Date: 02.06.2021 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Avesta Aspitman (94/05/24) , Beata Valeria Karacsonyi (95/08/01), Dalia Uthman (97/01/07)                      Title: Changes in online shopping activities of Generation Z students - A qualitative study on online purchase intent and impulsivity during Covid-19 Tutor: Leanne Johnstone Keywords: Online purchase intent, Covid-19, Generation Z, Students, Impulsive shopping Research question:  How has Covid-19 impacted the online purchase intent of students at Mälardalen region of Sweden? Purpose: To examine how the impact of Covid-19 has affected the online      purchase intent of students of Mälardalen region in Sweden. Method: This study has an inductive approach with a qualitative data collection. Semi-structured interviews were held with nine students within the Mälardalen region and were conducted online through the communication tool ZOOM. A thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the collected primary data and with assistance of the literature review, four dimensions of the topic could be identified: financial, performance, time and psychological. Conclusion: Online purchasing during Covid-19 has increased and thus, affected the online purchasing intent of students in the same way. This is mainly due to restrictions and due to the pandemic and the consumer’s perception of the online retailers’ adaptation to it. Increased impulsivity due to Covid-19 cannot be concluded in this study and thus contradicts existing and recent literature that suggests impulsive shopping increases in crises. Instead, Generation Z students are more inclined to save their money and make strategic choices to purchase online.

This study examined the relationship between subordinates perception of the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship, dyadic demographic factors and turnover intent in rehabilitation agencies. The sample consisted of 152 direct care employees that work with individuals with disabilities at rehabilitation organizations in the state of Illinois. In particular, the focus was on determining the best fit model that predicts turnover intent among quality of LMX, dyadic age, gender, educational level, ethnicity and duration and their two-way interactions with LMX. Participants were asked to complete the team Leader-Member Exchange scale (LMX-SLX), Turnover Intent Scale (TIS) and a demographic questionnaire. Results of the regression analysis showed that LMX significantly predicted turnover intent, β = -.272, t=-3.298, Sig. F Change = .001. None (dyadic educational level, β = -.146; dyadic ethnicity, β = .068; dyadic gender, β = .100; dyadic duration, β = -.076) of the demographic factors except dyadic age, significantly predicted turnover intent (Sig. F Change = .112). Dyadic age, β = .258, t= 2.502, p= .014 was a significant predictor, although the overall model was not significant. All (dyadic educational level_LMX, β = -.60; dyadic ethnicity_LMX, β = .037; dyadic gender_LMX, β = -.130; dyadic age_LMX, β = .071; dyadic duration_LMX, β = .071), of the interactions significantly predicted turnover intent, although the overall model was not significant. In addition, implications, limitations and delimitation, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Android and iOS are the world leading mobile operating systems in today’s growing market of handheld devices. Third-party applications are an important aspect of these systems but can also provide an attack-vector for exploiting other installed applications. Previous studies have shown that the Android inter- app communication (IAC) mechanism Intent can be used for causing harm to other apps. In contrast, research involving iOS app communication have been sparse because of the closed nature of the iOS ecosystem. One of the previous studies showed the possibility of using Android Intents for hijacking and forging payments between a company application providing payments via the Swedish payment application Swish and their App2App API. This study extends this previous work by creating an artifact that performs the same exploit on the iOS platform. iOS uses a URL-scheme for opening and sending data between applications. This mechanism is used for creating the communication between apps and finding out if payment information sent via the URL- scheme can be hijacked instead of arriving at the intended Swish application. The experiences drawn from the exploit were used in combination with the previous work to find differences between the IAC mechanisms. Finally, a literature study is presented with the latest mitigation techniques for IAC vulnerabilities.

Background:Scarcity refers to a basic economic problem, the gap between limited resources and limitlesswants. This situation requires people to make decisions on how to allocate resourcesefficiently in order to satisfy basic needs and as many additional wants as possible. Scarcitycan affect the consumers ability to source and process information with regards to acquiring ascarce product. Scarcity can be divided into two cues, LQS and LTS and these ques can helpunderstand a consumer's purchase intention.Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to explain the effect increasing LQS & LTS has on onlinepurchase intention onlineMethodology:This thesis employed a quantitative research method as well as a deductive approach with anexplanatory goal. The study was cross-sectional in nature. The data was collected via anonline questionnaire sent out to an online community consisting of around 20,000 members,which obtained 272 valid replies that passed the qualification question by purposive samplingThe data was tested using reliability testing, validity testing, and significance testing.Furthermore two simple linear regression analysis to test the two hypotheses formed in theconceptual framework.Findings:The findings of this paper states that LQS and LTS both show a significant positive impact onpurchase intention in an online context. LTS was shown to have a higher significant impacton purchase intention when comparing the two cues.Conclusion:The conclusion from this paper comes in three separate items. The general conclusion,theoretical implication and managerial implication. The general conclusion states that thefindings prove that LTS and LQS has a significant positive impact on purchase intention.Secondly, the theoretical implication states that LTS has a more significant impact onpurchase intention in an online context and that scarcity does not influence a positivebehavioural outcome such as purchase intention similarly offline versus online.The managerial implications state that LQS and LTS could be used to enhance purchaseintention synonymously with each other.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly integrated aspect of daily life. Particularly, businesses have been incorporating AI into many of their features from customer support to product personalization. While there has been a body of research exploring the interpersonal impacts of AI and human participants, there is limited research on the effects of human-like AI on its influence in the purchasing process. Taking the theoretical framework of the Computer Are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm, I utilized a 2 x 3 experiment to measure if the perceived sex of an artificial intelligence impacts consumers' purchase intention, trust, and sense of agency. Participants interacted with either a male-gendered or female-gendered AI chatbot, or a static website, which then recommended a water bottle based on the participants' preferences. The study indicated significance with both male and female participants preferring the control website over both AI sexes. The study also indicated significance in women participants feeling more overall agency than men participants during the experiment. The results indicate a potential need for a new level of human realism before CASA can be framed within some AI applications. / MACOM / Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly integrated aspect of daily life. Particularly, businesses have been incorporating AI into many of their features from customer support to product personalization. While there has been a body of research exploring the interpersonal impacts of AI and human participants, there is limited research on the effects of human-like AI on its influence in the purchasing process. Taking the concept that people naturally treat human-like technology as real humans, I have evaluated whether consumers' purchase intention, trust, and sense of agency are impacted while interacting with either a male-gendered or female-gendered AI chatbot , or a static website, which then recommended a water bottle based on the participants' preferences. The study showed that both male and female participants preferred the control website over both AI sexes, and women participants overall felt more agency than men participants during the experiment. The results indicate that there may need to be a new level of human realism before users will treat some AI applications as fellow humans.

