近年來，青少年在家庭及休閒時作成購買決定的地位愈來愈重要，這一方面是由於父 母親的觀念已有很大的轉變，另一方面受到參考群體及廣告等影響，他們對於消費訊 息的需求也在與日俱增中。據估計，僅台北地區，青少年的消費額一年即達四十五億 元，因此更進一步的探討青少年市場的延展性，並提供一份基本且附有實際應用價值 的參考資料，便成為本研究最主要的動機所在。 隨著消費需求的多樣化與購買力的增加，消費者參與的程度（Involvement Level ） 也隨著提高，而個別消費者可能由於參與水準的原因，致使購買決策的過程有所差異 ，或使訊息的尋求居於主動或被動的地位，這些完全視產品的參與程度如何而決定。 惟國內以參與程度來分析消費市場的研究尚未成熟，因此本研究想以參與程度為指標 ，將青少年的消費市場予以區隔，以供未來研究者之參考。 為探討上述觀點，本研究以分層取樣法押取全省北、中、南三區1800名國中、高中（ 職）及專科男女為受試，並以修訂量表為問卷予以施測，經回收及剔除廢卷後剩下有 效問卷1742份；分析方法計有項目分析法、因素分析法、變異數分析法及多元迴歸分 析法。 研究結果經歸納後可從五方面來看：一、青少年最想買的產品排列前五名的依次是個 人電腦、機車、隨身聽、照相機及音響。二、青少年最常買的產品排列在前五名的， 則依次是文具用品、飲料、錄音帶、書及面紙。三、男女兩性在消費的參與程度上有 顯著的差異。四、北部學生的消費參與程度與中、南部的學生有所差異。五、青少年 在選購最想買的產品時，以朋友的預測力最大，其次為父母親。

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilken betydelse influencer marketing på sociala medier har på unga kvinnor i åldern 18-25 år, samt om det har någon inverkan på unga kvinnors köpintentioner. För att uppfylla syftet har två forskningsfrågor undersökts och denna empiriska studie har baserats på en kvalitativ undersökning genom en enkätstudie och två fokusgrupper. Influencer marketing anses vara ett effektivt marknadsföringsverktyg som innebär att företag använder sig av influencers för att nå ut till fler konsumenter och sprida företagets produkter och tjänster. Resultatet av studien visar på att influencers öppenhet och trovärdighet påverkar unga kvinnors uppfattning av influencer marketing samt på deras köpintentioner. Influencer marketing ansesvara mer trovärdigt än traditionell reklam, vilket även bidrar till att konsumenterna köpintentioner ökar i en eftersträvan efter gemenskap, tillhörighet eller enbart inspiration. Hur unga kvinnor påverkas i deras köpintentioner av influencer marketing på sociala medier är bådevarierande och individuellt. Konsumenter tar till sig informationen från influencer marketing på olika sätt, vilket leder till en varierad påverkan på unga kvinnors köpintentioner. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the significance of influencer marketing on social media for young women between the ages of 18-25 years old, and whether it has any impact on young women's buying intentions. To meet the purpose, two research questions have been investigated and this empirical study has been based on a qualitative research through a survey and semi-structured interviews in the form of two focus groups. Influencer marketing is considered an effective marketing tool which indicates that companies use influencers to reach out to a bigger number of consumers and spread the information about the company's products and services. The result of the study shows that the influencers openness and credibility affect young women's perception of influencer marketing and also their buying intentions. Influencer marketing is considered more credible than traditional advertising, which also contributes to consumers increasing buying intentions in the pursuit of solidarity, belonging or just for inspiration. The way that young women are affected in their buying intentions of influencer marketing on social media are both varied and individual. Consumers process the information from influencer marketing in different ways, which leads to a varied impact on young women's buying intentions. This study is written in Swedish.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-08-24T12:37:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Fábio Ricardo Becker_.pdf: 1664082 bytes, checksum: e43db272faaa68a87cb6e74ed1a428bc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-24T12:37:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fábio Ricardo Becker_.pdf: 1664082 bytes, checksum: e43db272faaa68a87cb6e74ed1a428bc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-19 / Nenhuma / A redução dos níveis de produção e consumo tem sido um dos caminhos apontados para mitigação das mudanças climáticas, por consequência permite a redução do uso dos recursos naturais e a queima de combustíveis fósseis, além da redução de outros impactos ambientais e sociais. O presente trabalho aborda o comportamento do comprador organizacional, para isso avalia através de dois estudos experimentais a percepção do comprador para produtos desenvolvidos com atributos sustentáveis a partir de estratégias de ecodesign. O primeiro estudo contou com uma amostra de 139 estudantes e no segundo estudo a amostra foi de 52 gestores de compras. Os procedimentos e métodos utilizados seguiram a abordagem da análise conjunta (conjoint analysis) como estratégia de pesquisa. Os experimentos foram modelados considerando os atributos e seus níveis para a projeção dos estímulos (perfis do produto), além de considerar ainda a consciência ecológica e a intenção de compra do comprador organizacional. Os resultados mostram que, independente da preocupação ambiental e do preço, a durabilidade do produto e a sua eficiência no consumo de energia podem influenciar a decisão de compra, desde que sejam percebidas vantagens como redução de custos e melhor utilização dos recursos. / The reduction of consumption and production levels has been one of the highlighted ways to mitigate climate change, therefore allows reducing the use of natural resources and fossil fuels, as well as reduction of other environmental and social impacts. This paper addresses the organizational buyer behavior, for it evaluates through two experimental studies the perception of the buyer for products developed with sustainable attributes from ecodesign strategies. The first study involved a sample of 139 students and in the second study sample was 52 buyers. The procedures and methods used followed the approach of conjoint analysis as research methods. The experiments were modeled considering the attributes and their levels for the projection of the stimuli (product profiles), and also consider ecological awareness and purchase intention in organizational buyer. The results show that environmental concerns, price, product durability and its efficiency in energy consumption can influence the buying decision, since benefits are perceived as cost reduction and better use of resources.

