Title: Is trust in SEM an intergenerational trait? Date: 2018-05-22 Level: Bachelor Thesis in International Marketing Author: Jesper Fredlund 930427 & Timmy Biedron 961128 Supervisor: Henrietta Nilson Problem formulation: How do age correlate with trust and attitude towards SEM on Google in Sweden? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to see if the Swedish Digital Natives are more likely to be trusting search engine marketing, as opposed to the older generations of Digital Immigrants, and by doing this gaining a better understanding of the attitudes towards search engines and search enginemarketing in Sweden. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of this paper consists of theories about BannerBlindness, Text Blindness, EHS Theory, Search Engine Marketing, Sponsored Links, Organic Links,Generations. Methodology: This is a quantitative study with 429 respondents in an online survey. It contains Swedish users of search engines divided into groups of those born before 1980 and those born after. Empirical findings: Our study found out that Digital Natives are slightly more likely to favour Search Engine Marketing than Digital Immigrants are. Conclusion: No matter the target of your Search Engine Marketing campaign you should approach itcautiously, since both Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants have been shown to hold a negative bias against these campaigns over organic links. Keywords: SEM, SEA, Search Engines, Search Behaviour, Organic links, Sponsored links.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand millennials search behavior on mobile devices. Research Questions: How do millennials value organic and sponsored search results on mobile devices? What are the Web advertising variables that affect millennials attitudes towards sponsored search ads on mobile devices? Methodology: Data was collected from 103 Swedish millennials through an experiment and survey. Conclusion: The findings of this research supports the variables of entertainment and incentives to have a positive association with millennials attitudes towards mobile search ads while irritation, informativeness and credibility were only partially supported when testing independently with attitudes. An overall negative attitude could be seen toward sponsored links when participants motivated their action to click. Moreover, the results illustrated a higher attitude value towards mobile search ads to reflect an increased click behavior on sponsored search results.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:09:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 parte1.pdf: 3631290 bytes, checksum: 019467916297b1472f7b373fc796e634 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-09-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This work is a study of the evolutionary process of the Government-sponsored grocery markets and the revolution occurred at the grocery retail in the last decades. It identifies the architectural and urban parameters that are basis for a project methodology apply to Government-sponsored grocery markets. With this purpose, a research was done about the layout as well as the architectural shape of those markets throughout history; it was investigated the function and the new paradigms of retail, the importance of hygienic and secure food to define the parameters for quality control, the consumer decision-make process at the retail environment and the logic of the location for those urban equipment at the urban grid. At last, it is described the phases that compose the architectural planning of a Government-sponsored grocery markets, organizing a flowchart of activities to assure the development of a rational and systematic project process. / Este trabalho faz uma incursão sobre o processo evolutivo dos mercados e a revolução ocorrida no varejo de alimentos, nas últimas décadas, para identificar parâmetros arquitetônicos e urbanísticos que embasem uma metodologia de projeto aplicada a mercados públicos. Para tanto, realizou-se uma pesquisa sobre as configurações morfológicas do mercado ao longo da história, investigaram-se o papel e os novos paradigmas do varejo, a importância da higiene e da segurança alimentar na definição de parâmetros para o controle de qualidade, o processo de decisão do consumidor no ambiente varejista e a lógica da localização destes equipamentos na malha urbana. Por fim, descrevem-se as etapas que compõem o planejamento arquitetônico de um mercado público, organizando-as em um fluxograma de atividades, de modo a assegurar o desenvolvimento de um processo projetual racional e sistemático.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / William F. Blankenau / This dissertation consists of three essays on how health and education affect the labor market outcomes of workers. Health and education issues have been key determinants of labor demand and supply. In light of increasing incidence of health problems and the rapid growth of post-baccalaureate certificates in the US, this dissertation seeks to answer questions about labor market outcomes of workers with poor health history and with post-baccalaureate certificates. The first essay which I co-authored with Dr. William Blankenau and Dr. Benjamin Schwab uses a résumé-based correspondence test to compare the employment consequences of an illness-related employment gap to those of an unexplained employment gap. The results of the experiment show that while the callback rate of applicants with an illness-related employment gap is lower than that of the newly unemployed, applicants with illness-related employment gaps are 2.3 percentage points more likely to receive a callback than identical applicants who provide no explanation for the gap. Our research provides evidence that employers use information on employment gaps as additional signals about workers' unobserved productivity. Co-authored with Dr. Amanda Gaulke and Dr. Hugh Cassidy, the second essay tests how employers perceive the value of post-baccalaureate certificates using the same methodology in the first essay. We randomly assign a post-baccalaureate certificate credential to fictitious résumés and apply to real vacancy postings for managerial, administrative and accounting assistant positions on a large online job board. We find that post-baccalaureate certificates are 