Psychographic characteristics of weekend wine tourists : a multiple case study of four wineries in the Niagara Region

The purpose of this study is to examine the psychographic (product attributes, motivation opinions, interest, lifestyle, values) characteristics of wine tourists along the Niagara wine r,~ute, located in Ontario, Canada, using a multiple case study method. Four wineries were selected, two wineries each on the East, and West sides of the wine route during the shoulder-season (January, February, 2004). Using a computer generated survey technique, tourists were approached to fill out a questionnaire on one of the available laptop computers, where a sample ofN=321 was obtained. The study findings revealed that there are three distinct wine tourist segments in the Niagara region. The segments were determined using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a K-means cluster analysis: Wine Lovers, Wine Interested, and Wine Curious wine tourists. These three segments displayed significant differences in their, motivation for visiting a winery, lifestyles, values, and wine purchasing behaviour. This study also examined differences between winery locations, on the East and West sides of the Niagara wine route, with respect to the aforementioned variables. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the regions with respect to these variables. The findings suggest that these differences present opportunities for more effective marketing strategies based on the uniqueness of each region. The results of this study provide insight for academia into a method of psychographic market segmentation of wine tourists and consumer behaviour. This study also contributes to the literature on wine tourism, and the identification of psychographic characteristics of wine tourists, an area where little research has taken place.

Profiling the Senior Traveler: An Australia Perspective

Recently, the behavior of senior travelers has become an important area of interest because of its market size and potential for growth. This study describes a study profiling senior travelers according to their demographic and psychographic characteristics. Six market segments were used to highlight the differences that exist in terms of holiday attractions, travel motivations, and information sources used among senior travelers when planning and choosing a holiday. Seniors are shown not to be a uniform conservative market, which has implications for marketing and product development.

Determinantes do comportamento de compra verde em Portugal

Apesar do avanço tecnológico, uma grande maioria dos consumidores contínua a utilizar excessivamente os recursos naturais não renováveis do planeta, resultado de um consumo exagerado e inconsciente. Atualmente, os consumidores possuem mais informação sobre as questões ambientais e, alguns, refletem esse conhecimento nas suas decisões de compra. Com a crescente preocupação e atenção, quer por parte da população, quer por parte das organizações governamentais e empresas, para com o meio ambiente e a sua preservação, as questões ecológicas têm cada vez mais importância nas estratégias das empresas. Na presente investigação é analisado o comportamento de compra verde com a utilização das variáveis sociodemográficas (género, idade, número de filhos, rendimento e habilitações literárias) e psicográficas (conhecimento ecológico, coletivismo e individualismo), indo ao encontro do objetivo geral de investigação que visa compreender qual a relevância destas variáveis face ao comportamento de compra verde. O estudo desenvolvido é operacionalizado por via de um método quantitativo, através da utilização de um inquérito por questionário com base nas escalas do conhecimento ecológico (Laroche et al., 2001), coletivismo e individualismo (Singelis et al., 1995 e Triandis & Gelfand (1998)) e do comportamento de compra verde (Jain & Kaur, 2004). O questionário foi aplicado a uma amostra de conveniência (N=350), dando origem a uma análise quantitativa face aos dados obtidos. Os resultados indicam que as variáveis psicográficas exercem maior influência no comportamento de compra verde do que as variáveis sociodemográficas. As variáveis psicográficas, conhecimento ecológico e coletivismo, têm uma grande influência no comportamento de compra verde, ao contrário do individualismo. Por seu lado, do conjunto das variáveis sociodemográficas, apenas a idade e o número de filhos influenciam significativamente o comportamento de compra verde.

Target audience and message alignment for integrated marketing communication of luxury products: entering the Chinese market

The purpose of this study is to identify opportunities to match marketing communication message strategies with the target audience characteristics in the Chinese luxury market entry context. Therefore, consumer behaviour and psychographic marketing segmentation fields are being reviewed in a holistic view in order to identify the similarities and connection points. Through the analysis of the messages in advertisements placed in a certain luxury and fine living magazine, message creation strategies are being anticipated.

