Aim: This study aims to investigate the factors that influence consumers' brand preferences for instant foods focusing on the graduate-level students of Sweden and Bangladesh. Methodology: The research applied a qualitative approach. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with ten graduate-level students from Sweden and Bangladesh. The collected primary data were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis by comparing with the literature reviewed within distinct themes. Findings and Conclusion: The main findings of the study are (1) culture, and religious values have a significant influence on Bangladeshi consumers compared to consumers in Sweden; (2) Quality plays a predominant role in determining instant food brands in both countries as it can have a direct effect on the health; (3) Eye-catchy packaging creates fascination among consumers' about a brand in both countries; (4) Price is considered as a critical factor due to limited purchasing power of Bangladeshi consumers'; whereas in Sweden, consumers' are ready to compromise with the price if they could get a superior quality. Theoretical implications: This study has developed a theoretical model that shows the effect of culture, marketing communication, brand elements, price of the brand, brand image and brand availability on consumers' brand preferences in Bangladesh and Sweden. The findings divulge the quality and packaging of a brand could play a tremendously important role in consumers' brand preferences apart from other factors. Managerial implications: The study could help managers to be accustomed to cultural values through standardization and adaptation. The research could add insights for the managers while setting the price of a brand as it has considered as a critical factor. Appropriate quality assurance is sufficiently necessary, which was reflected by the current study and will help managers while determining quality. Limitations: Only two countries were included in the study, which is considered as a limitation and challenging to apply in other countries due to cultural differences. The focused group was graduate-level students who are also a shortcoming, and it could therefore not be generalized to have implications for consumers of other age group and occupation. Suggestions for future research: A quantitative study with a more significant number of respondents in more than two countries is suggested for future research. Future research can also be carried out by consumers buying preference on other food items. Keywords: Brand preference, Instant foods, Cultural influence, Sweden, Bangladesh.

This study aims to bring clarity to a discussion of whether the Chinese relationship with Africa can be regarded as an act of Neo-colonialism or if it contains Neo-colonial elements. As China has increasingly engaged with the continent giving extensive amounts of foreign aid and loans as well as intensifying their trade relations, the question arises whether or not this can be connected to Neo-colonial dynamics. This study will use a newly constructed framework with the help of the Neo-colonial theory, different definitions by scholars will be used to create the framework, and the basis for this analysis. The research approach is a qualitative design and the research design is a case study with a focus on China's engagement in Africa. This study finds that there are Neo-colonial elements in the processes of engagement exercised by China on the African continent in some of the variables used in the constructed theoretical framework. Lastly, this study argues that African states must be increasingly cautious when exporting raw materials and in letting private Chinese companies invest and buy shares in important African domestic sectors.

Bullying is a serious issue that exists not only in the United States but in other countries as well. There are significant, and often devastating, implications for both the bully and the victim. This research focused on the perspectives of teachers, principals, and counselors related to bullying in two elementary schools in Utah and Mexico. Through semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions and archival records, this qualitative study explored different perspectives on bullying found in two schools exhibiting approximately the same student and teacher demographics. Interviews with teachers, counselors and principals allowed for comparison of differences and similarities between both locations. Consistent themes developed throughout the study regarding the issue of bullying and how it was addressed differently at each site. Many of these differences stemmed from three main elements. The main elements that emerged were the contrast in training that was provided to teachers, the role of the principal, and the support for educators practicing the strategies they were taught. In addition, differences were also found in the understanding of the law and policies surrounding bullying.

