Usually, consumers will collect market information about the product before they decide to buy it or not. In other words, the market information is a critical factor to affect consumers¡¦ purchasing intensions and behavior. Previous research points out that when consumers encounter a wider dispersion of price, they will expect to find cheaper stores. Besides, future price is often considered by consumers too. Kauffman et al. (2002) mentioned that the market price information might affect the recruiting of group buying. In a competitive market, if consumers are unable to perceive the utility of discounts provided by group-buying mechanism, they may shop at other retailers¡¦ stores. Further, because the final price of group buying will not be known until the transaction is closed, consumers¡¦ decisions might be up to their prediction about the final price. This study explores how price dispersion and price volatility affect consumers¡¦ internal reference price and expectation of final price of group buying. The difference between the internal reference and expectation of final price of group-buying indicates the consumers¡¦ transaction utility. How transaction utility affects consumers¡¦ intentions to join group buying is another issue being studied. In addition, if there is interference effect of consumers¡¦ risk attitude on final price forecast of group-buying, it¡¦s investigated, too. The result indicates that price dispersion has significant effects on consumers¡¦ all kinds of internal reference prices and predictions about the final price of group buying. However, the price volatility only has significant effects on consumers¡¦ perceived fair price, aspiration price, and reservation price. Neither significant effect of price volatility on consumers¡¦ price prediction of group buying nor interference effect of risk attitude is found. As expected, there is a significant positive causal relationship between transaction utility and intention to join group-buying. It shows that the transaction utility resulting from the comparison between the lowest market price and the most possible final price of group buying has the most explanatory power to predict consumers¡¦ participating intension to join group-buying.

The feature of group buying is that the price will go down as the accumulated orders are increasing. However, consumers will not know the final price until the end. As a result, consumers can only make decision based on the final price forecast of group buying. The final price forecast might be different depending on different pricing strategies of group-buying models and if there are competitions from posted-price stores. The purpose of this research is to understand how consumers¡¦ internal reference price and final price prediction of group buying would be influenced when facing different price curves in different market competition environment. The difference between the internal reference price and final price prediction of group-buying indicates the consumers¡¦ transaction utility. In addition, if consumers¡¦ perceived transaction utilities affect their intentions and behavior of joining group buying is another research purpose. In this research, there are three different pricing strategies, decreasing, neutral, and increasing based on the initial price, discount size and final price. For the market competition environment, it manipulated by if there are other posted-price stores to be chosen or not. The research result indicates that increasing price curve, which has higher final price, make consumers¡¦ final price prediction of group buying higher than the others under the best condition. On the other hand, it indicates that decreasing price curve, which has higher initial price, make consumers¡¦ final price prediction of group buying higher than the others under the worst condition. Consumers¡¦ internal reference prices are mainly influenced by market price information. When there are other posted-price stores to be chosen, consumers¡¦ internal reference price are higher averagely. In addition, the higher consumers¡¦ perceived transaction utilities are, the higher consumers¡¦ intentions to join group buying are. Finally, it shows consumers¡¦ intentions to join group buying have significant effect on their actual behavior.

<p>This study focuses on cell phone usage. By comparing how a group of students use their cell phones in Sweden with that in China, alterant cell phone usage behaviors will be concluded. The study includes a case study. In order to do the research, the author selects a specific group and holds interviews. Three theories are used in this thesis which are: 1) mobile context, 2) switching behavior of mobile users and 3) transaction utility and reference situation. After introducing these three theories, the author concludes six theoretical factors which are combined into one competent framework. Base on the new framework, the author analyzes the result from the case study. After presenting the interview and the results, the author finds that Chinese students use their cell phones less frequent in Sweden compared to that in China. In order to find out the reasons, the author creates goal, emotion, fee, location and habit as the five matching factors which result in those changes. The matching factors are the bridge between the theories and the case study. After generalizing how those factors affect people while using cell phones, future work is to raise up some thoughts of how cell phones will be like in the future which is relevant to how to adapt information technology to human lives.</p>

Recently, online group-buying has been a popular business model. It was observed that many characteristics of online group-buying are potential stimuli of impulse buying. Therefore, we target traditional online group-buying and e-coupon group-buying and try to explore the characteristics of online group-buying stimulating impulse buying. Based on the literature review and empirical data collection, we identified five characteristics of online group-buying which may stimulate impulse buying. They are group-buying discount, time pressure, social interaction, perceived shopping convenience and consumption deadline. The data were collected through online questionnaire. The analysis result shows that the five characteristics of online group-buying indeed cause impulse buying. Further, we also explored whether the impulse buying behavior will be moderated in different situations. These moderators include group-buying model (traditional online group-buying vs. e-coupon group-buying), transaction price level, relationship with the group-buying initiator, product type and group-buying experience. The result indicates that the impulse buying behaviors are easier to be stimulated in the following situations: traditional online group-buying, lower transaction price, familiar with the traditional online group-buying initiator, non-food product and more experienced consumers of online group-buying.

This study focuses on cell phone usage. By comparing how a group of students use their cell phones in Sweden with that in China, alterant cell phone usage behaviors will be concluded. The study includes a case study. In order to do the research, the author selects a specific group and holds interviews. Three theories are used in this thesis which are: 1) mobile context, 2) switching behavior of mobile users and 3) transaction utility and reference situation. After introducing these three theories, the author concludes six theoretical factors which are combined into one competent framework. Base on the new framework, the author analyzes the result from the case study. After presenting the interview and the results, the author finds that Chinese students use their cell phones less frequent in Sweden compared to that in China. In order to find out the reasons, the author creates goal, emotion, fee, location and habit as the five matching factors which result in those changes. The matching factors are the bridge between the theories and the case study. After generalizing how those factors affect people while using cell phones, future work is to raise up some thoughts of how cell phones will be like in the future which is relevant to how to adapt information technology to human lives.

