The current study investigated the role of social media influencers' credibility and followers' motivations in shaping consumer behavior among Saudi consumers, focusing on key aspects of influencers' credibility (expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness) and followers' (consumers) motivations (information, socialization, and entertainment). The current study developed a framework to investigate how social media influencers' credibility and followers' motivations impact consumer purchase intention and consumer behavior, using the theory of reasoned action (TRA). The study employed quantitative research methodology, utilizing the Qualtrics platform to distribute online surveys to collect data. The study sample was 416 Saudi consumers. The study proposed a framework to describe the phenomena. The relationships were tested using liner multiple regression. SPSS software was employed for analysis of data including the demographic characteristics of participants. The study's findings showed that in relation to the influencer's credibility, the factors of trustworthiness and attractiveness had a statically significant and positive direct impact on purchase intention. However, expertise had a statistically insignificant negative impact on purchase intention. The findings showed that all the investigated factors of follower motivations, which include information, socialization, and entertainment, were statically significant and had a direct positive impact on purchase intention. The study offers significant insights into the connection between social media marketing influencers and consumer behavior, insights ultimately beneficial in the areas of both academic research and practical implications. These findings will enable marketers to optimize their strategies and improve their effectiveness within the Saudi market.

Background: The traditional way of product promotion is no longer enough to attract the emerging consumer class; high-quality short video platforms have brought more business opportunities and dividends, providing a new channel for product marketing and promotion. The short video platform of TikTok has strong traffic attributes and intuitive product presentation, and many brands and merchants have shifted their product marketing and promotion positions here. However, brands and merchants lack a deep understanding of the internal mechanism of the influence of TikTok's short videos on the purchase intention of the consumer, cannot grasp the pain points of consumers' demand well, and lack attention to the online shopping experience of consumers. The existing researches mainly analyze the marketing strategies of short videos, and there are insufficient researches on consumers' purchase intention in the context of short videos on TikTok. Purpose: This thesis takes the consumer of TikTok short videos as the research object. Based on SOR theory, three main characteristics of TikTok short videos are selected as independent variables: entertainment, interactivity, and personalization. Meanwhile, social presence is introduced as the intermediary variable to explore the mechanism of influence of TikTok short videos' characteristics on consumers' purchase intention. Method: In this thesis, the questionnaire survey method was used to collect data, and 207 valid questionnaires were collected. Finally, SPSS26.0 statistical analysis software was used to process and analyze the data. Conclusion: The empirical results show that: (1) the entertainment, interactivity, and individuation of TikTok short videos have a positive impact on the purchase intention of the consumer; (2) TikTok short video entertainment, interactive, personalized positive impact on the consumer's sense of social presence; (3) Social presence plays a partial mediating role in the influence of entertainment, interactivity and personalization on purchase intention. According to the research conclusions, this thesis puts forward relevant suggestions for guiding enterprises to use short video platforms to carry out targeted and efficient precision marketing, stimulate the consumer's purchase intention, and maximize the use of short video as a differentiated marketing tool to cultivate their core competitiveness.

