Authors: Malin Karlsson, Sandra Karlsson, Amanda Malmberg Tutor: Dr. Setayesh Sattari Examiner: Prof. Anders Pehrsson Background: Consumers increasingly purchase products online due to the widespread use of the Internet. The decision for consumers to purchase online is predicted by their purchase intentions, which in turn is affected by their information privacy concerns. There is a lack of research on IPC and purchase intentions in the context of online personalized advertising. Purpose: To extend the understanding of purchase intentions considering information privacy concerns and involvement in the context of online personalized advertising. Methodology: A survey in form of a questionnaire was conducted in order to gather the information necessary to be able to analyse the relationship between IPC and purchase intentions in the context of online personalized advertising. The sample consists of 18-70 year olds from cities in southern Sweden. Conclusion: Conclusions drawn in this thesis is that when applied in the context of online personalized advertising, there is no significant relationship between IPC and purchase intentions. However, involvement is suggested as having a positive relationship to purchase intentions, as well as a positive moderating effect on the relationship between IPC and purchase intention in the context of online personalized advertising. Keywords: Purchase intentions, Information privacy concerns (IPC), Online personalized advertising, Involvement.

The growing technology has changed the form of advertising and user behavior. Recent years, the amount of personalized advertising is on a steady rise. Personalized advertising is based on a method called retargeting to tailor the advertisements to individual consumers by inferring their interests and preferences.However, there are still many deficiencies in personalized advertising that reduce the user experience. Understanding the attitudes of users and companies to personalized advertising can help improve these deficiencies. Hence, the purpose of this study is to compare different opinions regarding personalized advertising from Chinese consumers and companies towards Taobao respectively.This investigation uses a case study method to study the purpose. Taobao is an e-commerce platform with a high frequency of personalized advertising and has a great impact on China. Therefore, Taobao has been chosen as our case. First the background of personalized advertising is introduced, and then personalized advertising in Taobao is described. The different opinions of both consumers and companies are studied. In general, consumers have a positive attitude towards personalized advertising. However, there is a need for improvement in terms of privacy, trust and effectiveness. For companies, the effect of personalized advertising is satisfying, but the price makes is difficult for them to afford it.

Abstract Background The advancement of Internet technology and the ability of companies to process large amounts of information has made it possible for marketers to communicate with their customers through customized measures, namely personalized advertising. One of the primary aspects that differentiates personalized advertising from traditional advertising is the collection and use of consumers’ personal information, which have presented marketers with numerous benefits and opportunities. However, this has also raised concerns among consumers regarding their privacy and the handling of their personal information. In this study, the attitudes of Generation Z will be examined regarding data privacy, personalization, and the commercial usage of their personal information, as well as how these attitudes may impact consumer behavior. Purpose                   The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of consumers towards personalized advertising and the commercial usage of personal consumer data, with the focus on consumers belonging to Generation Z. Issues regarding data privacy and personalization is explored, as well as how consumer attitudes towards the personalization of advertisements may impact consumer behavior in the digital environment. Method The positivistic approach was applied with the intention to draw conclusions about a population of people, namely Generation Z. A deductive approach was implemented to test an existing theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) with the intention to examine whether Generation Z follows the trend found in the literature; namely that younger consumers (Millennials) are more positive towards personalized advertising and the sharing of personal data for commercial purposes than older generations. The empirical data was collected through a survey, which was later analyzed through statistical measures.           Conclusion              The results suggested a predominantly neutral attitude among the survey participants regarding personalized advertising and the sharing of personal data for commercial purposes. Moreover, a positive correlation between consumer attitudes and behavioral intention to interact with personalized advertisements was detected. However, the correlation was found to be rather weak, indicating that consumer attitudes are not necessarily the strongest predictor of behavioral intention among Generation Z consumers in regards to personalized advertising.

Background: As retailing moves towards online shopping the number of online purchases have increased substantially over the last year in Sweden (Klarna Bank AB, 2019). The industry of high-end beauty and skincare products has experienced growth in 2019 (PostNord, 2019), which is of interest to investigate. There lies importance for firms in retrieving knowledge of how the target market thinks and reacts. This research allows for a deeper understanding of the motivations of consumer behavior, which will be of high value for retailers and marketers when further operating in 2020 and entering 2021.    Problem discussion: There is a growing body of literature that examines the motivations of consumer behavior, however, identified gaps have yet to accumulate. Even if online personalized advertising (OPA) is increasingly being used by retailers worldwide, its influence on Swedish females remains unexplored. This exploratory study was undertaken in response to the demand in Sweden and it attempts to draw meaningful connections between consumer response to OPA as well as the value motives explaining consumption behaviors.    Purpose: In order to fill gaps in previous literature, this research sought to build a theory, which will make meaningful sense of observations on Swedish females in the age group 18-35-year-old’s purchase behavior. More specifically, the research will create an understanding of how OPA influences Swedish females, and what values motivate the female consumer when completing a purchase of high-end beauty and skincare products, with and without respect to the influence of OPA.   Method: A qualitative approach with semi-structured in-depth interviews with 19 Swedish female participants in the age group 18-35 were conducted. The general analytical procedure for analyzing the collected data was used, and the data was further compared with previous literature.    Results: This research indicates that participants declare empathy and hedonic values to influence the completion of purchase. Within the category of empathy values, security is a key value when shopping online. When exposed to OPA, the values of being well-respected and self-respect were added to the explanation for consumer motives of purchases of high-end beauty and skincare products online.

