Background: With great developments within technology and internet provision, subscription video on demand (SVoD) has made a remarkable entrance with a competitiveness which has resulted in a shift in the television industry (Noh, 2020). The user pays a monthly fee and gets access to a platform which offers a library of content. The escalated competition among SVoD services (Pennington, 2020) has resulted in businesses to re-evaluate how users and potential users' perceived value of the service and the resulting effects may have on their business. Problem Discussion: Perceived value is seen to be the most critical determinant of willingness-to-pay and whether an individual makes the decision to purchase (Chang, Wang & Yang, 2009; Ulaga & Chacour, 2001). Empirical studies that focus on the role of perceived values in the purchase decision in a digital context have been conducted in various fields, such as, freemium services (Hamari, Hanner & Koivisto, 2020) and music streaming (Guerra & Fernandes, 2019) or mixing various streaming apps together (Oyedele & Simpson, 2018). While previous research has studied perceived values’ role in the decision-making process in streaming segments, almost none of them has explored its role specifically in SVoD services. Furthermore, no previous studies have explored the temporal dimension of value, which has shown to be of great importance in technology-based self-services (Heinonen, 2004).   Purpose: This study explores the elements that mostly influence users’ perceived values when making the decision to subscribe to a SVoD service. The purpose is to investigate the market of subscription video on demand services and better understand what users perceive as valuable, as well as how and why these influence their purchasing decision. Building on this understanding, we develop a framework that illuminates the user's decision-making process when subscribing to a SVoD service.  Method: An inductive qualitative case study methodology was adopted, building on semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten SVoD service users. The interviewed users were between the ages of 25-32.  Conclusion: The researchers concluded that users of SVoD services emphasize four perceived values when subscribing, these are: emotional, social, convenience and epistemic. These values were thereafter categorized into perceived immediate and future values of subscription. When an individual is in the process of subscribing, the person weighs the temporal dimensions of perceived immediate and future values towards the price of subscription, which equates in the perceived value. The user will select the service which offers the highest perceived value.

The thesis explores the space attributes of Orkanen library in relation to the students’ preferences when choosing a place to study and their effect on study and non-study activities. Based on their perceived importance the following space attributes were identified to be of high value: privacy, noise level, window view, natural light and comfort of furnishing. The quiet zone of Orkanen library had successfully accumulated all of the above mentioned attributes. There, students could study without being disturbed or disturbing others. The sound privacy and the collective concentration were particularly motivating for the students. Despite the positive qualities that the quiet zone possessed specific internal and external disturbances were identified. The low noise level amplified intermittent sounds and had the potential to disturb students. Furthermore, due to its open, unconfined environment, the quiet zone was vulnerable to noises penetrating from outside the area. Certain space attributes such as crowdedness and noise level diminished or changed in quality towards the end of the day. Nevertheless the quiet zone was the preferred place for studies compared to other spaces in the library which possessed some but not all of the space attributes required by the students. Restricted Access/Limited Control theory and the concept of exoinformation helped to identify that the students acknowledged the library as a public place to study while having some degree of control over their privacy. Natural barriers in the library were used to increase concentration and motivation during studying and in the few cases when privacy was required during non-study activities. In general, the leaked exoinformation was not considered to be sensitive or useful for the observer or the person being observed.

The global amount of waste generated by households, including food packaging waste, has been increasing continuously across the world, posing a massive threat to societies and the environment. Proper waste management, therefore, has become a challenging environmental issue and a priority for governments. Along with the technological advances, such as material recovery technologies, more stress has been placed on the strategies for moving away from disposal to waste prevention, separation, and recycling. Considerable efforts are being made to not only limit the overall production and the negative impact of waste on the environment and human health but also to minimize the cost of waste management. Separation of wastes at the source (i.e., source separation) is an integral part of such efforts toward enhancing the purity of collected waste and improving the quality of materials for recycling. Furthermore, sorting of waste as a habitual performance can serve as a practice for improving residents' recycling/sorting behavior. The packaging waste, including food packaging, forms a significant part of the municipal solid waste. The design of food packaging, therefore, has received a lot of attention as a useful tool to influence the consumers' sorting behavior, making it an interesting concept for research related to waste management. Presumably, the design of food packaging can meet consumers' sorting demands while being instructive and facilitating the sorting process, thus enhancing the recycling rate of the food packaging waste. Finding the ideal form of food packaging, however, requires an in-depth understanding of the packaging-consumer interactions throughout the sorting process. Considering the different characteristics of food packaging, it is expected that different food packages tend to influence a consumer in different ways. Nevertheless, the current knowledge is somewhat too general to be used by packaging developers to improve the sorting of the food packaging. Hence, the present thesis aims to provide a more in-depth insight into the influence of food packaging, as a product and service provider, on the consumer's/user's decision-making on sort of food packaging waste. The results assert that packaging to be sorted properly requires proper design to manifest its sorting related abilities such as easy to empty, easy to clean, and easy to fold, for the consumer. Selecting material, visual attributes, form, and function can amplify or reduce these sorting abilities of food packaging.

