Attention on impulsive buying behavior has been increased from both researchers and marketers, as the negative consumption experience resulting from this unplanned buying could harm the business severely in terms of brand building, reputation as well as a loss of customer. By reviewing previous literatures, we have identified that there is still little research about the post-consumer behavior of impulse purchases, namely on consumers’ regret triggered from what they have bought impulsively. The purpose of this study is to discover the triggers of buyer regret from impulse purchase, which is presented by the research question “What are the triggers of buyer regret from impulse purchases?” By conducting a quantitative research, we proposed a conceptual model of impulse purchase regret that consists of six hypotheses. The technical tool that we used to test the conceptual model is a SPSS extension called AMOS, whereas the analysis method uses the application of structural equation modeling. We collected our primary data (187 viable responses) via a questionnaire through convenience sampling. By testing all the data with AMOS, we received the following result: 5 hypotheses are accepted and 1 hypothesis is rejected. This result indicates that upwards counterfactual thinking (CFT) on forgone alternatives, a change in significance, and under consideration are positively related to impulse purchase regret; external stimuli and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII) have indirect influence on impulse purchase regret. By applying our theoretical background to analyze the result, we suggest that consumer’s rational buying thinking still plays an important role in post evaluation stage of impulse purchase, even though it disrupts the rational buying process in the beginning. Lastly, we believe that several parties could benefit from our research, they are marketing, academia as well as consumers.

The diploma thesis aims to capture the specifics of financial products that mostly affect consumers in the market. In the first theoretical part we encounter terms such as intangibility, inseparability or contingent consumption of financial products. The thesis then incorporates those specifics into the consumer behaviour in financial markets, especially in the purchase decision process. Subsequently, it focuses on the specific situation in the banking market in the Czech Republic, including the market shares of banks as well as the offers of current accounts. The practical part of the work shows through a primary research - conducted by polling Czech consumer of bank accounts - how people not only acquire this financial service but also use it. This section is concluded by a shorter secondary research which uses data from the professional marketing database MML-TGI. Finally, on the basis of previous research findings it formulates conclusions in a form of marketing recommendations for banks.

The thesis deals with the role of consumer contests in commercial communications. The aim of this thesis is to assess their role in communication mix. The theoretical part analyzes consumer contests as one of sales promotion tools and describes their specific features. The practical part stems from my field research and examines whether consumer contests have any impact on purchase decision and on brand awareness.

Virtual purchases are the main source of revenue for developers of F2P games being a market with expected 17.4 billions of dollars volume in 2019. Despite the broad scope of research of virtual purchases, it is still unclear how the player evaluate non-functional goods. Based on analysis of discussions of virtual decorative items this work what experiences nonfunctional items grants players with and how those experiences discussions reflect in the item’s price.  With the use of Structural Topic Modeling framework this work demonstrates the dimensions of players’ experience in their association with price change on the case of Reddit.com subreddit /r/Dota2. Analysis reveals three main categories of discussions: dimensions of hedonic value, dimensions of social value, expectations mismatch. This work contributes to studies of virtual purchases by decomposing each category into experience dimensions and by revealing the relationship between extracted experience dimensions and items price.

Thesis (M.M. (Strategic Marketing))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2015. / The remarkable and apparent growth in the use of mobile technology in society is eccentric. Mobile technology brought about a swift change on how business is conducted and how individual communicate and interact. The increasing number of mobile applications available in app stores could be a challenge for developers as they will be required to stay innovative in order to acquire and maintain a competitive edge. For the mobile application businesses to succeed, owners of these applications need to know and understand their customers and their requirements to be able to meet their demands. Due to the currency of this trend, there seems to be scarcity in terms of academic literature and information intelligence for businesses on the subject. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate the influence of systems quality, user trust and user satisfaction on purchase intention of mobile applications users in South African. A quantitative survey was conducted using a sample of 500 internet user in Gauteng Province. The survey questionnaire was designed on Qualtrics. A project manager was appointed to roll out the project that lasted two weeks. After collecting 353 responses, the survey was closed. The results were statistically analysed using the IBM SPSS to draw descriptive statistics. The construct reliability and validity was assessed by conducting Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) using AMOS version 22. The model fit was also assessed by conducting path modelling. The results of the study indicated some level of significance on all the relationships. However, the results showed a very weak significance level between user satisfaction and purchase intention. In the concluding chapter, a number of recommendations are provided where it was suggested that business should invest and channel their resources towards building trust and reliance with their customers. The limitations of the study were highlighted and the chapter concluded by making suggestions for future research. Key Words: System Quality, user trust, satisfaction, purchase intension, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