This thesis presents a new method that improves upon the existing approaches to developing collaborative tools. The new method uses automatically inferred and manually recorded design rationale to intelligently filter the information that is shared by a collaborative tool. This represents an improvement upon the existing state of the art in collaborative engineering tools. To demonstrate the viability of the method three collaborative tools were created. The first is a multi-user collaborative design environment tool named SimulPart and built upon the NX CAD package. SimulPart uses the new method to limit the amount of communication required to keep every user in synch during a multi-user co-design session. The second implementation is a visual history tool named VisiHistory that allows designers to watch time lapse videos of the creation of a design that are automatically generated using the new method. The final tool is an intelligent user directory named SmartHelp that uses the new method to allow designers to identify which of their peers have expertise in certain CAD operations. Validation was performed for each of these tools by benchmarking the tool against the leading commercial solution or industry process. The results of the validation showed that the new method does in fact offer a superior collaborative solution as it outperforms the existing tools and methods in several key collaborative metrics. As a result of this work future efforts are encouraged into both improving upon the quality of the inferred design rationale and increasing the functionality of the three tools created using the new method.

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Studying abroad during the collegiate experience is an idea sought by the many high school seniors and college freshmen alike. The social, intellectual, and cultural benefits received from participating makes it a seemingly easy decision. Yet, lack of action plagues the nation as there exists a miniscule number of students who follow through with their desire to study abroad. Prior research exemplifies that students rely on the perceptions of their peers and family when approaching an unfamiliar subject. These perceptions result in concocted barriers that dissuade the student from participating in study abroad before they seek concrete information. There are a limited number of studies completed at universities to identify these specific barriers. Thus, this research examines the student population at the University of Central Florida, the perceived barriers they possess concerning study abroad, and their sources of these perceptions. This is a qualitative and quantitative study that investigates the effects of perceived cost and graduation delay on the willingness of a student to study abroad. The unexpected ramifications of the marketing mix, utilized by the department of Study Abroad, will shed light upon the steps necessary to revise their position in order to transform student intent into action.

The purpose of this research was to determine the effect work environment has on occupational commitment and intent to leave the profession for bedside registered nurses. Subscales of autonomy, control over the practice setting, nurse-physician relationship, and organizational support were incorporated into the analysis to determine which aspect of work environment most directly effects occupational commitment and intent to leave the profession. The research was undertaken in order to help administrators determine the ways in which work environment can be improved upon in order to retain bedside registered nurses in the profession. An explanatory cross sectional survey was distributed to 259 direct care bedside registered nurses employed at a rural, system affiliated hospital in Central Florida. Human subject protection was assured through the University of Central Florida Institutional Review Board. A 77 item questionnaire containing 9 demographic questions, 57 questions from the Nursing Work Index- Revised (NWI-R), 8 questions from Blau's occupational commitment scale, and 3 questions from Blau's intent to leave scale was distributed to all direct care nurses. Subjects were also given the opportunity to complete 3 short answer questions. A 32.8 percent response rate was achieved for a total of 85 complete and usable surveys. Data analysis showed that the work environment is positively related to occupational commitment and negatively related to intent to leave. In addition each of the four subscales (autonomy, control over the practice setting, relationship with physicians, and organizational support) were also positively related to occupational commitment and negatively related to intent to leave the profession. Implications for organizations, public policy and future research are discussed.

Although management scholars have examined various antecedents of punishment in the workplace, there has been scant research on how perceptions of the organizational context influence decision-making regarding punishment. Building on the work of Cameron and colleagues (Cameron, Bright, & Caza, 2004; Cameron & Caza, 2002), I propose that one's perceived organizational forgiveness - the perception of the extent to which the workplace is forgiving - is negatively related with one's punitive intent in response to ethical misconduct. In addition, I identify variables involving the disciplinary agent and the ethical misconduct itself as moderators of this relationship. In a lab study and a field study, I tested the main effect of perceived organizational forgiveness and the moderating effects of these other variables on punitive intent. Data from the lab study provided evidence of the hypothesized main effect and suggested that the effect holds when the disciplinary agent is high in accountability and when the misconduct has resulted in serious damage to the organization. Data from the field study suggested that the negative relationship between perceived organizational forgiveness and punitive intent seemed to hold only when an experience of being forgiven is salient in the mind of the disciplinary agent and there are mitigating circumstances surrounding the ethical misconduct that is the subject of punishment. Surprisingly, the field study results suggested a positive relationship between perceived organizational forgiveness and punitive intent when an experience of being denied forgiveness is salient to the disciplinary agent. The limitations of these studies and potential implications of the findings are then discussed.