Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online auctions represent an important new marketplace from which consumers can access the goods they require, an alternative marketplace to bricks-and-mortar and online retail stores. Sellers are often ordinary consumers and the items on sale are often second-hand household items, although, modern C2C auction sites also accommodate small businesses selling unused products. Consumer behaviour in online C2C auctions is unlike consumer behaviour in bricks-and-mortar or online retail stores. While considerable research has been conducted into the dynamics of bidding in online C2C auctions little research has addressed the motives for consumers’ ongoing participation in this marketplace. The concept of consumer involvement may explain the amount of time and money consumers are spending in online C2C auctions and the frequency of their visits to auction sites. In the context of this thesis, involvement is defined as the long-term and enduring relevance, connection and relatedness of online auctions to a consumer’s life. The aim of this research is to explore the ways in which the consumer involvement construct offers an explanation for variation in buyers’ ongoing use of online auctions. The thesis also seeks to discover which consumer motives contribute to buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions. TradeMe is New Zealand’s most popular online C2C auction site. In a country of just four million people, the TradeMe auction site has more than 2 million members and accounts for more than 50 per cent of Internet traffic originating from New Zealand websites. This study of buyers who use the TradeMe auction site, offers the opportunity to study online auction consumers in this unique context. Based on an extensive literature review, eighteen propositions were developed regarding buyer motives for enduring involvement with online C2C auctions. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty TradeMe users, to test these propositions and to identify any further motives for enduring involvement with auctions that had not been revealed in the literature review. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed in full. NVivo8 qualitative data analysis software was used to code the interview transcripts. Thematic analysis reveals six themes representing buyer motives for enduring involvement with online auctions. The significant contribution of this thesis is to identify involvement as a useful construct for explaining consumer behaviour in online auctions. In addition to utilitarian and hedonic motives for involvement with online auctions, the interviews reveal that the buyers have a number of social and personal motives for involvement with online auctions. Analysis of the qualitative dataset also reveals a set of marketer activities which encourage ongoing use of the auction site, and a number of factors (anti-motives) which discourage use of the auction site. The research reveals the existence of an off-line community of auction users who value the social contact they experience with one another outside the auction site. Ongoing buyer-seller relationships are also shown to develop outside the auction site, prompted by an initial auction transaction. TradeMe users often express loyalty to the TradeMe website because they are proud of its New Zealand origins, feel secure in using a local auction website, believe they are supporting small New Zealand businesses by buying from TradeMe, and believe they are practicing sustainable consumption behaviour by purchasing second-hand goods. Future research should develop a multi-item, quantitative measure of buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions and test the validity of this measure with further empirical data.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online auctions represent an important new marketplace from which consumers can access the goods they require, an alternative marketplace to bricks-and-mortar and online retail stores. Sellers are often ordinary consumers and the items on sale are often second-hand household items, although, modern C2C auction sites also accommodate small businesses selling unused products. Consumer behaviour in online C2C auctions is unlike consumer behaviour in bricks-and-mortar or online retail stores. While considerable research has been conducted into the dynamics of bidding in online C2C auctions little research has addressed the motives for consumers’ ongoing participation in this marketplace. The concept of consumer involvement may explain the amount of time and money consumers are spending in online C2C auctions and the frequency of their visits to auction sites. In the context of this thesis, involvement is defined as the long-term and enduring relevance, connection and relatedness of online auctions to a consumer’s life. The aim of this research is to explore the ways in which the consumer involvement construct offers an explanation for variation in buyers’ ongoing use of online auctions. The thesis also seeks to discover which consumer motives contribute to buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions. TradeMe is New Zealand’s most popular online C2C auction site. In a country of just four million people, the TradeMe auction site has more than 2 million members and accounts for more than 50 per cent of Internet traffic originating from New Zealand websites. This study of buyers who use the TradeMe auction site, offers the opportunity to study online auction consumers in this unique context. Based on an extensive literature review, eighteen propositions were developed regarding buyer motives for enduring involvement with online C2C auctions. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty TradeMe users, to test these propositions and to identify any further motives for enduring involvement with auctions that had not been revealed in the literature review. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed in full. NVivo8 qualitative data analysis software was used to code the interview transcripts. Thematic analysis reveals six themes representing buyer motives for enduring involvement with online auctions. The significant contribution of this thesis is to identify involvement as a useful construct for explaining consumer behaviour in online auctions. In addition to utilitarian and hedonic motives for involvement with online auctions, the interviews reveal that the buyers have a number of social and personal motives for involvement with online auctions. Analysis of the qualitative dataset also reveals a set of marketer activities which encourage ongoing use of the auction site, and a number of factors (anti-motives) which discourage use of the auction site. The research reveals the existence of an off-line community of auction users who value the social contact they experience with one another outside the auction site. Ongoing buyer-seller relationships are also shown to develop outside the auction site, prompted by an initial auction transaction. TradeMe users often express loyalty to the TradeMe website because they are proud of its New Zealand origins, feel secure in using a local auction website, believe they are supporting small New Zealand businesses by buying from TradeMe, and believe they are practicing sustainable consumption behaviour by purchasing second-hand goods. Future research should develop a multi-item, quantitative measure of buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions and test the validity of this measure with further empirical data.

