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This study developed and empirically examined a model to help understand how key individuals in businesses decide on whether or not to buy and utilise technology in the context of managing their obligations in relation to business taxes. In restricting the frame of reference to a taxation context, it enabled a link to be made to individual decision making, as it is ordinarily the case that one lead buyer is evident in the context of tax and technology in organisations. The model was developed from a review of extant literature in the areas of technology acceptance, behavioural intention, and consumer and business buying models. The overall model was built on a framework that has at its core the Augmented Technology Acceptance Model (Taylor & Todd, 1995a). A correspondence between attitude to use of the technology and product quality is theorised, allowing a connection to a wider model of purchase intention. The initial model was developed with thirteen hypotheses, ultimately leading to an examination of intention to buy tax technology. After an initial pilot study, in the main study a questionnaire was designed to capture empirical data for measurements related to the model. Data collected from 125 informants (i.e. senior tax staff in large organisations) about tax technology buying decisions they were currently considering was used to empirically test the model, using Structural Equation Modelling. The low sample size caused a need to simplify the original model to retain statistical power. This had the result of reducing the number of hypotheses to ten. The analysis was performed testing the measurement model and the model fit and thereby investigating its underlying hypotheses. The results supported the key hypotheses and the overall explanatory power of the model in examining intention to buy tax technology was strong. The use of technology acceptance principles as core to helping explain buying intention for tax technology was strongly supported. Only one hypothesis was not supported, relating to a proposed positive relationship between Relationship Quality and Intention to Buy constructs. Potential explanations for this finding with regard to relationship quality were introduced. The general research contributions and implications of the study were also discussed.

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In the next 20 years, the nation must accommodate the largest number of potential homebuyers in its history. To provide a basis for homebuyer education, the purpose of this study was to identify problems related to the homebuying process. A random sample of 250 buyers of residential property in Fort Collins, Colorado, during 1978 was obtained. A questionnaire, developed following Dillman's Total Design Method for mail surveys, presented 66 potential difficulties ordered according to six steps in the homebuying process. After indicating all difficulties encountered during search, purchase, and first year of occupancy, respondents listed the two considered most important, their consequences, perceived causes, and consumer recourse. A response rate of 80.4% was achieved, of which, 153 were eligible owner-occupants who had made a new purchase. All but two difficulties received a frequency of at least one; and eight difficulties were added by respondents. The most frequent problems, reported by 20% or more of the buyers, were: utility costs much higher than expected or estimated, activities foregone since purchase, mechanical system problems, repairs or adjustments necessary before or soon after purchase, delayed closing, overlapping payments on two residences, problematic telephone installation, and required costs or activities different from the previous residence. The mean total number of difficulties reported was 7.16. Subjects listed 47 and 44 items, respectively, as most and second most important difficulties. By combining frequencies for importance items, weighting those for the most important problem, the composite rank order of importance was: foregone activities, high utility costs, overlapping payments, mechanical problems, financial bind, delayed closing, and structural conditions or defects. Financial and personal consequences were more often associated with the important difficulties than legal consequences. Most frequent avenues of consumer recourse taken or planned were personal complaints to the source of the problem and to relatives or friends. Perceived causes of the important problems varied. Frequency distribution comparisons between sample groups, categorized by 15 buyer, search, and purchase characteristics, generally showed similarities on the most frequent difficulties. However, lists of most important difficulties varied in both content and rank order between groups. Mean comparison tests revealed significant differences (p<.01 and .05) in total number of difficulties on the variables: purchase experience, income level, and age of structure. Major conclusions were 1) The wide ranges and lack of congruence between the difficulties frequently reported and those considered most important, suggest that to attract the attention of a majority of affected buyers, homebuyer education efforts must be comprehensive, yet personally focussed; 2) Although some problems seem likely to be experienced by many owners, the potential for encountering certain difficulties appears to relate to certain characteristics, and populations most in need of education for self-protection are: first-time and lower-than-average income buyers, in-migrants, and those purchasing newly constructed homes and/or at prices less than $60,000; 3) Since the bulk of frequent and important difficulties were detected in move-in and occupancy stages, and were related to financial consequences, timing of purchase or move, and quality or condition of the unit, educational content should emphasize these areas. / Ph. D.

