The transition towards a sustainable and low-carbon future requires significant changes in energy behaviour among energy consumers. However, the question remains about how, by whom, and what changes are necessary to achieve this transition. While many policies have been implemented to overcome these barriers, current policies focus on technology market development and market failures. Policies that address behavioural anomalies are limited, leading to a lack of engagement and awareness among many energy consumers. This issue is particularly prominent among hard-to-reach (HTR) consumer groups, which can be found in both the commercial and residential sectors (Rotmann, Sea, 2019). The impact of HTR energy consumers on energy efficiency measures and the achievement of climate neutrality remains largely unexplored. It is necessary to identify and understand these groups to address this gap. By doing so, it is possible to help them change their energy consumption behaviour towards a more sustainable and low-carbon future (Rotmann, Sea, 2019).This project aims to provide insights into HTR energy consumers in Sweden and assess their impact on achieving climate neutrality. The primary objective is to identify the most common HTR groups, their main barriers, and the potential drivers that could help change their energy consumption behaviour. A detailed literature review is conducted to gather information on practical and theoretical cases globally to achieve these objectives. After the literature review, a semi-quantitative data analysis has identified and classified HTR energy user in Sweden, by using modelling software like Mental Modeler. A qualitative analysis was carried out to analyze the HTR groups, identify their main barriers and potential drivers, and to understand their energy behaviour better. From the literature review, it was found that high income, low income, and elderly are hard to reach, and there is a research gap of their behavior, needs and how to address their challenges to energy consumption. The findings revealed that high energy prices, subsidies, economic conditions, and energy production were key driver components that could not be controlled by individual energy consumers. Therefore, policymakers must implement policies that address these root causes, such as investing in renewable energy sources, increasing competition in the energy market, and offering targeted subsidies for energy-efficient products and services. Additionally, policies that promote economic growth and stability can help to improve energy efficiency by reducing the financial strain on households. Overall, this study highlights the need for comprehensive energy efficiency policies that target both the demand and supply side of energy consumption to promote sustainable and affordable energy use in households, which is crucial for achieving long-term energy and climate goals. / Övergången till en hållbar framtid med låga koldioxidutsläpp kräver betydande förändringar i energibeteendet bland energikonsumenter. Frågan kvarstår dock om hur, av vem och vilka förändringar som krävs för att uppnå denna övergång. Även om ett stort antal policyer har implementerats för att övervinna dessa barriärer, fokuserar nuvarande policyer främst på teknikmarknadsutveckling och marknadsmisslyckanden. Policyer som tar itu med beteendeavvikelser är begränsade, vilket leder till bristande engagemang och medvetenhet bland många energikonsumenter. Denna fråga är särskilt framträdande bland svåråtkomliga konsumentgrupper, som finns i både kommersiella och bostadssektorer (Rotmann, Sea, 2019). De svåråtkomliga energikonsumenters inverkan på energieffektivitetsåtgärder och uppnåendet av klimatneutralitet är fortfarande i stort sett outforskad. För att komma till rätta med denna klyfta är det nödvändigt att identifiera och förstå dessa grupper bättre. Genom att göra det kommer det att vara möjligt att hjälpa dem att ändra sitt energikonsumtionsbeteende mot en mer hållbar framtid med låga koldioxidutsläpp (Rotmann, Sea, 2019). Detta projekt syftar till att ge insikter om HTR energikonsumenter i Sverige och bedöma deras inverkan på att uppnå klimatneutralitet. Det primära målet är att identifiera de vanligaste HTR-grupperna, de huvudsakliga hindren de möter och de potentiella drivkrafterna som kan bidra till att förändra deras energiförbrukningsbeteende.En noggrann litteraturöversikt genomförs för att samla information om praktiska och teoretiska fall globalt för att uppnå dessa mål. Efter litteraturöversikten har en semi-kvantitativ dataanalys identifierat och klassificerat HTR-energianvändare i Sverige genom att använda modelleringsprogramvara som Mental Modeler. En kvalitativ analys utfördes för att analysera HTR-grupperna, identifiera deras huvudsakliga hinder och potentiella drivkrafter och för att bättre förstå deras energibeteende. Från litteraturgenomgången framgick det att höginkomsttagare, låginkomsttagare och äldre är svåra att nå, och att det finns en forskningslucka vad gäller deras beteende, behov och hur man kan hantera deras utmaningar i energikonsumtionen. Resultaten visade att höga energipriser, subventioner, ekonomiska förhållanden och energiproduktion var viktiga drivkomponenter som inte kunde kontrolleras av enskilda energikonsumenter. Därför måste beslutsfattare genomföra politiska åtgärder som adresserar dessa grundorsaker, såsom investeringar i förnybara energikällor, ökad konkurrens på energimarknaden och erbjudande om riktade subventioner för energieffektiva produkter och tjänster. Dessutom kan politiska åtgärder som främjar ekonomisk tillväxt och stabilitet hjälpa till att förbättra energieffektiviteten genom att minska den ekonomiska belastningen på hushållen. Sammanfattningsvis betonar denna studiebehovet av omfattande energieffektivitetspolitik som riktar sig mot både efterfråge- och tillförselssidan av energiförbrukningen för att främja hållbar och ekonomiskt överkomlig energianvändning i hushållen, vilket är avgörande för att uppnå långsiktiga energi- och klimatmål.

