p. 1 - 119 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-01-31T20:02:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 aaaaaaaa.pdf: 395221 bytes, checksum: 40e34962de440f615009fb788a806476 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Fatima Cleômenis Botelho Maria (botelho@ufba.br) on 2013-02-04T15:50:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 aaaaaaaa.pdf: 395221 bytes, checksum: 40e34962de440f615009fb788a806476 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-02-04T15:50:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 aaaaaaaa.pdf: 395221 bytes, checksum: 40e34962de440f615009fb788a806476 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Este trabalho de pesquisa com caráter exploratório tem como objetivo central conhecer como as empresas privadas prestadoras de serviço avaliam o desempenho do ombudsman de cliente. Para tanto, foi feito um levantamento dos indicadores usados por um grupo de dez organizações, no qual apenas uma delas não é privada, mas não possui o monopólio do serviço avaliado e, portanto, está sujeita à competição do mercado. A fundamentação teórica do estudo foi construída a partir da abordagem dos conceitos de satisfação do consumidor, justiça (distributiva, interpessoal e processual) confiança e comprometimento e suas influências no desenvolvimento e manutenção de relacionamentos duradouros entre fornecedores e consumidores. A análise dos dados obtidos mostra que as empresas que adotam a instituição do ombudsman mensuram seus resultados com foco na estrutura e nas atividades operacionais, apenas organizações mais maduras na utilização do ombudsman avaliam sua influência na manutenção do relacionamento com os consumidores. / Salvador

The popularity of personal computers and recent advances in Internet technology has provided companies with a new medium for selling their products and increasing their customer base. Due to the influx and acceptance of these new possibilities for both users and businesses, all the more organizations are choosing to exploit electronic commerce. This concept is nothing new or novel, but over the years recent development in the domain of e-commerce has increased tremendously and it has become more commonplace and viable as a solution for customers to easily and effectively shop for products and services. One reason for users not to do an online purchase is feelings of uncertainty and dependency on the unknown, but more importantly a lack of trust for the vendor and the technology involved in the transaction. The focus of this report is on aspects of user trust in business-to-consumer e-commerce and how specific factors of e-commerce, i.e., usability, web site design, security, transference and privacy, influence user trust in e-businesses. Eleven respondents who had some experience in e-commerce purchases were interviewed using open-ended questions to find out how they perceived trust in general and how certain factors influence their perception of trust in e-commerce. The results of this study show that usability, web site design, security, and transference and privacy, directly influence user trust in e-businesses since these factors lie closest to the user and are deciding factors for the users and influence their decisions regarding transactions in e-commerce. These results can be of importance for vendors since they show how the customers perceive trust and which factors can directly influence their trust in a vendor and their experience with e-commerce and that the factors can play a deciding role on whether or not a customer will make a purchase.

Företag verksamma inom modebranschen har idag en stor förväntan från omvärlden att agera hållbart i de handlingar de genomför. De senaste åren har kunskapen från konsumenterna ökat gällande de globala hållbara problemen inom de sociala, ekonomiska och ekologiska sektionerna. I denna studie identifieras hur svenska modeföretag praktiserar hållbar marknadsföring, samt hur faktorerna varumärke, transparens samt greenwashing inom hållbar marknadsföring påverkar förtroendet för modekonsumenter tillhörande generation Y. En teoretisk referensram upprättades med en teoretisk modell om hur de olika faktorerna påverkar förtroendet hos konsumenterna. Data som ligger som underlag till analysen samlades in genom intervjuer med de tre svenska modeföretagen H&M, ARKET och Nudie Jeans samt två fokusgrupper med konsumenter tillhörande generation Y. I analysen framgår det hur de svenska modeföretagen använder sig av direkt respektive indirekt kommunikation av det hållbarhetsarbete som de bedriver. Dessutom framgår det ur studiens analys att varumärke samt transparens påverkar förtroendet från konsumenter i generation Y positivt, men att greenwashing påverkar förtroendet negativt. / Companies that are currently operating in the fashion industry have strong expectations from the outside world to act sustainable in their actions. In recent years, the consumer knowledge regarding the sustainable problems in the social, economic and ecological sectors have increased. This study identifies how Swedish fashion companies practice green marketing, and how brand, transparency and greenwashing as factors in sustainable marketing affect the trust of consumers belonging to generation Y. A theoretical framework was established with a theoretical model on how the various factors affect consumer trust. The data that the analysis of the study was based up on, was collected through interviews with the three Swedish fashion companies H&M, ARKET and Nudie Jeans, as well as two focus groups with consumers belonging to generation Y. The analysis shows how the selected Swedish fashion companies use direct and indirect communication in their sustainability work. Additionally, it is shown from the study's analysis that branding and transparency affect consumer trust positively, but that greenwashing has a negative effect on consumer trust.

