To be present online is seen, in recent time, as a necessity for fashion companies in order to sustain on the market. Since online shopping lack the opportunity for customers to try on purchased products it entails a risk of experiencing dissatisfaction when orders are received. Through this, customers demand determinants that ensure safety within the purchase. Different kinds of customers might, however, possess various motivations for purchasing, stressing the requirements for variety in service value deliverance. Therefore, purchase and return policies comprise a significant importance in order to create attractiveness towards customers. The problem, though, consists of the balance between offering lenient purchase and return policies, to create competitiveness, but still considering excessive purchasing and depreciation of product value. There are several determinants affecting the shopping experience online. These were combined, with components of an online purchase, in a theoretical model to empirically test the key conceptual ideas embedded in the consumption system perspective. Further, primary data was conducted through company interviews and focus group interviews, with the aim to explore customer behavior online. Findings, from interviews compared with secondary data, analyzed through the theoretical model, indicates that the right of withdrawal and its additional components such as charges, time and inconvenience is interpreted differently by different customers. Further, it is up to e-tailers to discover the benefits and drawbacks of different policies in order to detect the most suited policy for them and their customers.

More than a decade has passed since Agnew (2005) introduced his General Theory of Crime and Delinquency (GTCD). Despite this interval, GTCD remains a relatively untested theory. Drawing on previous testing efforts, the current research provides a systematic assessment of Agnew's theoretical propositions. It also provides only the second empirical examination of Cochran's (2015) extension of GTCD, which incorporates religion as a sixth distinct life domain. Nested negative binomial regression modeling and Poisson regression modeling are used to assess the effects of life domains on several diverse forms of self-reported criminal behavior at two distinct stages of development: adolescence and adulthood. Data are drawn from two waves of the second generation of the Kaplan Longitudinal and Multigenerational Study. Consistent with prior empirical tests, results provide mixed support for theoretical propositions, highlighting the complexity of Agnew’s initial theory. Specifically, general support is provided for the direct effects of both theories’ variables, indicating they are important to the explanation of crime. Also, in line with Cochran's findings, initial observed effects of religious variables on criminal behavior are reduced to non-significance when all other predictors are introduced in most regression models, hinting that the incorporation of such variables may be incongruous with Agnew's chosen method of theoretical integration. However, religious variables emerge as significant predictors of general crime during adulthood, suggesting that the relationship between these variables and crime is more complex than anticipated. Additionally, strong support is found for the proposition that the effects of life domains are primarily contemporaneous. Results offer weaker support, however, for the assertion that life domain effects are largely mediated by constraints against crime and motivations towards it. Policy implications for the creation of theoretically-informed crime prevention and intervention strategies tailored to specific developmental stage are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine how the single-parent home environment, together with other demographic attributes like socioeconomic status, influenced young adults' decisions to enlist in the military. Adolescents transitioning into adulthood are often faced with the choices of what to do after high school, such as whether or not to join the military. Previous studies on youth enlistment in the military do not address in-depth the question of why they enlist or their motivating factors. Interviews via face-to-face, over the phone or via Skype, were conducted with 9 participants between the ages of 25-35 years who were high school graduates or GED holders who enlisted within 2 years from graduation, from single-parent homes, and separated from the military on their own accord prior to starting the study. Participants were voluntarily recruited through social media using purposeful sampling. Guided by Carl Rogers' theory of self-concept, data were analyzed via coding techniques to draw out common themes, and 4 composite themes emerged: (a) those individuals raised by absentee mothers were more likely to enlist in the military service, (b) troubled homes predicted the desire of the young adults to leave their homes, (c) evasion from the family conflict and financial stability were motivations for enlistment in the military, and (d) deprivation from human basic needs influenced the decision to enlist in the military. The findings can help with determining factors that cause disconnect in the family structure along with gaining a greater understanding a child's sense of belonging such as what is found in the military culture. Results can also be used to influence military professionals/recruiters about the specific types of individuals who are likely to be recruited into the military and how to develop and/or use tools to further assess the ability to sustain the military culture.

Social entrepreneurship is an evolving field of research, and the individual social entrepreneur has gained a lot of attention in recent decades. The empirical studies of this field are still limited, therefore, the importance of investigating this phenomenon in practice and to gain a greater understanding of the subject. The purpose of this Minor Field Study is to identify the key characteristics and motivations of the social entrepreneur, for the initiation of the social venture. In addition, contribute to the research regarding the social entrepreneurial process and the influencing factors. To accomplish the purpose of this study, a qualitative research method has been conducted in a developing country context, Nepal. Furthermore, the data has been collected from multiple cases, through conducting eight semi-structured interviews. The outcome of the study indicates the significant motivations and key characteristics that impact the social entrepreneur’s decision to establish a business with a social mission. The entrepreneurs imply the importance to achieve a balance between the social and business aspects, thus, to sustain the social business. Additionally, the findings demonstrate the factors of the entrepreneurial process and its effect on the social venture initiation.

