Due to the success of apparel online shopping, many researchers in consumer behavior hope to extend the existing consumer behavior theories into the electronic commerce area to assist apparel marketers to develop effective marketing strategies to understand, attract, and maintain their consumers (Goldsmith & McGregor, 1999). Many apparel researchers have investigated Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction (CS/D) with online shopping (Hou, 2005; Jiang & Rosenbloom, 2005; Kim, Kim & Lennon, 2006; Lee, 2004). However, most of these studies focused on CS/D with apparel websites or e-service quality, rather than CS/D with the products purchased online. In apparel online shopping, consumers cannot examine the textures, hand, or color of the fabric or try on the garment. Because of the intangibility of apparel products on the website, consumers may use extrinsic cues, such as brand image, to judge if the brand is worthy of the price and to make an inference of the product quality (O'Neal, 1992). Previous studies about brand image mainly discussed about how brand image influences consumers' perception and evaluation of product quality (d''Astous & Saint-Louis, 2005; Dodds, Monroe & Grewal, 1991) and the impact of brand image to consumers' purchase intention (Ataman & Ulengin, 2003; Li, 2004; Park & Stoel, 2005). No research has examined how brand image influences consumers'' expectations at purchase and the perceptions of product performance at the product-receiving stage, and the role of brand image in CS/D after receiving products, especially in the realm of apparel online shopping. Therefore, a study investigating the roles of brand image and product performance in CS/D with apparel online shopping is essential. The purpose of the study was to examine the factors related to CS/D with the purchased product and with the brand in apparel online shopping at the product-receiving stage. The four objectives of the study were to examine (a) the relationships between consumers'' individual differences (i.e., brand sensitivity, brand familiarity, brand self-congruity and demographics) and perceived brand image at the purchase stage, (b)the influence of consumers'' perceived brand image at purchase on their expectation for product performance and on perceived product performance, (c) antecedences of CS/D with the product and CS/D with the brand, and (d) antecedences of product return intention and repurchase intention. A model of CS/D with the purchased apparel product and with the brand in an online shopping context was proposed as the framework of this study. Different from the two stages (i.e., purchase stage, product-consumption stage) usually proposed in the studies of offline shopping, an extra product-receiving stage was included between purchase and product-consumption stages to illustrate the process of CS/D after consumer receive the product that they ordered online. Fifteen hypotheses were developed according to the relationships proposed in the framework. A 2 X 2 between-subjects factorial experimental design was developed to conduct this study. The treatment variables were brand image and product performance. Two levels of brand image at the purchase stage (i.e., higher, lower) were manipulated by two brand names and logos. Two levels of product performance at the product-receiving stage (i.e., higher,lower) were manipulated by two sweatshirts with different levels of quality. A website was developed to simulate the apparel online shopping process, and a questionnaire was developed to measure the variables included in this study. A structural equation model was developed to examine the proposed relationships and hypotheses. Results in this study showed that both brand image and product performance significantly influenced CS/D with product and CS/D with the brand. Product performance was the most important factor on consumers'' satisfaction with the product that they ordered online. Brand image at purchase played a direct role in CS/D with the brand but an indirect role in CS/D with the product. Brand image at purchase positively influenced product performance expectation; product performance expectation positively influenced the perception of product performance; and then, perceived product performance affected satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the product. Visible attribute (i.e.,style, color) expectancy disconfirmation was also found to be an antecedence of CS/D with the product. If perceived product performance of style and color was better than what they expected, participants tended to be more satisfied with the product. CS/D with the product was found to be a significant antecedence of CS/D with the brand. CS/D with the product was found to be the direct factor influencing product return intention, and perceived brand image at the product-receiving stage and CS/D with the brand were antecedents of repurchase intention. In conclusion, this study suggests that brand image and product performance were significant factors on CS/D with the purchased product and with the brand at the product-receiving stage in apparel online shopping. This study is beneficial to consumer behavior researchers and apparel e-tailers by identifying the roles of brand image and product performance in apparel online shopping. Based on the results, marketing strategies in apparel online shopping were provided. / Master of Science