Influence of personality factors on the consumption of personal care products

The study is significant from both an application perspective of marketing management as well as from an academic angle. The market for personal care products is a highly fragmented one, with intense competition for specific niche segments. It is well known in marketing literature that the bulk of the volume of sale is accounted for by the minority who are the heavy users. This study will help the marketers to identify the personality profile of such a group and understand how the interaction of personality factors at least partially explains differences in consumption. This knowledge might be useful for better segmentation using psychographic variables as well as for designing specific advertisement campaigns to target the vulnerable groups of customers. From a theoretical perspective, the research may contribute to understanding how specific personality variables and their interaction lead to differences in consumption. The knowledge corresponding to self theory, social comparison theory, persuasibility, evidence from psychology of eating disorders: these all may be integrated into a common frame work for explaining consumption of products having a social function.

Tourist Profiles and Characteristics vis-à-vis Market Segmentation of Ecotourism Destinations in Kerala

Kerala, a classic ecotourism destination in India, provides significant opportunities for livelihood options to the people who depend on the resources from the forest and those who live in difficult terrains. This article analyses the socio-demographic, psychographic and travel behavior patterns and its sub-characteristics in the background of foreign and domestic tourists. The data source for the article has been obtained from a primary survey of 350 randomly chosen tourists, 175 each from domestic and foreign tourists, visiting Kerala’s ecotourists destinations during August-December 2010-11. Several socio-demographic, psychographic and life style factors have been identified based on the inference from field survey. There is considerable divergence in most of the factors identified in the case of domestic and international tourists. Post-trip attributes like satisfaction and intentions to return show that the ecotourism destinations in Kerala have significant potential that can help communities in the region.

O consumidor brasileiro de marcas de luxo : uma descrição e segmentação psicográfica por valores

O campo desta dissertação é o Marketing aplicado às marcas de luxo, descrevendo e segmentando os consumidores das marcas de luxo de vestuário e acessórios em seus traços psicográficos. A psicografia é utilizada para entender os mercados e avaliar em profundidade os segmentos (Blackwell, Miniard, Engel, 2005), indo além das usuais variáveis demográficas. A psicografia utiliza características subjetivas dos consumidores, tais como estilo de vida, personalidade, atitude, atividades, interesses, valores (Tomanari, 2003). Aqui se utilizou, como traços psicográficos, os valores do consumidor. Valores são propriedades humanas que dificilmente mudam, sendo influenciadores do comportamento. Ademais, são em algum grau compartilhados pelos indivíduos que pertencem a uma mesma cultura e variam de acordo com as especificidades culturais (Hemzo, Silva, 2009). Dessa forma, os traços psicográficos baseados em valores são menos universais e mais necessários estudá-los dentro de uma cultura em particular (a brasileira, nessa dissertação). No Brasil, o consumo das marcas de luxo, a partir da década de 2000, teve diversas causas. As condições econômicas e a inserção no mercado global facilitaram a compra de produtos importados. Todavia, o fenômeno do luxo difere nos seus mercados tradicionais (França e Itália). Isso leva a considerar que, nos mercados emergentes, o luxo passa por outras definições e simbologias, por vezes divergentes daquelas dos países de origem das marcas. Logo, uma segmentação baseada nos traços psicográficos dos consumidores pode auxiliar a gestão dessas marcas no Brasil, o que essa dissertação aborda.

Quais as motivações da classe C brasileira no consumo de turismo? - análise de caso da agência VRM Turismo

Estudo do comportamento de compra e consumo de turismo dos moradores da Rocinha, baseado no método de entrevistas em profundidade. Arcabouço teórico: fatores "push" e "pull" (Crompton, 1979; Dann, 1981) e tipologias de Plog (1977).

