Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / The Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers offer a number of services to Kansas wheat producers. Kansas wheat producers will be willing to pay more if they perceive they are getting more value from the Kansas wheat organizations. However, Kansas wheat producers are unaware of what the Kansas wheat organizations are doing on their behalf. It is believed that if Kansas wheat producers were more aware of what their organizations were doing on their behalf, they would be willing to contribute more. The overall objective is to improve Kansas wheat producer knowledge of Kansas Wheat activities. A survey of Kansas wheat producers provided data about willingness to pay, importance of services, channel preferences and producer demographics. Funds provided by the Kansas wheat assessment are used for a number of projects and programs. Current programs can be categorized into four areas: research; education, communications, and meetings supporting Kansas wheat growers; domestic market development; and international market development. When asked to rank those four areas from highest to lowest priority, respondents overwhelmingly chose research as the highest priority investment of the Kansas wheat assessment. The survey results indicated that Kansas wheat producers were willing to pay an amount above the current level of 10 mills per bushel for the Kansas wheat assessment. The mean response was 12.42 mills. Members of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers were willing to pay more for the assessment (15.13 mills per bushel) than non-members. In general, radio is the preferred channel of Kansas wheat producers; however, the two most listed publications and radio stations they rely on for information about wheat were High Plains Journal (33%) and Kansas Farmer (30%), both industry publications. Other producer demographics such as location in the state, type of producer, and acreage also affect producers' willingness to pay.

What are the key antecedents, factors and moderators that influence environmentally friendly and socially responsible consumer behaviour? Individual consumers buy products and services not only for their intrinsic satisfactory functionalities. They make their consumption choices also because of specific extrinsic products/service abilities to affirm their lifestyle choice, i.e. enhance their self-concepts and satisfy their psychological needs. Given that despite the recent increase of interest in sustainable consumer behaviour, little is known on sustainable consumer aspirations, this study aims at filling the research gap in this area of academic research. This study investigates ad hoc literature in Lifestyle Strategic Marketing, Branding, Social Psychology and Self-Concept Theory applicable in Green and Fair Trade Operational Marketing . Mixed research methods are used in three distinct studies: (a) laboratory experiment, (b) SurveyMonkeyTM online questionnaire analyzed quantitatively, and (c) SPSS and SEM software data management and analysis. They are conducted in France and based on the common research models, i.e. the Theory of reasoned action (TRA) founded by Fishbein & Ajzen (1975) and the Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) coined by Ajzen (1991). Specific attitudes towards environmentally friendly and fair-trade products and services are derived from Value sets, Awareness of Consequences beliefs and Environmental Concern evaluations; therefore in the third partial study we adapt the research model proposed by Hansla et al. (2008). In all of them is employed a convenience sampling method that allows to gather between 109 and 350 respondents. Results allow for identification of salient factors influencing consumer purchasing intention and willingness to adopt and pay for both environmentally friendly and socially responsible products and/or services.

This thesis contributes to the currently still sprawling literature on the force of sustainable investing together with the “Big Five” personality structure (Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism). By investigating which personality trait, based on the Big Five personality taxonomy, that was willing to exchange revenue for a higher ESG rating in a hypothetical investment fund, we were able to determine when private investors were willing to pay more for a more sustainable investment. We use new data from our own questionnaire where the respondents are adult individuals residing in Sweden who has invested in the stock market. The data was analyzed with an econometric approach and for the regression ordinary least square and tobit was used. The results revealed that two personality traits (conscientiousness and agreeableness) tended to be less interested in sustainable investments, as they were not willing to pay for a fund with a higher ESG rating, unlike Openness to Experience, where the willingness to pay was high. The other two traits also showed a positive relationship and thus willingness to trade revenue for sustainability. This thesis contributes to the knowledge on how the personality of the private investors can motivate investment decisions and the preference of companies they invest in.

