Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Social entrepreneurship is a promising approach in addressing social issues, however, it is still relatively new to consumers. There is an increase in demand for products that have a positive social reputation. In order to reach consumers, social enterprises need promotion.  It is crucial for social enterprises since they are competing for public awareness of the company itself and its social mission. Social enterprises are addressing social issues and striving to reach their missions through different activities. There is  little research available of perceptions and purchase decisions of different consumer groups regarding social entrepreneurial activities. The purpose of the thesis was to examine how consumers perceive social entrepreneurship activities within the fashion industry and consequently, how consumers’ purchase decisions are affected by these activities. To fulfil this purpose, existing literature was reviewed and an online questionnaire was conducted. Total amount of 235 people living in Sweden participated in the questionnaire.    Promoted social entrepreneurship activities were observed through the Social Entrepreneurship Map and the results showed that activities related to ‘Job creation’ and ‘Help focus’ sector were the ones represented in the fashion industry. It was discovered that the promoted social entrepreneurship activities within ‘Job creation’ sector were triggering more positive associations than ‘Help focus’ activities. Despite the positive overall perception of the activities, the majority of consumers had not purchased products from social enterprises. The results showed that overall consumers were willing to purchase products from companies engaging in social entrepreneurship activities. Additionally, a positive correlation was found between purchase decisions and willingness to buy in the future. The more consumers had purchased products before, the more willing they were also to purchase in the future.

COO is a construct that refers to the country which a consumer associates a certain product or brand as being its source, regardless of where the product is actually produced. Scholars like Magnusson et al. (2011) argue that COO is a salient cue in consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention. In contrast, Usunier (2006; 2011) and Samiee (2010) criticize the COO effect, by explaining that due to multinational production, integrated worldwide supply chains and global branding there are other cues that have become more salient in consumers’ decision- making process. The purpose of this thesis is to extend the understanding about the relationship of COO in consumers buying process. The research questions followed: To what extent does country of origin influence consumers’ product evaluations and purchase intention? To what extent does the level of involvement affect the relationship between country of origin and consumers’ product evaluation? To what extent does the level of involvement affect the relationship between country of origin and consumers’ purchase intentions. Applying a deductive approach, a quantitative research has been chosen for this thesis involving survey as the source for data collection in order to test this research four main concepts: COO, product evaluation, purchase intention and product involvement. The findings indicated that COO has a significant direct effect in consumers’ product evaluations and purchase intention. The results also indicated on that when consumers’ perceive products to be low involvement, the COO effect is greater in consumers’ decision-making process.

Background: E-commerce is an evolving market; the number of retailers and the growth in online shopping has built up a competitive market. It is therefore essential for companies to continuously develop their online activity to remain and attract new customers. To do so, companies need to create value for the customers and meet their demands: therefore it is of great importance for companies to understand consumers’ buying behavior, and moreover investigate in which factors are related to the consumers’ online purchase intention.   Purpose: The purpose is to explain the relationship between trust, perceived risk, shopping enjoyment, site design quality and online purchase intention.   Hypotheses: The authors of this study set up the following hypotheses: H1+: Trust is positively related to consumers’ online purchase intention. H2-: Perceived risk is negatively related to consumers’ online purchase intention. H3: Shopping enjoyment is related to consumers’ online purchase intention. H4+: Site design quality is positively related to consumers’ online purchase intention. Methodology: Survey study. Conclusion: Hypothesis 1 was supported in this study. Hypothesis 2 was not supported in this study. Hypothesis 3 was supported in this study. Hypothesis 4 was supported in this study.

In the last few years alone, calls for transparency by consumers have grown louder. No longer are consumers willing to sit back and allow firms to make `closed door' decisions that benefit the company (and its executives) at the expense of consumers and society. This dissertation begins to answer the call for a greater understanding of transparency from both practitioner and academic perspectives. In particular, this dissertation focuses on systematically developing a succinct definition of perceived firm transparency, developing a valid measure of transparency, and empirically testing antecedents and consequences of transparency. Two studies were conducted to develop the transparency scale following a thorough review of the transparency literature across six fields. Study 1 was dedicated to scale development and validation for the transparency construct. Study 2 was dedicated to further validating the transparency scale and testing its psychometric properties and validity. The complete proposed model was tested in Study 3 utilizing scenarios in a between-subjects design with a student sample. Study 4 further tested the proposed model in a slightly more ecologically valid setting with a more diverse sample. Studies 3 and 4 showed that transparency has significant direct impact on reducing skepticism, and increasing trust, attitude toward the firm, and purchase intention; and these impacts are of substantial magnitude. Studies 3 and 4 also tested a few antecedents of perceived firm transparency including perceived firm reciprocity, perceived consumer effort, and negative information. Reciprocity and consumer effort both had a significant impact on perceptions of firm transparency in Studies 3 and 4, and negative information impacted perceptions of transparency in Study 3 only. At its core, transparency means that a firm is perceived to be open and forthright with stakeholders. This dissertation shows that stakeholders reward firms for being transparent; and those rewards come in the form of decreased skepticism and increased favorable attitudes toward the firm, trust, and purchase intention. Managers can focus on increasing perceptions of transparency by providing stakeholders with opportunities for mutual conversations, by making easy for stakeholders to learn about the company and its offerings, and by sharing more balanced information about itself that reflects both the positives and the negatives.

