Advancements in information technology have shaped the way customers and organisations interact with one another. Online brand communities (OBCs), especially have found their way into 21st century relationship marketing. While research embraces these OBCs for their cost-efficiency and ability for quicker and more intimate interactions, it has not thoroughly examined the procedure through which participation in such OBCs affects the major constructs of relationship marketing. Drawing from the commitment-trust theory and its central concepts of brand trust and brand commitment, this thesis utilizes this theory in a brand community and in an online context. Using probability sampling and a self-administered questionnaire, this study employs a deductive logic to investigate if higher levels of commitment and identification with an OBC translate to increased attachment, identification, trust and commitment toward the brand that the OBC supports. Furthermore, it demonstrates that this OBC-generated commitment is significant to brand managers since it enhances brand equity in terms of positive Word-Of-Mouth, customers' propensity to pay a price premium and oppositional brand loyalty. Similarly, this thesis underlines the importance of understanding the process through which an OBC member gradually develops strong emotional ties with the OBC, as a result of continuous interaction with other OBC members.

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Nonfamily employees make up a substantial portion of family firm personnel and are crucial to success for these firms. Retaining these employees is complicated by the presence of family members and family-centric goals, which often results in the bifurcated treatment of nonfamily employees. However, the relationships between family and nonfamily employees could have implications for how nonfamily employees perceive the firm. This study examines how nonfamily employees’ turnover intentions are influenced by their embeddedness in family member friendship networks, family firm identification, and perceptions of organizational support. Drawing on a sample of 103 nonfamily employees working in a family firm, my analysis shows that identification fully mediates the effects of nonfamily employee degree centrality in family friendship networks and turnover intentions. Drawing on social identification theory, degree centrality in family friendship networks is theorized to influence perceptions of belongingness in the family firm, which negatively impact turnover intentions. Implications for understanding how nonfamily employees and employee retention may be influence by social networks are also discussed.

Magister Artium - MA / The thesis offers insight into English literature studies as taught at high school level to Grade 12 learners, employing Louise Rosenblatt’s reader response theory to explore and understand their encounter and engagement with prescribed poetry by enquiring as to whether social conditions in their lives allow an identification with these poems. The thesis argues for the validity and implementation of reader response theory in the South African curriculum because when learners engage with their memories, experiences and opinions; identification with the poem is possible. If learners identify with the poems that are being taught, there may be a sense of harmony as they realise that their problems or experiences are not in isolation. The sample population comprises of learners attending two high schools located in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town: a community that presents a myriad of societal challenges. Proper ethical considerations were followed in order to gain access to the research sites and anonymity was promised to all research participants. The research entails the usage of openended questionnaires to elicit data which has been processed qualitatively by means of content analysis whereby various central social environment themes were identified. A background of Mitchells Plain’s social ills is provided in order to understand the challenges facing the research participants. The thesis offers an extensive discussion on the history and current state of education in South Africa, as well as a delineation of the study of the discipline of poetry by highlighting its proposed benefits from humanities and scientific perspectives. Additionally, the thesis provides a background on different reader response theories and published reader response studies with a focus on the social environment of the individual for further elucidation of the theoretical framework. Results of the study reveal that the selected poems by William Blake, W.H. Auden, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Chinua Achebe yield fascinating responses as most research participants can socially identify with the contextual themes and characters. The thesis sheds light on a few shortcomings or limitations which may have impacted the data collection process and provides recommendations on how to improve any future related studies and possibilities of best teaching practice of English literature in South African high schools.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

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Yes

Yes / Numerous studies have examined the positive effects of social capital in organizations, whereas the possible negative effects have attracted considerably less scholarly attention. To rectify this imbalance, this paper first undertakes a rigorous review of the published scholarly empirical evidence pertaining to the negative effects of social capital in organizations through a search of Web of Knowledge and Scopus, and then enumerates six potentially negative effects arising from increased levels of social capital. Our analysis focuses on negative effects arising from bonding social capital and those arising from dense networks and closure, advancing new theory to elucidate the generative mechanisms that give rise to the proposed negative effects. Finally, we identify potential moderators of the negative effects thus theorized. Using the lens of social identification theory, we argue that dysfunctional identification processes restrict the processing of information and stimulate over commitment to established relationships, diluting in turn the dialectical process, and inhibiting individual learning within organizations, culminating in groupthink, the postponement of structural adjustments, the non-rational escalation of commitment, and the blurring of firms’ boundaries. Our analysis thus furthers the agenda of a more balanced inquiry into the effects of social capital in organizations.

