The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative perspective of marketing, which is lookingat the concept from a macro point of view, with a chosen country-Vietnam. There are three maingoals that this investigation strives to achieve. In specific, it aims first to observe whether theVietnamese consumers have favorable or unfavorable attitudes towards the marketing systemthat currently operating nationally. This is reached through an application of ICSM model, whichbased very much on the famous marketing mix paradigm (4Ps).The second purpose of this thesis is to test whether Vietnam market exist the relationshipsbetween consumers’ sentiment toward marketing practices and customer satisfaction. Theapplied models in this case are Kano Model and ACSI model where it proposed that therelationship exits. Thirdly, as Vietnam is a developing country, the role of government isexpected to have an effect on the issue of marketing practice, which implicitly can influence thevariables of consumer attitude and consumer satisfaction. Therefore, we took this opportunity todetermine whether it is the case and reflects that with results from previous studies.And above all, demographic factors including age, gender, education background, andoccupation are tested against the three main variables of attitude, satisfaction, and government.To achieve all the three main goals, we adopt quantitative research strategy with self-completedquestionnaires. A total sample of 445 respondents is obtained from two biggest cities ofVietnam- Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The analyzed results show that Vietnamese consumersare much more favorable to the current marketing activities, in comparison to other countrieswith well-developed economic situation. Moreover, the results also proved that there is positiverelationship between the two pairs of variable: attitude - satisfaction, and government regulations- satisfaction; while between government and attitude, a negative correlation is found. Finally,the statistics also shows that demographic factors do have correlation on the variables thoughsome are more influential than others.

Consumer sentiment has the ability to provide researchers with many avenues to test existing Finance and Economic theories. Chapter 1 introduces the issues that I seek to explore within the area of Behavioral Finance. Chapter 2 utilizes thirty years of consumer sentiment data to explore extant economic theories and hypotheses. In particular, I study the Prospect Theory and the Life Cycle Investment Hypothesis. In addition, I also study how changes in consumer sentiment can foretell future stock returns for firms in different industries and of different sizes. By studying how individuals of different ages display optimism and pessimism through consumer sentiment surveys, I am able to contribute to the literature by shedding additional light on just how the important age is with respect to a person's economic outlook. One particular phenomenon that I discuss in this chapter is downside risk. I will provide further support to the existing literature which shows that gains and losses are not viewed equally by individuals. To account for this discrepancy, this paper models the time series relationship between consumer sentiment and stock returns using asymmetric response models. Chapter 3 builds upon the previous chapter's findings by using consumer sentiment to explore if this index can forecast housing market variables such as changes in home sales and home prices. Given the recent financial market turmoil that stemmed from the U.S. housing market debacle, this chapter is timely. Using widely cited housing indices, I explore regional differences in the U.S. housing market and how the sentiment of local consumers can possibly affect their housing markets. I also include analyses in which the age of the consumer is accounted for to see if evidence of the Life Cycle Investment Hypothesis emerges. This theory postulates that younger individuals are more likely to demand housing as a financial asset and if this were true, I hypothesize that changes in younger individuals' sentiment would have more forecasting power with respect to future housing sales and price changes. Lastly, I conclude this dissertation with Chapter 4 which includes additional discussions of the issues studied.

Using data from the Michigan Consumer Survey, I explore alternatives for constructing the Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS) to improve its forecasting power regarding consumption and its components. Questions which seemed to matter in the past are no longer good predictors. For more recent sample periods, expectations of automobile purchases, unemployment, and current economic situations are more important than categories selected previously. An alternative index is constructed accordingly. Applying different techniques suggested in the literature, the new index significantly outperforms the ICS in both in-sample and out-of-sample tests. Furthermore, the new index also produces more accurate results when forecasting recessions.

The University of Michigan's Survey Research Center developed a tool to quantify how people feel towards the state of the economy. Dr. George Katona, a psychologist and professor at the University of Michigan developed the Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS) in the 1940s. As decades of data were collected on aggregate consumer sentiment through the 50s and 60s, a discovery was made. The ICS seemed to indirectly predict the direction of the economy by accurately anticipating aggregate purchasing versus saving decisions. The index is even used today by the U.S. Government to measure consumer confidence and has been noted to give investors an unfair advantage if they have this information before others. The literature shows many researchers attempting to measure the index's predictive ability on consumer expenses, but little to none have conducted an in depth analysis on identifying which variables, experiences, and individual characteristics influence the ICS. This dissertation takes on a systems perspective to recognize that the economy is one large societal system; whereby, all members of society along all levels on the socioeconomic strata are interconnected and are in conflict with their needs and values. A 45-question survey was distributed to a national sample of 535 participants. Participants from all states in the U.S. (except North Dakota), and including Puerto Rico were captured in the sample population. The survey identifies each participant's economic literacy, income levels, gender identities, political and religious affiliations, participant and parent's level of education, marital status, household size, employment status, news network preference, trust in the government, willingness to commit a crime in bad financial times, and personal experiences with foreclosure, bankruptcy and layoffs, among other variables. This quantitative methods research utilizes Spearman's rho correlation coefficient to identify the variables that are most statistically significant in influencing the ICS. The data show strong statistical significance among certain variables and the ICS (such as discretionary income, trust in the government, and news network preference), which further grounds the fact that consumers are easily conditioned and influenced by their environment.

Στην παρούσα εργασία μελετούμε τη σχέση μεταξύ χρηματιστηριακών αποδόσεων και δείκτη εμπιστοσύνης στις 27 χώρες-μέλη της ΕΕ για τα έτη 1985-2006. Βρήκαμε ότι για το μεγαλύτερο μέρος των χωρών της ΕΕ εμφανίζεται θετική συσχέτιση μεταξύ αποδόσεων και δείκτη εμπιστοσύνης του καταναλωτή στον βραχυχρόνιο ορίζοντα. Οι μεταβολές και στους δύο δείκτες τείνουν να κινούνται παράλληλα στην ίδια περίοδο, με εξαίρεση την πλειοψηφία των νεοεισελθέντων χωρών. Στον μακροπρόθεσμο ορίζοντα, βρήκαμε ότι για τις περισσότερες χώρες ο συντελεστής γίνεται σχεδόν μηδενικός. Για το μεγαλύτερο μέρος των χωρών της ΕΕ υφίσταται σχέση αιτιότητας μεταξύ των μεταβλητών, με τις αποδόσεις να προκαλούν κατά Granger τον δείκτη εμπιστοσύνης του καταναλωτή και τον δείκτη οικονομικής εμπιστοσύνης, αλλά το αντίστροφο δεν ισχύει. Αμφίδρομη σχέση αιτιότητας μεταξύ αποδόσεων και εμπιστοσύνης των καταναλωτών παρατηρείται μόνο για την Γαλλία οριακά, ενώ για την ΕΕ βρήκαμε οτι υπάρχει αμφίδρομη σχέση αιτιότητας μεταξύ αποδόσεων και δείκτη οικονομικής εμπιστoσύνης. / This paper studies the relationship between stock market developments and confidence index for the 27 EU countries - members over the years 1985-2006. We found that for the majority of the EU countries exists positive correlation between the stock market index and the confidence indicators (consumer confidence indicator and economic sentiment indicator) in the short horizon. The changes between these indexes tempt to move in the same direction contemporaneously and in the short horizon (of 1 month), with the new EU members to be an exception. The correlation becomes almost zero in the long horizon. For the most of the EU countries there is causality between the variables. Stock returns in general Granger-cause the Consumer Confidence Index and the Economic Sentiment Indicator, but not vice versa. We found also that there is feedback causality relationship between stock returns and confidence for France and the EU as a whole.