This dissertation will investigate how Product Performance Contracts are organized in Multi Component Systems contexts that proliferate contemporary OEM industries. The last two decades have seen a big change in both practice as well as the product engineering technologies that form the ecosystem within which suppliers and buyers negotiate the scale and scope of their transaction contracts. While we have seen the focus of industrial procurement move from specifications based contracts to performance based contracts, we are also witnessing a burgeoning technological capability that allows remote monitoring of product performance. These capabilities are part of the interconnectivity driving the much-touted Internet of Things (IoT) technology and at the heart of the Industrial Big Data ecosystem. The dissertation will attempt to explain three major phenomena in the industrial buyer and seller relationship in the context of Multi Component System Industries. First, we uncover the factors that explain the choice of product performance contract specificity between the OEM and suppliers. We first set up an analytical model to explain the notion of an optimal contract specificity level and predict and further empirically test the role of different factors in the choice of contract specificity. We find that while the technology uncertainty decreases the level of optimal contract specificity, OEM’s transaction specific investment, unconstrained mixing-and-matching of branded component, and extent of product monitoring technology increases the level of optimal contract specificity. Second, we provide empirical evidence that any deviation from optimal contract specificity erodes value in the form of an increase in total transaction cost. In our transaction cost efficiency model, we also illustrate with a precise granularity that under-specified contracts lead to more ex-post dispute costs, and over-specified contracts lead to more ex-post contract monitoring cost and ex-ante contract writing cost. Third, we investigate how contracts, investments in strategic capabilities such as monitoring technology, the overall firm strategy, and transaction costs determine the firm performance. We find that not every transaction cost is a dead weight loss in terms of product performance. Most notably we find that ex-post dispute costs are associated with higher product performance when there is a major incident such as component failure between the OEM and the supplier. Methodologically, this dissertation proposes to use a combination of field work, mathematical modeling, conceptual theory building, and empirical analysis of primary data about firm practices. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

An empirical survey methodology is applied to test the research model and hypotheses proposed in this study. Five out of ten hypotheses are validated in our research model with Path Analysis. The research result reveals that the structural dimension of a group¡¦s social capital has the most impact on its absorptive abilities. On the other hand, a firm¡¦s absorptive capability of knowledge is affected by the relational dimensions of group external social capital. Furthermore, the result validates that both absorptive capability and the performance of project and product exhibit significant path dependency. This result will be useful to both the academic and business particularly in its advocacy of the cultivation of the structural dimension of a group¡¦s social capital.

Big, prosperous and outstanding notable corporations regularly rely on work climates that develop and encourage creative comportments and attitudes. Employees are the most important dynamic behind the creative innovation process; therefore, their engagement is seen as the combination of emotive, lucid and social extents of enthusiasm level, commitment, and attachment to their job tasks. Additionally, firms progressively empower their workforces to conduct research and generate creative ideas. The purpose of this research is to recognize drivers’ combinations and mechanisms directing the employee- driven innovation concept. Understanding employee-driven innovation relies on grasping and understanding the connection between employee engagement and innovation or creativeness. Therefore, in the proposed study, understanding each of the concepts is crucial so to recognize and investigate the link between the theories. The first section of the study is related to employee engagement. Many researches have focused on the connection between human resource management (HRM) and organization creativeness and innovation. Scholars have determined that human resource procedures, when applied jointly in a system form (i.e. high-performance work scheme) have a substantial and constructive influence on a firm's creative outcome. The aim of this part is to assess, discuss and examine existing empirical literature while emphasizing the different employee engagement mechanisms, drivers and shaping factors. The second section is related to innovation and creativity. The literature associated with innovation management led to a rising number of diverse and distinctive models of innovation types and processes. This research relies on a 10 type of innovation model proposed by Keeley et al. (2013) in which the innovation dimensions interrelate and interconnect so to create distinctive, and interesting creative approaches. The third section relates to employee-driven innovation. While some scholars argue about the definition, dependencies, and origin of the concept, the authors argue that employee-driven innovation find its source in the combination of a healthy employee engagement structure and a strong desire of the organization to innovate. The research proposes seven key drivers of employee-driven innovation: Managers and leaders attitude, Team culture - spirit and social environment, Work process - resource allocation, Job design, Corporal environment, Employee suitability, and Organizational values; each of these drivers has a certain impact in specific and critical innovation cases. Consequently, the last part of the dissertation is based on four structured case studies, focusing on product performance innovation, that assess all the different concepts already proposed. The authors evaluate the different innovation patterns, the working environment governing the society, the firm and culture at the time of the innovation and the employee innovative process that lead to the materialization of his creativeness. It is found that from these examples, different drivers supported creative, innovative and inspiring employee behaviors, depending on the technology, sector and organization vision. While there is no single driver inciting employees to innovate, there is a whole framework that should be understood and investigated by an organization so to lead the way for employee-driven innovation. From a practical viewpoint, the research has eased the way for future studies and the development of management guidelines, which firms aiming to foster their employee creative behaviors can rely on. Moreover, the dissertation postulates valuable perceptions into a significant area of study as firms look for techniques and methods to realize competitive advantage through their employees and workforce.

