Master of Science / Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Kevin R. Roberts / Many pathogenic microorganisms are spread by contaminated hands and may lead to foodborne illness. The use of hand sanitizers can significantly reduce bacterial contamination and is an efficient and inexpensive method to prevent infections and sickness. Previous researchers have found that the routine use of hand sanitizers allowed the U.S. Army to significantly reduce illness. However, few studies have been conducted within a U.S. Army dining facility, which is considered to be one of the primary sources of foodborne illness within the U.S. Army. Therefore, using the Theory of Planned Behavior, the purpose of this study was to identify the behavioral intention, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of control of using hand sanitizer among military personnel. The study targeted soldiers using a written survey during their lunch hour on the U.S. Army base at Fort Riley, KS. A total of 201 surveys were collected. All data were screened and entered into IBM SPSS for analysis. Results indicated that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control explained 64% of the variance in behavioral intention. Attitude and subjective norms were found to be significant predictors of behavioral intention, with attitude being the strongest predictor. In general, behavioral beliefs were positive among soldiers. Related to normative beliefs, soldiers did perceive negative social pressure from other soldiers not to use hand sanitizers. Analysis of control beliefs found soldiers perceived hand sanitizers were readily available, but disliked their smell and feel after application. Food production managers and Army commanders can use these results to implement hand sanitation behavioral interventions within military dining environments. Practical implications will likely translate to reduced healthcare costs, decreased absenteeism rates, and improved mission readiness. Some of the limitations include commonly perceived social psychology bias. Further, clustered samples were collected within one military installation in a relatively short amount of time.

China's luxury market plays an increasingly important role on the world stage. And females are termed as the most massive consumers of luxury goods in China. Understanding consumer behavior is the gateway for luxury goods companies to target China's female market. There is a lack of study of Chinese female consumers on the luxury market; the primary purpose of this study is to research what factors affect female consumer behavior on the luxury goods markets in China.   In order to do the research, a qualitative study has been conducted via doing semi-structured interviews with ten Chinese females aged between 35-45 and who own luxury bags. Thematic analysis was applied in this study and connected with the human behavior model closely and deeply.   The study revealed that attitude to behavior is an essential factor for female consumers to purchase luxury goods. The behavioral and control beliefs are consistent with the needs of status, which also influence Chinese female consumers. Therein Chinese culture is an undeniable factor affecting them. However, normative beliefs have little impact in this field. These findings are favorable for Luxury companies to make appropriate female consumer-oriented marketing strategies in China’s luxury goods market.

Background: The expansion of the World Wide Web has presented new challenges for managers. One of these challenges is the shift in power that favors consumers through the uprising of electronic word of mouth (eWOM). This thesis is aimed to the exploration of the effects on consumer purchase intention and brand attitude because of an unsuccessful marketing campaign. Methodology: Interviews have been conducted with a central theme of a case study of Pepsi to gain knowledge on the effects a marketing failure and exposure to eWOM has on students at Luleå University of Technology. Findings: EWOM is indicated to influence consumers’ intention of purchase as well as the attitude for the brand. EWOM is indicated to be influenced by the response to the advertisement in a negative context and may influence consumers to actively share their opinions to others through an electronic medium, thus contributing to the spread of eWOM. The attitude of the brand is indicated to influence the effects of negative eWOM, being of more influence when the brand attitude is bad. Conclusions: Managers and business practitioners need to be aware of the power of eWOM and its effects on purchase intention and brand attitude and should respond quickly to any unwanted spread of negative thoughts regarding the company before it is too late. Research question: How is consumer brand attitude and purchase intention affected by negative eWOM in the context of an unsuccessful online marketing campaigns? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the potential change in customer attitudes and purchase intentions because of negative eWOM communication regarding unsuccessful marketing campaigns

This study employs the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to understand the role of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on students’ intent to orally cite sources using complete, rather than partial, citations. Undergraduates (N = 326) enrolled in general education oral communication courses completed a self-report survey testing the TPB variables and students’ citation intentions. Findings demonstrate that subjective norms and perceived behavioral control predict student intention to cite sources and do so completely. Tensions between credibility gains and time constraints are also evident. Implications for teaching students in basic courses about oral citations are discussed.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) disproportionately affect African Americans in the South; given that population's high rate of church attendance, churches have been one potential avenue for HIV/AIDS education. Research has shown the importance of HIV/AIDS education in reducing risk behavior and infection, although church-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs for adults have received little scholarly attention, including the impact of such programs on attitudes, behavioral control, and intention to engage in safe sexual practices. Using Ajzens' theory of planned behavior as a foundation, the purpose of this quantitative study was to explore whether there is a statistically significant difference in attitudes, behavior control, and intention to engage in safe practices as a result of participation in a church program. Survey data were collected from a convenience sample of 132 adult participants, 68 of whom participated in a church-based HIV/AIDS prevention program, and a control group of 64 participants from a congregation without a program. Wilcoxon Ranks Tests were used to analyze the data. The results indicated a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in regards to social norms and perceived behavioral control. There was no significant difference in the attitudes between the 2 groups. Implications for positive social change include informing policy makers and practitioners of the importance of church-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs as an innovative tool for adults to establish more effective HIV/AIDS prevention programs that will positively impact other ethnic groups at higher risk of acquiring the infection and disease.

