THE EFFECT OF ASTROLOGY ON YOUNG CUSTOMER BEHAVIORS

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effect of date-of-birth on consumption behaviors of young people. A face-to-face interview survey is conducted to collect data. SPSS 18.0 for Windows was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics such as means, frequencies, ANOVA tests and Chi-square tests were calculated. The findings pointed out that the young consumers on fire group (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius) take more instant and impulsive purchase actions. It is a new study about the effect of astrology on young customer behaviors. It presents valuable information that can assist marketers to understand young customers’ consumption behaviors.Astrology, Marketing, Young Consumers, Consumer Behaviors, Buying Behaviors

Speech intelligibility in multilingual spaces

This thesis examines speech intelligibility and multi-lingual communication, in terms of acoustics and perceptual factors. More specifically, the work focused on the impact of room acoustic conditions on the speech intelligibility of four languages representative of a wide range of linguistic properties (English, Polish, Arabic and Mandarin). Firstly, diagnostic rhyme tests (DRT), phonemically balanced (PB) word lists and phonemically balanced sentence lists have been compared under four room acoustic conditions defined by their speech transmission index (STI = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8). The results obtained indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the word intelligibility scores of languages under all room acoustic conditions, apart from the STI = 0.8 condition. English was the most intelligible language under all conditions, and differences with other languages were larger when conditions were poor (maximum difference of 29% at STI = 0.2, 33% at STI = 0.4 and 14% at STI = 0.6). Results also showed that Arabic and Polish were particularly sensitive to background noise, and that Mandarin was significantly more intelligible than those languages at STI = 0.4. Consonant-to-vowel ratios and languages’ distinctive features and acoustical properties explained some of the scores obtained. Sentence intelligibility scores confirmed variations between languages, but these variations were statistically significant only at the STI = 0.4 condition (sentence tests being less sensitive to very good and very poor room acoustic conditions). Additionally, perceived speech intelligibility and soundscape perception associated to these languages was also analysed in three multi-lingual environments: an airport check-in area, a hospital reception area, and a café. Semantic differential analysis showed that perceived speech intelligibility of each language varies with the type of environment, as well as the type of background noise, reverberation time, and signal-to-noise ratio. Variations between the perceived speech intelligibility of the four languages were only marginally significant (p = 0.051), unlike objective intelligibility results. Perceived speech intelligibility of English appeared to be mostly affected negatively by the information content and distracting sounds present in the background noise. Lastly, the study investigated several standards and design guidelines and showed how adjustments could be made to recommended STI values in order to achieve consistent speech intelligibility ratings across languages

THE EFFECTS OF OUTDOOR ADVERTISEMENTS ON CONSUMERS: A CASE STUDY

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence ratio of outdoor advertisements on survey participants (consumers) who are living in Sivas city and to measure the effects on participants' purchasing behavior. The research also attempted to specify the different characteristics of outdoor advertisements in comparison to other advertising instruments. The other research aims are to designate the status of outdoor advertisements among the advertisement instruments which are thought to have an effect on the purchasing behavior of consumers and to determine the effects and dimensions of outdoor advertisements. A face-to-face interview survey is conducted on 400 person who live in Sivas city and who are selected with non-random sampling. Data were analyzed by using T-test, variant analysis and factor analysis. SPSS 15.0 for Windows was employed for the scale measurement. The result of the analysis shows that people generally have positive opinions about outdoor advertisements. They think that outdoor advertisements are more eye-catching and creative when compared to other advertisement types and their physical size lends them an effective visual impact. Respondents also stated that outdoor advertisements contribute to the cityscape in terms of variety and beauty, and they do not pollute the environment. However, awareness of outdoor advertisement amongst some people is relatively low. The results of the study indicate that outdoor advertisements which create different ideas, which are effective in informing and persuading people and which are sensitive to the environment can be viewed positively by consumers. In particular, amongst consumers with higher educational and income levels, outdoor advertisements are becoming striking and their visibility is increasing.outdoor advertisement, customer behavior, Turkey

Speech intelligibility in multilingual spaces

No abstract available

İktisat Sosyolojisi: İktisadi Davranışlara Sosyolojik Bir Bakış

İktisat sosyolojisi iktisadi davranışlara sosyolojik bir bakış açısı getirmektedir. Aynı zamanda iktisat sosyolojisinin çok disiplinli özelliği iktisadi davranışların analiz edilmesinde rasyonel olmayan unsurların da incelenmesini sağlamaktadır. İktisat sosyolojisi neoklasik iktisadın soyut ve normatif modellemelerine karşı bütünsel, tarihsel ve karşılatırmalı bir yaklaşım getirmektedir. Bu çalışmada klasik iktisat sosyolojisinden yeni iktisat sosyolojisine gelinen süreç tarihsel bir perspektiften ve neoklasik iktisat eleştirisiyle anlatılmaktadır

Social Capital Failure: Negative Externalities of Social Capital

Social capital can be expressed as private good in terms of micro perspective. At the same time social capital is public good and lead to free-rider problem in terms of macro perspective. On the other hand social groups can only use social capital in their own interests and they can create their own resources by excluding other groups. Therefore the lack of inclusive features of social capital lead to social capital failures. In this study, the exclusion effect of social capital and pressure-interest groups, criminal organizations, corruption and nepotism-chronyism are explained as social capital failure or negative externalities of social capital