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Food consumption has become a significant global issue due to the negative consequences that conventional food systems have on the environment. Therefore, there is a pressing need to encourage more sustainable food consumption choices - such as organic food - as a way of reducing the environmental impact of contemporary food diets. There is a lack of understanding about what drives Uruguayan consumers to buy organic food. This study aims to understand the underlying motivation of Uruguayan, regular, organic food consumers using the theoretical lens of personal values. Drawing on Schwartz's (1992) theory of human values, the research examines which personal values influence organic food consumption in Uruguay. The study also explores the meaning of the term 'organic,' perceived benefits, value priorities and value orientations of those who regularly consume organic food in Uruguay. The research adopts a concurrent mixed-method design, that is predominantly qualitative to fulfil the objectives of this study. The qualitative strand explores, through thematic analysis, data from 38 in-depth interviews. The quantitative strand applies Schwartz's (1992) Portrait Value Questionnaire (PVQ-RR) to measure these organic food consumers' personal values. A pilot study of five participants was carried out, using the PVQ-RR Spanish version, which had been previously validated and tested for accuracy of language. Special attention was given to the linguistic and cultural translation of the different value constructs, and the linguistic consistency of the value scale was checked within the pilot study. The findings reveal that 'organic' food is synonymous with 'free-from synthetic chemicals' and associated with 'natural,' 'safe,' 'healthy,' 'living food,' 'authentic,' 'environmentally friendly,' and 'tastier.' The qualitative data revealed that 'food safety' and health benefits are the main drivers of organic food consumption. Elevated levels of 'distrust' in relation to pesticide residue on conventionally grown food is evident among the sample, which drives organic food consumption. The PVQ-RR survey results revealed that Benevolence, Universalism and Self-Direction are the main value types endorsed by organic consumers. The in-depth analysis revealed that consumers' have different underlying motivations for 'health,' which are not always driven by 'Security' values but could also be underpinned by Benevolence or Self-Transcendence. This presents a challenge in the context of organic food when trying to fit the 'health' value within only the Security value type of Schwartz's circumplex model. The study contributes by highlighting that the measurement of 'health' as a value item within the PVQ-RR scale seems to be problematic within the context of organic food. This suggests a re-examination of the location of 'health' within Schwartz values circumplex and the measurement of other facets of health. The study offers a theoretical contribution, as it suggests that the PVQ scale is insufficient to understand the different value priorities and orientations across distinct types of consumers in specific consumption contexts. Five types of organic consumers were identified based on their concerns, underlying motivations, value priorities and lifestyle. This understanding is helpful for policymakers and marketers when developing communication messages to target different consumer groups. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the recommendations to promote organic food and target different consumer groups more effectively. It also provides managerial implications to continue the current levels of trust in organic. These findings can be used by governmental institutions to understand organic consumers and grocery retailers to regain consumers' trust and promote organic consumption.

The relevance of customer value in the decision-making process was defined by Holbrook as follows: "[...] customer value is the fundamental basis for all marketing activity" (Holbrook, 1994, p. 22). The buying decision process starts long before the exchange of money for goods takes place. During the course of acquisition, providers use a variety of contemporary and traditional channels to maintain communication. One of the most popular tools for communication and promotion is still the e-mail Newsletter. Particularly in the area of B2B, the Newsletter cannot be replaced by social media or similar channels. Despite this enduring popularity of the e-mail Newsletter, opening and viewing rates are modest. The aim of this thesis is to identify the reasons why some recipients of e-mail Newsletters read them, whereas others do not, and to help practitioners in B2B improve the impact of their e-mail Newsletters. The current research focuses on the recipients' values as a driver for their decision to open and view e-mail content and applies the theoretical framework of the Theory of Consumption Values (Sheth, Newman, & Gross, 1991a). To avoid knowledge dilution, this study narrows the researched group down as follows: a) Leads (potential customers); b) technical and manufacturing managers and CEOs of small and medium-sized enterprises; and c) the German market. The research employs an inductive and qualitative approach. In the course of 32 semi-structured interviews, this study identifies the values impacting the recipients' decision to open and view Newsletters. The uniqueness of this study is the application of the Theory of Consumption Values (Sheth et al., 1991a) in the investigation of a problem in B2B. Since the theory has some limitations, previous academic research has applied it exclusively in the area of B2C. However, when developing their theory, Sheth and his co-authors noted one exception that the current research has taken advantage of. The outcome of the research is two conceptual frameworks based on the Theory of Consumption Values. These are the Conditional-Based and the Time-Based Conceptual Frameworks, which can both be applied by practitioners for a better understanding and subsequent improvement of the Newsletter process. As a result, the current thesis closes an academic gap, contributes to knowledge, and provides managerial implications.