Submitted by Janete Hee Youn Jhun (janetejhun@gmail.com) on 2018-08-20T20:09:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertaçãoMPE_JaneteJhun_v57.pdf: 959094 bytes, checksum: c3f67676a5bc2bb2e69b3f6dad91600e (MD5) / Rejected by Thais Oliveira (thais.oliveira@fgv.br), reason: Prezada Janete, boa tarde. Para que possamos aprovar seu trabalho, serão necessárias as seguintes alterações: - Na capa, o nome da Escola não pode obter as Siglas. em cima vem "FUNDAÇÃO GETULIO VARGAS" (SEM o acento) e abaixo "ESCOLA DE ECONOMIA DE SÃO PAULO"; - No local e Ano (São Paulo 2018) não pode informar o mês, somente local e ano.(contém na capa e contracapa); - Na contracapa, o Orientador deve estar abaixo do campo de conhecimento, na mesma direção; - A contagem de páginas deve ser feita a partir da capa, mas aparece somente a partir da Introdução. Por gentileza, alterar e submeter novamente. Thais Oliveira mestradoprofissional@fgv.br/ 3799-7764 on 2018-08-20T20:50:13Z (GMT) / Submitted by Janete Hee Youn Jhun (janetejhun@gmail.com) on 2018-08-20T23:50:44Z No. of bitstreams: 2 DissertaçãoMPE_JaneteJhun_v57.pdf: 959094 bytes, checksum: c3f67676a5bc2bb2e69b3f6dad91600e (MD5) DissertaçãoMPE_JaneteJhun_v58.pdf: 959148 bytes, checksum: 96bd3faf6814ea9f4648caa38bc12f39 (MD5) / Rejected by Thais Oliveira (thais.oliveira@fgv.br), reason: Boa noite, Janete, A contagem de páginas começa na capa, mas deve ficar visível A PARTIR da Introdução. Por gentileza, alterar e submeter novamente, SOMENTE O ARQUIVO CORRETO, não podemos aprovar mais de um arquivo. Obrigada. on 2018-08-21T23:48:19Z (GMT) / Submitted by Janete Hee Youn Jhun (janetejhun@gmail.com) on 2018-08-22T19:38:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertaçãoMPE_JaneteJhun_v59.pdf: 959783 bytes, checksum: 3674a885472bc28a29c29a686ad9dfda (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Thais Oliveira (thais.oliveira@fgv.br) on 2018-08-22T20:14:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertaçãoMPE_JaneteJhun_v59.pdf: 959783 bytes, checksum: 3674a885472bc28a29c29a686ad9dfda (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-08-23T12:23:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertaçãoMPE_JaneteJhun_v59.pdf: 959783 bytes, checksum: 3674a885472bc28a29c29a686ad9dfda (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T12:23:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissertaçãoMPE_JaneteJhun_v59.pdf: 959783 bytes, checksum: 3674a885472bc28a29c29a686ad9dfda (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-10 / Price promotions are a ubiquitous practice in the retail market and often consumers are overwhelmed by the variety of price schemes. Using a natural field experiment with a jewelry store, the present study tested the price framing effect and customer experience in purchase decision. The price framing effect was tested using three similar products offered alongside one another: 1 control with the regular price, 2 treatments designed to provide a positive transaction utility and price-quality perception - their prices were initially raised and then proportional discounts (10% and 20%) were applied, so that the final prices of all products amounted to be the same. The effect of customer experience was observed measuring the sales of two customers groups with different experience levels: retail customers (less experienced consumers) and wholesale customers (more experienced since they work as resellers). However, the hypotheses of the study were not confirmed, since the products treated with the price framing effect presented regression coefficients with low statistical significance, for both retail and wholesale customers. Considering that the experiment manipulated both price and discount, current literature on the subject indicates that the effects of quality perception that both present ended up conjoint and led to a null result. Some possible avenues to isolate these effects, as well as other lessons learned in the experiment, are discussed for future research. / Promoções de preço são práticas onipresentes no mercado varejista e frequentemente os consumidores se sentem sobrecarregados com a variedade de esquemas de preço. Através de um experimento de campo natural com uma loja de semi-joias, o presente estudo testou o efeito do framing de preço e experiência do cliente na decisão de compra. O efeito do framing de preço foi testado através de três produtos similares oferecidos um ao lado do outro: 1 controle com o preço regular, 2 tratamentos desenhados para prover uma utilidade transacional e percepção de qualidade positivas - os seus preços foram aumentados inicialmente e depois descontos proporcionais (10% e 20%) foram aplicados, chegando ao mesmo preço final. O efeito da experiência do cliente foi observado com a mensuração das vendas de dois grupos de clientes com diferentes níveis de experiência: clientes de varejo (consumidores menos experientes) e clientes de atacado (mais experientes pois atuam como revendedores). No entanto, as hipóteses do estudo não foram confirmadas, dado que os produtos tratados com o efeito de framing de preço apresentaram coeficientes de regressão com baixa significância estatística, para ambos os clientes de varejo e atacado. Considerando que o experimento manipulou tanto preço como desconto, a literatura atual sobre o tema indica que os efeitos de qualidade percebida que ambos apresentam acabaram se conjugando e podem ter levado a um resultado nulo. Alguns caminhos possíveis para isolar estes efeitos, bem como outras lições aprendidas no experimento, são discutidos para pesquisa futura.