I investigate a simple merger arbitrage strategy with a focus on middle-market companies. I estimate [-1, 1] buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHARs) and long-run BHARs of prospective middle-market acquirers after they announce an acquisition and test whether [-1, 1] BHARs are predictive of subsequent long-run holding period returns (HPRs) and long-run BHARs. The [-1, 1] BHARs are calculated for 57 acquiring companies, and then separated into two equal-weight portfolios: one of positive [-1, 1] BHARs (referred to as the long portfolio) and one of negative [-1, 1] BHARs (referred to as the short portfolio). I then calculate the HPR and long-run BHARs over the following time horizons: [2, 22], [2, 43], [2, 64], [2, 127], and [2, 253]. I perform a Student’s t-test comparing the means of the HPRs of the two portfolios and find that the long and short [2, 22] and [2, 64] HPRs have statistically different mean returns. Similarly, I perform a Student’s t-test comparing the means of the BHARs of the two portfolios and find that the difference in the means are not statistically significant. I also regress the different long-run BHARs on [-1, 1] BHARs, adjusted [-1, 1] BHARs, and normalized [-1, 1] BHARs. Adjusted [-1, 1] BHARs are adjusted for the effects of known predictive factors found in prior literature such as the type of payment. For example, if the type of payment is cash, 2.40 percentage points of the [-1, 1] BHAR is attributed to the cash payment. Normalized [-1, 1] BHARs divide each [-1, 1] BHAR by each security return’s standard deviation over the following trading days: [-22, -2]. I find [-1, 1] BHARs and adjusted [-1, 1] BHARs of middle-market lack statistically significant effects on long-run BHARs over the [2, 22], [2, 43], [2, 127], and [2, 253] horizons. [-1, 1] BHARs and adjusted [-1, 1] BHARs of middle-market firms have statistically significant effects on [2, 64] BHARs. Therefore, a possible merger arbitrage strategy may exist for predicting BHARs for the [2, 64] horizon. The strategy consists of an investor going long on all acquirers that have a positive [-1, 1] BHAR and short on all acquirers that have a negative [-1, 1] BHAR over the following trading days: [2, 64]. After the [-1, 1] BHARs are normalized, however, the normalized [-1, 1] BHARs are no longer statistically significant when predicting any long-run BHAR. On the whole, I find the Efficient Market Hypothesis – which states that the market efficiently prices the information released into the market after an acquisition announcement – is correct, at least with respect to the information contained in [-1, 1] BHARs.

One of Sweden’s most well known monopolies is approaching its end, Apoteket AB. A re-regulation of a state owned monopoly is nothing new but it happens within an interesting trade. Since the government is in total control of the whole re-regulation process, we found it interesting to see how they managed to include the potential individuals who want to take over a pharmacy. After all, many are the times the government has emphasized the importance of small firms. Out of the approximately 900 pharmacies owned by Apoteket AB, 150 are going to be sold to individuals. This group is called “small enterprise cluster”, and this cluster became the focus of our thesis. We wanted to get an insight into this group, since it is more complex and diverse compared to the large corporations entering the market. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to measure the willingness to take over pharmacies among the employees of Apoteket AB, as well as to analyse how the government's support has affected the decisions of individuals. Method In order to get a good view of the re-regulation process we chose a qualitative approach, where we performed personal interviews with 6 respondents equally spread out on 3 pharmacies in a medium sized Swedish city and the surrounding area. The interviews where performed in a semi-structured manner. Besides the primary data, secondary data was collected. It builds the foundation for the theoretical framework and the analysis of the interviews. Since the theoretical framework was created before the research was performed, the study used a deductive research approach.

