In this longitudinal study, I investigate changes in Japanese high school English learners' motivation over time, and whether the initial individual differences and the changes in those differences over time predict their final English achievement and overall academic achievement in high school. A questionnaire, which was developed by drawing on the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (Gardner, 1985b), the self-determination-theory scale (e.g., Noels, Pelletier, Clément, & Vallerand, 2000), and the willingness-to-communicate scale (e.g., McCroskey, 1992), was administered to 190 students three times at the beginning of each academic year of high school; follow-up interviews were conducted with 13 selected students. The questionnaire data were analyzed using the Rasch rating scale model, ANOVAs, and the latent growth curve modeling. The major findings include the following. First, twelve motivational constructs were identified. Second, significant differences were found over time for Attitudes Toward Learning English, Desire to Learn English, and Motivational Intensity; the other constructs were stable across time. Third, the students' average motivational profile was characterized by high External Regulation and Instrumental Orientation, and low Willingness to Communicate with Strangers across time. Fourth, Motivational Intensity, Attitudes Toward Learning English, and Intrinsic Motivation appear to directly affect both English achievement and overall academic achievement. The interview data were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively. The major findings include the following. First, the students' motivation seemed to be temporarily raised or lowered by `motivation-fluctuating factors' (e.g., test results), but it was stabilized by motivation-stabilizing factors (e.g., past travel and learning experiences). Second, in the face of university entrance examinations, the students' negative feelings toward examination English seemed to decrease their motivation, whereas positive attitudes toward examination English later in high school seemed to enhance motivation. Third, the students had a growing awareness of the need for practical and communicative English skills in the future. However, this awareness did not lead to greater willingness to communicate probably because of various interfering factors. Other interview results provided an in-depth understanding of and supporting evidence for some of the questionnaire results. Implications for researchers, school administrators, and teachers are provided. / CITE/Language Arts

This dissertation consists of three essays that examine consumer behavior with respect to drinking water quality issues. The first essay uses contingent valuation method to explore consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for a hypothetical material in home drinking water infrastructure that will remain leak free. Willingness to pay is investigated using both dichotomous choice and dichotomous choice with follow-up formats using a national telephone survey of consumers. Our results indicate that consumers' concerns about future system failures and income positively affect their WTP for an improved material while satisfaction with the water quality, education and the bid amount asked negatively affect their WTP for an improved material. There are no significant differences in the determinants of WTP between respondents who have experienced problems with home water infrastructure and respondents who have not. Furthermore, the estimated mean WTP does not change significantly between the dichotomous choice questioning format and the dichotomous choice with follow-up format The second essay investigates the determinants of consumers' willingness to accept improvement programs for three drinking water issues: water quality, pinhole leaks in home plumbing infrastructure and aging public infrastructure. The research is based on a mail survey of consumers in Northern Virginia and the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C. The analysis focuses on the relationship between information, risk perceptions and willingness to pay. Results indicate that the choice to support any of the programs is negatively affected by the cost of the proposed improvement. Consumers' risk perceptions, the external information provided in the survey and whether they read the annual report from their water utility affect their choices for investment in improvement programs. The third essay examines the effect of risk perceptions about tap water, general risk aversion and consumers' characteristics on their decision to avert drinking water risks and related expenditures. Results are based on the same survey data from the second study. The risk aversion measure is elicited using the sequence of questions employed in the National Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Results indicate that consumers' risk perceptions affect both the decision to avert and the amount spent on averting activities. However, we do not find a significant impact of risk aversion on averting behavior. In addition we find that respondents were more likely to use water treatments if they were unsatisfied with their tap water or had problems or concerns with water odor and particles. / Ph. D.

