Unstable information transfers at the beginning of a project lead to risks and uncertainties in the project's development. In the yachting industry, it's known that the project's duration is long-term, and the costs are high. The impact of uncertainties regarding the maturity of information at the beginning of the project can bear enormous costs and delays at the end of the project. Information transfer lacks a consistent and uniform process from sales & design to operations. The success of the yacht-building process is increased by avoiding delays in delivering the yacht and reducing excessive extra costs. Using an information system between the different disciplines and/or departments can increase the success of the yacht-building process. The focus of this problem is at the beginning of a project on the information flow between the 'commercial team' and the 'project team'. This raises the question of how an information transfer framework can improve the exchange of information to avoid uncertainties in new-build yachts. The method for this research is a case study within a Dutch yacht-building company. Knowledge about the currently available Sales and Operations Planning process (S\&OP), luxury and complex Engineer-to-Order (ETO) environments, and Information Management will be gathered through literature research. The company's needs and requirements regarding an information framework are defined by a structured analysis of interviews both manually and in Atlas.ti. Combining these knowledge sources provides input for the design of the information transfer framework and recommendations for improving information transfer within the company. Finally, the Information Transfer Framework (ITF) is based on knowledge activities, which are activities of transferring knowledge and the drivers of why to share the knowledge. Recommendations for the company operating in the unique, luxurious, and complex engineer-to-order environment include improving collaboration between departments and processes, training in data management, balancing flexible and structured information, and increasing proactive problem-solving. The research contributes by integrating a useful Information Transfer Framework within the S&OP process in luxury and complex ETO environments.


Keywords: Information Management, Sales & Operations Planning (S\&OP) process, commercial, operational, information transfer framework, Engineer-to-order, Structured information sharing, luxury goods, and case study.

This thesis delves into the dynamic and evolving micro launch industry, integral to the broader space sector's shift from traditional operations to the innovative and commercial-oriented New Space paradigm. The primary focus is on the implications of these trends for small satellite (SmallSat) manufacturers, who are pivotal players in this ecosystem. The study is structured around four key research questions: identifying the main factors behind the micro launch industry's market bubble, understanding the primary drivers and challenges within the sector, benchmarking micro launchers' value propositions against competitive solutions, and assessing the impact of these trends on SmallSat manufacturers' investment decisions in research and development (R&D).

The research employs a qualitative methodology, combining a comprehensive literature review, desk research, and semi-structured interviews with industry experts. The literature review establishes the theoretical framework, highlighting the transition from Old Space to New Space, characterized by increased private sector involvement, innovative business models, and new financing methods. The desk research provides up-to-date industry data, while the interviews offer practical insights and expert perspectives, enriching the analysis.

Key findings reveal that the micro launch industry's perceived market bubble is driven by speculative investor behavior, cognitive biases, and high liquidity from private investments, leading to inflated asset prices and unrealistic market expectations. The study identifies democratized access to space and substantial institutional support as significant growth drivers, while high entry barriers, competition from established players, and regulatory challenges pose substantial hurdles.

The benchmarking analysis indicates that while micro launchers offer unique value propositions such as dedicated and flexible launch services, they face intense competition from larger launch vehicles and alternative solutions like rideshare missions and orbital transfer vehicles. This competitive landscape underscores the necessity for continuous innovation and strategic agility among micro launch companies.

For SmallSat manufacturers, the evolving trends in the micro launch industry have profound implications. Reduced launch costs and increased access to space shift the focus from minimizing satellite mass to optimizing mission performance and reliability. However, the uncertainty surrounding the micro launch sector highlights the importance of strategic planning and diversification in investment decisions.

The thesis concludes with strategic insights for industry stakeholders, emphasizing the need for collaborative efforts, innovative approaches, and effective policy frameworks to navigate the complexities of the micro launch market. These findings contribute to the broader understanding of market dynamics within high-tech industries and offer practical guidance for sustaining growth and competitiveness in the rapidly evolving space sector.

Math Anxiety (MA) is some of the most notable mental health issues. The causes and development of MA are complex and inconclusive. This study highlighted that language patterns differ between people with high and low MA. Especially, the word categories positive emotion, insight, articles and linguistic dimensions. This study included two personality differences (self-esteem and curiosity) to better explore the inner world of people with high and low MA through their language patterns. Self-esteem and curiosity moderate the relationship between MA and people’s language patterns.