Hofstede and the GLOBE study explain Sweden as highly equal while men still hold a higher status, and the Philippines as more masculine highlighting the differentiation of men and women. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of barriers and challenges for women when trying to climb the career ladder in Sweden and the Philippines through the lens of women's experiences, grounded in the national culture of each country. A qualitative method using semi-structured interviews was used with twelve participants, six from each country, including women currently working in HR and recruiting. The research reveals that cultural expectations and societal norms continue to pose significant obstacles. In Sweden, even with supportive work-life balance policies, implicit biases and deep-rooted cultural expectations that prioritize men’s careers over women’s persist. Conversely, in the Philippines, although there are advantageous maternity benefits and strides toward equality, traditional gender roles deeply rooted in patriarchal values significantly slow the pace of visible change. While differences in expectations shape the cultural landscapes of these nations, shared experiences bind women in both countries, highlighting the universal struggle against gender inequality. Cultural expectations were found to explain the barriers and challenges women face when trying to advance in their careers in Sweden and the Philippines. This study highlights the need for awareness of one's expectations. Organizations should implement clear and structured equality policies and work procedures ensuring unbiased practices throughout the organization preventing the impact of expectations that might lead to discrimination.

Este trabalho apresenta o quadro da época da chegada dos portugueses no Japão e da sua ação por quase um século em terras nipônicas. A Europa dos séculos XV e XVI era o centro da civilização ocidental, e os portugueses, espanhóis e italianos ocupavam a posição de destaque de controladores e donos do comércio com o oriente médio e a China, via Mar Mediterrâneo e por terra. Os portugueses e os espanhóis, grandes navegadores, ao se aventurarem pelo mar, foram descobrindo e conquistando novas terras e obtendo com isso grandes vantagens de comércio e de divisas. Por outro lado, o Japão, arquipélago isolado e imerso em guerras civis, com muitos conflitos, não tinha a integração de suas unidades, e o desfecho da unificação dos reinos acabou ocorrendo com a ação dos grandes senhores suseranos, os daimyō Oda Nobunaga e Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Os primeiros portugueses - mercadores e missionários - que aportaram no Japão nessa época, por muitos chamada de \"Grandes Navegações\", encontraram o Japão sob o domínio de Nobunaga e Hideyoshi. O primeiro era receptivo, tolerante e pragmático, não se envolvia com a crença, mas servia-se da religião como instrumento para auferir resultados vantajosos desta relação com os portugueses. À primeira vista, o catolicismo foi bem aceito pelas autoridades, por sacerdotes xintoístas e budistas e, consequentemente, também pela comunidade em geral, pois os preceitos do budismo eram julgados coerentes com os \"Dez Mandamentos\" pregados pela Igreja cristã. Posteriormente, com o passar do tempo, os monges budistas e xintoístas sentiram seu espaço ameaçado pela expansão do catolicismo e muitos atritos ocorreram envolvendo adeptos das facções religiosas. As autoridades, sentindo a inconveniência das ações dos católicos e ajudadas pela interferência dos holandeses - que haviam ganho a simpatia dos japoneses -, conseguiram tirar os comerciantes portugueses do caminho, assegurando a exclusividade do comércio juntamente com os chineses, alegando que os ibéricos estariam tramando a tomada do país por meio da disseminação da religião católica. Com isso o governo japonês vetou qualquer atividade religiosa católica no país, promovendo a expulsão de todos os portugueses, espanhóis e italianos, envolvidos ou não com a religião. Apesar de a estada dos portugueses ter sido limitada a 96 anos, este trabalho ressalta o mérito das ações realizadas pelos mercadores e pelos missionários que deixaram um legado importante para os japoneses de então, bem como para as gerações seguintes, servindo de base para outras contribuições que viriam dos holandeses e chineses, que ocuparam o espaço dos retirantes latinos. De todas as contribuições efetuadas pelos portugueses e que influenciaram a cultura japonesa, a que mais impactou na política e na sociedade japonesa foi realmente a introdução das armas de fogo, as espingardas, cujo desdobramento deu outro rumo para a história do Japão. / This thesis presents a state when Portuguese arrived in Japan, and their actions for almost a century in Japanese land. At that time, Europe was the center of occidental civilization and Portuguese, Spanish and Italians were leaders as market controllers and masters of Middle East and China zones, by Mediterranean Ocean and by land. Portuguese and Spanish, great navigators explored the oceans, discovering and conquering new lands obtaining huge benefits in trade and money. At the other hand, Japan, an isolated archipelago and under civil wars with many conflicts, with no integration of their unities, the unification only were be able to be achieved by actions of great lords as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. When the first Portuguese, merchants and missionaries, ashored Japan, the country was under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi domain, the first one, who welcomed them but not concerning with religion affairs, only shown interests in beneficial gains relating with them. In a first moment, the catholicism was accepted by Government officials and shinto and buddhist priests , consequently also by the people, because it was thought that catholic precepts were coherent with buddhist ones. Lately, buddhist and shinto priests felt a fear with the expansion of catholicism, and troubles started to occur within religion groups. Government officials also feeling the inconvenience of actions of catholic priests and aided by Dutchmen interference, interested in keeping away the Portuguese merchants, gained confidence of Japanese Government officials, alleging that they were attempting to subjugate the people by dissemination of catholicism. Due to that, any catholic religion activity was banned, ending with the expulsion of all Portuguese, Spanish and Italians, missionaries or not. In spite the stay of Portuguese in Japan was limited to 96 years, its showed the merit of works developed by merchants and missionaries, who left an important heritage to Japanese people, as well as for following generations as base for other foreign contributions, as Dutchmen or Chinese. For all contributions made by Portuguese, that so influenced Japanese culture and the most impact caused was really the introduction of firearms that promoted another course of the Japanese History.

