Purpose: By using mall patronage behavior as its context, this study aims to develop and test a patronage model consisting of three dimensions. Design/methodology/approach: Data for the study are collected through self-administered questionnaires from residents in an MSA in the USA. Usable responses are obtained from 319 residents. Findings: Results suggest that mall patronage behavior can be represented as a global construct with three viable components (utilitarian, hedonic and accessibility). Research limitations/implications: The study is limited to a particular sample. Replications among other samples in the study locale and elsewhere are needed to validate the current findings. Practical implications: The results enable management to look at shoppers' patronage behaviors at three levels. At the individual attribute level (first level of abstraction), management may identify areas that need special attention. At the second level of abstraction (the latent construct), choice attributes can be combined into reliable and valid composite scores across dimensions and can reveal information that is not readily available by the individual attributes. At the third and highest level of abstraction, the one second-order factor with three first-order factors as its reflective indicators provides management with a single metric for comparing a mall with its competitors or other malls owned by the corporation. Originality/value: The model tested here explicitly recognizes accessibility as a distinct patronage dimension and expands the domain of inquiry beyond the initial attribute level to the first-order and the second-order composite levels.

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to present one example of how the strategies of total quality management (TQM) and continuous improvement are being used by US health care providers to meet the challenges of the future. Design/methodology/approach - This article presents an application utilizing the strategies of TQM and continual and rapid improvement in the area of assessing internal customer satisfaction in the health care arena. Satisfaction information concerning internal processes is critically important to the health care provider, and this article presents the development and application of an instrument designed to provide timely and relevant internal customer satisfaction information to individual health care providers. This provides information on problem identification and improvement opportunities for a world-class continuous improvement program. Findings - The article finds that customer satisfaction is increasingly being recognized as an appropriate measure for determining how well a particular organization is accomplishing its mission and, while customer satisfaction surveys provide valuable information and may be used to improve the entire operation, they provide limited insight into the details of the inner workings of each cost center. Each of the measures discussed in this article is potentially equally insightful and may provide more directly usable information when applied to internal customers. Originality/value - This article provides useful information on providing customer satisfaction in the health care arena.

A model of bank choice behavior for small and medium-sized firms in the construction industry is developed and tested. The results suggest that bank choice behavior of homebuilders can be represented as a global construct with three viable components: search, credence and experience. The model allows for a comprehensive examination of the relationships between commercial banks and homebuilders. Implications for bank managers are discussed.

Book Summary: Setting out to design a nursing simulation program or to improve one already in place? Drawing on the personal experiences of experts and pioneers in the field, Simulation Champions: Fostering Courage, Caring, and Connection offers the practical information needed to deal with the real challenges of creating or improving a simulation program, along with detailed information on the change management and leadership skills needed for success. Whether you are building a nursing simulation program from the ground up or are seeking to improve an existing program, you will find the information and tools you need to develop strategies for adoption, maintenance, and evaluation, including coverage of important considerations, such as physical space, budget, curriculum and human resources. Key Features Extensive coverage of leadership and management concepts critical to implementing a simulation program prepares you for potential challenges and pitfalls.Coverage of change management helps you understand specific issues you might face at your institution, along with strategies for addressing them. Ready-to-use online templates and forms help you implement key concepts and skills. INACSL Standards of Best Practice: SimulationSM throughout the text help you ensure the program you develop meets current best practices. Simulation on a Shoestring feature offers creative ideas to save your program valuable dollars. Voice of Experience sections present personal narratives from Simulation Champion pioneers across the globe. Each describes a challenge encountered, how the challenge was met, and outcomes and lessons learned, as well as inspirational quotes or messages from them to you.