Maintaining a healthy eating behavior can be challenging, especially under stressful situations. Self-control plays a pivotal role in this struggle, since it allows one to resist immediate desires in pursuit of higher-level goals. The level of self-control can differ among individuals, with varying degrees of “strength”. This strength can be likened to a “muscle”, which has specific power and endurance and enables the exertion of self-control at a certain time. Power is linked to the individual situation-invariant levels of trait self-control, which enables the initial exercise of self-control at a particular moment. However, the maintenance of self-control over time is attributed to “muscle endurance”, which is represented by individual depletion sensitivity. Like a muscle that can become depleted after exertion, the exercise of self-control can deplete available cognitive resources, leading to ego depletion, decreased self-control capacity, and thus unhealthy food choices. Food recommender systems are considered effective tools for promoting healthier choices and may be seen as nudges that make healthier options more salient. Many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of recommender systems and digital nudging in influencing users’ food choices in the direction of healthier ones. Attribute frames, including positive and negative types, are popular information nudges in the health field. Nonetheless, their impact on eating behaviors remains a controversial issue. Evidence has shown that dispositional factors, such as self-control levels, may moderate the effectiveness of attribute frames.

This study aimed to examine to what extent attribute frames steer human food choices toward healthy ones, and in what way self-control levels influence that relationship. An online experiment was conducted, utilizing attribute frames as the independent variable, food choices as the dependent variable, and depletion sensitivity and trait self-control as moderating variables. Participants were randomly provided seven different food options, each of which came with an attribute framing message, to evaluate the effects of positive and negative attribute frames on healthy food choices. The Depletion Sensitivity Scale (DSS), and Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCC) were used to assess the individuals’ levels of depletion sensitivity and trait self-control, in respect. The findings revealed that positive attribute frames effectively encouraged healthy food choices, while negative frames had a relatively lower impact. Depletion sensitivity moderated the relationship between attribute frames and healthy food choices, suggesting that individuals with low depletion sensitivity were more likely to select healthy options under positive framing conditions. However, no significant moderating effect of trait self-control was observed. Lastly, the relationship between attribute frames and food preference was found to be significantly moderated by gender differences. In conclusion, this study provided evidence supporting the influence of attribute frames on healthy food choices and the moderating role of depletion sensitivity on this relationship. The significance of considering gender differences in the analysis of the effect of attribute frames on food preferences was also illustrated.

In addition to the physiological alterations that occur relatively predictably during pregnancy, psychological transformations also occur at the same time. The baby is developing, but so are a mother's fears and imaginations about her unborn child. Such imaginations about the unborn child and parenting methods are sure to evoke a range of emotions, including happiness, excitement, curiosity, anxiety, frustration, and maybe depression. Social comparison and intense emotional expression are two of the numerous opportunities offered by social networking platforms. Social comparison is a personality characteristic. Individuals who are highly social comparison-oriented make excessive social comparisons and are more affected by the outcomes. Social comparisons can be done intentionally, but more frequently they are done involuntarily. Social networking sites play a key role in the contemporary digital age in terms of personal experience sharing and constructive debate. However, research has found that the need for social comparison increases at times of stress, uncertainty, or adjustment. As a result, in unexpected and upsetting settings like pregnancy, social comparison may become more significant. The social comparison, psychology, and linguistics aspects of pregnancy had all previously been the subject of very few research, however, they had been done so independently. The objective of this research is to jointly comprehend the social, psychological, and linguistic aspects of pregnancy. In this research, a survey that was published on Reddit communities collected responses based on three questionnaires (Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure, Gratitude During Pregnancy Scale, and Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale), as well as a textual question on using social media while being pregnant. A correlation and linear regression analysis were used in this study to investigate the association between the three sub-scales and the selected LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) categories. In conclusion, considering the general inadequacy of information in the domain of pregnancy care and the imminent transition to digital care, the findings of this study could make a significant contribution to social and psychological research.

Nowadays, mental illnesses are universal around the globe. However, compared with developed countries, the health budget assigned to mental health is much lower in low-income or developing countries (Mnookin et al., 2016). Even in China, a country with a large population, the epidemiological data on mental health (anxiety and depression) are too few to have sufficient understanding. Despite the current research that is to identify GAD and Depression from natural language, and seeks to explore the relationships of personality and GAD and Depression has until now not conducted in Chinese language. Besides, university students are a very noteworthy students, who are going through the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and facing a lot of challenges in this process. Therefore, this research explored the relationships of Generalized Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Natural Language and Personality Traits among Chinese university students.
To reach the objective of the present research, an online survey was conducted among Chinese university students, which consists of GAD-7, PHQ-8, BIS/BAS, and PANAS questionnaires, followed by a writing task to describe their feelings about university life and one anxious moment happened in the university. Finally, demographics were assessed. All the sample data were exported into .csv format and imported into the software JASP (JASP, 2017). And the text of the writing task was uploaded on LIWC 2022 software (LIWC, 2022) package, and on the statistical software SPSS for additional analyses.
Through the experiment, the main Research Question and Sub-Research Questions were answered and all hypotheses were accepted. By reflecting on the whole thesis, some limitations of the current research were pointed out and some suggestions were proposed for future work.