AtkinsonThis study explores Work Life Balance (WLB) in two Palestinian organisations. It argues that the nature and content of WLB policies and the reasons for their adoption in many Arabic organisations differ from those in Western organisations. Additionally, research is under-developed concerning the role of line managers in interpreting access to WLB practices, and to what extent such WLB practices are accessed and utilised by individuals. Based on a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews with 49 employees and managers, this study shows that WLB policies involve, particularly for female employees, mainly family support, and financial, social, and religious benefits. These reflect cultural and religious characteristics of an Arab, Islamic country. In addition to identifying the role of government, and the needs of a female workforce, this study develops a new theoretical framework explaining the role of religious and cultural variables, as well as international networking of the organisations, as factors underlying adoption of WLB policies. Line managers often used Wasta, being the political and religious origin of individuals as criteria in granting benefits to individuals. WLB practices are useful for women, but males made less use of these practices, preferring strong ‘breadwinner Arabic cultural norms. A valuable contribution in understanding the extension of WLB policies in Arabic settings is offered, as well as cultural, social and religious reasons for their implementation. The study presents a theoretical model of the adoption and application of WLB policies which can be used in further crosscultural research.

<p>The last decade has seen the huge impact of globalization on the way organizations perform their routine activities with a greater than before extent of focus on project management in order to be in sync with the fast changing environment. Therefore the companies are required to understand a national culture’s impact on decision making in project teams in different countries. This thesis investigates the national cultures influence on decision making in project teams in Thailand and India by focusing on IT industry based on Hofstede’s (1980) five cultural dimensional framework. The researchers intend to identify similarities and differences in decision making styles of both countries. Throughout the study, useful lessons for project team on national cultures impact on decision making can be drawn for IT companies in Thailand and India and future mixed-culture teams. It also provides the insight for the project teams to have concern for and understand why people from different cultures act or respond to various situations differently giving high emphasis to decision making process.</p><p>An empirical qualitative research using semi-structured interviews was conducted from a total of 12 IT project team members in Thailand and India based on their experiences on cultural influence on decision making when working in project teams. The research revealed that there are significant differences in decision making styles of Thai and Indian IT teams, and the differences have strong links with cultural aspects. The results also addressed number of similarities in the decision making styles of Thailand and India. The major implication is that the knowledge of the cultural differences and similarities would facilitate better management of mixed Thai-Indian project teams. Therefore, by keeping in mind the importance as well as the impact of various national cultures and presenting each member with social working knowledge of peers within the mixed-culture team, arguments and conflicts due to misconception and pre-judgment can be minimized. Hence it will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the working process and environment in the project teams.</p>

