of the thesis Backrounds: Rituals have accompanied mankind since the earliest times and have a significant symbolic meaning. Especially when moving from one life cycle and society to another. The rituals help to overcome difficult life situations. For drug users who decided to be treated, the transition between drug addiction and being "clean" can be a difficult life isme. There is a question "Why the drug users perform certain rituals and what do they mean to them?" The aim: The main aim of this thesis is to describe the possible transitions rituals that drug users perform prior to entering treatment. Another focus is taken on the way to find out how these transition rituals are important to drug users before entering treatment and whether specific rituals affect treatment and treatment retention. Methodology: A quantitative research approach was used to obtain the data using semi- structured interview, The respondents were drug users in different types of treatment facilities. For obtainment of researched groups (respondents) there was chosen a method of deliberate selection through specific institutions. The institutions selected for the research group were contact centers for drug addicts, therapeutic communities, psychiatric hospitals and aftercare centers. The data that were processed...

Thesis is concerned by virtual worlds and possibilities of their utilization other than are their original purposes. The objectives of this paper are to confront virtual worlds with mass media and their utilization. The author wants to show that virtual worlds are in many aspects similar to mass media. The author also shows possible utilization of virtual worlds for commercial companies, non-profit organizations, research and individuals. Work shows possible options for usage of virtual worlds together with option to cooperate with providers of the virtual world. This cooperation may take two forms. Content alternation means that providers of the virtual world change items or places inside the virtual world into the form desired by client. Providers may even sell their data about events inside the virtual world, thus clients may obtain unique data about human behavior and reaction to e.g. propagation campaign. Confrontation of virtual worlds with the mass media and describing possible utilizations that come from this confrontation, make content of this paper is original.

Enterprise Wikis haben sich zu einem wichtigen Bestandteil der Corporate Intranets entwickelt. Aufgrund ihrer Nutzungsoffenheit und hohen Flexibilität lassen sich Enterprise Wikis für vielfältigste Einsatzzwecke verwenden. Dabei ist die Nutzungsmotivation der Mitarbeiter ein kritischer Stellhebel für den Erfolg von Enterprise Wikis. In diesem Beitrag wird auf Basis des aus der Arbeitspsychologie stammenden Konzepts „motivation sources inventory“ von BARBUTO & SCHOLL eine Untersuchung mittels Online-Befragung mit 95 Teilnehmern aus 10 verschiedenen Unternehmen durchgeführt. Hierbei wurde ersichtlich, dass Enterprise Wikis von den Befragten durchweg als wertvoll eingeschätzt werden. Weiterhin stellen die Nützlichkeit von Enterprise Wikis für die tägliche Arbeit sowie das Bestreben, Kollegen bzw. das eigene Team zu unterstützen wichtige Quellen der Motivation dar. Bezüglich der intrinsischen Prozessmotivation bei Enterprise Wikis, d.h. Spaß an der Benutzung, konnten stark divergierende Meinungen festgestellt werden. Hingegen ist Lob bzw. Reputation nur für einen kleinen Teil der Befragten motivierend, im Enterprise Wiki beizutragen.