The number of connected Internet of Things devices are expected to surpass 30 billion in 2020. The unprecedented levels of personal data sharing are drastically increasing the complexity of privacy challenges. This kindled efforts such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that came into effect in May 2018 to establish user data rights. These new user data rights have had a considerable impact both for the users, and the data controllers & third-parties that are liable to effectuate the new requirements, such as privacy-by-design and explicit consent. In this thesis, we explore this impact of the GDPR, specifically on self-disclosure of personal data through smart home devices, in order to gain insights for smart home practitioners. In doing so, we specifically want to answer two research questions. Our first research question helps us understand opinions and attitudes, specifically those of Swedish residents. An online survey helps us understand their willingness and fears of adopting smart home devices. In our second research question, we apply a semi-Systematic Literature Review to study how the GDPR has influenced self-disclosure through smart home devices, and which factors have had the most significant effect on its users. The survey (n=131) showed that while trust towards data controllers is the cumulatively highest priority of users, consistent product & service quality was more likely to be the first priority (28%). Some users are struggling to find usefulness for smart home devices, so the perceived benefit is currently mainly exceeding the cost and perceived risk for lead adopters. Since the GDPR came into effect, we have seen a raise in user awareness and perceived control. Notably, this led to increased skepticism towards smart home devices. The literature review showed promise in systems to help negotiate and suggest privacy preferences between users and data controllers. We also found an exacerbation of the concern for information privacy and that trust is a major factor for users when deciding to adopt smart home devices. We conclude that there are some factors that are more important than others, as well as provide insights for smart home practitioners on future venues for research and prototyping.

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) personalization approaches can increasingly be seen used in society today from businesses using it to analyze the behavior of their consumers to consumers using it to find for example jobs that match their persona. AI personalization delivers unique messages to an individual based on their previous data to improve the consumer experience. Previous research has not focused from the perspective of the consumer in combination with their trust towards AI personalization. Since AI personalization could be beneficial for society at large, stakeholders, policymakers, companies and the consumers, the understanding of consumers' perspectives are now more important than ever.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore consumers' trust towards AI personalization.  Methodology: Since this bachelor thesis aims to fill a gap in the literature on providing insight on consumers' trust towards AI personalization, a qualitative research approach was used where seven semi-structured interviews were performed. Thus, gaining a deep insight of the subject in question which allowed for flexibility in the data collection. An interview guide was prepared and used to help guide the interviews to stay on topic. The sample method was made with purposive sampling to ensure previous experience and therefore the possibility to answer the questions asked.   Findings: This bachelor thesis identified three main findings in regards to consumers’ trust towards AI personalization to be influence of trust, mistrust and skepticism.  Conclusion: Concluding the thesis, three aspects of consumers' trust towards AI personalization was found having somewhat of a connection with each other implying that consumers base their trust, mistrust or skepticism differently.

