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New Zealand, the land of milk and honey, is the „dream‟ of many Pacific people. Expectations of New Zealand were high as Pacific people dreamt of „the better life‟ from migrated family members who retold their experiences confirming their version of life in New Zealand. Many Pacific migrants came with the intention of improving the lives of their families and for themselves. Positioned within the situational context of understanding Pacific migrants isolated from their culture, this thesis aims to understand how island-born Pacific people acculturate to New Zealand society as consumers. The research question centers on understanding how Pacific people living in New Zealand experience consumer acculturation. This research founded on a critical ethnographic stance addresses traditionally unbalanced power relations between researcher and participant and ensures participants are in control of their involvement in the study. Video diaries are used to capture routine, daily experiences of Pacific consumers. Participants narrated and reflected on their lives in New Zealand and considered how this differed from their lives in the islands. Video diaries were conducted with nine participants from two cities in New Zealand; Hamilton and Dunedin. Participants are from; Samoa (3), Tonga (2), Fiji (3) and Cook Islands (1). Each participant is tasked with recording aspects of their lives for the duration of 6 to 8 weeks, meeting regularly with the researcher to discuss progress, change tapes, and, most importantly build a relationship. Upon completion of the diary fieldwork stage, the researcher and participant meet for a final interview to collaborate on themes and clarify any issues outstanding. Participant narratives are expressed within five storylines: premigration expectations; change of the collective; becoming an individual; consumption desires; and, cultural maintenance. These storylines explore themes surrounding the consumer acculturation process in New Zealand. They il

This research investigates the phenomenon of patient trust in primary health care providers. Using the qualitative methodology of Memory Work, this research draws largely on social constructionism to understand gendered 'lived' experiences of trust within the patient-practitioner relationship. The central question of this research, then, was: How do male and female patients describe and perceive their experience, both positive and negative, of trust in primary health care practitioners (PHCPs)? Following the Memory Work method, two groups of participants, one comprising four men, the other five women, independently wrote detailed narratives of their lived experiences of trust. These experiences were evoked by agreed 'trigger' topics that each group felt explored and represented trust within the patient-practitioner relationship. The participants then came together as a group to discuss and analyse the individual narratives for the 'common' sense or the social aspects of the experiences common to the group, and the processes used to make sense of them. Both the women's research group and the men's research group met for five sessions, each session lasting at least three hours. Between them the research participants wrote 43 individual narratives (two absences) and generated more than 30 hours of recorded group work. From their written descriptions and verbal discussions of their individual narratives, this research describes and explains the trust that these participants experienced, and explores the meaning that these men and women themselves ascribe to trust in various health care service contexts. Specifically, Memory Work facilitated the participants' own understanding of how their individual experiences of trust have been constructed by the self, and the social processes of gender on self. This research worked at two levels of analysis and interpretation (textual and crosssectional), examining the experiences both within and between the men and women in the stud

This thesis explores ideas as a type of product. Specifically, it investigates the thesis that the marketing of ideas is a demonstrably unique sub-field of the marketing discipline. Ideas marketing literature provides limited theoretical grounding from which to answer this question. Therefore, an understanding of ideas was sought by studying those who work with idea offerings on a daily basis. Three organisations involved in marketing ideas were investigated: The Health Funding Authority, marketing the idea of non-discrimination against people with mental illness; the Peace Foundation, marketing the idea of peace; and a Buddhist Meditation Centre in relation to marketing Buddhism. A fourteen-month study, drawing on a range of ethnographic techniques from participant observation to one-on-one interviews, was conducted with these three case organisations. The findings reveal eleven themes regarding idea offerings. These themes are analysed in order to establish the conceptual domain of ideas. This conceptual domain can be summarised through five descriptors: immateriality, interminability, omnipresence, transferability and Weltanschauung. Each of these characteristics is considered relative to goods, services and social products. In so doing, the distinctiveness of ideas is demonstrated. The five characteristics of ideas form the basis for establishing the marketing of ideas as a unique sub-field of the marketing discipline. The contribution of this thesis for the marketing discipline is both conceptual and theoretical. This research highlights the need to distinguish idea offerings semantically from ideas that are connected to other aspects of marketing activities. The research findings also raise questions about the applicability of some marketing theory to ideas, in particular the exchange paradigm. The mix of incongruity and applicability of marketing theory in the context of ideas imply ideas are situated on the edge of marketing’s domain.