Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo levantar, caracterizar e analisar as fontes de informações utilizadas na construção das 48 teses apresentadas no período de 2002 a 2005 ao único programa de doutorado em Contabilidade do Brasil, desenvolvido pelo Departamento de Contabilidade e Atuária da FEA/USP, Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo. Trata-se de estudo quantitativo com abordagem bibliométrica sobre as plataformas teóricas dos trabalhos, complementado por outro de natureza qualitativa, com a utilização de análise de conteúdo, envolvendo as motivações dos autores para empreender tais pesquisas. Dentre as 5.737 referências analisadas, os livros foram os documentos mais citados, seguidos dos artigos de periódicos; os cinco autores mais citados são vinculados à FEA/USP, dos quais quatro orientaram um terço das teses examinadas; Administração, Contabilidade, Economia, Metodologia Científica e Direito foram as áreas do conhecimento mais referenciadas; no âmbito da Contabilidade, os campos mais citados foram Teoria da Contabilidade e Contabilidade de Custos, Gerencial e Financeira. As motivações para pesquisar tiveram origem no mestrado, no exercício da docência, em situações vivenciadas nas empresas ou no interesse por temas emergentes; apoiaram-se na experiência acadêmica e profissional, na facilidade de acesso a dados, na relevância econômica do país, na importância do objeto de estudo para a sociedade e em discussões sobre o tema no contexto internacional; objetivaram suprir a curiosidade intelectual e oferecer alternativas para o atraso científico e tecnológico observado na área contábil. / This study aimed to survey, characterize and analyze information sources used in the construction of 48 dissertations presented between 2002 and 2005 in the only doctoral program in Accountancy, developed by the Department of Accountancy and Actuarial Science of the FEA/USP, University of São Paulo School of Economics, Business Administration and Accountancy. We carried out a quantitative study, using a bibliometric approach to the studies? theoretical platforms. This was complemented by a qualitative study, using content analysis, involving authors? motivations to undertake these studies. Among the 5,737 references we analyzed, books were the most quoted documents, followed by journal articles; the five most cited authors were affiliated with FEA/USP, four of which served as the advisors for one third of the examined dissertations; Administration, Accountancy, Economics, Scientific Methodology and Law were the most referenced knowledge areas; in the Accounting area, the most mentioned fields were Accounting Theory and Cost, Management and Financial Accounting. Research motivations emerged from the masters program, teaching, situations experienced in companies or interest in emerging themes; they were supported by academic and professional experience, easy data access, the country?s economic relevance, the importance of the study object for society and discussions about the theme in the international context; they aimed to supply the intellectual curiosity and to offer alternatives for the scientific and technological delay found in the Accounting area.

Whilst numerous studies have retrospectively reported the impact of negative user emotions, motivational problems or value clashes during software developments, few Requirements Engineering (RE) studies have considered the elicitation of users’ values, motivations or emotions (VM&Es) and there is little advice for practising analysts as to how to deal with these factors. This thesis explores the impact of users’ VM&Es within RE work. The starting point was a review of the current state of analyst practice. A literature survey considered the RE guidance available to analysts on the elicitation and understanding of ‘soft issues’ such as VM&Es. In parallel, a series of interviews with 12 industry analysts sought their views on the relevance of users’ VM&Es, the impact on requirements work, and approaches to identifying such information. This study identified behaviours adopted by experienced analysts that would be useful to promote to novice analysts, and documented the analysts’ own requirements for a method to support them in eliciting VM&Es. These findings informed the design of the Value Based Requirements Engineering (VBRE) method and website (www.vbre.org.uk), intended to support requirements analysts in identifying and considering the impact of such ‘soft factors’. Research into RE method adoption highlights the importance of industry input, so a Participatory Design (PD) approach was taken in developing VBRE, iteratively evaluating and refining the method with input from practising analysts. A series of complementary evaluations of the method are presented. An experimental study investigated the method’s utility and usability with computer science undergraduate students, whilst a set of four case studies explored adoption of the VBRE method with industry analysts. The analysts used the method during their RE work, adapting the approach according to their circumstances and levels of experience. The participants credited the method with a positive impact on their RE work and the novice analysts reported feeling more confident of their abilities to handle ‘soft issues’. The key contributions of this work are:1. An exploration of the views of practising analysts as to the relevance and impact of VM&Es within their RE work.2. Development of an analysis method and support materials to aid analysts in identifying users’ VM&Es.3. A demonstration of the utility of adopting a PD approach to the development of RE methods.4. An evaluation of the use of the method in industry, exploring the use of case studies to understand how novice and expert analysts adopt and adapt the VBRE approach. This thesis is unusual in taking a PD approach to developing a solution for a RE problem: that analysts need to understand users’ VM&Es and their impact on software projects. The VBRE method attempts to address this gap, and the positive reception given by the analysts involved in evaluation of the method indicates they see utility in the approach. Future work will focus on continuing to collaborate with industry analysts to understand their use of the VBRE method, identifying improvements to the method and website, and gathering examples of the method’s impact.

