Published also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1906. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-160).

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

In recent years there has been a significantly rising trend amongst consumers for health and environmental issues, which has resulted in greater attention for and sales of organic food. Organic food production strives to use natural resources, such as land, energy and water in a sustainable way and the products does not contain artificial fertilizers or chemical pesticides. However, organic food products are also often more expensive and less available in comparison to conventional food products. Despite this, interest for and sales of organic food products have increased around the globe, and in Sweden particularly, the increase in sales has grown largely from an international perspective. This thesis is of qualitative character and is focused on studying some consumers from the Swedish market of organic food. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute with a better understanding on the buying decision process regarding organic food purchase. To achieve this, the authors have studied some consumers that purchase organic food and have searched for patterns that could be identified in the decision process. The consumer buying decision process model has been used for portrayal of the chosen consumers’ decision to purchase organic food products. Interviews with six Swedish consumers were conducted, whereas each respondent continuously purchase organic food products. Results show that the purchase of organic food products begins with discovering an unsatisfied need state, which the consumers of this study desired to change with the purchase of organic food products. This study show how six consumers reason when passing through the stages of the buying decision process, in order to satisfy their desired need state. The authors found that the respondents feel satisfied with purchasing organic food products, which lead them in to continuously buying these products. Altogether, the findings contribute with knowledge that can come to be helpful when wanting to understand more about the consumer decision to purchase organic food.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine what kind of factors that can influence consumers’ intention and how do Swedish consumers evaluate these factors to purchase grocery products through the Internet. Background: E-commerce has been a widespread environment for consumers and online shopping also becomes more and more popular nowadays. However, in Sweden, although there is huge amount of online users, online grocery shopping is still in an early stage. Theory: For this paper the Theory of Planned Behavior was used, as well as a range of factors that are commonly used in existing literature on this field of research. Method: Both quantitative and Qualitative method were used to collect primary data and semi- structured interviews were conducted with participants with similar demographics. Conclusion: Combined with previous literature, questionnaire and interviews conducted, relevant factors are brought up to be analyzed. Situational factors which include perceived product quality, perceived product price, weather, perceived potential risks, delivery cost, delivery time, types of product, and time saving. The study shows that above factors all have impact on online consumers’ purchasing intention with different levels.

The aim is to analyze the customer-supplier relationships in the selected company in terms of trends in long-term partnerships, outsourcing, linking information flow and level of logistics services. Based on the internal materials and data on the structured interviews were evaluated various processes related to buying - supplier selection, supplier evaluation, handling complaints at the supplier and were evaluated data on customers. Based on the identified bottlenecks were suggested measures to improve the current situation.

In recent decades, the growth of international trade and delocalisation been increasing with the advent of globalisation and nationalisation. Consequently, a proliferation of hybrid or bi-national products has emerged in the research of international marketing. A large body of studies agree that country of origin (COO) plays an important role on product evaluation, since a product consists of an array of information cues, and intrinsic (physical appearance) and extrinsic (price, brand or COO) compositions. There is a strong evidence that consumers usually use COO as one of the most important cues when making a judgement about a product. However, bi-national products raise a particular issue because they are associated to both country of manufacture (COM) and country of design (COD) constructs. The interaction effects between both cues are found to have a more powerlful effect than when only cue is presented (Bertoli and Resciniti, 2012). This study intends to decompose the COO construct into COM and COD constructs. Moreover, the roles of COM and COD on customers’ purchase intentions are investigated in order to provides practical implications for the sportswear industry, as well as consumption insights relating to the emerging market, Thailand. This research provides an in-depth examination of COM, COD and product involvement on consumers’ purchase intentions and customer perceived value (CPV). Thus, the research measures the effects of product familiarity in order to infer how consumers use country-related information in purchase decision-making. In addition, the research clarifies the role of CPV, which remains unclear regarding how consumers develop a product’s value through informational cues (COM and COD). Moreover, the previous research have only examined the outcomes of perceived quality as influenced by COO. Hence, this research intends to bring all dimensions of CPV to investigate whether the combined effects of COM and COD can have either a positive or a negative impact on customer’s value. A model of CPV is developed by Sweeney and Soutat (2001), which consists of quality, social, price and emotional values. A quantitative approach using experimental research design was conducted in Bangkok, Thailand for the purposes of this study, with a pilot test to ascertain the variables used in the main experiment: product involvement, favourable/least favourable COM and COD images. The experiment was designed to measure the relationship between constructs, of a high involvement product, namely sports trainers, and a low involvement product, namely sports t-shirt. The US and China were selected as the most and the least favourite COD, resepectively. Meanwhile, Japan and China were selected as the most and least favourite COM, respectively. Data analysis techniques such as analysis of varaince (ANOVA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and t-test were employed for hypothesis testing. The results of this research demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the interaction effects of country image and product involvement. The study confirms that COD is the salient cue for the evaluation of sportswear products in emerging countries. However, the level of product involvement does not influence the consumer’s decisions when COD and COM are both presented. Thus, the roles of COM, COD and product invovlement play an important role in evaluating overall CPV. The key contribution of this research is in its practical, theoretical and methodological implications to international marketing communications toward the sportswear industry. It offers the insights of two informational cues (COM and COD) to explain the phenomenon of bi-national products for unknown or new products.

