Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online auctions represent an important new marketplace from which consumers can access the goods they require, an alternative marketplace to bricks-and-mortar and online retail stores. Sellers are often ordinary consumers and the items on sale are often second-hand household items, although, modern C2C auction sites also accommodate small businesses selling unused products. Consumer behaviour in online C2C auctions is unlike consumer behaviour in bricks-and-mortar or online retail stores. While considerable research has been conducted into the dynamics of bidding in online C2C auctions little research has addressed the motives for consumers’ ongoing participation in this marketplace. The concept of consumer involvement may explain the amount of time and money consumers are spending in online C2C auctions and the frequency of their visits to auction sites. In the context of this thesis, involvement is defined as the long-term and enduring relevance, connection and relatedness of online auctions to a consumer’s life. The aim of this research is to explore the ways in which the consumer involvement construct offers an explanation for variation in buyers’ ongoing use of online auctions. The thesis also seeks to discover which consumer motives contribute to buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions. TradeMe is New Zealand’s most popular online C2C auction site. In a country of just four million people, the TradeMe auction site has more than 2 million members and accounts for more than 50 per cent of Internet traffic originating from New Zealand websites. This study of buyers who use the TradeMe auction site, offers the opportunity to study online auction consumers in this unique context. Based on an extensive literature review, eighteen propositions were developed regarding buyer motives for enduring involvement with online C2C auctions. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty TradeMe users, to test these propositions and to identify any further motives for enduring involvement with auctions that had not been revealed in the literature review. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed in full. NVivo8 qualitative data analysis software was used to code the interview transcripts. Thematic analysis reveals six themes representing buyer motives for enduring involvement with online auctions. The significant contribution of this thesis is to identify involvement as a useful construct for explaining consumer behaviour in online auctions. In addition to utilitarian and hedonic motives for involvement with online auctions, the interviews reveal that the buyers have a number of social and personal motives for involvement with online auctions. Analysis of the qualitative dataset also reveals a set of marketer activities which encourage ongoing use of the auction site, and a number of factors (anti-motives) which discourage use of the auction site. The research reveals the existence of an off-line community of auction users who value the social contact they experience with one another outside the auction site. Ongoing buyer-seller relationships are also shown to develop outside the auction site, prompted by an initial auction transaction. TradeMe users often express loyalty to the TradeMe website because they are proud of its New Zealand origins, feel secure in using a local auction website, believe they are supporting small New Zealand businesses by buying from TradeMe, and believe they are practicing sustainable consumption behaviour by purchasing second-hand goods. Future research should develop a multi-item, quantitative measure of buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions and test the validity of this measure with further empirical data.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online auctions represent an important new marketplace from which consumers can access the goods they require, an alternative marketplace to bricks-and-mortar and online retail stores. Sellers are often ordinary consumers and the items on sale are often second-hand household items, although, modern C2C auction sites also accommodate small businesses selling unused products. Consumer behaviour in online C2C auctions is unlike consumer behaviour in bricks-and-mortar or online retail stores. While considerable research has been conducted into the dynamics of bidding in online C2C auctions little research has addressed the motives for consumers’ ongoing participation in this marketplace. The concept of consumer involvement may explain the amount of time and money consumers are spending in online C2C auctions and the frequency of their visits to auction sites. In the context of this thesis, involvement is defined as the long-term and enduring relevance, connection and relatedness of online auctions to a consumer’s life. The aim of this research is to explore the ways in which the consumer involvement construct offers an explanation for variation in buyers’ ongoing use of online auctions. The thesis also seeks to discover which consumer motives contribute to buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions. TradeMe is New Zealand’s most popular online C2C auction site. In a country of just four million people, the TradeMe auction site has more than 2 million members and accounts for more than 50 per cent of Internet traffic originating from New Zealand websites. This study of buyers who use the TradeMe auction site, offers the opportunity to study online auction consumers in this unique context. Based on an extensive literature review, eighteen propositions were developed regarding buyer motives for enduring involvement with online C2C auctions. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty TradeMe users, to test these propositions and to identify any further motives for enduring involvement with auctions that had not been revealed in the literature review. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed in full. NVivo8 qualitative data analysis software was used to code the interview transcripts. Thematic analysis reveals six themes representing buyer motives for enduring involvement with online auctions. The significant contribution of this thesis is to identify involvement as a useful construct for explaining consumer behaviour in online auctions. In addition to utilitarian and hedonic motives for involvement with online auctions, the interviews reveal that the buyers have a number of social and personal motives for involvement with online auctions. Analysis of the qualitative dataset also reveals a set of marketer activities which encourage ongoing use of the auction site, and a number of factors (anti-motives) which discourage use of the auction site. The research reveals the existence of an off-line community of auction users who value the social contact they experience with one another outside the auction site. Ongoing buyer-seller relationships are also shown to develop outside the auction site, prompted by an initial auction transaction. TradeMe users often express loyalty to the TradeMe website because they are proud of its New Zealand origins, feel secure in using a local auction website, believe they are supporting small New Zealand businesses by buying from TradeMe, and believe they are practicing sustainable consumption behaviour by purchasing second-hand goods. Future research should develop a multi-item, quantitative measure of buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions and test the validity of this measure with further empirical data.