Georeferenced field data were used to develop logistic regression models of the geographic distribution of 38 frequently common plant species throughout Rich County, Utah, to assist in the future correlation of Natural Resources Conservation Service Ecological Site Descriptions to soil map units. Field data were collected primarily during the summer of 2007, and augmented with previously existing data collected in 2001 and 2006. Several abiotic parameters and Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery were used to stratify the study area into sampling units prior to the 2007 field season. Models were initially evaluated using an independent dataset extracted from data collected by the Bureau of Land Management and by another research project conducted in Rich County by Utah State University. By using this independent dataset, model accuracy statistics widely varied across individual species, but the average model sensitivity (modeling a species as common where it was common in the independent dataset) was 0.626, and the average overall correct classification rate was 0.683. Because of concerns pertaining to the appropriateness of the independent dataset for evaluation, models were also evaluated using an internal cross-validation procedure. Model accuracy statistics computed by this procedure averaged 0.734 for sensitivity and 0.813 for overall correct classification rate. There was less variability in accuracy statistics across species using the internal cross-validation procedure. Despite concerns with the independent dataset, we wanted to determine if models would be improved, based on internal cross-validation accuracy statistics, by adding these data to the original training data. Results indicated that the original training data, collected with this modeling effort in mind, were better for choosing model parameters, but sometimes model coefficients were better when computed using the combined dataset.

Birds may have the ability to view their environments at a wide range of spatial scales; accordingly, they may make habitat-selection decisions at multiple spatial scales. I investigated the implications of hierarchy theory and a landscape perspective on nestsite selection in cavity-nesting birds in the Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah. I used · three different approaches to address the concept of a multi-scaled nest-site selection Ill process. First, I conducted an exploratory study in which I investigated nest-site selection at three spatial scales for Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis), Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), and Mountain Chickadee (Parus gambeli). By conducting a hierarchically structured analysis, I was able to investigate the habitat relationships that might result from a hierarchically organized nest site selection process . I found that the four species were associated with patterns of vegetation at three spatial scales and that these associations combined in such a way as to imply a process of nest-site selection that may be more complex than that posited by the niche-gestalt concept. Second, I conducted an experiment in which I investigated nest-site selection at two spatial scales. I compared the use of four types of aspen stands in a two-by-two factorial design according to within-stand structure and landscape context. Stands were classified as either dense or sparse and as having predominantly meadow or forested edges. To address nest-site selection by secondary cavity nesters , who may be limited by cavity availability, I augmented the natural cavities with nest boxes. I found that birds predominantly nested in sparse stands and in stands with meadow edges. Although only five nest boxes were used for nesting, all five of these boxes were in sparse stands with meadow edges. The third way in which I investigated the process of nest-site selection was to build and test predictive models using associations between birds and landscape patterns. By using landscape patterns to predict habitat, I was able to build models that were easily applied ; predictions could be made without any additional data collection in the field. The models were very accurate for both Red-naped Sapsuckers and Tree Swallows (86- 98% and 53-93% nests correctly predicted, respectively) but were less accurate for Mountain Chickadees and Northern Flickers (33-42% and 19-37%, respectively) .

Economists are still searching for methods to reduce/eliminate Hypothetical Bias (HB). Different methods have been previously applied some with success and others without. In this study, we aimed to further test the cognitive dissonance approach (CD) through a learning design method to estimate the WTP for five beef attributes: Non-quality, Kentucky Proud, Appalachian, Grass Fed and a mix of 25% Non-quality and 75% Kentucky Proud, using a one and one half bounded model. To test the CD, 881 participants from the University of Kentucky, were randomly assigned to a real/hypothetical market for a battery recycling project at first and afterwards to a hypothetical market for beef. For the battery recycling, participants were asked to donate $1, $2 or $3. For the beef market, participants were randomly assigned to a $4 or $6 for the non-quality attribute patty. Participants assigned to a $4 were afterwards randomly assigned to a $4.5, $5, $5.5 or $6 and the ones assigned to a $6 were afterwards assigned to a $6.5, $7, $7.5 and $8 for the other attribute patties. From this study, we found that the learning design was effective in reducing the cognitive dissonance or conflicts between what consumers say and their actions.

