Syfte: Syftet är att undersöka skillnaden mellan en mänsklig influencer och en virtuell influencers effekt på en konsuments varumärkesattityd och köpintention när ett varumärke marknadsförs på sociala medier. Metod: Studien tillämpar en kvantitativ forskningsmetod med en deduktiv ansats. Populationen som avses studeras är svenska Instagram-användare mellan 15 och 60 år. Urvalet är baserat på ett icke-slumpmässigt urval. Data har samlats in genom en webb-baserat enkät. Enkäten resulterade i 182 godtagbara svar som har analyserats via statistikprogrammen Jamovi och SmartPLS. En deskriptiv analys, ensidiga och parade t-tester, korrelationsanalys samt strukturerad ekvationsmodellering har använts för att tolka studiens resultat. Resultat och slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att både en mänsklig- och en virtuell influencer har en effekt på en konsuments varumärkesattityd och köpintention. Effekten av en konsuments köpintention förmedlas i båda fall genom den varumärkesattityd respektive form av influencer genererat. Utifrån studiens teoretiska ramverk har studien även kunnat visa att olika faktorer har en relation till en mänsklig- respektive virtuell influencer, trots att de marknadsför samma varumärke. Bidrag: Studien bidrar till teoretisk kunskap om att en virtuell influencer har en effekt på en konsuments varumärkesattityd samt köpintention. Studien bidrar även med kunskap om att det finns olika faktorer som har en relation till en konsuments varumärkesattityd och köpintention i relation till en mänsklig- respektive virtuell form av influencer. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Vidare forskning föreslås undersöka personlighetsdrag som är kopplade till en större omtyckbarhet gentemot virtuella influencers. En replikering med modifiering föreslås även samt studier om vilka organisationer/branscher som kan dra fördelar från att använda en virtuell influencer i sin marknadsföring. / Aim: The purpose is to investigate the difference between a human influencer and a virtual influencer's effect on a consumer's brand attitude and purchase intention when a brand is marketed through social media. Method: The study applies a quantitative research method with a deductive approach. The population to be studied is Swedish Instagram users between the ages of 15 and 60. The selection of respondents is based on a non-random sample. Data has been collected through a web-based survey. The survey resulted in a total number of 182 respondents. The data has been analyzed through the statistical programs Jamovi and SmartPLS. A descriptive analysis, one-sided and paired t-tests, correlation analysis and structured equation modeling have been used to interpret the study's results. Result and conclusions: The result of this study shows that both a human- and a virtual influencer have an effect on a consumer's brand attitude and purchase intention. In both cases, the effect of a consumer's purchase intention is mediated by the brand attitude the influencer has generated. Based on the study's theoretical framework, the study has also been able to show that different factors have a relationship to a human- and virtual influencer, even though they are marketing the same brand. Contribution: The study contributes to theoretical knowledge that a virtual influencer has an effect on a consumer's brand attitude and purchase intention. The study also contributes to the knowledge that there are different factors that have a relationship to a consumer's brand attitude and purchase intention in relation to a human- or virtual form of influencer. Suggestion for future research: Further research is suggested to investigate personality traits that are connected to a greater likability towards virtual influencers. A replication with modification is also proposed as well as a study on which type of organizations/industries that can benefit from using a virtual influencer in their marketing.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate how IT companies can apply Industry branding in their marketing strategy, with the aim to market the IT industry to influence young women to choose an IT education at a college or university. Method – The study has an explorative purpose to provide new insights on the topic of Industry branding. A deductive research approach has been applied. A literature study was first conducted to create a picture of current research. Secondly, a theoretical framework, which laid the foundation for the data collection that was used in a multiple case study in the IT industry. The study was compiled through semi-structured interviews with IT companies and young women in high school. The empirical data was then analyzed by a thematic analysis. Result – The conclusion from this study is that young women in high school do not have the same picture of the IT industry as IT companies has. The high school girls see an industry that is boring, sedentary and lacks human interactions. In contrast, IT companies describe their industry as exciting and unlimited. Thus, there is a gap between Brand identity and Brand image. Theoretical implication – The results indicated that the existing theories regarding Employer branding, Brand identity, Brand image and Employer attractiveness could be applied to the more aggregate industry level, Industry branding. Furthermore, the study has contributed with knowledge to reduce the gap between Brand identity and Brand image, for the study ́s target group; IT companies and young women in high school. Practical