The Internet allows customers to share their experiences with, and opinions on, goods and services with other customers, that is, to engage in e-WOM communication. This paper consists of two major sections. The aim of the first one is to define the main e-WOM behaviour characteristics of Czech consumers and their motivations for transmission and exposure e-WOM behaviour. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey (n = 220) is conducted with a target group of people aged 16 to 54 years. The results indicate that the main reasons for exposure e-WOM behaviour are saving decision-making time, making better buying decisions, reducing cognitive dissonance and advice seeking when having product issues. In the case of transmission e-WOM behaviour, consumers are motivated by altruistic reasons, benefits of collective power and venting negative feelings. The second, experimental, section of this work examines the consumer's attention depending firstly on the e-WOM valence, the structural elements and the brand type, and secondly on the different characteristics of online reviews. In the first place, the results of the eye-tracking research (n = 24) illustrate a statistically significant impact of the interaction between the brand type and the e-WOM valence on consumer attention and in the second place it shows the dominance of the reviewer's name in attracting consumer attention. An in-depth interview is conducted in order to enlighten the results of eye-tracking research. Academic and managerial implications are discussed.

This dissertation explores an unintended consequence of using personalized recommendations, that is, recommendations that are targeted to an individual consumer (e.g., personalized music playlists). I conceptualize that using personalized recommender systems can impede consumers’ learning of their own preferences and tastes from product experiences. Therefore, using these systems can decrease preference clarity, which is defined as certainty about individuals’ own preferences. For example, people may feel less certain about their own music preferences after listening to auto-generated personalized playlists. This reduced preference clarity, in turn, reduces consumer willingness to generate word-of-mouth (WOM) about their consumption experiences, such as their intent to talk about music they listened to with others, or to post social media content on their favorite musicians. Eight studies, using correlational and experimental designs and conducted with consumers who actively use personalization services (in the fashion and music domains), support this theorization. I end with a discussion of the potential theoretical extensions of this novel finding, as well as its practical implications.

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SAMMANFATTNING  Datum: 2022-01-13 Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, 15 hp  Institution: Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, Mälardalens universitet Författare: Dolshi Hayllie  Ranim, Mashhadi  Mohammed Salman  (000517) (920627) (960229) Titel: Kundlojalitet ur kundens perspektiv Handledare: Ulf Andersson Nyckelord: CRM, engagemang, word of mouth, kundlojalitet, förtroende, relation Frågeställning: Vilka faktorer påverkar lojalitet hos digitala klädföretag ur kundens perspektiv? Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att öka kunskapen kring kundlojalitet och undersöka vilka faktorer som kan påverka lojalitet. Syftet är också att skapa förståelse kring hur CRM kan påverka kunders lojalitet i digitala klädföretag. Metod: Denna studie är baserad på en kvalitativ metod. Insamling av primärdata kommer att tas via en strukturerad intervju hos två fokusgrupper. Kvalitativ metod valdes då den lägger vikt på ord vid datainsamling snarare än kvantifiering. Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera dessa faktorer som kan påverka kunders lojalitet i digitala klädföretag, har det valts att använda en kvalitativ metod. Studien utgår från det deduktiva synsättet för att redogöra förhållandet mellan teori och forskning. Slutsats: Studien visade att flera faktorer har bidragit till en ökad kundlojalitet och att CRM är ett effektivt sätt för att hantera sina kundrelationer. Engagemang, förtroende och relation har visat sig vara de mest centrala faktorerna samt att CRM bör nyttjas hos alla företag Digitala klädföretag har sina utmaningar med att upprätthålla kundrelationer och att ett digitalt CRM förenklar processen och gör det möjligt att ta reda på hur man skapar, värvar och behåller kunder i längden.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate and identify which factors using eWOM contribute to reduced returns in the purchase decision process. Theory: The study is based on theories that contain the purchase decision process, electronic word of mouth (eWOM), social media, positive and negative eWOM and the website´scredibility. Method: The study is based on a qualitative research approach where a convenience selectionis applied. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted on both male and female online consumers. Conclusion: The study shows that respondents tend to spend more time and focus on the purchase decision process for online purchases from foreign e-commerce companies compared to Swedish e-commerce companies to avoid a costly and time-consuming return process. The respondents actively engage in the search for information before making anonline purchase to reduce the uncertainty about the quality and fit of the clothing products, which has proven to be the main reason for dissatisfaction and return after an online purchase. The study also shows that eWOM contributes to better purchasing decisions and reduced returns, partly because it helps to create a holistic view of the clothing products. The contributing factors to reduced returns are eWOM in the form of consumer reviews, consumer- images and videos that complement the available product information. Other contributing factors are the combination of positive and negative consumer reviews and the credibility of the website.

