The advert of social media has transformed the way in which tourism businesses operate especially in the marketing of tourism services. One major tourism sector which has been influenced by social media is the accommodation subsector. Hospitality businesses are now compelled to adopt social networks for marketing purposes to keep pace with changes in consumer behaviour. Previous research has indicated that, although social media is a new phenomenon in marketing, hospitality businesses such as accommodation facilities have embraced it for marketing purposes and the usage varies from one country to another. Prior studies have also shown that social networks are now considered a major source of information for tourists and influence their decision making process. Evidence from the literature shows that little work has been done to investigate the effectiveness of social networks in marketing accommodation services in Sub-Saharan Africa. Studies on adoption and usage of social networks in the accommodation sector in South Africa and Zimbabwe are limited. This study was done to address these knowledge gaps identified in literature. The aim of this research was to determine the effectiveness of social networks in the marketing of accommodation services in South Africa and Zimbabwe. To achieve this, two literature chapters provided an in-depth discussion on social media marketing as well as the influence of these networks on tourists‟ decision-making process. For the empirical survey, the study used an electronic questionnaire which was mailed to South African accommodation establishments. The same questionnaire was hand delivered by field workers in Zimbabwe from June 2013 to July 2014. A total of 129 and 134 were completed from South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively. Factor analysis was used to identify the dominant factors influencing usage of social networks and their effectiveness. The dominant factors were further tested using t-test, chi-square test and effect sizes calculation. The results from t-test and effect sizes computation revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in both the usage of social networks and the effectiveness of social networks in the two countries. Chi-square tests results further revealed that accommodation establishments in both countries were not extensively utilising social networks for marketing purposes and social networks were effective marketing tool in the accommodation sector. The major challenges highlighted by most accommodation establishments from both countries were, time constraints, lack knowledge on the use social networks for marketing and lack of commitment to sustain social media marketing efforts. Power cuts were also another challenge for the Zimbabwean accommodation establishments. This study did not only present theoretical contributions to accommodation establishments but practical recommendations were also made. Based on the results, this study made the following invaluable contributions: firstly a social media marketing framework was proposed. This framework contributes to the body of literature that could be used for future references in the field of social media marketing. The framework provides some necessary steps that can be followed when implementing social media marketing not only by accommodation establishments but with other similar businesses. Secondly, the study addresses the gap in literature by providing evidence from a developing country‟s perspective on the usage and effectiveness of social networks an area which has received little attention in hospitality research. Findings of this study can be used as a future reference by other researchers in the field of social media marketing on the African continent. Lastly, the study also shed light on how social networks can be utilised to influence tourists‟ decision-making process. / PhD (Tourism Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The purpose of this research study is to explore how decision-makers at Born Global enterprises form their strategies during the pre-internationalisation phase. In this study the researcher has combined theories from two academic fields, namely the strategic management field and the international entrepreneurship field. The main theories inherent in the study are: the strategic lenses and the strategic schools of thought (theories that belong to the strategic management field) and Born Global (theory that belongs to the international entrepreneurship field). These recently mentioned theories has been combined, leading to a depiction of a general theoretical framework, illustrating for how the researcher has made use of the chosen theories in the study. In order to fulfil the study’s aim, the researcher has conducted a qualitative and multiple-case study, where seven different case companies (Algoryx Simulation AB, CodeMill AB, COS Systems AB, North Kingdom Design & Communication AB, Oryx Simulations AB, Prediktera AB and Xore AB) from a peripheral area of northern Sweden (Umeå and Skellefteå) have been investigated through semistructured interviews. After performing the seven interviews, the obtained empirical data has been analysed by using the analysis strategy theoretical propositions and the analytical technique of cross-case analysis. From this study, the researcher has found out that in the pre-internationalisation phase decision-makers at Born Global enterprises form their strategies in accordance with the configuration school, where these individuals alternates by different strategic making procedures along the process. This in turn implies that these individuals make use of a mixture of proactive and reactive strategy making procedures along the process, where the character of the strategy is determined by their respective applied procedures. Moreover, the research findings have showed that the selection of strategy making procedures is highly dependent on the company’s context. Additionally, the research findings indicated that legitimate key individuals such as the company’s founder/-s or entrepreneur/-s are highly involved and influential in the companies’ strategy-making process during the pre-internationalisation phase.

