Although religion is an important cultural force that shapes consumers' values and norms, the taboo stigma attached to the investigation of religion's influences in marketing areas has limited the knowledge about how religion influences consumers' decision-making. This study explored the affect of Muslim motivation in following Islam in their decision-making process to perform behaviors that are subject to Islamic rulings known as fatwa. Three behaviors that are subject to fatwa declarations; smoking, listening to popular music and buying a Coca Cola soft drink, were chosen. Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behaviors, this study examined: 1) If a Muslim's motivation in following Islam is an effect in their cognitive and behavioral responses regarding the fatwa prohibited behaviors. 2) If Muslim motivation in following Islam is an effect in their decision-making in deciding to whether to perform fatwa prohibited behaviors. Based on a Malaysian university student sample, multiple analyses of variance with covariate's (MANCOVA) results show that a Muslim's motivation in following Islam, his or her gender and their interaction have significant effects in their responses in regards to the behaviors. Muslim males, who are extrinsically motivated towards Islam tended to report a greater intention to smoke, buy a Coca Cola soft drink and tended to report they experienced more social pressure to smoke as compared to others. Nonetheless, SEM analysis found that the sample's responses on items related to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) about buying a Coca Cola soft drink brand did not fit the model. Other unaccounted for factors that may be related to the Muslims' decision-making about the product, such as possible consumer animosity, was not captured in the survey. The sample’s responses on smoking and listening to popular music provided a good fit to the model proposed. ii This study found that the Muslim respondents' motivation in following Islam had an effect on the role of perceived social pressure in their planning to smoke, and on the role of perceived social pressure in their planning to listen to popular music. Respondents' motivation in following Islam also had an effect on the role of perception of control in their reported smoking and listening to popular music. The intrinsically motivated Muslim consumers tended to be more concerned about others approval in their deciding to smoke and to listen to popular music, than the average extrinsic respondents. The intrinsic Muslim respondents also tended to perceive having incomplete control over smoking and listening to popular music, compared to their extrinsic counterparts. Respondents' attitudes towards smoking and listening to popular music were found to be not relevant in respondents' decision-making to perform the behaviors. This study also found evidence for the effect of type of fatwa prohibition ruling in Muslim respondents' responses and decision-making to perform behaviors in this study. Findings from this study suggest a significant effect of fatwa rulings on products or behaviors, among the sample of young Malaysian Muslim respondents. The findings highlight the needs for marketers to understand nature of fatwa rulings on products, in order to win over Muslim consumers in the marketplace.

Background: The tourism industry is one of the largest industries in the world, with annual revenues exceeding US$ 850 billion. Because of the size and nature of the industry, tourism is seen as one of the largest contributors to the negative effects on the environment today. Within the tourism industry, there exist more than 70 eco-labels representing various environmental standards. However, none of them are widely used within the tourism industry. Purpose: This thesis investigates how the use of the two eco-labels Svanen and Green Globe affect Swedish students’ perception of a package tour marketing campaign. It investigates how students’ perceptions of advertisement differ between advertisement for package tours with and without incorporated eco-labels. Method: The study uses a mixed method with a sequential explanatory strategy. The quantitative part consists of a survey and the qualitative part consists of follow up interviews with a number of interviewees who are all respondents in the quantitative part. This thesis primarily focuses on the quantitative part, which consists of three questionnaires, one of which contains an advertisement for Ving, and two which used the same advertisement but which have been manipulated to include Green Globe and Svanen respectively. Conclusion: The conclusion of the study is that students’ perception of advertisement does not differ between the advertisement not using an eco-label and the ones manipulated to include Green Globe or Svanen. The reasons to why the perception does not differ are explained by eco-labels having failed in communicating what they stand for. Students have limited financial resources, which constrains them from behaving in an environmentally friendly way. In addition, the advertisement including eco-lables is congruent with the students’ perception about the brand Ving as an environmentally friendly company. There is however factors that indicate that eco-labelling in the tourism industry can work as a partial solution for a more sustainable future. / Bakgrund: Turismindustrin är en av de största industrierna i världen, med årliga inkomster på över US$ 850 miljarder. På grund av storleken och dess påverkan, anses turismen vara en av de största orsakerna till den negativa utvecklingen av miljön. Inom turismindustrin existerar mer än 70 miljö märkningar som representerar olika miljöstandarder. Dock har inga av dem sett någon större användning inom turismindustrin. Syfte: Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka hur användning av de