2.4 percentage points less likely to receive a callback than those without this credential. However, this result is driven by San Francisco, and there is no effect in Los Angeles or New York. By occupation, we also find that there is only significant negative effect in administrative assistant jobs, and there is none in managerial or accounting assistant jobs. A typographical error made in the résumés of certificate holders regarding the expected year of completion of the certificate may also contribute to negative effects of a certificate. Using NLSY79 data, the third essay tests whether the source of health insurance creates incentives for newly-diagnosed workers to remain sufficiently employed to maintain access to health insurance coverage. I compare labor supply responses to new diagnoses of workers dependent on their own employment for health insurance with the responses of workers who are dependent on their spouse's employer for health insurance coverage. I find that workers who depend on their own job for health insurance are 1.5-5.5 percentage points more likely to remain employed and for those employed, are 1.3-5.4 percentage points less likely to reduce their labor hours and are 2.1-6.1 percentage points more likely to remain full-time workers.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Education) / Deficit models dominate current research on academic retention and success in South African higher education and internationally. Most studies focus on students who are at risk of exiting higher education prematurely or those who fail academically because of their socio-economic conditions. Dropout and failure in existing research is often correlated to class and lack of access to financial resources. The prevailing philosophy based on needs assessment, deficit intervention and problem-solving does not sufficiently facilitate the academic success of diverse learners. Yet, surveys in most countries show that addressing weakness does not necessarily help people improve in their performance more than will highlighting their strengths (Hodges & Clifton, 2004). In contrast, this study adopts a strength-based approach, drawing largely on ‘ecological’ perspectives which recognize the importance of people’s surroundings and the multifaceted variables constantly at play, impacting the lives of students throughout the world. A strength-based model is posited as a pragmatic approach to pedagogy in the 21st century. This perspective recognizes the resilience of individuals and focuses on potential, strengths, interests, abilities, determination and capabilities rather than limits. This study accepts that there are persistent challenges to widening participation in South African universities, and leakages in the education pipeline continue with little improvement in graduation rates. However, there are numerous undocumented examples of academically successful students from working-class backgrounds whose academic attainment is not accounted for. Empirical data is required to establish the relationship between academic success and the resilience of undergraduate sponsored students from working class backgrounds. The case study examines factors that influence the academic attainment of undergraduate sponsored students and the institutional practices that enhance their performance at the University of the Western Cape. Factors motivating sponsored students from poor communities to succeed were explored. Furthermore, institutional influences that are relevant to, and inform students’ academic attainment are investigated. The study utilized a variety of data including relevant institutional documents, interviews with sponsored students and secondary data sourced from the Institutional Quality Assurance and Planning department. Findings of the study show that affordability through funding for equitable access to higher education is a motivating factor in academic attainment for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Also, participants in this study attributed their success to nurtured resilience across the institution, and the supportive relationships established through structured intervention programmes in and out of class. It is important to note, contrary to findings in other studies, that low socio economic background was more of a motivational factor and being resourceful for social mobility. This study adds to the limited understanding of the academic attainment of students from poor backgrounds who succeed against all odds. This provides direction to universities for adopting different approaches and offers insights for the University of the Western Cape into the experiences of its graduates. Based on the findings, the study highlights recommendations and opportunities for future investigation. / Ngalo-Morrison, L. (2017). Factors influencing the academic attainment of undergraduate sponsored students at the University of the Western Cape: A strength-based approach. PhD thesis. University of the Western Cape

The aim of this research was to find relationships between complimentary advertising strategies and sponsored search advertisement (SSA) in order to formulate a model to maximise return on investment achieved from online sponsored search advertisements. The results obtained from statistical analyses of SSA campaign data showed that complimentary online and offline advertisement campaigns have various different correlations to impressions, click-through rates, number of pages visited, time spent visiting a website, bounce rate of visitors to the website, cost-per-click and number of new registrations per keyword search from visitors gained through SSA campaigns. In particular, online display advertisements were found to have a slight positive correlation with new registrations made by customers gained through a simultaneously running SSA campaign. Offline radio adverts were found to have a positive correlation with impressions gained for SSA campaigns, whilst at the same time showing a negative correlation with the number of pages viewed by website visitors obtained through the SSA campaign. Some negative correlations to SSA campaign performance were also found, with the time visitors spent viewing the website decreasing, their bounce rate increasing and the cost-per-clicks for the keywords in the SSA campaign also increasing during periods when offline radio adverts were active. Offline television adverts were found to have a negative correlation with impressions gained for SSA campaigns, as well as the click-through rate for the keywords in these SSA campaigns. Offline television adverts did however also show a negative correlation with the cost-per-clicks for keywords in the SSA campaigns. Finally, a graphical model was developed to illustrate these correlations found between complimentary advertisement campaigns and SSA performance metrics. