to bank accounts and financial services products, 17.14 million are reported to be credit active. There is a need for government and/or credit providers to find new mechanisms for consumers to obtain access to financial services and allow them a chance to escape poverty. Research was conducted on the data of a South African Municipality to determine whether there was a correlation between how consumers paid their municipal utility accounts and whether they had a good or bad credit bureau report. If the utility accounts show significant correlation to the credit bureau reports (which are based on data provided by credit grantors), then the utility accounts can be deemed to display ‘credit-like’ characteristics. This then provides evidence in support of the municipality providing their data to the credit bureau so that it can be used as additional data on which credit grantors can determine the credit risk of a consumer and possibly grant credit to someone who was previously denied. The analysis conducted revealed a significant correlation between the payment behavior on the consumer’s utility accounts to the data reflected on a credit bureau. It showed that the data provided displayed the same ‘credit-like’ characteristics as traditional credit accounts and supports the concept that the Municipality can provide their data to a credit bureau to be used in risk determination. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The purpose of this research is to analyse, discuss and extend the analytical methodology associated with the study of consumer brand-switching behavior. As such, it attempts to add to the existing understanding of the structure of the consumer brand choice process. Rational human behavior may be viewed as a succession of choices made among more or less well defined alternatives. The problem we analyse in this study is how to predict these choices when the alternatives are fixed in advance. The alternatives considered in this study are low-cost, frequently purchased, brand identified consumer products. The unit of analysis is the individual consumer. Stochastic models of brand choice are developed and used as constructs for organizing and interpreting brand choice data. These models are subsequently used to test specific hypotheses about brand loyalty (the tendency for consumers to hold a favorable attitude toward - and concentrate their purchases on - a particular brand) and brand-switching (the tendency for consumers to purchase more than one brand over a period of time). In this respect, this dissertation follows the framework of earlier brand choice studies. In many dimensions, however, this research is significantly different from most stochastic models of brand-switching behavior developed in the past. First, this research deals essentially with multi-brand switching behavior as oppose to mere brand loyalty. By collapsing the market into an artificial two-brand market (to achieve mathematical tractability), earlier researchers were forced to concentrate on repeat purchase behavior only. All the information about brand switching activity was lost in the aggregation process. In today's differentiated markets, the competition has to be monitored on a brand-by-brand basis, and this is best achieved through the use of models that deal explicitly with multibrand switching, such as the one developed in this study. Second, this research views consumer brand choice behavior as both a cognitive and a stochastic process. A multi-dimensionally scaled configuration is used as a specification of consumers' cognitive structures. Perceptual distances derived from this configuration are then related to brand choice and brand-switching probabilities through a model that takes into account the constraints imposed on the various probabilities. The empirical results demonstrate that perceptions, preferences and cognitive structures are indeed significant determinants of consumer brand-switching behavior. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

No description available.

Lin, Lei. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-73). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- BACKGROUND --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- RESEARCH OBJECTIVE --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- OUTLINE OF THIS STUDY --- p.4 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- ASYMMETRlC COMPETITION --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Previous Explanations --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- CONSUMER SUSPICION OF ULTERIOR MOTIVE --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Definition of Consumer Suspicion --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Characteristic of Consumer Suspicion of Ulterior Motives --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Consumer Suspicion of Ulterior Motives in Consumer Research --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- ATTRIBUTION --- p.16 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- PROPOSITION DEVELOPMENT --- p.20 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- STUDY ONE --- p.25 / Chapter 4.1 --- OBJECTIVES --- p.25 / Chapter 4.2 --- METHOD --- p.25 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- "Participants, Design and Stimuli" --- p.25 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Procedure --- p.27 / Chapter 4.3 --- RESULTS --- p.28 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Manipulation Check --- p.28 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Dependent Variable --- p.28 / Chapter 4.4 --- DISCUSSION --- p.32 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- STUDY TWO --- p.34 / Chapter 5.1 --- OBJECTIVES --- p.34 / Chapter 5.2 --- METHOD --- p.34 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- "Participants, Design and Stimuli" --- p.34 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Procedure --- p.36 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Measures --- p.37 / Chapter 5.3 --- ANALYSIS AND RESULTS --- p.40 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Manipulation Check --- p.40 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Dependent Variable --- p.42 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Attribution Inference --- p.44 / Chapter 5.3.4 --- Mediating Effects of Attribution Inferences --- p.47 / Chapter 5.4 --- DISCUSSION --- p.49 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX --- STUDY THREE --- p.53 / Chapter 6.1 --- OBJECTIVES --- p.53 / Chapter 6.2 --- METHOD --- p.53 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- "Participants, Design and Manipulation" --- p.53 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Attribution Measures --- p.55 / Chapter 6.3 --- ANALYSIS AND RESULTS --- p.57 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Manipulation Check --- p.57 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Dependent Variable --- p.57 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- Attribution Inference --- p.58 / Chapter 6.3.4 --- Mediating Effects of Product Attribution --- p.59 / Chapter 6.4 --- DISCUSSION --- p.61 / Chapter CHAPTER SEVEN --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.64 / Chapter 7.1 --- SUMMARY OF TI-IE Findings --- p.64 / Chapter 7.2 --- THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS --- p.65 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- Theoretical Contributions --- p.65 / Chapter 7.2.2 --- Practical Implications --- p.66 / Chapter 7.3 --- LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH --- p.67 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.69

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (PhD) -- University of South Australia, 1999

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 2, 2009). "College of Business." Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-142).