In an increasingly environmentally conscious world, the creation of sustainable communication and marketing becomes crucial. Generally, young consumers are environmentally conscious and seek sustainable products while remaining wary of greenwashing and deceptive claims. However, they are likely to be heavily influenced by social media and peers, which makes them a receptive target for advertisers’ deceptive strategies. To achieve success, advertisements must be trustworthy and appeal to the target audience either emotionally or rationally. Sustainability labels like the EU Eco-label fosters consumer trust. Hence, our research will focus on the impact of sustainability message appeals on deceptiveness in laundry detergents and the influence of certifications in product advertising on customer deceptiveness.The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of sustainability messages on perceived deceptiveness of laundry detergents. Moreover, it explores the relationship between emotional and rational appeals and consumer behaviour, with a focus on trust, deceptiveness and purchasing intentions. Accordingly, the study was conducted on consumers to see how theyperceive emotional and rational advertisement. The findings will guide managers and entrepreneurs to effectively market cleaning products for enhanced sustainability perception and transparency. The study has employed a deductive approach, utilising a quantitative research design. Data was collected through a survey from 299 participants, aged 18-30, representing diverse European backgrounds. The collected data was analysed by using a moderated mediation approach, allowing for a comprehensive examination of the relationships between sustainability message appeals, deceptiveness, and the influence of certifications in product advertising. The research showed that consumers may be misled by emotional sustainability appeals in laundry detergent advertising, hence the intention to purchase decreases. Nevertheless, it was revealed that rational appeals and third-party certifications such as EU Ecolabel positively influenced perceived sustainability and purchase intention. The study also found that gender had no significant moderating impact, while sustainability awareness moderated the relationship between deception and purchase intention in emotional appeals.

Purpose                                                           The primary objective of this study is to make     theoretical advancements and practical insights for companies aiming to strengthen  enhance their brand image through the implementation of CSR initiatives..   Background                                                   CSR entails committing to ethical conduct and  sustainability, taking steps to minimize societal and environmental impacts caused by a company’s operations. Nowadays, companies are expected to demonstrate their values and prioritize actions that address economic, environmental and social needs. Consumers evaluate brands not only based on product functionality but also emotional and social attributes associated with the brand.  CSR can help businesses retain existing customers and attract new ones.    Design/Methodology/approach                The qualitative single case study focuses on IKEA and its CSR initiatives incorporating feedback from customers. The study employs abductive reasoning and utilizes semi-structured interviews as the primary research method.  Both  primary and secondary data sources are  used to conduct this study, providing a comprehensive view of IKEA’s CSR efforts and their effect on customer perceptions.    Findings   The findings from the study on IKEA’s CSR initiatives reveal a range of attitudes and perceptions among consumers. While some value and prioritize ethical and socially responsible practices when choosing a brand, others prioritize factors such as price, quality and convenience.

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.

Background: Reshoring refers to the process of bringing back manufacturing activities from foreign countries to the home country. The phenomenon is receiving increasing attention from companies and academics for factors such as increasing labor costs in offshore locations, supply chain disruptions, and a growing preference for locally made products. Sweden is home to many world-renowned multinational companies and multinational brands, many of which have established production operations in developing countries. However, reshoring from a consumer-side perspective has not received much research attention, especially from a Swedish consumer perspective. Purpose: This study investigates factors influencing Swedish consumers’ purchase intention on reshored products. This study focuses on five factors: brand attitude, social acceptability, individual ethnocentrism, made-in effect, and perceived social responsibility.  Methodology: This study adopts a quantitative research design and conducts a questionnaire regarding reshored apparel among Swedish consumers to test hypotheses. The data was collected through a web-based survey that 151 respondents answered. Findings: The empirical results indicate that brand attitude, social acceptability, and perceived social responsibility positively affect Swedish consumers' purchase intention on reshored apparel, while individual ethnocentrism and made-in effect do not have any significant effect.  Contributions: This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the implications of reshoring from a demand-side perspective, complementing the reshoring literature that primarily focuses on the business perspective. As the study is limited to a Swedish context, it provides a deeper understanding of Swedish consumers and their influence on reshored products.

