Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE) have been with us for some years however the way people utilise them is evolving and their potential is unclear. This research attempts to achieve a better understanding of retail in CVEs by comparing this channel with the competing retail channels of ‘bricks and mortar’, or offline, and two dimensional navigation websites (2D websites), in order to identify their respective Relative Advantages (RA). This is investigated from the consumer viewpoint, as they are the ones who will ultimately shape CVEs by voting with their feet, clicks or virtual feet. By exploring the literature a model was chosen to guide the research. Furthermore, based on this model and other literature five key objectives were identified for further investigation. These objectives are categories of RA that must be explored when comparing retail channels. The first research objective is as follows: A RA of CVEs to the 2D websites for e-commerce may be the aspects of offline retail it includes that do not exist in the 2D websites. The second research objective is: A RA of CVEs retail compared to offline retail may be aspects of 2D e-commerce it includes that are not included in the offline retail environment. The third research objective is: Consumers may vary their intended usage of CVEs across the different stages of the purchase process because the significance of the dimensions of RA may vary across those stages. The fourth research objective is: Consumers’ usage of CVEs may be different for simple and complex products. The fifth research objective is: CVEs such as Second Life (SL) may have the RA of a higher degree of institutional trust compared to the 2D websites. The first stage of data collection used focus groups to clarify the objectives identified from the literature. The second stage involved interviews where these objectives were explored with participants that had relevant experience. Both stages were analysed using template analysis. The first contribution was verifying the relevance of the five objectives and identifying significant dimensions within them. The second contribution was to develop the model used for comparing retail channels by adding enjoyment to the criteria. The third stage of this research is a survey. This quantitative analysis supplemented the two qualitative stages by gauging the significance of the objectives and their dimensions. This enables the findings to be more useful to retailers in making the strategic decisions to achieve the optimum synergies within and between channels. Participants showed a preference for offline and 2D in most situations however there was evidence that enjoyment, entertainment, sociable shopping, the ability to reinvent yourself, convenience and institutional trust were RA of SL in comparison to one of the other two channels.

This thesis explores the psychosocial dynamics of sexual risk-taking in men who have sex with men, with particular focus on the dilemmas that gay men face in establishing trust in themselves and reasonable trust and intimacy with their sexual partners. As well, the practical function of this study is to analyze past and current social marketing efforts aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to offer suggestions for how to approach a strategy to reduce HIV incidence in gay men and at the same time bolster efforts to assist men who have sex with men (MSM) in adhering to safer sex guidelines. In part, this thesis uses a sample of participants of the Vanguard Project cohort (St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia), in order to explore the social meanings attributed by MSM towards sex, risk, intimacy, and attitudes toward HIV/AIDS. Through the use of first-person narratives, this thesis examines the concordance or discordance of MSM beliefs and behaviour with long-standing theoretical models of harm reduction methods concerning sexual risk. The study reveals that, in great measure, due to past life course events, many gay men suffer from a lack of trust in themselves, which results in a tendency to make irrational or unreasonable decisions concerning their long-term sexual health, and a lack of trust in other gay men. As welL through the misguided and often untruthful health models that advocate fewer sexual partners and rely upon the false assumption that all potential sex partners are carriers of contagion, the sense of mistrust has been reinforced. The lack of confidence in self and others further translates into a suspicion of the motives and/or efficacy of social institutions entrusted with community health development and maintenance, rendering their efforts even less effective. Moreover, traditional harm reduction messages, especially 'fear campaigns', often act as a deterrent, rather than as an incentive, to harm reduction. Of more appeal are supportive harm reduction messages delivered by someone whom the recipient trusts, especially when the social meanings of sex, risk, trust and intimacy are, for many gay men, less fixed and more contingent than for the population at large. This means that attempts to modify risky behaviour must acknowledge and negotiate multiple meanings, shifting values and changing social climates, as well as routine epidemiological concerns. The research identifies four key themes within a problematic of trust, risk and intimacy, and delineates the harm reduction social complexities experienced by gay men in the study group; these recurring themes deal with family and early sociahzation, internalized homophobia, contingency and instability of meanings of risk, trust and sex, and the toistworthiness of the messengers of harm reduction strategies. Out of these recurring themes come a number of recommendations for remedial programs aimed at both mid- and long-term reductions in HIV incidence. The recommendations are grounded in the recognition that homophobic and/or dysfunctional social conditions are, to a great extent, implicated in sexual risk behaviour, and therefore must be eliminated or ameliorated before meaningful harm reduction gains can be realized. The discussions with the gay men in the study reveal their need for positive role models and communal social support in their efforts to combat HIV infection, suggesting a need to rethink the meanings of what it is to be gay, a need to redevelop and revitalize what was once a vibrant and cohesive corrimunity, and bearing in mind the lessons of the past, a need to re-approach the task of sternming the tide of HIV infection in ways that are sensitive to the factors that adduce high-risk sexual behaviour. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