The contribution of rubber to national economic and social development is important for Indonesia. However, smallholding rubber, the dominant rubber producer, has low productivity. Various new technology programmes have been introduced by the Indonesian government with other agencies to increase the productivity of existing traditional rubber and incomes among smallholder rubber farmers in Indonesia. However, the adoption of new technology was low and the reasons for these were still unclear. This study explores how smallholder farmers in Indonesia adopt new technology. Rubber Agroforestry System (RAS) introduced mainly by International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Jambi and West Kalimantan provinces in Indonesia is used as a case study. A combination of Ethnographic Decision Tree Modeling (EDTM) proposed by Gladwin (1989a) and a logistic regression model were used as the main methodologies to determine the decision criteria of rubber farmers regarding adoption of clonal rubber. The EDTM as qualitative method helped to identify the main reasons, motivations and constraints that influenced a farmer’s decision to adopt or not adopt the new technology and also present details about the process of the farmers’ decision making. Meanwhile, logit as the quantitative method was useful to identify the significant variables involved in the decision making process. The results of this study show that the decision making process for adoption of clonal rubber is complex and influenced by various factors. The decision tree models for Jambi and West Kalimantan differed showing the importance of social context and infrastructure. The main reasons for a farmer’s decisions to adopt clonal rubber is the expectation that clonal rubber is better in growth and yield and it will increase production per ha and income. The decision to adopt is supported by evidence from demonstration plots, trust in the technology deliverers and availability of incentives. The main constraint in adoption for both areas was limitation of capital as the clonal rubber required more capital to establish. The other constraints are risk and uncertainties including pest and disease problems, the shortage of labour, lack of technical knowledge, lack of access to clonal seedlings, and observation of clonal rubber that has been of low quality or managed inadequately. The decision tree models have been tested and the results show that the models were able to predict the farmers’ decision making with good accuracy of 82% and 83%. In addition, the quantitative model shows the significant factors that determine adoption of clonal rubber in Jambi and West Kalimantan are land, incentives and income factors. The qualitative and quantitative methods contributed to increased robustness of data and give different kinds of valuable data and information to stakeholders and policy makers in Indonesia. In order to encourage rubber farmers in Jambi and West Kalimantan to adopt clonal rubber, this study suggests improving policies to ensure they are aligned with needs of the rubber farmers, improving farmers’ access to capital sources such as credit with simpler mechanisms, increasing the number and skills of extension workers, encouraging farmer to farmer learning, empowering farmers and leadership, improving infrastructure including better access to clonal seedlings and improving partnership with NGOs.

Background: The Chinese market is growing fast and rapidly in a high pace. Many foreign companies see the possibilities in this and are expanding their business to China. When operating business in China strategic decisions are taken by the management, sometimes without reflection of what influences the process. This makes the influence on the management strategic decision-making process vital when expanding to China, since it may reflect on the company’s strategic plans.   Purpose: To further explore and extend the research area on how the expansion to China influences the management and their strategic decision-making process.   Research questions: RQ1: Do the expansion to China influence the management strategic decision-making process?   RQ2: How does the expansion to China influence the management strategic decision-making process?   Methodology: Conducted as an abductive qualitative multiple case study, examined with semi-structured interviews with an exploratory purpose.   Conclusion: The empirical investigation showed that the management and their strategic decision-making process are influenced by the expansion to China. The influences are; rationality, decision speed, environment, politics, culture and how management view their strategy through the strategic lenses.