To date much of the literature on consumers’ concerns about business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce has described findings from quantitative research. As a result, much of that literature has focused on specific previously-identified concerns (e.g., privacy of personal information, use of credit cards for on-line payment). Also, there has been little research into the concerns of New Zealand consumers, and all of it has been quantitative. In order to gain a broader understanding, this study took a qualitative approach. Three focus groups were conducted, in order to identify consumers’ concerns. The concerns that were thus identified were combined with those that a review of the literature had previously identified, and were used to draw up a set of guidelines to be used in semi-structured interviews. Fifteen interviews were then conducted, in order to gain consumers’ views about each concern. It seems that at a higher level, consumer’s concerns have shifted. The literature suggests that in the past consumers’ concerns about Internet shopping have focused on the fact that Internet shopping is conducted via the Internet – as a result of which consumers have, for example, been concerned about the privacy of their personal information ('if I give them my e-mail address, will I get spam?') This study suggests that now consumers’ concerns focus on the fact that Internet shopping is a form of shopping – as a result of which they are now only prepared to use the Web sites of 'reputable companies', and they now require to be able to evaluate an item adequately before buying it. And it seems that another result of this is that consumers now expect that the 'reputable companies' whose Web sites they visit will – as a matter of course - address to their satisfaction issues such as the privacy of their personal information. While there are some types of products that consumers are prepared to buy on-line (e.g., air travel), there are many about which they are reluctant. Concerns were expressed about a wide range of potential purchases, and for a variety of reasons; also, some data was inconsistent (for example, some consumers were not prepared to buy clothes on-line, but others were). This appears to be an area in which consumer attitudes are still evolving. It is suggested that it may be helpful for further research on this matter to consider both demographic factors and the degree of consumer involvement in particular types of purchases.

<p>Recent research on links between dimensions of consumer-based brand equity, as well as links to consumer involvement, has shown that it is a significant predictor of purchase behavior.</p><p>The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the affect brands have on consumer involvement. We attempt to investigate how consumer-based brand equity affects the level of consumer involvement.</p><p>Based on consumer behavior theory and previous research of these areas, gathered primary data (an empirical investigation of students’ attitudes) is analyzed to gain an understanding of how the aforementioned concepts relate to each other.</p><p>The findings indicate that there are correlations between consumer-based brand equity and consumer involvement, and that there is more to investigate in this area. Suggestions for further research include a similar study with more measured variables for each dimension, and analyzing them separately instead of creating indexes.</p><p>The results of this dissertation may be useful for marketers and manufacturers of the specific products investigated, as well as products of similar nature, in order to apply focus to the attributes which consumers value most.</p>