How people see their role as a citizen has been changing as a result of changing values across generations. The post-materialistic turn has been deemed responsible for a more engaged, cause-oriented, expressive citizenship norms and political participation style, found predominantly among younger citizens, with a duty-based, institutionalised norms and participation preferred by older cohorts. Scholars researching political participation have been exploring the explanatory potential of such citizenship norms for the last few decades. However, large, cross-national datasets, have so far failed to provide evidence of a universal preference for either engaged or duty-based styles. This theoretical typology has brought even less conclusive results for post-communist populations, pointing to a lack of a generational shift in the way citizens participate in politics. The prospect of a universal change in the relationship between the citizen and the political system requires questioning the future of representative democracy. Such an inquiry is even more salient for countries that only recently transformed to democracy. The aim of this thesis, therefore, was to understand how citizenship and political participation is defined among the citizens of a post-communist country, Poland, if and how these norms translate into behaviours, and lastly, taking advantage of the coexistence of cohorts socialised under different political regimes, this research aimed to understand how citizenship norm is passed on from parent to child. This study applied qualitative content analysis to 32 in-depth interviews conducted with young Poles and their parents. Allowing for participants' self-definitions of norms and political participation resulted in identifying two, new for the social norms literature, elements of the citizenship norm - a personality, trait-like, moral aspect and a patriotic component. A divorce was identified between the norms and behaviours interviewees engaged in, that is that the citizenship norms definitions did not contain activities people were actually participating in. This finding points to the resilient nature of social norms. The study also found that the parenting style played a bigger role in socialising young Poles into activity than the abstract, behaviour-deficient citizenship norms of the parents. This study's main contribution lays in providing new knowledge to the field of political participation research, specifically in the area of citizenship norms, by deepening our understanding of young people's political participation in a post-communist country. This single-nation research allowed for a careful consideration of its findings' relevance in other cross-national contexts.

Results from previous studies have indicated that volunteering is a complex phe-nomenon involving contradictory findings. There is a gap in current literature regard-ing the effect of support from organisations on volunteer motivation and retention. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore and identify key motivating factors and the impact of volunteer support on volunteer motivation. While previous studies primarily used either a quantitative or qualitative approach, this study applied a mixed-method research methodology to the collection of data through an online survey of 995 volunteers of the Bavarian Red Cross and semi-structured interviews of 15 volunteer managers of the Bavarian Red Cross, which is the largest secular aid organisation in Bavaria managed by a board of volunteers. The study builds on multiple theories such as Development Ecology Theory, Expec-tancy Theory, Volunteer Personality Model, Role-Identity Model, and assessing moti-vation considering functional and self-determination theories. The study regards these different dimensions to develop a holistic approach to tackling the complexity of volunteerism. While a high level of complexity of motivation factors in the field of study is fully sup-ported, the results suggest that - based on a multi-theory approach of person-centred theories such as Functional Motivation Theory, Expectancy Theory and Self-Determination Theory - organisations can foster volunteer retention by primarily supporting intrinsic motivation, that they should emphasise community, socialise the context of volunteering and collaborative aid, and seek to convert egoistic motives into humanitarian priorities. The study concludes by presenting a manageable model for volunteer organisations to effectively improve volunteer retention. This study can contribute to better understand volunteerism and inform governance and leadership of aid organisations on types of support to enhance long-term volunteer retention. Aid organisations and volunteer managers should administer the proposed Volunteer Re-tention Model to maximise volunteer retention within their organisation.

