The use of social media has increased the need of interactivity and information sharing. Individuals are sharing thoughts about different issues. Today, environmental issues have become an everyday matter for many. This matter is manifested through opinion leaders and their blogs or accounts. These opinion leaders possess an incredible power to influence others, which they in many cases take advantage of to inform their readers about topics that matters. This thesis will study how individuals respond to opinion leaders’ publications of green product exposure on social media. The purpose is to deepen the understanding and analyze possible influences related to the individuals’ responses. Green consumption habits are being highlighted as important and green products are exposed through many opinion leaders’ profiles on social media, since they often have an influence on individuals purchasing decisions. To investigate consumer responses on social media a qualitative study has been implemented. This has been done through observations and the construction of a focus group with the aim to strengthen the observational results. The results have mainly showed that individuals often respond positively to opinion leaders’ posts of green products, but their positive responses are related to the opinion leader rather than highlighting the green attributes. These results have been discussed to arisen from the individuals strive to identify themselves with opinion leaders. Furthermore, additional theory has been used to analyze the comments and explain possible influences. The conclusion of this thesis includes proposals for future research related to this topic.

Due to the development of new technology, there has been a shift in many communication concepts. With consumers now gaining more control in the online environment, more influential consumers, or ‘opinion leaders’, can also gain from this increase in power. However, insufficient research has been conducted regarding the concept of social media opinion leadership, and in particular what the relational nature of these new opinion leaders is. Therefore, this study aims to explore this issue within the social media opinion leadership theory. A qualitative research design was applied to get a more in depth insight to the issue, in where interviews were conducted with followers of specific opinion leader on a social media platform. The empirical data was analyzed through the means of coding and interpretation which then lead into the theory of what possible relationships can be found amongst social media opinion leaders and their followers. Conclusively, three types of relationships emerged as most dominant: the trustworthiness relationship, the friendly relationship and the passive relationship. The theoretical contributions of this paper together with practical implications and suggestion for future research are discussed based on that conclusion.

The widespread and rapid internationalization of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the healthcare sector is outpacing our efforts to understand the motives behind this phenomenon and the processes that propel it. This paper investigates the internationalization processes of Swedish SMEs that operate in the international healthcare markets. Based on interviews from five SMEs, the study seeks to understand why these SMEs internationalize, and how and in what way this internationalization process unfolds. By developing a conceptual model based on previous literature for SME internationalization, knowledge and networks, and the regulatory environment in which the SMEs operate, the findings are analyzed in the context of the healthcare industry. The research concludes that product approval regulations have a small influence on the internationalization process; instead establishing relationships with local key opinion leaders to create awareness and legitimacy was essential to successfully enter a new foreign market. A further key finding identified was that each market is characterized by different national praxis and contrasting views on patient treatment methods, which was recognized as a challenge among the case firms.

Titel: Vill du kolla på en film? En kvalitativ studie om hur två tittargrupper i Sverige värderar externa och interna faktorer angående deras filmkonsumtion Författare: Alice Paues & Hampus Mörner Handledare: Lowe Hedman Syfte: Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats var att undersöka hur två tittargrupper i Sverige värderar externa och interna faktorer angående deras film konsumtion. Uppsatsen bygger på en huvudfrågeställning och tre ytterligare frågeställningar: Hur värderar en yngre och en äldre svensk tittargrupp externa och interna faktorer angående deras egna film konsumtion? Vilka externa faktorer har mest värde enligt dessa tittargrupper? Vilka interna faktorer har mest värde enligt dessa tittargrupper? Varierar dessa faktorer beroende på plattform? Metod och Material: Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ metod som genomfördes med hjälp av fokusgruppsintervjuer. För dessa fokusgruppsintervjuer så designades en intervjuguide där frågorna var relaterade till våra tre genomgående teman: externa faktorer, interna faktorer och skillnader mellan plattformar. Frågorna var även guidade av teorier inom vårt ämne. Vi valde att göra ett strategiskt urval. Urvalet bestod av två tittargrupper, en yngre där åldersintervallet var 18 till 33 och en äldre där åldersintervallet var 50 till 65. Huvudsakliga resultat: Det huvudsakliga resultatet från studien visade att den externa faktorn som äldre värderade högst var film kritiker, medan yngre värderade trailers och liknande material högst. Båda grupperna motiverades av samma behov när det gällde film konsumtion. Dock, så värderade yngre kognitiva behov högre än äldre, och äldre värderade känslomässiga behov högre än yngre. Vi fann även att det fanns skillnader mellan olika plattformar, där fyra huvud motivationer värderades olika. Dessa var: sociala behov, flyktbehov, behov att få välja sitt egna innehåll och avslappning. Antal sidor: 60 Kurs: Media- och kommunikationsvetenskap C Universitet: Uppsala Universitet, Institutionen för Informatik och Media Termin: HT 2014

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-101).