The aim of this study was to determine and compare the subjective and objective food label knowledge of consumers from Potchefstroom (South Africa) and Fayetteville (Arkansas, USA), therefore in a developing and developed country context. The question was asked whether the knowledge of consumers in such contexts differed and whether consumers’ demographics are associated with their food label knowledge. No specific research on food label knowledge has been done in a comparative context between a developing and developed country previously. A quantitative study using purposive sampling was conducted among respondents in these contexts by means of interviewer-administered questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. The total study sample (N = 713) included respondents from South Africa (a developing country) and the United States of America (a developed country) with specific reference to respondents from Potchefstroom (n = 400) and Fayetteville (n = 313). The researcher strived to include respondents from each ethnic, demographic, gender and age group. No differences were found regarding respondents’ subjective knowledge (SK) of food labels. With respect to respondents from Potchefstroom and Fayetteville, practically significant differences regarding objective knowledge (OK) were found only within the factors of locating information (OK-L) and manipulating information (OK-M) with a similar pattern for symbol information (OK-S), although respondents from Fayetteville had higher mean scores for OK-L, OK-M and OK-S, which indicates that respondents from Fayetteville were more knowledgeable on these factors than respondents from Potchefstroom. Within the study populations, better OK was only observed among respondents from Potchefstroom who were young and well educated, whereas respondents from Fayetteville had high levels of knowledge regardless of demographic variables. It was observed that respondents from Potchefstroom were not as knowledgeable (OK-L, OK-M and OK-S) as respondents from Fayetteville. The results from this study serve as evidence for a need to improve food label knowledge in the Potchefstroom context, and raise the question about similar needs in other developing countries. It can be concluded that educational efforts should be developed and implemented to increase objective food label knowledge among consumers from developing country contexts, as OK may have an impact on health. Development of consumer education programmes should focus on the vulnerabilities identified with regard to age and education groups as well as the problems identified regarding label and symbol information provided, whereby consumers might acquire optimal food label knowledge to use these labels for improved decision-making and health. This research about food label knowledge in South Africa and the United States of America, may serve as a foundation for future studies to be conducted in developing and developed country contexts. This might result in a better understanding about factors that contribute to consumers’ confusion, distrust and lack of understanding of food label information, which may hinder food label knowledge in developing country contexts. Demographic, label-reading and health-related factors that may contribute to increased knowledge could also be further explored in addressing specific needs among particular groups in developing country contexts regarding their food label knowledge. / M Consumer Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The aim of this study was to determine and compare the subjective and objective food label knowledge of consumers from Potchefstroom (South Africa) and Fayetteville (Arkansas, USA), therefore in a developing and developed country context. The question was asked whether the knowledge of consumers in such contexts differed and whether consumers’ demographics are associated with their food label knowledge. No specific research on food label knowledge has been done in a comparative context between a developing and developed country previously. A quantitative study using purposive sampling was conducted among respondents in these contexts by means of interviewer-administered questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. The total study sample (N = 713) included respondents from South Africa (a developing country) and the United States of America (a developed country) with specific reference to respondents from Potchefstroom (n = 400) and Fayetteville (n = 313). The researcher strived to include respondents from each ethnic, demographic, gender and age group. No differences were found regarding respondents’ subjective knowledge (SK) of food labels. With respect to respondents from Potchefstroom and Fayetteville, practically significant differences regarding objective knowledge (OK) were found only within the factors of locating information (OK-L) and manipulating information (OK-M) with a similar pattern for symbol information (OK-S), although respondents from Fayetteville had higher mean scores for OK-L, OK-M and OK-S, which indicates that respondents from Fayetteville were more knowledgeable on these factors than respondents from Potchefstroom. Within the study populations, better OK was only observed among respondents from Potchefstroom who were young and well educated, whereas respondents from Fayetteville had high levels of knowledge regardless of demographic variables. It was observed that respondents from Potchefstroom were not as knowledgeable (OK-L, OK-M and OK-S) as respondents from Fayetteville. The results from this study serve as evidence for a need to improve food label knowledge in the Potchefstroom context, and raise the question about similar needs in other developing countries. It can be concluded that educational efforts should be developed and implemented to increase objective food label knowledge among consumers from developing country contexts, as OK may have an impact on health. Development of consumer education programmes should focus on the vulnerabilities identified with regard to age and education groups as well as the problems identified regarding label and symbol information provided, whereby consumers might acquire optimal food label knowledge to use these labels for improved decision-making and health. This research about food label knowledge in South Africa and the United States of America, may serve as a foundation for future studies to be conducted in developing and developed country contexts. This might result in a better understanding about factors that contribute to consumers’ confusion, distrust and lack of understanding of food label information, which may hinder food label knowledge in developing country contexts. Demographic, label-reading and health-related factors that may contribute to increased knowledge could also be further explored in addressing specific needs among particular groups in developing country contexts regarding their food label knowledge. / M Consumer Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