This Doctorate of Business Administration thesis examines the collaborative integration of engineering service providers (ESPs) in the new product development (NPD) process of automobile manufacturers. Through 11 qualitative key informant interviews with leading suppliers and buyers and the analysis of two case studies with a total of 22 interviewees, the explorative study analyses collaboration models, risks, motives, barriers and best practice guidelines for the identified two most important cooperation models in the field. The thesis draws on the literature of NPD processes, collaborative NPD, early supplier involvement, knowledge management, and relationship management in the automotive sector. The theory provides an introduction and serves as a basis for the developed guideline model. The provided best practice guidelines, sorted into the categories of 'people', 'process', 'collaboration technology', and 'product technology', are expected to improve collaboration in the joint NPD of complex products or technologies if these are applied by the management. Thus, the guideline model serves as a managerial tool to set priorities in the different phases of joint development, facilitate joint activities, and optimize NPD efficiency. Insights from this research are broadly applicable in the context of outsourced development of highly complex products or technologies to service providers. The thesis concludes with the discussion of its contribution to practice and theory and with an outlook on future developments in the ESP market.

Purpose – Project business represents a large part of the business-to-business sector. The qualitative and quantitative scope of many project networks requires that several supplier firms participate in their development and delivery. Consequently, such project networks are characterized by a great heterogeneity with respect to the participating firms building a service ecosystem. This raises the question of how resource integration for value co-creation can be shaped successfully for all partners, not least because many projects are characterized by sometimes dramatic failures with respect to costs, duration, and scope. Specifically, the different organizational identities provide institutional frames of reference to the resource-integrating actors. As the organizational identities are typically not harmonious with each other, at least partial misalignments of the institutional arrangements that shape the resource integration processes may emerge, leading to imperfect value co-creation or even value co-destruction. The purpose of this thesis is to conceptualize and to empirically investigate the impact of organizational identity as an institutional context on resource integration in B2B service ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach – The thesis makes use of interpretive phenomenology in conjunction with a qualitative case study approach to access the lived experience of actors of different professional service firms who have experienced changes in resource integration into a single B2B service ecosystem. Findings – A conceptualization of organizational identity as institutional context for resource integration is developed and empirically investigated. The findings show a strong impact on the firms’ organizational identities and the actors’ resource integration experience and evaluation. Moreover, it is also very likely that if unmanaged, an at least partial misalignment of the institutional arrangements of multi-organizational B2B service ecosystems would represent a normal and also stable condition.

This research aims to explore using qualitative techniques the phenomenon of animal welfare volunteering. It was identified that there was a shortfall of research conducted on animal welfare volunteering. As a result of this gap in knowledge, a better understanding was sought of this particular helping behaviour, which in turn is used to help improve the effectiveness of animal welfare charities' volunteer recruitment communications. The conceptual framework selected for this research was values. The laddering technique was employed successfully in all 29 interviews. The findings are based upon 29 in-depth research interviews with animal welfare volunteers. Animal welfare volunteers were found to share the same values of Equality, World of Beauty, and in some cases Unity with Nature, and Protect the Environment. Reasons behind such value orientations include parents, pets (companion animals) gender, and experiences (peak). The bond volunteers had with their pets was found to be a consistent theme resulting in a passionate intensity level of involvement with animal welfare volunteering.

