<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate how individual retirement savings are made tangible for potential customers. As case companies we have studied the marketing strategies of Handelsbanken and Swedbank.</p><p>We use Miller and Foust’s classification of services by intangibility based on attributes and benefits and Tarn’s four strategy marketing-based model in order to find out how the retirement savings are made tangible.</p><p>We find that the attributes and benefits that are used to define retirement savings depend on how the service is affiliated to life-insurance or banking services. Intangibility is coped by simplifying the products by lifting forward salient features. Complexity is overcome by explanation. Putting emphasis on flexibility is a mean to cope with the uncertainty of future income.</p>

The purpose of this study is to investigate how individual retirement savings are made tangible for potential customers. As case companies we have studied the marketing strategies of Handelsbanken and Swedbank. We use Miller and Foust’s classification of services by intangibility based on attributes and benefits and Tarn’s four strategy marketing-based model in order to find out how the retirement savings are made tangible. We find that the attributes and benefits that are used to define retirement savings depend on how the service is affiliated to life-insurance or banking services. Intangibility is coped by simplifying the products by lifting forward salient features. Complexity is overcome by explanation. Putting emphasis on flexibility is a mean to cope with the uncertainty of future income.

Title of Thesis¡GService Quality and Customer Satisfaction of ADSL Broadband Network¡GA Case Study of Chunghwa Telecom Total Pages¡G108 Name of Institute¡GGraduate Institute of Information Management National Sun Yat-Sen University Graduate date¡GJune,2002 Advisor¡GChin-fu Ho Name of Student¡GWen-Jong Leu Abstract The open telecom market causes the telecom business to be competitive and obvious and each telecom company invests an amount of cost to gain more customers. As a result of the increase in consumer consensus, most telecom companies are dedicated to create a variety of newer, faster and more stable telecom products and consistently lower the prices. Besides, in order to sustain loyal customers and attract new customers, providing high-quality service becomes the most important strategy. Even though Chunghwa Telecom today has taken a great part in ADSL market, it should think much of customers and make an effort to provide them with good ADSL broadband network products¡Bservice quality and satisfactory service to defend and enlarge the market. This thesis discusses ADSL broadband network, service quality, customer satisfaction and the development of Chunghwa Telecom. The structure of this study is constructed based on the concept to SERVQIAL submitted by three scholars like Parasuraman(PZB) and the research on the users of Chunghwa Telecom ADSL in Kaohsiung area with the analytic tool of SPSS software.The purpose of this study is to discuss the difference between customers expectations and recognition and examine the relevance between service quality factor and customer satisfaction. The Conclusion of This Study: 1. Customers' expectations to ADSL are not compatible with their recognitions because ADSL service is not as good as what they expect. Customers also expressed that the performance of Chunghwa Telecom didn't reach their expectations. 2. The relationships between customers perceived degree of ADSL overall service quality, ADSL service quality factor perceived degree, and overall satisfaction are positively relevant. In other words, customers have more perceived degree of ADSL overall service quality or five factors perceived degree of ADSL service quality, including "Tangibility," "Reliability," "Responsiveness," "Assurance," and "Empathy," then customers are more satisfied with the ADSL overall satisfaction. 3. Based on the variable of population statistics on customers, different ages distinctively have diverse perceived degree of ADSL overall service quality. Furthermore, this result is reflected on the relationship between the ages and ADSL service quality five factors perceived degree. Customers at the age of under 20 and from 20 till 40 have much more different perceived degree of ADSL overall service quality and five factors. 4. Based on the variable of population statistics on customers, only sex difference causes different overall satisfaction with ADSL service. Male customers are more satisfied with the service than female ones. Therefore, telecom companies like Chunghwa Telecom should improve service quality, especially to female customers. Besides, customers with different sexes have different perceived degree of one factor on ADSL service quality, "Responsiveness," but the other four factors have no obvious difference.

Europe is becoming more technology-saturated with each passing day, and due to the 1:1-initiative, the school is no exception. The field of education is in a state of change, with a myriad of ICT (abbr. Information and communications technology) tools under development and trial. The evaluation of these tools are done mostly from the perspective of the students as users, and while the perspectives of the teachers are often utilized in their roles of educational experts, their reality as users of technology is not considered. In this thesis, through a literature review of both ICT in education and tangibility, the qualitative means of semi-structured interviews, and a framework for technology-enabled practice transformation, we find that the inclusion of ICT into education is largely extrinsic. We also find that the teachers have not been sufficiently educated on the changed practice of education in an ICT context, which brings about a number of negative emotional consequences. With this result in mind, we propose, among other things, the need for a modernized teacher education based around ICT didactics, and an explanation as for why tangible ICT is not utilized in education.

