Recent studies have sought to explain consumer spatial behaviour in terms of the psychological characteristics of the consumer. A variety of psychological attributes have been suggested as potential independent variables including perceptions, beliefs, attitudes and values. This study seeks to synthesise these disparate approaches through the identification and measurement of consumer dispositions which are seen to function as central components in the decision making process leading to behaviour. Particular emphasis is placed upon the development of a reliable and valid set of dispositional scales which it is hoped might have applicability beyond this single study. This research makes a further contribution to the existing literature by comparing the ability of a dispositional model to predict retail choices with that of traditional shopping behaviour models based on measures of the locational and biographical characteristics of the consumer. Interview responses and a factor analysis of questionnaire data identified five major dispositions underlying retail choices with respect to clothing purchases. These were labeled status-orientation, convenience-orientation, fashion-orientation, price orientation and quality-orientation. A set of Likert scales was developed to measure these dispositions and a pretest was conducted to ensure that established psychometric standards were met. The major data collection phase comprised a questionnaire survey of a stratified random sample of households drawn from the City of Vancouver and adjacent municipalities. The data provided information on the respondent's dispositions, shopping behaviour and biographical characteristics. Location relative to retail facilities was subsequently determined from the respondent's address. A series of discriminant analyses were performed on the questionnaire data to compare the efficacy of locational, biographical and dispositional variables as discriminators between retail patronage groups. The groups were defined on the basis of the type of store and type of shopping centre patronized on each of four shopping trips for clothing. The results suggest that retail choices may be the outcome of a two-stage decision process: the first stage at a macro scale involving the isolation of one or more feasible alternative shopping areas primarily on the basis of locational considerations; the second stage, at a micro scale involving the selection of a store within one of the preselected shopping areas with dispositional factors being fundamental in directing the evaluation of alternatives and the choice of a preferred store. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Prof. F. J. Herbst

This thesis examined how factors such as perceptions of globalization, individual and nationalistic values, and cultural products influenced consumer choice in French and American nationals.

En el presente trabajo se analizará la relación que existe entre las estrategias de marketing de servicios por medio del diseño físico del lugar y las capacidades de servicio del empleado con la compra realizada por parte de jóvenes pertenecientes al nivel socioeconómico C dentro de la categoría de bares temáticos del Centro de Lima. Para el desarrollo de la primera parte de la investigación, se realizó un estudio cualitativo dónde los bares temáticos estudiados fueron Mi Tercer Lugar y Palais Cocktail ubicados en el Jirón Carabaya 618 y Avenida España 260, respectivamente. Asimismo, se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas a expertos, focus group a consumidores y observaciones en los bares mencionados. / This paper will analyze the relationship between service marketing strategies through the physical design of the place and the employee's service capabilities with the purchase made by young people belonging to socioeconomic level C within the category of themed bars of Center of Lima. For the development of the first part of the research, a qualitative study was carried out where the themed bars studied were Mi Tercer Lugar and Palais Cocktail at Jr. Carabaya 618 and Avenue España 260, respectively. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts, focus groups with consumers and observations in the mentioned bars. / Trabajo de investigación

In this dissertation, I explore an unintended downside of Virtual Reality (VR) in marketing practice. I find that despite firms’ intention to use VR as a gateway experience to future consumption in reality, the same experience delivered in VR (vs. non-VR) mode lowers consumers’ subsequent desire for similar kinds of experiences because people satisfy their needs in VR that they otherwise would in reality. This effect is consistently observed among consumers with a strong (vs. weak) need to engage with the VR experiences, namely (1) high sensation seekers engaging with stimulating VR content and (2) highly mindful individuals engaging with calm and contemplative VR content. To document the underlying mechanism, I measure users’ physiological reactivity (i.e., Skin Conductance Response) to stimulating VR and find that high sensation seekers engage with stimulating VR content more intensely than low sensation seekers. As a result, high sensation seekers readily satisfy their need for sensation in stimulating VR, reducing their subsequent desire for stimulating consumption in reality. The negative effect is also observed among consumers with high dispositional mindfulness using calm museum VR. I further find evidence for consumers’ need satisfaction in VR by showing that the negative effect diminishes when the real-world consumption experience is dissimilar (vs. similar) to the previous VR experience. Two field studies in a South Korean VR “theme park” and the National Museum of Korea, and three controlled lab experiments consistently reveal VR’s negative effects on consumers’ cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses. I highlight implications of using VR as a substitute for reality and demonstrate how VR experiences can dissuade, rather than induce, corresponding consumption in reality among target consumers.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science and Agriculture in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Science in Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2014 / In today‘s service-oriented business environments, the standard Publish-Find-Bind model as embodied by the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm presents a new strong challenge in the consumption and applicability of services to its consumers. This is because services in SOA-based environments are not built and published for predefined consumers; rather they are advertised for potentially many unknown consumers. Thus, they could be (re) used by various anonymous consumers with varying requirements and business needs. Hence, to increase service applicability and efficiency in the consumption of services, as well as to stay relevant in today‘s global market economy, service providers are expected to provide services covering such a wide variety of demands. However, they are still faced and have to deal with a number of problems which need to be balanced. Consequently, this research work addresses the problem of how to deliver customizable software services, as a way to address and/or increase the applicability and efficiency in the consumption of software services. In particular, this research proposed a service customization framework called FreeCust, which exploits the feature modeling concepts or techniques from the Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) discipline. The FreeCust framework as suggested in this research was constructed, validated, and evaluated through practical use case scenarios, proof-of-concept prototype implementations, experiments, and a comparative (static) analysis. This was to show its utility, technical feasibility, functional correctness, and business benefits. The evaluation and validation results demonstrated that the FreeCust approach has the potential or is appropriate for minimizing the complexities involved in consumers‘ service customization processes and increasing service applicability. / Telkom SA SOC Limited

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.