Despite predictions of Internet shopping reaching 6.9 trillion dollars by the end of 2004, research is now suggesting many online consumers are still very reluctant to complete the online shopping process. A number of authors have attributed consumers' reluctance to purchase online to apparent barriers, however, such barriers have not been fully examined within a theoretical context. While most studies of consumers' decision to shop on the Internet have focussed on key shopping determinants, this thesis builds a conceptual model grounded in consumer behaviour theory. In particular, this thesis explores the application of the perceived risk theoretical framework, specifically looking at one dimension of perceived risk theory - performance risk and the influence it has on the phenomenon of Internet Abandoned Cart Syndrome (ACS). To explore this phenomenon, a number of extrinsic cues are identified as playing a major role in the performance evaluation process of online purchases. The combination of these elements enabled the researcher to develop a conceptual model from which a series of propositions were drawn. To acquire pertinent data and investigate each proposition, this study used a combination of indirect and direct techniques, namely projective techniques in the form of a third-person vignette, a structured tick-box questionnaire and finally semi-structured interviews. The results suggest that collectively the extrinsic cues of brand, reputation, design and price have an overall impact on the performance evaluation process just prior to an online purchase. Varying these cues either positively or negatively had a strong impact on performance evaluation. The conclusion of this study suggests consumers are often unable to measure the full extent of risk-taking directly. In the majority of cases, consumers are guided by numerous factors, some intrinsic, others extrinsic. E-tailers with an established reputation, a well designed web site with known brands and a balanced pricing strategy reduce the perceived performance risks associated with purchasing online, thus reducing the occurrence of ACS.

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-234).

Thesis (M.Hous.M.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-234). Also available in print.