The last decade has seen the huge impact of globalization on the way organizations perform their routine activities with a greater than before extent of focus on project management in order to be in sync with the fast changing environment. Therefore the companies are required to understand a national culture’s impact on decision making in project teams in different countries. This thesis investigates the national cultures influence on decision making in project teams in Thailand and India by focusing on IT industry based on Hofstede’s (1980) five cultural dimensional framework. The researchers intend to identify similarities and differences in decision making styles of both countries. Throughout the study, useful lessons for project team on national cultures impact on decision making can be drawn for IT companies in Thailand and India and future mixed-culture teams. It also provides the insight for the project teams to have concern for and understand why people from different cultures act or respond to various situations differently giving high emphasis to decision making process. An empirical qualitative research using semi-structured interviews was conducted from a total of 12 IT project team members in Thailand and India based on their experiences on cultural influence on decision making when working in project teams. The research revealed that there are significant differences in decision making styles of Thai and Indian IT teams, and the differences have strong links with cultural aspects. The results also addressed number of similarities in the decision making styles of Thailand and India. The major implication is that the knowledge of the cultural differences and similarities would facilitate better management of mixed Thai-Indian project teams. Therefore, by keeping in mind the importance as well as the impact of various national cultures and presenting each member with social working knowledge of peers within the mixed-culture team, arguments and conflicts due to misconception and pre-judgment can be minimized. Hence it will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the working process and environment in the project teams.

This thesis explores the relationship between designer intent and consumer response. A novel approach to evaluate the degree of correspondence between designer intent and consumer perceptions has been proposed. The empirical results have shown the influence of consumers’ cultural backgrounds on the way they perceive semantic and symbolic product personalities (characteristics of a product and its owner, respectively), comparing British and Japanese consumer groups. Semantic product personalities are more likely to be universally perceived and more easily intentionally elicited from consumers than symbolic product personalities. The research project consists of a pilot study (Phases I) and an experiment (Phase II) in which mixed methods of interview and survey are employed. Phase I seeks to explore the in-depth understanding of a designer’s thoughts by interviews, and to develop and test newly elaborated consumer surveys termed Designer-driven semantic differentials and Consumer-driven adjective selection. The findings have been considered to construct an analytical framework, characterised by Agreement among consumer perceptions and Correspondence between designer intent and the consumer perceptions, for evaluation of designers’ elicitation of intended product personalities from consumers. Phase II conducts a statistical examination of the impact of cultural difference on consumer perceptions under experimental conditions. The perception of target and non-target consumer groups as categorised by nationality were gauged by Designer-driven semantic differentials and Personality selection, specifically perception of USB sticks designed by three different designers. The survey results are analysed by using descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and Chi-squared test within the analytical framework. Subsequently, the results from Phase I and II are extensively discussed based on a framework based on brand personality and Affect Control Theory, both of which may involve potential impact on the development of design research into product development with emotional attachment. The scene is set for future research opportunities based on the approach and findings of this study.

