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Background Young people constitute a fast growing group of Internet users and they are considered an important market segment. In Sweden, on average nearly 97 % of the people between the ages of 15-19 use Internet every day. A great deal of these people use online communities, and in order for these communities to succeed, it is vital to understand what content the youths perceive as valuable and useful. Furthermore, since using an online community takes time and effort, the community should fulfil a need among its users. Since it is no easy task to understand what motivates consumers, online communities should strive to reach a consensus in common characteristics among these individuals, in terms of what needs and wants they seek to satisfy in online communities. Purpose         The purpose of this thesis is to explore what needs and wants youths in Sweden seek to satisfy in online communities. To demonstrate the findings, Ungdomar.se will be evaluated, and given recommendations accordingly.  Method          In order to fulfil the purpose of this thesis, a descriptive and explorative study was conducted, consisting of both quantitative and qualitative data. The collection of data was made through a survey among youths, and by semi-structured interviews with Ungdomar.se and two people working at the Youth Centre Brunnen. Conclusion The authors have identified a set of needs and wants, that youths seek to satisfy in online communities. This has further been applied to the online community Ungdomar.se, and they have been provided with recommendations on how to satisfy these needs and wants.

A higher percentage of energy from renewable resources is an important goal on many sustainable development agendas. In liberalized electricity markets, an increase in demand for renewable electricity can stimulate further investments in it, yet demand for renewable electricity has developed much slower than demand for other green products. So far, research has mainly examined the willingness to pay for renewable electricity, but limited research has been conducted to the motivations behind it. The concept of identity signaling has been proved to play a significant role in consumer behaviour for green products. However, (renewable) electricity in the Swedish residential market typically lacks two important drivers for idenity signaling: visibility and product involvement. A survey among Swedish households conducted for this study compares choices for renewable electricity under two scenarios, whereof one simulates a higher visibility of and involvement in electricity contracts. The results show that identity signaling has a positive effect on demand for renewable electricity. The results lead to implications for policy-makers, electricity suppliers and researchers.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to advance an understanding of trust and perceived intrusiveness in online advertising. The theoretical framework in this thesis is based upon theories about trust and intrusiveness that derives from previous research. The theory of psychological reactance is a further constituent. These concepts and theories are defined and discussed. and possible models are introduced. Semi-structured interviews with eight individuals of the Net Generation have been conducted to gather empirical data. The recordings from these interviews have thereafter been transcribed. in order to analyse the collected data, we have adopted a thematic analysis consisting of six phases. We coded the data and created themes that were detected during the different phases. The empirical data has been gathered by conduction of eight semi-structured interviews with individuals of the Net Generation. These interview have thereafter been transcribed and its content coded as a first step of the analysis. Three global themes derived from the empirical data analysis; trust, intrusiveness and observed relations, and many basic themes defined and analysed and discussed. We conclude our study advancing our findings about an understanding of trust and perceived intrusiveness in online advertising, as well as some observed relations noticed during the analysis. We finish our thesis with some managerial implications about the importance for managers and advertisers to take into account trust and intrusiveness, as well as leads for further studies, including the testing of our developed research model through a quantitative strategy.

Title:  The Situation of Digital Books’ Market in Spain. The acceptance by consumers and companies Authors: Amaia García Barberena and Leyre Díaz Pinillos Supervisor: Jean-Charles Languilaire. Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, Marketing Key words: digital books, electronic books, digitalization, Spain, consumers´ behavior, innovation, adaptation, publishers… Purpose: The purpose is to explore what the current situation of the electronic books’ market in Spain is, concerning the changes in consumer behavior and companies’ adaptation. Method: Our research method is an explorative and descriptive one.  Thus, we collected data from secondary resources such as books, studies, articles, journals and so on. We use also primary data in order to answer our purpose. We do two different questionnaires; one focused on consumers and the other one focused on publishers of different companies.  Theoretical framework: First, we define the consumer behaviour in a general context and then related to innovations and digital environment. Then, we explain the companies’ behaviour and adaptation to changes, and we finish with and interaction between both parties. Conclusion: We highlight and summarize the findings of our study, giving a clear image of the current situation of the digital books’ market in Spain. We also give our point of view towards this topic, and suggestions for further researches.

Consumers today are becoming more aware of how their behavior and use of resources affect the environment. It is becoming increasingly important for companies to understand consumer’s attitudes in order to predict their behavior. Extensive research has been conducted on the attitude-behavioral relationship in various fields of study. However, no research has been made on the attitude towards environmentally friendly automobiles and how it affects purchase intentions. Our research has been made in collaboration with Volvo Car Corporation, which in 2010 was acquired by Geely Automobile. The acquisition meant that an opportunity presented itself on the Chinese market, which today is the largest automobile market in the world. The thesis will focus on young Chinese consumer’s attitude toward the environment and how this may affect their purchase intentions towards environmentally friendly automobiles. The basis for our reasoning is that the factors environmental values, environmental knowledge and responsibility feelings make up an individual’s environmental attitude. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how environmental values, environmental knowledge and responsibility feelings affect purchase intentions towards environmentally friendly automobiles among young Chinese consumers. We have used a quantitative approach in our collection of empirical data. With the help of a web-based self-completions survey we managed to send out the questionnaire to all Chinese students studying at Jönköping University and received a high response rate of 65%. We based the design of the survey on a model from Kaiser, Ranney, Hartig and Bowler (1999). The major findings from our research conclude that the used model does not substantially explain purchase intentions of environmentally friendly automobiles. Our research suggests that the factors environmental knowledge and responsibility feelings are not significant when predicting intentions to purchase environmentally friendly automobiles. However, the factor environmental values proved to be strongly correlated when predicting intentions to purchase environmentally friendly automobiles.