Bakgrund - En klar majoritet av EU-konsumenterna efterfrågar förbättrad information om hållbarhet inom klädindustrin. Samtidigt har forskning från Sveriges Konsumenter visat på svårigheter för konsumenter att upptäcka greenwashing och vilseledande marknadsföring. Greenwashing har därför blivit ett alltmer diskuterat ämne och väcker oro kring äkthet och hållbarhet inom klädindustrin. För att tackla problematiken med greenwashing kommer en ny lagstiftning från EU inkludera förbud mot falska hållbarhetspåståenden. Syfte - Studien har som syfte att undersöka hur unga svenska konsumenter reagerar på greenwashing, genom att undersöka attityder och beteenden inom klädindustrin, med särskild inriktning på greenwashing. Med hjälp av att analysera hur unga konsumenter reagerar på och påverkas av greenwashing, syftar studien till att ge insikter om hur detta påverkar attityder, köpintentioner och köpbeteende. I analysen av dessa tre faktorer är det även av intresse att studera om textilkunskap har en effekt på unga svenska konsumenters reaktion på greenwashing. Metod - För att uppnå studiens syfte har en kvantitativ metod, med deduktiv ansats använts. Data samlades in genom en enkätundersökning som resulterade i totalt 84 validerade svar från studenter på Högskolan i Borås. Därefter genomfördes statistiska analyser av datamaterialet. Slutsatser - De slutsatser som konstateras är att greenwashing leder till en negativ attityd gentemot företag hos unga svenska konsumenter. Greenwashing påverkar även lojalitet hos konsumenter, vilket påverkar köpintentioner negativt och orsakar ett förändrat konsumentbeteende hos konsumenter. Det kan vidare bekräftas att konsumenter värderar autenticitet inom marknadsföringsinsatser hos företag. De konsumenter som har ett intresse för hållbara produkter har också en högre medvetenhet om greenwashing. Studien kan vidare inte bekräfta att det finns signifikanta skillnader mellan studenter med textilrelaterad utbildning och de med en icke-textilrelaterad utbildning när det gäller effekten av greenwashing. Relevans - Vikten av unga svenska konsumenters reaktioner och beteenden gentemot greenwashing inom klädindustrin är av stor betydelse i ljuset av den ökande medvetenheten om hållbarhet och autenticitet. Genom att studera om det finns skillnader kring effekterna av greenwashing mellan studenter med en textilrelaterad utbildningsbakgrund och studenter med en icke-textilrelaterad utbildning kan vi analysera kunskapens roll i relation till greenwashing. Utifrån detta strävar studien efter att öka kunskapen och bidra med en djupare förståelse kring konsumentbeteende, för att utgöra ett underlag för aktörer inom industrin. Den här kandidatuppsatsen är skriven på svenska. / Background - A clear majority of EU consumers demand improved information on sustainability within the clothing industry. At the same time, research from Sveriges Konsumenter has shown difficulties for consumers in detecting greenwashing and misleading marketing. Therefore, greenwashing has become an increasingly discussed topic, raising concerns about authenticity and sustainability within the clothing industry. To address the issue of greenwashing, new legislation from the EU will include a ban on false sustainability claims. Purpose - The purpose of the study is to investigate how young Swedish consumers react to greenwashing by examining attitudes and behaviors within the clothing industry, with a specific focus on greenwashing. By analyzing how young consumers react to and are affected by greenwashing, the study aims to provide insights into how this affects attitudes, purchase intentions, and purchasing behavior. In the analysis of these three factors, it is also of interest to study whether textile knowledge has an effect on young Swedish consumers' reaction to greenwashing. Method - To achieve the study's purpose, a quantitative method with a deductive approach has been used. Data were collected through a survey resulting in a total of 84 validated responses from students at the University of Borås. Subsequently, statistical analyses of the data material were conducted. Findings - The conclusions drawn are that greenwashing leads to a negative attitude towards companies among young Swedish consumers. Greenwashing also affects consumer loyalty, negatively impacting purchase intentions and causing changes in consumer behavior. It can further be confirmed that consumers value authenticity in companies' marketing efforts. Consumers interested in sustainable products also have a higher awareness of greenwashing. The study cannot confirm significant differences between students with textile-related education backgrounds and those with non-textile-related education regarding the effect of greenwashing. Relevance - The importance of young Swedish consumers' reactions and behaviors towards greenwashing within the clothing industry is significant in light of the increasing awareness of sustainability and authenticity. By studying whether there are differences in the effects of greenwashing between students with textile-related educational backgrounds and those with non-textile-related education, we can analyze the role of knowledge in relation to greenwashing. Based on this, the study aims to increase knowledge and contribute to a deeper understanding of consumer behavior to provide a basis for industry stakeholders. This bachelor’s thesis is written in Swedish.