The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa is an animal-based tourist attraction that needs to offer a competitive product in order to remain relevant and to meet its various mandates. Functioning within the experience economy it strives to stage experiences that satisfy the motivations and expectations of its visitors. The study aimed at determining who visits the zoo, what motivates them to visit the zoo as well as what their expectations are and whether the zoo meets their needs in this regard. It also aimed at determining whether or not different demographic groups had different needs and whether their specific needs were being met. The study employed two self-administered questionnaires, using convenience sampling, whereby visitors entering and leaving the zoo where requested to complete the questionnaires. The data was analysed using SAS 9.2 programme and a further G-Test for goodness of fit was performed to determined dependency between race demographic and response. A total of 572 entry questionnaires and 293 exit questionnaires were completed. The two largest demographic groups that visit the zoo are white and black visitors who responded as a relatively homogeneous group. It was concluded that there were not responses in these two groups that indicated dependency between race and response. For the smaller demographic groups some of responses indicated a dependency between race and response but these form a small component of the zoo’s visitors. A high revisit and referral intention are good indicators of visitor satisfaction with 279 indicating their intention to revisit and 277 to recommend the zoo to family and friends. This study emphasises the importance of understanding the motivations, expectations and satisfaction of demographic groups as part of effective experience management. / Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Tourism Management / unrestricted

The presence of and/or search for meaning has divergent and salient outcomes for individuals’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Although numerous domains of meaning have been examined, the literature on the meaning of sex is sparse and lacks a quantitative measure. In this study, I aimed to validate a general Meaning of Sex (MOS) Measure that captured the presence of (MOS-P) and search for (MOS-S) the meaning of sex that predicted salient relational and sexual outcomes (i.e., relationship stability and satisfaction and sexual satisfaction). The MOS measure was based off of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) created by Steger and colleagues (2006), which also used the subscales of presence and searching. All participants (N = 856) reported engaging in what they considered to be sexual intercourse and were either single or in a relationship. The two subscales were distinct from one another and had good reliability. The MOS-S had a stronger (and negative) association with relationship stability and sexual satisfaction than the MOS-P. Further analyses revealed that there were significant interactions between the MOS-P and MOS-S. When individuals scored high on the MOS-P, searching for a meaning of sex no longer had a significant association with relationship stability or sexual satisfaction. Creating this measure is meaningful because it provides a more holistic picture of sexuality that has not been addressed in the literature.

Background: The fashion industry has been extensively regarded as one of the most environmentally harmful industries. There is an increasing market for fast fashion and short lifespan, resulting in the fact that environmental impact is a growing concern. Micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises currently stand for 70% of the global pollution. Further, in Sweden, this category is not as regulated as large companies regarding environmental sustainability activities.  Problem: With the fashion industry being a major factor for global environmental impact, discussions regarding the sector have emerged. Attention on companies’ environmental sustainability has increased in past years and more companies have adopted new operations. Although studies regarding motives have been done in other countries, generalization cannot be made across different nationalities, sizes and sectors. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of motives to adopt environmental sustainability within micro, small- and medium-sized businesses in the Swedish fashion industry. It aims at using previously found theories and findings to explore and create an overview of company motivations.  Method: This research was performed by a qualitative research design and 6 semi-structured interviews were conducted.  Results: The findings present the influence of several different motives. Among those were ethics and societal pressure more common than financial performance, competitiveness and brand image. There are different motives to engage in environmental operations. The ones found and presented in the theoretical summary all seemed to have a significance to some degree to the various interviewed companies.

Instagram is a phenomenon which has the recent years gotten significance within the marketing field. Traditional marketing is being replaced by online-marketing. A concept of marketing that is still evolving within the research field is Instagram influencer marketing. To understand influencer marketing, first and foremost it is crucial to understand the relation between an influencer and an Instagram user. To understand the relation, the study was conducted as a case study focusing on tourists. Furthermore, the research aimed to study a specific location and since its high number of Instagram attention received, the Indonesian island, Bali, was chosen. Thereby, this case study examined the impact influencers had on tourists of Bali. The research was implemented through a mixed methodology approach to content analysis. The data was collected directly from Instagram and contained findings such as engagement rates, favored destinations and motivations for travel. The findings showed that Instagram gains a lot of focus upon choosing a travel destination and upon visiting locations in Bali during the trip. The study concluded that influencers are being viewed asinformation sources by travelers. Furthermore, influencers impact Instagram user’s perception and create visit intention. They also implement norms on how the Instagram posts should look to be found attracting, which the users follow to make their feed look captivating.