New Product Development is vital to the performance of high-tech firms given the rapid change in technology and markets that they face. Drawing on the ambidexterity literature this study focuses on how firms can employ Ambidextrous Market Learning (AML), that is, the use of exploratory and exploitative market learning strategies simultaneously, to develop successful innovative products. Despite the exponential growth of studies focusing on ambidexterity, the literature portrays the ambidexterity concept as a present or absent like phenomena. However, in the current study, AML is conceptualised as a continuum of market knowledge that acts as a key source essential in creating customer value in the form of new products. Whilst research into ambidexterity contains abundant evidence of the positive effects of ambidexterity on firm performance, yet there is little discussion in the literature on the effects of AML on product advantage and the role of product innovativeness. A conceptual model comprising the relationship between AML, product advantage and product innovativeness is developed and empirically tested using 178 UK-based high-tech firms. The findings indicate that AML firms tend to develop products that have high product advantage. The study further focuses on how product innovativeness and product advantage constructs interact to create new product financial performance. Findings also suggest that marketing and technological discontinuity (product innovativeness from the firm s perspective) respectively has a negative and a positive moderating impact on product advantage. In addition, modelling product innovativeness from the customers perspective (customer discontinuity) in the same model sheds new light on the relationship between product advantage, product innovativeness and product performance. By further examining the moderating effects of marketing and technological discontinuity on the link between AML and product advantage, the analyses reveals the different scenarios in which the benefits of AML firms may outweigh its implementation cost.

Yes / Although previous studies have shown the positive effect of research and development (R&D) intensity on new product performance (NPP), our understanding about the mechanisms through which R&D intensity influence NPP is less understood. In this paper, we focus on the mediating role of international R&D teams in explaining the effect of R&D intensity on NPP. Since R&D teams are dispersed across the globe, thus examining the role of international R&D teams will provide a more nuanced understanding of the mechanisms through which R&D intensity contributes to NPP. Using survey data from 201 Ghanaian firms engaged in internationalization activities, the results suggest that the use of international R&D teams mediates the relationship between R&D intensity and NPP. Moreover, the findings indicate that the use of international R&D teams improves NPP and that this linkage is amplified when the knowledge creation process inside the firm is stronger. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice.

Background: The needs of the consumers seem to develop at the same rate as the technology advancements and put more pressure on firms to produce new and innovative products at a faster pace. Research has shown that external sources can have a significant effect on the firms’ innovation performance, but the results are partial contradicting and more research is needed. Purpose: Investigate customer and supplier involvement in product innovation in Swedish manufacturing firms. Delimitations: The study was carried out to manufacturing firms in Sweden, as Swedish firms are the most innovative in Europe at this point in time. Only large and medium sized firms were under investigation as larger firms are more eager to innovate than smaller firms. Method: The research had a deductive quantitative approach. The data was collected through a questionnaire sent out by e-mail and 124 firms participated in the study. After assessing validity and reliability, the hypotheses were tested by multiple and single regression analysis. Conclusions: Firms that strives to improve their new product development process should seize their customer’s knowledge and use it to co-develop new products. Another important factor was to use lead users, as these will improve the innovativeness even more than “ordinary” customers. The study found no support for early supplier integration in the new product development process.

Music Education as part of the learning area Arts and Culture is far from satisfactory in South African schools. Reasons for this include a highly sophisticated and complex curriculum (the revised National Curriculum Statement, 2002); the integration of four discrete arts forms into one learning area; and teacher training which is not always reflective of the teaching profession’s demands. The study was based on a mixed method design, investigating how teachers in best scenario schools implement music as part of the integrated learning area Arts and Culture. Interviews were held with various stakeholders in Music Education, including teachers currently involved with the presentation of the Arts and Culture learning area, lecturers at universities training students for Music Education, and policy makers such as subject advisors in the Arts and Culture learning area. Data was also collected by analysing commercially available resources for this learning area. Analysis of the data obtained revealed that few teachers in the Arts and Culture learning area are qualified in more than one art form. A major concern is that music is often omitted from regular classroom activities in the Foundation Phase due to teachers feeling pressurised by multiple assessment standards in learning areas such as Literacy and Numeracy. Another finding in all primary school phases was that the time spent on Music Education was far less than that spent on Visual Arts. Learners are often involved in projects collecting knowledge about music, but seldom involved in active music making experiences. Aspects such as different ways to integrate the arts into one learning area, generalist/specialist teacher training, as well as issues concerning product, process and performance during the delivery of the arts, were also investigated. The researcher drew from all the data to design a course for teacher training in Music Education as part of the learning area Arts and Culture. Recommendations include regular in-service teacher training courses; nationwide co-ordination of teacher training programmes and the establishment of a national council for Music Education. An urgent need for appropriate lesson material in Arts and Culture was also identified, including CDs with songs and backtracks. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Music / unrestricted