藉由部落格來經營線上社群的情形已久，但這幾年在部落格上出現一種新的敘事呈現方式，亦即藉由圖文形式，透過詼諧手法來分享生活瑣事或人生觀念，同時以版主(即部落格經營者與圖文創作者)所發起之創意、話題接龍來不斷擴展並豐富部落格上的內容。而藉由圖文角色的創造與自由免費下載，這些圖文流通在部分即時通訊軟體當中，提高了這些圖文角色的曝光度，同時也為版主帶來商機。版主透過哪些方式來經營線上社群，並將之導入商業運作，為本研究之動機。 因此本研究透過文獻整理，建立了線上品牌社群經營之探討層面，此層面包含了「部落格行銷特性」、「社群活動參與程度」、「活動實際認知與期待落差」等三個構面，同時納入「個人涉入度」與「購買意願」等構面，來探討這些構面之間的關係。然後針對回應於個案部落格上的各個成員進行問卷調查，再以因素分析進行構面修整等前測，之後正式發放問卷，回收有效問卷為364份，以SPSS套裝統計軟體進行典型相關分析，來探討構面之間的影響關係。 研究結果發現「部落格行銷特性」構面當中的「讀者針對性」為首要關鍵因素，而經由質化訪談資料分析指出，在此種類型部落格經營取向裡，「讀者針對性」為「資訊豐富性」、「互動性」的基礎。而「社群活動參與程度」亦為關鍵因素之一，尤其是活動的發起與舉辦手法，應透過詼諧趣味與簡單易懂的遊戲規則來進行，同時非實質商業性目的的活動佔大部分，此類活動的功能在於提高社群的參與感、認同與信任感；而商業性質的活動則應在部落格內容中佔較小篇幅，以避免社群成員的厭惡，畢竟此種圖文創作類型的部落格，是以非商業性質的圖文免費自由下載使用為基礎來經營的。而藉由上述的「部落格行銷特性」與「社群活動參與程度」來提升社群成員對於部落格的「個人涉入度」，進而提升社群成員對此品牌的產品之購買意願。 最後，社群成員的「活動實際認知與期待落差」沒有對於「個人涉入度」及「購買意願」造成影響。經由觀察個案部落格當中得知，因為目前所舉辦的活動相對來說較單純，並沒有營造出複雜且嚴謹的階級關係或制度，同時版主會以詼諧自嘲手法來降低社群成員對活動的期待，從而減少成員對於活動實際認知與期待之落差。 / There has been a new type of narration based on blog. That is, sharing trivial or thoughts of lives via interesting pictures with words, enriching content on the certain blog through sharing activities on gossips or ideas. The created characters expose through being used in certain instant message tool, which brought creator business. Based on literature review, the study built up an aspect to discuss managing on-line brand community, including blog marketing features, how much the community join activities. And we included personal involvement and purchase intention to discuss the relationships among these aspects. After processing questionnaires by factor analysis for pilot testing, then we retrieved 364 questionnaires for canonical correlation analysis to discuss the relationships among the aspects. In the outcome, it’s found that the relevancy on the blog for members is the most important one of the key success factors. Quantities’ data analysis indicated that the relevancy on the blog for members is the basis of information richness and interactivity. How much members join the activity is the key factor also, the way to announce the activity should be via interesting and easy rules; meanwhile, non-commercial determination activity takes major part. This kind of activity supposedly focuses on enhancing sense of joining, identification, and trust among members. By contrast, commercial determination activity should take minor part in content on the blog for fear of being excluded by given members since this kind of blog has been managed on the basis of non-commercially free downloading created characters. blogger could enhance the involvement by means of blog marketing features and how much members join the activity, then lift purchase intention of members toward the brand products. No effect has been made by gap of the awareness toward activity on personal involvement and purchase intention. Through observing the blog, it indicates that the activities held so far are relatively pure and easy, which means no complex and solid hierarchy has been set up in the activities; furthermore, blogger scales down members’ expectation of activities by using interesting and self-sarcastic approaches.