As cartas de Chico Xavier: uma análise semiótica

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

COMMUNITY OF ORIGIN EFFECTS ON VIRTUAL BRAND COMMUNITIES PARTICIPANT

The question about the effectiveness of companies in maintaining their own communities versus benefiting from the ones owned by consumers remains open. We examine differences between firm-managed and customer-managed brand communities regarding the impact of perceived psychographic homogeneity, availability of virtual avenues and relationship with the brand on the community's influence on members and the assessments and intentions of community participants. Data were obtained from 555 respondents in two leading Microsoft XBOX brand communities in Brazil. Results indicate that management of the community of origin is the moderator of all considered relationships. Also, the most favorable effects for the company occur in the community that is not directly controlled and managed by the company itself. Brand loyalty, however, is higher for members of the official brand community. Guidelines on how companies can benefit from consumer-managed communities are discussed.

Motivational profiles of sport event volunteers.

Aim of the study Due to the valuable contribution made by volunteers to sporting events, a better understanding of volunteers’ motivation is imperative for event managers in order to develop effective volunteer re-cruitment and retention strategies. The adoption of working conditions and task domains to the mo-tives and needs of volunteers is one of the key challenges in volunteer management. Conversely, an ignorance of the motives and needs of volunteers could negatively affect their performance and attitude, which will have negative consequences for the execution of events (Strigas & Jackson, 2003). In general, the motives of volunteers are located on a continuum between selflessness (e.g. helping others), and self-interest (e.g. pursuing one’s own interests). Furthermore, it should take into account that volunteers may be motivated by more than one need or goal, and therefore, configure different bundles of motives, resulting in heterogeneous types of motives for voluntary engagement (Dolnicar & Randle, 2007). Despite the extensive number of studies on the motives of sport event volunteers, only few studies focus on the analysis of individual motive profiles concerning volun-teering. Accordingly, we will take a closer look at the following questions: To what extent do volun-teers at sporting events differ in the motives of their engagement, and how can the volunteers be ade-quately classified? Theoretical Background According to the functional approach, relevant subjective motives are related to the outcomes and consequences that volunteering is supposed to lead to and to produce. This means, individuals’ mo-tives determine which incentives are anticipated in return for volunteering (e.g. increase in social contacts), and are important for engaging in volunteering, e.g. the choice between different oppor-tunities for voluntary activity, or different tasks (Stukas et al., 2009). Additionally, inter-individual differences of motive structures as well as matching motives in the reflections of voluntary activities will be considered by using a person-oriented approach. In the person-oriented approach, it is not the specific variables that are made the entities of investigation, but rather persons with a certain combination of characteristic features (Bergmann et al., 2003). Person-orientation in the field of sports event volunteers, it is therefore essential to implement an orientation towards people as a unit of analysis. Accordingly, individual motive profiles become the object of investigation. The individ-ual motive profiles permit a glimpse of intra-individual differences in the evaluation of different motive areas, and thus represent the real subjective perspective. Hence, a person will compare the importance of individual motives for his behaviour primarily in relation to other motives (e.g. social contacts are more important to me than material incentives), and make fewer comparisons with the assessments of other people. Methodology, research design and data analysis The motives of sports event volunteers were analysed in the context of the European Athletics Championships 2014 in Zürich. After data cleaning, the study sample contained a total of 1,169 volunteers, surveyed by an online questionnaire. The VMS-ISA scale developed by Bang and Chel-ladurai (2009) was used and replicated successfully by a confirmatory factor analysis. Accordingly, all seven factors of the scale were included in the subsequent cluster analysis to determine typical motive profiles of volunteers. Before proceeding with the cluster analysis, an intra-individual stand-ardization procedure (according to Spiel, 1998) was applied to take advantage of the intra-individual relationships between the motives of the volunteers. Intra-individual standardization means that every value of each motive dimension was related to the average individual level of ex-pectations. In the final step, motive profiles were determined using a hierarchic cluster analysis based on Ward’s method with squared Euclidean distances. Results, discussion and implications The results reveal that motivational processes differ among sports event volunteers, and that volunteers sometimes combine contradictory bundles of motives. In our study, four different volunteer motive profiles were identified and described by their positive levels on the individual motive dimension: the community supporters, the material incentive seekers, the social networkers, and the career and personal growth pursuers. To describe the four identified motive profiles in more detail and to externally validate them, the clusters were analysed in relation to socio-economic, sport-related, and voluntary work characteristics. This motive-based typology of sports event volunteers can provide valuable guidance for event managers in order to create distinctive and designable working conditions and tasks at sporting events that should, in relation to a person-oriented approach, be tailored to a wide range of individ-ual prerequisites. Furthermore, specific recruitment procedures and appropriate communication measures can be defined in order to approach certain groups of potential volunteers more effectively. References Bang, H., & Chelladurai, P. (2009). Development and validation of the volunteer motivations scale for international sporting events (VMS-ISE). International Journal Sport Management and Market-ing, 6, 332-350. Bergmann, L. R., Magnusson, D., & El-Khouri, B. M. (2003). Studying individual development in an interindividual context. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Dolnicar, S., & Randle, M. (2007). What motivates which volunteers? Psychographic heterogeneity among volunteers in Australia. Voluntas, 18, 135-155. Spiel, C. (1998). Four methodological approaches to the study of stability and change in develop-ment. Methods of Psychological Research Online, 3, 8-22. Stukas, A. A., Worth, K. A., Clary, E. G., & Snyder, M. (2009). The matching of motivations to affordances in the volunteer environment: an index for assessing the impact of multiple matches on volunteer outcomes. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 38, 5-28.