A Compra e Venda a Contento é um instituto bastante utilizado nas relações comerciais ainda nos dias modernos. Já na antiguidade, os Compiladores do Corpus Iures Civilis também notaram a utilização de um pacto ut, si displicuisset, inempta esset, i.e., tal que, se desagradar, seja tida como não comprada, espalhando por todo o Digesto referências a tal pactum. Esse é o tema dessa monografia. Diferente da in diem addictio e da lege commissoria, que receberam um Título do Digesto cada, o pacto ora estudado não recebeu nome reconhecível dos jurisconsultos antigos. Nem por isso há que se discutir a sua importância: nas Institutas de Justiniano, os Compiladores utilizam este pacto especificamente para apontar a possibilidade de que a Compra fosse realizada condicionalmente (Inst. 3, 23, 4). Para realizar tal estudo, essa monografia se inicia com uma análise preliminar da Compra e Venda; estabelecem-se os elementos básicos o preço, a coisa e o consentimento , bem como uma descrição dos principais pacta que se adicionam ao contrato. Análise especial é feita da emptio ad gustum, bastante confundida como se a condição fosse a mesma. Em seguida, a monografia passa à definição do que se entendeu por pactum displicentiae, nome dado pela moderna doutrina romanista ao pacto descrito acima. Apontam-se os principais fragmentos que tratam da Compra e Venda a Contento, buscando assim alcançar uma definição básica do pacto. Apontam-se também as formas como o pacto é realizado nas fontes, seja as palavras com que os jurisconsultos os descrevem, bem como as consequências advinda. Antes de concluir o terceiro capítulo, há uma breve análise das ações ofertadas pelos jurisconsultos para garantir os direitos das partes. No quarto capítulo é feita uma análise das condições em Direito Romano: suas formas suspensiva e resolutiva e, em especial quanto a esta, como eram incluídas nos contratos. Analisa-se, então, a forma da condição do pactum displicentiae, se era sempre resolutivo, se necessariamente suspensivo ou se podia ser de ambas as formas. Neste capítulo estuda-se ainda outras formas de condição, a sua satisfação fictícia etc. No quinto capítulo, a monografia analisa o periculum res venditae, especialmente quanto à condição suspensiva. O faz porque esse pactum apresenta situação peculiar: em que pese haja contrato e a coisa esteja na posse do comprador, ainda não houve transferência da propriedade. Analisa-se ainda a questão da retroatividade da condição, buscando saber em que momento se transfere o periculum ao comprador. Enfim, passa-se à análise de três fragmentos extremamente interessantes, bem como de grande utilidade para a compreensão do instituto ora estudado. No primeiro, foca-se na questão da responsabilidade pela coisa vendida, sem descuidar da questão condicional. No segundo, analisa-se o limite da condição e a extensão da prova pelo comprador. No terceiro, o periculum, fazendo-se a contraposição entre a condição suspensiva e a condição resolutiva. / The Purchase and Sale on Satisfaction Condition is an institute widely used in commercial relations even in modern days. Already in the antiquity, the Compilers of the Corpus Civilis Iures had noted the use of a pact \"ut, si displicuisset, inempta esset\" (\"such that, if displeased, be regarded as not purchased\"), spreading references of such pactum across the Digest. This is the theme of this monograph. Unlike the in diem addictio and the commissoria lege, which received respective Titles in the Digest, the studied pact did not receive a recognizable name from the ancient jurists. Even so, its importance must not be doubted: in Justinians Institutes, the compilers use specifically this covenant to point the possibility that the purchase was stablished conditionally (Inst 3, 23, 4). Thus, to perform such a study, this monograph begins with a preliminary analysis of Sales contract; the basic elements price, the thing which is sold or bought and the consent are described, as well are described the pacta that are added to the Purchase and Sale. A special analysis is made of the emptio ad gustum, which creates quite a confusion, many times being understood as if it was the same condition. Next, the monograph addresses what is understood by pactum displicentiae, the name given by modern doctrine of Roman Law to the above described pactum. Pointing the main fragments that deals with its topic, it seeks to achieve a basic definition of the covenant. The monograph also points out the forms in which the covenant is held in the sources, the words that the jurists use to describe it and the consequences arisen. Before ending the third chapter, there is a brief analysis of the actions offered by the jurists to ensure the rights of the parties. The fourth chapter makes an analysis of the conditions under Roman law: its suspensive and resolutive forms, and in particular about the latter, which were included in the contracts. The next step is to analyze the form of the displicentiae pactum condition; if it was always resolutive, necessarily suspensive, or if it could be formed in both ways. This chapter still studied other forms of condition, especially their fictitious satisfaction. In the fifth chapter, the monograph analyzes the periculum res venditae, with especially consideration of the suspensive condition. This analysis is made because this pactum presents a peculiar situation: in spite of the contract and the fact that the thing is in the possession of the buyer, there has been no transfer of ownership. Further on, it studies the retroactivity of the condition, seeking to establish when it transfers the periculum to the buyer. At last, it moves on to analyze three extremely interesting fragments, as well as very useful for understanding the institute studied herein. The first focuses on the issue of liability for the thing sold, without neglecting the conditional issue. The second analyses the boundaries of the condition and the extent of the buyers freedom to experiment. The third addresses the periculum, making the contrast between the suspensive and the resolutive conditions.