Personalized advertising is possible by tracking consumers' online activities and customizing ads for individual consumers. These ads are often more relevant, interesting, and appreciated by the consumer. However, there is a sense of worry about how personal information is gathered, stored, and used. While companies share the information with each other, consumers worry that the collection and usage of their personal information may damage their personal privacy. The personalization-privacy paradox describes this relationship between appreciated personalized advertising and breaches of privacy. The purpose of this study is to explore what elements of personalized marketing consumers find to be a breach of their personal privacy. By analyzing earlier research and literature, a theoretical framework was developed. The study uses a qualitative method utilizing semi-structured interviews to collect empirical data, which is then analyzed using the theoretical framework. The findings show that there are four primary elements in personalized advertising that consumers find to be a breach of privacy. These are recurring ads, feelings of being watched, personal information being shared and covert data collection. / Individanpassad marknadsföring är möjligt genom att spåra konsumenters onlineaktivitet och anpassa reklam för individuella konsumenter. Denna reklam är ofta mer relevant, intressant och uppskattad av konsumenten. Det finns dock en känsla av oro om hur personlig information samlas in, lagras och används. Medan företag delar informationen med varandra oroar sig konsumenter för att insamlingen och användandet av deras personliga information kan kränka deras personliga integritet. Personalization-privacy paradox beskriver detta samband mellan uppskattad individanpassad marknadsföring och kränkningar av den personliga integriteten. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka element av individanpassad marknadsföring konsumenter upplever som integritetskränkande. Genom att analysera tidigare forskning och litteratur skapades ett teoretiskt ramverk. Studien använde sig av semistrukturerade intervjuer för att samla in empiriska data, som sedan analyserades med hjälp av det teoretiska ramverket. Resultaten visar att det finns fyra huvudsakliga element i individanpassad marknadsföring som konsumenter anser vara integritetskränkande. Dessa är återkommande reklam, känslan av att vara övervakad, delande av personlig information och hemlig datainsamling.

Abstract Background “Traditional digital advertising has become wallpaper. It doesn’t improve anyone’s experience on a site and readers, myself included, pretty much look past it” stated by Jason Hill, Global Head of Media Strategies (Adage.com, 2019). Marketing managers attempt and fail in adapting traditional marketing strategies to the unfamiliar digital landscape. Traditional techniques e.g. banner ads appear as intrusive and unwanted according to consumers. Brands have in response strategically changed its communication to a rather subtle approach that aims to be non-intrusive. Aforesaid strategy is referred to as native advertising. Native advertising however is not unproblematic as said approach may be exploited to be deceptive, intrusive and secretive, brand whom implements such a strategy may be rewarded with short term positives. However the long term effects of said strategy prove negatives in various aspects of the brand. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explain how the conceptualization of native ads influence users’ feeling of non-intrusiveness. Method The conducted study implemented a deductive approach to research, including an explanatory purpose as previously elaborated upon. The study is further characterized as a cross-sectional design in which the researchers aimed to test the conceptualization of non-intrusive native advertising. The researchers further conducted a self administrated questionnaire with a total of 158 respondents. The data was cleaned in SPSS and further tested for reliability, validity and hypothesis testing. Conclusion The findings of the conducted study concludes that personalized advertising positively contributes to users’ feeling of non-intrusiveness. On the other hand, contextual relevance, 1 transparency, emotional appeal and informational appeal were rejected as such variables were not statistically significant in explaining non-intrusiveness. Therefore, the researchers rejected hypothesis H1, H2, H3, H4 and therefore rejected previous research stating that these variables contributes to users’ feeling of non-intrusiveness. However H5 was accepted, therefore theories that suggests that personalization according to one’s interest, previous interactions and real-time data to influence users feeling of non-intrusiveness were confirmed.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explain and to create an understanding if personalized advertising online creates value for customers.  Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study through 14 semi-structured interviews.  Findings: The study found personalized advertising to be seen as value co-creation in some cases, but because privacy concerns exist and affect the perception of advertising, it can in many cases lead to value co-destruction instead. It is thus a consideration between privacy concerns and the perceived value of the personalized advertising that decides if the offering will co-create or co-destroy value.  Research limitations/implications for future research: Our study did not involve respondents’ younger than 21 years old, which could have affected the result as this is a generation seen as technology savvy. Through a quantitative study, future research could try to find extremes in personalities by conducting a survey with a large sample of people in different ages, nationalities, gender, active online, etc. in order to see if there are correlations between for example age and privacy concerns.  Practical implications: One purpose of the study is to provide companies with insights of how different customers perceive personalized advertising online in terms of customer value in order for companies to know how to think when targeting their customers.  Keywords: online advertising, personalized advertising, personalized-privacy paradox, privacy concerns, value creation, value co-creation, value co-destruction.