The present study employed Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to understand the motivational factors associated with peoples’ intention to: (a) increase their physical activity levels in response to Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games; (b) watch the event on television; and (c) purchase products or services from companies because they were sponsors of the event. According to the theory, behavioural intentions are determined by individuals’ attitude toward performing the behaviour (i.e., their overall evaluation of the behaviour); the subjective norms they associate with the behaviour (i.e., their beliefs about whether most people approve or disapprove of the behaviour); and perceived behavioural control (i.e., the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior). As well, this investigation hypothesized that additional variables could predict intention. In particular, past behaviour and descriptive norms (i.e., people’s perceptions about the degree to which other people would perform the behavior) were examined in terms of their ability to explain significant proportions of variance in respondents’ intentions above and beyond TPB variables. Participants were enrolled in first and second year undergraduate classes at the University of Waterloo and the University of Victoria during the Fall 2009 and Winter 2010 term (n = 405). The questionnaire assessed each TPB construct (excluding actual behaviour) using standardized Likert-type scaling procedures suggested by Ajzen (2006). Additionally, the questionnaire assessed gender, geographic proximity to the event (i.e., whether students were enrolled at the University of Waterloo or the University of Victoria), past behaviour, and descriptive norms. Results from the regression analyses revealed that the TPB-based models accounted for 50.7%, 61.5% and 66.6% of the variance in respondents’ intentions to become more active in response to the event, watch the event on television, and purchase products or services from event sponsors respectively. Attitude toward the behaviour was the only TPB construct to play a prominent role in the prediction of all three responses of interest in the present investigation. The importance of the attitude construct in predicting such a diverse set of intentions suggests that sport consumer behaviour might be best understood in terms of expectancy-value cognitive theories such as the TPB. These theories suggest that people will be motivated to perform a particular behaviour (e.g., watching a sport event on television) when they expect to attain a valued outcome as a result of performing the behaviour (e.g., feelings of national pride). Descriptive norms and past behaviour explained an additional 29%, 9.3%, and 21% of the variance in respondents’ intention to become more active in response to the event, watch the event on television, and patronize event sponsors respectively. Among this sample of undergraduate students, responses to the event appeared to be strongly associated with beliefs about whether or not referent others would perform each behaviour. Additionally, much of what motivates sport consumer behaviour within this segment of the population may be related to notions of tradition and nostalgia. Implications for future research and the design of behaviour change interventions are discussed.

Background:              The environmental impacts of tourism have recently become a high-profile topic due to the increasing amount of attention devoted to issues such as climate change. The harmful effects of aviation, in particular, have led airline companies to adopt proactive sustainability agendas. In light of this, this study seeks to explore the extent of environmental awareness amongst consumers as well as the effects that corporate sustainability measures have on the decision-making process of air travelers. Purpose:                     The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether or not consumers value environmental responsibility within the airline industry and to determine the factors that influence the consumer decision-making process. Method:                      This thesis utilizes a mixed-method approach, with both quantitative and qualitative methods employed. Quantitative data was collected through a survey distributed online and to travelers at Göteborg Landvetter airport, with a total of 95 respondents. Additionally, an in-depth interview was conducted with Stefan Gössling, a prominent researcher within the field of tourism. Findings:                    The results of this thesis reveal relatively low awareness amongst consumers with regard to the environmental actions of airlines. Although consumers appear to have a general knowledge of the negative impacts of air travel, they are reluctant to alter their own flying behavior. Additionally, the results of the survey reveal that consumers are not yet familiar with the concept of eco-friendly flights or the sustainable options that are available to them when purchasing flight tickets.  Ultimately, when buying from airline companies, consumers place greater emphasis on other factors such as costs, services and the availability of desired routes.

Background: The ethnic subcultural consumer is a valuable segment in the multicultural societies of today, which has received little attention from both marketers and researchers. One of the most multicultural cities in Sweden is Malmoe, with 38% of its habitants having a foreign background. For IKEA Malmoe this segment has long been of interest, but have found it hard to increase their diversity among customers. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to help IKEA Malmoe get a greater understanding of the ethnic subcultural consumption behaviour, to attract a higher cultural diversity among customers. This research paper will explore why IKEA Malmoe is not reaching a greater cultural diversity of customers today, and offer insights to how they could work, through their local marketing, to attract this segment. Delimitation: This study will be delimited to the subject of ethnic subcultural consumption behaviour in the area of retail marketing. The research will focus on general consumption behaviour; how consumption is influenced by culture; both the originating culture and the hosting culture; and for the empirical investigation, how ethnic consumption is related to IKEA. Method: The research is a qualitative study with an deductive stance, based on the semi- structured interviews of 14 respondents from eight different subcultures of Malmoe. Result/ Conclusion: The findings of this research showed that it is essential not to see the ethnic subcultural consumer as one homogenous segment, as aspects such as acculturation, age, income and lifestyle were shown to have greater impact on consumption behaviour than national culture. Proposed continued studies: To more thoroughly research the affect of acculturation and national culture as an aspect to ethnic subcultural behaviour, using a homogenous group of respondents

Ingredient branding implies that a company incorporates an additional brand into their product in order to increase consumer awareness. This has been proven to be successful in certain product categories such as computers and food. These products can be seen as low involvement and low cost products, since they are bought frequently and generally involves low risk for the consumer. Ingredient branding has never been tested on product categories that are categorised as high involvement and high cost, which is therefore the intention of this thesis. By investigating consumers’ attitudes and perception of quality, towards advertisements with and without ingredient brands, we conclude that ingredient branding does not affect consumers in high involvement and high cost product categories, nor in a positive or negative way.