Abstract A high level of customer perceived value is the key to customer loyalty and to the profitability of customers and companies. It is not enough to meet the customer's needs in order to win customer loyalty. Instead the aim for companies should be to try to delight customers. Customers are delighted when they feel that the product or service not only fulfils their needs and expectations, but also gives them unexpected additional value. Value has been studied widely and there are several different models and theories to describe customer perceived value. In the main, they tend to be too general or insufficient or they do not provide a useful guide for management practices. Therefore the aim of this thesis is to generate a theory for consumer perceived value which could be useful for managements trying to develop superior value so as to improve their customer loyalty. Pre-purchase consumer value was examined applying Grounded Theory methodology and by synthesizing the existing research results. The resulting theory from this synthesis consists of three main stages namely, gaining, sacrifice and purchase factors. The gaining stage has three sub elements: substance, reputation and interaction. All these sub-elements have the same four subcategories: emotional, social, functional and economical elements. What is novel about this research is its treatment of customer perceived value firstly, from the perspectives of the companies – based on three functionally different factors: substance, reputation and interaction – and secondly from the perspective of the customers based on the identified subjective outcomes (i.e. emotional, social, functional and economic factors). Based on this approach companies can develop products based on a better understanding of consumer perceived value.

1 Abstract The topic of this thesis is civil aspects of animal ownership. The aim of this study is to analyze the specific civil aspects of ownership of animals, for example horses, in contractual relations and tort liability as well as a brief comparison of the issue with Austrian and Slovak legislation. The focus of this work lies in the analysis of the applicability of the relevant provisions of the Civil Code or the need for specific contractual provisions in the contractual relations and further analysis of the individual types of tort liability and their relationships. The thesis consists of three main chapters further divided into subsections. The comparison with foreign legislation is contained in the final subsection of each chapter. The first chapter briefly discusses the status of the animal as an object of legal relations and the subjects of those legal relations. The second chapter deals with the most common legal relations of contracts relating to horses. Those are the commencement and ownership transfer to the horse by increment, donation and purchase and legal relations associated with commercial stabling which are custody, lease and work. The third chapter deals with damage liability caused by animal, liability from operational activity and liability for object taken into custody, taking...

This thesis deals with the situation on the market of organic food in the Czech Republic. The aim is to determine the attitudes, awareness and purchase behaviour of Czech organic food consumers. Find out how different purchasing behaviour of women and men by age and what is typical organic food consumer. The thesis is divided into two parts. In the first theoretical-methodological section describes the basic concepts and legislation on the matter. Furthermore, mapping the situation of the contemporary state of the organic food market. The practical part consists of market segmentation obtained from desk research MML-TGI and quantitative research purchasing behaviour and attitudes of Czech consumers to organic food.