Intergenerational influence is the transmission of information and beliefs from one family generation to the next. Intergenerational influence is at work whenever older generation seek advice from younger generation, or vice versa. The study investigated the influence of young opinion leaders on older generation regarding mobile internet usage.The study followed a convenience research design. A total of 597 online questionnaires were sent to Nedbank Group Technology employees aged over 44 via email. A total of 66 complete, complete, usable, online questionnaires were completed. The key finding was that young opinion leaders are likely to positively influence older generation regarding mobile internet usage. The finding is consistent with previous studies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att analysera hur interaktion med och bekräftelse av opinion leaders påverkar konsumenters impulshandlande genom företags marknadsföring via s-commerce. Denna studie genomfördes således för att tydliggöra om influencers genom olika faktorer kan påverka impulsköp online.  Metod: Metoden som användes för att genomföra denna studie var en kvantitativ studie genom webbaserade enkätundersökningar. Resultatet från denna analyserades sedan i programmet SPSS för att få fram en tydlig bild av hur faktorerna påverkar impulsköp. Populationen innehåller män och kvinnor från åldern 16 år och uppåt som följer en influencer på sociala medier. Urvalet är sedan de som är medlemmar i Facebookgruppen "Fredagspoddens vänner" samt de som följer Jessica Lagergren och Elin Lindqvist på Instagram.  Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet visade att påverkan från influencers inte var speciellt stor och att konsumenter tenderar att impulshandla till en större grad om dessa inte var inblandade. Trots att påverkan var liten tydliggjordes det att bekräftelse från influencers var den faktor som påverkade respondenterna mest.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Denna studie bidrar till ökad förståelse för hur företag ska använda sig av influencers i sin marknadsföring för att generera impulsköp online och bygger vidare på det gap som tidigare forskning har observerat.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Till fortsatt forskning hade det varit intressant att se hur många impulsköp ett samarbete mellan företag och influencers i snitt genererar. En annan sak att undersöka är vilket socialt medie som genererar flest impulsköp. / Aim: The purpose of this study is to analyze how interaction with and confirmation from opinion leaders affect consumers' impulse buying through companies marketing via social commerce. This study was thus accomplished to clarify whether influencers, through different factors, can influence impulse purchases online. Method: The method that was used in this study was a quantitative study through web-based surveys. The results from these was then analyzed in the program SPSS to get a clear picture of how the factors affect impulse purchases. The population contains men and women from the age of 16 years and upwards that are following an influencer on social media. The selection group is then those who are members of the Facebook group "Fredagspoddens vänner" as well as those following Jessica Lagergren and Elin Lindqvist at Instagram. Result and conclusions: The result showed that the influence of influencers was not particularly great, and consumers tend to impulse buy to a greater extent if they were not involved. Although the impact was small, it was clear that the confirmation from influencers was the factor that affected the respondents the most.  Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to increased understanding of how businesses should use influencers in their marketing to generate impulse purchases online as well as it is built on the gap that previous research has observed. Suggestions for future research: For further research, it would be interesting to see how many impulse purchases that on average are generated by collaborations between companies and influencers. Another thing to investegate is what social media that generates the most impulse purchases.

Internationalization of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the healthcare industryhas experienced rapid growth in the recent decade. Although research on understanding thisprocess and what drives it has been conducted, previous studies are limited in recognizing thefull influence of both domestic and foreign institutional environments. This study investigatesthe internationalization of four Swedish SMEs operating in healthcare markets through aninstitutional-based perspective, asking how and why SMEs internationalize and how theymanage different institutional environments. By analyzing the empirical case findings in thelight of a theoretical framework based on internationalization theory, institutional theory andinstitutional entrepreneurship we attempt to answer our research questions mentioned above.The thesis concludes that internationalizing SMEs experience a large range of barriers ofwhich most can be effectively overcome by cooperation and access to networks with keyopinion leaders. Findings on managing the institutional environment pointed to that thedomestic institutional environment can act as a driver for internationalization, while theability to influence and change foreign institutional environments were found to be nearimpossible for a single firm. However, our study shows that attempts at institutional changecan be achieved through cooperation together with other firms, organizations and mostimportantly influential networks with key opinion leaders. Internationalizing SMEs within thehealthcare industry might not be institutional entrepreneurs in its true sense; however theyhave the possibility of getting there.

The goal of this study was to explore the customer journey of an online purchase of clothes and to identify potential opinion leaders in the decision-taking phase before the purchase. Important questions to be analyzed were through which channels might customers get influenced and by whom. A special focus was put on the role of Facebook and Twitter during this process. In a later part of the study, the communication strategies of three clothes brands (H&M, Nelly and Halens) were studied with respect to their Facebook and Twitter channels, in order to understand how and with what kind of content they approach their customers. In this study a mixed-methods approach was used (survey, qualitative interviews, content analysis), in order to get an as complete picture as possible from the customers’ behavior. To explore the customer’s perspective, an online survey was used as well as qualitative interviews. The content analysis was applied to investigate the company side. The results of this study show that the respondents are mainly influenced in their decisions by their friends in an offline channel (face-to-face), and not through social networks. Facebook and Twitter do not influence the customers (or maybe only to a minimal extent). Thus, one conclusion of the study is that social media like Facebook and Twitter do not have a major influence on the online purchase of clothes, at least not on a conscious level. Instead other factors can have more influence, like face-to-fact contact with friends, as mentioned in the study. These findings are important for companies and should make them consider the important aspect of the offline-impact in future marketing strategies.

In the networks of relationships that influence others behavior and attitude are called opinion leaders. The two-step flow theory suggests that information through a variety of media will receive by opinion leaders, and the opinion leaders will spread the information and have the effect to other people. Today's consumer market companies often offer a trial to the high popularity bloggers for product placement, to establish a positive attitude, good reputation, and to enhance consumers purchase behavior. The views of opinion leaders in the virtual community, either positive or negative affect, all have impact to the members of the community (Bansal & Voyer, 2000). In this study, we view the Xbox LIFE community website as a research field, and use depth interviews of qualitative research as a major research method. Through the depth interview we can know the type difference of community website members and understand how the opinion leaders in the community convey the information. In this study we found that opinion leaders¡¦high degree of participation and professional knowledge in the community played a great influence in the community. The opinion leaders¡¦ speeches and views have also become the main sources to the members of the group.This study will help enterprises to seek more marketing-effective way in use online WMO(word of mouth) in the future. From this study we can find that to operate the community website are not just set up the fan pages just because the community websites are in vogue. We must discover the key to affect the community websites¡¦ members, and create the way to bring the community members together. That is the key to promote brand and service.