två miljömärkningarna Green Globe och Svanen påverkar studenters uppfattning av en reklamkampanj för charter resor. Den undersöker hur studenters uppfattning om reklam för charter resor skiljer sig mellan reklam som använder miljömärkning och den som inte gör det. Metod: Denna studie använder en blandad metod med en sekventiell strategi. Den kvantitativa delen består av enkätundersökningar och för den kvalitativa delen används intervjuer med några deltagare från den kvantitativa delen. Störst fokus ligger på den kvantitativa delen som består av tre olika enkäter, en som innehåller en reklam bild på Ving, och två som manipulerats att innehålla Green Globe respektive Svanen. Slutsats: Slutsatsen av studien är att studenters uppfattning om annonserna inte skiljer sig mellan annonsen utan miljömärkning och de som manipulerats med Green Globe eller Svanen. Anledning till att uppfattningen inte skiljer sig kan förklaras av att miljö märkningarna har misslyckats med att kommunicera vad dem står för. Studenterna har begränsade ekonomiska resurser och detta begränsar dem att uppföra sig på ett miljövänligt sätt. Dessutom överrensstämmer reklamen som innehöll miljö märkning med studenternas uppfattning om varumärket Ving som ett miljö vänligt företag. Det finns dock faktorer som tyder på att miljömärkning inom turistnäringen kan fungera som en del av lösningen för en mer hållbar framtid.

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<p><strong>Background: </strong>The tourism industry is one of the largest industries in the world, with annual revenues exceeding US$ 850 billion. Because of the size and nature of the industry, tourism is seen as one of the largest contributors to the negative effects on the environment today. Within the tourism industry, there exist more than 70 eco-labels representing various environmental standards. However, none of them are widely used within the tourism industry.</p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong><em>This thesis investigates how the use of the two eco-labels Svanen and Green Globe affect Swedish students’ perception of a package tour marketing campaign. It investigates how students’ perceptions of advertisement differ between advertisement for package tours with and without incorporated eco-labels.</em></p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The study uses a mixed method with a sequential explanatory strategy. The quantitative part consists of a survey and the qualitative part consists of follow up interviews with a number of interviewees who are all respondents in the quantitative part. This thesis primarily focuses on the quantitative part, which consists of three questionnaires, one of which contains an advertisement for Ving, and two which used the same advertisement but which have been manipulated to include Green Globe and Svanen respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The conclusion of the study is that students’ perception of advertisement does not differ between the advertisement not using an eco-label and the ones manipulated to include Green Globe or Svanen. The reasons to why the perception does not differ are explained by eco-labels having failed in communicating what they stand for. Students have limited financial resources, which constrains them from behaving in an environmentally friendly way. In addition, the advertisement including eco-lables is congruent with the students’ perception about the brand Ving as an environmentally friendly company. There is however factors that indicate that eco-labelling in the tourism industry can work as a partial solution for a more sustainable future.</p> / <p><strong>Bakgrund: </strong>Turismindustrin är en av de största industrierna i världen, med årliga inkomster på över US$ 850 miljarder. På grund av storleken och dess påverkan, anses turismen vara en av de största orsakerna till den negativa utvecklingen av miljön. Inom turismindustrin existerar mer än 70 miljö märkningar som representerar olika miljöstandarder. Dock har inga av dem sett någon större användning inom turismindustrin.</p><p><strong>Syfte: </strong><em>Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka hur användning av de två miljömärkningarna Green Globe och Svanen påverkar studenters uppfattning av en reklamkampanj för charter resor. Den undersöker hur studenters uppfattning om reklam för charter resor skiljer sig mellan reklam som använder miljömärkning och den som inte gör det.</em></p><p><strong>Metod: </strong>Denna studie använder en blandad metod med en sekventiell strategi. Den kvantitativa delen består av enkätundersökningar och för den kvalitativa delen används intervjuer med några deltagare från den kvantitativa delen. Störst fokus ligger på den kvantitativa delen som består av tre olika enkäter, en som innehåller en reklam bild på Ving, och två som manipulerats att innehålla Green Globe respektive Svanen.</p><p><strong>Slutsats: </strong>Slutsatsen av studien är att studenters uppfattning om annonserna inte skiljer sig mellan annonsen utan miljömärkning och de som manipulerats med Green Globe eller Svanen. Anledning till att uppfattningen inte skiljer sig kan förklaras av att miljö märkningarna har misslyckats med att kommunicera vad dem står för. Studenterna har begränsade ekonomiska resurser och detta begränsar dem att uppföra sig på ett miljövänligt sätt. Dessutom överrensstämmer reklamen som innehöll miljö märkning med studenternas uppfattning om varumärket Ving som ett miljö vänligt företag. Det finns dock faktorer som tyder på att miljömärkning inom turistnäringen kan fungera som en del av lösningen för en mer hållbar framtid.</p>