M.Sc. (Information Technology) / In Africa, the economy is largely dominated by SMMEs that represent 90% of private businesses and contribute to more than 50% of employment and GDP. However, these SMMEs struggle to sustain their businesses in the current economic climate. To address this, advancements in mobile and cloud technology introduce new possibilities such as digital business ecosystems to support environment where small, micro, and medium enterprises can interoperate. The fundamental challenge for SMMEs in a digital business ecosystem is the selection of transaction partners. SMMEs are interested to transact with other SMMEs that will benefit their business through successful transactions. This leads to the sustainability and growth of SMMEs and consequently the economy. However, not all SMMEs behave as predicted and therefore, being able to trust another SMME in the digital business ecosystem is important. Trust is an essential part of business and personal life. The social nature of trust makes trust very personalised and for each individual, trust is interpreted, understood and perceived according to past experience and social behaviour. These factors are largely influenced by cultural norms and behaviours that individuals conform to. In African and some other regions, collectivist cultural norms and behaviours are common whereas in Westernised regions, individualist cultures are common. Therefore, it is not enough to just consider trust from a technical perspective but also from a cultural perspective. For small businesses in Africa and other regions in the world, this is especially true. Compared to larger companies in developed economies, SMMEs in Africa are more informal and operate in a more personal manner. This implies that trust decisions are largely influence an owner or employee’s cultural norms and behaviour. The research conducted in this dissertation proposes a trust model, known as Trustcv that supports the cultural norms and behaviours of collectivist cultures for trust in a digital business ecosystem. Digital business ecosystems, trust, culture and social network analysis provide the literature foundation for Trustcv. The effectiveness of Trustcv is measured through simulations of a digital business ecosystem in Africa, which provides interesting results compared to an existing trust model. The results indicate that Trustcv could be used to support trust in collectivist digital business ecosystems used by collectivist cultural SMMEs.

M.Ing. / The engineering construction industry is one that is synonymous with high production, tight schedules, strict cost control and in general high working pressure. Construction is an industry that is generally occupied with technical personnel. It is also an industry where interaction and communication between people is important to improve the chances of success of the project...

The thesis is aimed to describe and approach the REIT practice that is, especially in the U. S. very enhanced. In the first part, general parameters of real estate investment trusts are introduced and understated in connection with the depiction of the advantages and disadvantages of this issue. In chronological sequence, the development and progress of the U. S. real estate market is approached. The thesis further undertakes the current subject of the global financial crisis with a special focus on the REIT involvement and the potential application of the new EU directive - AIFMD (Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive). This directive is expected to harmonize the joint investments. The objective of the thesis is a detailed description and specification of REIT in selected developed countries (U. S., Western Europe, and Australia) followed by a comparation of these regimes and an analysis of the considerable real estate investment companies in the Czech Republic including the financial analysis of the public joint-stock companies. A development of Czech real estate market during the mortgage crisis is also depicted and a market forecast is prognosed. The thesis concludes potential restraints of the REIT legal introduction in the Czech Republic as this corporative type has not been lawfully validated there.

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) has created the opportunity to transact anywhere, anytime, transcending barriers of space and time. However, this freedom has been found to be intrusive in the lives of mobile users, acting counterproductively to trust building and exacerbating the reluctance to adopt m-commerce. The research design was a quantitative study that pivoted around the concept of location-based services (LBS) for mobile users and was focused on understanding specific behaviours around usage and trust under pre-determined conditions of connecting (particular place, particular time), push and pull mechanisms, brand loyalty and social network recommendations. The study was conducted through an online questionnaire with a non-probability sample of 189 individuals. Factors including push and pull LBS mechanisms, brand loyalty and social network recommendations were found to exhibit significant influence on mobile users trust and propensity to transact in m-commerce. No empirical support was found between the connecting conditions with mobile users and adoption of m-commerce, eliciting future research in this area. These results contribute to the body of research regarding mobile commerce by extending the existing understanding of its use through application with push and pull location-based services. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

ABSTRACT Aim: This study aims to ascertain how firms develop and maintain trust and the influences trust have in organizations. Method: This study was conducted through a qualitative research method with an inductive approach by using semi‐structured in‐depth interviews. Interviews were gathered from employees of an IT company in Nepal, Tech One Global Nepal Pvt Ltd. Furthermore, the content analysis method was used for the analysis of data collated. Findings and Conclusion: Trust is mainly gained through the combinatory effort of the trustor and the trustee. The six cues identified to develop trust within an organization include; communication, accountability, commitment, consistency, transparency, and confidentiality. To maintain trust, it is of the essence for parties to endeavor to improve on the factors which contributed to its development. It is also imperative systems, processes, corporate culture, and an enhanced level of communication that tracks and instills an attitude of excellence into the staff of organizations are promoted. Trust safeguards the operational and market performance of an organization and ensures a business is sustained into the future. Where there is a lack of trust, there would be a tendency for increased staff turnover and the virtual collapse of businesses. Contribution of the Study: This study contributes to the literature on organizational trust by differentiating developing trust from maintaining trust since developed trust has the tendency of converting to distrust if measures are not instituted to retain it. To this end, this study provides new theoretical insights by identifying additional factors, including accountability, transparency, and confidentiality required to develop trust. The study further adds to academic studies by recognizing enhancement in communication and the establishment of a corporate culture that instills an attitude of excellence in staff as a key means to maintain trust in organizations. Maintenance of trust which has been deserted in preceding studies is critical for individuals, organizations, and societies to maximize the benefits of trust. This study offers unique recommendations for businesses to improve their performances as it explicitly combines practical experiences with theories on trust. We created a model that is justified based on state-of-the-art concepts of trust Reflections on the study and Suggestions for Future Research: This study was conducted with a single IT company but can be enhanced when its scope is extended to cover different countries across different industries and cultures. Moreover, the study includes only the perspective of employees of the company. We believe that broader researches could be steered by including the perspectives of customers of organizations, partner organizations with whom companies collaborate with, and features of corporate products that enhance trust. Keywords: Trust, Relationship, Customers, Employees, Management.