Buying and selling of used goods is something that has been done for centuries. Throughout the last 20 years, rapid growth of second-hand products consumption has got the attention of researchers and raised the question why customers buy second-hand products. The growth of the Internet has developed different applications, and this combined with the introduction of new electronic devices, provides users with buying and selling facilities of goods over the Internet and mobile devices. The uses of social networks and smart-phones have also revolutionized the second-hand product market among all economic classes. The consumption of second-hand products is increasing daily. Therefore it is important to pay attention to the factors that affect the purchase of second-hand products since it is not a simple form of mercantilism. It's a lifestyle, a way to acquire goods that we need and get rid of those that we do not see as useful anymore. The purpose of this study is to create new knowledge in the area of second-hand products consumption and customer buying behavior by identifying factors that influence the customer in buying second-hand products. In order to fulfill the research purpose, a quantitative research approach and cross sectional research design were adopted. Questionnaires were designed using Google survey tool and through this method 169 questionnaires were collected from respondents. After which, SPSS was used to perform the required tests of descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, bivariate correlation, single item measurement and multiple regression analysis. It was observed that price was the most important factor influencing customers when purchasing second-hand products; risk is the second most influencing factor and brand is the third and location come last as most influencing factor.  The results show that the factors such as brand, price and purchase intention of second-hand products have no association and influence on each other during the purchase decision. In contrast, risk and location factors have a weak association with each other but both factors lack association with brand, price and intention. This study contributes to the existing literature on second-hand products consumption and customer buying behavior as well as touching upon theories of brand, price, risk, and seller location.

Companies providing digital news are today struggling with low purchase intentions among their consumers. Over the years, the Internet has become a vital part of how people consume news, and the growth in online consumption has led to a decline in printed circulation. Newspapers all around the world are earning only the minor share of their total revenue from digital operations. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of perceived ease-of-use, perceived usefulness, trust, reputation, word-of-mouth, and willingness to customize on consumer´s purchase intentions for digital news. This study aims to answer to the following research question:   What kind of effects do perceived ease-of-use, perceived usefulness, trust, reputation, word-of-mouth, and willingness to customize have on consumers purchase intentions for digital news?   In order to answer our research question, we have conducted a quantitative survey that was directed towards the subscribers of Resumé, the leading Scandinavian business magazine in the area of marketing and advertising. Currently, Resumé is struggling with earning money from their digital content and their practical problem provided us with a great opportunity to contribute to the field of research about digital purchase intentions.   Purchase intentions are an indicator of a consumer´s approach towards a purchase and prior studies demonstrates that perceived ease-of-use and perceived usefulness, which constitute the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989), are cornerstones in order to predict online consumer behavior. In our study, we also consider willingness-to-customize, which has been found to be an important decision-making factor regarding digital purchase intentions. People’s perceptions of the trust and reputation of a company are also proven to be relevant factors when predicting online consumer behavior, which in turn can be influenced by the word-of-mouth from other consumers, friends and family. Based on our literature review, we can conclude that there is a research gap related to the examination of the effects of these specific factors on consumer´s purchase intentions for digital news.   The findings of our regression analyses, based on 234 responses we received through the survey, demonstrate that perceived ease-of-use, perceived usefulness, and word-of-mouth have positive significant effects on consumer´s purchase intentions for digital news. Based on these results, we have developed a revised conceptual model that includes the three factors that were proven to affect digital purchase intentions. Our study makes a theoretical contribution to the research field about digital purchase intentions and online consumer behavior. The study also provides managerial implications concerning how companies can enhance the digital purchase intentions among their consumers. We suggest the practical recommendations directed towards managers in the digital news business in general, and for the managers of Resumé in particularly.