In the aftermath of the American revolution, elites sought to defend their power and status against newly empowered popular governments and egalitarian demands. They developed new discursive and political strategies, transforming pre-revolutionary ideas about authority and legitimacy, moving from traditional forms of hierarchy based on deference and allegiance, towards a structure of power relations based on the inviolability of property and contractual rights. A new American ruling class began to constitute itself through these strategies and ideas during the 1780s, replacing structures of British imperial rule. It did so in response to threats from popular and (white male) egalitarian politics—that is, class struggle and class formation drove each other. Both, in turn, generated identities and ideologies that were central to the development of capitalist ideology in the following century. This thesis gives an account of that process from the perspective of a variety of American elites, focusing on the fragmented and contradictory nature of elite discourse and strategy as well as on the emergence of commonalities and the role of class interests. It deals with the formation and early controversy around the Society of the Cincinnati; with the development and debate over new conceptions of public education; with the elaboration of various legal and discursive mechanisms for the defence of property rights; with the interrelated roles of land claims, banking, corporations, and the rights of contract; and with the elite sense of the dual threat posed both by state legislative democracy (tyranny) and by rural insurrection (anarchy). It also assesses the role of the 1787 constitutional convention within this process, as a radical move that can be seen as both a culmination and a break from prior elite strategy.

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between United States and French cultural expectations and symptoms of menstruation. The study works first to demonstrate that the French culture holds a more positive view of menstruation and the United States a more negative one. This study then proposes the following hypotheses: 1) United States women will report more PMS and other debilitating symptoms, while French women will report less 2) Older, French, menstruating women will rate higher on positive items than any other category of women in France and the United States 3) Younger, French and U.S. American women will rate similar experiences and expectations of menstruation, due to the globalization of cultures. Finally, the study proposes establishing scales that are more multicultural­friendly.

The main goal of the diploma thesis is the analyse of government interventions during the economic crisis and the evaluation of the efficiency on the example of the economy of Unites States of America. The thesis is divided into three main parts: Part I is a theoretical approach to the interventions and focuses on the impact of monetary and fiscal tools. Part II analysis the fundamental background of the crisis with the empasis on unique circumstances. Part III is the longest shows the real interventions on the example of USA and analysis the success of them. At the very end of the thesis is a comparison of the interventions with the European Union.

The following study aims, through a narratological and discourse analysis, to discuss and make visable, how two films, both named The Birth of a Nation, directed by G.W. Griffith and Nate Parker respectively depict violence and sexuality in relation to race. The theoretical framework, consists of postcolonialism, race, violence, masculinity and sexuality. However, the different parts of the theoretical framework are intertwined as race, sexuality and violence are interlinked and dependent on each other. These theories were chosen in accordance to the feature films’ narratives as well as their relation to each other. The results of this study were mainly in line with previously conducted research regarding the films. However the analysis of Nate Parker’s production provided a more neuanced perspective regarding the depiction of the interlinked expressions of sexuality and racial hegemony mainly from whites. Both films use similar style figures regarding the depiciton of violence, hegemony and sexuality even though the style figures serve to portray, in Parker’s film – the whites, and in Griffith’s film – the blacks, as perpertrators. Finally, the study raises new questions for research. I claim that a larger study, containing the collected canon of feature films from 1915 until today would make for an enriched and more complete picture of how black slaves are depicted in feature films as well as how these films reflect their contemporary times.