Shopping har tidigare varit en aktivitet som främst kvinnor har ägnat sig åt, men de senaste decennierna har fler och fler män börjat visa intresse för mode och shopping. I denna uppsats har vi valt att undersöka hur män beter sig när de handlar modekläder och hur de vill bli bemötta av personal i butik. För att undersöka detta har intervjuer med konsumenter och personal från butiker som erbjuder herrmode genomförts. Idag finns det många aktörer inom modebranschen vilket ger konsumenter flera alternativ att välja mellan när de ska handla kläder. Detta har lett till att modeföretag behöver anstränga sig för att kunna konkurrera med varandra på marknaden. Ett sätt att kunna differentiera sig på marknaden är att erbjuda en hög servicekvalitet. Butiksanställda har möjlighet att påverka kunder genom hela köpprocessen och därför är själva kundbemötandet ett verktyg företag kan använda sig av för att vinna konkurrensfördelar. Uppsatsens författare vill undersöka huruvida företag som erbjuder herrmode är medvetna om vilken typ av kundservice deras konsumenter förväntar sig och vill ha. Mellan den service som kunder förväntar sig och den service som sedan levereras av butiker skapas ett gap mellan förväntad och upplevd service, vilket kan påverka huruvida kunder är nöjda eller inte med sina köp. Utifrån insamlat material kan vi konstatera att intresset för mode och shopping bland män var större hos deltagande respondenter än vi förväntat oss. Konsumenterna var överens i fråga kring bemötande och har höga krav på personalens beteende. Vi anser därför att män borde ses som aktörer på modemarknaden i en högre grad då de verkar besitta ett högre intresse för mode och kläder än vad uppsatsens författare väntat sig. / Shopping was previously an activity that mostly women engaged in, but the last few decades, more and more men has begun to show interest in fashion and shopping. In this paper we have chosen to examine how men behave when they shop fashion clothes and how they want to be treated by staff in fashion stores. To examine this, interviews with consumers and staff from fashion stores that offer men's fashion have been conducted. This essay is written is Swedish. Today there are many actors in the fashion industry, giving consumers more options to choose from when they go shopping for clothes. This has led to that fashion companies need to make an effort to compete with each other on the market. One way to differentiate themselves in the market is to offer a high service quality. Store employees have the opportunity to influence customers throughout the buying process and therefore the customer service is a tool, which companies can use in order to gain competitive advantages. The essay writers want to examine whether companies offering menswear are aware of the nature of the customer service their consumers expect and want. Between the service that customers expect and the service that are then delivered in stores creates a gap between expected and perceived service, which can affect whether customers are satisfied or not with their purchase. Based on collected data, we can establish that the interest in fashion and shopping, among men was greater among participating respondents than we expected. Consumers were slightly concerned about the service and have high standards for personnel behaviour. We therefore believe that men should be seen as actors in the fashion market to a greater extent since they seem to inherit a bigger interest for fashion and clothing than expected by the essay writers.

Problem: The increasing online operations of the B2B market has led to companies being able to operate all over the world, making them exposed to various markets with different preferences of supplier relationships. For that reason, it is important for companies to consider aspects such as digitalization, culture and buyer-seller relationships when conducting business with foreign companies. One industry that has been reluctant towards this online shift is the display materials industry. However, during recent years display material suppliers operating online have become more successful. Therefore, understanding companies purchasing process when buying display material online is necessary.   Purpose: This thesis aims to explain and investigate the online organizational buying behavior of British and Swedish organizations while purchasing display materials and several factors that influence it, such as culture, digitalization and buyer-seller relationships are examined.   Method: A qualitative approach with semi-structured interview was used to conduct this research. Eight participants from British and Swedish organizations who are customers of the display material company SignMax were interviewed. The data collected has been analyzed together with literature on online organizational buying behavior and the influencing factors. Results: The findings of this research showed that the level of product involvement and national culture decides and forms the importance of the purchase, the purchasing process and the type of supplier-relationship desired. Additionally, the attitude towards digitalization and the experience of online purchases determine the level of personal contact and support. Based on the empirical analysis the findings showed that for the cases of UK and Sweden, UK was more performance-oriented in their supplier relationships and highly valued ease of use and a smooth purchasing process. Sweden on the other hand, focused more on soft-values such as personal contact and support.

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The purpose of this thesis was to investigate if there is a relationship between brandinvolvement, brand attitude and buying intention. From the purpose, two hypotheses weredeveloped. Brand involvement has a positive impact on brand attitude and a positive Brandattitude has a positive impact on buying intention. They were tested on the eventMöbelriksdagen. A quantitative method was used, an e‐mail questionnaire was sent out to400 previous participants to Möbelriksdagen and 80 of them responded. The result showsthat the hypothesis is supported. There is a clear connection between both brandinvolvement and brand attitude, and between brand attitude and buying intention. Thesefindings give organizations an understanding of the importance of having involved customersto affect the brand attitude, buying intention and event participation. Recommendations arepresented and could help organizations to know what is important to focus on when theywant to affect buying intention and event participation.

In recent years, many virtual communities have thrived with the rapid development of Internet. In the environment of virtual community, through the information exchange, members realize that they often have similar demands. In the case of online group-buying, buyers who have a common interest in a certain product group together to collect their collective power and thus get price discounts from suppliers. Hence online group-buying comprehends the need of interest, relationship, and transaction of virtual community. We are questioning whether the group-buying have invisible community relationships embedded in members¡¦ transaction activities. The purpose of this study is by the use of social network analysis to investigate the relationships of the network between initiators and participants and between co-participants. In particular we propose some measures based on social network analysis to help us understand the meanings of relationships of online group-buying network. According to the result of this study, we find the initiators have more power or resources to influence other members of the network between initiators and participants. And some active participants also have more power or resources to influence other participants of the network between co-participants. We also find the active initiators and participants would have more probability to occupy key positions of information flow.

Recently, a new e-commerce business model is booming. It is an electronic-coupon based group-buying model. Its prosperous development has formed a big online group-buying market in which many new websites run similar electronic-coupon based group-buying models. This new electronic-coupon based group-buying model is very different from the traditional one. It is not only that the main type of the products is service-oriented, but also that the object of transaction is electronic coupons which provide the consumers privileges of getting the services in a limited time period. It completely changes consumer behaviors. For these reasons, this study explores how the electronic-coupon based group-buying model succeeds by reviewing the literature and analyzing the data collected from the online website. The results show that both the promotion price and discount rate impact the group-buying performance but the discount rate will have more impact than the promotion price. Further, the limited sale is a good strategy to improve the group-buying performance. Overall, the electronic-coupon based group-buying model performs well in restaurants, cinemas and entertainment industries.