O Brasil ocupa, atualmente, posição destacada no cenário mundial como produtor e exportador de carne de frango, gerando empregos e a permanência do homem no campo. Pesquisas demonstram que o consumo da carne de frango, em escala mundial, cresce a taxas maiores que o das outras carnes, porém ainda sendo suplantado pelo consumo de carne bovina. Porém, apesar da crescente demanda e do grande fluxo de valores que envolvem a cadeia avícola, a percepção dos consumidores sobre a carne de frango ainda carece de atenção por parte dos pesquisadores. Desta forma, buscou-se neste trabalho verificar quais os atributos componentes da imagem da carne de frango, qual a imagem central deste produto, quais as percepções de valor do consumidor sobre este tipo de carne e quais as dimensões determinantes para a compra do produto. A metodologia utilizada foi classificada como pesquisa exploratória, com abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa. Os resultados evidenciam que o consumidor percebe a carne de frango como um produto saudável, de preço acessível, versátil e leve. Porém, aspectos negativos levantados pelos consumidores, tais como a crença na presença de hormônios merecem atenção por parte de pesquisadores e fabricantes. Em relação à intenção de compra, o trabalho mostra que as dimensões da imagem configuradas como racionais, funcionais, sensoriais e físico-materiais são as mais significativas para a intenção de compra do produto. Percebeu-se, assim, a multiplicidade de atributos e dimensões envolvidas na constituição da imagem e na intenção de compra do produto avaliado, o que remete à possibilidade de atuação dos profissionais do marketing e da cadeia avícola em variáveis específicas, influenciadores ou inibidoras do comportamento de compra do consumidor de carne de frango. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-04-29T11:56:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Ricardo Antonio Reche.pdf: 1754550 bytes, checksum: 5ea72dfba854ff8e7ef19024993c12e6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-04-29T11:56:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Ricardo Antonio Reche.pdf: 1754550 bytes, checksum: 5ea72dfba854ff8e7ef19024993c12e6 (MD5) / Brazil is currently featured at an important position on the world market as a chicken meat producer and exporter, what generates jobs and the permanence of man living on farms. Research shows that the consumption of chicken meat worldwide is growing at rates higher than other kinds of meat, but still being supplanted by the consumption of bovine meat. However, despite the growing demand and the large money flow that involves the poultry chain, the consumer perceptions about chicken meat still needs attention from researchers. Therefore, this study sought to determine which are the attributes contituent of the chicken meat image, what is the central image of this product, what are the consumer’s value perceptions about this kind of meat and what are the determining factors to buy the product. The methodology used was classified as an exploratory research, with a qualitative and quantitative approach. The results show that the consumers perceive the chicken meat as healthy, affordable, versatile and easy-digestive option. However, negative aspects raised by consumers, such as the belief in the presence of hormones, deserve attention from researchers and producers. In relation to the purchase intent, the work shows that the dimensions of the image set as rational, functional, sensorial and physico-material are the most significant for the intention of buying the product. It was noticed, thus the multiplicity of attributes and dimensions involved in setting up the image and intention to purchase the product assessed, which refers to the possibility of action of professionals of marketing and of the poultry chain in specific variables, influencing or inhibiting behavior consumer purchasing of chicken meat.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en förståelse för hur ett företags service recovery på social media påverkar e-observatörers köpintentioner. Metod: Då studien syftar till att skapa en förståelse har en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi använts. Empirin utgörs av semistrukturerade intervjuer med tio respondenter. Som underlag för intervjuerna har två olika scenarier använts innehållande olika service recovery strategier. Den empiri som har samlats in har vidare bearbetats utifrån tematisk analys. Resultat & slutsats: Denna studie visar på att ett företags service recovery på social media påverkar e-observatörers köpintentioner. Ursäkt, kompensation och förklaring anses som de allra viktigaste service recovery strategierna på sociala medier. Detta eftersom dessa strategier har visat sig ha en positiv effekt på e-observatörers köpintentioner, medan en avsaknad av dessa strategier indikerar på en negativ påverkan. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien påvisar att e-observatörer påverkas av ett företags service recovery på sociala medier. På vilket sätt företaget svarar en klagande kund kan ha en betydande effekt på den bild som observerande kunder får av företaget, vilket i sin tur påverkar deras köpintentioner. Ursäkt, kompensation och förklaring anses som viktiga faktorer vid företags hantering av klagomål. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Våra förslag på framtida forskning är att studera andra sociala medier än Facebook, för att se om detta kan ha en effekt på hur e-observatörer påverkas av en service recovery-situation. Ett annat förslag är att undersöka vilken inverkan service recovery har på e-observatörer utifrån andra service recovery strategier än ursäkt och kompensation. Vidare kan det vara av intresse att undersöka om åsikter och intentioner skiljer sig åt mellan olika länder, en tvärkulturell studie är därför ytterligare ett förslag. Avslutningsvis ger vi även förslag på att studera en annan subgrupp och åldersgrupp, då vi studerat en specifik ålders- och subgrupp. / Aim: The aim of the study is to increase the understanding of how a company’s service recovery in social media, affects e-observers’ purchase intentions. Method: The aim of the study is to increase understanding, hence a qualitative method has been used. The empirical data was collected by semi-structured interviews with ten respondents. To support the interviews two scenarios has been used, including different service recovery strategies. The empirical data was further processed through thematic analysis. Result & Conclusions: The study shows that a company’s service recovery in social media, affects e-observers’ purchase intentions. Excuse, compensation and explanation are seen as the most important service recovery strategies in social media. This because all of these strategies have shown to positively affect e-observers’ purchase intentions, while a lack of these strategies has an opposite effect. Contribution of the thesis: Our study shows that a company’s service recovery in social media affects e-observers. In what way a company answers a complaining customer can have a crucial effect on the observing customers’ perception of the company, which in turn affects the e- observers’ purchase intentions. Excuse, compensation and explanation are seen as important factors when handling customer complaints. Suggestions for future research: Our suggestions for future studies is to investigate other social media than Facebook to see how e-observers are affected by a service-recovery-situation. Further, we suggest examining the impact of other service recovery strategies, besides excuse and compensation, on e-observers. It could be of interest to examine if opinions and intentions differ between different countries, i.e. a cross-cultural study. Finally, we have examined a specific subgroup (business students) and age group (16-35 years), hence we suggest examining different types of groups.