Mental disorders are now becoming prevalent illnesses. More than 1 billion people globally were affected by mental and addictive disorders in 2016, which caused 7% of all global burden of disease (Rehm & Shield, 2019). Among those mental disorders, anxiety disorders and depression rank at the top. GAD is the most common anxiety disorder form in primary care, and the burden caused by GAD is severe in terms of decreased work productivity and increased health care utilization. The present study pivoted around GAD, studying the intersection between motivational arousal, language, and sympathetic activation. A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) was designed and undertaken. The findings were satisfactory: Different arousal manipulation led to different language patterns of students. For example, negative (avoidance) arousal triggered fatigue-related words use. GAD inhibited motivational arousal effect on language, which extended the previous study that GAD people have ’diminished physiological flexibility’. Furthermore, sympathetic activation was observed during arousal manipulation, and the variability of Heart Rate (HR) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) was significantly affected. Lastly, the ’diminished physiological flexibility’ of GAD people was also shown in the present study: GAD students experienced little change in Electrodermal Activity (EDA), HR, and HRV under motivational arousal manipulation

In this research the influence of induced stress with a virtual reality (VR) game on moral dilemmas was investigated. VR is a topic that is becoming more and more researched, but studies about the induction of stress and the effects are scarce. By placing participants in a VR environment, where they have to defuse a bomb with the help of another participant, the influence could be analysed. A test group was selected which would perform relaxation exercises after the VR game to relax them. Afterwards, they filled in a survey which measured their stress/anxiety level and gave them social dilemmas to answer. During the whole experiment, participants wore wristbands that measured their biometric data to see if there were any physical signs of stress.

From the data it was confirmed that the VR induced stress in the participants. The data for heart rate, electrodermal activity, and heart rate variability showed an increase in stress level during the VR; Temperature did not show a difference. From the linear regression analysis done, no significant influence of stress on responses to moral dilemmas and a significant influence of personality type was confirmed.

The possibilities of VR in the field of psychology has the potential to improve research regarding stress. VR can be used as a coping method but also as a stress inducing activity. Future research should focus on discovering new possibilities for VR to be used. By improving the research about stress, an improvement of our lifes will follow.

Increasing flexibility requirements and skill gaps resulting from today’s world of globalisation and digitisation pose constant challenges for manufacturing companies. Augmented Reality (AR) applications offer an efficient way to overcome these tensions by enhancing the interaction between people and technology. However, individual models in the scientific literature show ambiguous findings, and a statistically powerful empirical assessment is still missing. Hence, this research project aims to understand the potential of AR applications in manufacturing environments by aggregating the empirical findings. For this purpose, the following research question is posed: ’Can the use of AR solutions benefit manufacturing activities and if so, how?’. Following the media naturalness theory by Kock [2005], this research hypothesises that AR solutions in comparison to classical instructions have a reducing effect on processing times, errors rates, and cognitive load levels of workers during manufacturing activities. To answer the research question and prove the hypotheses, this research project conducts three meta-analyses in which several small studies are synthesised into one large study. Specifically, the meta-analyses address the evaluation criteria ’time’, ’errors’, and ’cognitive load’. The underlying systematic literature search to collect and evaluate relevant data follows the framework by Vom Brocke et al. [2009]. What is more, this research project examines the interrelationships between the evaluation criteria and moderating variables using meta-regressions. Finally, surveys with industrial experts in a consumer goods and chemical company support and expand the findings from the meta-analyses and the meta-regressions. The meta-analyses show that AR applications in comparison to classical instructions indeed have a reducing effect on the described evaluation criteria. In particular, based on the studies, a small, reducing effect can be achieved for ’time’, a medium, reducing effect for ’errors’, and a small to medium, reducing effect for ’cognitive load’. For this reason, all three previously formulated hypotheses are accepted. Furthermore, in line with the media naturalness hypothesis by Kock [2005, p. 122], the meta-regressions show that ’cognitive load’ moderates the evaluation criterion ’time’. The results are validated with the help of the expert surveys in the company context, with time savings being identified as the greatest potential and lack of proven profitable business models as the greatest challenge. Further research could, on the one hand, focus on repeating the meta-analyses as soon as new empirical studies are available and on the analysis of moderating variables. On the other hand, a long-term validation in manufacturing environments across industries is still missing and could show further scientific and practical relevance.

