The primary objective of this study was to apply the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasive communication to consumers' perceptions of food additive labelling. The model was used to explain how consumer information processing influences consumers' decision-making and consequent purchasing behaviour with regard to food products that contain food additives. To date, few studies have explained consumers' perceptions, viewpoints and understanding of additive labelling, or of their related purchasing behaviour. However, the increased marketing of processed foods containing additives and the concern expressed by consumers regarding the risks of additives call for the development of a theoretical basis for research into these issues. There is currently a lack of such data in South Africa. This study was conducted from a phenomenological qualitative approach with a descriptive exploratory nature. Eight focus group sessions with 39 food additive label readers were held in the Vanderbijlpark-Vereeniging area. A content analysis of the focus group discussions resulted in the categorising of concepts, and 33 subtle underlying themes were identified. The main findings of the study were that the participants' general perceptions suggested that food additives can be defined as unnatural chemical substances that are added to food and that hold some benefits and/or risks to the consumer. The participants' use of food additive information was influenced by the situational factors associated with each individual participant. Moreover, the participants were more aware of tartrazine, MSG and aspartame than of any other food additive. Participants were also confronted with various blocking mechanisms when searching for and selecting food products containing additives. These included a lack of standardisation of terminology, illegible ingredient listing, a lack of food control and regulation, information overload, incomprehensible information, manufacturers' dishonesty, time constraints and incorrect, untrustworthy, insufficient information. On the other hand, participants used various coping or risk-reducing strategies to reduce their concerns. In order to interpret the results, the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasive communication was adapted and applied to food additive labels. The adapted model illustrates how the consumers' perceptions of additive labels and their search for additional information influence their purchasing behaviour to varying extents. It is recommended that more attention be given to consumer education with regard to additive-related terminology used on food labels and that the results be put to use in the current revision of labelling regulations. Marketers and retailers could use the information to better understand the behaviour of consumers who read food additive labels. The value of this study was to show that consumers' prior perceptions of food additives are an important determinant of their purchasing behaviour, / Thesis (Ph.D. (Consumer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This research is a study of purchasing intentions and behaviors in China. Consumers from four key cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Guangzhou were studied and differences in intentions and behavior as well as influences on behavior were analyzed. The results of the study provide greater depth to understanding consumer behavior in China and insight into likely responses to marketing strategies. Interviews with Chinese marketing experts were conducted and surveys were administered to samples of the target populations. Interviews assisted in understanding many of the general stereotypes held with respect to various ethnicities and helped with explaining some of the reasons for differences found. The study’s results are categorized into five areas. First, with respect to general purchasing intentions the study found that Chinese consumers from key cities differ significantly with respect to most of the purchasing intentions measured including inclination to try to new products, brand loyalty, use of discount cards, and willingness to purchase substitute brands. Based on five measures of conservatism, Beijing and Shanghai consumers were found to exhibit more conservative consumption behaviors than Chongqing and Guangzhou consumers. Chongqing and Guangzhou consumers are more likely than consumers in Shanghai and Beijing to wait for a friend's recommendation before buying a new brand. Second, with respect to brand choices, the study found that Beijing consumers tend to be more ethnocentric in their purchasing behavior in comparison to consumers from other key cities. The study also found a moderate association between ethnicity and brand purchase repertoire in most product categories. Third, with respect to reasons for purchases, the study found that generally there was only limited association between ethnicity and the reason for selecting brands. Consumers most often cited quality as the main reason for purchase. Fourth, with respect to actual brand purchase frequencies, the study found that Beijing consumers made more frequent purchases more often than other consumers in half of the categories studied. Chongqing consumers tend to purchase favorite brands less frequently than consumers from other key cities. Fifth, with respect to knowledge of country of origin and country of manufacture and their influences on intentions, the study found that for most product categories (nine of twelve studied) country of origin was an important consideration in the purchase decision. In general, many Chinese consumers are misinformed about brands’ country of origin. The research provides insight into important purchase cues and moderators impacting brand choice behavior.