This thesis aims to answer the question how our relation to money will look like in a potential cashless society.  In a world where all cash has disappeared and the only existing way of paying is digital, what will the notion of money be? How are we interacting with it? How is it affecting our way of spending and saving? With the digitalization of money comes a lot of potential problems that may not be as clear in the beginning, and are being over shadowed by the much clearer and easier to grasp benefits. People tend to spend much more when using a card instead of paying with cash. Overspending a budget is easy when borrowing money through services such as “Buy now, Pay later” - payments. There is no difference between paying 50 units and 5000 units when doing it through the internet.  What will this do to us in a future society? By using Sweden as a context, this thesis is exploring how the transition to a cashless society will look like and the consequences it may have. Initially having a user centered-focus, trying to solve problem, the project takes a turn and switches to a more speculative point of view, exploring different possibilities of how we can connect and interact with money. The final proposal includes three probes acting as conversation pieces, enabling a discussion regarding the removing of cash.

This qualitative thesis work investigates in which way an immersive,embodied and interactive computer-based simulation can lead to an easierunderstanding of programming concepts. It also presents a concept for VRprogramming learning tool that could turn learning into a fun and engagingexperience for the students. The target group is Interaction Design bachelorstudents – programming is an important tool to create innovative andinteractive artefacts and interfaces, and yet, the students have hard time tounderstand many of the programming concepts. The current research relieson concepts such as embodiment and tangibility, which reflects on theprototype developed – a highly immersive, embodied VR platform with astrong illusion of tangibility. Additionally, the prototype was inspired byfeedback from students and teachers, result of a participatory approach.Finally, the research showed through usability tests that the studentsexperienced that the application made the concepts more graspable and morefun to learn.

This paper focuses on how a single installation can enhance personalization of the information in cultural heritage museums and enhance the overall experience using interactive digital storytelling and the ability to touch artefacts. Interaction design methods helped establish best practices centring on usability. In the process low- fidelity and mid-fidelity prototypes were created based on the field studies such as obeservations in exhibits and interviewing professionals in different museums. The conclusion could be made that artefact and the purpose of the exhibit as an whole does get more intense if one has the opportunity to touch and make it part of the visitors journey can be said.

My dissertation consists of empirical and theoretical essays on Microeconomic Theory and International Economics. The first chapter discusses the existence and characterization of a model that determines producer's optimal pricing and allocation rule as a preannounced markdown schedule. The mechanism focuses on pricing and operational implications of allotting scarce resources when customers are heterogeneous in their valuations and sensitivities towards availability of product. The proposed mechanism suggests that a carefully designed multistep markdown pricing could achieve optimal revenue when selling a single unit. However, to sell multiple units, monopolist should modify the implementation of markdown pricing by either hiding the number of available products or selling them via contingent contracts and upfront payments. In the second essay, we study the heterogeneity of finance and growth nexus across countries. Our paper contributes to the literature by investigating whether this impact differs across regions and types of economy. Using a rich dataset, cross-section and dynamic panel estimation results suggest that the beneficial effect of financial deepening on economic growth in fact displays measurable heterogeneity; it is generally smaller in oil exporting countries; in certain regions, such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA); and in lower-income countries. Further analysis suggests that these differences might be driven by regulatory/supervisory characteristics and related to differing performance on financial access for a given level of depth. The third chapter analyzes contraction of exports in the aftermath of severe financial crises and tests for its heterogeneity across different industries and based on their credit conditions. It provides a theoretical framework to provide insight on why sectors are hit disproportionately during and in the aftermath of severe financial distresses, and confirms most of them with empirical estimations. The findings suggest that industries with greater reliance on outside financing and fewer shares of tangible assets experience greater contractions in export volumes in the years following a severe financial crisis. / text