implication – The study's practical implication has identified the greatest development potential of all IT companies, which is to start working with Industry branding towards young women in high school. To achieve this, a collaboration across companies' own boundaries and marketing via social media is recommended to reach this study ́s target group. / Syftet – Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka hur IT-företag kan arbeta med Industry branding, med målet att marknadsföra IT-branschen för att påverka unga kvinnor att välja en IT-utbildning på en högskola eller universitet. Metod – Studien har ett explorativt syfte att ge nya insikter i ämnet Industry branding och en deduktiv forskningsansats applicerades. En litteraturstudie genomfördes först, för att skapa ett teoretiskt ramverk. Ramverket la grunden för datainsamlingen som genomfördes av en multipel fallstudie inom IT-branschen. Studiens empiri samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Nio IT-företag och tio unga kvinnor på gymnasiet intervjuades. Empirin analyserades sedan genom en tematisk analys. Resultat – Resultatet som studien har kommit fram till är att unga kvinnor på gymnasiet inte har samma bild av IT-branschen som IT-företagen har. Gymnasietjejerna ser en bransch som är tråkig och som saknar mänskliga interaktioner. I kontrast, beskriver IT-företagen sin bransch som spännande och obegränsad, vilket tyder på ett gap mellan Brand identity och Brand image. Teoretiskt bidrag – Studiens teoretiska bidrag är hur befintliga teorier kring Employer branding, Brand identity, Brand image samt Employer attractiveness skulle kunna tillämpas på den mer aggregerade branschnivån genom Industry branding. Detta för att minska gapet mellan Brand identity och Brand image, från två perspektiv; IT-företag och unga kvinnor på gymnasiet. Praktiskt bidrag – Studiens praktiska bidrag har identifierat den största utvecklingspotentialen som samtliga IT-företag har; att börja arbeta med Industry branding mot unga kvinnor på gymnasiet. För att genomföra detta rekommenderas ett samarbete över företagens egna gränser och marknadsföring via sociala medier för att nå fram till unga kvinnor på gymnasiet.

The method of physiological measurement of sexual arousal to erotic stimuli is often used in sexological research. However, there is no concept of form of these stimuli to induce maximum possible sexual response from a person. It seems that female static physical attractiveness is an important factor in perception of the female, but it could be also female nonverbal behavior, dynamic attractiveness, which could influence perception and which could either enhance of reduce the overall attractiveness of a female. In the whole concept of attractiveness, there could be two components: "physical attractiveness" and "sexual desirability". In this diploma thesis, we address this problem and we compared static and dynamic stimuli with focus on specific behavior. The study had two parts. We used photographs of clothed and naked women and videos of castings of potential actresses in erotic movies; materials are available online for free. In the study I we used 90 photographs of faces and clothed bodies and found that there is a difference between physical attractiveness and sexual desirability. Moreover, face was a predictor of physical attractiveness and body was a predictor of sexual desirability. In study II we used sexually explicit videos and found that nonverbal behavior has just a minor influence on...

With the emergence of the competitive rationality in regional politics, the content of which is characterized by new regionalism, the Swedish regions are strongly associated with the mandate to assist the government in economic growth policy. The political content is adapted to enable regions to compete in markets and drive growth processes as successfully as possible. This is what previous research has largely focused on. This means that regional perspectives rarely reflect research in relation to different growth themes, although regions are complex and ambiguous phenomena. At the same time, the stipulative governance of the regions is rarely studied in national-regional research contexts. Therefore, I have chosen to review regional attractiveness that represents the regional location in attractive growth contexts. At the same time, my ambition is to introduce attractiveness in the decision-making context, that is how attractiveness emerges from the national growth policy. The purpose of the study is to analyze the political power. As a theoretical delimitation, I use Richard Florida's theory of the creative class. The starting point is to theoretically develop a reasoning about how attractiveness within regions can be understood by the important actors whose participation is absolutely crucial for the regions' development work according to the organization of the political mandate. My analysis shows how the obvious framing of the competitive rationality in national politics formulates how the regions develop attractiveness within the regional locations. The overall goal of the analyzed regions is to be attractive in a way that attracts growth and creates the conditions for players to be able to establish themselves within the site. In the same context, regions beyond growth policy are secondary to my analysis and attractiveness seems to rather help to reinforce inequalities between regional places. In this perspective, other and conflicting regional perspectives should be highlighted and discussed.

