Scholar transport in South Africa remains an area that needs to be addressed in the interest of all communities, rich and poor alike. The National Development Plan 2030, provides a clarion call for nation building to develop highly knowledgeable South African citizens for building innovative capacity for the nation as a whole(NDP, 2014).

This master thesis is focused on the analysis of consumer behaviour on the sporting goods market, especially cycling and skiing products. I connected and used in practice my long-lasting interest and experience in both those sports with my knowledge of consumer behaviour gained during my university of economics study. In the beginning of the thesis, there is described theory of consumer decision-making and market segmentation. The core part of the thesis is dedicated to analysis of research. Its goals are to gain complete overview about consumer behaviour on sporting goods market and about consumer preferences, to phrase typical consumer behaviour of cyclists and skiers, to compare their behaviour, find their common and different parts and deduce an appropriate recommendation for retailers.

The main object of my diploma thesis is try to find out if the consumers in the Czech republic are influenced by advertising or not. The first part is focused on advertising, forms and the advertising media. Second chapter deals with the the theory and consumer behavior, the typology and making decisions. Second part is based on statistics and points to the research about advertising. The last chapter describes the results of my own research among people in the Czech republic, mainly people living on the South of Bohemia and in Prague.

With more consumer product companies analysing the requirements for successful entry into African markets, the main factors they seek to determine are concerned with understanding the African consumer, so that these companies are enabled to provide products and services that relate to the inherent needs and wants of these consumers. This research study analysed the factors that affect the consumer decision-making process in East and West Africa. The countries that were focused on for this study were Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana. The results of the study revealed that there is a unique macroeconomic environment in both East and West Africa that has resulted in the rise of low-end and high-end consumers. Profiles of each of these consumer types, as well as regionally specific nuances have been provided. It was also established that there are many factors that affect the consumer decision-making process in these regions. These can be grouped into product factors, marketing factors, environmental factors and purchasing factors. These behavioural nuances can be used by consumer product companies to properly prepare market entry strategies for East and West African markets in order to meet customer demands. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Background: Several crises have passed and today, the world is witnessing the pandemic Covid-19. As a consequence, society is affected at large where new insights and attitudes are born. Existing literature suggests that a crisis may be a crucial determinant in shaping one’s attitudes and actions, and therefore marketing needs to adapt to these new attitudes and expectations. Involving consumers' perception of this issue, together with companies’ views within the industry, lies the foundation for this research to investigate any changing consumer attitudes towards the airline industry during Covid-19. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumer attitudes have changed within the airline industry in Sweden due to the Covid-19 pandemic, applying both consumers’ and companies’ perspectives to provide managerial implications for marketers. Method: With an interpretive nature, the study is qualitative added by quantitative measures, hence stated as multi-method. Primary data is collected through an analytical survey and four semi-structured interviews.  Findings: Investigating attitudes from economic, social and environmental perspectives, the study concludes that consumer attitudes have changed in several perspectives while some attitudes stay consistent with pre-crisis attitudes, hence not directly affected by the crisis. The empirical findings are coherent with the conceptual framework, explaining the complexity of the tourism airline industry and how new attitudes that arise from the Covid-19 pandemic is a predictor of future behavior during the crisis, which may be useful for future crises to come.

Nowadays, consumers are being exposed to a large selection of food alternatives with an aim of helping with health matters. For that reason, the consumption of healthy food has been increasing among people, but at the same time, the consumption of unhealthy food has expanded. Due to the advanced technology, there is more information available about health, which makes the consumers’ knowledge about diseases caused by their way of living to grow. Simultaneously, there has been studies proving that consumers’ choices do not often resemble their attitudes.  Since consuming healthy food is more popular nowadays, this study had the aim of examining if consumers will choose a grocery store based on different attributes. The study is based on several theories that are the starting point for the study’s research questions which are; Does the selection of healthy food affect consumers’ choice of a grocery store? Does nudging of healthy food affect consumers’ choice of a grocery store? The theories that are used in this study are nudge theory, libertarian paternalism theory, behavioral economics, theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior, social marketing theory, choice architecture, cognitive architecture and status quo.  The data was collected through a questionnaire, where different questions had the aim to measure what affects consumers when choosing a grocery store. In total, the study gathered a sample of 136 responses whereas 8 of them were removed from the study as outliers. The outcome of this study is based on two independent variables; healthy food and nudging and one dependent variable; choice of grocery store. These variables are composite variables created from a range of other variables. The composite variable healthy food is created from variables checklist, avoidance of unhealthy/unnecessary food, people’s affection, healthy thinking, food habits, attitude of healthy eating, past purchasing behavior, intention and behavior, same groceries and new groceries. The composite variable nudging is created from variables product placement, memory, product placement affection on consumers’ purchasing behavior and visible healthy food. The dependent variable choice of grocery stores was created from the variables; number of healthy food alternatives, price of healthy food, marketing of healthy food and place of grocery store.  This study was analyzed in the data program STATA where a multiple linear regression was used to test the hypotheses. According to the result from the regression analysis, there is a significant level between healthy food and consumers' choice of grocery stores. In addition to that, the study shows that there is a significant level between nudging and consumers' choice of grocery stores. Thus, the null hypothesis of this study was rejected.