Background: The problem of increasing amounts of food packaging waste especially in Germany leads to the challenge of how to minor waste by using no packaging in order to listen to environmental-conscious generation y consumers. This is why retailers need to understand the factors impacting the purchase intention and thus, need to act in higher extend in terms of a preventive sustainable approach. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the purchase intention of German generation y consumers towards packaging-free products. An extended Theory of Planned Behavior forms the theoretical foundation to investigate which factors are influencing the purchase intention the most. In addition to the original TPB factors attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, the research model was extended by two new factors, namely environmental concern and barriers. Method: Through an explanatory research method, the data was collected in a quantitative online survey based on a sample of 422 respondents. In order to investigate the relationships among the factors and to further support or reject the study’s hypothesis, the data was analyzedby using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and simple and multiple regression. Finally, to determine differences among groups additional tests have been conducted. Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed new insights about predictors of the purchaseintention: German consumers’ intention is mainly impacted by their attitude, followed by thefactor barriers, and perceived behavioral control, whereas subjective norms do not. Further, the other newly added factor environmental concern indirectly impacts the purchase intention through attitude. Moreover, the importance of including new added factors to the original TPB model is shown as the extended TPB model has improved its power in explaining German generation y’s purchase intention towards packaging free. By that, the respondents of this studyare highly environmental concerned and overall intent to purchase packaging-free products in mainstream grocery stores, oats and milk respectively. This study’s results provide valuable insights for marketers of German mainstream grocery stores who are interested in selectively integrating packaging-free shopping to their stores.

Titel: Retargeting is like a boomerang, what you give is what you get Forskningsfråga:Vilken inverkan har företags användning av retargeting på konsumenters köpintention? Vad är konsumenters attityd till vad som anses etiskt accepterat gällande retargeting? Syfte:Studiens syfte är att klarlägga hur konsumenter ställer sig till individanpassad marknadsföring genom cookies, så kallad retargeting. Studien syftar även till att belysa den inställning som existerar gällande de etiska aspekterna marknadsföringsverktyget avser och hur det påverkar konsumentens köpintention. Metod: Studien bygger på en deduktiv forskningsansats där forskarna utgått från befintlig teori och format testbara hypoteser. Hypoteserna har sedan behandlats genom en kvantitativ forskningsmetod med fokus på enkätundersökningar. Den data som samlats in har analyserats främst utifrån ett positivistiskt synsätt, med visst inslag av ett hermeneutistiskt synsätt. Studiens urval består av svenska konsumenter som infinner sig på internet. Resultat och slutsats: Retargeting är ett vanligt förekommande marknadsföringsverktyg som konsumenter dagligen exponeras för. Däremot kan retargeting idag upplevas som något mättat med hänsyn till att det upplevs som ett vanligt förekommande fenomen. Cookies är ett av flera verktyg som retargeting bygger på. Företag använder cookies i syfte att rikta sina annonser med relevant innehåll till lämpliga konsumenter. Studiens resultat har visat på att uppfattning och attityd är de två aspekter som påverkar köpintentionen rörande området. Kännedom och integritetsbekymmer som studien avsåg att undersöka visade sig inte vara de främsta aspekterna i relation till köpintention rörande retargeting. Avslutningsvis kan förevisa att såsom retargeting exploateras idag uppger konsumenter inneha en mer negativ inställning till marknadsföringen än positiv, vilket företag bör ta i beaktning. / Title: Retargeting is like a boomerang, what you give is what you get Research question: How does the influence of retargeting impact consumers purchase intentions? What is the consumers attitude towards what is considered to be ethically correct regarding retargeting? Purpose: The purpose of the research is to clarify how consumer respond to individualized marketing through cookies, also called retargeting. The study also put emphasis on the attitude that exist regarding the ethical aspect of the marketing tool and how it impact consumers purchase intentions. Method: The study builds upon a deductive research approach where the researchers have used an already established theory in order to develop further hypotheses. The hypotheses have been developed through quantitative research method with emphasis on surveys. The data collected have been analyzed through a positivistic viewpoint, with certain elements of hermeneutical viewpoint. The study consists of swedish consumers on the internet. Results and conclusions:Retargeting is a common marketing tool that consumers are facing on a daily basis. However, retargeting can appear saturated with regards to recurring phenomenon. Cookies is one out of many tools that retargeting builds upon. Businesses are using cookies for the purpose to target their ads with relevance to content suited to the expected consumer. The result have shown that interpretation and attitude are the two major aspects that influence purchase intention. Knowledge and privacy violations were not two of the major aspects that would influence the purchase intention regarding retargeting. Consequently, the use of retargeting have resulted in a significant negative attitude among consumers, which businesses should highly take into consideration.