The aim of this thesis is to propose a model that explains the relationship between customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty based on service quality attributes. The three elements of satisfaction, retention and loyalty towards products represent ongoing challenges for the corporate financial performance. Customer behaviour analysis (known as business intelligence or customer relationship management or customer experience management) has become a major factor in the corporate decision making and strategic planning processes. Prevailing logic dictates that by improving service attributes one should expect better customer satisfaction levels. Consequently, improved satisfaction levels should increase the probability of customer retention and degree of loyalty. Substantial research work has been dedicated to explain the importance of customer behaviour measurement for industry. However, there is little evidence that there has been an overall integrating empirical research that relates the three elements of satisfaction, retention and loyalty with respect to service quality attributes. Empirical data collected from the UK mobile telecommunication for this research shows that such an objective model that is capable of capturing this three dimensional relationship will contribute towards more robust decision making and better strategic planning. The proposed thesis extracts the data about key service attributes from a combination of literature review, surveys, and interviews from the UK mobile telecommunication industry. Responses were analysed using multiple regression, regression analysis with dummy variables, logistic regression, logistic regression with dummy variables and structural equation modelling (SEM) to test variables and their interrelationships. This study makes a step forward and contributes to the body of knowledge as it: (a) highlights the role of service attribute performance towards customer satisfaction, consequently identifies attributes that affect satisfaction and dissatisfaction of customers, (b) maps the relationship between attribute importance and attribute performance, (c) optimise resource allocation process using importance-performance analysis (IPA), (d) classifies customers with respect to the role and length of relationship they have with the company (switching probability), and (e) describes the interrelationship between customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty. The novelty of the research lies in: (a) establishment of a framework that links service attribute performance to customer satisfaction and then to customer future intentions (customer retention and customer loyalty), and (b) provision of a model that could assist key decision makers in prudent usage of resources for maximum profitability. This dissertation presents a novel approach methodology and modelling construct for customer behaviour analysis. For proof of concept it presents a case study in the mobile telecommunication industry. It is worth noting that in this research work Customer Retention is interpreted as probability of switching between service providers. Customer Loyalty is interpreted as referral (word-of-mouth) activity by existing customers.

The aim of this thesis is to identify and examine the factors influencing environmentally-significant consumption (ESC) by higher-income households (HIH) to provide theoretical and social marketing insights. Income is highly related to levels of energy consumption and associated environmental damage, but despite research documenting the links between income and energy use, there is a lack of enquiry into what shapes the ESC patterns of HIH and therefore how behavioural interventions might be best fashioned to reduce energy use. A postmodern approach to consumption that recognises the interplay between the psychological, the social and the cultural (a psycho-socio-cultural approach), indicates that ESC is not an automatic consequence of wealth but rather mediated through the way consumption practices are symbolically connected with the satisfaction of underlying needs, including the need for identity and other psychological orientations. These connections are not universal or static but socially and culturally contextual and influenced by many factors, particularly marketing. Social marketing, as marketing for social good, therefore has a critical role to play in altering these symbolic connections and therefore consumption behaviour. To design and market alternative lower energy consumption through social marketing interventions, an understanding of how environmentally-significant consumption is connected with modes of need satisfaction and psychological orientations is necessary. Additionally, an understanding of constraints to even higher levels of consumption is useful. This study provides initial research momentum, using a HIH sample from South Devon. Primary data from a quantitative questionnaire was supported in design by qualitative interviews. These provide descriptive and correlational results about what shapes the consumption of; leisure flights, large-engine cars and new durable products, as well as the role of environmentally-significant psychological orientations, specifically: values; materialism; environmental concern and identity. The research also provides a comparative analysis between a group of HIH who have participated in Global Action Plan’s EcoTeam programme, and the general sample of HIH.

The aim of this thesis was to explore the efficacy of the rational choice model in the electoral decision making of young people. The initial view was that this was too narrow a concept to apply to a real world situation. Therefore, consumer behaviour theory was reviewed in order to find out how marketers understand consumer decision making and explore if this could add anything to electoral decision making. Using an ideographic approach, this research revealed a number of different groups that did not conform to the rational choice model. Moreover, it was interesting to discover that many voter and non-voter groups exhibit what can be described as irrational behaviour. Using education as a key variable and the Elaboration Likelihood Model as an analytical framework, it was possible to identify the different ways in which the groups built up their political knowledge and what effect this had upon the extent of their engagement with the electoral process. Two models were developed that described the various groups and their electoral behaviour. The thesis concludes by suggesting that engagement is limited to a small number of groups and the level of engagement is determined by a complex mix of education, life stage and the notion of risk.