abstract: Food-sharing is central to the human experience, involving biological and sociocultural functions. In small-scale societies, sharing food reduces variance in daily food-consumption, allowing effective risk-management, and creating networks of interdependence. It was hypothesized that trust and interdependence would be fostered between people who shared food. Recruiting 221 participants (51% Female, Mage = 19.31), sharing food was found to decrease trust and interdependence in a Trust Game with $3.00 and a Dictator Game with chocolates. Participants trusted the least and gave the fewest chocolates when sharing food. Contrary to lay beliefs about sharing food, breaking bread with strangers may hinder rather than foster trust and giving in situations where competition over limited resources is salient, or under one-shot scenarios where people are unlikely to see each other again in the future. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2020

Les essais contenus dans cette thèse utilisent des preuves empiriques pour répondre à deux questions qui sont d'une importance capitale compte tenu de notre compréhension croissante de la relation de préférences sociales et de la croissance économique et le bien-être au niveau des pays : les bases du comportement prosocial et l'impact des politiques visent à l'augmenter. Les niveaux de comportement prosocial ont souvent été pris comme une donnée fixée, or ces essais fournissent la preuve qu'ils sont susceptibles de changer à partir des interventions politiques. Étant donné qu'il y a peu d'interventions spécifiquement axées sur la confiance et la coopération, il peut y avoir une grande portée pour améliorer du bien-être en augmentant la politique axée sur cette question. C’est ce qui est démontré dans ces essais. Chapitre 1 aborde les bases du comportement pro-social en utilisant différents cadres dans les demandes d'une contribution au bien public, et montre que les informations sur la norme sociale est le facteur de motivation le plus puissant. Chapitre 2 fournit des résultats empiriques et théoriques que le comportement pro-social au niveau communautaire (en contribuant aux services publics locaux) dépend de l'efficacité attendue de ce comportement. Le chapitre 3 fournit de nouvelles résultats sur l'impact de la confiance sur le plan individuel, et montre qu'un programme de formation de l'enfance qui a augmenté la confiance (ainsi que amélioré l'attention et réduit la délinquance), a déclenché une chaîne d'événements pour améliorer les résultats à long terme en termes d’éducation, criminalité et performance économique. / The essays contained in this dissertation use empirical evidence to address two issues which are critically important given our growing understanding of the relationship of social preferences to economic growth and well-being at the country level: the foundations of prosocial behavior and the impact of policies designed to increase it. Levels of prosocial behavior have often been taken as a given, fixed, factor, but these essays provide evidence that they are subject to change from policy interventions. Given that there are few interventions specifically focused on trust and cooperation, there may be large scope for improving welfare by increasing the policy focus on this issue, and these essays provide evidence that this is indeed the case. Chapter 1 addresses the foundations of pro-social behavior using different frames in requests for a public good contribution, and shows that information on the social norm is the most potent motivator of public good contribution. In Chapter 2 provides empirical and theoretical evidence from a large project that pro-social behavior at the community level, in contributing to local public services, depends on the anticipated efficacy of that behavior. Chapter 3 provides new evidence on the impact of trust on the individual level, and shows that a childhood training program that increased trust, as well as improving attention and reducing delinquency, set off a chain of events resulting in better long-term outcomes for individuals in terms of education, criminality, and economic performance.

A new reform was introduced by the Swedish government in 2016 called Tillit i styrning. This reform looked for a new way to govern the public sphere, from local- to national level by introducing the concept of trust. Different projects and round tables were coordinated by Tillitsdelegationen, who was the delegation in charge of the reform. The establishment of a trust-based perspective within the public sector was developed due to the sector being perceived relying too heavily on supervisory control and goal orientation. The delegation concluded their work during 2019 which resulted in the termination of the projects and round-tables with the authorities. This Bachelor’s thesis aims more specifically to research the implementation of trust within the public authorities, since they are central actors in the furthering of the Swedish governance and its democracy. It aims to further research why the reform was developed and constructed, as well as how five public authorities have implemented the reform. This has been done by analysing political documents as well as conducting five interviews with representatives from five public authorities. The study showed that trust was seen as an important tool for the furthering of an efficient and citizen orientated organisation. The public authorities both favoured the influence the reform could have on the governance structures and implemented it in a variety of ways but also emphasised the challenges which needed to be handled.