Depression is one of the most common mental health disorders affecting people from different age groups, societies, communities, and countries. Many countries lack awareness about psychological disorders and there is a scarcity of good mental healthcare facilities available globally. Medical practitioners recognise depression by analysing the patient’s behavioural patterns like speech levels, facial expression, body language and language patterns during therapy. Previous research has shown that behavioural studies are effective means for depression recognition. To explore this relationship, the automated depression recognition dataset called Distress Analysis Interview Corpus (DAIC) was evaluated. This dataset was chosen as it consists of paralinguistic (vocal), linguistic (verbal/text) and extralinguistic (visual) features from the dyadic interviews between participants and a virtual human. Prior research has evaluated the relationship between paralinguistics, linguistics and depression but many researchers failed to analyse the relationship between personality and depression for the DAIC database. The present study explores how different paralinguistic and linguistic features and personality types differentiate between high and low levels of depression. This study was exploratory in nature and used the LIWC software for linguistic and personality analysis, Pandas software for pre-processing the audio and text data files and lastly correlational analysis using JASP software to answer the research questions. The main findings concluded that linguistic features like emotion (sad and negative), feeling and health related words are used most often by depressed people. Additionally, paralinguistic features like high pitch and breathy voice as well as the personality trait neuroticism were characteristic identifiers of depressed people. These results showed that linguistics, paralinguistics, and personality traits help in depression recognition. These research findings have the scope for broader and cross-disciplinary applications in the future. Further research and development for automated detection technologies is required in the field of behavioural studies, to enable people globally to easily access and use artificial healthcare platforms for mental health diagnosis.

The overwhelming majority of doctor visits are related to stress. When stress is studied the data is often not disaggregated based on gender, creating a gender data gap. Literature about mHealth apps with data analysis being disaggregated based on gender does not exist. In order to amend that, an experiment has been created where the perceived stress of participants is measured in the pre­test, followed by a manipulation video that presents stress as debilitating or enhancing in nature. A post­test measures the perceived stress again, collects demographics as well as life satisfaction, self­-control, and grit. Participants that joined via mHealth app Brainjam had their HRV measured as well. Manipulation videos have been found to be ineffective and were removed from data analysis. One statistically sig­nificant result depended on gender has been found. The duration of the experiment was affected by the perceived level of stress men reported, however, no significant difference was found in women.

Open banking is an evolution driven by new regulations, advance in technology, competition, and change in customer expectations. Open banking is about enabling consumers to share their financial data with authorized third parties in return for more personalized products and services. However, the adoption of open banking products and services is still very limited. Consumers are also not familiar with the open banking environment and are not well informed about the new regulations such as PSD2.
Previous studies have shown that the success of open banking depends on: the safe transfer of the financial data and on the control consumers have over their data. Moreover, literature around the disclosing of financial data has demonstrated that consumers are unwilling to share their data, with privacy concerns being the dominant factor. Further, the new data economy brings a lot of around who actually owns the data and what data ownership leads to.
To explore the adoption of open banking among consumers, this study combined the technology acceptance model with external factors related to consumer personality attributes. Through intensive literature review, three dimensions are identified as crucial: psychological ownership, user’s privacy concerns, and technology readiness. A conceptual framework was developed along with nine hypotheses. The data was collected via an online survey. The reliability and validity of all the constructs were assessed. The hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling using the SmartPLS software.
The results of the analysis indicated that the conceptual model was a good fit. The analysis indicated that there is a strong and significant effect on the intention to use open banking products and services. Specifically, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were important predictors for intention to use. Although psychological ownership had a negative effect on the intention to use, it showed a significant total effect through the mediating effects of perceived usefulness and ease of use. While the results of privacy concerns were insignificant, the technology readiness construct registered a total positive effect through the mediating role of the technology acceptance model on the intention to use. These findings allow the understanding of what affects the consumer’s intention to use open banking products.
The study supports the literature by being the first study to include the construct of psychological ownership to the technology acceptance model. Although the results are quite encouraging, the generalization should not be based on one single study. Future studies could use these findings to explore more the effect of psychological ownership on the disclosing of personal and financial data. Furthermore, by being a pioneer in the topic of open banking, the study provides banks and financial organizations with new insights on the consumers’ adoption of open banking products and services.