Eco-labels impact consumers‟ likelihood to buy eco-labelled products and serve as a tool during the decision-making process that helps consumers make informed purchase choices. The textile industry is responsible for a large amount of pollution, but has started to follow a more holistic, eco-friendly approach. Information about their eco-friendliness is communicated to consumers via eco-labels. Consumers can influence the textile industry to include more eco-labelled textile products in their desired range of products, by buying and demanding eco-labelled textile products. However, international studies indicate that consumers do not understand textile eco-labels and the information that is found on these labels. A lack of understanding prevents consumers from including such products in their pre-purchase decision-making process. Yet some consumers, from developed and developing countries, are willing to buy eco-labelled products and pay more for such products. Limited research in this regard, within a South African context, is available hence, more research was required in this study field. Therefore, this study aimed to explore consumers‟ understanding and utilisation of textile eco-labels during pre-purchase decision-making. The research for the study was done using a convenience and purposive sampling method with a quantitative structured online questionnaire for data collection purposes. Findings suggest that respondents were environmentally conscious, but only to some extent. Most respondents objectively understood textile eco-labelled products, but not textile eco-labels or organic label information regarding cotton production processes. Respondents indicated that they do not use textile eco-labels when making a pre-purchase decision, yet they somewhat recognised the need to buy eco-friendly textile products, because they are aware of environmental implications. Regarding the information on eco-labels, respondents searched for information surrounding the quality of eco-labelled textile products, followed by the care instructions and the credibility of the eco-label on the product. Finally, there was a segment of respondents who buy and utilise textile eco-labelled products, and are willing to pay a higher price for these products. The higher price was the main factor that prevented other respondents from buying eco-labelled textile products. Consumers can benefit from education regarding environmental issues and how their purchasing choices can make a difference in protecting the environment. Furthermore, educating consumers about eco-labelled textile products might increase their awareness and utilisation of these products. In turn, this awareness about eco-labels might encourage consumers to include these kinds of products in their pre-purchase decision-making process. Additionally the industry can strive towards keeping eco-labelled products‟ prices relatively equal to regular product‟s prices to make it easier for consumers to choose between the different products, based on their environmental attributes and not price. Finally, the textile industry and manufacturers can focus on making textile eco-labels more attractive and attention-grabbing in order to focus consumers‟ attention on these labels. Furthermore, on these labels, symbols and words should be used together and all elements should correspond to enhance consumers‟ understanding. If all of these elements of an eco-label convey the same message, consumers might be able to understand the intended message by manufacturers and the industry better. / M Consumer Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The purpose of this paper was to understand the factors affect on consumer behavior while buying organic and non-organic food. The author of this study aims to answer the research question: “What types of factor effect on consumer ́s behavior and decision-making process while buying organic and non-organic food?” The structure of this chapter based on these models “Factor effects on consumer behavior” and “the process of consumer ́s decision shaping” to understand consumer behavior, decision- making process, followed by the information about organic food and rules and regulation for organic selling. A combined qualitative and quantitative study used to answer the research question. The layout of the research was based on questionnaires and the interviews from the manager of five different supermarkets (ICA Maxi, Coop, Willys, Netto, Lidl). The sample size of the questionnaire was 393. Both models from the existing literature restructured according to the results. Location of the supermarkets, quality of the food, services, prices of the food, plays important role in terms of decisions making process. Motivation plays a trigger role for the consumer to buy or reject the product and the most important is knowledge. Knowledge helps the consumer to make a better decision.

According to Erikson (1968), adolescents and young people are greatly engaged in the process of identity development with the intentions to evade a state of diffusion and role confusion. Not much research in the areas of identity formation and career development has explored the possible relationship between these two phenomena. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a relationship between gender identity formation (identity statuses) and career decision-making process among high school learners. In addition the study explored if there are gender differences between males and females on identity statuses, as well as on career decision-making process. A sample of 156 Grade 12 learners participated in the study. The Revised Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (Bennion & Adams, 1986) and the Study Choice Task Inventory were administered to the learners. Findings of the study showed correlation between the identity statuses of Diffusion, Foreclosure and Moratorium for males and females and the career decision–making process. No statistically significant differences were found between males and females on the variables, namely, identity statuses and aspects of career decision-making processes. Implications for theory and practice and recommendations for future research are provided.

The traditional type of marketing is more directed towards big customer segments in specified areas. Due to technological improvement marketing has evolved into an extreme form of segmentation where marketing target the individual consumer based on their personal needs and preferences. This has led to a discussion of whether personalized marketing is something that create privacy concerns or benefits in the eyes of the consumer.     The purpose of this thesis is to explore the consumer perception of personalized marketing and how the perception affects the purchase decision-making process.   A conceptual framework was developed based on earlier research within personalized marketing. A qualitative method with an abductive approach has been used. Our primary data was collected through 8 different semi-structured interviews and consisted of men and women in the age span of 40-59 years’ old who had engaged in e-commerce at least once during the last six months.   Our empirical data has been analyzed out of the literature review, which founds the basis for our findings. Our findings show that the consumer perception of personalized marketing affect the consumer decision-making process in varying ways. A positive perception of the personalized marketing makes the consumer more susceptible to it, which further impacts the different stages in the process.