Background: Brand coolness is a research area that has been established in prior research. Brand coolness has been defined as a subjective, dynamic, socially constructed, and positive trait brands have. Cool brands can be recognized by the attributes extraordinary, aesthetically appealing, energetic, high status, original, authentic, rebellious, subcultural, iconic, and popular. The formation of cool brands and its consequences has been encouraged to be further investigated in prior research. This study incorporates consequences following brand coolness into the value-attitude-behavior model to see the degree of association with increased willingness-to-pay. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of brand coolness and its impact on the willingness-to-pay through consumers’ values, attitudes and behavior. Methodology: This study uses a quantitative research approach, conducting an online questionnaire with 202 respondents. The data from the questionnaire is then analysed through descriptive statistics, correlation- and bivariate regression analyses.   Findings: The main findings of this study is that all of the five measured brand coolness concepts within values, attitudes and behavior have a significant association with increased willingness-to-pay. The study strengthens prior findings in the research area of brand coolness and adds new knowledge regarding the possible order of prioritization when aiming to increase willingness-to-pay. Managerial implications: The results of the study enables to present an order of prioritization for companies to use when aiming to increase the willingness-to-pay through developed brand coolness. In order to maximize the increase of willingness to make a financial sacrifice for the brand the focus should mainly be on increasing brand love and brand attitude, followed by word-of-mouth, status and self-brand connection.

Utilisées dans un contexte de laboratoire ou d'enquête, les méthodes déclaratives sont très largement utilisées pour estimer les préférences des consommateurs. Les méthodes incitatives de l’économie expérimentale permettent de pallier les biais hypothétiques qui peuvent affecter les méthodes purement déclaratives. Ce travail présente une série d’études basées sur des comparaisons méthodologiques permettant de tester la validité inter-méthodes et d’amorcer la question de la validité externe des mesures. Associés aux travaux déjà présentés dans la littérature, ce travail à permis de mettre en évidence les atouts et les limites des mesures non-hypothétiques (mécanisme BDM et expérience de choix réel) d’une part l’une par rapport à l’autre, et d’autre part par rapport aux mesures hédoniques. Deux résultats majeurs ont été obtenus. Premièrement, le mécanisme BDM permet de révéler les préférences pour un produit même si sa valeur unitaire est faible. Deuxièmement, les deux approches de révélation des consentements à payer donnent des résultats cohérents au niveau agrégé, mais différents au niveau individuel, sans que l'on puisse imputer ces différences aux méthodes ou à l'instabilité des comportements des sujets. Enfin, ce travail argumente et illustre l'intérêt des mesures en situation de terrain qui permettraient d’augmenter la valeur prédictive des mesures de consentement à payer. / Used in a laboratory or survey setting, the declarative methods are very widely used to estimate the consumers preferences. The experimental economic incentive methods allows to make up for hypothetical bias which can affect purely declarative methods. This work sets out several experiments based on methodological comparisons allowing to test the inter-methods validity and to begin external measure validity question. In line with literature previous works, this work allows to highlight assets and limits of the non-hypothetical measures (BDM mechanism and real choice experiment), first one relative to another, second relative to hedonic measures. Two major results were obtained. First, the BDM mechanism allows to reveal the preferences of a product even if its unit value is low. Secondly, both methods used to reveal willingness to pay give coherent results regarding aggregate level, but different regarding individual level, without being able to impute these differences to methods or to instability of the participants behaviour. Finally, this work argues and illustrates assets of field situation measures which would allow to increase predictive values of the willingness to pay measures.

As a result of the convergence of online and offline retailers, and due to the notoriously low margins in the retail environment, innovation and technology have become more and more competitive differentiators. The purpose of this cumulative dissertation is to explore consumers’ behavioral reactions towards those technological innovations in brick and mortar retailing. As it is not feasible to consider every available technology in its own right, the focus of this dissertation is limited to the following three recent technologies: mobile payment, electronic shelf labels, and electric vehicle charging stations. By conducting experiments (Paper 1 and Paper 3) and leveraging real transaction data from a retailer (Paper 2), the author was able to formulate and investigate various research hypotheses, including a positive influence of new technology on the willingness to pay (Paper 1), mere revenue effect (Paper 2), and shopping intentions (Paper 3).:1 Introduction 2 Theoretical foundations 3 Purpose and focus of the dissertation 4 Article summary 4.1 Overview of dissertation articles 4.2 Summary of first article 4.3 Summary of second article 4.4 Summary of third article 5 General contributions and implications of this dissertation 6 Limitations and future research 7 Outlook References Appendix I: The effect of credit card versus mobile payment on convenience and consumers’ willingness to pay Appendix II: Behavioral consequences from converging channel capabilities: the effect of mere electronic shelf label presence on store revenue Appendix III: Recharge while you shop: the impact of free electric vehicle charging on shopping intention and shopping duration