Problem: Vid accepterandet av användarvillkor och cookies på Facebook får företag information om respektive användare och kan därmed skapa individanpassad reklam, något som kan uppfattas som integritetskränkande. Syfte: Analysera och beskriva användarens beteende och vidare kunskap om individanpassad reklam, via cookies, på Facebook. Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen omfattar bakgrundsinformation om Facebook, cookies och individanpassad reklam. Grundläggande teori baseras på hur företag använder sig av Facebook, cookies och individanpassad reklam för att marknadsföra sina produkter och tjänster. Metod: Studien har tillämpat en deduktiv ansats med en webbenkät som datainsamlingsverktyg. Enkäten sändes ut till 3318 programstudenter på Högskolan Dalarna, med svenska som undervisningsspråk. Resultat: Studiens resultat redovisas utifrån insamlad data från enkätundersökningen. Data sammanställdes i stapeldiagram, histogram och i tabeller med beskrivande statistik och medelvärde. Slutsats: Användaren besitter inte kunskap om vad de accepterar när de godkänner Facebooks användarvillkor och anser sig inte vara orolig över den personliga information Facebook tar del av i kommersiellt syfte. / Problem: Accepting the term of use for cookies and Facebook, gives companies information about each user of Facebook so they can create personalized advertising. Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to analyze and describe the user´s behavior and further knowledge of personalized advertising, through cookies, on Facebook. Theory: The theoretical frame includes information about Facebook, cookies and personalized advertisements. The theory is based on how companies use Facebook, cookies and personalized advertisements to promote their products and services. Method: The study has used a deductive approach with a web questionnaire as a data collection tool. The questionnaire was sent to 3318 students at Högskolan Dalarna, with Swedish as the language of instruction. Results: The results of the study is based on collected data from the survey. The data was compiled in bar charts, histograms and a table with descriptive statistics and mean. Conclusion: The user does not have knowledge of what they accept when they approve Facebook's Terms of Service and do not feel worried about the personal information Facebook delivers for commercial purposes.

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Individanpassad marknadsföring drivs till stor del av de fördelar som den tillför till ett företags kundrelationer och marknadsföringsresultat. Idag försöker annonsörer möta kundernas förväntningar på en individuell nivå. Tillsammans med detta har den avancerade utveckling av informationsteknologi öppnat nya möjligheter för att kunna samla in och analysera kunddata till att skapa individanpassad marknadsföring. Faktum är att företag behöver samla in mycket information från kunderna för att tillhandahålla kundanpassade tjänster. Syftet med studien är att undersöka och redogöra om individanpassad marknadsföring är något som värdesätts av konsumenter eller uppfattas som ett hot mot konsumentens integritet. Med stöd av denna studie utreder vi de underliggande faktorerna hos konsumenternas positiva eller negativa förhållningssätt gentemot fenomenet. En kvalitativ studie av tolv individuella intervjuer har genomförts. Resultatet visade sig att individanpassad marknadsföring upplevs vara ett hot mot konsumentens integritet. De underliggande faktorer som skapar en känsla av hot är konsumenternas brist på kunskap, brist på lättläst datainsamlingsmetod, begränsning av kontroll över hur ens genererade data kan användas, tvång till att acceptera olika användarvillkor i utbyte av de tjänster som används. Ytterligare faktorer som skapar en känsla av hot för konsumenterna visade sig vara irritation över annonser, tillit för aktören och placeringen av annonsen. Resultatet tyder även på att individanpassad marknadsföring kan uppskattas av konsumenterna i en situation där det uppstår ett ömsesidigt värdeutbyte. / Personalized advertising is largely driven by the benefits that it brings to a company's customer relationship and marketing results. Today, advertisers try to meet customer expectations individually. In the same way, the development of information technology has opened new opportunities for collecting and analyzing customer data to create personalized advertising. In fact, companies need to gather a big amount of information from customers to provide customized services. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether personalized advertising is being valued by customers or does it perceive as a threat to their privacy. This study also investigates the underlying factors of customers' positive or negative attitudes towards personalized advertising. A qualitative study of 12 individual interviews has been conducted. The results showed that personalized advertising is perceived as a threat to customer privacy. The underlying factors that cause a sense of threat are: customer' lack of knowledge, lack of easy-to-read information about data collection methods by actors, restriction of customers' control about how their data should be used, compulsion to accept the various user terms of use in exchange of service. The result of this study also showed that ad irritation, customers' trust in the company and ad placement also affects how customers experience personalized advertising. The results also show that this type of marketing strategy can be appreciated by customers in a situation where a value exchange occurs.