Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis uses narrative analysis to explore the ways by which consultants seek to improve their perceived trustworthiness in initial client-consultant interactions. It is argued that consultants rely on identity-based trust perceptions by the clients and that this basis for trust can be favourably presented, within certain constraints, through narrative positioning. This narrative positioning, in the service of identity construction, is called identity positioning in the thesis. The thesis is situated in the literature on management consulting aimed at micro-level high-contact client-consultant interactions. These kinds of interactions trade on trust and identity. The various bases for trust are described, namely identity, structural, and dispositional based trust. Amongst these three bases, identity trust is highlighted as the most dominant in the context of clientconsultant interactions, especially in initial interactions where the consultant is unknown to the participants. It is to be expected in initial interactions that there will be a lot of scope for identity construction. A framework is then developed to relate identity construction and trust, which can be used as the basis for narrative positioning analysis. The framework consists of two dimensions along which identities can be positioned: social obligations and relational positioning latitude. It is argued that dispositional trust relates to relational positioning latitude, whereas structural bases of trust relates to social obligations. Identity based trust therefore indicates where the consultant fits within the structural or dispositional bases of trust. It is then shown how context moderates which of the trust bases will be dominant, and how this might manifest in the narrative of the consultant. It provides three general contexts, each leading to the emergence of a particular dominant basis for trustworthiness perceptions by the clients. The particular case analysed in this thesis correlates to a specific contexts within the framework. This context is where the consultant is unknown. The last part of the thesis illustrates the use of the framework and context as it guides the analysis of a particular consultant’s personal narrative during an initial interaction with clients. The analysis is then repeated for the consultant's software product narrative. The structures of the two narratives are then compared to show how the consultant also attempted to extend the identity-based trust to his software product. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis maak gebruik van narratiewe analise om die maniere te verken waarop konsultante die persepsies van hul betroubaarheid probeer verbeter in die aanvang fase van kliënt-konsultant interaksies. Daar word aangevoer dat konsultante staatmaak op identiteit-gebaseerde vertroue persepsies deur die kliënte en dat dié basis van vertroue gunstig aangebied kan word, binne sekere beperkings, deur middel van narratiewe posisionering. Hierdie narratiewe plasing, wat in die diens van die konstruksie van identiteit is, word identiteit posisionering genoem in die tesis. Die tesis is geleë in die literatuur oor bestuurs konsultering met die oogmerk op mikrovlak hoëkontak kliënt-konsultant interaksies. Hierdie soort interaksies handel in vertroue en identiteit. Die verskillende basisse vir vertroue word beskryf, naamlik identiteit, strukturele, en disposisionele gebaseerde vertroue. Onder hierdie drie basisse, word identiteit gebaseerde vertroue as die mees dominante in die konteks van die kliënt-konsultant interaksies uitgelig, veral in die eerste interaksies waar die konsultant onbekend is aan die deelnemers. Dit is verwag, in die aanvangs fase van sulke interaksies, dat daar baie ruimte vir die konstruksie van identiteit is. 'n Raamwerk word dan ontwikkel om die konstruksie van identiteit en vertroue in verband te bring, wat dan kan gebruik word as die basis vir die analise van narratiewe posisionering. Die raamwerk bestaan uit twee dimensies waarlangs identiteite kan geplaas word: sosiale verpligtinge en relasionele posisionering omvang. Daar word aangevoer dat disposisionele vertroue betrekking het tot relasionele posisionering omvang, terwyl die strukturele basis van vertroue verband hou met sosiale verpligtinge. Identiteit gebaseerde vertroue dui dus waar die konsultant pas binne die strukturele of disposisionele basisse van die trust. Daar word dan getoon hoe konteks modereer welke van die vertroue basisse oorheersend sal wees, en hoe hierdie kan manifesteer in die narratief van die konsultant. Dit bied drie algemene kontekste, wat elk lei tot die opkoms van 'n bepaalde dominante basis vir betroubaarheid persepsies deur die kliënte. Die besondere geval geanaliseer in die tesis korreleer met 'n spesifieke kontekste binne die raamwerk. Hierdie konteks is waar die konsultant onbekend is aan die kliënte. Die laaste deel van die tesis illustreer die gebruik van die raamwerk en konteks waar dit die ontleding van 'n spesifieke konsultant se persoonlike narratief tydens 'n aanvanklike interaksie met kliënte lei. Die analise word dan vir die konsultant se sagteware produk narratief herhaal. Die strukture van die twee verhale word dan vergelyk om te wys hoe die konsultant ook probeer het om die identiteit-gebaseerde vertroue uit te brei na sy sagteware produk.

