The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) on the consumers’ brand perception. It is assumed that if CSR has any effect on the consumers’ brand perception it is supposed to be found as a component of the brand image.  The aim is to get realistic insight into the role of CSR in the consumers’ brand perceptions. Therefore it was needed to overcome essential limitations that previous studies had faced. Past researches have applied similar methods whereby almost no attention was given for the limitations that came along with experiments and quantitative approaches. This study tried to elude such constrains with an approach different to the most that have been conducted previously. Previous researches used to support their respondents either during their studies or beforehand with additional information about CSR in general, companies’ CSR activities or asked right from the beginning, directly and explicit about consumers perception about CSR. This research avoided “feeding” participants with any information on CSR, in the early stages of the in-depth interviews. But in the last stage, interviewers asked directly consumers on how they perceive CSR, in order to be able to compare whether artificial awareness biases or influences consumers’ perception of CSR. By this the topic under study was enlightened from another angle, results could support a holistic overview on the topic from an exceptional perspective.  This thesis applied a qualitative approach as the researchers expected that the results for the complex topic under study would be more meaningful, rich and unveiling than numerical measurements. Therefore, in-depth interviews with German consumers have been conducted. The study illustrates the complexity of the consumers’ perceptual process. The process is influenced by numerous variables and in particular by the individual personality of the consumers. As each human person has its own personality the individual impact is hard to cover. Nevertheless a model was created by using the dimensions “Personal Motives” and “Attitudes toward CSR”. As a result four types of consumers were discovered: “Passivists”, “Cynics”, “Egoists”, “Idealists”. In the model consumers are characterized by their personal motives, their attitudes toward CSR, their general interest in CSR, their attitudes towards perceived motives of the company and their perception of certain causes. It is expected that the model contributes constructively to the research in the field of CSR and that it provides complementary information for decision makers from the economy.

Top Choice (n = 48) and Select (n = 48) paired bone-in ribeye rolls, bone-in strip loins, and boneless top sirloin butts were assigned randomly to one of two aging treatments (dry or wet) and aged 14, 21, 28 or 35 days. Sensory and Warner-Bratzler shear (WBS) evaluation was conducted to determine palatability characteristics. WBS values and consumer ratings showed wet-aged ribeye steaks to be more tender than their dry-aged counterparts. WBS values for ribeye and top sirloin steaks decreased with increased aging time. Consumer ratings for tenderness like increased with increased aging time for beef steaks from all three subprimals. No significant differences were found for consumer evaluation of top sirloin steaks. Top Choice ribeye and top loin steaks received higher consumer ratings for overall like and juiciness attributes when compared to Select steaks. Cutting tests were performed at the end of each aging period to determine retail yields and processing times. Retail cutting tests showed dry-aged subprimals had lower total saleable yield percentages and increased processing times compared to wet-aged subprimals. Cooler shrink and gross cut loss percentages increased with increased aging time for both Top Choice and Select subprimals.

Phytosterol is a healthful ingredient that helps reduce blood cholesterol levels. It has been over ten years since the first phytosterol-enriched product, Benecol margarine, was launched in Finland in 1995; however, understanding of this product is still limited. In addition, it has been shown in the literature that health-related concerns have an influence on consumers’ decisions to consume harmful or beneficial ingredients. This study estimates the demand for three phytosterol-enriched products in the categories of margarine, orange juice and yogurt. The objectives of this study are (1) to estimate price and expenditure elasticities for phytosterol-enriched brands and comparative non-phytosterol brands, (2) to identify cannibalization effects with a proposed methodology, and, (3) to estimate the welfare effects associated with the introduction of a product. Subsuming LA/AIDS, Rotterdam, CBS and NBR demand systems, the Barten synthetic demand system is applied to margarine weekly scanner data. Phytosterol-enriched margarine brands (Benecol and Take Control) commanded significantly higher prices relative to other margarine brands. Strong substitutability among the phytosterol brands was evident as suggested by the statistically significant and relatively large compensated cross-price elasticities. Cannibalization is defined as the competition between products offered by the same firm. Cannibalization studies are important to multi-product firms because they provide insights into the benefits of offering product variety. In addition, the identification and assessment of cannibalization are integral factors for strategic decisions of new product introductions. However, there are no standard measures to identify its effects. We use the Barten synthetic demand system along with two conventional measures to illustrate that the use of cross-price elasticities derived from a flexible demand system is a viable alternative to identify cannibalization effects. The third objective analyzes the consumer welfare effects associated with a new functional food product introduction. Using the Barten synthetic model and pre- and post-introduction scanner data, we estimate direct price and variety effects associated with the introduction of a new functional food product (i.e., phytosterol-enriched product). With post-introduction data and an assumed demand structure, we also estimate indirect price effects. Our results suggest notable welfare effects consisting of a relatively small price effect and a large variety effect.

