The online shopping industry has been growing over the past decade (Statista, 2014). Former researchers identified consumers’ utilitarian and hedonic online shopping motivations. A qualitative research was conducted to understand the utilitarian and hedonic online shopping motivations of students to shop fashion online. A phenomenological interviewing method was used to generate detailed and in-depth descriptions of the seven students’ experiences of the University of Borås. Respectively three utilitarian and four hedonic online shopping motivations emerged out of the data and could be linked the motivations identified by Vignali and Reid (2014). This paper analyses the utilitarian online shopping motivations respectively convenience, price and discounts and selections and hedonic online shopping motivations respectively enjoyment, sociability, trend discovery and exclusivity. Regarding the utilitarian online shopping motivation convenience several convenience dimensions emerged out of the collected data and matched the dimensions identified by Jiang, Yang and Jun (2013) respectively, respectively access, search, evaluation, transaction, possession and post-purchase convenience. Regarding the hedonic online shopping motivation enjoyment, several dimensions emerged out of the data and could be linked to dimensions identified by Monsuwé et al. (2004) respectively escapism, pleasure and arousal. Some of the linkages that could be found by comparing former research were also found in the data collected. Regarding the utilitarian online shopping motivations, information availability identified by Vignali and Reid (2014) could be linked to evaluation convenience and product availability identified by Vignali and Reid (2014) could be linked to access convenience. Regarding the hedonic online shopping motivations, relaxation shopping identified by (Ozen and Engizek, 2014) could be linked to escapism, social shopping (Ozen and Engizek, 2014) to sociability and idea shopping (Ozen and Engizek, 2014) to trend discovery. The analyses on the linkages further deepened the understanding of both utilitarian and hedonic motivations of students to shop fashion online.

Microtransactions are part of a business model used almost extensively in the video-gaming industry where developers offer virtual goods or features via micropayments. The concept is relatively new and still unknown to many but deeply rooted in modern video-game developers’ business strategies. Microtransactions are found in smartphone applications, online games played on computer or gaming consoles, and while the concept might be unfamiliar to many, the odds are most have encountered it.   Most published games will feature in-game purchases where users have to option to purchase features, items or content for a small amount of money. A microtransaction in its most simplistic form is ad-removal, here developers offer the user a way to get rid of ads by charging a small amount, like $.99. While one microtransaction may seem insignificant, multiple impulsive purchases can quickly add up to considerable sums. This has resulted in the use of microtransactions becoming the most profitable business strategy for game developers.   This study seeks to describe what stimulates a person to complete a purchase by using the components of hedonic motivation from the HMSAM theory leading to the research question: Which hedonic motivations induce use of microtransaction systems and does it vary by age? To research the phenomena a quantitative questionnaire was formed based on hedonic motivations, including three motivations added by the author, gathering responses from 398 video-game players having completed a microtransaction purchase.   After analyzing the results, some components protruded more than others while the consensus suggested that the influence of hedonic motivation was comparatively low. The argument for this outcome may be that players see in-game items as objects of real-world value, making the microtransaction system within a game a utilitarian-motivation system. The general attitude towards microtransactions appeared to be poor which contradicts some elements of previous research while supporting others.   This thesis will contribute to the field of informatics by complementing the traditional technology acceptance model (TAM) with hedonic motivations, as proposed by Lowry et al. in 2013. The author of this study argue it is a modernized way of researching intentions to use asort of system.