The primary objective of this dissertation is to determine Hispanic consumers’ preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for grass-fed beef. Two hundred and thirty-one Hispanic consumers in four experiment sites in Virginia (Galax, Roanoke, Richmond, and Blacksburg) participated in an experimental economics laboratory procedure. Taste tests and visual evaluations were conducted to understand Hispanic consumers’ sensory preferences for grass-fed beef in comparison to conventional grain-fed beef. A contingent valuation method, Multiple Price Lists (MPL) was used to measure Hispanic consumers’ WTP for grass-fed beef. In the study, MPL was put into a non-hypothetical environment due to real products, real money, and actual transactions involved. A bivariate Probit model was estimated to determine Hispanic consumers’ visual and taste preferences for grass-fed beef and to explore the relationship between their expected and experienced quality of grass-fed beef. A two-step decision process examined Hispanic consumers’ WTP and investigated the factors influencing their valuations on grass-fed beef. Approximately 50% of Hispanic consumers sampled preferred grass-fed to conventional grain-fed beef steak and the vast majority of grass-fed preferring consumers were willing to pay a price premium for it. Hispanic consumers were able to distinguish the appearance and taste between grass-fed and conventional grain-fed beef steaks. A positive correlation between visual and taste preferences for grass-fed beef was captured. / Ph. D.

Sustainability of the soybean industry relies on the growth of new industries and the continued improvement of seeds for utilization. Grower adoption and growth of the edamame industry has been slow in part due to insufficient information on its potential profitability and marketability. As such, the first and second objectives of this thesis aimed at 1) determining production costs of hand-harvested fresh edamame enterprise and 2) exploring consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for fresh, local, organic, and "on-the-stalk" marketed edamame. Sucrose, raffinose, and stachyose sugars hold tremendous implications for utilization of soybean seeds in livestock, soyfood, and probiotics industries. Current sugar phenotyping methods using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are costly and inefficient. Therefore, the third objective of this study was to develop calibrations to predict sugar content using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS). Results showed that labor accounted for 72% of production costs for edamame pods, which largely limits its profit potential. Mean WTP for fresh and local edamame exceeded their frozen and non-local counterparts by 94 and 88 cents, respectively. In addition, mean WTP for organic edamame exceeded non-GMO edamame by 33 cents. Pro-environmental attitudes appeared to be a consistent driver of WTP these three attributes. Meanwhile, a 40-cent discount for "on-the-stalk" edamame compared to pods indicates convenience may also be a factor in edamame marketability. Calibration development for sucrose and stachyose was successful, with R2cal, R2cv, RMSEC, and RMSECV of 0.901, 0.869, 0.516, and 0.596, and 0.911, 0.891, 0.361, and 0.405, respectively. Alternative methods should be investigated for quantification of raffinose. / Master of Science / Sustainability of the soybean industry relies on the growth of new industries and the continued improvement of seeds for utilization. Grower adoption and growth of the edamame industry has been slow in part due to insufficient information on its potential profitability and marketability. As such, the first and second objectives of this thesis aimed at 1) determining production costs of hand-harvested fresh edamame and 2) exploring relative marketing potential of fresh, local, organic, and "on-the-stalk" edamame. Sucrose, raffinose, and stachyose sugars hold tremendous implications for utilization of soybean seeds in livestock, soyfood, and probiotics industries. Current methods of quantifying sugar are costly and time inefficient. Therefore, the third objective of this study was to develop prediction models to estimate sugar content using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS). Results showed that labor accounted for 72% of production costs for edamame pods, which largely limits its profit potential. Fresh and local edamame showed considerable marketing potential over frozen and non-local edamame. In addition, organic edamame showed marginal marketing benefit over non-GMO. Pro-environmental attitudes were an important driver of these results. Meanwhile, on-the-stalk edamame shows poor marketing potential, likely due to preference for convenience of food preparation in the U.S. NIRS prediction models for sucrose and stachyose showed strong predictive accuracy and low error, suggesting potential for implementation. The prediction model for raffinose, however, remained poor.

