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Yes / Objective: To develop a model of the psychological factors which predict people’s intention to adopt personalised nutrition. Potential determinants of adoption included perceived risk and benefit, perceived self-efficacy, internal locus of control and health commitment. Methods: A questionnaire, developed from exploratory study data and the existing theoretical literature, and including validated psychological scales was administered to N = 9381 participants from 9 European countries (Germany, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and Norway). Results: Structural equation modelling indicated that the greater participants’ perceived benefits to be associated with personalised nutrition, the more positive their attitudes were towards personalised nutrition, and the greater their intention to adopt it. Higher levels of nutrition self-efficacy were related to more positive attitudes towards, and a greater expressed intention to adopt, personalised nutrition. Other constructs positively impacting attitudes towards personalised nutrition included more positive perceptions of the efficacy of regulatory control to protect consumers (e.g. in relation to personal data protection), higher self-reported internal health locus of control, and health commitment. Although higher perceived risk had a negative relationship with attitude and an inverse relationship with perceived benefit, its effects on attitude and intention to adopt personalised nutrition was less influential than perceived benefit. The model was stable across the different European countries, suggesting that psychological factors determining adoption of personalised nutrition have generic applicability across different European countries. Conclusion: The results suggest that transparent provision of information about potential benefits, and protection of consumers’ personal data is important for adoption, delivery of public health benefits, and commercialisation of personalised nutrition. / This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n u 265494 (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html). Food4Me is the acronym of the project ‘‘Personalised nutrition: an integrated analysis of opportunities and challenges’’ (http://www.food4me.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Consumers of mental health services are recognized as experts due to their rich lived experiences. Because of their expert status, they are expected to play a vital role in the re-shaping of mental health systems by determining what culturally competent services look like and how services are provided to culturally diverse populations. Therefore, it is essential that the consumers' voices, choices and roles in transforming the mental health system are included in assessing the cultural competence of mental health counselors (New Freedom Commission, 2003). There is a significant gap in the literature regarding the consumers' unique perspective (Pope-Davis et al., 2002). There is a need for both qualitative studies and studies that focus on consumers to gain a deeper, richer insight of the consumers' perspective (Rubin & Rubin, 1995). A qualitative phenomenological design was used to give voice to three participants regarding their perceptions of cultural competence in the counseling relationship. Phenomenological interviews were used to explore in depth and with diversity the participants' subjective meaning of the lived experience (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003). Constant comparative research methods were used to analyze the data. Four themes naturally emerged from the data. Theme 1) Defining Cultural Competence was discussed as being inclusive of all differences; not focusing solely on race or ethnicity, including more than recognizing obvious differences, and counselors' willingness to raise and engage in the issue of culture. Theme 2) Counselor Attitude participants voiced that counselors' attitude plays a significant role in whether certain topics are broached and how much is shared about the topic. They reported what counselors convey through their attitude and interactions as being more important than what they convey verbally. Theme 3) The Counseling Relationship was discussed in regard to the importance of counseling relationships that fosters an environment of safety where sharing information and teaching and learning is reciprocal between counselor and consumer and Theme 4) Counselor Attributes were found to be more important than counseling techniques and theories. The findings are presented in a discussion of themes with narratives developed about each case. / Ph. D.

Consumer spending accounts for over sixty-five percent of the Gross Domestic Product in the United States, greatly affecting the economy, as well as the retail sector. The consumer, rather than business or government, has become the dominant factor in shaping the course of the aggregate U.S. economy (Curtin, 1982). The purpose of this study is to examine whether the economy, as perceived by consumers, has any effect on the apparel purchase expenditures of consumers, and if so, how personal factors such as gender, age, income, educational attainment, race, and marital status contribute to their perceptions and decisions. A research model was created using consumers' current economic perceptions, future economic perceptions, and importance of fashion as predictors of apparel expenditures. Demographic variables were included to see if demographics had any significant influence on current and future perceptions, importance of fashion, and/or apparel expenditures. Data for this study was obtained by administering a paper and internet survey to 166 consumers in the stratified market of Roanoke, VA. One-way ANOVA analysis findings indicate that age had an influence on consumers' future economic expenditures. Age and education had an influence on consumers' importance of fashion, while marital status had an influence on apparel expenditures. Regression analysis indicated that consumers' perceptions of current and future economic conditions and importance of fashion were significant predictors of consumers' apparel expenditures. Recommendations include collecting real expenditure amounts, comparing perceived economic conditions data to real economic indicators, and comparing Consumer Expenditure Survey data with real economic indicators. / Master of Science

At risk individuals tend to avoid information that might perturb their sense of security. I propose certainty appraisal as an important emotional dimension that affects health message processing and persuasion. Specifically, I suggest that emotions high on certainty appraisal can provide confidence to cope with the insecurity instigated by threatening health communications. Five studies are proposed to demonstrate the interaction of certainty appraisal with two health message characteristics: vulnerability to threat and response efficacy. Studies 1-3 provide evidence that when a health threat is highly self-relevant uncertainty related emotions impede processing whereas certainty related emotions facilitate it. Studies 4-5 show that individuals who are feeling uncertain prefer to attend a high efficacy message as it offers reassurance via useful recommendations. The findings extend affect regulation theories to involve emotional uncertainty as a state to be "repaired" by avoiding further deterioration or striving for restoration. / Ph. D.