Strategic alliances have become a recognized strategy used by firms in the pursuit of their diverse organizational objectives. Consequently, the literature on alliances is replete with research investigating the value strategic alliances generate for participating organizations. Strategic alliances have been shown to contribute to firm value through numerous sources, including scale economies, effective risk management, cost efficient market entries, and learning from partners. Largely overlooked in the literature however, are issues investigating the relationship between strategic alliances and one of the organization's most important constituents, the consumer. Questions such as how the consumer reacts to inter-firm alliances, how strategic alliances impact consumer value, satisfaction, and customer post-purchase behavior have yet to be answered. This lacuna has been recently highlighted by prominent researchers in the discipline (Rindfleisch and Moorman 2003). Focusing on marketing alliances, the present dissertation attempts to address this gap in the alliance literature by advancing and testing a theoretical framework examining consumers' cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions to organizational strategic alliances. The dissertation also contributes to the satisfaction literature. Scholars in this area have traditionally viewed satisfaction as a cognitive response to the comparison of actual consumption experiences with some comparison standard (confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm). Recently however, there have been increasing calls for satisfaction measures to capture not just how the customer thinks the product performed relative to the comparison standard, but also the resulting customer emotion. The study provides additional support of an affective route to customer satisfaction, particularly when customer hedonic value is enhanced. Moreover, the association between customer satisfaction and behavioral outcomes is also examined. While prior research shows that satisfaction is positively related to loyalty and word of mouth and negatively related to intentions to switch, it was found that these relationships are even stronger in the presence of alliances. The results of this dissertation provide important theoretical and managerial insights. The strategic alliance literature is enhanced insofar as this is the first effort aimed at investigating the impact of strategic alliances on the consumer. The study examines the relationship between marketing alliances and customer value, particularly utilitarian and hedonic value, as well as the moderating role of alliance type (functional or symbolic) in this relationship. From a managerial perspective, engaging in strategic alliances is strategically critical and costly. By providing insight into how alliances enhance consumer value, and how in turn value enhancement is related to customer satisfaction and behavioral outcomes, the present research will help managers make more appropriate and better-informed alliance decisions.

Online reviews, which are consumer-generated messages, play a vital role in the consumer decision making process especially prior to their purchase adoption (i.e., pre-usage). The objective of this research is to investigate the effects of two-sided online reviews’ contents affecting the consumers' attitudes at the pre-usage stage of a focal experience service. Contrary to one-sided reviews (i.e., only positive or negative information), two-sided reviews contain both positive and negative information about a product/service: Two-sided reviews are considered more informative. Extant studies make an important assumption that there is no information asymmetry between writer/source of two-sided reviews and consumers that read/receive it. Their implicit assumption is that the attitude of the writer/source of the two-sided review is completely transferred to the reader/receiver of the review. Given the subjective nature of two-sided online reviews for experience goods, we contend that such an assumption is flawed because transfer of personal experience in form of attitude towards a focal object/service to others is fraught with ambiguity and uncertainty that can mitigate the transfer. Drawing on ambivalence and prospect theories, our hypothesis states that: the anticipatory ambivalence of the receiver/reader based on a two-sided review content for a focal service is higher than the ambivalent attitude of the source/writer of the review who has already experienced the focal service. Our empirical study, consisting of 1492 subjects from Canada and the United States, supports our stated hypothesis. The implication of our finding is profound. It shows that the extant literature had underestimated the negative attitude of the receiver/reader of the online reviews in their investigation, which confound their findings. To that end, we provide future research direction and implications of our findings in practice. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Yes / Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) plays an important part in consumer purchase decision. The way consumers perceive the persuasiveness of eWOM message can affect their attitude, and purchase intention, and hence sales. Thus, the topic of persuasiveness of eWOM communications has received much attention from scholars. The objective of this paper is to provide a brief review of the existing literature related to the effectiveness of eWOM communications and offer an overview of the determinants of eWOM persuasiveness. This paper contributes to the existing eWOM literature by reviewing the existing studies on eWOM communications, identifying gaps in the current research and providing directions for future research.

Yes / The aim of this research is to synthesise findings from previous studies by employing weight and meta-analysis to reconcile conflicting evidence and draw a “big picture” of eWOM factors influencing consumers’ intention to buy. By using the findings from 69 studies, this research identified best (e.g. argument quality, valence, eWOM usefulness, trust in message), promising (e.g. eWOM credibility, emotional trust, attitude towards website) and least effective (e.g. volume, existing eWOM, source credibility) predictors of intention to buy in eWOM research. Additionally, the effect size of each predictor was calculated by performing meta-analysis. For academics, understanding what influences consumers’ intention to buy will help set the agenda for future research directions; for practitioners, it will provide benefit in terms of practical guidance based on detailed analysis of specific factors influencing consumers’ intention to buy, which could enhance their marketing activities.