The willingness of victims to report crimes is declining, which leads to an increase in the dark figure and undermines effective crime control. Nowadays, a mobile phone holds vast amounts of information that may be valuable for police forensic experts, showing that victims’ phones could be critical in crime investigations. This interview study has determined the factors that influence Swedish citizens’ willingness to report crimes when reporting involves surrendering their own mobile phones for forensic analysis. The study also uncovered factors that increase their willingness to report crimes under the same circumstances. The gathered data was subjected to a qualitative analysis and thematic coding, resulting in four distinct themes with 12 categories distributed among them. The analysis reveals that the primary factors affecting Swedish citizens’ willingness to report crimes are privacy concerns, with participants feeling uneasy about others accessing their private data, and anxiety over being separated from their mobile phones. Furthermore, the study indicates that the most significant factors for increasing the willingness to report crimes are enhanced information and transparency from the police, with participants suggesting that better understanding of the process and increased openness would increase their willingness to report.

Background: The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has been largely discussed and investigated by the industry and researchers as a means to support the transition from fossil-fueled-based vehicles to more environmentally sustainable solutions, as the EVs are. However, adoption is not ramping-up as the industry expected even though the technology proved to be ready for the market. The reason for it could vary, nevertheless common factors have been identified. Purpose: This work aims to understand which factors appear as a concern regarding willingness to purchase EVs in Sweden and what strategies original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) should adopt to enhance the widespread EV adoption. Methodology: A questionnaire based on 5 level Likert scale was distributed to the Swedish population to investigate factors that affect EV adoption such as the high cost of the EVs, lack of charging station infrastructure, EVs’ driving experience, EVs’ driving range, removal of governmental subsidies for EV, availability of different EV models, battery life and EVs safety aspects. Responses were also gathered on the perceived effectiveness of OEMs adoption strategies. A multiple linear regression was used to test 8 hypotheses on willingness to purchase EVs. Results and Analysis: Of the 8 factors analyzed, only two, namely driving experience and range were significant to the model generated on willingness to purchase EV, in which 66% agreed or strongly agreed that they are willing to purchase EVs. On the OEM strategies, the study observed that OEMs should invest in strategies to allow the public to experience driving an EV, as well as educate the population about the technology, its benefits, and the total cost of ownership (TCO). Conclusion: The results indicate that in Sweden factors such as driving experience and range are still relevant to influence the willingness to acquire an EV, on the other hand, the cost of EVs, removal of government subsidies, and the other factors previously mentioned do not impact the respondent’s willingness. To boost adoption, OEMs should focus their strategies on refreshed market segmentation, customer education, test drive experience, and marketing. Recommendation for future research: It is recommended that future research should have a higher sample size that is distributed based on Swedish population density to enhance the statistical significance of the analysis. Additionally, more factors affecting EV adoption could be investigated in the future, such as the sustainability of battery material sourcing.

Willingness to defend has been stated as a fundamental prerequisite for the Swedish total defense. Despite this, research regarding the subject is limited, and there is a lack of knowledge on what willingness to defend means from the citizens’ point of view. Drawing on theories on territory, national identity and institutionalization processes, I explore the conceptualization of willingness to defend from a socio-spatial perspective through semi-structured interviews. This study engages in what people believe is worth defending, and why, and how this differs depending on the geographical scale. The results show that willingness to defend is a versatile concept with a breadth of connotations, as are the ideas about what is worth defending. The democratic system is recurrently described as a central issue worthy of defense, but this also creates a dilemma in the context of the total defense service. Some consider engaging in defense a citizen-duty, others express that participation must be based in free choice. On the global scale, willingness to defend is connected to, challenged, and affected by international actors and events, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, Sweden's new NATO membership creates another moral dilemma, as considered positive from a security perspective, while at the same time challenging Swedish exceptionalism as a moral superpower.