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In marketing and other social sciences, researchers often use field data to empirically study how people make decisions in naturalistic environments. There are numerous theoretical and practical challenges to doing so, and in this dissertation, I propose methodological approaches to address two such challenges. First, people often make complex decisions that are described in terms of high-dimensional or unstructured variables (e.g., writing text or choosing an assortment from a large set of options) which are difficult to analyze relative to simpler decisions (e.g., binary choices). Second, when analyzing how people's decisions are affected by a major event (e.g., regulatory changes or a global pandemic), events often affect a large population of interest simultaneously, making it difficult to assess the impact of the event relative to a counterfactual where the event did not occur. In Chapter 1, I address the first challenge in the context of non-cooperative games. I develop a novel neural network architecture that enables behavioral analysis of complex games by estimating a game's payoff structure (e.g., win probabilities between pairs of actions) while simultaneously mapping agent actions to a lower-dimensional latent space that encodes strategic similarities between actions in a smooth, linear manner. I apply my method to analyze a unique dataset of over 11 million matches played in a competitive video game with a large array of actions and complex strategic interactions. I find that players select actions that counterfactually would have performed better against recent opponents, demonstrating model-based reasoning. Still, players overrely on simple heuristics relative to model-based reasoning to an extent that is similar to findings reported in lab settings. I find that noisy and biased decision-making leads to frequent selection of suboptimal actions, which corresponds to lower player engagement. This demonstrates the limits of player sophistication when making complex competitive decisions and suggests that platforms hosting competitions may benefit from interventions that enable players to improve their decision-making. In Chapter 2, I address the second challenge, proposing a general and flexible methodology for inferring the time-varying effects of a discrete event on consumer behavior when the event spans the target population being analyzed, such that there is no contemporaneous "control group" and/or it is not possible to measure treatment status. I achieve identification by exploiting the empirical regularity of customer spending patterns across cohorts (i.e., groups of customers who adopted the same product or service at different times), comparing purchasing behavior across cohorts who were affected by the event at different points in their tenure. My method applies nonparametric age-period-cohort (APC) models, commonly used in sociology but with limited adoption in marketing, in conjunction with a predictive model of the counterfactual no-event baseline (i.e., an event study model). I use this method to infer how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected 12 online and offline consumption categories. My results suggest that the pandemic initially drove significant spending lifts at e-commerce businesses at the expense of brick-and-mortar alternatives. After two years, however, these changes have largely reverted. I observe significant heterogeneity across categories, with more persistent changes in subscription-based categories and more transient changes in categories based on discretionary purchases, especially those of durable goods.

Master of Science / Food Science Institute / Koushik Adhikari / The market of nail polish has been booming in recent years. Research on nail polish is scarce. A sensory lexicon for nail polish has been developed at Kansas State University, but how sensory factors affect female consumers’ acceptability of nail polish has not been examined. Also, other factors, such as price and usage characteristics that could affect consumers’ acceptability, are yet to be determined. A nail polish consumer study was conducted at Kansas State University to explore several sensory and non-sensory factors that could affect female consumers’ acceptability of nail polish. Eight nail polish samples, belonging to four categories, namely, regular (REG), gel (GEL), flake (FLK) and water-based (WAT), were evaluated by each of the 98 female consumers. The questionnaire consisted of three sections – application, observation and general usage questions. Results showed that consumers rated the samples similarly in both the application and observation sections. In general, consumers preferred the REG and the GEL samples more than the FLK and the WAT samples. Among all the sensory attributes, appearance attributes were the major attributes that affected consumers’ overall acceptability, while aroma had negligible impact on acceptability. Some sensory attributes like runny, shininess, opacity, spreadability, smoothness, coverage and wet-appearance were found to drive the consumer’s overall acceptability positively, while others such as pinhole, fatty-edges, blister, brushlines, pearl-like, flake-protrusion, glittery and initial-drag impacted their liking negatively. Four clusters of consumers were identified based on the consumers’ overall liking scores for both the application and observation sections. Considering all the factors that could affect consumers’ acceptability, sensory appeal, price, and conveniences of usage were the top factors picked by consumers. Age was also a factor that affected consumers’ acceptability for some of the samples. Consumers’ overall acceptability for these studied samples could guide a beauty store or a nail salon on building their selection on nail polishes. Consumers’ acceptability on different sensory attributes could help a nail polish company modify or improve their nail polish formula. The consumer cluster information could benefit a nail polish company on marketing a specific category of product and advertising to a specific group of consumers.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 B37 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 C36 / Master of Science / Family Studies and Human Services