This thesis is a reflective account and (re)examination of a corpus of publications created as part of my actions as an academic and researcher. The articles presented concern consumers' interpretations of situational factors in consumption experience, and the influence of these factors on their subsequent psychological and behavioural outcomes. The reflective element considers my evolving philosophical position, which at present can be best described as a combination of pragmatism and Umwelt theory. It also reevaluates, as a form of discourse, the relationship of the researcher as writer to the text created: where there is both a product - 'the text' - and a process of social interaction including the processes of production and interpretation [or consumption]. The (re)examination of articles locates them as part of the broader theoretical debates in the area of 'situation' - highlighting the distinctive position adopted in the assumptions underlying the work presented; the larger number of situational factors incorporated in each article than is the norm, and, the selection of situational sub-factors as the basis of concern that have received less attention in the literature. The thesis concludes by examining the contributions derived from the publications presented. The specific themes that the articles address can be grouped into: perceived risk, the presence of others, ambient scent, visual merchandising and gift giving - all underresearched within the work of situational factors in consumer experiences. The underlying approach used within the articles to conceptualize the nature of the consumer experience and of situation is underrepresented in the field - which tends to a more objective and neopositivist approach. The work here represents the view that situations are interpreted holistically, on the basis of the stimuli present. This interpreted situation leads to psychological processes and responses that then generate behavioural outcomes. This approach is evident in some of the wider research on situational factors - particularly that based on environmental psychology - but is limited in work that draws on other discipline bases. Given these issues, the articles have made a significant and original contribution to the knowledge base. They have also provided a range of managerial recommendations and applied commentaries that have sought to influence practice as well as theory.

This thesis seeks to develop the existential-phenomenological concept of embodiment from the temporal standpoint of mortality in consumer research. In order to deepen understanding of the concept, I have chosen to situate my exploration of 'mortal embodiment' within the context of cadaveric organ donation. In this study, I explore the embodied narratives of young British women, aged 21-30, who harbour ambivalent perceptions towards cadaveric organ donation. Following the philosophical tenets of hermeneutic-philosophy, multiple active interviews were conducted with these young women, generating extremely 'rich' and 'thick' textual data in the form of embodied narratives. Through their embodied narratives, I seek to understand how their experience of having and being a 'mortal body' shapes their ambivalence towards cadaveric organ donation and in tum provides the basis from which they negotiate, appropriate and resist the intrinsic meanings of UK Transplant's 'gift-of­-life' promotional discourse. Their embodied narratives reveal that the 'gift-of-life' discourse, despite its cultural currency, has, nevertheless, failed to appreciate the existential concerns about the body and its place in society, which transcend, and at times contradict the view of the body as a social gift. Through an intertextual reading, I further illustrate how these young women negotiate the meanings they ascribe to cadaveric organ donation by personalizing various cultural discourses about the body, death and organ transplantation. As such, the embodied narratives of my participants constitute the pre-objective ground, from which the theorization of mortal embodiment can be constructed. In so doing, my thesis contributes to the relatively uncharted but growing area of embodiment and mortality, thereby challenging the dominant influence of Cartesian philosophy within the discipline of consumer research.