Análisis de los factores de adopción de comercio electrónico en segmentos de consumidores finales. Aplicación al caso español

El comercio electrónico ha experimentado un fuerte crecimiento en los últimos años, favorecido especialmente por el aumento de las tasas de penetración de Internet en todo el mundo. Sin embargo, no todos los países están evolucionando de la misma manera, con un espectro que va desde las naciones pioneras en desarrollo de tecnologías de la información y comunicaciones, que cuentan con una elevado porcentaje de internautas y de compradores online, hasta las rezagadas de rápida adopción en las que, pese a contar con una menor penetración de acceso, presentan una alta tasa de internautas compradores. Entre ambos extremos se encuentran países como España que, aunque alcanzó hace años una tasa considerable de penetración de usuarios de Internet, no ha conseguido una buena tasa de transformación de internautas en compradores. Pese a que el comercio electrónico ha experimentado importantes aumentos en los últimos años, sus tasas de crecimiento siguen estando por debajo de países con características socio-económicas similares. Para intentar conocer las razones que afectan a la adopción del comercio por parte de los compradores, la investigación científica del fenómeno ha empleado diferentes enfoques teóricos. De entre todos ellos ha destacado el uso de los modelos de adopción, proveniente de la literatura de adopción de sistemas de información en entornos organizativos. Estos modelos se basan en las percepciones de los compradores para determinar qué factores pueden predecir mejor la intención de compra y, en consecuencia, la conducta real de compra de los usuarios. Pese a que en los últimos años han proliferado los trabajos de investigación que aplican los modelos de adopción al comercio electrónico, casi todos tratan de validar sus hipótesis mediante el análisis de muestras de consumidores tratadas como un único conjunto, y del que se obtienen conclusiones generales. Sin embargo, desde el origen del marketing, y en especial a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, se considera que existen diferencias en el comportamiento de los consumidores, que pueden ser debidas a características demográficas, sociológicas o psicológicas. Estas diferencias se traducen en necesidades distintas, que sólo podrán ser satisfechas con una oferta adaptada por parte de los vendedores. Además, por contar el comercio electrónico con unas características particulares que lo diferencian del comercio tradicional –especialmente por la falta de contacto físico entre el comprador y el producto– a las diferencias en la adopción para cada consumidor se le añaden las diferencias derivadas del tipo de producto adquirido, que si bien habían sido consideradas en el canal físico, en el comercio electrónico cobran especial relevancia. A la vista de todo ello, el presente trabajo pretende abordar el estudio de los factores determinantes de la intención de compra y la conducta real de compra en comercio electrónico por parte del consumidor final español, teniendo en cuenta el tipo de segmento al que pertenezca dicho comprador y el tipo de producto considerado. Para ello, el trabajo contiene ocho apartados entre los que se encuentran cuatro bloques teóricos y tres bloques empíricos, además de las conclusiones. Estos bloques dan lugar a los siguientes ocho capítulos por orden de aparición en el trabajo: introducción, situación del comercio electrónico, modelos de adopción de tecnología, segmentación en comercio electrónico, diseño previo del trabajo empírico, diseño de la investigación, análisis de los resultados y conclusiones. El capítulo introductorio justifica la relevancia de la investigación, además de fijar los objetivos, la metodología y las fases seguidas para el desarrollo del trabajo. La justificación se complementa con el segundo capítulo, que cuenta con dos elementos principales: en primer lugar se define el concepto de comercio electrónico y se hace una breve retrospectiva desde sus orígenes hasta la situación actual en un contexto global; en segundo lugar, el análisis estudia la evolución del comercio electrónico en España, mostrando su desarrollo y situación presente a partir de sus principales indicadores. Este apartado no sólo permite conocer el contexto de la investigación, sino que además permite contrastar la relevancia de la muestra utilizada en el presente estudio con el perfil español respecto al comercio electrónico. Los capítulos tercero –modelos de adopción de tecnologías– y cuarto –segmentación en comercio electrónico– sientan las bases teóricas necesarias para abordar el estudio. En el capítulo tres se hace una revisión general de la literatura de modelos de adopción de tecnología y, en particular, de los modelos de adopción empleados en el ámbito del comercio electrónico. El resultado de dicha revisión deriva en la construcción de un