Abstract This research develops and tests an application of the latest version of the expectancy-value model—the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), to a new context, that of higher education overseas enrolment choice. The study argues that TPB is well suited for modelling and predicting international students’ university choice processes. Choosing a university in a foreign country is probably more difficult than making a domestic choice. While there has been some literature on undergraduate domestic university choice, scant attention has been directed at the understanding of international students’ choice of universities. Past studies have looked mainly at factors that influence choice of programmes and destinations with little emphasis on the students’ cognitive processes. Furthermore, these past models, intended to help predict student choice, have been limited to economics-based, pragmatic or statistical frameworks. Now, more than ever, this gap in the literature needs to be filled. International education is currently worth more than $4 billion a year. More and more universities today are increasingly dependent on overseas full fee paying student revenue, sometimes to an enormous and alarming extent. This competition and globalisation of higher education is forcing universities to better understand how students choose. A simple understanding of international student choice behaviour is not enough when so many universities are competing for vital revenues and market share. The Theory of Planned Behaviour, as a rigorous and comprehensive choice-model, well supported by hundreds of published studies, is proposed as a way forward to help better predict, segment and profile international students’ university choices. This research attempts to answer the following three main research questions: 1. How do international students choose overseas universities? 2. How do international students’ choice processes differ by culture? 3. Can TPB be applied in an international student choice context and can it usefully be applied for cross-cultural segmentation? Underpinning the development of the conceptual model presented are two research themes. The first of these themes investigates the choice processes of international students with respect to three main cognitive factors: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. The second theme of this research investigates the differences in choice processes between students from different national cultures with respect to attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control and behavioural intentions. It examines how the relationship between these constructs can help determine appropriate segments of international students. Collectively, these research themes lead to a new model for the choice process international students engage in when selecting an overseas university. The study conducted in this thesis involved a two-stage design. The first, qualitative, stage consisted of a pilot study (Study 1). The primary purpose of the pilot study, using semi-structured questionnaires, was to elicit the attributes to be addressed by the quantitative part of the research (Study 2). The second, quantitative, stage consisted of a questionnaire survey. A total sample of 500 potential international students from four countries (Norway, China, Thailand and India) was collected. Careful translation and cross-cultural measurement validity processes were followed. The findings provide insights into the three research questions proposed. Firstly, results indicate that choice for a potential international student is a complex, highly involved, cognitive and individualistic process. Findings also underscore the important influence of sources of information on students when choosing an overseas university. Additionally, this study concludes, for the first time in this research area, that information sources indirectly influence changes to students’ intention through attitude or subjective norms, whereas prior research has skipped the detailed process and looked only at the direct influence of information sources on intention. Results of analyses on structural models show that attitude is the best indicator in predicting students’ intentions to choose an overseas university, while perceived behavioural control contributes little toward predicting students’ intention for the TPB model. However, perceived behavioural control showed a positive relationship with intentions for the total group. The more control a student feels he/she has, the more likely the formation of intentions to attend an overseas university. Secondly, the results of post hoc tests for multiple comparisons between groups showed differences between all cultural groups. This result meant that regardless of culture, differences in process or criteria weights can be found and so it is important to use a segmentation approach. The findings show that when marketers analyse the international student market as a whole, which is by grouping all the different country data together, this could result in serious “aggregation error,” i.e., when grouped data results are misleading because the groups are heterogeneous. Instead, the data must first be disaggregated by country and then by behavioural attributes, such as attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. In terms of measurement reliability and the structural fit of each model with the data, the results were positive. Finally, the present research confirms the usefulness of TPB as a choice model in the context of understanding international students’ decision making process. The use of a rigorous cognitive model such as this offers insight to educational marketers on segmentation and positioning. Additionally, this research demonstrates that the choice process is complex and that the diversity of the choice process requires attention. If universities wish to continue to attract and retain international students, they must understand students’ attitudes, normative beliefs, and control beliefs as well as the factors that influence their choice.