近十幾年來，消費者對於精品與珠寶的追求與擁有已不像過去，單純只是富有的象徵與富人的專屬附屬品，在行銷人豐富的包裝之下，精品與珠寶已成為生活品味與質感的代表，而天然寶石資源日趨減少，供需不平衡而產生的價格變動也使珠寶儼然成為近年來熱門的投資標的。本研究即以精品珠寶為主要研究目標，欲研究台灣精品珠寶市場之消費者行為。 本研究以大台北地區具有購買精品珠寶意願或實力之對象發放問卷，共回收有效問卷325份，並以此問卷結果進行人口統計變項與購買動機、訊息來源、評估準則、購買意願、風險知覺與購買行為之間的關係，並探討各變數之特質與各變數之間的關係與影響，最後以量化結果與質化訪談作為本研究對於精品珠寶市場之消費者行為行銷策略之建議。 本研究分析結果如下: 一、人口統計變項與購買動機、訊息來源、評估準則、購買意願、風險知覺與購買行為之間皆有不同構面的影響，且有些變項影響程度具有高低的差別。 二、精品珠寶之購買動機、訊息來源、評估準則與購買意願，以及購買意願與購買行為間皆有顯著相關性並具有顯著影響。 三、購買精品珠寶之風險知覺對於購買意願與購買行為不具有干擾效果。 四、最後以質化訪談加強上述量化分析結果並提出未來行銷策略建議。 關鍵詞：消費者行為、購買意願、知覺風險。 / For the last decades, the intesion of consumers’ pursue of the luxury goods and jewelry was not simply the symble of the richness like before. With all the emotional attachments the marketers creacted, luxury good and jewelry have represented the high class of living style. And also because the nature resources of gem is getting less and leass, the price raises based on the higher demand and less supply, which are also the reason why the jewelries have become the popular target to invest. The perpective of this study is to figuring out the customer behavior of the jewelry market. The questionnaires of this study were submitted to the potential customers of luxury jewelries in Taipei City. Total 325 effective copies were collected. And based on the questionnaires results, the connection between the purchase motivation, information source, evaluation, purchase intention, perceived risk and purchase behavior can be studied. Moreover, interviews with two jewelry brand managers to deeply disucss the future strategy. Keywords：Luxurious Jewelry, Consumer Behavior, Purchase Intention, Perceived Risk.

Brand awareness and its establishment among consumers has been a central theme in previous research on marketing as it is proven to indirectly induce purchase. It is thus seen as crucial for marketers to establish brand awareness. However, a research gap is apparent in regard to creating brand awareness among Generation Z. More specifically, this study focuses on which communication channel that is best suited for establishing brand awareness for this generational cohort. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explicitly analyse the linkage between these variables and provide a guideline for companies targeting Generation Z. To obtain a deeper understanding, previous research has been reviewed and an extensive data collection has been conducted including two methods; interviews and a survey to obtain empirical evidence and valuable insights. The qualitative data was of main focus with the quantitative data gave more of an overview. By combining and evaluating the empirical findings in relation to previous research and theory we could identify patterns and relationships that eventually led to the conclusion and final results of this thesis. The initial results concluded from this study underlined the importance of brand awareness since it was the first step for the purpose of inducing purchases. In addition, the results also highlight the importance of building upon brand awareness to establish brand liking as it will provide for the increase of purchase intention. For establishing brand awareness when targeting Generation Z, Instagram is a means of preference and should be considered as part of a mix of various communication channels in using integrated marketing communications.