Dietary habits refer to the set of choices or decisions one makes regarding the foods consumed. They include choices and decisions on what to eat when to eat, how much to eat, and where to eat. Taste preferences, food diversity, frequency of meal consumption, portion sizes, snacking behavior, and meal skipping all have an impact on this. According to research, not only physiological but also psychological elements such as emotions, stress, and personality differences influence our dietary choices. Many studies have been conducted to determine how to alter problematic eating choices by regulating emotions. Understanding one’s personality type, on the other hand, can help someone to become more aware of the foods liked and disliked. This is the first study to look at the combined effect of emotion regulation strategies and, in particular, Type-D personality type on eating choices. This thesis focused on women from various ethnic origins. The study looked at which emotion control strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, were employed. Individuals were also assessed on the extent to which they were in the possession of a Type-D personality type by scoring on the two variables in this model, which are negative affectivity and social inhibition. This study hypothesized that people with Type-D personality, or those who score high in Negative Affectivity and Social Inhibition, employ less emotion regulation strategies and make poor dietary choices. The main findings confirm the hypothesis. As per the findings, reappraisal strategies outperform suppression methods. It was discovered that when reappraisal methods were used, women preferred more healthy food items like vegetables. However, when suppression strategies were used, unhealthy food items such as snacks were favored. Furthermore, the study looked at how age, a control variable, affected the use of emotion regulation strategies in food choices. Younger women were found to apply more reappraisal strategies for healthier foods, whereas older women used suppressing methods. In conclusion, this study confirmed previous research on the independent influence of emotion regulation and personality type on diet, and it also added new insights to the research by examining the combined effect of these factors on diet choices.

Anxiety is one of the most widespread and dangerous mental health disorders in developed and underdeveoped countries, affecting a wide number of college students all over the world. If not correctly treated in time, it might procure irreparable damages in people’s life, leading to drastic consequenses such as depression and suicidal intentions. However, although some students seek for medical consultation, only one quarter of them is able to have access to clinical treatments. At the same time, chatting apps gradually became a new communication trend during the last few years, resulting in the development of a new cutting-edge technology named conversational agents. After several studies, this technology has been found to be a possible solution for the healthcare imparity between demand and supply. With this invention, students might have the possibility to chat with a sort of “online therapist” anywhere and anytime they feel the need, without stigma or judgement barriers. In order to successfully implement these conversational agents, the therapeutic alliance between the doctor and the patient should be recreated as accurately as possible. Personality seems to be an important factor for the success and eventual satisfaction in the whole treatment. The present research – through LIWC software – explores the extent to which students use different linguistic patterns in an expressive writing task depending on their personality and mental health status. This study hypothesized that students sufffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) use different words than mentally stable students, and that their linguistic patterns are further influenced by their behavioral activation or inhibition systems. The main findings were in line with these two hypotheses. Based on the results, both students affected and not by GAD use different words specifically depending on their BAS levels. In conclusion, as predicted by previous researchers, personality is well-reflected through language styles: each student with a specific behavior, mental health characteristic, and even nationality expresses him/her self with different linguistic patterns.

Chatbots have been considered as one of the leading technologies in the e-commerce domain as virtual shopping assistants able to guide customers throughout the entire shopping experience automatically. However, this technology is currently registering a high failure rate, and several users are still skeptical of its effectiveness. One of the reasons for this low performance lies in the fact that chatbots have a poor human-likeness that negatively influences customer perception of the technology. Secondly, the low level of personalization does not allow for tailored services based on customers’ needs and requirements. Previous studies discovered that it is possible to attach specific personality traits to chatbots in order to increase their human-likeness. Besides, other researchers have discovered the importance of service personalization as a distinctive requirement for successful e-commerce businesses. Depending on consumers’ decision-making behaviour, scientists have found that different services lead to different levels of customer satisfaction. The present study explored the two sides of Human-Computer Interaction with the final aim of understanding how to better align chatbot personality with human decision-making personality. Two different chatbot personalities (neutral and extravert) were created and randomly assigned to different users. During the experiment, participants had to complete a real chatbot conversation focused on dress shoes and were asked to conduct a post-interaction questionnaire to assess their satisfaction. Results showed that it is possible to effectively attach an extravert personality into a chatbot conversation through the use of language, emoticons and GIFs. Moreover, participants with different personal decision-making behaviour and gender registered different levels of customer satisfaction. Finally, the chatbot neutral personality registered different level of customer satisfaction depending on gender and personal decision-making behaviour. These findings support the literature by analyzing the complementary relationship between chatbot and human personalities. Future studies could use these findings to develop chatbot experiences that better fit with customer needs and requirements.