To many individuals, particularly to Muslims, ISIL’s social network as well as its undying, though misleading, devotion to Islam is attractive. However, with the general human tendency to avoid killing and committing acts generally deemed as heinous, this brings into question the mechanisms that are behind the choice to join ISIL, and how these recruits are able to view membership to such a group as appealing. Janoff-Bulman, Sheikh, and Hepp (2009) identified and distinguished between two constructs of morality: the approach, activation-based prescriptive morality and inhibitory, condemnatory proscriptive morality. This study evaluates the role of these two moral regulators and how they motivate people to join an organization known for its medieval, murderous tactics, hypothesizing that there is support for both prescriptive and proscriptive morality, with prescriptive motivation being the dominant morality when faced with joining ISIL. To prove this, articles with empirical evidence for both religious and social identification as variables that cause people to behave more prescriptively or prescriptively are assessed. Though most of the studies examined provide behavioral support for prescriptive morality as the stronger motive when joining ISIL, there are limitations to what we can infer from this literature review alone. Theoretical implications in both psychology and counterterrorism strategy are discussed, as well as possible ways to further study this theory empirically.

Dans cette thèse, nous nous penchons sur les effets que peut avoir la discrimination sociale sur le bien-être des personnes qui en sont victimes, et en particulier, sur les stratégies psychologiques que ces dernières mettent en œuvre pour s'en protéger. Parmi les cognitions qui susceptibles de faire office de « tampon », certaines sont liées directement à l'appartenance groupale et donc potentiellement spécifiques à l'expérience de discrimination. Dans une première partie théorique, nous nous attardons sur une définition précise des concepts qui nous intéressent et décrivons en détail la littérature pertinente à notre sujet. Le premier chapitre traite de la notion de discrimination en elle-même, et de ses différences avec des concepts voisins, tels la stigmatisation, le bas statut et la privation relative. L'objectif de cette première section est de préciser notre objet d'étude. Dans un second chapitre, nous abordons la multitude de données existant sur les liens entre discrimination et bien-être, ainsi que les modèles correspondants, notamment ceux de rejet-identification (Schmitt & Branscombe, 2002), de « discounting » (Crocker & Major, 1989) et du stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Cette section nous permet de conclure que l'impact de la discrimination sur le bien-être est loin d'être simple et direct, et met en lumière la résilience des individus qui sont victimes de traitements injustes dus à leur appartenance groupale. Parmi les facteurs de protection à la disposition des personnes discriminées, un certain nombre dépendent directement de ce groupe vilipendé. Nous nous y intéressons dans le troisième et dernier chapitre de l'introduction théorique, en passant en revue les éléments qui permettent de penser que l'identification, l'entitativité, la perception de support social et/ou de discrimination groupale et le soutien à l'action collective puissent être des cognitions protectrices du bien-être. La partie empirique de la thèse vise à investiguer plus avant ces effets protecteurs. En nous intéressant à des groupes discriminés réels (immigrés africains, femmes, infirmiers) ou manipulés (étudiants de l'UCL), nous tentons de cerner plus précisément les relations entre discrimination, cognitions groupales et bien-être. Au travers d'études de laboratoire (chapitres 1 et 2), de terrain (chapitres 3 et 4) et longitudinales (chapitre 5), nous mettons en évidence l'existence d'effets qui semblent spécifiques à certains des groupes étudiés. Notamment, la discrimination groupale a un effet protecteur sur le bien-être dans deux grandes catégories sociales (femmes et immigrés africains), ce qui ne semble pas être le cas dans un groupe professionnel (infirmiers/ères). D'autre part, l'identification au groupe se révèle un concept multidimensionnel dont les différentes facettes ont des effets parfois opposés. Notre conclusion invite le lecteur à la circonspection quant à l'applicabilité de modèles universels à la problématique de la discrimination. Ainsi, si les cognitions groupales peuvent être protectrices du bien-être, c'est sous certaines conditions, dans certains groupes, et non pas comme une panacée valable pour tous. Nous insistons également sur l'importance de distinguer discrimination groupale et personnelle, ainsi que différentes facettes du concept d'identification. Enfin, les études de terrain et les expériences de laboratoire semblent constituer des investigations complémentaires à mener idéalement de concert. / This thesis deals with the cognitive strategies that discriminated individuals use to shield themselves from the aversive effects of social discrimination. More especially, we are interested in group-linked cognitions which are specific to the experience of discrimination, namely identification, perception of group discrimination, entitativity, social support (or solidarity) and the belief in collective action. In the theoretical part, we spend some time defining our concepts. We first distinguish personal discrimination from other related concepts, like relative deprivation, status in social identity theory or stigmatization. We then review the broad literature on the relationship between perceived personal discrimination and well-being. To conclude this first part, we underline the evidence that links group cognitions (identification, group discrimination, entitativity…), perceived personal discrimination and well-being. This first part is only available in French. In the empirical part (in English), we present five studies that gather evidence for the protective properties of group cognitions, with different social categories, among them women, African immigrants and junior nurses, in laboratory (chapters 1 and 2) or natural settings (chapters 3, 4 & 5). We also contrast cross-sectional (chapter 4) and longitudinal data (chapter 5) in order to investigate causality concerns. We conclude our work by stressing the importance of considering group cognitions in relationship to specific groups, and not as a panacea that would be applicable and protective for every single discriminated individual in the same way. We further emphasize the necessity of treating group and personal discrimination as two distinct phenomena, as well as the importance of considering identification as a multi-facetted construct.