Thesis (M.A.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 07, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-117).

Companies seeking competitive advantage in the highly competitive fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry can no longer differentiate themselves from competitors on products and pricing alone. Customer service and the perceived value that customers gain from suppliers is key in staying ahead. The FMCG industry in South Africa (SA) does not place much emphasis on evaluating customer service. This study is an evaluation of the outbound logistics customer service of Unilever Home and Personal Care (UHPC), a multinational FMCG company in SA. The study focuses on attributes of customer service that major retail customers with distribution centres {DC's) consider important and evaluates logistics customer service against key competitors. A survey of three major retail customers' of UHPC was conducted in the major regions of SA. Thirty self-administered questionnaires were sent out to staff at Shoprite, Clicks and Spar DC's across SA. Staff targeted were those associated with inbound logistics and included people as senior as DC Managers to Receiving Controllers. As these are specialised job functions, the sample size comprised of only 30 respondents. A total of 24 responses were analysed to determine the attributes of customer service which UHPC customers consider important and also to determine the perceived performance of UHPC against other competitors. The results revealed that DC customer consider order accuracy, timeliness of delivery, order quality, product availability, order fulfilment, personnel contact, cooperation of supplier, alerts on transportation delays, relationship with supplier and service level agreements to be the ten most important attributes of logistics customer service. The different customer groups did not rank the attributes in the same way. Shoprite and Clicks perceive UHPC's logistics customer service to perform from good to excellent on all 32 attributes whilst Spar felt that UHPC under-performed on 8 attributes. UHPC was highly rated amongst key competitors in the local FMCG industry and outperformed competitors on 28 attributes of logistics customer service. The following areas of improvement were identified for UHPC: order discrepancy handling after delivery, quality/durability of packaging, personal contact knowledge and ability and helpfulness in solving problems and supplier innovation in improving delivery. Recommendations for improvement in UHPC's logistics customer service were made based on the results and the literature review which included repeating the survey at least quarterly on attributes needing improvement so as not having to wait for at least 3 years for another competitor benchmarking survey. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

This thesis consists of two case studies which examine how Greenpeace, an independent global environmental campaigning organization, targeted major multinational corporations, McDonald’s and Unilever, in attempt to stop destructive agricultural processes in the developing world. This multiple case study examined how these corporations responded to activist pressure and offers prescriptive insight on how corporations can turn criticism in to an opportunity to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes when responding to activist pressure. These case studies will suggest that if public relations practitioners can create a dialogue with activists publics through two-way communication the profession of public relations can be a guiding force for creating more sustainable business practices, fostering corporate social and environmental responsibility, and creating positive social change. This paper examined recent literature on changing attitudes toward environmental issues, the credibility of corporate sustainability, and symmetrical communication. By studying the use of two-way dialogue in the practice of corporate communications with environmental activist organizations, these case studies will help to test the real world validity of theoretical propositions about symmetrical communication (L. Grunig 1992). Rather than directing its campaigns toward Cargill and other agriculture suppliers, Greenpeace chose to focus their efforts on McDonald’s and Unilever, two large highly visible international corporations using their products. Both companies chose to work with Greenpeace, pressured their suppliers to change their environmental policies, and worked toward creating moratoriums to end deforestation. / Department of Journalism

This research studies the practical person principle as it was introduced in the case of Commissioner for Inland Revenue v Lever Brothers and Unilever Ltd 1946 AD 441. In its time the Lever Brothers case was a seminal judgment in South Africa’s tax jurisprudence and the practical person principle was a decisive criterion for the determination of source of income. The primary goal of this research was a critical analysis the practical man principle. This involved an analysis of the extent to which this principle requires judges to adopt a criterion that is too flexible for legitimate judicial decision-making. The extent to which the practical person principle creates a clash between a philosophical approach to law and an approach that is based on common sense or practicality was also debated. Finally, it was considered whether adopting a philosophical approach to determining the source of income could overcome the problems associated with the practical approach. A doctrinal methodology was applied to the documentary data consisting of the South African and Australian Income Tax Acts, South African and other case law, historical records and the writings of scholars. From the critical analysis of the practical person principle it was concluded that the anthropomorphised form of the principle gives rise to several problems that may be overcome by looking to the underlying operation of the principle. Further analysis of this operation, however, revealed deeper problems in that the principle undermines the doctrine of judicial precedent, legal certainty and the rule of law. Accordingly a practical approach to determining the source of income is undesirable and unconstitutional. Further research was conducted into the relative merits of a philosophical approach to determining source of income and it was argued that such an approach could provide a more desirable solution to determining source of income as well as approaching legal problems more generally.