Abstract: As China is facing environmental problems, they are producing positive policies in order to stimulate the sales of electric vehicles. In addition, China is one of the largest electric vehicle markets in the world and the electric vehicles market has a promising growth potential. In light of this, this thesis aims to investigate the factors affecting Chinese consumers’ willingness to purchase electric vehicles. This thesis draws on rational choice theory to analyze the six determining factors including driving range of electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, purchase cost, government financial incentives, individual environmental awareness and perceived social influence, as electric vehicles are not cheap goods and make consumers take full consideration before buying. This study adopts a quantitative approach and conducts a survey to investigate this topic. Based on 249 online questionnaires from Chinese consumers, this study employs SPSS to conduct a regression analysis to test the six determining factors. The empirical results indicate that charging infrastructure, government financial incentives, individual environmental awareness and perceived social influence have significant impact on Chinese consumers’ willingness to purchase electric vehicles, while our results do not show that the driving range of electric vehicles and purchase cost matters in influencing Chinese consumers’ willingness to purchase electric vehicles. Meanwhile, this study contributes to the research on the consumption of electric vehicles by providing an empirical context of China, considering rational choice theory and understanding perceived social influence. Also, this study provides relevant suggestions to electric vehicle manufacturers and the Chinese government about how to encourage the Chinese to adopt electric vehicles in China. Keywords: Electric Vehicles, Willingness to purchase, SPSS, Rational choice theory, China

Problem/Purpose: Internet celebrities have shown huge commercial value by operating their E-commerce in the Chinese market. This article aims to research How Chinese internet celebrity influences consumers’ attitude to purchase on E-commerce. Method: The Primary data is collected by semi-structured interviews with consumers who followed the internet celebrity and bought products from her online stores. Meanwhile, word frequency analysis of posted context and comments on the internet is proceeded to conduct secondary data to support findings. Findings: Our findings show that the traditional source attractiveness, expertise, and involvement of celebrity are important to impact on the consumers’ attitude and drive to purchase behavior. However, source trustworthiness is not essential, and the perceived trustworthiness is limited in specialized fields (e.g. fashion) and is hard extend to other areas (e.g. cosmetics). Furthermore, perceived authenticity will reinforce trustworthiness and intimacy, and perceived interconnectedness will result in frequent and regular buying habit. Implementation: This research can serve to internet celebrities who are running or intend to start their E-commerce in China. Moreover, it is hoped this study of internet celebrity Ecommerce in China can serve for future comparative studies of internet celebrity globally.

Throughout the last two years the revenues from in-game transactions in video-games have increased due to its growing presence both in traditional retail games as well as digital due to the fact that more and more games have become free. This growing presence is the basis for answering the question of what motivates players to spend money on in-game purchases in freeto-play games. The research found that having a well designed game is a very important factor that makes players purchase content. Many respondents made purchases based on emotional reasons such as wanting to look cool. People also made purchases to avoid grinding and to gain competitive advantages. In summary people think that their purchases were justifiable since the games are free but the common consensus is that while cosmetic items are acceptable, pay-towin items which provide a competitive advantage are not.

Background: Ethical consumerism is no longer a niche market and consumers are increasingly aware of the power they have when purchasing ethical and believe they can make a change. Most corporations have realized the importance of being ethical and incorporate it into their business strategies. Therefore, it is important to study consumers’ ethical purchasing patterns and which factors affect their intentions to purchase. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to test which of the following factors: social media, attitude, altruism, environmental knowledge, and financial factors, has a positive influence on female millennials, in Jönköping, purchasing intention towards cruelty-free cosmetic products. Method: This study was based on a conceptual framework which intended to test the most relevant constructs influencing ethical purchase intention, as proposed by previous researchers and theory. Hence, this paper follows a deductive approach which used quantitative methods to fulfil the purpose of this explanatory research. The data was gathered through a survey answered by 108 female millennials regarding their purchasing of cosmetics. Conclusion:   Both factors, attitude and environmental knowledge had a direct positive effect on consumers purchase intention towards cruelty-free cosmetics. The study provides empirical support for an indirect effect of altruism on purchase intention since the analysis showed that altruism had a direct effect on attitude. However, social media and financial constructs did not show any significant support for its positive effect on purchase intention in the empirical findings in this study.

Background Worldwide, one-third of all produced food is going to waste, and the number is increasing every year which consequently calls for action. A substantial share of the food waste is the outcome of grocery stores throwing away suboptimal food which yet is eatable but due to the date labeling, damaged packaging or in terms of appearance standards cannot be sold. Throughout the last years, numerous unique businesses have been formed in Sweden to offer suboptimal food both online and in physical stores. Still, Swedish grocery stores stand for 30 000 tons of food being wasted which is directly linked to the still evident unwillingness to offer, purchase and consume suboptimal food. By no means, this is a significant problem and need to be changed in order to reach a more sustainable world. Till this day, qualitative research on the topic is scare. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to understand which components that affected Swedish grocery shoppers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards suboptimal food in-store. Method In order to fulfil the purpose of this study, a qualitative methodology has been utilized. The qualitative data has been collected through semi-structured interviews amongst Swedish grocery shoppers. To explore the attitudes and purchase intentions towards suboptimal food product, an abductive research approach was applied to strengthen previous research findings and attempt to discover possible new theory.  Conclusion The empirical findings revealed that Swedish grocery shoppers in this research study hold an overall positive attitude towards suboptimal food. The study further reports four prominent barriers towards Swedish grocery shoppers’ purchase intentions of suboptimal food. In result, even though an overall positive attitude presented, the intention to purchase suboptimal food could be severely weakened by substantial restrictions encountered in grocery stores.