Purpose – This research aims to explore the effectiveness of utilising Benefits Realisation Management (BRM) as part of comprehensive success measures, emphasising the stage in-between appraisal and evaluation of projects in the UK public sector. Design/methodology/approach – The study is constructed as a qualitative case study. Semi-structured interviews are used as part of the inductive, exploratory approach to achieve the study's objectives. It employs an approach based on grounded theory for its analysis. Findings – This paper suggests that Benefits Realisation Management is not used effectively in the UK public sector during projects lifetime to control and monitor projects and ensure their success. The current reviews of projects and programmes, through their execution, may not be sufficient. Research limitations/implications – This study offers contributions to the project success literature and benefits management literature by adding empirically supported insights about BM utilisation during project reviews. The research may be limited primarily by the research method – predominantly the snow-balling data collection. The assumptions made about the UK public sector may limit the broader generalisation of the findings. Practical implications – This research may be used to advise the practising managers of the need to maintain benefits orientation after appraisal throughout a project's lifetime and after delivery. Project governance structures are advised to update and improve their current project review practices. The study additionally identifies possible obstacles to the process and biases. Originality/value – This paper attempts to fill a literature gap by providing empirical results that explore the success definition and measures and the effectiveness of BRM during project execution and gate reviews. Keywords: Benefits Management; Project Success; Project Performance; Performance Measurement; Public Sector. Paper type: Research Thesis

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Sometimes games that belong to the same genre achieve different levels of success among the playerbase of the genre. As an example, of two space RTS games Homeworld (released in 1999) and O.R.B. (releasedin 2002), which feature a similar setting and similar gameplay mechanics, Homeworld has beenmore successful. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons for the different popularityof the two games, using game reviews as the primary source of data to learn about the strengths andthe weaknesses of the two games. Thematic analysis has been applied to a total of 27 game reviewsof space RTS games Homeworld and O.R.B. Codes describing various strong and weak aspects of bothgames have been extracted from the texts. The codes have been grouped into various categories traditionallydescribed in game reviews, such as the story line, the UI, the graphics, etc. Using these codesas a basis, a number of explanations have been suggested as to why the game Homeworld has beenmore successful than the game O.R.B. The main reasons discovered are that Homeworld was releasedseveral years before its competitor and that some of important game features of O.R.B. suffered frompoorer technical execution in comparison to equivalent features in Homeworld.

M. Tech. (Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / While more than half of the South African adult population are active microbloggers, the most common topics that are discussed include current affairs, sports and music entertainment. Nonetheless, there exists intrinsic fear about the credibility of digital content, which stems from the fact that there are limited standards for quality control in the microglogging sphere. Consequently, this apprehension exacerbates potential problems pertaining to ascertaining the reliability of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication. In this vein, this study seeks to investigate the salience of selected determinants on consumers’ perceptions about the credibility of microblog music reviews and future eWOM adoption. The sample comprised 485 self-reporting microbloggers residing in the southern Gauteng region of South Africa. The study applied a quantitative approach, whereas cross-sectional data were collected only once from the sample using a paper and pencil based self-administered questionnaire in 2018. Moreover, a positivist philosophy was followed, whereas hypotheses were framed from the credibility heuristics theory, posited as the underlying cues that aid consumers in the online credibility verification process. The formal protocol for research ethics were followed upon collecting empirical data, whereas the multi-item survey questionnaire was tested for reliability and validity. The hypotheses testing comprised an estimation of two regression models. From the findings obtained, it is evident that source credibility, information quality, homophily and prior beliefs confirmation are the four heuristics that pose a significant effect on the evaluation of microblog music reviews by consumers, yielding approximately 43.3 percent explanatory power on the overall credibility of microblog music reviews. Moreover, the second regression model proved the positive effect of microblog music review credibility on eWOM adoption, whereas the independent variable explains 30.7 percent of the variance in eWOM adoption. These findings point to the significance in applying the heuristics in evaluating microblog music reviews created by South African consumers. As such, the findings could assist both microblog administrators and marketing communication practitioners to better design the platforms to facilitate reader credibility evaluations about various products.

This diploma thesis deals with two literary debuts, the novel by the French writer Édouard Louis Ending with Eddy B. and the novel by the Czech author Lucie Faulerová Lapači prachu (The Dust Catchers). First, it deals with the phenomenon of art criticism as such and tries to describe various theoretical approaches to it, which can then be used in the practical analysis of critical texts. It then analyzes and attempts to interpret each of the works and analyzes their critical acceptance. In the case of Édouard Louis, these are both reviews published in Czech cultural and news periodicals and selected (most important) English-language critics published in the American, British and Irish media. In the case of Lucie Faulerová, the work deals only with Czech criticism, offering an almost complete overview of major texts evaluating Dust Catchers. The work tries to capture the different approaches of critics to both novels and to the role of the art critic as such. At the end of the work there is a comparison of works and their critical acceptance.

