Bisweilen hört man von Marktforschern vielerlei Probleme bei der Akzeptanz und Umsetzung von Marktforschungsbefunden. So wird beispielsweise beklagt, dass der Auftraggeber die Aufgabenstellung nicht deutlich zu machen vermag, dass zu deutlich signalisiert wird, welche Befunde erwartet werden, dass eine Studie längst schon vorgefasste Meinungen nur noch bestätigen soll, dass eine Studie in unternehmensinternen Grabenkämpfen untergehen oder das schließlich interessante Befunde ohne Konsequenzen bleiben. Die Problemfelder, die an der Schnittstelle zwischen Marketingmanager und Marktforscher auftreten, als Akzeptanz- und Umsetzungsprobleme von Marktforschungsbefunden zu beschreiben ist jedoch eine u. U. einseitige und verkürzte Sichtweise.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Les conseillers d’orientation (c.o.) en milieu scolaire ont plusieurs rôles à remplir auprès des élèves, entre autres la réponse aux demandes des élèves, le maintien de l’accès à une documentation pertinente et l’accompagnement dans une meilleure connaissance de soi et du monde du travail (Dupont, Gingras et Marceau, 2002a). Pour ce faire, plusieurs moyens sont à leur disposition, dont l’évaluation psychométrique (OCCOQ, 2013). Un concept qui pourrait utile de mesurer auprès des adolescents est la maturité vocationnelle (Jordaan et Heyde, 1979). Des instruments de mesure évaluant la maturité vocationnelle existent déjà, mais aucun d’entre eux ne semble convenir parfaitement à la réalité du Québec, emmenant la création d’un nouvel outil, le Questionnaire de maturité vocationnelle (QMV). L’objectif de ce mémoire est de vérifier les propriétés psychométriques de l’échelle affective du QMV. Les participants de l’étude sont 1 164 adolescents québécois âgés entre 14 et 18 ans (moyenne : 15,30 ans), provenant de 14 écoles secondaires. Pour ce qui est du niveau scolaire des participants, 511 (43,9 %) sont en 3e secondaire, 303 (26 %) sont en 4e secondaire et 350 (30,1 %) sont en 5e secondaire. Les résultats obtenus appuient la fidélité et la validité de l’instrument de mesure.

Carbon nanotubes are known as ideal fillers for polymer systems; the main advantage of carbon nanotubes over other nano-reinforcing particles is the combination of superior strength and stiffness with large aspect ratio. Carbon nanotubes may improve the mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of polymers, but to realise their potential in polymer systems uniform dispersion, strong interfacial adhesion and alignment of nanotubes within the polymer matrix are necessary. These properties are not easy to achieve and they are key challenges in producing CNT/Polymer system. This research was carried out in an attempt to understand how the properties of CNT/Polymer composite can be optimised by manipulation of additives, compounding and postcompounding conditions. Polypropylene/Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube (PP/MCNT) composites were prepared by conventional twin screw extrusion. Dispersants and compatibilisers were used to establish good interaction between filler and polymer. Several different extruder screw configurations were designed and the properties of PP/MCNT composite prepared by each configuration investigated. The results indicated that the addition of carbon nanotubes without additives enhanced mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of polypropylene polymer. Incorporation of compatibilisers into PP/MCNT improved the stiffness but decreased the strength of the nanocomposite, whilst addition of dispersants decreased the mechanical properties of the nanocomposite. Addition of both additives at high concentration improved electrical conductivity and induced electrical percolation in the nanocomposite. Extruder screw configuration was found to have significant effect on the electrical conductivity whilst only slightly affecting mechanical properties of the nanocomposite, possibly due to the competition between dispersion and degradation of polymer chains and possible reduction of carbon nanotube length by intensive shear during compounding. The use of screw configuration with high mixing intensity promoted the dispersion of nanotubes and favoured the conduction process in the nanocomposite. Finally in an attempt to improve dispersion and alignment of carbon nanotubes, compounded PP/MCNT composite was subjected to micromoulding, fibre spinning and biaxial stretching processes and the resultant properties investigated. Application of post-compounding process was found to have significant effect on mechanical and rheological properties of the nanocomposite. Stiffness and strength of the nanocomposites treated by post-compounding processes were found to increase by up to 160% and 300%, respectively. The reinforcement effect of carbon nanotubes in the stretched nanocomposites was found to be the greatest. Rheological analysis suggested that the application of post-compounding processes enhanced dispersion of carbon nanotubes within the nanocomposite. Overall, this finding of this research has shown that carbon nanotubes can be incorporated into polypropylene using conventional equipment to provide significant improvement in properties. By careful choices of additives, compounding and postcompounding conditions, specific properties can be further enhanced.