This study examines the relationships between celebrities and their followers through social networking sites (SNS). A total of 239 participants completed the survey through MTurk. The results show that celebrities’ self-disclosure on SNS increases their Parasocial Interaction (PI) with fans. In addition, when a celebrity is perceived as trustworthy, s/he would have a higher PI with fans. Meanwhile, celebrities’ self-disclosure was not associated with trustworthiness. Furthermore, time spent on SNS was also not associated with PI. This study also found that type of celebrity does not determine the degree of influence they have on the followers. People have almost same parasocial interaction with their favorite celebrity whether the celebrity is a singer, athlete, actor, or any other. Additionally, there is no specific social networking site on which people have a stronger PI with celebrities. PI with celebrities on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and the other platforms is almost the same.

Il lavoro, composto da tre articoli, si focalizza sulla relazione tra leadership e performance, indagata e osservata da molteplici punti di vista e attraverso differenti strategie di ricerca, ma sempre in un contesto pubblico o comunque mission-driven. In particolare, il primo articolo indaga la relazione tra leadership e performance organizzativa, con un duplice obiettivo: da un lato validare da un punto di vista metodologico la scala di misurazione più utilizzata, dall’altro verificarne la relazione con la performance organizzativa utilizzando una scala più parsimoniosa. Gli altri due articoli si focalizzano sulla relazione tra leadership e performance individuale: il primo esplora, attraverso un disegno di ricerca qualitativo, il ruolo del feedback fornito dal superiore nel processo di riflessione critica dei collaboratori, volto al cambiamento dei comportamenti e al miglioramento della propria performance; il secondo indaga, attraverso un disegno di ricerca sperimentale, gli effetti della credibilità dei leader sulla performance dei collaboratori, anche mediante la percezione da parte dei dipendenti dell’importanza e dell’utilità del proprio lavoro per gli altri. / The three papers included in the thesis focus on the relationship between leadership and performance, investigated and observed from multiple points of view and through different research strategies. All the papers are conducted in a public or mission-driven setting. The first article focuses on the relationship between leadership and organizational performance, with a twofold objective: on the one hand, to validate the most used measurement scale for leadership from a methodological point of view, and, on the other, to verify the relationship with organizational performance using a more parsimonious scale. The other two articles focus on the relationship between leadership and individual performance. One explores, through a qualitative research design, the role of feedback provided by the supervisor in employees’ critical reflection process, aimed at changing their behaviors and at improving their own performance. The last one investigates, through an experimental research design, the effects of leaders’ trustworthiness on the performance of employees, through the employees' perception of the task significance of their job.

Past studies, that studied facial attractiveness, focus mainly on fluctuating asymmetry, averageness, masculinity, femininity, and skin coloration influences on attractiveness assessment. Their findings have been used by intercultural studies. They have revealed that people from diverse areas prefer differential development of sexually dimorphic cues, according to, e.g. local health and economic situation. We have done an online questionnaire survey. We included Czech (N = 100), Iranian (N = 87) and Turkish (N = 185) facial stimuli and raters of both sexes. We have studied whether members of all the populations would utilize the facial colouration and sexual dimorphism cues in a similar way. We have also tested whether there were differences in the facial width to height ratio (fWHR) between the sexes in all the populations. We have also wondered if the populations differed in the variance of facial skin colouration. Raters from all the populations saw feminine women as attractive. Turks and Czechs found masculine men as attractive, while Iranian women found more average Iranian men as attractive. Averageness positively predicted the attractiveness of the Czech and Turkish faces of both sexes. Older and more average Czech men were considered more masculine by Czech women. More average and younger Czech...

Background: Changing interests and expectations of societies have resulted in the development of new communication and business channels. The boom of social media, allowed for a rapid exchange of beliefs, opinions and ideas. The ways of advertising products have also been changed. Once beloved, both by companies and customers, celebrity endorsement is becoming less and less popular in favor of, commonly now used, peer-created reviews. Modern enterprises increasingly use an image of an ‘ordinary’ person in their marketing strategies and the internet has seen a flourishing trend of peercreated posts and reviews. The concept of trust has been known in the literature for ages, however with new times, new angles of perception of this phenomenon appear. There is still little to none research done in the area of trustworthiness towards peer-created content, and exploring this phenomenon is the purpose of this work. Purpose: The purpose of our work is in a way twofold. First, we aim to obtain more insights on how sponsored and non-sponsored peer-created content posted on Instagram can influence consumer’s knowledge of persuasion in advertising. Second, we examine if and how the source credibility and the trustworthiness of shared content can be affected by customers awareness of the persuasion intent of sponsored texts. Method: Web-based, self-completion surveys were disseminated amongst our friends and family in order to collect the data. The analysis was done through SPSS, using the correlation and multiple regression analysis calculations. Furthermore, to deeper understand the relationships between the variables and to find possible interaction effects between them, the moderator analysis was conducted. Conclusion: The sponsored peer-created content of the post is widely recognized as a deliberate marketing activity of a company. What is more, the non-sponsored content is also being perceived as a product advertisement, however, with less conviction that in the case of the sponsored posts. A positive relationship between lack of recognition of non-sponsored posts as the product advertisements and the trustworthiness towards the content has been found, meaning that the less the content of the post is perceived as a deliberate marketing activity of a company, the more trustworthy it is to the respondent. Consequently, the more people perceive a specific post as an advertisement commissioned by the company, the less trustworthy they feel towards its content.

