Matching Items (3)
Description
Branding and brand management have been top management priorities in the hotel industry. Some researchers have concluded that strong branding would be an efficient way for hotels and hotel chains to differentiate themselves from each other. Recent studies have focused on the establishment of a brand equity model and the relevant causal relationships of the model. Most of these studies have used types of desirability scales examining the importance of individual factors in measuring brand equity. However, they ignore the trade-offs that affect and characterize choice. Particularly, the personal decision process implied by the hierarchical brand equity model is absent. This study proposed two alternative measures of brand equity, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and conjoint analysis (CA), to address these limitations. The AHP and the CA were compared using several validity measures to aid in selecting efficient methods. This study examined the validity of AHP and CA under two data collection methods applied to hotel branding: paper-based survey and online survey. Result showed that the AHP data collection methods were easier, as well as with respect to saving time and costs. Results also indicated that the AHP is equivalent to the CA with respect to predictive accuracy. Practical differences for hotel branding in attribute preferences were clearly observed between the AHP and the CA. The AHP results were consistent with previous studies by awarding high importance to perceived quality and brand loyalty and lower importance to brand awareness and brand image. Managerial implications were provided for results. In terms of practicality in data collection, the study results revealed that the data gathered online leads to a slightly lower internal and predictive validity. A limitation of this study was that the two methods were not perfectly comparable. Nevertheless, the validity of both AHP and CA seems satisfactory for both methods. The study results also offer useful perspectives to consider when choosing between the two methods, as well as between AHP and CA.
ContributorsLee, Seung-Hyun (Author) / Tyrrell, Timothy (Thesis advisor) / Uysal, Muzaffer (Committee member) / Andereck, Kathleen (Committee member) / Nyaupane, Gyan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This thesis presents a model for the buying behavior of consumers in a technology market. In this model, a potential consumer is not perfectly rational, but exhibits bounded rationality following the axioms of prospect theory: reference dependence, diminishing returns and loss sensitivity. To evaluate the products on different criteria, the analytic hierarchy process is used, which allows for relative comparisons. The analytic hierarchy process proposes that when making a choice between several alternatives, one should measure the products by comparing them relative to each other. This allows the user to put numbers to subjective criteria. Additionally, evidence suggests that a consumer will often consider not only their own evaluation of a product, but also the choices of other consumers. Thus, the model in this paper applies prospect theory to products with multiple attributes using word of mouth as a criteria in the evaluation.
ContributorsElkholy, Alexander (Author) / Armbruster, Dieter (Thesis advisor) / Kempf, Karl (Committee member) / Li, Hongmin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
As an alternative to the traditional public transportation system, (urban) rail transit has many advantages such as large capacity, fast speed, tight schedule, safety and comfort, and punctuality, , and has gradually become a top choice of many cities in countering environmental pollution and optimizing traffic quality. At the same time, we must also see that huge amounts of capital are required for the construction of rail transit. The traditional reliance on government investment clearly has its own limitations. The investment not only has a long cost-recovery cycle and a low rate of return, but also hardly attracts investments from the private sector. Therefore, when the government vigorously promotes the construction of a rail transit system, it is generally faced with problems such as a large funding gap and an overall financial loss. Therefore, how to establish a reasonable and efficient mode of investment and financing and further broaden the financing channels for rail transit projects is of great practical significance for improving the profitability of rail transit enterprises and realizing the sustainable development of rail transit. This thesis attempts to study the issue, in general, and further exmines a detailed case study of metro rail transit in a Chinsese city (city A), in particular.
The thesis first studies the concept and attributes of urban rail transit, and analyzes four modes and corresponding cases of urban rail transit investment and financing., It then discusses the characteristics of investment and financing of urban rail transit projects and the concept of investment and financing. Moreover, this thesis focuses on the current situation, characteristics and challenges of city A’s rail transit construction,. More specifically, it takes an in-depth look at the financial planning, investment and financing planning and the investment and financing channels products. The study innovatively puts forward three models, namely, PPP, TOD, ABS of rail transit investment and financing products. Based on the AHP decision-making method, the study shows PPP as the optimal integrated choice for city A. Finally, based on the core issues of the domestic urban rail transit project investment and financing, this thesis analyzes the rationality of the PPP model thoroughly and comes up with some managerial and policy suggestions on how to further optimize the investment and financing of the urban rail transit construction from the perspectives of the government management and the rail transit enterprises
The thesis first studies the concept and attributes of urban rail transit, and analyzes four modes and corresponding cases of urban rail transit investment and financing., It then discusses the characteristics of investment and financing of urban rail transit projects and the concept of investment and financing. Moreover, this thesis focuses on the current situation, characteristics and challenges of city A’s rail transit construction,. More specifically, it takes an in-depth look at the financial planning, investment and financing planning and the investment and financing channels products. The study innovatively puts forward three models, namely, PPP, TOD, ABS of rail transit investment and financing products. Based on the AHP decision-making method, the study shows PPP as the optimal integrated choice for city A. Finally, based on the core issues of the domestic urban rail transit project investment and financing, this thesis analyzes the rationality of the PPP model thoroughly and comes up with some managerial and policy suggestions on how to further optimize the investment and financing of the urban rail transit construction from the perspectives of the government management and the rail transit enterprises
ContributorsHu, Huihua (Author) / Gu, Bin (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Anmin (Thesis advisor) / Zheng, Zhiqiang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018