The online game industry grows rapidly in these few years. Attrated by the huge market revenue, many game developers start to produce or publish the online game products. This results in a large amount of online game products. The purpose of this study is to understand the consumer behavior of online games. The lifestyle and the demography will be discussed in this study. The focus of this study is to find out if the consumer behavior will be affected by the difference of the lifestyle and demography. This thesis is based on the E.K.B. Model to develop the structure of consumer behavior, and refers to the A.I.O.structure for the lifestyle dimensions. A structured questionnaire is used to investigate the consumer behavior for online games. The findings are as follows: First, the characteristics of online game consumers are Male, 19 to 30 years old, student, college degree and income per month under 10,000. Second, consumers tend to use internet to find related information. Third, while selecting an online game product, consumers put more emphasis on the company service. Fourth, most consumers purchase the online game and the subscription fee card in the convenience stores, but the percentage of consumers obtain these via internet is increasing. As for lifestyle and demography, demogrphy affects consumer behavior significantly, but the lifestyle doesn¡¦t. Online game developers or publishers should provide good service. Also they can develop different marketing strategies for different market segments based on the demography.

Since the internet opened for commercial use, more and more electronic stores are built on the World Wide Web. Functions such as bidding, auction, and bargaining become popular in those stores. Bargaining in electronic commerce is the newest application of computer agents. Previous research has shown that consumers prefer shopping in bargaining stores even when there is no financial gain, especially in oriental cultures. This research performs empirical study to examine the factors that affect the consumer bargaining behavior. The results indicate that (1) The product type has significant effect on the final price; (2) External reference price has little effect on consumer bargaining behavior; (3) Gender has no significant effect; (4) The consumer¡¦s experience in using internet has significant effect; (5) The experience of internet purchase significantly affects the first offer price from the consumer.

This research aims to realize the relationship between store image and consumer purchasing behavior of coffee chain store in Kaohsiung city. In order to paint a vivid picture of consumer behavior in Kaohsiung coffee chain store, this research tries to analyze the importance of store image and customer¡¦s satisfaction. The research is only conducted in Kaohsiung area and the range includes some specific coffee chain systems that open above 5 stores in Kaohsiung. In this case, the research is focus on three coffee chain stores ¡GSTARBUCKS, DOUTOR and BRUNCH . A total number of 315 effective questionnaires are collected until the end of April in 2003 . In this research, some attributes of store image are grouped into six dimensions. They are products, services, atmosphere, convenience, advertising¡Aand promotion and solid equipment .The six-dimensional research structure contains 26 attributes which are measured by Likert Scale to understand the importance of store image ,customer¡¦s satisfaction and total store image . The following are the results of this research ¡Gone result shows the level of significance with regard to the differences between importance of store image and customer¡¦s satisfaction. This reveals that customers dissatisfy with some attributes when they patronize coffee chain stores. The whole store image has positive correlation and level of significance with consumption, frequency of purchase and Re-patronage but doesn¡¦t show the level of significance with staying time. The result shows significantly different with total store image and consumer¡¦s satisfaction but doesn¡¦t show significantly different with the importance of store image in different coffee chain stores. The research also reveals significantly the difference among consumption, re-patronage and companies yet the difference with frequency of purchase and staying time in different coffee chain stores. The last but not the least, in different coffee chain stores, the research has the education difference but not the difference with gender , marriage, age, occupation and income .

Thesis (M.Env.Stud.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-145). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-178). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.