With the increase of national income, cosmetic products have become the daily necessities, its development is closely related with the trends; Furthermore, younger groups start to use the cosmetic products, making the cosmetic products market has expanded each year. According to the Euromonitor¡¦s analysis, the facial care products account for the highest proportion of sales on cosmetic products market in Asia. According to the analysis of the cosmetic industry in 2008 also pointed out that the consumer spend in facial care products are accounted more than 38% in cosmetic products market. However, the current study focused mainly on the overall cosmetic products, facial care products made for less than the depth of the study, this study was expected to discuss the purchase decision in facial care products market. This study will discuss the consumer purchase decision in facial care products market and reference in Zaichkosky (1985). The purpose of this study is to develop and discusses the involvement and purchase decision in facial care products whether there was significant difference. The EKB model is chosen as a conceptual framework and focus on facial care products consumers in Taiwan area. The simple random sampling method is used to obtain 300 effective samples from 335 questionnaires sent out. The methods of factoring, Scheffe test, variance, Schema¡¦s test, Chi-square statistics are used to analyze the sampled data. The method to measure consumer involvement is Kapferer &Laurent¡¦s¡uThe Consumer Involvement Profile¡v, the five dimensions to measure including : importance, pleasure, sign, the risk of purchase, risk probability. Each dimension uses Likert¡¦s five point scales. The study results show that the consumers with different involvement levels, demographics variables have positive effect towards product involvement. On the purchase decision making behaviors variables, their purchase motivation, information sources and evaluation criteria are significantly different. Finally, according to the characteristics of consumers with different involvement levels, this study provides the marketing strategies, as a reference for the facial care products companies to plan their future marketing strategies.

The problem that this thesis deals with is that the intense competition and increasing consumer power in the health industry calls for the operating companies to take consumers’ considerations into account when advertising their products. It is further suggested that consumers will be extra careful before buying health-related products due to their direct effect on their personal health. Thus, companies selling health-related products must gain an understanding of how consumers form their judgments of the advertisements for the same in order to be able to create persuasive and thus effective advertisements. The purpose of this thesis is to understand consumers’ views of different persuasion strategies used for advertising health-related products and how these affect their willingness to purchase the advertised product. This will be done as a means to provide the concerned companies with a basis for how to create positively perceived, yet effective, advertisements. In order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis a qualitative study was conducted through the use of focus groups. During the focus groups the participants were, among other things, encouraged to discuss their views of three different advertisements for health-related products. Each advertisement represented one persuasion strategy used in the advertising of health-related products. The gathered data was interpreted and analyzed by comparing it with theories from previous research. The study shows that consumers require extensive information and strong evidence behind the arguments provided in advertisements for health-related products. Advertisements that communicate consequences that correspond to consumers’ existing beliefs are likely to be positively perceived. Conversely, if the communicated consequences contradict consumers’ beliefs their responses are likely to be negative. Consumers that are more informed in regards to the products are more likely to critically judge the advertisements for the same. The likelihood that consumers’ attitudes will be reflected in their behavior increases along with the strength of their attitudes.

Several studies show that the clinical reality in psychiatric care does not correspond to the demand of consumer participation from a variety of policy documents that has been produced recently. Studies also show that there is a lot to do in improving, patients with sever mental illness, becoming more involved in their own care. The nurse has a central role in this work. The Norwegian nursing theorist Jan-Kåre Hummelvolls holistic, existentialistic model for psychiatric nursing were used as theoretical ground. The aim of this study was to examine how nurses in psychiatric outpatient units, caring for patients with psychotic disorders, experiences consumer participation. Qualitative phenomenological method was used. Semi-structured interviews with six nurses caring for patients suffering from psychotic disorders in outpatient units were conducted. The interviews were recorded and transcript by the author and then analyzed using qualitative content analyze. Two themes were identified: To follow the road chosen by the patient and When consumer participation risks failing. The result of this study shows that there are several factors that influences nurses job to involve patients in their care. The interviews also showed that there were areas where consumer participation was more problematic. To share a decision with the patient is a way to improve consumer participation. Shared decision making is a complicated process where the nurse needs support to succeed. In pharmacological issues nurses must continue working with consumer participation.