5 Abstract Products of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays key role in immune system of vertebrates. Prior studies on different vertebrate species show, that heterozygosity in MHC genes is linked to more efficient immune system and preferred in mate choice. Results of human studies are ambivalent, which can be due to the effect of some modulating factors like reproductive status. Therefore, our aim was to test heterozygosity related preferences in faces, odor and voice across menstrual cycle. Our sample consisted of 51 men and 52 women, from which 23 used hormonal contraception and 29 had natural cycle. They were genotyped in -A, -B and -DR alleles. All odor stimuli, face photos and voice records were rated on seven-point scale in both follicular and luteal phase. Repeated measures ANOVA was used for the analysis. Changes in ratings across the menstrual cycle and heterozygosity were most discernible on voice ratings. Voices of homozygous males were rated more attractive than voices of heterozygous males especially in follicular phase. Similar shift to higher ratings in follicular phase was manifested in ratings of homozygous male faces, but the difference between homozygous males and heterozygous males was not significant. Women with natural cycle also rated voices higher in their follicular phase...

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Forskningsfrågor: Vilka faktorer påverkar köpintentioner hos konsumenter vid användning av celebrity endorsement? Vilken av de faktorerna har störst påverkan på konsumenternas köpintentioner? Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka faktorer som har en påverkan på konsumenters köpintentioner till företag vid användning av celebrity endorsement. Studien ämnar att analysera vilken av faktorerna som har större påverkan på köpintentioner.   Metod: Studien baseras på en kvantitativ forskningsmetod och primärdata har samlats in via en webbaserad enkätundersökning. Undersökningen resulterade i 273 svar varav 216 godkända svar. Utifrån en systematisk litteratursökning skapades en teorimodell med tillhörande hypoteser. Resultatet från undersökningen analyserades med hjälp av programmet IBM SPSS-Statistics. En korrelations- och regressionsanalys genomfördes för att få fram eventuella samband.  Slutsats: Resultatet visade att faktorerna, kändisens attraktivitet, förtroende för kändisen samt kändisens förtrogenhet har en påverkan på konsumenters köpintention vid användning av celebrity endorsement. Den faktor som har störst påverkan på köpintentionen är kändisens attraktivitet. Faktorn publicitet kring kändisen visade inga signifikanta eller starka samband till köpintention och det kunde därför inte konstateras om det har en påverkan på köpintentionen. / Research questions: Which factors affect consumers purchase intentions when using celebrity endorsement?  Which of the factors has the greatest impact on the customers purchase intentions? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine which factors have an impact on consumers purchase intentions when companies are using celebrity endorsement. The study intends to analyze which factor that has the largest impact on purchase intentions. Method: The study is based on a quantitative research strategy were the primary data has been collected via a web-based survey. The survey got 273 answers and resulted in 216 approved answers. Based on a systematic literature review a theoretical model was created with associated hypotheses. The result from the study was analyzed with the program IBM SPSS-Statistics. A correlation- and regression analysis was made to discover eventual relations. Conclusion: The result showed that the factors; celebrities’ attractiveness, trust in the celebrity, and celebrities’ familiarity have an impact on consumers' purchase intent when using celebrity endorsement. The attractiveness of the celebrity is the factor with the largest impact on purchase intention. The publicity of the celebrity did not show any significant relation to consumers' purchase intention.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka om arbetsgivarens attraktivitet, utifrån fem dimensioner, kunde predicera medarbetarens vilja att stanna kvar inom organisationen samt eventuella skillnader mellan mäns och kvinnors uppfattning om sin arbetsgivares attraktivitet. En enkät skickades ut till en organisation inom tillverkningsindustrin och totalt medverkade 69 deltagare. Mätinstrument som användes var Employer Attractiveness Scale (EmpAt-Scale) och Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ III), vilka mätte arbetsgivarattraktivitet samt medarbetarens intention att söka sig till annan arbetsgivare. Employer attractiveness-dimensionen utvecklingsvärde, kunde signifikant predicera viljan att stanna kvar hos organisationen, det vill säga att ju högre grad av upplevt utvecklingsvärde desto starkare vilja att stanna kvar inom organisationen. Resterande fyra dimensioner kunde inte signifikant predicera viljan att stanna kvar inom organisationen. Resultatet påvisade att kvinnor hade ett högre skattat