Improving accessibility has become one of the main objectives for policymakers in the transport and urban field. Having access to activities and people is essential to ensure the proper functioning of societies and it affects people’s quality of life. One of the remaining challenges in this field is related with the economics of accessibility, in particular, with the monetary quantification of the added value of having multiple options available to travel to. Accessibility indicators and current theory suggest that having more options available is translated into higher levels of accessibility. However, the benefits of increasing the number of alternatives is subjected to the law of diminishing returns, that is, the added value provided by each additional option decreases as more options are available. Therefore, the main research question of this thesis is: How much are individuals willing to pay for having different quantity of options of the same destination (e.g., a supermarket) to travel to? The research methodology proposed to answer this research question consists on a preliminary research and two different questionnaires. The study area of this research is a small Spanish city, located in the province of Albacete. The aim of the preliminary research is to gather information about the context and the culture of this study area. In this way, data about sociodemographic characteristics of the population, the location and current number of destinations or perceptions about current services has been searched. The non-market nature of the services to be analysed makes Stated Preference approaches the best methods to elicit monetary values. However, due to the novelty of the research, a first exploratory questionnaire was designed to obtain a first sight of the citizens’ opinion about the importance that they give to have multiple options of the same destination, which factors they value most, or what are the main reasons why they value having several options. After that, the second questionnaire was elaborated using a particular Contingent Valuation Method, namely Payment Cards, whose objective is to elicit monetary values for different hypothetical situations in which the supply of the service varies. Both questionnaires were distributed online in order to reach the highest number of respondents. The results show that people prefer to have more options of basic services, such as food stores, pharmacies, schools or medical centres, than non-essential services like gyms, hairdressers or clothe shops Moreover, proximity is considered an important factor just for basic services, while variety is more appreciated for secondary ones, so that people can choose the one that best suits their likings. After analysing the results from the first questionnaire and applying other relevant criteria, two final destinations were chosen to be further analysed in the second questionnaire, namely, kindergartens and primary health centres. Results show that, in the case of kindergartens, more than half of the respondents are willing to pay extra 12€ per month (median value) for expanding current services in case the demand increases, whereas just 8€ to remain in the status quo in the hypothetical situation in which demand holds or decreases. At first sight this result may seem the opposite to the concept of loss aversion, but when placed in context it may be reasonable that citizens are not willing to pay for keeping open empty kindergartens. Furthermore, the results showed that not all the respondents are willing to pay the same amounts, resulting in significant differences among respondents who are users, have been in the past, or will probably be in the future, and those who have no children, prefer private kindergartens or simply do not make use of the service. On the other hand, there is no such a difference between users, option users and non-users in the case of medical centres. All the three groups present a mean WTP value of 50€ per year for expanding current services. One possible explanation is that everyone is a potential user of this service, even if they do not currently use it. Therefore, option values would probably be high for option and non-users, being willing to pay the same amounts than regular users. Also, non-use values may play a key role. It is important to mention that there is not a significant difference in the values reported when considering the two possible alternatives proposed to expand the service. Although finishing a second medical centre is more expensive than extending current schedule, people is not willing to pay more for it. After reflecting on all the findings obtained and place them in the context of the study area, it can be concluded that sometimes it is not only the number of options itself what citizens appreciate (and are willing to pay for), but many other factors should be taken into account. For instance, for public services, the amount of destinations can be subjected to political strategies such as increasing the number of services even if they are not needed. Moreover, people may prefer to have less options with high service quality, than more options with poorer quality. Finally, for private destinations in which people’s preferences play a key role, the particular characteristics of each new (or removed) option will influence the total value for each individual. Thanks to this research, policymakers are better informed to make decisions about public services, avoiding unnecessary costs and allocating public funds more efficiently. In the particular case of this research, information to make future decisions is provided for different scenarios. For example, in case the demand for primary health services increases, policymakers should extend current schedule, as it is cheaper than opening a new centre and people value both alternatives in the same way . Moreover, current managers and future entrepreneurs can obtain useful insights for running their businesses. The results from the questionnaires show which factors are more appreciated for each type of destination, in addition to the citizens’ perception about the current number of options available, making it easily to identify market opportunities. Finally, several interesting future research avenues are proposed to further explore about this topic. For instance, the research can be replicated in other contexts with different cultural factors to see whether people’s preferences vary. Moreover, more sophisticated methods can be applied to estimate how much are individuals willing to pay. Finally, it would be very interesting to analyse private and non-essential destinations in order to compare whether the results differ and empirically test the hypothesis derived from the first questionnaire.

