Background: Promotional cues are commonly applied on online travel agency websites. The most common cues were identified to be scarcity, popularity and pricing, which are said to increase consumers’ perception of scarcity, popularity and price and following enhance consumers’ booking intention. There is an increasing interest in promotional cues’ impact on booking intention in the online booking context, however, the results are not coherent as well as previous studies have looked only into intention to book. By applying the theory of planned behavior model to measure booking intention, new theoretical insights regarding promotional cues and booking intention should be given. Furthermore, this should help hotel suppliers to increase booking intention on the own hotel’s website. Purpose: The purpose is to explain how promotional cues found on online hotel booking sites impact the relationship between (1) perceived scarcity, (2) perceived popularity, (3) perceived price and consumers’ booking intention, by using the theory of planned behavior model. Method: This study has taken a deductive approach with quantitative data collection methods. By using a between-subjects experimental design, a fictional online hotel booking scenario was created. In total, data from 379 respondents were collected with a web-based survey. Thereby, respondents were assigned to six different groups (three treatment groups and three control groups). With conducting a manipulation check, it was identified that the perceived pricing group did not show a significant difference between control group and treatment group, however, perceived scarcity and perceived popularity did. For the analysis a correlation and regression analysis were conducted. Several t tests were conducted to find significant differences between diverse variables. Conclusion: A positive moderate relationship was found between perceived scarcity and booking intention, when applying scarcity cues. Furthermore, implementing popularity cues, led also to a moderate positive relationship indicated between perceived popularity and booking intention, however, the relationship was not as strongly correlated as when applying scarcity cues. Thereby, implementing scarcity and popularity cues is an effective tool to increase bookings, however, only to a small amount. Hence, it is important to also pay attention to the other factors influencing booking intention and simply using the cues as support to increase the number of booking.

ABSTRACT Date: 2024 Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Tatiana Bernard, Alexia; Parvin, Maryam; Ram, Mahabad Title: Beyond the Click: Unveiling the Influence of AI Personalization on E-commerce Impulse Buys Supervisor: Emre Yildiz Keywords: AI personalized recommendations, impulsive buying behavior, perceived value, perceived scarcity, perceived positive emotions. Research question: How does AI-powered personalized product recommendations influence impulsive buying behavior in e-commerce, potentially mediated by underlying psychological mechanisms? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the link between AI-powered personalized product recommendations and consumers’ impulsive buying on e-commerce platforms. The research explores how these personalized recommendations might influence customers towards impulsive purchases through perceived value, scarcity, and positive emotions as mediating factors. Method: This study utilized a quantitative research methodology, employing online surveys to collect data from active online shoppers. To ensure a comprehensive sample, both convenience and purposive sampling techniques were implemented, aiming to represent a broad spectrum of online shopping behaviors. Conclusion: This study reveals that AI-powered personalized product recommendations significantly influence impulsive buying behaviors on e-commerce platforms. By examining the mediating effects of perceived value, scarcity, and positive emotions, the research highlights how personalized recommendations can drive impulsive purchases. The findings underscore the importance of sophisticated recommendation systems in enhancing consumer engagement and satisfaction while raising important ethical considerations about consumer manipulation and long-term satisfaction. This study provides valuable insights for businesses looking to balance effective marketing strategies with ethical consumer practices.