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Venture capital finances high-risk, high-return projects. In addition to financing, venture capitalists provide advice and expertise in management, commercialization, and development that enhance the value, success, and marketability of projects. Venture capitalists also have skills in selecting projects with potentially high returns. The first chapter investigates the contracting relationship between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in a setting where the venture capitalist and entrepreneur contribute intangible assets (advice and effort) to a project that are non-contractible and non-verifiable. In general, in the private market equilibrium, advice provided by the venture capitalist and the number of projects funded are lower than the social optimum. Government tax and investment policies may alleviate these market failures. The impact of a capital gains tax, a tax on entrepreneur’s revenue, an investment subsidy to venture capitalists, and government run project enhancing programs are evaluated. Finally, we analyze the effects of a government venture capital firm competing with private venture capital. The second chapter focuses on competition in venture capital markets. We model a three-stage game of fund raising, investment in innovative projects and input of advice and effort, where fund raising is used as an entry deterrence mechanism. We examine the impacts of taxes and subsidies on venture capital market structure. We find that a tax on venture capitalist revenue and a tax on entrepreneur revenue increase the likelihood of entry deterrence and reduce the number of projects funded in equilibrium. A subsidy on investment reduces the likelihood of entry deterrence and increases the number of projects funded. The third chapter examines the venture capitalist's choice of investment in project selection skills and investment in managerial advice. We model, separately, a private venture capitalist and a labour-sponsored venture capitalist (LSVCC) with different objectives. A LSVCC is a special type of venture capitalist fund that is sponsored by a labour union. The private venture capitalist maximizes its expected profits, while the LSVCC maximizes a weighted function of expected profits and returns to labour. Consistent with empirical evidence, the quality of projects, determined by project selection skills and managerial advice, is higher for the private venture capitalist.

The purpose of this research study was to determine what service attributes were perceived as important factors for a successful Office of Research Administration (ORA) to provide to principal investigators and department administrators. Initially established more than 50 years ago, The Office of Research Administration (ORA) has evolved into an integral component for the fiscal sustainability of many institutions of higher education. Existing performance metrics based on financial measures do not sufficiently capture the quality of the level of service demands placed on the ORA by the two internal user groups. The conceptual basis of the Balanced Scorecard modified for the non-profit sector served as the theoretical framework. The study involved 668 respondents (433 principal investigators and 235 department administrators) from 72 research universities. Principal investigators and department administrators agreed on 18 service items as important performance metrics for successful Offices of Research Administration. However, the two groups did vary somewhat in the degree of importance of these 18 service items. Four services, responding to email and phone messages within 24-48 hours, easy access to forms, and timely setup of the internal award account were identified as priority factors by greater than 90 percent of the principal investigators. In addition to these four items, another six items-trainings for new employees and training updates for existing employees, equal treatment by the ORA, easy access to policies, and promoting a team effort approach to research-were identified as prior factors by greater than 90% of the department administrators. Demographics did not display a significant relationship in the perceptions of either group. Principal investigators did display a higher satisfaction for level of performance for the items of importance, especially related to the priority factors at their current institutions.

The master's theses, which examines the phenomenon of state-sponsored terrorism giving the example of Islamic Republic of Iran, consists of two sections, general and specific. In the first part main theoretical concepts and definitions are be introduced. The author gives priority to differentiation between the terms of terrorism, state-sponsored terrorism and marginally also to the problematic definition of state terrorism. Detailed description of the concept of state-sponsored terrorism follow. Last but not least the author provides an insight into the history of the occurrence of this form of terrorism. The merit of the work, however, remains in particular case study of the state- sponsored terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Iran. To understand the context and causes of supporting terrorism, it is necessary to become familiar with the history of Iran (especially since 1979), its political system and the current situation in the country. This thesis will examine the reasons that led Iran to support terrorism on domestic and foreign soil, and specifically focusing on the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which Iran founded and have significantly sponsored for a long time. The intention of the thesis is to identify the main causes of Iranian support for terrorism, to determine how the relationship...

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