modelo adaptado basado en los modelos UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, Teoría unificada de la aceptación y el uso de la tecnología) y UTAUT2, combinado con dos factores específicos de adopción del comercio electrónico: el riesgo percibido y la confianza percibida. Por su parte, en el capítulo cuatro se revisan las metodologías de segmentación de clientes y productos empleadas en la literatura. De dicha revisión se obtienen un amplio conjunto de variables de las que finalmente se escogen nueve variables de clasificación que se consideran adecuadas tanto por su adaptación al contexto del comercio electrónico como por su adecuación a las características de la muestra empleada para validar el modelo. Las nueve variables se agrupan en tres conjuntos: variables de tipo socio-demográfico –género, edad, nivel de estudios, nivel de ingresos, tamaño de la unidad familiar y estado civil–, de comportamiento de compra – experiencia de compra por Internet y frecuencia de compra por Internet– y de tipo psicográfico –motivaciones de compra por Internet. La segunda parte del capítulo cuatro se dedica a la revisión de los criterios empleados en la literatura para la clasificación de los productos en el contexto del comercio electrónico. De dicha revisión se obtienen quince grupos de variables que pueden tomar un total de treinta y cuatro valores, lo que deriva en un elevado número de combinaciones posibles. Sin embargo, pese a haber sido utilizados en el contexto del comercio electrónico, no en todos los casos se ha comprobado la influencia de dichas variables respecto a la intención de compra o la conducta real de compra por Internet; por este motivo, y con el objetivo de definir una clasificación robusta y abordable de tipos de productos, en el capitulo cinco se lleva a cabo una validación de las variables de clasificación de productos mediante un experimento previo con 207 muestras. Seleccionando sólo aquellas variables objetivas que no dependan de la interpretación personal del consumidores y que determinen grupos significativamente distintos respecto a la intención y conducta de compra de los consumidores, se obtiene un modelo de dos variables que combinadas dan lugar a cuatro tipos de productos: bien digital, bien no digital, servicio digital y servicio no digital. Definidos el modelo de adopción y los criterios de segmentación de consumidores y productos, en el sexto capítulo se desarrolla el modelo completo de investigación formado por un conjunto de hipótesis obtenidas de la revisión de la literatura de los capítulos anteriores, en las que se definen las hipótesis de investigación con respecto a las influencias esperadas de las variables de segmentación sobre las relaciones del modelo de adopción. Este modelo confiere a la investigación un carácter social y de tipo fundamentalmente exploratorio, en el que en muchos casos ni siquiera se han encontrado evidencias empíricas previas que permitan el enunciado de hipótesis sobre la influencia de determinadas variables de segmentación. El capítulo seis contiene además la descripción del instrumento de medida empleado en la investigación, conformado por un total de 125 preguntas y sus correspondientes escalas de medida, así como la descripción de la muestra representativa empleada en la validación del modelo, compuesta por un grupo de 817 personas españolas o residentes en España. El capítulo siete constituye el núcleo del análisis empírico del trabajo de investigación, que se compone de dos elementos fundamentales. Primeramente se describen las técnicas estadísticas aplicadas para el estudio de los datos que, dada la complejidad del análisis, se dividen en tres grupos fundamentales: Método de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS, Partial Least Squares): herramienta estadística de análisis multivariante con capacidad de análisis predictivo que se emplea en la determinación de las relaciones estructurales de los modelos propuestos. Análisis multigrupo: conjunto de técnicas que permiten comparar los resultados obtenidos con el método PLS entre dos o más grupos derivados del uso de una o más variables de segmentación. En este caso se emplean cinco métodos de comparación, lo que permite asimismo comparar los rendimientos de cada uno de los métodos. Determinación de segmentos no identificados a priori: en el caso de algunas de las variables de segmentación no existe un criterio de clasificación definido a priori, sino que se obtiene a partir de la aplicación de técnicas estadísticas de clasificación. En este caso se emplean dos técnicas fundamentales: análisis de componentes principales –dado el elevado número de variables empleadas para la clasificación– y análisis clúster –del que se combina una técnica jerárquica que calcula el número óptimo de segmentos, con una técnica por etapas que es más eficiente en la clasificación, pero exige conocer el número de clústeres a priori. La aplicación