[Truncated abstract] Against a contextual backdrop of slowing growth in developed mobile service markets, the importance of youth as a growth segment, and youth's tendencies to consume mobile services hedonically, two research streams drove this dissertation. The first stream concerned extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to predict youth's behavioural intentions to stay loyal to mobile service providers. Drawing on selfcategorisation theory, a conceptual model extended TPB by replacing subjective norm with group norm, a social influence from behaviourally relevant peers. With the extended TPB as the theoretical framework, the second stream investigated determinants of mobile loyalty intentions. Common to both streams, a key contribution of this dissertation was how hedonic consumption moderated the relationships among mobile loyalty intentions and their determinants. The dissertation addressed five questions in the two research streams, which to the author's knowledge no published studies have explored. Using a triangulation approach to address the research questions, a qualitative survey and literature review yielded six determinants of mobile loyalty intentions. Next, a pretest led to an improved questionnaire before a large-scale survey gathered data for empirical testing. The survey took place with Singaporean youth and yielded a cleaned sample of n = 415. ... For both low and high hedonic consumptions, customer value was insignificant. This might be due to Singapore's competitive mobile service market; youth perceived little differences in value for money among competing mobile service providers. Testing alternative models offered further insights into youth's mobile loyalty intentions. Youth's mobile loyalty behaviour, operationalised as past switching, was not stochastic, suggesting that mobile loyalty intentions contained underlying determinants. Brand trust, salient in other contexts, did not apply to mobile loyalty intentions perhaps because youth perceived little risk in switching mobile service providers in developed markets. An attitude-group norm interaction also did not relate to mobile loyalty intentions, supporting TPB's construct independence and parsimony. Finally, attitude and customer satisfaction were operationally similar in that they related to mobile loyalty intentions similarly. The dissertation concluded by offering academic and managerial implications and contributions, limitations, and future research areas.

There are several critical success factors suggested for why agile software development projects succeed, including organisational and process factors. Although there are an increasing number of identified critical success factors, IT professionals lack the modelling techniques and the theoretical framework to help them meaningfully understand their influences. To solve this problem, this study developed a model by employing the following theories: Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to create a fit model for agile software development projects. The research sought to answer the question: What are the critical success factors that influence the success of agile software development projects? The literature review considers the continued failure of agile and traditional software development projects which have led to the consideration of, and dispute over, critical success factors — the aspects most vital to a methodology’s success. Though TRA, TPB and UTAUT have previously been applied to agile methodologies, empirical models have not been completely integrated to develop a fit model. This research sought to fill this gap. Data was collected in South Africa through a web-based survey using structured questionnaires and an interview guide. Face-to-face interviews were done to identify the critical success factors in agile projects. The data was captured and analysed for descriptive statistics, convergent and discriminant validity, composite and internal reliability, and correlation in order to inform the structural equation modelling (SEM). SEM was used to test the research model and hypotheses to answer the research questions. The results informed development of a comprehensive model that could provide guidelines to the agile community. The study contributes towards understanding the critical success factors for agile projects. It examined direct, indirect and moderating effects, and the findings contribute towards developing a framework to be used by agile professionals. These key result shows that organisational factors have a great influence on performance expectancy characteristics. To ensure success of agile projects, managers are advised to focus on the effect of the organisation’s environment, culture and policies on performance and effort expectancy. / School of Computing / Ph. D. (Computer Science)