How consumers act during the buyers decision making process can change with age. How older consumers use modern technology in the buyers decision making process has however not been given a clear picture by researchers. Therefore the purpose of this study is to examine how older consumers use technology in the buyers decision making process and create a more nuanced picture of their usage. By using a qualitative method in the form of small-N-study and semi-structured interviews we have been able to answer our research questions. We have found that the technology i mainly used during the information gathering stage and the evaluation stage of the buyers decision making process, according to our respondents. From this we have been able to identify two seperate user types: Searcher-Stig and Evaluation-Ulla (Sökar-Stig och Utvärderar-Ulla). These two user types describe how older consumers mainly use technology in the buyers decision making process. / Hur konsumenter agerar i köpprocessen kan ändras med åldern. Hur äldre konsumenter sedan använder teknologin i köpprocessen är dock något som forskningen inte lyckats ge en fullständig bild kring. Därmed är syftet med denna studie att undersöka hur äldre konsumenter använder modern teknologi i köpprocessen för att skapa en mer nyanserad bild av äldre konsumenters användning av teknologi. Genom att använda oss av en kvalitativ metod i form av en små-N-studie och semi-strukturerade intervjuer har vi kunnat besvara våra frågor. Enligt våra respondenter så används mobilen främst under informationssökningsfasen och utvärderingsfasen av köpprocessen. Detta har lett till at vi kunnat ta fram två användartyper: Sökar-Stig och Utvärderar-Ulla, som skall beskriva äldre konsumenters användning av teknologi i köpprocessen.

O setor varejista brasileiro tem apresentado crescimento significativo nos últimos anos, o qual pode ser justificado, em parte, por sua capacidade em incluir uma parcela da população que até meados da década de 90 estava fora do mercado consumidor. Essa inclusão foi decorrente da concessão de crédito e de condições de parcelamento que garantiram o aumento efetivo nas vendas desse setor. Nesse contexto, pode-se perceber o efeito do crédito como atributo de grande importância na decisão de compra dos consumidores e justifica o interesse e o aprofundamento em pesquisas que permitam o maior entendimento sobre o processo de tomada de decisão na aquisição de financiamentos e sua influência na decisão dos consumidores. A partir de uma pesquisa aplicada do tipo descritiva, de base quantitativa, com consumidores de bens duráveis e semiduráveis na cidade de São Paulo, este trabalho avaliou o efeito das variáveis demográficas e socioeconômicas na preferência pelos termos de crédito e contratos de financiamento apresentados pelo setor varejista brasileiro. Como objetivo específico, pretendeu-se avaliar a sensibilidade dos consumidores às alterações nas taxas de juros e a influência do \"efeito framing\" da apresentação das propostas de crédito na decisão de financiamento, confirmando a importância das considerações sobre a racionalidade limitada e as limitações encontradas no processo de tomada de decisão de financiamento no varejo. Os resultados encontrados e o mapeamento das preferências entre as alternativas de pagamento permitiram identificar a falta de sensibilidade às variações nas taxas de juros, identificando indícios de racionalidade limitada no processo de aquisição de crédito. Foi possível também demonstrar a preferência pela proposta de pagamento parcelado, que indica a influência das formas de apresentação das parcelas, confirmando a importância do \"efeito framing\" nas escolhas dos consumidores. / The Brazilian retail industry has been significantly growing in the past few years, which can be partially justified by increasing its capacity to include a segment of the population that was not part of the consumer market until the 1990´s. This inclusion is a consequence of the credit and installment conditions that have been responsible for the effective increase in sales. The effect of credit can be perceived as a relevant attribute in the consumers´ purchase decision and justifies the interest for extensive research that allows a better understanding of the decision-making process of financing and its influence on the consumers´ decision. Based on the descriptive and quantitative research on consumers of durable and semi-durable goods living in the city of São Paulo, this dissertation evaluated demographic and socio-economic variables affecting the preference for credit agreements and financing contracts offered by the Brazilian retail industry. The specific objective was to measure the consumers´ sensitivity to variations in credit rates and the influence of the \"framing effect\" caused by presenting installments options in financing decisions, confirming the importance of the considerations about \"bounded rationality\" and the limitations in the decision-making processes for financing in retail. The outcomes and the analysis of the preferences over payment alternatives allowed the identification the lack of consumers\' sensibility on the variations of the interest rates, thus identifying evidences of limited rationality in the credit acquisition process. It has also been possible to demonstrate the preference for installments option, which indicates the influence of the payment presentation format, confirming the \"framing effect\" over the consumers´ choices.