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T13:53:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoyceMMC_DISSERT.pdf: 1307327 bytes, checksum: 1a2f420e00204b3d8c059a84165a14a0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-01-21 / This study aims to investigate the influence of the asset class and the breakdown of tangibility as determinant factors of the capital structure of companies listed on the BM & FBOVESPA in the period of 2008-2012. Two current assets classes were composed and once they were grouped by liquidity, they were also analyzed by the financial institutions for credit granting: current resources (Cash, Bank and Financial Applications) and operations with duplicates (Stocks and Receivables). The breakdown of the tangible assets was made based on its main components provided as warrantees for loans like Machinery & Equipment and Land & Buildings. For an analysis extension, three metrics for leverage (accounting, financial and market) were applied and the sample was divided into economic sectors, adopted by BM&FBOVESPA. The data model in dynamic panel estimated by a systemic GMM of two levels was used in this study due its strength to problems of endogenous relationship as well as the omitted variables bias. The found results suggest that current resources are determinants of the capital structure possibly because they re characterized as proxies for financial solvency, being its relationship with debt positive. The sectorial analysis confirmed the results for current resources. The tangibility of assets has inverse proportional relationship with the leverage. As it is disintegrated in its main components, the significant and negative influence of machinery & equipment was more marked in the Industrial Goods sector. This result shows that, on average, the most specific assets from operating activities of a company compete for a less use of third party resources. As complementary results, it was observed that the leverage has persistence, which is linked with the static trade-off theory. Specifically for financial leverage, it was observed that the persistence is relevant when it is controlled for the lagged current assets classes variables. The proxy variable for growth opportunities, measured by the Market -to -Book, has the sign of its contradictory coefficient. The company size has a positive relationship with debt, in favor of static trade-off theory. Profitability is the most consistent variable in all the performed estimations, showing strong negative and significant relationship with leverage, as the pecking order theory predicts / Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar a influ?ncia das classes de ativos e da desagrega??o da tangibilidade como fatores determinantes da estrutura de capital das empresas listadas na BM&FBOVESPA no per?odo de 2008 a 2012. Foram compostas duas classes de ativos circulantes que, agrupadas por liquidez, s?o analisadas pelas institui??es financeiras para concess?o de cr?dito: recursos correntes (Disponibilidades e Aplica??es Financeiras) e opera??es com duplicatas (Estoques e Clientes a Receber). A desagrega??o dos ativos tang?veis foi feita com base em seus principais componentes fornecidos como garantias para empr?stimos, como M?quinas & Equipamentos e Terrenos & Edifica??es. Para extens?o das an?lises, tr?s m?tricas para alavancagem (cont?bil, financeira e de mercado) foram empregadas e a amostra foi dividida em setores econ?micos adotados pela BM&FBOVESPA. O modelo de dados em painel din?mico estimado por GMM sist?mico de dois est?gios foi utilizado neste estudo por ser robusto ? problemas de rela??es end?genas assim como para vieses de vari?veis omitidas. Os resultados encontrados sugerem que os recursos correntes s?o determinantes da estrutura de capital possivelmente por serem caracterizados como proxies para solv?ncia financeira, sendo sua rela??o positiva com o endividamento. A an?lise setorial corroborou os resultados para recursos correntes. A tangibilidade de ativos possui rela??o inversamente proporcional com a alavancagem. Ao desagreg?-la em seus principais componentes, a influ?ncia negativa e significativa das M?quinas & Equipamentos foi mais acentuada no setor de Bens Industriais. Esse resultado demonstra que, em m?dia, os ativos mais espec?ficos da atividade operacional de uma empresa concorrem para menor uso de recursos de terceiros. Como resultados complementares, verificou-se que a alavancagem possui persist?ncia, o que coaduna com a teoria do static trade-off. Especificamente para alavancagem financeira, observou-se que a persist?ncia ? significativa quando controlada para as vari?veis de classes de ativos circulantes defasadas. A vari?vel proxy para oportunidades de crescimento, medida pelo Market-to-Book, tem o sinal de seu coeficiente controverso. O tamanho da empresa tem rela??o positiva com o endividamento, a favor da teoria do static trade-off. A lucratividade ? a vari?vel mais consistente em todas as estima??es realizadas, apresentando rela??o fortemente negativa e significativa com a alavancagem, conforme prediz a teoria do pecking order

The main objective of this study was to test if the applicability of known capital structure theories holds water in abnormal economic environments, in particular, in Zimbabwe. Using secondary data collected for listed manufacturing firms from 2009-2018, results from a fixed effects regression model concluded that profitability, company size, non-debt tax shields, firm liquidity, inflation and GDP were significant in explaining capital structure decisions in Zimbabwe. In the context of South Africa, company size, asset tangibility, firm liquidity and inflation were found to be significant. The pecking order and trade-off theories were the only two theories that were found to be applicable in the Zimbabwean context, and the application of both theories indicated the use of internally generated funds as opposed to external finance sources, such as debt and equity. These results attribute to the abnormality and instability of the Zimbabwean economy, especially with regards to limited access to capital. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)