Die vorliegende Ausgabe beschäftigt sich mit dem Thema „Beschleunigung und Entschleunigung – Eine empirische Untersuchung der Zahlungsbereitschaft für Entschleunigung“. Die allgemeine Beschleunigung der Lebensbereiche des Menschen zieht zunehmend negative ökonomische, soziale und ökologische Konsequenzen nach sich. Um diesem Trend entgegen zu wirken, wird die Strategie der Entschleunigung immer mehr zum Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Betrachtungen. Wird die Notwendigkeit eines entschleunigten Lebenswandels jedoch von der Bevölkerung wahrgenommen und sind Menschen bereit, für eine entschleu-nigte Form des Lebens finanzielle Einbußen hinzunehmen? Vorangegangene Experimente haben zur Beantwortung dieser Frage Grundlagenarbeit geleistet und sind zu dem Ergebnis gekommen, dass zumindest in Teilen der Bevölkerung eine Zahlungsbereitschaft für Entschleunigung vorhanden ist. Zur Bestätigung dieser Hypothese wurden zwei weitere Experimente sowohl in den USA als auch in Deutschland durchgeführt. Die generelle Zahlungsbereitschaft für Entschleunigung konnte bestätigt werden. In ihrer Höhe ist sie jedoch eher als gering einzustufen.

Although data collection through discrete choice experimentsconducted using surveys are commonly used in research, aimingto improve data quality is still serviceable and necessary. Three distinct experiments were conducted with the objectives of improving data quality by better tailoring experiments to market conditionsas well as decreasing complexity and fatigue. First, consumer willingness-to-pay(WTP) for yogurt attributes was estimatedusing a survey targeted to be nationally representative of the US.A novel approach was used to allow for self-selection into the choice experiment for commonly purchased types of yogurt.On average, respondentswere willing-to-paya positive amount for requiring pasture access and not permitting dehorning/disbudding for both traditional and Greek yogurt. Respondents had positive WTPfor Greek yogurt labeled free of high fructose corn syrup, and were willing-to-pay morefor low-fat yogurt when compared to nonfat for both yogurt types.<div><br></div><div> Second, anew WTP data collection method, employing component discrete choice experiments in place of traditional larger experimental designs,was proposedand compared to the traditional method to elicit yogurt consumer’s WTP for attributes in yogurt. The new WTP data collection method was designed with the objective of decreasing complexity by having respondents participate in fewer choice scenarios. Incidences of attribute non-attendance (ANA), a potential simplifying heuristic that results from complexity, occurred less frequently for all attributes in the new WTP data collection method with one exception. Exhibiting ANA for any attribute was negatively correlated with the time respondents took to complete the choice experiment.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Finally, through the use of a newbest-worst scaling(BWS)data collection method,consumer preferences for fluid dairy milk attributes were elicited and results as well as measures of data quality were compared to the traditional method of BWS. Nine attributes of fluid milk were included in this study: container material, rbST-free, price, container size, fat content, humane handling of cattle, brand, required pasture access for cattle, and cattle fed an organic diet. The top (price) and bottom (container material) attributes in terms of relative ranking did not change between the new BWS data collection method and the traditional BWS method. The new BWS data collection method resulted in fewer incidences of ANA for all attributes except one. There was not a statistical difference in the number of transitivity (an axiom of consumer theory) violators,between the new and traditional BWS methods.<br></div>