This thesis addresses two issues which arise in the context of airline revenue management. In the first part of the thesis, we develop an incentive mechanism to prevent revenue leakage caused by customers buying down. In the second part of the thesis, we discuss the revenue sharing problem between alliance partners and develop a mechanism by which the combined revenue can be distributed fairly among them. Situations which give rise to impossibility and possibility results are established. The practice of revenue management, employs the principle of differential pricing of a product based on various product restrictions. These product restrictions segment the market in such a manner so as to maximize the revenue. Airline industry which pioneered the practice of revenue management generally prices low for those who book early and high for those who book late for essentially the same seat. The low-fare products are targeted towards the market segment comprising of those customers who have a low valuation (reservation price) for the product (who are typically leisure customers, also called as low-fare customers).The high-fare product, on the other hand is targeted at the market segment comprising of customers who have a high valuation (reservation price) for the product (business class customers, also called as high-fare customers). However, it may happen that customers with high valuation for the product may also buy the low-fare product if it is available. This behavior of high-fare customers buying a low-fare product due to its availability is called the customer buy-down behavior. Such a customer behavior causes revenue leakage to the airline industry. Revenue management literature that primarily focuses on pricing and seat inventory control does not account for the customer buy-down behavior. In Part I of the thesis we address this issue of customer buy-down behavior. We develop an incentive mechanism in the form of a new product bundle which would attract only the high-fare customer. High fare customers such as business class customers typically have repeated travel plans, while low fare customers such as leisure travelers typically do not travel repeatedly. The proposed incentive mechanism takes advantage of this characteristic of high fare customers that distinguishes them from the low fare customers. In general, high fare product permits cancellation and does not impose any travel restrictions, and a low fare product, on the other hand does not permit cancellation and has other travel restrictions associated with them. A high fare customer with potential future travel plan might associate uncertainties with respect to travel dates and his ability to procure a low fare ticket for future travel. This uncertainty is exploited in the proposed product bundle. The new product bundle permits the customer to cancel the ticket for the future journey and relaxes the restrictions associated with the requested day and the future travel day. Such incentives would attract only the high fare customer and the low-fare customer will not be enticed by this product bundle. This is because the low fare customer is a one-off traveler. Thus, the acceptance of the product bundle by the customer reveals that he is a high-fare customer and its denial reveals that he is truly a low-fare customer. We determine the optimal price to be charged for each of the days (requested day and the future travel day) and the refund value for the future travel day. We find that multiple optimal solutions exist, and its existence indicate a win-win situation for both the customer and the seller. The customer benefits through the incentives offered and the seller benefits in the form of additional revenue that is achieved in the process of preventing revenue leakage. In Part II of the thesis, we discuss the revenue sharing problem between alliance partners of a network. Airlines form alliances and coordinate through activities such as code sharing, scheduling of flight arrival and departure times, arrival and departure gates, frequent flyer programs, airport lounges and ground facilities among several others. Code sharing is a key feature among the coordinated activities of alliance partners. Parallel code sharing refers to code sharing between carriers operating on the same route to increase frequency of services and to strengthen market position. Complementary code sharing refers to carriers using each other’s flights to provide connecting services, where they do not offer a full service on their own. The main objective of the complementary code share flights is to increase scope of the partner’s network, allowing them to supply service on markets where they did not operate before. When complementary code shared flights aim at maximizing their combined revenue, it might lead to inequitable distribution of revenue and may cause an alliance partner to lose revenue. In Part II of the thesis, we address this issue of achieving a fair division of the combined revenue generated by the alliance network. The common assumption in revenue sharing methods that are generally practiced is that airline’s valuation of seats in the alliance network is common knowledge. However, in reality it is not true. We therefore consider the valuations of the carriers of their respective products as private information and the price of the product over the entire network to be common knowledge. Under such an information environment, we formulate the problem in the bargaining framework. We discuss the implementation of two solution concepts; namely the Shapley value and the Core of a cooperative game. For the two person cooperative game, the Shapley value equally distributes the surplus among the two parties, while the core allocations of two person cooperative game consists of all possible proportions of the distribution of the surplus. In a bargaining set up, the parties communicate their valuations through sealed bids and agree upon a transfer rule. We analyze two situations. In the first situation we assume that the two parties do not associate any cost towards failure to arrive at an agreement. We determine the optimal bids for the two parties and prove that these optimal bids do not implement any desired point on the core i.e., desired proportion of the distribution of the surplus (which includes the Shapley value).This impossibility result motived the analysis of the second situation, in which we assume that the two parties associate costs towards failure to arrive at an agreement. We once again determine the optimal bids and prove that for a certain structure of the bargaining costs, any desired point on the core, including the Shapley value can be implemented by enticing the players to reveal their true valuations.