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to explore how companies that sell household services work with trust-enhancing measures. We reviewed the industry segment of meal kit companies and aimed to generate findings representative for this industry. Methodology - The study applied a qualitative research methodology where seven semi-structured interviews with company representatives were held. Findings - Trust-enhancing measures were performed when the companies emphasised competence through their communication of company values, values connected to high grocery quality, the work behind recipe creation and lastly by providing educational content which portrayed them as the experts. Another trust-enhancing measure was the use of consumer reviews. Implications - For household service companies to enter the consumer’s personal sphere, enhancing trust is key. This can be done through conveying that the companies have the expertise needed to fulfil their promise - this to assure the consumer that he or she does not need to worry. Contribution - To the best of our knowledge, few studies have considered company trust- enhancing measures within the context of outsourcing household services. Consequently, we hoped to contribute to literature and shed light on this phenomenon.

O Código Civil, tal como disciplinado atualmente, confere os dispositivos necessários à proteção da confiança, à proibição do comportamento contraditório e demais institutos relacionados à confiança. Para tanto, o direito brasileiro adotou a técnica legislativa da cláusula geral para introduzir em sua normatividade a ética como regra de conduta exigida das partes, cabendo ao Juiz a função integrativa para determinar qual é a conduta adequada em cada caso concreto. Os deveres anexos ou laterais, consagrados pela função criadora de deveres jurídicos da boa-fé objetiva, impõem aos contratantes o cumprimento de obrigações acessórias para que a obrigação principal seja adimplida. A vedação do comportamento contraditório, seu conteúdo, forma de caracterização e aplicação consiste na proteção à confiança e os princípios da dignidade da pessoa humana, da solidariedade e boa-fé objetiva, que norteiam o ordenamento jurídico pátrio. Ao negociar, sabedora das limitações de informações das partes contratos incompletos uma empresa certamente colocará na formação de preços uma parcela que corresponda aos custos da incerteza (riscos) gerados durante as negociações. Ao repensar a situação, e percebendo a oportunidade de eventualmente encontrar o equilíbrio no futuro, poderá a empresa optar por reduzir a parcela de preço decorrente do risco inerente à assimetria de informações, sendo, portanto, mais competitiva ao identificar que eventuais falhas, ainda que inconscientes, podem vir a ser sanadas por meio do provimento judicial. A lealdade que deve presidir as relações entre as partes faz com que os contratos empresariais, dentre outros, residam em ambiente probo, permitindo, assim, o equilíbrio da relação por ocasião das negociações preliminares (culpa in contrahendo), durante a execução do contrato (teoria dos atos próprios - venire contra factum proprium e tu quoque), e após a execução contratual, como ocorre na hipótese da responsabilidade post pactum finitum. / The Civil Code, as enacted, provides the necessary tools to protect the trustworthiness, the prohibition of contradictory behavior and other institutes related. Therefore, Brazilian law adopted a legislative technique which introduces the general clause as a normative rule of conduct required from the parties, providing the Judge with an integrative function aiming at determining which rule would fit each case. The lateral duties, considered legal duties by the good faith, require contractors to meet certain accessory obligations. Forbidding the contradictory behavior, its content and characterization consists in a protection of the trust and the principles of human dignity, solidarity and good faith. During any negotiation, being aware of the limitations of information - incomplete contracts - a company certainly increases the price to cover the costs of uncertainty (risk) generated during the negotiations. By finding the opportunity to reach the balance the risk, the company may reduce the share price due to the risk inherent in asymmetric information, and therefore become more competitive by identifying any faults that, although unconscious, could be remedied through judicial appointment. The loyalty that should govern relations between the parties put business contracts, among others, in a honest environment, thus allowing the balance of the relationship during the preliminary negotiations (culpa in contrahendo) during performance of the contract (through the theory of the acts, venire factum proprium and tu quoque), and after contract execution, through the theory of post pactum finitum liability.