de dichas técnicas estadísticas sobre los modelos resultantes de considerar los distintos criterios de segmentación, tanto de clientes como de productos, da lugar al análisis de un total de 128 modelos de adopción de comercio electrónico y 65 comparaciones multigrupo, cuyos resultados y principales consideraciones son elaboradas a lo largo del capítulo. Para concluir, el capítulo ocho recoge las conclusiones del trabajo divididas en cuatro partes diferenciadas. En primer lugar se examina el grado de alcance de los objetivos planteados al inicio de la investigación; después se desarrollan las principales contribuciones que este trabajo aporta tanto desde el punto de vista metodológico, como desde los punto de vista teórico y práctico; en tercer lugar, se profundiza en las conclusiones derivadas del estudio empírico, que se clasifican según los criterios de segmentación empleados, y que combinan resultados confirmatorios y exploratorios; por último, el trabajo recopila las principales limitaciones de la investigación, tanto de carácter teórico como empírico, así como aquellos aspectos que no habiendo podido plantearse dentro del contexto de este estudio, o como consecuencia de los resultados alcanzados, se presentan como líneas futuras de investigación. ABSTRACT Favoured by an increase of Internet penetration rates across the globe, electronic commerce has experienced a rapid growth over the last few years. Nevertheless, adoption of electronic commerce has differed from one country to another. On one hand, it has been observed that countries leading e-commerce adoption have a large percentage of Internet users as well as of online purchasers; on the other hand, other markets, despite having a low percentage of Internet users, show a high percentage of online buyers. Halfway between those two ends of the spectrum, we find countries such as Spain which, despite having moderately high Internet penetration rates and similar socio-economic characteristics as some of the leading countries, have failed to turn Internet users into active online buyers. Several theoretical approaches have been taken in an attempt to define the factors that influence the use of electronic commerce systems by customers. One of the betterknown frameworks to characterize adoption factors is the acceptance modelling theory, which is derived from the information systems adoption in organizational environments. These models are based on individual perceptions on which factors determine purchase intention, as a mean to explain users’ actual purchasing behaviour. Even though research on electronic commerce adoption models has increased in terms of volume and scope over the last years, the majority of studies validate their hypothesis by using a single sample of consumers from which they obtain general conclusions. Nevertheless, since the birth of marketing, and more specifically from the second half of the 19th century, differences in consumer behaviour owing to demographic, sociologic and psychological characteristics have also been taken into account. And such differences are generally translated into different needs that can only be satisfied when sellers adapt their offer to their target market. Electronic commerce has a number of features that makes it different when compared to traditional commerce; the best example of this is the lack of physical contact between customers and products, and between customers and vendors. Other than that, some differences that depend on the type of product may also play an important role in electronic commerce. From all the above, the present research aims to address the study of the main factors influencing purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour in electronic commerce by Spanish end-consumers, taking into consideration both the customer group to which they belong and the type of product being purchased. In order to achieve this goal, this Thesis is structured in eight chapters: four theoretical sections, three empirical blocks and a final section summarizing the conclusions derived from the research. The chapters are arranged in sequence as follows: introduction, current state of electronic commerce, technology adoption models, electronic commerce segmentation, preliminary design of the empirical work, research design, data analysis and results, and conclusions. The introductory chapter offers a detailed justification of the relevance of this study in the context of e-commerce adoption research; it also sets out the objectives, methodology and research stages. The second chapter further expands and complements the introductory chapter, focusing on two elements: the concept of electronic commerce and its evolution from a general point of view, and the evolution of electronic commerce in Spain and main indicators of adoption. This section is intended to allow the reader to understand the research context, and also to serve as a basis