<p>The rise of technologies and the Internet have provided opportunities to connect logistics demand and supply using the crowd. In this system, named crowd-shipping (CS), a requester doing the shipping selects a courier via a platform. In reality, the idea of CS has been explored by many firms over the last several years. However, there is a lack of fundamental understanding of the issues related to: (1) the markets that are likely to be influenced by CS; (2) the considerations that govern the success of this system; and the (3) the impacts of CS and its design.</p><p><br></p> <p>To address these issues, there is a need of understanding CS system's stakeholders, such as requesters' (i.e. senders') and potential couriers' (i.e. driver-partners') behaviors as well as operations and management of CS firms. This research will address these gaps by conducting a survey to understand driver-partners' behaviors and requesters' behaviors given the CS services availability in the logistics market. Then, pricing and compensation strategies are designed and modeled based on behavior rules of supply and demand generations as well as various CS market penetrations. As such, this research addresses the CS industry in a triad of supply, demand, and operations and management.</p><p><br></p> <p>This research uses advanced econometrics, statistics analysis, mixed integer optimization, and data science techniques to analyze data and generate insights. The contributions of this research are to identify the contributing factors that impact the emerging logistics service. This research also reveals factors that influence the current and future shipping behaviors of requesters, as well as influencing factors of the individuals' willingness to work as driver-partners. The integrated matching and routing models have been developed to examine different pricing and compensation strategies under several market penetration scenarios. `Individual' price and compensation have found to provide the highest profit for CS platform providers.</p><p><br></p> <p>This research provides meaningful knowledge for stakeholders, especially for the CS firms to develop business strategies. Several remarkable benefits that CS firms can obtain include: focusing on some specific population groups to recruit driver-partners (e.g. people with children, middle-aged people having lower incomes, or no car ownership); addressing certain market segments to promote CS services (e.g. tight-window delivery packages, peripheral products, or personal health and medicine items); implementing `individual' or `flatted' pricing and compensation strategies depending on the time of the day, the day of the week, or the market penetration; and improving platform features to incorporate requesters' and driver-partners' expectations.</p>

The goal of the work is to provide monetary valuation of changes in visual aspects of the landscape as a result of construction of an additional wind turbine in the village Maletín. For a suitable method for achieving the goal is being selected the contingent valuation method. A key element of this method is being considered the carefully compiled questionnaire, on which basis is made the quantification and evaluation of collected data. The representative sample consists of 112 households and the selected payment method is the increase of the monthly bill for electricity. The questionnaire reports that 54.3% of households consider the impact of wind turbines on the landscape Maletín to be positive. With the construction of additional wind turbine agree less than 74.3% of households and the most common reason is to obtain grants for the village and to produce cleaner energy from wind turbines. With the construction of new wind turbine while increasing monthly bill agrees 28.6% of all households living in the village Maletín. Estimation of changes in a welfare, thus improving the quality of the environment, is based on estimated central values, that has been calculated from selected characteristics and nonparametric estimation. The average household's willingness to pay for construction of wind turbine is estimated to be between 77 CZK - 200 CZK per month.