Human - Technology - Organization (HTO) is a well-established, general unifying concept in the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority (SHK) that represents an approach, knowledge and use of various tools regarding interactions between people, technology and organizational factors. The HTO-perspective is well described in literature but there are few studies on how SHKs staff experiences working according to this method in their investigations. The aim of this study was therefore to describe their HTO-perspective, examine how it is used in the investigations at SHK and describe the investigators experience of working with the HTO-perspective as well as the method's usefulness compared to old methods in accident investigations. A literature study has been conducted in the areas of HTO, Theory of planned behavior (TPB) and safety culture. TPB and safety culture are described in this paper since they highlight the different aspects of a HTO-perspective. The hypothesis was answered by using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were analyzed by a content analysis and themes were identified. Furthermore the material from the interviews was subsequently structured through a Strength – Weakness – Opportunities – Threats analysis (SWOT), i.e. the informants' view on the HTO-perspective was structured based on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats SHKs staff experience that the method has in the investigative work. The informants consisted of two investigators at SHK who 3have worked with accident investigations for a long time in various roles. The results yielded that the investigators had a positive attitude towards conducting investigations according to the HTO-perspective because they feel that this perspective provides them with cross-competence. A flaw is though that the perspective lacks a structured approach. As a result of this, the investigators own experiences and expertise play a major role in the quality of the investigation. As the study's aim is met and the informants are considered to be experts the validity requirements are also fulfilled.

Krisberedskap är ett aktuellt ämne som ur individperspektiv främst rör den egna förmågan att tillgodose sina grundläggande behov av vatten, värme, mat, kommunikation och medicin i minst 7 dygn om en kris inträffar. Detta ställer krav på individers medvetenhet och kunskap om kris och krisberedskap. Det saknas forskning på området och de studier som finns visar att medvetenheten och kunskapen är låg. Studiens syfte är att undersöka högskolestudenters oro för att en kris ska inträffa, deras kunskap och medvetenhet om kris och krisberedskap samt vilken beredskap studenter har att hantera en kris och eventuella samband mellan dessa. En kvantitativ enkätstudie genomfördes. Resultatet visar att studenternas medvetenhet och kunskap om kris och krisberedskap är låg. Studenterna har störst oro för att en terroristattack ska ske och anser det troligt att en terroristattack kan inträffa inom fem år. Generellt är dock studenternas oro för att en kris ska inträffa låg. T-test genomfördes för att undersöka eventuella samband och skillnader i krisberedskap utifrån grad av kunskap och medvetenhet. Inga signifikanta samband eller skillnader påvisades. Studiens resultat diskuteras i relation till teorierna Health belief model och Theory of planned behaviour. Då kris och krisberedskap är ett aktuellt men obeforskat ämne rekommenderas vidare studier.

Physical inactivity and disconnection from natural environments threatens human health. However, research has demonstrated that natural environments potentially support health-enhancing physical activity which could confer greater physical and mental health benefits than physical activity in other types of environment. This thesis approached the study of physical activity in natural environments through three related pieces of research. Firstly, an experimental study was carried out to explore how the presence of litter in beach environments affected psychophysiological responses to exercise. Responses to exercise did not differ in littered and clean conditions but there was evidence that order effects influenced findings. Visual attention to the two scenes differed, but did not mediate differences in psychophysiological responses. Secondly, analysis of a national dataset was undertaken to explore the form and quantity of physical activity conducted within natural environments in England. A series of linear regressions revealed that higher-intensity physical activities occurred in countryside environments, but more total energy expenditure occurred in coastal environments. Thirdly, a quantitative content analysis of brochures which promote recreational walking in natural environments was conducted which investigated their use of persuasive behavioural messages. These brochures omitted behavioural techniques which may be effective at motivating inactive individuals to walk. Extending this, an online survey tested whether improving brochure content heightened intentions to walk in natural environments. By designing content based on the theory of planned behaviour, the intentions of inactive individuals to undertake walking in natural environments were increased. The findings from this thesis demonstrate that the protection of natural environments is vital for preserving and promoting active recreation and could contribute to population-level increases in physical activity with theory-based promotion in the future.