This study examines the strategies that guide the role of end-users in new product development (NPD) in UK consumer durable firms. NPD success factor literature identifies the involvement of the end-user and a focus on their needs as important contributors to product success. The predominantly scientific and industrial focus of these studies means that there is, however, little information on how companies in consumer markets involve users to achieve successful products. This study fills a gap by examining the role of product users in the development of successful consumer durable products in UK firms. The products were identified through the use of a success scale developed from Griffin and Page 1993, 1996, and the award of the Millennium Product marque. An inductive approach utilising both quantitative and qualitative methods was employed and the study identified discrete groups of users involved for specific purposes in the product development process. Two strategies were identified as guiding userinvolvement: in the Expediency strategy, employees or 'internal users' were involved for rapid testing of designs where speed-to-market was considered to be a key competitive factor. The Risk Reduction strategy involved both external and internal users when products were more complex and a focus on product quality and getting it 'right first time' were important. It was also found that the firms either developed products based on their own interpretation of the users' needs, 'consumer-driven', or driven by retailers' demands and suggestions, 'retailer-driven'. Following further testing with all sixty-five products, it was concluded that the perceived complexity of the product determined which strategy was chosen, and the level of market orientation in the firm established the driver. This thesis extends the NPD success-factor literature by establishing that the involvement of users is a contributor to successful consumer durable product development. It also identifies 'internal users' as a previously unrecognised group of users and relates the use of different groups of users to two distinct strategies. The Risk Reduction and Expediency strategies also extend the 'first-mover advantage' literature by concluding that products developed with the Risk Reduction Strategy were more successful than those that used an Expediency Strategy. Although these products were not usually first-to-market they benefited from being of superior quality.

While pursuing profits, modern firms begin to undertake corporate social responsibility (CSR). Different ways for firms to implement CSR have diverse impacts on consumer-based brand equity that reflects the meaning of the brand in consumers’ minds and is of considerable significance to corporate marketing strategy. However, previous research on CSR rarely uses signaling theory to explain the internal mechanism of generating consumer-based brand equity. It is also a gap of existing literature to study how to strengthen the impact of a firm’s CSR on consumer-based brand equity. This thesis, based on stakeholder theory and signaling theory, analyzes the effects of the degree of a firms’ CSR on consumer-based brand equity, including brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand loyalty, and how these effects are moderated by consumer involvement in CSR. This study adopts the quantitative approach and receives 201 valid questionnaires by taking Alipay (a Chinese firm providing online financial services) as the target of the survey. The results indicate that the degree of a firm’s CSR positively impacts brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand loyalty through empirical analysis. Meanwhile, as a moderator, consumer involvement in CSR positively moderates the relationship between the degree of a firm’s CSR and perceived quality but shows no significant moderating effects on the other two associations. By uncovering the relationship between CSR and consumer-based brand equity through the signaling theory and by introducing the variable of consumer involvement in CSR, this study advances CSR research. It extends the application of signaling theory in a new research area as well.

Recent research on links between dimensions of consumer-based brand equity, as well as links to consumer involvement, has shown that it is a significant predictor of purchase behavior. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the affect brands have on consumer involvement. We attempt to investigate how consumer-based brand equity affects the level of consumer involvement. Based on consumer behavior theory and previous research of these areas, gathered primary data (an empirical investigation of students’ attitudes) is analyzed to gain an understanding of how the aforementioned concepts relate to each other. The findings indicate that there are correlations between consumer-based brand equity and consumer involvement, and that there is more to investigate in this area. Suggestions for further research include a similar study with more measured variables for each dimension, and analyzing them separately instead of creating indexes. The results of this dissertation may be useful for marketers and manufacturers of the specific products investigated, as well as products of similar nature, in order to apply focus to the attributes which consumers value most.