Bakgrund E-handel av livsmedel är en av de e-handelsbranscher som växer starkast i Sverige just nu. Enligt Svensk Digital Handel förväntas e-handel av livsmedel omsätta 5,7 miljarder kronor år 2016, vilket innebär en ökning med 38 procent från föregående år. Den första satsningen på e-handel av livsmedel gjordes i början av 2000-talet, dock lade de flesta aktörer inom branschen i Sverige ned efter bara några år. Idag år 2016 är denna typ av bransch mer mogen än vad den var då, på grund av snabbare internetuppkopplingar och att fler har datorvana och även större vana att handla på internet. Dock stod livsmedelshandeln på internet för endast 1,5 procent av den totala livsmedelshandeln i Sverige år 2015. Trots att e-handeln av livsmedel ökar är det alltså fortfarande många konsumenter i Sverige som inte köper livsmedel på internet. Syfte Syftet med studien är att identifiera barriärer till att handla lösplock av livsmedel på internet för konsumenter i Sverige som inte tidigare har använt sig av konceptet. Som en del av syftet ingår även att identifiera eventuella likheter och skillnader för olika typer av hushåll genom att analysera om barriärerna varierar beroende på hur hushållens utformning och förutsättningar ser ut. Genomförande Studien utgår från ett konsumentperspektiv och med en abduktiv ansats och en kvalitativ strategi genomfördes intervjuer med tio hushåll. De hushåll som deltog i intervjuerna hade ännu inte e-handlat livsmedel och det som undersöktes var varför de inte anammat konceptet. Ett uppföljningsmoment genomfördes därefter där de intervjuade hushållen bads att testa att handla livsmedel på internet för att sedan svara på några korta frågor i en uppföljningsintervju. Sju av hushållen medverkade i uppföljningsmomentet. För att sätta resultatet från de intervjuade hushållen i perspektiv och för att skapa bredd i studien genomfördes även en enkätundersökning där 154 respondenter deltog. Slutsats 38 barriärer till e-handel av livsmedel identifierades. Dessa barriärer har grupperats i följande kategorier: vana, sättet de handlar livsmedel på, att inget problem uppstår, personlighet, okunskap, fördelar med fysiska livsmedelsbutiker, negativa aspekter eller antaganden som de har till e-handel av livsmedel, att de inte har möjlighet samt att de är skeptiska. Alla barriärer som går under dessa kategorier presenteras i studien. Inga mönster som identifierar att barriärerna varierar beroende på hur hushållens utformning och förutsättningar ser ut kunde hittas. Att flera olika hushållstyper studerades kan dock tänkas ha bidragit till att många olika barriärer kunde identifieras. / Background Grocery e-commerce is one of the e-commerce sectors with the strongest growth in Sweden right now. According to Svensk Digital Handel, the expected turnover for grocery e-commerce in 2016 is 5,7 billion SEK, which is equal to an increase of 38 percent compared to the previous year. The initial investment in the grocery e-commerce industry was made around year 2000, however, most of the businesses in Sweden was shut down after only a few years. Today, this type of industry is more mature than it was at that time because of faster internet connections and that more people are used to using computers and shopping on the internet. But still the grocery e-commerce is responsible for only 1.5 percent of the total turnover in the grocery industry in Sweden in 2015. Despite the fact that the use of grocery e-commerce increases, there are still many Swedes who are not using the internet for buying groceries. Aim The study aims to identify barriers to buy groceries online for consumers in Sweden who have not previously used the concept. A part of the aim is also to identify possible similarities and differences of the different types of households by analysing if the barriers vary depending on the type of household. Completion The study is using a consumer perspective, and with an abductive and qualitative approach ten interviews was conducted. The households that participated in the interviews had not yet tried grocery shopping online and we examined why they did not yet adopt the concept. After the interviews all the households were asked to try the grocery e-commerce concept, of which seven of them took part. Those were asked a few questions in a follow-up interview. To put the results of the interviews of the households in perspective, and to broaden the study, a survey was also carried out, were 154 respondents participated. Conclusion 38 barriers to grocery e-commerce were identified. The barriers have been categorised info following categories: habit, the way they are buying groceries, there is no problem existing, personality, ignorance, that they prefer traditional grocery stores, negative aspects or assumptions about grocery e-commerce, that they do not have the opportunity and they are sceptical. All the barriers in these categories are presented in the study. No patterns that identifies that the barriers vary depending on the type of household could be found. That different household types were studied could however have contributed to the fact that many different types of barriers could be identified.

Die Studie baut in Ihrer Zielsetzung auf den Erkenntnissen aus der im Jahre 1999 am Institut für Soziologie durchgeführten Studie mit dem Titel "Die soziale Einbettung von Konsumentenentscheidungen" auf. In dieser Studie wurden in Form einer Pilotstudie erste Erkenntnisse über die systematische Nutzung sozialer Netzwerke für den Kauf von Vertrauensgütern durch Privatpersonen gewonnen. In Anlehnung an das vorhergehende Forschungsprojekt standen die folgenden Fragen im Vordergrund: • Werden soziale Netzwerke im Suchprozeß und bei der Kaufentscheidung von Vertrauensgütern genutzt, und wenn ja, welche Bedingungen beeinflussen das Ausmaß der Nutzung von sozialen Netzwerken? • Welche Effekte hat die Nutzung von sozialen Netzwerken im Hinblick auf Suchdauer und Kaufzufriedenheit? In Abwandlung zur vorhergehenden Studie wurden die Bereiche "Wahl einer Versicherung" und "Wahl eines Zahnarztes" durch die Bereiche "Wahl einer Krankenversicherung" und "Wahl eines Hausarztes" ersetzt bzw. spezifiziert. Aufbauend auf den Erfahrungen aus dem vorhergehenden Projekt sollten hierbei noch zusätzliche Parameter der Netzwerkbeschaffenheit mit erhoben werden, um einen tieferen Einblick in den Zusammenhang zwischen Netzwerkstruktur und -nutzung bei Konsumentscheidungen zu gewinnen.