Este trabalho apresenta o quadro da época da chegada dos portugueses no Japão e da sua ação por quase um século em terras nipônicas. A Europa dos séculos XV e XVI era o centro da civilização ocidental, e os portugueses, espanhóis e italianos ocupavam a posição de destaque de controladores e donos do comércio com o oriente médio e a China, via Mar Mediterrâneo e por terra. Os portugueses e os espanhóis, grandes navegadores, ao se aventurarem pelo mar, foram descobrindo e conquistando novas terras e obtendo com isso grandes vantagens de comércio e de divisas. Por outro lado, o Japão, arquipélago isolado e imerso em guerras civis, com muitos conflitos, não tinha a integração de suas unidades, e o desfecho da unificação dos reinos acabou ocorrendo com a ação dos grandes senhores suseranos, os daimy&#333; Oda Nobunaga e Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Os primeiros portugueses - mercadores e missionários - que aportaram no Japão nessa época, por muitos chamada de \"Grandes Navegações\", encontraram o Japão sob o domínio de Nobunaga e Hideyoshi. O primeiro era receptivo, tolerante e pragmático, não se envolvia com a crença, mas servia-se da religião como instrumento para auferir resultados vantajosos desta relação com os portugueses. À primeira vista, o catolicismo foi bem aceito pelas autoridades, por sacerdotes xintoístas e budistas e, consequentemente, também pela comunidade em geral, pois os preceitos do budismo eram julgados coerentes com os \"Dez Mandamentos\" pregados pela Igreja cristã. Posteriormente, com o passar do tempo, os monges budistas e xintoístas sentiram seu espaço ameaçado pela expansão do catolicismo e muitos atritos ocorreram envolvendo adeptos das facções religiosas. As autoridades, sentindo a inconveniência das ações dos católicos e ajudadas pela interferência dos holandeses - que haviam ganho a simpatia dos japoneses -, conseguiram tirar os comerciantes portugueses do caminho, assegurando a exclusividade do comércio juntamente com os chineses, alegando que os ibéricos estariam tramando a tomada do país por meio da disseminação da religião católica. Com isso o governo japonês vetou qualquer atividade religiosa católica no país, promovendo a expulsão de todos os portugueses, espanhóis e italianos, envolvidos ou não com a religião. Apesar de a estada dos portugueses ter sido limitada a 96 anos, este trabalho ressalta o mérito das ações realizadas pelos mercadores e pelos missionários que deixaram um legado importante para os japoneses de então, bem como para as gerações seguintes, servindo de base para outras contribuições que viriam dos holandeses e chineses, que ocuparam o espaço dos retirantes latinos. De todas as contribuições efetuadas pelos portugueses e que influenciaram a cultura japonesa, a que mais impactou na política e na sociedade japonesa foi realmente a introdução das armas de fogo, as espingardas, cujo desdobramento deu outro rumo para a história do Japão. / This thesis presents a state when Portuguese arrived in Japan, and their actions for almost a century in Japanese land. At that time, Europe was the center of occidental civilization and Portuguese, Spanish and Italians were leaders as market controllers and masters of Middle East and China zones, by Mediterranean Ocean and by land. Portuguese and Spanish, great navigators explored the oceans, discovering and conquering new lands obtaining huge benefits in trade and money. At the other hand, Japan, an isolated archipelago and under civil wars with many conflicts, with no integration of their unities, the unification only were be able to be achieved by actions of great lords as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. When the first Portuguese, merchants and missionaries, ashored Japan, the country was under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi domain, the first one, who welcomed them but not concerning with religion affairs, only shown interests in beneficial gains relating with them. In a first moment, the catholicism was accepted by Government officials and shinto and buddhist priests , consequently also by the people, because it was thought that catholic precepts were coherent with buddhist ones. Lately, buddhist and shinto priests felt a fear with the expansion of catholicism, and troubles started to occur within religion groups. Government officials also feeling the inconvenience of actions of catholic priests and aided by Dutchmen interference, interested in keeping away the Portuguese merchants, gained confidence of Japanese Government officials, alleging that they were attempting to subjugate the people by dissemination of catholicism. Due to that, any catholic religion activity was banned, ending with the expulsion of all Portuguese, Spanish and Italians, missionaries or not. In spite the stay of Portuguese in Japan was limited to 96 years, its showed the merit of works developed by merchants and missionaries, who left an important heritage to Japanese people, as well as for following generations as base for other foreign contributions, as Dutchmen or Chinese. For all contributions made by Portuguese, that so influenced Japanese culture and the most impact caused was really the introduction of firearms that promoted another course of the Japanese History.