An important element in retailing is the use of impulse purchases; generally small items that are bought by consumers on the spur of the moment. By some estimates, impulse purchases make up approximately 50 percent of all spending by consumers. While impulse purchases have been studied in the brick-and-mortar retail environment, they have not been researched in the online retail environment. With e-commerce growing rapidly and approaching $20 billion per year in the Canadian and US markets, this is an important unexplored area. Using real purchasing behaviour from visitors to the Reunion website of Huntsville High School in Ontario Canada, I explored factors that influence the likelihood of an impulse purchase in an online retail environment. Consistent with diminishing sensitivity (mental accounting and the psychophysics of pricing), the results indicate that the likelihood of a consumer purchasing the impulse item increases with the total amount spent on other items. The results also show that presenting the offer in a popup is a more effective location and presentation mode than embedding the offer into the checkout page and increases the likelihood of the consumer making an impulse purchase. In addition, the results confirm that providing a reason to purchase by linking a $1 donation for a charity to the impulse item increases the frequency of the impulse purchase.

A central part of the marketing process is to be aware of why a customer or buyer makes a purchase and without such an understanding, businesses find it hard to respond to the customer‟s needs and wants. A large part of the current literature concerned with industrial buyer behavior has tended to focus on modeling and mapping the industrial buyer behavior. However, little research has been found on how the industrial buyer behaves when faced with a radical product innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the industrial buyer behavior of firms within the Life Science sector in Uppsala when faced with a radical product. We aim to study the process and identify possible differences from buying a non-radical product. This study will provide valuable information about industrial buyer behavior that might be useful to marketers. This thesis will be conducted by using a deductive and qualitative approach. A case study approach was used with the selected three organizations in the Life Science sector in Uppsala. Semi-structured interviews and a survey were used to gather primary data; secondary data was collected through web pages. Our findings from these three organizations show that the industrial buyer behavior is affected. Using the buy grid framework we see that the process, the steps, doesn‟t change but within the steps different actions are taken. Step 1, 4, 5 shows strong differences when confronted with a radical and a non-radical product. These differences depend on the complexity of the product and the amount of available information. This affects the level of willingness to take risks. As the complexity is seen as high in radical products and there is not sufficient information the risk of buying this type of product means taking high functional risk and high financial risk which the organizations wants to avoid. However, the decision center [decision group] becomes more complex and more individuals are involved in the decision process when faced with a radical product. The most notable factors influencing the decision center in this situation is the size of the organization, the complexity of the product, the functional and financial risk, the importance of the decision at hand, attitude, and personal experience. The supplier criterion goes from being price orientated in the case with a non-radical product towards being more supplier orientated when faced with a radical product. This study does not aim to investigate how companies should market their products and neither does it try to generalize conclusions about industrial buyer behavior. This limitation is due to the small sample used.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate consumer’s attitude towards licensed products in relation to the parent brand, with respect to perceived quality, likelihood to buy and associations’ transferability. Background: Brand licensing has become one of an increasingly popular ways of stretching a brand into new product categories to reach more consumers in new markets. Despite the fact that brand licensing is less risky than building a brand from scratch, the odds that licensed products will fail are still high. That is why, it is interesting to investigate consumers’ attitudes towards brand licensing in fast moving consumer goods sector and see how perceived quality, likelihood to buy and transferability of parent brand associations will impact the licensing strategy. Method: The authors will use quantitative approach; data will be gathered using self-administered questionnaires. Furthermore, the data will be analysed using SPSS, namely by employing Spearman’s correlation. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that perceived quality, likelihood to buy and associations of the parent brand have a positive impact on the licensed products only if there is a high degree of perceived fit between the two product categories. Consumers welcome new licensed product that is in the related product category, however, the consumers appear to be sceptical to the product that is outside of the core market of the parent brand.

An important element in retailing is the use of impulse purchases; generally small items that are bought by consumers on the spur of the moment. By some estimates, impulse purchases make up approximately 50 percent of all spending by consumers. While impulse purchases have been studied in the brick-and-mortar retail environment, they have not been researched in the online retail environment. With e-commerce growing rapidly and approaching $20 billion per year in the Canadian and US markets, this is an important unexplored area. Using real purchasing behaviour from visitors to the Reunion website of Huntsville High School in Ontario Canada, I explored factors that influence the likelihood of an impulse purchase in an online retail environment. Consistent with diminishing sensitivity (mental accounting and the psychophysics of pricing), the results indicate that the likelihood of a consumer purchasing the impulse item increases with the total amount spent on other items. The results also show that presenting the offer in a popup is a more effective location and presentation mode than embedding the offer into the checkout page and increases the likelihood of the consumer making an impulse purchase. In addition, the results confirm that providing a reason to purchase by linking a $1 donation for a charity to the impulse item increases the frequency of the impulse purchase.