China is today the global leader and innovator of sharing economy, and the Chinese government has included it in their Five Year (2016-2020) development plan. China has during the last 30 years been the most rapid economically developing country in the world, but it has also brought along some negative consequences. It has become evident that the quick development of China has taken place at the expense of the environment. It is also described that the country has an economic development model heavily based on investment, export and high consumption which is arguably not sustainable.  The sharing economy presents great potential to change how consumers use resources andgoods, and also presents an opportunity to solve sustainability challenges such as decreasingenvironmental, economic and social conditions. There are today little research on this subject, especially empirical, and more research is preferred.  The purpose of this study is to investigate and explore how the sustainability work and marketing of three selected sharing economy companies in Shanghai correspond to customers’ motives for using sharing economy services. To collect data, three interviews were conducted with three different companies that utilize the sharing economy model in Shanghai, China. These companies are major players in the industries of ride-sharing, bike-sharing and house-sharing. Additionally, an online consumer survey regarding customers’ primary motives for using sharing economy services were conducted in order to fulfill our purpose and answer our research questions.  Results from this study conclude that the primary motives for consumers to use sharingeconomy is convenience (bike-sharing and ride-sharing) and to experience something unique (house-sharing). Other important motives are time-saving, accessibility and low cost aspects. The companies, on the other hand, tend to emphasize low cost, environmental and socialaspects. That is, consumer views are often in line with the three companies' marketing andsustainability views. However, there are several cases in this study where it differ.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att analysera varför konsumenter följer företag i sociala medier, det vill säga vilka konsumentmotiv som är mest förekommande. Studien kommer också att utröna om det finns skillnader i konsumentmotiv sett till de olika branscherna som ska studeras samt om demografiska variabler hos konsumenterna påverkar vilka konsumentmotiv som förekommer mest frekvent. Metod: Studien har utgått från en deduktiv forskningsansats. Datainsamlingen har skett genom en kvantitativ enkätundersökning och data har analyserats kvantitativt genom t-tester och variansanalyser. Resultat: Undersökningsresultatet visar att de mest frekvent förekommande konsumentmotiven till att följa detaljhandelsföretag på sociala medier är för ”att hitta rabattkoder/erbjudanden”, ”att hitta information om företaget och dess produkter”, ”att ta del av nyheter och produktlanseringar” samt “att få inspiration av det företaget publicerar”. Inga signifikanta skillnader kunde hittas gällande motiv varken mellan olika branscher eller mellan demografiska variabler hos konsumenterna. De fyra nämnda motiven här ovan var alltså de genomgående vanligast förekommande bland respondenterna i studien oavsett kön, ålder eller företagens bransch. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Att genomföra en kvalitativ studie med samma frågeställningar och syfte är ett förslag till vidare forskning då en kvalitativ studie hade kunnat ge mer utvidgad information kring de motiv som konsumenter har till att följa företag samt en mer djupgående förståelse för dessa motiv. Ytterligare förslag till vidare forskning inom området hade kunnat vara att undersöka andra branscher än de som denna studie har fokuserat på. / Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze why consumers follow retail companies on social media i.e. which consumer motives are the most common. Method: The study has conducted a deductive approach and a quantitative method for both data collection and analyzes. Findings: The findings show that the most frequent consumer motives for following retail companies on social media are to "find discount codes / offers", "find information about the company and its products", "find news and information about product launches" and "get inspiration from what companies posts online”. No significant differences in motives could be found between different sectors or demographic variables among consumers. The four mentioned motives above were the most common ones among the respondents regardless of gender, age or company sector. Suggestions for further research: proposals for further research could be to perform a qualitative study with the same purpose and research questions as this one. That could contribute to the gain of deeper information and knowledge in this area and could be a complement to the results from this study.