This thesis examines how female consumers’ self-esteem may impact an influencer’s ability to create a purchase through suggesting and testing a developed conceptual model. The Source credibility model, Similarity and Tie-strength were utilized as underlying theoretical frameworks. Five different independent variables were identified; Source- Attractiveness, Trustworthiness, Expertise, Similarity, and Tie-strength, which were evaluated in relation to the dependent variable; Purchase intention. Lastly, Self-esteem was introduced as a moderating variable. The goal with the conceptual model was to gain a deeper understanding of how a consumer’s self-esteem may affect their purchasing behavior, as well as which factors that may influence their purchase intention. A quantitative research method was used, and ten hypotheses were developed from the conceptual model.    To test the hypotheses and answer the research questions, a questionnaire was distributed with the use of snowball sampling. Overall, 1029 Swedish females who followed an influencer on a social media participated in the survey. It was stated in the results and the analysis that all five independent variables had a significant positive relation on the consumer’s purchase intention. However, data shows that a consumer’s self-esteem solely had a relation on two of the five independent variables; Trustworthiness & Tie-strength. Trustworthiness was found to have a negative relation to the purchase intention, while Tie-strength was found to have a positive relation. A content analysis was conducted in order to identify other factors that the participants in the survey felt had a significant impact on why they followed their favorite influencer. The result of the content analysis identified two more factors that may impact the ability of an influencer to create a purchase. These were the Entertainment value and the Core values of the influencer.

Le bouche à oreille électronique s’est fortement développé ces dernières années surtout avec la multiplication de plateformes en ligne comme les réseaux sociaux. Traitant du cas des caractéristiques des messages en ligne (la force et de l’argumentaire des messages), ce travail nous a permis dans une première étape exploratoire de se familiariser avec le langage des internautes pour créer nos propres scénarios, de connaitre les principales interrogations des internautes concernant la crédibilité, la confiance et l’utilité de ces messages. Cette recherche et la revue de la littérature nous ont ainsi aidé à proposer un modèle conceptuel pivotant autour des caractéristiques des messages de bouche-à-oreille en ligne et leurs influences sur le comportement du consommateur.Une deuxième étape confirmatoire nous a permis de tester et de valider le modèle proposé etde vérifier ou d’infirmer certaines des hypothèses supposées. Les résultats statistiques montrent que les types des messages influencent la crédibilité perçue, l’intention d’achat et de recommandation. Les variables modératrices liées aux caractéristiques du récepteur des messages modèrent ces relations. Des variables médiatrices (i.e. la confiance perçue et l’utilité perçue des messages) sont considérées comme fondamentales pour l’évaluation des messages de bouche à oreille électronique. / The electronic word of mouth has grown considerably the last years especially with the proliferation of online platforms like social networks. Treating the specific case of the characteristics of online messages (the valence strength and arguments), this work has helped us in a first exploratory step to learn the language of the Internet to create our own scenarios, to know the main questions of users about the credibility and the trust and usefulness of these messages. This research and literature review have enabled us to propose a conceptual model to pivot about the characteristics of word-of-mouth messages online and influences on consumer behavior. Through a confirmatory analysis we tested and validated the proposed model and accepted and rejected some of our supposed hypothesis. The statistical output had shown that the types of messages influence the perceived credibility, purchase intent and recommendation. Moderator variables related to the characteristics of the message receiver moderate these relationships. Mediating variables (ie perceived trust and perceived usefulness of messages) are considered fundamental for the evaluation of electronic word of mouth messages.