Millions of American employees are eligible to retire through 2026, which may contribute to lowered organizational performance stemming from the resultant void in knowledge. Increasing knowledge sharing (KS) among organizational members may improve employee efficiency and company performance, and therefore may be of value to wholesale distribution leaders. Although researchers have suggested that sense of self-worth, subjective norms, and attitudes influence employees' inclinations to share knowledge, researchers have not analyzed the relationships between a subset of predictor variables and KS intentions in wholesale distribution organizations. The purpose of this correlational study, grounded in the theory of planned behavior, was to assess the relationship between employees' sense of self-worth, subjective norms, attitudes, and personal intentions to share knowledge with other organizational members. A purposive sample of 82 employees from Northeastern United States wholesale distribution organizations involved in enterprise resource planning implementations completed a survey to examine the propensity for KS. The analysis of the data using multiple linear regression indicated the model was adequate to predict employees' KS intentions. The results of the study further indicated that subjective norms and attitudes were significantly related to personal inclinations to share knowledge. These findings may hold positive social change implications as astute knowledge management can provide for greater employee job security and a more financially secure community. These findings may also be of value to leaders in proactively implementing KS strategies of retiring and other employees in the quest for continued business growth and performance.

The Covid-19 pandemic outbreak has caused social destruction all across the world. In this thesis, we focus on the impact of Covid-19 on online consumer behavior. Understanding whatis generating these behavioral changes among online shoppers is essential, but it is even moreimportant to investigate and assess if these behavioral changes will persist among onlineshoppers beyond the pandemic. In this study, the primary objective is to examine changes inthe online consumer behavior of the Swedish ready-made clothing industry in response toCovid-19 and determine if these changes will affect future online shopping intentions using thetheory of planned behavior. We thus pay attention to three key components: subjective norms,attitudes, and behavioral controls. We conducted a qualitative study and gathered rich insightsthrough 10 semi-structured interviews with online clothing shoppers in Sweden. The findingsdemonstrate that participants' intentions to shop online in the future are predominantly impactedby factors such as perceived behavioral control, attitude toward behavior, and media, rather thansubjective norms factors like family and friends. Furthermore, in the post-pandemic era,behavioral patterns related to online clothes purchases have changed significantly due to issuesassociated with Covid-19.

The steadily increased environmental concerns have become exceedingly palpable over time, not at least in consumers’ way of demanding greener products, or companies’ ways of incorporating green marketing strategies. A common tool for companies producing environmentally friendly food is ecolabelling. Foods with ecolabels on them enable consumers to know that this certain product indicates a good environmental choice. There are various factors that influence consumers’ buying behavior towards it. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether knowledge, attitude and subjective norms have any relationship with Swedish consumers’ green buying behavior. A theoretical framework consisting of literature-identified constructs was developed. Using a questionnaire, a sample size of 158 was realized which was statistically analyzed. Findings indicated that there is a positive relationship between buying behavior and knowledge, attitude and subjective norms. It further revealed that the buying behavior towards ecolabelled food was not that common among the respondents. Hence, the study suggests that despite the positive attitude and sufficient amount of knowledge, consumers are still not that keen about buying ecolabelled food.

Abstract  Background: Growing global concerns about sustainability highlight the importance of environmental sustainability, particularly environmentally conscious behaviors. There has been a growing focus on pro-environmental behavior (PEB) as a way for individuals to minimize their environmental impact. Global environmental challenges underscore the pressing need for proactive environmental action, particularly the growing emphasis on the importance of motivating individuals' daily actions and choices, as they directly contribute to environmental conservation and pro-environmental behavior. In the context of Sweden, the country is widely recognized for its commitment to environmental sustainability. Moreover, considering the increasing number of international university students in Sweden, it contributes to the academic environment and allows for the exploration of environmental behaviors within a diverse population. Given this, understanding, and promoting pro-environmental behaviors among this demographic in Sweden is essential, and it also helps contribute to the societal commitment to environmental conservation.  Purpose: This thesis aims to investigate the determinants that influence pro-environmental behavior among international university students in Sweden, employing social cognitive theory and the reciprocal determinism model. Focusing on personal (internal) factors like environmental knowledge and attitudes as well as environmental (external) factors like subjective norms and place attachment, this thesis also explored the interaction between pro-environmental behavior and its associated factors. By understanding these factors’ roles, this thesis aims to contribute to the development of effective strategies for promoting pro-environmental behavior among this population. Method: This thesis adopts a quantitative approach to examine the interplay of variables via an online survey. Data were collected from 203 individuals in Sweden, focusing on investigating the relationships between different factors and pro-environmental behavior based on eight formulated hypotheses. Respondents were selected using judgmental sampling, and data analysis was conducted using techniques such as Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression analysis in SPSS.  Conclusion: The results of this thesis reveal a significant association between different factors and pro-environmental behavior among international university students in Sweden. Specifically, environmental attitude and place attachment were found to positively influence pro-environmental behavior. Moreover, subjective norms were shown to have a positive impact on both environmental knowledge and attitude. However, neither the relationship between place attachment and environmental knowledge nor the relationship between environmental knowledge and subjective norms had any significant impact on pro-environmental behavior.

This research has taken place to investigate the drivers of what makes people want to purchase virtual goods. While more and more people are expected to buy virtual goods in the digital era, a better understanding of their demand could be key to success in the digital industry in the future. The research question of this study asks what the areas of purchase intention are toward virtual goods which is what this study set out to determine. To create a basis for the study theoretical framework was developed and consisted of three main parts: subjective norms, attitude, and functional values. These topics created a foundation by which the questions were produced to determine the purchase intentions of virtual goods. Unstructured interviews were then conducted using open-ended questions to get respondents honest thoughts and opinions regarding their purchase intention of virtual goods. Theoretical saturation was reached at five respondents in which data was collected. This data was then coded with a method influenced by grounded theory. The data was analyzed thematically into codes and then sorted into categories which include society, product value, and functional value which were found to be the most fitting categories for the data received from the interviews. The conclusion determined that the purchase intention of virtual goods was driven by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norms, attitude toward purchase, perceived enjoyment, perceived value, trust and security, and functional value after the analysis produced a model that can be used for future research.