Although the advance of social media has enabled people to build social connections much more easily than ever before, loneliness—an aversive feeling of being isolated and disconnected—persists in modern society. In this dissertation, I examine when, how, and why loneliness influences consumer behavior. First, I develop an experimental method to induce loneliness and identify a circumstance that experimenters can obtain a successful loneliness priming effect. Across three experiments, I demonstrate that the same loneliness primes produce different loneliness responses based on the availability of cognitive resources. Specifically, participants who are cognitively depleted tend to rely on responses evoked by the loneliness primes (showing the intended loneliness priming effect) while those with abundant cognitive resources are not affected by the loneliness primes. Building on the findings from Experiments 1-3, I investigate how loneliness affects consumer behaviors in two different marketing contexts, nostalgic product consumption and charitable giving by focusing on how consumers cope with loneliness through consumption. In Experiments 4-5, I demonstrate that consumers who lack cognitive resources tend to form positive attitudes toward nostalgic products when experiencing loneliness. In Experiments 6-7, I show that lonely consumers with limited cognitive resources are likely to donate money to a charitable organization. Additionally, I find that consumers can regulate feelings of loneliness by spending money either for themselves (i.e., nostalgic products) or for others (i.e., charitable giving). This dissertation contributes to our understanding of loneliness in marketing by identifying a circumstance in which such emotional distress significantly influences consumer behavior and by showing how consumers spend money to cope with loneliness. / Ph. D. / Although the advance of social media has enabled people to build social connections more easily than ever before, loneliness—an unpleasant feeling of isolation and disconnection—persists in modern society. The purpose of this dissertation is to expand our understanding of how consumers behave when faced with the unpleasant feeling of loneliness. Specifically, in this dissertation, I examine when, how, and why loneliness influences consumption behaviors such as preference for nostalgic products and charitable giving. First, I identify a way to experimentally manipulate consumers’ feelings of loneliness. I then apply this methodology in order to investigate behavioral differences between more and less lonely participants. Specifically, I demonstrate that lonely consumers are likely to prefer nostalgic products. This effect occurs because nostalgic consumption is associated with an expectation of positive emotions that consumers may seek out in part to reduce feelings of loneliness. In a similar vein, I show that loneliness can increase consumers’ intentions to donate to a charity. Importantly, such intentions to donate are differentially impacted by the types of charitable organizations represented. Specifically, lonely consumers are more likely than less lonely consumers to donate money to a charity supporting a person-related cause (e.g., helping children). Such an effect occurs due to the expected psychological benefits such donations will yield, such as anticipated positive emotions from helping others, which may help lonely consumers overcome their negative feelings. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of loneliness in marketing by showing that consumers may strategically spend money, either on products or via donations, to cope with their emotional distress. Several implications for marketing researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Social buying is a recent marketing innovation in which provides Pareto-improving welfare gains to merchants, consumers, and brokers. Consumers benefit from access to significant discounts on advertised products and services, the broker benefits from taking a significant cut in each transaction with very low fixed costs, and merchants are able to reduce their advertising costs, gain access to new markets and drive traffic to their stores. The phenomenal growth of social buying carries commensurate risks for brokers, including increased competition due to a lack of service differentiation and low entry barriers. The complete social buying transaction is completed over two stages: the initial online e-commerce transaction and the subsequent fulfilment transaction where the voucher is redeemed with the merchant. In order to explore the sustainability of the social buying business model, it is necessary to identify the factors which drive loyalty behaviours in social buying, as well as the interrelationships between the factors. This research proposes from the marketing literature Oliver’s (1980) expectancy-disconfirmation theory (EDT) as the main theoretical framework on which to model these relationships. EDT is then successfully synthesised with DeLone and McLean’s (2003) information systems success model to create a framework which can appropriately model both the online and traditional stages of the social buying transaction. This study contributes to the marketing literature by establishing EDT as a suitable framework for investigating social buying. It is believed that this study is the first to do so. Furthermore, it is believed this is the first study examining the social buying innovation in the South African context. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

The main purpose of this Diploma Thesis is to provide an overview of the Czech Consumer behavior and the American Consumer behavior based on the marketing parameters, economic elements and sociocultural dimensions that affect their purchase decisions. This thesis portraits the different purchase directions and preferences of the modern societies in USA and Czech Republic and the reasoning behind them therefore it will allow future investors and entrepreneurs to understand their business surroundings and make informed decisions towards specific objectives and targets in the both countries.