本研究旨在瞭解台灣地區大學生的網際網路使用行為、性別、社會焦慮與網路諮商意願、生活適應問題接受網路諮商意願之關係。首先，瞭解大學生之網際網路使用行為、社會焦慮、網路諮商意願、生活適應問題接受網路諮商意願之現況，以及其間之性別差異。其次，在瞭解網際網路使用行為與網路諮商意願、生活適應問題接受網路諮商意願之關係；性別與網路諮商意願、生活適應問題接受網路諮商意願之關係；社會焦慮與網路諮商意願、生活適應問題接受網路諮商意願之關係；性別與匿名與否之交互作用；社會焦慮與匿名與否交互作用。 本研究受試者透過網路收集，國內外各大學院校之大學生共484位（國內大學院校學生人，在國外唸書的中國學生人），男性大學生247位，女性大學生237位，所採用之工具為「網際網路使用行為問卷」、「互動焦慮量表」、「網路諮商方式意願調查表」、「生活適應問題接受網路諮商意願調查表」四種。研究中所採用之統計方法包括皮爾森積差相關、多變量變異數分析、典型相關。 本研究之主要結果如下： 一、大學生上網找尋資料、閱讀文章或發表文章的頻率以每天一次以上的人數最多（64.9％），上網與他人交談或寄信回信的頻率，以每天一次以上的頻率最高（48.8％）。每次上網找尋資料、閱讀文章或發表文章的時間，以每次一小時至一小時59分最多（42.1％）。每次上網與他人交談或寄信回信的使用時間，以每次一小時以下最多（45.7％）。對整體網際網路使用滿意度上，逾半數表示滿意，各項網際網路功能中，E-mail、WWW、BBS為大學生的最愛。 二、男性大學生的網際網路使用率高於女性大學生。在每次上網找尋資料、閱讀文章、發表文章、與他人交談、寄信回信的使用時間上，女性大學生平均使用時間皆高於男性大學生。整體網際網路使用經驗滿意度，女性大學生高於男性大學生。 三、全體大學生在面對權威人物與陌生情境時，皆易感到社會焦慮，社會互動情境易覺得緊張、不自在。男性大學生在面對權威人物、陌生情境及社會互動情境焦慮，較女性大學生易有焦慮的情形。 四、不匿名網路諮商與需要見面網路諮商，大學生接受意願最低。匿名且不需見面網路諮商，男女大學生接受度最高。不匿名且需要見面網路諮商，接受度最低。需要見面網路諮商在匿名與不匿名兩種情況下，男性大學生接受意願皆高於女性大學生。 五、大學生對生活與生涯適應問題，願意採取不匿名網路諮商，在性、愛、人際關係、家庭關係、身心困擾，皆傾向匿名網路諮商。男女大學生在生活與生涯適應，願意採取不匿名網路諮商，其餘皆傾向匿名網路諮商。 六、大學生網際網路使用行為的不同，並未在匿名情況下之網路諮商意願達到顯著差異。 七、大學生在網際網路使用次數、每次使用時間等各行為上的不同，在不匿名情況下之網路諮商意願，並未達到顯著差異，但對網路使用經驗滿意度高之大學生，對網路諮商的接受意願較高。 八、大學生在網際網路使用行為上的不同，在生活適應問題接受網路諮商意願上，並未達到顯著差異。 九、在匿名情況下，男性大學生在「需要見面網路諮商」的網路諮商意願上，較女性大學生有較高的意願。 十、在不匿名情況下，男性大學生在「需要見面網路諮商」的網路諮商意願上，較女性大學生有較高的意願。 十一、男性大學生在面臨「性、愛、人際關係」生活適應問題時，較女性大學生願意採取匿名的方式接受網路諮商。 十二、大學生的社會焦慮，匿名情況下，在接受網路諮商的意願上，並未有顯著正相關。 十三、越具有「權威人物與陌生情境焦慮」與「緊張彆扭」社會焦慮大學生，越不傾向接受，在不匿名情況下之「不需見面網路諮商」與「需要見面網路諮商」的網路諮商。 十四、大學生的社會焦慮，與生活適應問題接受網路諮商意願，並未有顯著的正相關。 十五、大學生的性別與匿名抑否未呈現顯著交互作用，匿名抑否達顯著差異。在「不需見面網路諮商」，大學生在接受網路諮商意願上，接受匿名方式的意願，高於不匿名方式。在「需要見面網路諮商」，大學生在接受網路諮商意願上，接受匿名方式的意願，高於不匿名方式。 十六、大學生的社會焦慮與匿名抑否未有顯著交互作用，匿名抑否達顯著性差異。在「不需見面網路諮商」，大學生在接受網路諮商意願上，接受匿名方式的意願，高於不匿名方式。在「需要見面網路諮商」，大學生在接受網路諮商意願上，接受匿名方式的意願，高於不匿名方式。 十七、全體大學生其性別、網際網路使用行為、社會焦慮、網路諮商意願、生活適應問題接受網路諮商意願之間，顯著的具有典型相關，較常使用Netmeeting的大學生，不論在匿名或不匿名情況下之「需要見面網路諮商」，有較高的接受意願，對「性、愛、人際關係」之生活適應問題，對網路諮商也有較高的接受度。 本研究根據上述結果加以討論，並提出若干建議以供未來研究及教育與輔導工作之參考。