There are many opportunities for consumers to design their lives more sustainably. While a rapidly growing body of literature has investigated how consumers can reduce carbon footprints in key con- sumption areas, such as food, housing and mobility, an overall framework that allows structuring those options across all consumption areas is still missing. Hence, this paper presents a novel and systematic framework to identify improvement options that promote climate change mitigation and structure them based on their primary mode of impact on GHG emissions. The framework targets consumer practices and focuses on ambitious, but technically and socioeconomically feasible strategies for consumers to lower their carbon footprint. Four major categories for reducing consumption-based emissions form the basic framework, which are then subdivided into behavioural strategies and sub-strategies. The practical application of the framework is illustrated by using food consumption as an example. Systematically identifying improvement options can advance a holistic understanding of the range of behavioural strategies targeting consumer choices that operate at different stages in the supply chain. It thus provides a starting point for addressing critical questions related to the role of consumers in supporting climate change mitigation. (authors' abstract)

This study examines how consumers reason and their opinions about personal data collection online. Its focus is to investigate whether consumers consider online data collection as an issue with moral implications, and if these are unethical. This focus is partly motivated by the contradiction between consumers’ stated opinions and actual behavior, which differ. To meet its purpose, the study poses the research question How is personal data collection and its prevalence online perceived and motivated by consumers?. The theoretical framework consists of the Issue-Contingent Model of Ethical Decision-Making by Jones (1991), thus putting the model to use in a new context. Collection of data for the study was done by conducting focus groups, since Jones’ model places ethical decision- making in a social context. The results of the study showed that consumers acknowledge both positive and negative aspects of online data collection, but the majority of them do not consider this data collection to be unethical. This result confirms partly the behaviour that consumers already display, but does not explain why their stated opinions do not match this. Thus, this study can be seen as an initial attempt at clarifying consumer reasoning on personal data collection online, with potential for future studies to further investigate and understand consumer online behaviour. / Denna uppsats undersöker hur konsumenter resonerar och tänker kring insamling av personlig data på Internet. Fokus är att utreda ifall konsumenter anser att denna insamling har konsekvenser, och ifall dessa anses vara oetiska. Detta fokus baseras delvis på resultat som visar på skillnader i vad konsumenter uttrycker för åsikter kring detta ämne, och deras faktiska beteende på Internet. Undersökningen utgår ifrån forskningsfrågan som lyder Hur uppfattar och motiverar konsumenter insamling av personlig data på Internet? Studiens teoretiska ramverk består av modellen An Issue-Contingent model of Ethical Decision- Making som är utvecklad av Jones (1991), och modellen används därmed i en ny kontext. Studiens data samlades in genom fokusgrupper. Detta val baserades på Jones (1991) modell, som menar att etiskt beslutsfattande alltid sker i en social kontext. De resultat som kommit fram visar att konsumenter ser både positiva och negativa aspekter och konsekvenser av att ha sin personliga data insamlad, däremot utan att anse att insamlingen i sig är oetisk. Detta bekräftar delvis tidigare resultat, men förklarar inte varför de åsikter konsumenter uttrycker kring ämnet inte stämmer överens med hur de sedan faktiskt beter sig. Därmed kan den här uppsatsen ses som ett första försök att klargöra hur konsumenter resonerar kring insamling av personlig data på Internet. Det har bedömts finnas mycket potential för framtida studier inom samma område, för att fortsatt undersöka och förstå konsumenters beteende på Internet.

Ziel dieses Projektes war es, in Form einer Pilotstudie erste Erkenntnisse über die systematische Nutzung sozialer Netzwerke für den Kauf von Vertrauensgütern durch Privatpersonen zu gewinnen. Hierbei stehen insbesondere zwei Fragen im Vordergrund: (1) Werden soziale Netzwerke im Suchprozeß und bei der Kaufentscheidung von Vertrauensgütern genutzt, und wenn ja, welche Bedingungen beeinflussen das Ausmaß der Nutzung von sozialen Netzwerken? (2) Welche Effekte hat die Nutzung von sozialen Netzwerken im Hinblick auf Suchdauer und Kaufzufriedenheit?