Background: Nostalgia in marketing has become increasingly popular but the need for research within the field is prominent with a lack of models, approaches, and mediators of effectively using nostalgia in marketing, especially using nostalgic music in advertisements. The definition of nostalgia is an ambivalent feeling, including both fondness and sadness, when reminiscing about the past. Previous research has shown that nostalgia in marketing is beneficial as it can influence consumer behaviour. Combining nostalgia and music with advertising is an unexplored area of marketing research and is therefore an interesting and important topic to investigate further. Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate nostalgic music and its effect on brand affection and consequently consumer behaviour, as well as if using nostalgic music is an effective marketing strategy in advertising.  Method: A quantitative and deductive research approach was chosen for this study with an experimental research design. Two manipulation checks were conducted to define nostalgic music and facilitate the isolation of nostalgia. An experiment with three different groups was conducted where respondents viewed an advertisement with or without the stimulus of nostalgic music.  Findings: The result of the study showed that nostalgic music in advertising does not affect brand affection and therefore has no impact on the key marketing metrics word of mouth and purchase intention. Nostalgic music is therefore not an effective marketing strategy that is aimed towards individuals in their late adolescence

ABSTRACT  Background: Second-hand clothing has significantly continued to generate interest both in research and in the real world and emphasis ofexisting works revolve around history, motivations for buying and effect on the environment as well as the impact on the countries that these second-hand clothes are imported. Consumers’ demographics is expected to play a role in their intention to purchase certain goods including clothes and findings also revealed that people have begun to incorporate sustainability in their intention to purchase second-hand clothing. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of demographic variables and sustainability awareness on the consumers’ purchase intention on second-hand clothing. In other words, to investigate if statistical relationships exist between gender, age, income, educational level and sustainability awareness on the intention to purchase second-hand clothing. Method: This research was conducted through a quantitative method and five hypotheses were formulated based on the theory. An online survey was developed and shared through social media and sample of 111 respondents was generated. These responses were analysed through Excel and SPSS. Conclusion: Findings showed that none of the variables influenced consumers’ intention to purchase second-hand clothing. Implications: Business men can take advantage of this study to position their businesses using this findings to intensify their strategies since intention to purchase second-hand clothing has no relationship with gender, age, income, educational level and sustainability awareness. It also brought to light the level of sustainability awareness of the people and the need for the government to promote it. Originality: This work was the first to examine how demographic variables and sustainability awareness impact purchase intention on second-hand clothing in Nigeria. This contributes to existing second-hand clothing literature which is capable of inspiring comparative study and can also be useful for business decision.

Background: Due to the growth of green markets, the phenomenon of greenwashing arises. This leads to consumers experiencing feelings of betrayal and having trust problems with the brand using this misleading tactic. Nevertheless, there is also literature indicating that some customers ignore this and do not alter their purchasing behavior by continuing to buy from these misbehaving brands. This can be explained by moral decoupling, which allows customers to separate their judgements of morality from their judgements of the company's performance. In addition to this, three further variables were analyzed, to comprehend this concept better. Purpose: This study's goal was to retest relationships established in previous research, concretely moral decoupling linked with brand identity fusion, purchase intention and the regulatory focus theory in the context of a greenwashing infraction. By retesting and further proving these, this study’s contribution would have been to propose the expansion of the moral decoupling model with the mentioned variables. Also, this study would expand the existing literature on causes of customer behavioral responses and bring light and study further the detrimental practice of greenwashing.  Method: The foundation of this study was previous literature, which helped construct three hypotheses that were tested via an online questionnaire that has 122 usable responses. In summary, this study follows a deductive approach using quantitative methods to fulfill the purpose of this explanatory, positivist research.  Conclusion: There was not enough evidence to support hypotheses 1 and 2. These stated that regulatory focus influences moral decoupling in a greenwashing context, promotion focus negatively and prevention positively, and that brand identity fusion influences moral decoupling positively in a greenwashing context. The third hypothesis stating that moral decoupling positively influences purchase intention was only proven in the English survey. The overall results contradict the findings of the literature this study is based on, meaning that future research is needed to reconcile these differences.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how trust was built from three dimensions of source credibility in an electronic word of mouth space towards purchase intentions of a hotel stay. The chosen dimensions of Source Credibility that were investigated in the study was: Homophily, Expertise and Trustworthiness. The study aimed to see how consumers of hotel booking for a destination got affected and believed in electronic word of mouth for their intention to purchase a hotel stay via the internet. A quantitative method was chosen for this study with a questionnaire that was sent out to students on the programmes “Ekonomie Kandidat”, “Civilekonom” and “Fastighetsmäklare” at Luleå University of Technology. The questionnaire was also shared on the author's private Facebook page and sent to friends and family via messenger. The data was collected during one week and summarized in diagrams and a one-sample statistical t-test for the three dimensions of Source Credibility were run and are provided in appendix 1-3. The findings for this study shows that all three dimensions; homophily, trustworthiness and expertise impact trust in eWOM and can lead to purchasing intentions of a hotel stay. The trust towards an expert who works at a hotel (manager) did not seem to be trustworthy compared to previous customers who shared their opinions of a hotel online. It appeared clearly that previous customer reviews which provide a lot of information, repetitive reviews of customers and new reviews are seen as the most trustworthy for purchasing a hotel stay online. A recommendation to managers in the hotel industry and to those working with the review websites is therefore to categorize reviews so customers easily can pick from what they are searching for.