Abstract   Date: May 29th 2017   Level: Master thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University                       Authors: Manuel Yakob & Siham Belawni  Title: Fund analyst’s trustworthiness view and usage of sustainability reports Tutor: Stefan Schiller Keywords: Sustainability report, sustainability accounting, fund analyst’s, fund manager, trustworthiness Research questions: - What do fund analyst’s consider characterize trustworthiness in enterprises voluntary sustainability reports? - To what extent do fund analyst’s use sustainability reports in their business analysis? Purpose: The purpose of this report is to contribute knowledge of aspects that characterize trustworthiness in enterprises sustainability reports and study the sustainability reports meaning and usage for fund analyst’s. Method: The report has a qualitative study to solve our research questions and a set of semi structured telephone interviews were used for our collection of data. Conclusion: The report demonstrates that several elements have an influence on the trustworthiness of enterprises sustainability reports. Presentation of enterprises business goals and sustainability risks and challenges are seen as elements that raise the trustworthiness level of the sustainability report. An audit carried out by a third part is also believed to enhance the trustworthiness view of the sustainability report. Furthermore, the report emphasise that fund analyst’s, to a great extent, consider enterprises sustainability reports in their business analysis. Sustainability reports are found to believe of great significance because they constitute an essential basis for future investment appraisals and valuations. / Sammanfattning         Datum: 29 maj 2017   Nivå: Magisteruppsats i företagsekonomi, 15 ECTS   Institution: Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, EST, Mälardalens högskola   Författare: Manuel Yakob & Siham Belawni   Titel: Fondanalytikers trovärdighetssyn och användning av hållbarhetsrapporter   Handledare: Stefan Schiller   Nyckelord: Hållbarhetsrapport, hållbarhetsredovisning, fondanalytiker, fondförvaltare, trovärdighet Frågeställning:             - Vad anser fondanalytiker kännetecknar trovärdighet i företagens frivilliga hållbarhetsrapporter? - Hur väl använder sig fondanalytiker av hållbarhetsrapporter i deras företagsanalyser? Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap för vad som utmärker trovärdighet gällande företagens hållbarhetsredovisning samt studera hållbarhetsrapportens betydelse och användning för fondanalytiker. Metod: Studien antar en kvalitativforskningsmetod med semistrukturerade telefonintervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod. Slutsats: Studiens resultat uppvisar att det förekommer ett flertal faktorer som har en påverkande effekt på trovärdigheten i företagens hållbarhetsrapporter. Bland annat nämns redovisning av företagens mål samt identifiering av dess hållbarhetsrisker och utmaningar som trovärdighetshöjande faktorer. En oberoende parts granskning av hållbarhetsrapporter anses även höja rapportens trovärdighetsnivå. Vidare framhåller studien att fondanalytiker, i stor utsträckning, beaktar hållbarhetsrapporter i deras företagsanalyser. Hållbarhetsrapporterna anses vara av betydelse då rapporten utgör ett viktigt underlag för framtida investeringsbeslut och värderingar.

Workflow systems orchestrate various business tasks to attain an objective. Web services can be leveraged to handle individual tasks. Before anyone intends to leverage service components, it is imperative and essential to evaluate the trustworthiness of these services. Therefore, choosing a trustworthy service has become an important decision while designing a workflow system. Trustworthiness can be defined as the likelihood of a service functioning as it is intended. Selection of a service that satisfies business goals involves collecting relevant information such as security mechanisms, reliability, performance and availability. It is important to arrive at total trustworthiness, which incorporates all of the above mentioned multi-facet values relevant to a service. These values can be gathered and analyzed to derive the total trustworthiness of a service. Measuring trustworthiness of a service involves arriving at a suitable value that would help an end-user make a decision for the given business settings. The primary focus of this thesis is to gather relevant details and measure trustworthiness based on inputs provided by the user. A conceptual model was developed after extensive literature review to identify factors that influence trustworthiness of a service. A mechanism was created to gather concept values for a given service and utilize those values to calculate trustworthiness index value. A proof-of-concept prototype was also developed. The prototype is a web-based application that implements the mechanism to measure the trustworthiness of the service. The prototype was evaluated using a scenario-based analysis method to demonstrate the utility of the trustworthiness mechanism using three different scenarios. Results of the evaluation shows that trustworthiness is a multidimensional concept, the relevant conceptual values can be collected, a trustworthiness index value can be calculated based on the gathered concepts, and a trustworthiness index can be interpreted to select the most relevant service for a given requirement.

The diploma thesis deals with development of the MAGGI brand communication in order to increase its trustworthiness among customers and to strengthen its competitiveness. The current situation of the brand is defined primarily by brand identity analyzes by Kapferer and Ko Floor and by defining the competitive position of the brand. Based on the knowledge gained in the analytical part, a set of recommendations on brand communication are developed.