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This study deals with a Swedish company in a food industry that got affected by product failure, which led to consumer trust crisis followed by media and was needed to be managed. Situation had a negative impact on company’s trademark, which acquired long recovery work by the company. Study is following a case example of Findus problems with having horse meat in their meat product that was supposed to contain beef meat. Study aims to research how the company dealt with situation, through crisis communication and recovery strategies. This study has conducted two content analyses, one for traditional media and one for blogs (social media channel), one participating observation at Findus production facilities and also conducted one qualitative interview with Findus. The study has been conducted with a slightly deductive approach and is a qualitative study in a constructionist way. / BakgrundSvensk livsmedelsindustri är känd för att utge sig att vara kvalitetsmedveten och mån om konsumenternas intressen, men drabbades under februari månaden 2013 av ett produktfel orsakat av det internationella matfusket. Den sjunde februari blev det allmänt känt att frysta produkter som skulle innehålla nötkött, egentligen innehöll hästkött. Situationen väckte stor uppmärksamhet som resulterade i en mediastorm, med många skandalrubriker och med matproducenten Findus i fokus. Produktfelet och medföljande mediastormen har lett till stora bekymmer hos konsumenter, som uttryckte sitt missnöje genom en negativ opinionsbildning i diverse sociala medier. Findus fick då handskas med opinionen från både traditionell media och sociala mediekanaler. Det starka varumärket blev således hårt utsatt från flera håll och företaget stod inför krävande uppgift med att hantera krisen orsakad av produktfelet. Därpå skulle ett återhämtningsarbete genomföras, med målet att minimera de skadliga effekterna, samt att i längden återhämta det starka varumärkets anseende och konsumenternas förtroende.SyfteStudien syftar till att studera hur en känd svensk matproducent med starkt varumärke hanterar en förtroendekris och genomför återhämtningsarbete till följd av ett produktfel som fångats upp av media.MetodDenna studie har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod med fallstudie som forskningsdesign, av typen intrinsikal. Ansatsen har varit främst deduktiv med vissa induktiva inslag. Studien har använt en positivistisk stil samt tar avstamp ur ett konstruktivistiskt synsätt. Empiri har insamlats med hjälp av grundad teori genom databaserna ”Newsline” och ”bloggportalen.se”, en kvalitativ intervju och en deltagande observation.SlutsatsNär produktfelet uppstått, hade Findus insett att situationen kan få proportioner av en kris och därefter sammankallade en krisgrupp som skulle hantera frågan både internt och externt. Företaget lyckades dock inte med att komma ut i medier på egen hand, utan blev uppsökt av medierna, som hade negativa påföljder där företaget fick handskas med större kris än vad den egentligen borde ha varit. Situationen räddades genom att företaget så småningom tillhandahöll adekvata förklaringar och tog ansvaret för det uppstådda felet, samt att högst uppsatta medarbetare har varit aktiva med uttalanden i traditionella medier. Företaget hade dock lägre aktivitet i sociala medier, vilket var en miss. Återhämtningsarbete hade som mål att upparbeta kundrelationer och detta har åstadkommits bra genom kampanjen ’Välkommen till Bjuv’, som genomsyrrades av transparens och bidrog till att förtroendet för varumärket ökat. Hanteringen av krisen har visat på att det råder ett starkt psyke inom företaget. Slutligen har Findus utvärderat resultatet av vidtagna åtgärder och dragit lärdomar av återhämtningserfarenhet. Trots de inledande felen, har företaget sammanfattningsvis kommit ur krisen med ännu starkare varumärke, främst tack vare väl genomfört återhämtningsarbete.

Bakgrund: En stadig växande e-handel har medfört förändringar hos konsumenternas beteende. Forskning inom detta blir därmed allt mer viktigare för onlinebutikerna, eftersom god insikt i beteendet hos konsumenterna genererar konkurrensfördelar. Konsumenternas beteende påverkas av flera faktorer och en av faktorerna är upplevd risk, som kan utgöra ett hinder i konsumenternas köpbeslut. Upplevd risk har en större inverkan på konsumenter vid e-handel än vid fysisk handel och det beror på att den fysiska interaktionen saknas vid e-handel. Därmed blir det allt viktigare för onlinebutikerna att skapa en förståelse över vad som får konsumenterna att uppleva en risk samt hur de kan reducera den upplevda risken hos konsumenterna. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka konsumenternas upplevda risker och förtroende inför onlineköp av skor genom att studera konsumenternas beteende. Metod: Denna studie bygger på en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi med en deduktiv forskningsansats. Studiens empiriska material har samlats in via åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter mellan 22-27 år, bosatta i Stockholm. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visade att produktrisken, finansiella risken, psykologiska risken, tidsrisken samt den sociala risken förekommer hos konsumenter inför onlineköp av skor. Vidare visade studien att konsumenter med ett socialt konsumentbeteende har större tendens att uppleva en social risk samt att konsumenter med ett rationellt konsumentbeteende har större tendens att uppleva en psykologisk risk. Studien visar även på att förtroende är en viktig faktor för konsumenterna inför onlineköp av skor eftersom gott förtroende reducerar de upplevda riskerna. Onlinebutikerna bör därmed kräva BankID-verifiering vid betalning, ha ett gott rykte, erbjuda generös returpolicy samt ha bra produktbeskrivningar då dessa faktorer visade sig vara mest signifikanta för konsumenterna inför onlineköp av skor. / Background: An ever-increasing e-commerce has led to changes in consumer’s behavior. This means that research about this phenomenon is becoming increasingly central, as good insight into consumer behavior generates competitive advantages. Consumer behavior is influenced by several factors, and one of the factors is the perceived risk, which could constitute an obstacle to consumer purchasing decisions. A perceived risk has a greater impact on consumers in e-commerce than in physical commerce due to the lack of physical interaction in e-commerce. Thus, it becomes increasingly important for online stores to understand what causes consumers to experience risk and how they can reduce consumers perceived risk. Purpose: The purpose of this study is by examining consumer’s behavior to investigate consumer’s perceived risks and trust for online shopping of shoes. Methodology: This study is based on a qualitative research strategy with a deductive research approach. The empirical material of the study has been collected via eight semi-structured interviews with respondents between 22-27 years located in Stockholm. Conclusion: The study's empirical evidence shows that product risk, financial risk, psychological risk, time risk and social risk occur with consumers for online shopping of shoes. Furthermore, the study showed that consumers with social consumer behavior have a greater tendency to experience a social risk and that consumers with a rational consumer behavior are more likely to experience a psychological risk. The study also shows that trust is an important factor for consumers for online shopping of shoes as good faith reduces the perceived risk. Online stores should therefore require BankID-verification upon payment, have a good reputation, provide generous return policy, and have good product descriptions as these factors proved to be most significant to consumers for online shopping of shoes