Globalisation, together with increased competition amongst retailers, has applied immense pressure on retailers to become more consumer-orientated. Retailers are, consequently, trying to differentiate their offerings by providing improved services to their consumers to obtain a competitive advantage. Service failure is, however, inevitable. An unfavourable service encounter (service failure) mostly leads to dissatisfaction. A consumer’s response to dissatisfaction is referred to as “consumer complaint behaviour”. Consumers’ complaint action can be categorised into three response behaviours namely: private action, public action and taking no action. Behind each complaint action lies specific motivations. Motivation research attempts to find the underlying why of an individuals’ behaviour. Marketers need to understand consumer motives as it provides them with the opportunity to anticipate and understand consumer complaint behaviour within the South African marketplace. Studies on the motives driving consumers’ complaint behaviour following an in-store service failure in the South African clothing retail context is lacking. This is surprising given the fact that an understanding of consumer complaint motives is critical in recovering service failures and handling complaints. An understanding of the motives for consumer complaint behaviour could help clothing retailers to understand the value of paying attention to and dealing with consumer complaints, specifically in a South African context. This research study, therefore, primarily focused on exploring and describing South African consumers non-complaint motives and complaint motives following an in-store service failure. The study used an explorative, quantitative research approach. A survey was conducted in South Africa which included consumers 19 years and older who reside in major urban areas across South Africa. Respondents completed an online self-administered questionnaire which included adapted versions of established scales. Lastly, the data was captured and coded and then analysed by statisticians of the University of Pretoria by making use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of this study indicated that the respondents were motivated to take action following an in-store service failure, rather than deciding to take no-action. Respondents would also rather partake in private action as opposed to public action. The EFA on the non complaint motives indicated that three factors are the underlying driving forces that keep consumers from taking action. These include protecting the self and convenience, the facto that it is not worth complaining, and willingness and ability to handle CCB. Through the descriptive statistical analysis, as well as the inferential statistical analysis (EFA), it became evident that the most important motive for deciding to partake in action, either private or public, were altruistic motives. Anger and the intention to harm the retailer appeared to be the least important motives for deciding to take action. From this study, it is recommended that clothing retailers and marketers in South Africa pay specific attention to use these motives, specifically altruism, to encourage customers to partake in public complaint behaviour. Apart from the useful considerations this study elicited for the industry, it also makes a valuable contribution towards the literature. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Consumer Science / MConsumer Science (Clothing Management) / Unrestricted

Includes bibliographical references / The absence of appropriate and effective mechanisms for consumer disputes in a legal system can result in a denial of access to justice. Consumers struggle to have their disputes settled because most of their claims are of small value and some consumers are low-income earners. Costs of litigating a claim in the formal court system are very high and the procedural formalities involved hinder consumers‟access to justice. As a result, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) seems to address that challenge as an appropriate approach to consumer disputes because it promises cost effective, efficient and fast mechanisms of resolving disputes. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of alternative dispute resolution in Lesotho in consumer protection. This is achieved by examining the available dispute resolution processes and how they function. Also, this study makes a comparison with the South African law regulating consumer protection in particular dispute resolution. It discusses ADR in consumer protection at international level as contained in the OECD report and EU Directives. The problem that exists in the market place is that bargaining power favours the sellers. As a result there are laws in place that protect consumers against manipulative or fraudulent sellers, but those laws do not mean anything to consumers if they cannot be enforced through proper channels for their benefit. Therefore, there have been various ADR mechanisms adopted by different legal systems in order to assist consumers to fully realise their rights. Some of these ADR mechanisms might be appropriate for consumer disputes but are very advanced and are not appropriate for a country like Lesotho due to the nature of consumers there and the country‟s economy. Despite South Africa being more economically developed compared to Lesotho it has introduced some of the ADR procedures which are easy to establish and seem to be working well to address consumers‟ claims. As a result, this study would recommend Lesotho to amend its laws in relation to consumer dispute resolution and revise Consumer policy which has been adopted recently.

While Ireland remained neutral throughout the Second World War, it was not spared from the economic and social consequences of the conflict. This time in Ireland is known as ‘the Emergency’ and shortages of essential goods exacerbated poverty, often with fatal consequences for the worst off. In 1941, Hilda Tweedy organized a petition signed by Irish women that was sent to Government in pursuit of a variety of policies intended to alleviate some of the harshest suffering caused by economic turmoil and minimal government intervention. This petition ultimately laid the groundwork for the subsequent formation of the Irish Housewives Association in 1942. This Association was involved in a wide array of activities, but consumer protection and the cost of living were of preeminent concern throughout their existence. The Irish Housewives Association has received some historical attention for its feminist activities, but I propose that many of their initiatives can be usefully analyzed through theories of nationalism. I argue that the theoretical innovations of everyday nationalism and consumer nationalism possess previously unrecognized utility for illuminating women’s experience throughout this period of Irish history. / Graduate / 2021-08-25

The influence of selected socioeconomic factors on the consumer awareness of women was investigated. An instrument was developed to measure the consumer awareness of individuals. The three areas assessed were awareness of existing problems in the marketplace, awareness of laws that control these problems and sources of help for the consumer when she encounters these problems. A profile of a woman with low consumer awareness was constructed from the results of the data collected In the study. She will have an annual income of less than $8,000; she will have a high school education or less; her husband will be employed in sales, clerical or managerial work; her husband will be 40 or older and they will have no children living at home. The results of the study indicate that a ll women need assistance in be coming more aware of existing consumer protection laws and of sources of help with consumer problems. All women were more aware of possibilities of where to go for help than of what protection the law provides .