Digital technologies have enabled uninterrupted mass persuasive communications everywhere and anytime, aiming at convincing people to change their beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors. Research has shown that persuasive technologies are most effective when the messages and means are tailored to people’s recipients’ unique characteristics, particularly personality. Previous studies have thus investigated the one-to-one relationship between the Big Five personality traits and influence styles—the engines behind any personalized persuasive technologies. Prior investigations yielded partially inconsistent results, potentially because the Big Five at the trait level is too broad an instrument in characterizing individual differences. This thesis drills down from personality trait to personality aspect – the next level of analysis in the personality hierarchy. The present study examines which personality aspect is most sensitive to which influence styles, generating a matrix of connections between personality and influence. Notably, aspects of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were found to be most strongly related to influence styles. The findings refine existing theoretical knowledge of the relationships between personality and influence style. Future designers could utilize these nuanced associations between personality aspects to create more personalized, and powerful persuasive technologies. Ethical implications of the findings are discussed.

The dynamic nature of the market with constant technological developments continuously changes expectations from users over time. This drives businesses to alter their product and service offerings to maintain a competitive advantage, stable growth and, high customer satisfaction. Since economic goals drive businesses, it is often assumed that abundance of choice options is better, and will eventually result in increased profitability for the business. However, this is not necessarily the case. Consumers may experience a subjective state of mind termed as “choice overload” when presented with a plenitude of choice options. Consequently, consumers may fall victim to indecision, reduced customer satisfaction, and increased regret, to name a few. Previous research has formulated a cohesive understanding of choice overload in consumer decision making. Extant research in the field of consumer behaviour has identified several antecedents and concomitants of choice overload experienced by consumers. A vast bulk of research has also discovered repugnant effects of choice overload, due to context-dependency and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing the choice overload effect. As a result, the questions of when and whether large assortments are detrimental to consumers remains open. This, offers an opportunity to extend the literature in this field by considering different contextual factors and variables that were thus far overlooked. The present study specifically aims to reduce the research gap that exists between Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) by understanding the choice overload effect, within the domain of e-tourism. Apprehension of the choice environment and consumer purchase behaviour is essential to close this existing gap and increase customer satisfaction. In this study, choice complexity is considered as an antecedent of choice overload. Choice complexity encapsulates two structural factors of the choice set – number of alternatives and number of attributes/levels. These factors allow for the construction of a measurement variable for choice complexity (entropy) where high entropy translates to high choice complexity. Moreover, individual differences in maximizing behavioural tendency (in terms of strategy and goal) are investigated. When consumers score high on maximizing tendency strategy, they optimize choice through employing a strategy of extensive information search. Similarly, when consumers score high on maximizing tendency goals, they strive to obtain the best possible choice from the available alternatives. Post-choice satisfaction is defined as the post-decision evaluation of the choice selected by the consumer. Specifically measured on two constructs - general satisfaction and outcome satisfaction. General satisfaction measures satisfaction of the consumer related to the process of arriving at a decision. Whereas, outcome satisfaction measures satisfaction related to the certainty in the choice decision. A choice experiment practically assessed the relationship between choice complexity and post-choice satisfaction, moderated by consumer purchase behaviour. The experimental design consisted of a Low Complex (LC) choice set and a High Complex (HC) choice set (distinguished based on entropy measurements) that allowed for the measurement and comparison of perceived complexity in a complicated choice environment. Respondents conducted a post-choice questionnaire designed to assess post-choice satisfaction and perceived choice complexity. Consumer purchase behaviour was assessed in a different section of the survey based on two different scales - maximizing tendency strategy and maximizing tendency goal. Statistical analysis was conducted on the obtained data to find the relationship between the variables under study. The experiment established the existence of choice complexity in e-tourism. Results showed an inverse relationship between choice complexity and post-choice satisfaction indicating that respondents were less satisfied with their choice when presented with a choice set of high choice complexity. Moreover, maximizing tendency strategy negatively influenced this relationship. Maximizers (i.e., respondents who scored high on the scale assessing maximizing behavioural tendency for strategy), extensively search through alternatives, eventually to formulate trade-offs and comparisons between the alternatives presented. Such maximizers were less satisfied with their choice having gone through a choice set of high complexity as compared to a choice set of low complexity. No such effects were found for the scale, maximizing tendency goals. The detriments of offering too much choice are real. Businesses within service industries such as e-tourism are therefore recommended to improve the quality/quantity of content due to intrinsic (i.e., intangibility, high monetary value, less purchase frequency) and extrinsic (i.e., a high number of alternatives and number of attributes/levels) factors. Each of these factors may make the service offering more complex for consumers to choose from. Managerial implications of the present study include the perspective (technology-centered view and human-centered view) that businesses can adopt. This perspective acknowledges the existence of choice complexity and maximizing tendencies, thereby optimizing the digitized environment towards better personalization. Doing this correctly would result in increased customer satisfaction due to better adaptation of digital environments by businesses to the needs and behaviours of consumers. The inclusion of entropy accurately provides the amount of information in bits; this measurement variable could be used by businesses to improve their algorithms. Finally, some companies in e-tourism have already begun to implement similar strategies, and reported in a significant increase in customer satisfaction, reservations, and overall sales. This gives evidence towards the practical importance of this study, and further emphasizes that businesses can indeed optimize their approach specifically towards the quality/quantity of content provided to consumers. In conclusion, the present study shows a negative relationship between choice complexity and post-choice satisfaction, with the inclusion of maximizing tendencies within the domain of e-tourism. Business may derive implications from this research to optimize their digital environments through increase in content personalization and reduction in choice complexity.