Enterprise Wikis haben sich zu einem wichtigen Bestandteil der Corporate Intranets entwickelt. Aufgrund ihrer Nutzungsoffenheit und hohen Flexibilität lassen sich Enterprise Wikis für vielfältigste Einsatzzwecke verwenden. Dabei ist die Nutzungsmotivation der Mitarbeiter ein kritischer Stellhebel für den Erfolg von Enterprise Wikis. In diesem Beitrag wird auf Basis des aus der Arbeitspsychologie stammenden Konzepts „motivation sources inventory“ von BARBUTO & SCHOLL eine Untersuchung mittels Online-Befragung mit 95 Teilnehmern aus 10 verschiedenen Unternehmen durchgeführt. Hierbei wurde ersichtlich, dass Enterprise Wikis von den Befragten durchweg als wertvoll eingeschätzt werden. Weiterhin stellen die Nützlichkeit von Enterprise Wikis für die tägliche Arbeit sowie das Bestreben, Kollegen bzw. das eigene Team zu unterstützen wichtige Quellen der Motivation dar. Bezüglich der intrinsischen Prozessmotivation bei Enterprise Wikis, d.h. Spaß an der Benutzung, konnten stark divergierende Meinungen festgestellt werden. Hingegen ist Lob bzw. Reputation nur für einen kleinen Teil der Befragten motivierend, im Enterprise Wiki beizutragen.:1 Einleitung 1.1 Stand der Forschung 1.2 Zielstellung 2 Das „Motivation Sources Inventory“ von Barbuto & Scholl 2.1 Die fünf Quellen der Motivation 2.2 Fazit und Würdigung des Motivation Sources Inventory 3 Vorgehen und Methodik 3.1 Auswahl der Unternehmen und explorative Interviews 3.2 Konzeption und Durchführung der Online-Befragung 4 Ergebnisse 4.1 Nutzungscharakteristika 4.2 Bedeutung und Ausprägung der fünf Motivationsquellen 5 Zusammenfassung und Ausblick 5.1 Ergebnisse 5.2 Limitationen 5.3 Forschungspotentiale

Background: Social networking mobile applications are designed to socially connect users among each other to consume but also to produce content. Especially because these apps represent a high potential to acquire revenue streams through advertisements, but also to gain customer insights, companies are interested in entering this market by creating new social networking apps. However, switching costs for users are high due to the varied user base of established social networking apps. Accordingly, marketing strategies need to be created to enter the market to target users’ interests. One concept to do so is distributing invitations for the social networking app that can be shared among users. The invite-only strategy has been successfully used to establish themselves in the market by for example Facebook, but also recently with the social networking app Clubhouse. To apply it effectively the motivators of the users to initially adopt invite-only social networking apps are important to understand. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to generate an in-depth understanding of the motivators that foster the initial user adoption of social networking mobile apps based on the invite-only strategy. To investigate the motivators, it is crucial for this study to gain knowledge from the user perspective. In that case, we will contribute our derived knowledge to the theory of technology acceptance, scarcity in digital marketing, and virtual social networking apps. Research Question: Why do users initially adopt social networking mobile applications using an invite-only strategy? Method: Ontology – Relativism; Epistemology – Social Constructionism; Approach –Inductive; Data Collection – 14 Semi-Structured In-Depth Interviews; Sampling –Purposive, Convenience, Snowball; Data Analysis – Grounded Analysis Conclusion: As a result, a framework was derived depicting the main motivators for users to initially adopt invite-only social networking apps. Through our empirical data, we found out that Artificial Scarcity, Closed Network, and Social Influence motivate users to initially adopt invite-only social networking apps. Additionally, Contributing Factors were identified to influence the initial adoption, although they are not directly influenced by the invite-only strategy. The framework further describes the interrelations between the identified sub-categories affecting the initial adoption. We conclude that the main motivators are desire- and fear-driven. The framework can be used by marketers to design invite-only strategies more effectively and consistently to attract a large group of initial users and establish themselves in the market.

Education is one of the deciding factors for poverty alleviation and economic growth. Governments of developing countries is struggling to meet the demand for qualitative education and the nation of Namibia is no exception. Namibia is struggling with the lack of a skilled workforce and the lack of access to qualitative higher education has been identified as one of the prime causes. ICTs have been identified as a potential enabler for an increased access and quality of education in Namibia. This study employed a qualitative approach to examining the success factors and challenges that applies to e-learning at the University of Namibia (UNAM). The study identified a multitude of critical factors within 5 different areas: i) Access, ii) User motivation, -attitude and -awareness, iii) Systematic approach, iv) Evaluation and analytical challenges, and v) Transforming the education. This rapport will discuss the role of e-learning at UNAM, the factors that are critical for e-learning at the learning institution and how this correlate with previous findings made by the scientific community on similar issues.