If you ask any person for his opinion about "miljonprogrammet", most would answer that it is the largest architectural failure in modern times. The housing shortage meant that numerous buildings had to be built quickly and the architecture was neglected. Today there is again a significant housing shortage, and the need to build many homes have quickly become a political priority issue. These homes should preferably be as cheap as possible. The risk is great that we in 50 years will view these buildings in a similar way that we look at the "miljonprogrammet" today. If we instead turn to the houses that were built in the 1920s these are still considered to be very beautiful and classic tastefulness. This type of house should be easy to replicate by simply building classic houses with pitched roof, simple details above windows and doors with a one-colored plaster facade. This work has been carried out in order to avoid falling into the same situation again. The aim was to prove that there is an increased willingness to pay for houses built around the 1920s. By proving that this is the case, we hope that the houses being built in the future will return to this classic tastefulness architecture which we believe will provide a more sustainable cityscape. The result has been obtained by several independent t-tests of sales in Södermalm and Östermalm, in central Stockholm, during the past five years. Interviews with architects, brokers and construction companies have also carried out to obtain a broader base and to see how professionals in the industry look at the issue. Literature has been used for further theoretical background. The conclusion has been obtained by compiling samples and interviews. The result was that there is a strong significant difference in the willingness to pay of properties built during the "miljonprogrammet" versus 1920. Where the 1920s houses sold for a much higher price. / Frågar man valfri person efter dennes åsikt angående miljonprogrammet skulle de flesta svara att det är det största arkitektoniska misslyckandet i modern tid. Bostadsbristen medförde att mycket skulle byggas fort och arkitekturen kom i skymundan. Idag råder det återigen stor bostadsbrist och behovet av att bygga många bostäder snabbt har blivit en politisk huvudfråga. Dessa bostäder ska helst också bli så billiga som möjligt. Risken är stor att vi om 50 år kommer se på dessa byggnader som man ser på miljonprogrammet idag. Ser man istället till husen som byggdes under 1920-talet anses dessa fortfarande vara väldigt vackra och klassiskt stilrena. Tjugotalshusen borde vara enkla att återskapa genom att bara bygga klassiska hus med sadeltak, få enkla detaljer över fönster och dörrar samt med en enfärgad putsfasad. Det här arbetet har genomförts för att undvika att hamna i samma situation en gång till. Syftet var att bevisa att det finns en ökad betalningsvilja för hus byggda kring 1920-talet. Genom att bevisa att så är fallet hoppas vi att de hus som byggs i framtiden kommer återgå mot denna klassiskt stilrena arkitektur. Detta tror vi kommer ge en mer långsiktigt hållbar stadsbild. Resultatet har fåtts genom en sticksprovsstudie av överlåtelser på Södermalm och Östermalm, i Stockholms innerstad, under de senaste fem åren. Intervjuer med arkitekter, mäklare och byggbolag har även genomförts för att få en bredare bas och för att se hur yrkesverksamma i branschen ser på frågan. Litteratur har använts för vidare teoretisk bakgrund. Slutsatsen har fåtts genom en sammanställning av stickproven och intervjuerna. Resultatet blev att det finns en stark signifikant skillnad i betalningsvilja mellan fastigheter byggda under miljonprogrammet kontra 1920-talet. Där 1920-talshusen såldes för ett betydligt högre pris.

Background: As more individuals continuously become more conscious of the external influences of their decisions, integrating social and ethical criteria and perceived non-monetary value in their investment decisions, the interest in socially responsible investments (SRI) has escalated in the past decade. Reflecting this shift, the Swedish Pension Agency continuously increases the requirements and sustainability demands for the funds available in the premium pension selection. To investigate the underlying variables affecting the decision to invest socially responsibly, the authors of this thesis studied Swedish pension beneficiaries’ demographics, attitudes and beliefs.  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the socio-demographic and psychological determinants of pension beneficiaries' and the influence of these variables on the willingness to pay for socially responsible investments. The study will additionally explore the tendency to underestimate exponential growth in one’s pension savings.  Method: The study is conducted by collecting primary data in the form of quantitative research through an online questionnaire. Based on previous research, six hypotheses are developed. This in order to investigate the relationship between willingness to pay for socially responsible investments and several socio-demographic and psychographic variables. Additionally, to examine Swedish pension beneficiaries’ tendency to underestimate exponential growth. The data collected is analysed through a multiple linear regression model and other descriptive statistics to examine if the hypotheses are rejected or not.  Conclusion: The majority of the subjects in the study are willing to pay for SRI. Gender significantly impacts the willingness to pay for SRI, as men demonstrate a lower willingness to pay than women. Furthermore, altruistic values, concern for one’s pension savings, concern for ESG-related issues (environmental, social and governance) and perceived consumer effectiveness proves to have a significant impact on the willingness to pay for SRI. Further, the sample demonstrated a definite tendency to underestimate exponential growth.