By the 1990's many modes of artwork incorporated the constructs of the museum. Art forms including, 'ethnographic art', 'museum interventions', 'museum fictions' and 'artist museums' were considered to be located in similar realms to each other. These investigations into this emerging 'genre' of collection-art have primarily focussed upon the critique of the public museum and its grand-narratives. This thesis will attempt to recognise that the critique of institutional hierarchical systems is now considered integral to much collection art and extends this enquiry to incorporate private collections which examine the narratives of everyday existence. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach to material culture and art criticism in examining everyday objects within contemporary collection-art. In this context, this paper argues that: the investigation of collection motivations (fetish, souvenir and system) as metaphor, process and imagery in conjunction with the mimicking of museology methodologies (classification, order and display) is an effective model for interpreting everyday objects within contemporary collection-art. In formulating this argument, this paper examines the ways in which artists emulate museology methodologies in order to convey cultural significance for everyday objects. This is explored in conjunction with the employment of collection motivations by artists as a device to understand elements of human/object relations. In doing so, it contemplates the convergence between the practices of museums and collection-artists. These issues are explored through the visual and analytic investigations of key artist case studies including: Damien Hirst, Sylvie Fleury, Mike Kelley, Christian Boltanski, On Kawara, Luke Roberts, Jason Rhoades, Karsten Bott and Elizabeth Gower. In doing so, this paper argues that the everyday objects of collection-art can represent a broad range of socio/cultural concerns, so delineating a closer relationship between collection-art and material culture.

Ce travail théorique et empirique est centré sur la validité de construit des comportements de civisme organisationnel (CCO). Nous proposons une définition « théorique » (caractéristiques observables) qui synthétise les principaux éléments des définitions précédentes. La caractéristique essentielle des CCO est qu'ils sont discrétionnaires (non-imposables, leur omission n'est pas punissable). Cette définition « théorique » est articulée à une définition du « contenu » du domaine, fondée sur le modèle de Borman, Penner et al. (2001). Le questionnaire en français développé sur ce modèle s'ajuste plutôt au modèle de Williams et Anderson (1991, CCO qui bénéficient à l'organisation vs. CCO qui bénéficient aux individus). La validité divergente est étudiée au regard du modèle des cinq facteurs de personnalité. Il est argumenté qu'une meilleure compréhension des relations personnalité-CCO peut être obtenue en considérant les relations au niveau des facettes.<br /><br />Dans une seconde version du questionnaire, les CCO correspondent à un construit latent général, qui peut être distingué en plusieurs facettes plus spécifiques, comme le suggèrent Tepper et al. (2004) et la méta-analyse de LePine et al. (2002). Une analyse théorique et empirique tend à confirmer l'hypothèse d'antécédents communs aux CCO et au turn-over volontaire. La relation entre la motivation à s'engager des marins et les CCO est également étudiée. Globalement, la motivation semble être un antécédent majeur des CCO (Borman et Penner, 2001 ; Organ, 1990). Nous proposons un réseau nomologique des relations entre les CCO et divers construits de la psychologie industrielle et des organisations, incluant la dimension motivationnelle.

<p>Platser utvecklas, nya destinationer upptäcks ständigt. Människor finner varje år nya resmål att besöka av olika orsaker. Turismen är en viktig inkomstkälla för många länder och under 2008 fanns det 922 miljoner internationella turister. Turismen är den största och snabbast växande ekonomiska sektorn i världen. China Outbound Tourism Development påstår att världen kan räkna med upp till 54 miljoner kineser under detta år, 2010. Det uppskattas att cirka 6,68 miljarder dollar kommer spenderas under resorna. </p><p>Författarna av denna uppsats har utfört en studie av kinesiska turisters motiv och resebeslut till att resa till Sverige.  Syftet med uppsatsen var att ta reda på varför kineser väljer att resa till just Sverige, och vad det är som lockar de till att välja ett land, långt ifrån Kina.</p><p>Uppsatsen utgick från kvalitativa intervjuer och intervjuerna utfördes genom semistrukturerade frågor. Intervjuerna utfördes på kinesiska, som sedan översattes till svenska av författarna. För att få svar på intervjufrågorna valde uppsatsförfattarna att utföra intervjuer med kinesiska turister på olika attraktiva platser i Stockholm. Dessa var bland annat Stadshuset, Gamla Stan och Vasamuseet. </p><p>I empirin kommer läsarna att kunna läsa om bland annat vad respondenterna ansåg om Sverige och vad deras reseanledningar var, samt ifall de har planer på att återbesöka Sverige. Utifrån analyserna som har gjorts kan författarna konstatera att det är viktigt att ständigt vara uppdaterad om vad som eftertraktas på marknaden. Det är även viktigt att erbjuda det som önskas för att kunna bli en önskad destination att besöka. Resultatet av studien ledde till flera slutsatser. Utifrån intervjuerna och dess svar kunde författarna skapa ett mönster, vilket skapar en förståelse för varför besökare väljer att komma till Sverige. Dessutom fick författarna en inblick i om hur de kinesiska turisternas uppfattningar skiljer sig innan resans start och under resans gång. Nyckeln ligger i att veta vad besökaren är ute efter, vad som får denne att vilja besöka just en specifik plats och förhoppningsvis sedan göra ett återbesök till destinationen.</p> / <p>Places are developing, new destinations are constantly discovered. People find each year, new destinations to visit for different reasons. Tourism is an important source of income for many countries and during 2008 there were 922 million tourists. Tourism is the biggest and fastest growing economic sector in the world. China Outbound Tourism Development claims that the world can count on up to 54 million Chinese tourists who travel during this year, 2010. It is estimated that approximately 6, 68 billion dollars will be spent during the travels. </p><p>The authors of this thesis have conducted a study of Chinese tourists' travel motives and decisions to travel to Sweden. The mission was to find out why Chinese choose to travel to Sweden, and what it is that attracts those to choose a country far away from China. The thesis was based on qualitative interviews, and the interviews were carried out by semi-structured questions. The interviews were conducted in Chinese, which then was translated into Swedish by the authors. In order to receive a response the authors of the essay chose to conduct interviews with Chinese tourists at various attractive places in Stockholm, including the City Hall, Old Town, and the Vasa Museum. </p><p>The readers will in the empirical part be able to read about what respondents felt about Sweden and what their reason was for travel, and if they have plans to visit Sweden again. Based on the analysis that is done, the authors’ note that it is important to be constantly updated about what is in demand at the market.  It is also very important to offer what is desired in order to become a preferred destination to visit. The results of the study led to several conclusions. From the interviews and the responses the authors could create a pattern, creating an understanding of why visitors choose to come to Sweden, how their perceptions differ before starting the journey and after the voyage. The key is to know what visitors are looking for, and what they may want to visit at a specific location, and then hopefully do a return visit to the destination.</p>