Nowadays, it is not enough for companies to only focus on their business operations and financial performance. ‘Doing good’ needs to be part of the business strategy as they must do their part in addressing the grand societal challenges. Cause related marketing (CRM) is one such strategy set to address this. CRM is a powerful tool used to advance both the business and the charity (the cause) to therefore achieve mutual benefit. However, there is a dark side associated to the implementation of this theory. The impact this has on consumers can be explained by the ethical aspect associated with CRM campaigns, which positively influences the consumer’s perception of the company image. Consumers undergo an attitude change because of the link to the good cause. Customers feel that buying CRM products leads them to encounter feelings of satisfaction and altruism which leaves room for companies to take advantage of this. People are often very eager to help without ever having seen proof that donations are used effectively. The latter can be achieved through vivid advertisement and a lack of transparency. There is a problem since people choose to support a cause based on the emotional connection they feel towards the cause and the company. It was proven that if the public is skeptical about the link between company and cause, or if they perceive the company as selfish and corrupt, huge outrage will follow. However, there are several challenges since only the perception of goodwill is needed to get the public on board. It can be argued that business must balance corporate and humanitarian interest. The way to effectively employ CRM is to address the challenges associated with CRM. Balance is needed to meet the business and societal interests. During this thesis project the potential dark side was explored by identifying the ethical challenges. This is done through a case study at a company in the services industry. The data was tested in two stages via interviews and a workshop with brainstorming element, respectively. Taken together, the case study identified a set of four pillars: skepticism, altruism, shared values and transparency. These findings are of importance, because they indicate that the need for shared values is, indeed, essential to cope with ethical challenges in corporate marketing activities. However, the societal aspect of business cannot be neglected. Financial and societal goals have historically been perceived as two entirely different objectives that may even clash with each other. In reality, this dichotomy may not really hold, since a business cannot survive without society, and vice versa. Shared values represent the way in which business and society can both prosper. This finding is in line with the theory of ‘Marketing 3.0’, which argues that consumers have more power than ever before to express what the requirements of a corporate CRM campaign must be in order to satisfy the needs and wants of the public. The case company was very aware of the necessity to preventing skepticism; the company carefully avoided being perceived as self-centered in their marketing activities.

Project failure rate is astonishingly 70%. This cause for the failure can vary from poor project management, to poor engineering, external factors like environment etc. This research particularly aims at identifying the competencies needed by project managers, with a aim that it will eventually reduce the failure rate.
This research was carried out to investigate the relevance of competencies with respect to contract type, specifically cost reimbursable and lump sum contract and its variations with the project phases. Eventually also identifying the effect of competencies on project success. This will cater to the problem definition what kind of competencies can project managers adapt to execute a lump sum contract. In order to understand lump sum, we also need to study cost reimbursable that is the extreme opposite of lump sum contract. Encompassing all the above the following research question was formulated:
“What are the critical competencies of a project manager needed at different phases of a lumpsum project to ensure project success?”
The main research objective is to understand the importance of competent project managers. The research was divided into three phases.
In the first phase a thorough literature review was done to get insights on competencies, yielding a set of fifteen competencies that will be studied against the phases of a project. FLUOR B.V., has five stages of a project, which will be considered for the research purpose. Two sets of project success factors were identified through literature, one being at macro view point and the other being micro view point.
The second phase was all about data collection and analysis. Survey was conducted to identify the variations in competencies through different phases of a project. Interviews were conducted to recognise the relationship between contract type and competencies, and competencies’ impact on project success. Since both the methods addressed different hypotheses. Data collection is followed by the analysis. Frequency charts were made to identify the most preferred competencies.
The final phase was to put the results to use. A competency-based scorecard was designed to suitably hire and appoint project managers. This was based on phases of a project. Only the top eight competencies per phase was chosen for the scorecard. Competencies that are most affected during a lump sum contract are added to an existing leadership model, it’s a matrix of leadership levels and competencies. The competencies affecting the project success can also be useful in allocating project managers to different projects. This could be directly implemented in projects.