Companies that are facing the global market are put in to new challenges in order to streamline its business. One industry that has realized that changes are necessary is the construction industry, it is an industry witch is far behind the development of introducing information technology-tools systems in there business. It has shown there is a relation between high IT usage and high productivity, which is one of the reasons to why companies in the construction industry should purchase a business system especially for procurement. However, companies that have purchased a business system are facing difficulties in having their employees using it for its purpose. People react differently to changes and that’s why variations in quantities exist for usage of information technology-tools. We considered it to be interesting to look deeper into the question: “if the difference in utilization depends on resistance”? And if so: “which factors are behind the variation of participation”? This became a research project for us with the purpose to investigate and analyze the differences of attitudes of the NCC’s purchasers, in different regions in Sweden, while the process of the information technology-tool “Trade” was implemented. Our dissertation is based on both qualitative and quantitative data. We carried out a survey and interviews to collect information to our empirical chapter. The Question formulas was created on the basis of our theories and the respondents where also chosen on the same base of theories. To be able to see the differences of the regions, we chose one of the better and one of the worst of using the Trade. Interviews took place in Stockholm and Umeå and the survey formulas was sent internally thru a web based application to all of the purchasers within NCC Construction AB in both Stockholm and Norrland. The result of the research showed that in Stockholm the response was more positive then it was in the northern part of Sweden, regarding the use of the information technology-tool Trade. We did not find any strong connection between people with computer habit, their age and the usage of Trade. However, we did find that verbal information contributed to create a larger interest for the use of Trade. Furthermore we found some teething troubles, but also a few errors such as unclearness to what kind of construction site Trade suits for, low performance expectations and unclear informed advantages. These were the main factors for resistance and the difference between the regions. / Den globala marknaden ställer företagen inför nya utmaningar att förändra och effektivisera sin verksamhet. En bransch som har insett att en förändring är nödvändig är byggbranschen, det är en bransch som ligger efter i utvecklingen med att införa IT baserade verktygssystem i verksamheten. Det finns ett samband mellan högt IT-användande och produktivitet, därför är alternativet för byggbranschen att införskaffa ett inköpssystem. Men de företag som har införskaffat ett inköpssystem möter stora svårigheten när det gäller att personalen använder det fullt ut till dess syfte. Människor agerar olika vid förändring och därmed varierar omfattningen av utnyttjandet av IT verktyg. Därför ansåg vi att det vore intressant att undersöka om skillnaden i användandet beror på motstånd och vilka faktorer som ligger bakom den varierande mottagligheten. Detta kom att bli ett uppdrag för oss, och syftet var att undersöka och analysera skillnaden i attityden i olika regioner i Sverige hos NCCs avropare vid införandet av IT-verktyget Trade. Vår uppsats bygger på både kvalitativ och kvantitativ data. Vi genomförde enkätundersökning och intervjuer för att samla in material till empiri. Frågeformulär utformades utifrån våra teorier och respondenter valdes utifrån teoriernas grunder. För att se skillnaden valdes den region som var bättre samt region som var sämst på att använda Trade. Intervjun genomfördes i Stockholm och Umeå och enkäten skickades internt via en webbaserad applikation till alla avropare inom NCC Construction AB i både Stockholm och Norrland. Resultatet av undersökningen visade att i Stockholm var man mer positiv än i Norrland vad gällde användandet av IT-verktyget. Vi fann inga starka samband mellan hög datorvana, ålder och användandet av Trade. Därmed fann vi att muntlig information bidrog till ett större intresse och användande av Trade. Dessutom fanns det så kallade barnsjukdomar som uppstår med nya system, men även flera brister som otydlighet om till vilken form av byggarbete Trade passade, lågt ställda krav och otydligt förmedlade fördelar. Dessa var de främsta faktorerna till motståndet och skillnaden mellan regionerna.

Final work of the master studies consists from 122 pages, 20 pictures, 11 tables, 77 literature sources, and 10 annexes. The work is written in Lithuanian. KEY WORDS: long-term tangible assets, accounting, purchase costs, depreciation, repairs. Object of the study-long-term tangible assets. Research subject -Long-term tangible assets accounting methods. Aim of the research – after methods of accounting of long term-tangible assets analysis to establish accounting problems and to present recommendations for methods improvement. Tasks: o after conception of long-term assets and it’s classification analysis to present the definition of long-term tangible assets and to expose it’s classification importance; o after analysis of scientific economic literature, acts regulating accounting of long-term tangible assets and accounting standards, to establish accounting of long-term tangible assets methods problems and to present how to solve the problems; o after investigation of long-term tangible assets accounting methods solution problems practical validity , to present proposals for long-term tangible assets accounting methods improvement. The research methods are monographic, observation, data systematize and work up, logical analysis and synthesis, comparable analysis and graphic. After analysis of economic literature, scientific works, publications, international and national accounting standards, Republic of Lithuania laws and other normative acts cleared up the problems of... [to full text]

The aim of this study was to identify and analyze the dominating discourse in the preliminary work of the Sex Purchase Act. In order to achieve the aim of this study we selected preliminary work of the Sex Purchase Act that was produced between 1977 and 1999. The selection is based on the fact that prostitution began to be recognized as a social problem and a gender equality issue between men and women in society. The ongoing debate during the chosen years resulted in the Sex Purchase Act, which was passed in 1999. By using discourse analysis as a methodological and theoretical approach, we have empirically studied and theoretically analyzed the dominating discourse in the preliminary work of the Sex Purchase Act. This study shows that the dominating discourse in the preliminary work is based on a perception that prostitution reflects violence against women, which prevents women and men from becoming equal in society. The dominating discourse in the preliminary work is characterized by a heteronormative standard and has influences that can be recognized as feminist ideology. The content in the dominating discourse is produced by people with high social status, which gives sex buyers and sex workers limited influence on how their categories are presented in the preliminary work.