The purpose of the study was to investigate Oriental women's clothing acquisition behaviors and to compare their body measurements with the measurements listed in Voluntary Product Standard, PS 42-70. A questionnaire was administered to 101 Oriental women residing in Tucson, Arizona. Thirty-nine body measurements were taken from each subject in the sample. The major type of store used most frequently was department store. It appears that Oriental women were not impulsive buyers or influenced by suggestive selling techniques but highly represented careful shopping characteristics. Fit was the most important consideration in purchasing a garment. Newspapers were the major information source of fashion for Oriental women. A significant fitting problem area appeared in garment length when Oriental women purchased ready-to-wear. Bigger differences were found in vertical than the circumference body measurements for Oriental women when the mean of body measurements was compared with the PS 42-70 measurements.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Fashion Design, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / This study aims to investigate the effect anti-establishment branding has on teenage consumer behaviour within the action sports market, as well as the various factors which influence teenagers when purchasing clothing. The study challenges the notion that teenage consumers respond to, and are influenced by the unconventional marketing campaigns of action sports brands. The results of this study indicate that the action sports market initially captivated the attention of the youth by offering teenagers a sense of acceptance through rebellion. Unfortunately, as the movement grew in popularity the exclusivity of the movement decreased and the clothing associated with it became viewed as too ‘mainstream’ by the wearers. Although the anti-establishment movement is striving for individuality and shies away from conformity, the study found that there appears to be a misconception in the notion that all ‘brands’ are susceptible to ‘trends’ which are driven by ‘designers’. Therefore, there can never be a pure ‘anti-establishment brand’ as the concept of a brand rejects the purpose of anti- establishment rebellion. / National Research Foundation

Dissertation submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Business Administration, 2008. / The aim of the study was to identify causes of churning, to find ways of managing it and to diagnose customers‟ communication needs. Furthermore the research tested the impact of messaging services on customer retention and whether these services could compensate for the declining revenue or become new cash cows for service providers. The units of analyses were young people of ages ranging from 15 to 24. This group was chosen because it was found, during the study, that they used new services more often than any other age group. The initial plan, however, was to interview the entire population of cellphone users. Stratified random sampling was used to randomly select the units of analysis. Interviews were conducted at the homes of respondents, in the streets and at a shopping centre. Causes of customer churning were found to be billing by service providers that confused customers and „better phone deals offered by the competitors‟ resulting in some of the respondents switching providers. Other aspects about which respondents complained and which therefore could cause churning are „poor network quality‟, „confusing pricing structure‟ and „long waiting on customer care line‟. The respondents indicated that their communication needs could be satisfied by services that are easy to use, a helpful customer care agent and being able to retain a number when switching a service provider. Therefore churning could be managed by removing or reducing the causes of it and attracting the customers by meeting their communications needs, which are, improving customer care service and designing services that are easy to use. The research was inconclusive on the messaging services. Of the three new messaging services that were studied, only one was extremely popular, while the other two were hardly used. Instant messaging was the second most used service to voice and SMS and it was also ranked second, in order of importance. The other two messaging services, mobile email and MMS, received low rankings from the respondents. In addition more than a quarter (27%) of the respondents had never used mobile email. The implications of these findings are that service providers should improve their customer care service and design services that are easy to use.

Ambush marketing has recently become a large problem for event owners and official sponsors. One of the main focuses, in the field of ambush marketing, has been about consumers' attitudes towards ambush marketing. However, the research field has a gap in what affects consumers’ attitudes. The purpose of this thesis is to explain the causal effect between consumers’ culture factors and their attitudes towards ambush marketing. This thesis uses a conceptual model that is based on theories in national culture, marketing and psychology. This thesis uses a positive, deductive approach with an explanatory research design. The quantitative method is a survey that is handed out to Swedish students and exchange students from China. Analyses show that consumers' culture has a significant correlation to their attitudes towards ambush marketing. Consumers in cultures with high power distance and/or collectivism, have a significant stronger negative attitude towards ambush marketing, compared to consumers who have low power distance and/or individualism. The theoretical implications in this thesis fill the gap about what causal effect culture factors have on consumers’ attitudes towards ambush marketing. This thesis has also contributed to the more controversial belief, that the consumers’ do not have such negative attitude towards ambush marketing. The findings will be of managerial use for event owners who are taking actions against the ambush companies. Limitation of this study is that theory on the cultural factors is only based on one theoretical framework, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.