to justify the relevance and representativeness of the sample used in this study. Chapters three (technology acceptance models) and four (segmentation in electronic commerce) set the theoretical foundations for the study. Chapter 3 presents a thorough literature review of technology adoption modelling, focusing on previous studies on electronic commerce acceptance. As a result of the literature review, the research framework is built upon a model based on UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) and its evolution, UTAUT2, including two specific electronic commerce adoption factors: perceived risk and perceived trust. Chapter 4 deals with client and product segmentation methodologies used by experts. From the literature review, a wide range of classification variables is studied, and a shortlist of nine classification variables has been selected for inclusion in the research. The criteria for variable selection were their adequacy to electronic commerce characteristics, as well as adequacy to the sample characteristics. The nine variables have been classified in three groups: socio-demographic (gender, age, education level, income, family size and relationship status), behavioural (experience in electronic commerce and frequency of purchase) and psychographic (online purchase motivations) variables. The second half of chapter 4 is devoted to a review of the product classification criteria in electronic commerce. The review has led to the identification of a final set of fifteen groups of variables, whose combination offered a total of thirty-four possible outputs. However, due to the lack of empirical evidence in the context of electronic commerce, further investigation on the validity of this set of product classifications was deemed necessary. For this reason, chapter 5 proposes an empirical study to test the different product classification variables with 207 samples. A selection of product classifications including only those variables that are objective, able to identify distinct groups and not dependent on consumers’ point of view, led to a final classification of products which consisted on two groups of variables for the final empirical study. The combination of these two groups gave rise to four types of products: digital and non-digital goods, and digital and non-digital services. Chapter six characterizes the research –social, exploratory research– and presents the final research model and research hypotheses. The exploratory nature of the research becomes patent in instances where no prior empirical evidence on the influence of certain segmentation variables was found. Chapter six also includes the description of the measurement instrument used in the research, consisting of a total of 125 questions –and the measurement scales associated to each of them– as well as the description of the sample used for model validation (consisting of 817 Spanish residents). Chapter 7 is the core of the empirical analysis performed to validate the research model, and it is divided into two separate parts: description of the statistical techniques used for data analysis, and actual data analysis and results. The first part is structured in three different blocks: Partial Least Squares Method (PLS): the multi-variable analysis is a statistical method used to determine structural relationships of models and their predictive validity; Multi-group analysis: a set of techniques that allow comparing the outcomes of PLS analysis between two or more groups, by using one or more segmentation variables. More specifically, five comparison methods were used, which additionally gives the opportunity to assess the efficiency of each method. Determination of a priori undefined segments: in some cases, classification criteria did not necessarily exist for some segmentation variables, such as customer motivations. In these cases, the application of statistical classification techniques is required. For this study, two main classification techniques were used sequentially: principal component factor analysis –in order to reduce the number of variables– and cluster analysis. The application of the statistical methods to the models derived from the inclusion of the various segmentation criteria –for both clients and products–, led to the analysis of 128 different electronic commerce adoption models and 65 multi group comparisons. Finally, chapter 8 summarizes the conclusions from the research, divided into four parts: first, an assessment of the degree of achievement of the different research objectives is offered; then, methodological, theoretical and practical implications of the research are drawn; this is followed by a discussion on the results from the empirical study –based on the segmentation criteria for the research–; fourth, and last, the main limitations of the research –both empirical and theoretical– as well as future avenues of research are detailed.