Title: “Factors affecting consumers green purchase intention towards ecological products: ICA supermarket in Sweden”. Level: Master degree thesis in Business AdministrationAuthor: Khalida Akter Supervisor: Zahra AhmadiExaminer: Maria Fregidou-Malama Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate how consumer trust, eco-branding and green marketing strategy influence consumer purchase intention towards ecological products. Method: The qualitative method and inductive approach have been used for this research. The primary data have been collected through face to face interview and the secondary data have been used through scientific journals and the internet. Findings: The results show the important factors that can promote green marketing towards ecological products are; consumer trust, green trust, eco-label trust, eco-branding, green pricing, green advertising, green design and green promotion have a strong relation with each other. The study also shows that consumer purchase intention can be increased by giving sufficient information regarding ecological products, by increasing awareness, credibility, by reducing the perceived risk of the products, brand uniqueness, by advertising the products through the company magazines, billboards and posters outside of the supermarket, by raising awareness of customer health. Brand loyalty is also an important factor to create a long-term relationship with customers and it can be created by the fair price perception among the customers. The main promotional issues have been found for this study is customer health and climate change. The study also shows that price doesn’t affect on consumer purchase behaviour. Suggestions for future research: This study helps to understand how to promote green marketing for ecological products. For further study, the author suggests to investigate if there is a relationship between green marketing, consumer trust, eco-branding as well as a green marketing strategy. The future study will help to research on green marketing for ecological products. Contribution: This study has identified elements to promote green marketing and factors that can help to increase consumers purchase intention. The author hopes that the findings of this study will help companies to create their consumer purchase intention. The study has contributed to the theory and to the managers by investigating the factors affecting on green marketing. Keywords: Green marketing, Consumer trust, green trust, Eco-branding, Green marketing strategy, consumer purchase intention.

Molntjänster i olika former har fått en allt större roll för IT-drift inom många organisationer. Framförallt grundat i det faktum att molnteknik bidrar till förbättrad drift genom tillgång till ökad skalningsförmåga, vilket möjliggör att organisationer på ett flexibelt sätt kan hantera snabba förändringar vid inkommande arbetsbelastning. Att implementera egen lokal IT kräver även en hög kapacitet och stark resurstillgång, faktorer som inte alltid finns till hands. Beskrivna anledningar tillsammans med effekterna av Covid-19 pandemin har gjort att implementering och bruk av molntjänster ökat.  Fördelarna kommer dock inte utan nackdelar, molntjänster erbjuds ofta via molnleverantörer, vilket i sig inte behöver innebära en riskfaktor. Molntjänsternas struktur går däremot att koppla till en uppsjö av relaterade säkerhetsrisker, vilka till största del måste hanteras av leverantören. Konsumenten blir således beroende av att leverantören bibehåller säkerheten i molnet, ett stort förtroende placeras därmed till en extern aktör. Detta arbete fokuserar därför på att analysera hur konsumenten upplever förtroendet till leverantörens förmåga att bibehålla säkerheten relaterat till de säkerhetsrisker som kunnat kopplas till molntjänster. För att undersöka konsumentens upplevda förtroende till leverantören har en fallstudie med intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod genomförts, fokus låg på att undersöka individer verksamma inom IT-branschen relaterat till molnfrågor.  Resultat visade på att förtroendet till leverantören i generell bemärkelse är högt, konsumenten litar på leverantörens förmåga att skydda tjänsterna mot intrång och bibehålla tillgängligheten. Vanligen rör det sig om stora välkända aktörer, konsumenten upplevde att detta talade för kapacitet och därmed en säkrare tjänst. Komplikationer uppkommer snarare kring juridiska aspekter och vem som äger tillgång till data, i detta anseende ansågs leverantörerna som mindre förtroendeingivande.