This thesis explores how perceived risk, which has been primarily developed in Western contexts, may help understand consumers' action in relation to the Chinese Internet banking services market. This market is new and acknowledged as having great potential, but there is insufficient information regarding potential consumers and their perceptions or decision-making. The theory of perceived risk is a key construct influencing Western consumers' decision making; whether it is applicable in the current context is unknown. A wider customer perspective is therefore important to improve both our understanding of perceived risk theory and its usefulness in the Chinese Internet banking services market. The thesis reviews the major research perspectives on perceived risk within consumer behaviour literature. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the concept itself, to identify research gaps, and also develops a research model to evaluate consumers' risk perception within the context of Chinese Internet banking services. This research is conducted through the application of a critical realist approach, utilizing mixed methods. This approach enables the research to address a main controversy in the perceived risk field by evaluating the two common measurement models. It also develops an understanding of Chinese consumers' risk perceptions and how consumers' perceptions are formed and influenced by considering a range of contextual issues. This approach highlights the importance of obtaining social and cultural meanings to understand the measurement of risk perception- this is seldom addressed in the majority of perceived risk research. Results are thoroughly analysed, compared and contrasted to relevant Western research. Perceived risk, as a construct, is meaningful in helping to understand potential Chinese Internet banking services users. The principle risk dimensions identified in this research are consistent with those detailed in Western studies. However, the underlying relationships between the risk variables are different. Such differences can be attributed to the specific The measurement of risk is best operationalised through the application of one of the commonly used models - the multiplicative. This model produces results that are more consistent with the qualitative patterns derived from the application of mixed methods research. Whilst this research advocates the use of the multiplicative model, it also contends that future researchers should evaluate both common models- as the impact of context needs to be addressed sensitively,and this would also be consistent with the application of a critical realist perspective. Further, when considering perceived risk measurement, this research has found that the application of multiple variables is useful to test validity and reliability. These two issues are seldom considered or evaluated in previous perceived risk studies. This application also lends itself to the development of greater depth in data analysis, and therefore provides a more specific perspective to understand risk perceptions through detailed measurement. Future research in perceived risk should also address risk evaluation by considering the purchase stages, as consumers risk perceptions may be influenced and subject to change at different stages. Without such an approach results generated may be misleading, and may not provide an adequate basis for understanding consumers and developing appropriate marketing strategies to meet these concerns.

Older people are often portrayed as a disadvantaged and silent group in society, whose views have been largely ignored. Demographic studies suggest the number of people over 75 years of age, as a percentageo f the population in coming years is likely to substantially increase, which will place greater demands on healthcare services. In the last two decades, health policy has focused on delivering high quality services based on individuals' needs, with a greater emphasis placed on individuals being involved in decisions about their care. This policy direction has facilitated a change in power relationships between patients and professionals and will require providers of healthcare to focus on delivering 'patient-centred' care at times and places that meet individual's needs and expectations. The aim of this researchw as to evaluatet he current medical model provision of NHS podiatry with the biopsychosocial model which claims to provide 'holistic', patient-centredc are. An important aim of this research was to provide a greater and more informed understandingo f what older people communicate about their 'lived' experiences, the significance of those experiences on care-seeking and their expectations of appropriate podiatry care. The research was undertaken with older people living in east Gloucestershire, who were 75 years old or over, and had requested NHS podiatry. The study was underpinned by a qualitative methodology, strengthened by a desire to change current clinical practice and inform health policy. The research methodology included involvement of participants in an innovative reminiscence technique, and as a consequence the 'podiatry patient career' was constructed. The texts generated from the participants were examined using an interpretative phenomenological analysis to ensure a 'person-centred' focus because it was imperative to hear the voices of the 'Participants' and not just the medical model 'patients' narrative. A portrait was revealed of older people who were conscious of their position in the life course and their own mortality, together with the effect this had on how they conducted their lives. The participants' raised consciousness of their 'self' affected their expectations, feelings, and interaction with others. For many of the participants there appeared a vicious circle of impending frailty that led to a diminishing circle of contacts which had an effect on their wider social activities and relationships. At this stage, participants perceived a resolution of their foot-care needs to be of great value and importance in maintaining their well-being which, assisted by the podiatrist, resulted in a handing over of the responsibility for their care. The conclusion is that neither model delivers 'person-centred' care to meet participants' expectations and foot-care needs. A new model is presented where differing and changing priorities, at different times of the participant's lived world will be relevant to meet their expectations and needs. The research concluded that the requirement for podiatry care can be taken as an early indicator of failing independence. The importance of the participant podiatrist relationship was also identified as cental to the delivery of 'person-centred' podiatry. The research findings depict older people who want to be involved in their care rather thm being 'a burden to the state. Recognition is also given to the changing nature of caring relationships in the next decade, and how NHS podiatry services will have to profoundly transform if they are to deliver a holistic, person-centred service in the future.