[pt] Apesar da crescente importância da internet como um canal de informação, compra e venda de serviços de turismo, ainda há uma lacuna sobre as motivações e barreiras que levam consumidores a utilizarem a internet para o consumo de produtos e serviços ligados ao turismo. A hipótese central deste estudo é de que a confiança e seus antecedentes têm papel fundamental na formação da intenção de compra de produtos e serviços turísticos na internet. A partir da análise da literatura, foram identificados e selecionados antecedentes de maior relevância na decisão de compra online de turismo. Foi proposto então um modelo estrutural e formuladas dezesseis hipóteses relacionando os construtos utilizados e seus efeitos sobre a intenção de compra. Todas as hipóteses foram testadas por meio equações estruturais com base nos dados de uma survey de 292 usuários de sites de produtos e serviços turísticos, todos residentes na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Os resultados obtidos confirmam a maior parte das hipóteses formuladas, com relações significativas sendo verificadas entre o construto confiança e os demais construtos abordados, influenciando significativamente a intenção de compra de produtos e serviços de turismo na internet. / [en] Despite the growing importance of the Internet as an information and purchase channel for the tourism industry, there is still a gap in the literature about the motivations and barriers involved in the online consumption of tourism related services and products. The central hypothesis of this study is that trust and its antecedents have an important role in the formation of the intention of purchasing travel products and services on the Internet. Based on a literature review, several relevant antecedents to online trust and tourism purchase behavior were identified. A structural model was then proposed to test sixteen hypotheses relating the selected constructs to purchase intent. Data from a survey of 292 previous buyers of online tourism products and services was used to test the proposed model. The results confirm most of the hypotheses, with significant relationships being found between trust and the other addressed constructs, most of which were found to significantly influence the intention to purchase tourism-related services or products online.

A propaganda é imprescindível ao marketing por ser sua ferramenta mais visível e exposta ao público, ativando suas percepções e persuadindo o seu comportamento através de apelos. Destes, destacam-se os apelos sexuais, comuns na propaganda brasileira e em discussões feitas pela sociedade e pelo governo. Apesar disso, existem poucos estudos que remetem aos efeitos dos apelos sexuais sobre o consumidor brasileiro. Para tanto, a presente dissertação verifica essa lacuna, através de um estudo experimental com estudantes de graduação de duas universidades gaúchas, os quais responderam a um questionário, em salasde- aula, após serem expostos a diversos anúncios contendo variações de nudez por parte do(a) modelo. De maneira geral, constatou-se que houve diferenças significativas entre os diversos tipos de anúncios sexualmente apelativos no que se refere às atitudes do consumidor quanto à propaganda, à marca do produto, à imagem da empresa anunciante e à ética. Constatou-se ainda que os consumidores masculinos e femininos avaliam suas atitudes sobre a propaganda, a marca, a ética e sua intenção de compra diferente uns dos outros sendo, de modo geral, mais favoráveis quando expostos a modelos de gênero oposto ao seu. Implicações acadêmicas e gerenciais dos achados, além das limitações e sugestões para futuras pesquisas são discutidas no fim da dissertação. / Advertisement is a very important and the most visible tool of marketing to activate consumer’s perceptions and to persuade their behaviors with appeals. One of those – the sex appeal - is common both, in Brazilian advertising and in discussion done by government and society. But there are few studies about sex appeals effects on Brazilian consumer’s behavior. With that in mind, this thesis tries to cover the gap with an experimental study using undergraduate students from two RS (Brazil) universities. They were asked to answer a repertory after been confronted with some ads showing human bodies in different grades of nudism; the experiment took place in class-rooms. Generally, significant differences were found between the ads related to their effects on consumer attitude toward the ad itself, toward the brand, and toward the advertiser image and ethics judgment. Also differences between male and female consumers were found on their valuation about the ad, the brand and ethics and on their purchase intention; the most favorable ones occurred when exposed to the opposed gender models. Academics and managerial implications, and also limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed in the end of the thesis.

The theme of this thesis is the relationship between the characteristics of the labor market and real estate market. The basic objective is to identify and assess the close ties between these markets and market influence on the volume of sales of real estate types. The work is divided into two parts, the first part is a literature review, which are clarified and explained selected basic concepts relating to the issue. The second part is a practical part in which the property itself divided into three segments and to family homes, apartments and building plots. Each segment that contains the values of the purchase prices and the number of deposits in the Land Registry. Other data obtained unemployment and wage. Individual data are divided, both within the Czech Republic, but also within each region and are listed in the resulting summary table, which is evaluated verbally.