värde beträffande intresse för arbetsgivaren, ekonomiskt- och utvecklingsvärde, vilket indikerar att kvinnorna uppfattar sin arbetsgivare som mer attraktiv gällande föreliggande dimensioner. / The purpose of the study was to quantitatively investigate if employer attractiveness, based on five dimensions, could predict the employee's intention to stay in the organization and if men and women perceived the attractiveness of their employer differently. A survey was sent out an organization in the manufacturing industry and a total of 69 respondents participated. Measuring instruments that were used in the survey was Employer Attractiveness Scale (EmpAt-Scale) and Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ III), which examined the employer attractiveness and intention to stay at the organization. One of the Employer Attractiveness-dimensions, development value, could significantly predict the intention to stay in the organization, which means the higher extent of perceived development value, the stronger the will to stay in the organization. The remaining dimensions could not significantly predict the intention to stay. The results indicated that women had a higher scored value regarding interest value, economic value and development value, which signify that women find their employer as more attractive in these values.

Background: Nowadays, companies globally utilise various branding strategies to win and build strong brand loyalty. One of the marketing strategies tools that companies utilise since the 21st century is celebrity endorsement. The idea of a celebrity endorser can be defined as a well-known individual who is glorious in the field of a brand's target audience. Celebrity endorser characteristics, including trustworthiness, attractiveness and expertise, are all sub-components of celebrity endorsement credibility that play an essential role in consumers’ minds and are considered as relevant dimensions in this study. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain how the celebrity endorsers’ characteristics impact on brand loyalty in the context of consumers in Sweden.  Methodology: This study used the deductive approach, quantitative research to conduct the study. Cross-sectional was used to test the developed conceptual model with the three hypotheses. While, non-probability and convenience sampling methods were used on the way to choose the sampling. The data collection was done through the self-completed questionnaires that ran on google survey to various online social media platforms and the total participants was 203 which is a valid number of respondents for the study.  Findings: The expertise of celebrity endorsers positively impacts brand loyalty and it is the most significant one, hypothesis three (H3) is accepted. The trustworthiness of celebrity endorsers positively impacts brand loyalty and it is the second significant one, hypothesis one (H1) is accepted. However, the attractiveness of celebrity endorsers results in no impact on brand loyalty. It showed an insignificant result. Hypothesis two (H2) is rejected.  Conclusion: This study revealed that only the trustworthiness and expertise of celebrity endorsers have a positive impact on brand loyalty in the context of consumers in Sweden. Finally, the findings of this research paper were applied to the research implication. Keywords: Celebrity endorsers’ characteristics;  the trustworthiness of celebrity endorsers; the attractiveness of celebrity endorsers; the expertise of celebrity endorsers; brand loyalty.

Employer brand establishes a firms’ identity as an employer. It distinguishes one firm from others, creating an identity that gives a competitive advantage in the search for skilled workforce. This identity is becoming harder to establish for each day and is said to be just as important as retaining loyal customers. A strong employer brand can lead to a better pool of applicants in the recruitment process and many other returns, both financial and other. In the real estate sector in Sweden there is currently an excess demand for competent employees and this problem is growing for each day. Hence the matter of employer branding becomes of utter most important to this sector. Due to the importance of the matter in this market, we have come to realise that the market lacks a tool that makes the subject of employer branding more applicable and measurable. This study presents an index and complementing results that makes the matter more hands on and applicable in practice. Through a large quantitative study with questionnaires and through studying previous research on the subject, the main factors that affect employer branding have been distinguished and enquired about in the survey. The results from the study show that there is a correlation between how well known the companies are and how attractive they are as employers to current and potential employees. It also shows that the results on an average are rather low and that there is a lack of investments in companies employer brands, both in a financial terms and in a time perspective.