This dissertation analyzed consumer primary motivations for attending farmers' markets, preferences for product features, and differentiated produce. We used consumer survey data collected at farmers' markets in Nevada and Utah during summers of 2008 and 2011, respectively. This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay employed binary and multinomial logistic models to assess primary consumer motivations for attending farmers' markets. Results indicate that many consumers attend farmers' markets primarily to purchase fresh produce. Other motives such as social interaction, purchasing ready-to-eat food, and buying packaged foods, arts, and crafts were also analyzed. In this first essay, consumers who attended farmers' markets were clustered into three groups based on their similar characteristics. Results from this essay are useful to vendors at farmers' markets for they indicate primary motivations to attend. It also provides guidelines to farmers' markets managers in their efforts to meet attendees' expectations. The second essay used an ordered logistic model to analyze consumer preferences for eight fresh produce features. These features are product variety, quality, appearance, pricing, local, organic, freshness, and knowledge of local growers. Findings show that consumer preferences are strong for product quality, freshness, local and organic production. Policy makers can use results from this essay to provide necessary assistance to farmers to feature their products based on consumers' preferences. Health-related policy makers can use the results to implement programs aimed at increasing fresh produce consumption. The last essay used a multinomial logistic, conditional and ordinary least squares models to respectively investigate consumer preferences for differentiated fresh produce, willingness to pay, and stated demands for green peppers, cucumbers, and yellow squash. Comparison between preferences before and those after information about production and place of production was also done. Results demonstrate that consumer willingness to pay and the probability of purchasing each of the three products grown conventionally in Utah overweight those for either organically or conventionally grown of unknown origin. This essay provides information pertaining to produce differentiation through labels. The information has significant impact on preferences for conventionally grown local produce and negative effect on conventionally grown fresh produce of unknown origin. Green peppers, cucumbers, and yellow squash are ordinary goods with inelastic stated demands. Produce growers can use results from this essay to adopt production practices to meet consumer preferences. Results are useful to policy makers in enforcing local and organic certification regulations. They can also be used for pricing and marketing strategies.

Chinese firms in the cultural and creative industry (CCI) are substantially entering the global business landscape. But research on the motivation of Chinese enterprises’ internationalization mostly remains in the traditional industries (e.g., manufacturing and mining). Therefore, this thesis aims to explore the determinants of the internationalization of firms in China’s CCI. The empirical analysis is based on a qualitative case study of ByteDance (China’s CCI “national champion” firm and TikTok’s parent firm) via interviews and second-hand data. Our findings suggest that firm-specific advantage is an essential driver for Chinese firms in CCI to engage in internationalization. Our findings also reveal that top managers’ national sentiment promotes the internationalization of CCI enterprises in China in order to enhance cultural exports, and government encouragement of cultural exports motivates thesefirms to internationalize. However, we identify that from the host-government perspective, cultural exports can turn into a liability, which creates barriers to and hinders Chinese CCI firms’ internationalization. Our findings provide fresh insights into the determinants of the internationalization of firms in China’s CCI, which contribute to the literature on internationalization, particularly on emerging-market firms’ internationalization.

Motivation in working life can be meaningful to work with. If the organization conducts stable motivational work, it can affect employees' motivation, development, and productivity. The steel industry that this study intended to examine, showed us that production managers were invested in working with motivation toward employees. The steel company that’s examined is a large organization with several thousand employees, and it is important to take care of their workers, which can be important for organizations' visions and goals. By conducting an adequate motivation work and development of employees, it can generate that existing staff with the right skills remain but also that the steel industry becomes an attractive workplace to apply to if there are development opportunities and a great commitment of managers and management. The purpose of this study was to examine how the production managers work to motivate and develop their employees in steel production. To make it possible and answer the study's purpose and research questions, seven semi-structured interviews were made with production managers who work at the steel industry company. The empirical data did analyze using the theoretical frameworks to reach a result. The results show that production managers use the education that the organization offers to motivate the employees. Production managers also work a lot with social appreciation, support, and feedback to motivate employees. Furthermore, the results show that the opportunities that production managers see with their motivational work toward employees are that they can spend time together in the production, which makes it easier to support them, give them information and resources, motivate, give feedback, and praise. Motivational work allows employees to become more independent and confident in their work roles. In conclusion, it turned out that the challenges with the motivational work in the steel industry are that time is not enough and that feedback from senior management in connection with the development of production managers was insufficient. It is important as an organization to provide all employees with development areas and motivational work, which can have a great impact on job satisfaction but also an important part for everyone to feel good in the workplace.

This study was conducted to understand the motivations that drive participants to join user experience (UX) research studies at Red Hat (software company). Mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative nature were used to gather data and determine key insights that were supported by multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks. The findings were used to inform the client (Red Hat) on how to improve their UX research recruitment practices.