Title: The power of eWOM and online reviews on Generation Z - a quantitative study about to what degree do eWOM and online reviews influence Generation Z’s purchase intention regarding interior design in Sweden. Background: This thesis explains the influence of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and online reviews on the purchasing intention of Generation Z, the world's largest consumer group, within the interior design industry in Sweden. As a result of their constant exposure to marketing through various platforms and social media, eWOM and online reviews have become increasingly influential in consumer purchasing intention. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explain to what degree do eWOM and online reviews influence Generation Z’s (those born between 1995-2005) purchasing intention regarding interior design in Sweden. Method: The empirical findings were obtained using quantitative research with a deductive approach. Data collection was done through an online survey completed by participants born between 1995-2005 and did not exclude any other age groups. After analysing the findings through an independent sample t-test and Cronbach’s alpha test, they were compared and contrasted with the existing literature to determine their similarities and differences. Conclusion: Overall, this research contributes to our knowledge of consumer behaviour and provides guidance for companies and their marketers aiming to target Generation Z. Understanding the influence of eWOM and online reviews enables companies to adapt their marketing strategies to align with this generation's preferences and trust factors.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur svensklärare på mellanstadiet arbetar med bokrecensioner i undervisningen, vad de anser att bokrecensioners syfte är samt vilka metoder de anser vara gynnsamma i arbetet. Detta är en kvalitativ studie där semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med åtta lärare för att påvisa likheter och skillnader mellan deras olika arbetssätt och tankegångar. Efter genomförda intervjuer analyseras de utifrån en tematisk analys.Resultatet visar att lärarna har en övervägande positiv inställning till bokrecensioner. Dock förekommer det en tvetydighet bland dem, samtidigt som de menar att bokrecensioner är ett fördelaktigt moment som kan inkludera flera viktiga kunskapsutvecklande delar menar de också att momentet inte ska ta allt för stor plats i undervisningen då det finns andra saker som behöver mer utrymme. Syftet med bokrecensioner tycks inte vara att eleverna ska utveckla sina kunskaper kring bokrecension som genre utan de används mer som ett verktyg till att kontrollera elevernas läsförståelse och andra färdigheter. Resultatet visar också att särskilda metoder i själva verket sällan används i arbetet kring bokrecensioner eftersom syftet mer är av kontrollerande karaktär än utvecklande av elevernas genrekunskaper. / The purpose of the study is to examine how teachers at secondary school work with book reviews in their teaching, what they consider the intent of book reviews to be and what methods they consider to be favourable in the work. This is a qualitative study in which semi-structured interviews have been conducted with eight teachers to demonstrate similarities and differences between their different approaches and mindset. After the interviews have been transcribed, they are analysed on the basis of a thematic analysis.The results show that the teachers have a predominantly positive attitude towards book reviews. However, there is an ambiguity among them, while they consider that book reviews are a favourably element that can include several important knowledge development elements, they also consider that the element should not take up too much space in the teaching as there are other things that need more space. The idea of book reviews does not seem to be to develop students' knowledge of book reviewing as a genre, however they are used more as an implement to verify students' reading comprehension and other abilities. The results also show that specific methods are in fact barely used in the writing on book reviews because the intention is more of a controlling nature than developing students' genre knowledge.

Denna studie undersöker användarrecensioners påverkan på konsumenters beslutsprocess vid köp av produkter eller tjänster och faktorer som påverkar förtroendet för dessa recensioner. Studien visar att användarrecensioner har en betydande inverkan på konsumenters köpbeslut, med subjektiva normer och upplevd beteendekontroll som viktiga faktorer i beslutsprocessen. Det finns signifikanta skillnader i preferenser och beteende mellan olika åldersgrupper. Studien bidrar till ökad förståelse för konsumenters beteende och preferenser vid online-shopping och ger vägledning för framtida forskning inom detta område. Företag och e-handelsplattformar kan använda studiens insikter för att förbättra sina produkter, tjänster och marknadsföringsstrategier, genom att ta hänsyn till användarrecensioners betydelse och de faktorer som påverkar konsumenters förtroende för dessa recensioner. / This study examines the impact of user reviews on consumers decision-making process when purchasing products or services and factors that influence trust in these reviews. The study shows that user reviews have a significant influence on consumers purchasing decisions, with subjective norms and perceived behavioral control as important factors in the decision-making process. There are significant differences in preferences and behavior among different age groups. The study contributes to a better understanding of consumer behavior and preferences in online shopping and provides guidance for future research in this area. Companies and e-commerce platforms can use the insights from the study to improve their products, services, and marketing strategies by considering the importance of user reviews and the factors that influence consumers trust in these reviews.

The master's thesis deals with analysis of foreign professional articles focused on Brexit referendum in 2016. Focus is on review of each article - what type of analysis was used in the article, aim and motivation to do that analysis, and their comparison. In the end of this thesis quantitative analysis of Czech on-line articles writing about Brexit referendum is provided.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The classification of consumable media by mining relevant text for their identifying features is a subjective process. Previous attempts to perform this type of feature mining have generally been limited in scope due having limited access to user data. Many of these studies used human domain knowledge to evaluate the accuracy of features extracted using these methods. In this thesis, we mine book review text to identify nontrivial features of a set of similar books. We make comparisons between books by looking for books that share characteristics, ultimately performing clustering on the books in our data set. We use the same mining process to identify a corresponding set of characteristics in users. Finally, we evaluate the quality of our methods by examining the correlation between our similarity metric, and user ratings.