abstract: Convergent products are products that offer multiple capabilities from different product categories. For example, a smartphone acts as an internet browser, personal assistant, and telephone. Marketers are constantly considering the value of adding new functionalities to these convergent products. This work examines convergent products in terms of the hedonic and utilitarian value they provide along with whether the addition is related to the base product, revealing complex and nuanced interactions. This work contributes to marketing theory by advancing knowledge in the convergent products and product design literatures, specifically by showing how hedonic and utilitarian value and addition relatedness interact to impact the evaluation of convergent goods and services. Looking at a greater complexity of convergent product types also helps to resolve prior conflicting findings in the convergent products and hedonic and utilitarian value literatures. Additionally, this work examines the role of justification in convergent products, showing how different additions can help consumers to justify the evaluation of a convergent product. A three-item measure for justification was developed for this research, and can be used by future researchers to better understand the effects of justification in consumption. This work is also the first to explicitly compare effects between convergent goods and convergent services. Across two experiments, it is found that these two products types (convergent goods versus convergent services) are evaluated differently. For convergent goods, consumers evaluate additions based on anticipated practicality/productivity and on how easily they are justified. For convergent services, consumers evaluate additions based on perceptions of performance risk associated with the convergent service, which stems from the intangibility of these services. The insights gleaned from the research allow specific recommendations to be made to managers regarding convergent offerings. This research also examines the applicability of hedonic and utilitarian value to a special type of advertising appeal: reward appeals. Reward appeals are appeals that focus on peripheral benefits from purchasing or using a product, such as time or money savings, and make suggestions on how to use these savings. This work examines potential interactions between reward appeals and other common advertising elements: social norms information and role clarity messaging. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2012

The theme of the thesis is an analysis of current mobile operator selected services. This work focuses on the present and the future development of mobile internet connection. The aim is to analyze existing services at Telefónica Czech Republic and The work is divided into several parts. The first part focuses on the selection of a particular operator. I described at al. Czech Republic and Telefónica, which is the first integrated operator in the Czech Republic. The company currently operates more than seven million mobile numbers and fixed lines, making it one of the leading providers of fully converged services in Europe. I focused on the organizational structure of the company and its description. The second part is historical, describes the history of mobile networks in the CR, the history of mobile communications in the data and the development of mobile connections in the country. The third part is theoretical, describes al. Czech Republic Telefonica SpA in terms of services it offers in this section is also described ISO certification, EMS policy and business principles. Are described voice and mobile services, mobile data services and connectivity technologies and different types of technologies (GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSPA + and LTE). Another section includes the development of mobile connections in the CR, the current situation where Telefónica provides 3G connection for almost 71% of the population and the current state of commercial LTE network. I tried to describe the current mobile platforms, and even telecommunications market in the Czech Republic. The penultimate section specifies the geographic traffic distribution network operator and the last part, I dealt with the analysis and comparison services. The total contribution of the thesis see the approach and evaluation of existing services together. Telefónica Czech Republic, as, which is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world.