Methods and Techniques for Segmentation of Consumers in Social Media

Los medios sociales han revolucionado la manera en la que los consumidores se relacionan entre sí y con las marcas. Las opiniones publicadas en dichos medios tienen un poder de influencia en las decisiones de compra tan importante como las campañas de publicidad. En consecuencia, los profesionales del marketing cada vez dedican mayores esfuerzos e inversión a la obtención de indicadores que permitan medir el estado de salud de las marcas a partir de los contenidos digitales generados por sus consumidores. Dada la naturaleza no estructurada de los contenidos publicados en los medios sociales, la tecnología usada para procesar dichos contenidos ha menudo implementa técnicas de Inteligencia Artificial, tales como algoritmos de procesamiento de lenguaje natural, aprendizaje automático y análisis semántico. Esta tesis, contribuye al estado de la cuestión, con un modelo que permite estructurar e integrar la información publicada en medios sociales, y una serie de técnicas cuyos objetivos son la identificación de consumidores, así como la segmentación psicográfica y sociodemográfica de los mismos. La técnica de identificación de consumidores se basa en la huella digital de los dispositivos que utilizan para navegar por la Web y es tolerante a los cambios que se producen con frecuencia en dicha huella digital. Las técnicas de segmentación psicográfica descritas obtienen la posición en el embudo de compra de los consumidores y permiten clasificar las opiniones en función de una serie de atributos de marketing. Finalmente, las técnicas de segmentación sociodemográfica permiten obtener el lugar de residencia y el género de los consumidores. ABSTRACT Social media has revolutionised the way in which consumers relate to each other and with brands. The opinions published in social media have a power of influencing purchase decisions as important as advertising campaigns. Consequently, marketers are increasing efforts and investments for obtaining indicators to measure brand health from the digital content generated by consumers. Given the unstructured nature of social media contents, the technology used for processing such contents often implements Artificial Intelligence techniques, such as natural language processing, machine learning and semantic analysis algorithms. This thesis contributes to the State of the Art, with a model for structuring and integrating the information posted on social media, and a number of techniques whose objectives are the identification of consumers, as well as their socio-demographic and psychographic segmentation. The consumer identification technique is based on the fingerprint of the devices they use to surf the Web and is tolerant to the changes that occur frequently in such fingerprint. The psychographic profiling techniques described infer the position of consumer in the purchase funnel, and allow to classify the opinions based on a series of marketing attributes. Finally, the socio-demographic profiling techniques allow to obtain the residence and gender of consumers.

A Community Analysis of the Implementation for Household Curbside Recycling Programs: A Diversionary Method to Control Municipal Solid Waste

The Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) is required to better manage, operate and control municipal solid waste (MSW) after the Anchorage Assembly instituted a Zero Waste Policy. Two household curbside recycling programs (CRPs), pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) and single-stream, were compared and evaluated to determine an optimal municipal solid waste diversion method for households within the MOA. The analyses find: (1) a CRP must be designed from comprehensive analysis, models and data correlation that combine demographic and psychographic variables; and (2) CRPs can be easily adjusted towards community-specific goals using technology, such as Geographic Information System (GIS) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Combining resources of policy-makers, businesses, and other viable actors are necessary components to produce a sustainable, economically viable curbside recycling program.

Analysing three basic decisions of tourists: going away, going abroad and going on tour

This study analyses determinant factors in the taking of three basic decisions on the part of holidaymakers: going on holiday, foreign holidays and multi-destination holidays. We propose various research hypotheses relating to the impact on these decisions of various personal characteristics. The methodology used estimates various Binomial Logit models. The empirical application carried out in Spain on a sample of 3,781 individuals allows us to conclude that personal characteristics related to the chosen destination, personal restrictions and socio-demographic and psychographic characteristics are determinants of these decisions.