<p>This Project Research is the result of our Master Thesis, which concerns the attitude of sharing knowledge among managers and employees across countries inside a  Multinational Corporation.</p><p>This thesis deals with the question of how multinationals work with knowledge embedded in people which must be transferred within the company itself and among this latter and its subsidiaries.</p><p>According to the premise that knowledge is arguably one of the most important factor in today's economy, the key challenge for companies, therefore, is to develop, apply and then transfer knowledge, in order to improve the competitive advantage. On the bases of it, we would like to analyze the overall transfer knowledge process and from a human resources management point of view, we would like to individuate the stones which block this process and then to discuss the probable implications for multinationals.</p><p>We have chosen <strong>PROACT Group</strong>, a consultancy services, support and systems firm in the fields of storage and archiving as our case study.</p><p>This study involves a survey on thirty-two participants among managers and employees from the eight international subsidiaries of the PROACT Group. We have used a multilevel analysis, including top line level and bottom line level to retrieve comprehensive data on knowledge sharing to do an in-depth analysis of the staff's knowledge sharing in the organization. At bottom line level, this research tries to identify the employee's cognitive feelings of shared knowledge. At top line level, the manager's knowledge sharing behaviours with employees and the factors affecting knowledge sharing behaviours in teams. We also test moderating factors in both levels in order to get the willingness to share their knowledge in the organization.</p><p>This study examines three keys aspects which include transfer knowledge process, culture influences and incentives to deal with the barriers.</p>

<p>The aim of the study states what is expected to be achieved by the study overall. According to Brink, Van Der Walt and Van Rensburg (2006), the aim should include the target population, research setting and the research variables. The aim of this study is to investigate the academic transitional challenges (variable) postgraduate students (target population) experience in the Faculty of CHS at UWC (setting) and to determine whether students utilize the available support systems provided. Research objectives Objectives are defined as clear concise declarative statements that are expressed in present tense, which indicate the specific information the study must yield (Burns &amp / Grove, 2003). The objectives of this study are: To determine the academic preparedness of the postgraduate students as evidenced by experience and previous participation in research activities, publications and papers delivered prior to postgraduate enrolment / To determine if postgraduate students make use of the support services offered by UWC to facilitate smooth academic transition / To determine the primary motivations of students enrolling for postgraduate studies in the faculty / To compare the characteristics of postgraduate students with academic preparedness and primary motivations.</p>

<p>In this thesis, I explore the code-switching practices of long-term Angolans migrants in Cape Town when they interact with those who have been here for a much shorter period. In my Honours research essay, I revealed a tendency among those who have lived in Cape Town for some time to code-switch from Portuguese to English even in the presence of more recent migrants from Angola, who have little or no mastery of English. This thesis thus considers the effects of space, discourses of power, language ideologies and attitudes on the patterns of inter- and intra-sentential code-switching by these long-term migrants in interaction with each other as well as with the more recent &ldquo / Angolan arrivals&rdquo / in Cape Town. Twenty Angolan migrants participated in this study. Of these, ten were long-term migrants to South Africa, while a further ten were relative newcomers. While the long-term migrants could claim to be bilingual in Portuguese and English, the newcomers were largely limited to a few English words in their repertoire. However, both groups could speak one or more of the indigenous languages of Angola, like Kimbundu, Umbundu, Kikongo and even Lingala (which is an indigenous language from Republic Democratic of Congo). Some of the long-term migrants had even acquired South African indigenous language such as isiXhosa and Afrikaans. The study made use of qualitative ethnographic methodologies to collect the data. These included recorded conversations, individual and focus group interviews, both general observation and participant observation.</p>