La presente investigación tiene el propósito de conocer las actitudes, comportamientos e intención de compra de los consumidores finales hacia la publicidad en redes sociales de productos farmacéuticos OTC del distrito de San Borja en Lima, Perú. El objetivo es descubrir oportunidades de mejora para el sector farmacéutico el cual no tiene una taza de crecimiento alto como otros sectores en el mercado publicitario digital. Para esto se realizó una investigación cuantitativa, la herramienta utilizada fueron encuestas a una muestra de 383 pobladores consumidores de este tipo de mercado. Además se realizó investigación cualitativa utilizando dos herramientas: Focus group o grupo de enfoque, los cuales tienen las características de la muestra objetivo de investigación y entrevistas en profundidad a expertos en los temas resaltados. Se descubrió que la intención de compra luego de impactar en el público objetivo es positiva, y la misma se ve afectada por las actitudes y el comportamiento. Las actitudes son afectadas por el contenido de los anuncios, los cuales tienen que ser informativos, creíbles y entretenidos. Estos resultados de suma importancia para el planeamiento y ejecución de plan de marketing dentro del sector farmacéutico, de manera que deberían plantear estrategias innovadoras en este rubro y poder ahorrar presupuesto utilizando el medio digital que es más económico que los medios tradicionales como televisión, radio y revistas. / The present investigation has the purpose of knowing the attitudes, behaviors and intention of purchase of the final consumers towards the publicity in social networks of pharmaceutical products OTC of the district of San Borja in Lima, Peru. The objective is to discover improvement opportunities for the pharmaceutical sector which does not have a high growth rate as other sectors in the digital advertising market. For this, a quantitative investigation was carried out, the tool used was surveys to a sample of 383 consumers of this type of market. In addition, qualitative research was carried out using two tools: Focus group, which have the characteristics of the objective sample of research and interviews with experts on the topic. It was discovered that the purchase intention after impacting the target audience is positive, and it is affected by attitudes and behavior. Attitudes are affected by the content of the ads, which have to be informative, credible and entertaining. These results are very important for the planning and execution of the marketing plan within the pharmaceutical sector, so they should propose innovative strategies in this area and be able to save budget using the digital medium that is more economical than traditional media such as television, radio and journals. / Tesis

El propósito de esta investigación es encontrar la relación entre el Brand Equity e la intención de compra en los Homecenter con la categoría de pinturas látex, en hombres de 36 a 45 años, del nivel socioeconómico C en Lima Metropolitana. La metodología de investigación fue de carácter mixta ya que se aplicó herramientas cualitativas y cuantitativas. En la investigación la cualitativa se realizó 4 entrevistas a expertos, 3 grupos focales y 4 observaciones presenciales en Homecenter. Por otro lado, para contrastar la información de los expertos, se utilizó la investigación cuantitativa para darle una representatividad a los datos. Se utilizó una muestra de 190 personas escogidas por muestro no probabilístico por cuota, las cuales fueron encuestadas con un cuestionario elaborado de 24 preguntas el cual fue aplicado de manera presencial en papel. Posteriormente, se aplicó un análisis de correlación, cuyos resultados arrogaron que la relación entre el Brand Equity y la intención de compra en los Homecenter fue positiva. Dentro las dimensiones establecidas, se utilizó: calidad percibida, Brand Loyalty y Brand Trust. El resultado más destacable fue con la dimensión “Calidad percibida” que obtuvo la mayor fuerza de relación hacia la intención de compra con una correlación de: 0,423. Por último, cabe destacar que estos resultados son de utilidad para todo el sector de mejoramiento del hogar o pinturas, para demostrar que las estrategias de Brand Equity forman parte de los factores que fomentan las ventas en la categoría y le agregan valor a la empresa. / The purpose of this research is to find the relationship between Brand Equity strategies and the purchase intention for Homecenter. The research was conducted for the category of decorative paints, in men aged 36 to 45 years old, with a socioeconomic level of C at Metropolitan Lima. The research methodology had a mixed nature, qualitative and quantitative tools were applied. The qualitative research had: four interviews with experts, three focus groups to the target and four direct observations at Homecenter. On the other hand, to compare the information of the experts, a quantitative investigation was applied. The sample was conformed of 190 people that were chosen for non-probabilistic sampling by quota method, which were surveyed with a paper questionnaire made of 24 questions which was applied in person. Subsequently, a correlation analysis was applied, that showed up that the relationship between the Brand Equity and the purchase intention in Homecenter were positive. To measure the relationship a three-dimension model was created for the Brand Equity model which included: perceived quality, Brand Loyalty, and Brand Trust. The most notable result was the dimension of “perceived quality” that obtained the greatest relation with the purchase intention with a correlation of: 0.423. Finally, it should be noted that these results are useful for the entire Homecenter or painting sector, to demonstrate that Brand Equity strategies are part of the factors that promote sales in the category and add value to the retailer. / Trabajo de investigación