This applied dissertation was designed to determine the variations in law school deans’ conceptions of distance education (DE) as an educational model within the American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law school. Currently, not a single ABA-accredited law school offers a plan of study for completion of a Juris Doctor (JD) degree utilizing the DE educational model. The law school dean is an essential opinion leader providing leadership for all stakeholders of the law school. Gaining a better understanding of law school deans’ perceptions towards DE is critical if DE is to become an accepted educational model in ABA-accredited legal education. Nineteen deans of ABA-accredited law schools from every region of the country were interviewed. The phenomenographic qualitative approach was utilized in the study, which seeks to explain variation in understanding a phenomenon among a set of participants. In phenomenographic research, all interviews are transcribed verbatim, and the transcripts became the central focal point of analysis in the investigation. The participants were treated as a group, and the goal of the data analysis was to identify variations in the phenomenon across the group, not between individual participants in the group. The construction approach was used to develop the categories of description. As a theoretical framework, Rogers’s perceived attributes theory was used to develop the categories of description in the analysis of the verbatim transcripts. The findings indicated that the variation in conceptions of ABA-accredited law school deans towards DE could be determined by the 5 constructs of Rogers’s perceived attributes theory: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The purpose of this research study is to develop and describe a model to enhance the empowerment professional nurses to promote the recovery of people who have been diagnosed with depression. Depression is a prevalent psychiatric disorder that despite its increase worldwide, often goes undetected or inadequately treated. The biomedical model's reductionist and dualistic approach proves to be inadequate for nursing practice to address depression and calls for the examination of a multifaceted holistic approach. A multifaceted holistic approach views disease as having multiple causes that are amenable to multiple therapeutic interventions. Despite research evidence about the effectiveness of such an approach, an in-dept literature search did not reveal the availability of such a model to enhance the empowerment of professional nurses to promote the recovery of people who have been diagnosed with depression. The research question that emerged was: • How can professional nurses in the Western Cape be empowered to promote the recovery of people who have been diagnosed with depression? The assumption is that this question was necessary to address. To realise the purpose of this research study, the following objectives were formulated: • To explore and describe the self reported attributes needed by professional nurses to promote the recovery of people who have been diagnosed with depression. • To explore and describe how these self reported attributes can be facilitated in the work environment. • To propose a model to enhance the empowerment of professional nurses to promote the recovery of people who have been diagnosed with depression. • To develop guidelines for the operationalisation of the model. The theoretical framework for this research study was adopted from the Critical Social Theory. The research design and method used was qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual in nature. The research was done in two phases. In phase one the researcher did semi- structured interviews with a purposive and convenient sample of fourteen (14) professional nurses who were working in the Cape Town Metropolitan area and the West Coast.

Magister Artium (Human Ecology) - MA(HE) / The research focused on 60 coloured, Afrikaans-speaking men and women residing in Bellville South who completed a structured questionnaire and open-ended interview questions. Their perceptions held on the influence of male unemployment on family relations with specific reference to gender role perception, relational satisfaction, communication, decision making, finances and labour within the family were investigated. Unemployment of the male partner was found to have no statistically significant differences for the manner in which males and females perceive their gender roles, finances and labour distribution within the family. Statistically significant differences were found for the manner in which males and females perceive decision-making and communication within the family when the male partner is unemployed. The results revealed that unemployment does not have an influence on role perception and that the respondents uphold a traditional role perception. Decision making was not male dominated, as more egalitarian decision were taken. The respondents expressed combination gender roles with regard to management of finances and appeared to be satisfied with family and partner relations. The minority of respondents who experienced problems with communication attributed this to the consequences of being unemployed. The survival of families during these challenging periods. A Social agencies need to offer services to empower families to deal with the affects of unemployment on family life to ensure multi-disciplinary approach, provided by a team of professionals is the basis for recommendations for proposed support I programme development, access and further research.

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