Effect of emotions on consumer decision-making in a high involvement product adoption context

This thesis was written in order participate in the emergent discussion on the role of emotions in consumer decision-making. The goal of the thesis was to find out which emotions affect consumer decision-making, how these emotions relate to traditional process models of consumer decision-making, and how emotions and other factors affect consumer decision-making. The thesis is placed into a context of high involvement product adoption. The empirical research was conducted according to a qualitative methodology, which combined video diaries and face-to-face or Skype interviews as data collection methods. The case product category was dancing poles, and four women participated in the study. The central results indicate that emotion and cognition walk hand in hand in consumer decision-making, that consumers experience a variety of emotions during a decision-making process, and that emotions have an important effect on consumer decision-making and consumer behavior.

Managerial decision-making style : India, Bangladesh, and Finland : cultural side of the game

Julkaisumaa Intia 356 IN IND

The importance of package design to Japanese consumers: The role of visual and informational elements of package design in decision making

The importance of package design as a marketing tool is growing as the competition in retail environment increases. However, there is a lack of studies on how each element of package design affects consumer decisions in different countries. The objective of this thesis is to study the role of package design to Japanese consumers. The research was conducted through an experiment with a sample of 37 Japanese female participants. They were divided into two groups and were given different tasks: one group had to choose a chocolate for themselves, and the other for a group of friends. The participants were presented with 15 different Finnish chocolate boxes to choose from. The qualitative data was gathered through observation and semi-structured interviews. In addition, data from questionnaires was quantified and all the data was triangulated. The empirical results suggest that visual elements strongly affect the decision making of Japanese consumers. Image was the most important element which acted as both, a visual and an informational aspect in the experiment. Informational elements on the other hand have little effect, especially when the context is written in a foreign language. However, informational elements affected participants who were choosing chocolates for a group of friends. A unique finding was the importance of kawaii (cuteness) to Japanese consumers.

Organization of the marketing communication activities after fusion - the integration and the decision making processes

This master’s thesis was made in order to gain answers to the question of how the integration of the marketing communications and the decision making related to it in a geographically dispersed service organization could be improved in a situation where an organization has gone through a merger. The effects of the organizational design dimensions towards the integration of the marketing communications and the decision making related to it was the main focus. A case study as a research strategy offered a perfect frames for an exploratory study and the data collection was conducted by semi-structured interviews and observing. The main finding proved that from the chosen design dimensions, decentralization, coordination and power, could be found specific factors that in a geographically dispersed organization are affecting the integration of the marketing communications negatively. The effects can be seen mostly in the decision making processes, roles and in the division of responsibility, which are affecting the other dimensions and by this, the integration. In a post-merger situation, the coordination dimension and especially the information asymmetry and the information flow seem to have a largest affect towards the integration of the marketing communications. An asymmetric information distribution with the lack of business and marketing education resulted in low self-assurance and at the end in fragmented management and to the inability to set targets and make independent decisions. As conclusions it can be stated, that with the organizational design dimensions can the effects of a merger towards the integration process of the marketing communications to be evaluated.

Gendered attitudes and family planning decision-making in Honduras

This study examines gendered attitudes and family planning in the Central American country of Honduras using a feminist perspective. Specifically, this study investigates the relationships between gendered attitudes (i.e., male oriented or non-male oriented attitudes) and who makes decisions about contraceptive use and family size among married and common-law Hondurans. This study also attempts to account for social elements such as gendered attitudes, education, economics, environment and demographics that may act to limit or enhance women's agency in reproductive decisionmaking. Furthermore, gender is examined to determine whether these relationships depend on the gender of the respondents. Two national Honduran surveys from 2001 are used in a secondary analysis, specifically muUinomial logisfic regression. Findings indicate that women reporting non-male oriented attitudes are significantly more likely to indicate that they (the wives) make the contraceptive decisions. Moreover, both men and women reporting non-male oriented attitudes are significantly more likely to indicate making contraceptive decisions together. Both of these effects remain significant when other social factors included in the analyses, though part of the effect is explained by education and economics. Similar effects are found in terms of family size decisions. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.