Social agents in the youth sport domain (coaches, parents, and peers) play a crucial role in developing the motivational approaches of youth sport athletes. One theory which has been useful in explaining the important role of such social agents has been Achievement Goal Theory (Nicholls, 1989). Specifically, Achievement Goal Theory was used to delineate various peer behaviors as being task-involving (Ntoumanis & Vazou, 2005) and was used to predict subsequent relationships relationship between the task-involving motivational-climate created by teammates and athletes’ mastery goal orientations and self-esteem, sport competence, enjoyment, and intention to continue playing sport. Participants were 405 boys aged 12-15 years. Using structural equation modeling, an exploratory analysis and confirmatory analysis revealed that higher levels of task-involving behaviors from peers predicted mastery goal orientation. Participants with higher mastery goal orientation reported greater sport competence, self-esteem, and more enjoyment; enjoyment was the strongest predictor of intention to continue. These findings both emphasize the importance of peer relationships within sport on a variety of motivationally and psychologically salient outcomes and provide direction for the development of training programs targeted to create positive and healthy sport experiences.

The present study is an exploratory analysis of associations among sexual orientation, childhood abuse, and characteristics of both early and current family environment in a sample of 80 inpatient trauma survivors. Participants were administered a background information questionnaire, Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule, the Family Environment Scale and other instruments not analyzed in the current study. Multi-type abuse was significantly associated with low expressiveness and independence and high control in the early family, but no associations emerged with current family characteristics. Results suggest that the intergenerational transmission of family organization and moral-religious orientation occurred in the entire sample, and the transmission of family conflict patterns occurred only in the L/G/B group. Overall, participants perceived improvements in their current family environments compared to their early family environments. Findings yield support for the sexual minority stress model and mixed support for the intergenerational transmission of family characteristics.

Sandwich covariance matrix estimators are a popular tool in applied regression modeling for performing inference that is robust to certain types of model misspecification. Suitable implementations are available in the R system for statistical computing for certain model fitting functions only (in particular lm()), but not for other standard regression functions, such as glm(), nls(), or survreg(). Therefore, conceptual tools and their translation to computational tools in the package sandwich are discussed, enabling the computation of sandwich estimators in general parametric models. Object orientation can be achieved by providing a few extractor functions-most importantly for the empirical estimating functions-from which various types of sandwich estimators can be computed. / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics

The model of Entrepreneurial Orientation has frequently been used as a way to analyze the entrepreneurial behavior of organizations. Although the model has been adopted across different context, it has rarely been adapted to these: One such context is nonprofits. As nonprofits operate under other circumstances, we argue that the five dimensions of innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy may not account for all entrepreneurial activity in these organizations. With the largest body of nonprofits in Sweden being sports, a single case study with semi-structured interviews of members in Judo associations were conducted to answer the two research questions: (1) Which dimensions of EO can be found within nonprofits? and (2) Why do entrepreneurial behavior differ between for-profits and nonprofits? By implementing the study of Morris, Webb and Franklin (2011) of motivation, processes, and outcomes we identified what processes can be translated into dimensions, as well as what the motivation behind these are. By analyzing our empirical data we were able to answer our questions in the following way. In nonprofits, the dimensions of innovativeness, internal proactiveness, collaboration, lobbying, and autonomy were identified, indicating that the EO model does indeed need to be adapted for nonprofits. The reason for why these dimensions occurred is mainly due to difference in the motivation of nonprofits. We find that the nonprofits aim to fulfill external goals, by serving a social purpose to stakeholders and growth. This means that nonprofits are not as focused on other players in the market, which impacts on their entrepreneurial behavior.

This dissertation extends our understanding of how rivalries are formed, what their antecedents are, and how and why they influence consumer choices. Furthermore, the psychological processes underlying the rivalry effects and the moderating effects of temporal focus are uncovered.