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Retailers' ultimate concern is consumers'' purchase intentions because increasing levels of purchase intention may lead to the actual purchase, which is directly related to retailers' sales and profits. Perceived risk has been proposed as one of the most important concepts for understanding how consumers make a purchase decision (Mitchell, 1999) and research findings supported that perceived risk was a significant factor affecting consumers' willingness to purchase (Heijden, Verhagen, & Creemers, 2001). Therefore, it is critical for online retailers in the apparel industry to understand consumer's perceived risk and purchase intention so that they can develop effective retail strategies and build long-term relationships with customers. Consumers use internal information to help them in the purchase decision process by retrieving risk-related information from memory. Experience and product/brand knowledge are two common types of internal information that consumers use to reduce risks and make purchase decisions (Brucks, 1985; Engel, Blackwell, & Miniard, 1995). Studies showed that experience with previous in-home shopping for apparel products significantly reduced perceived risk and increased purchase intention in buying apparel products via in-home shopping channels (Kwon, Paek, & Arzeni, 1991; Park & Stoel, 2005; Sen, Johnson, Stanforth, Lennon, & Moore, 2000). Several researchers also have investigated the relationship between the familiarity with a website's brand and the perceived of risk and purchase intention (Laroche, Kim, & Zhou, 1996; Park & Stoel, 2005). However, the brand familiarity in these studies was measured as consumer's brand knowledge through frequent exposures, such as advertisement, instead of experiences acquired through actual purchase and use of the brands. No study has examined if the purchase experience and actual usage of a specific brand are related to perceived risk when consumers shop for apparel products online. Brand image is one type of knowledge that consumers stored in their memory and may retrieve it during their decision making process. Studies showed that brand image was the most important and most frequently used tool to reduce consumers' perception of risk (Nandan, 2005). McCracken (1989) indicated that brand image helps an individual express oneself and develop one's self-identities; therefore, consumers prefer products with an image that matches their actual or ideal self-concept (Karande, Zinkhan, & Lum, 1997). Therefore, congruity between brand image and consumers' self image (brand-self image congruity) may help consumers to reduce their perceived risk and increase purchase intention in apparel online purchases. No study has examined the effect of brand-self image congruity in apparel online shopping context. The purposes of the study were to investigate (a) the relationships between consumers' experience with apparel catalog/TV shopping and their experience with apparel online shopping, (b) the effects of consumers' experience with apparel online shopping and brand-self image congruity on their experience with a specific brand, and (c) the effects of consumers' experience with a specific brand and brand-self image congruity on their perceived risk and purchase intention in apparel online shopping context. Two conceptual frameworks were developed. The first framework was for examining all participants, including participants with and without experience with a specific brand. The valence of experience with a specific brand was excluded in this framework. The second framework, including the valence of the experience with a specific brand, was for examining participants who had experience with a specific brand. Fifteen research hypotheses were generated with respect to the specific relationships proposed in the conceptual frameworks. A 2 x 2 quasi-experimental between subjects design was used in this study to examine if experience with a specific brand (Experience vs. No Experience) and brand-self image congruity (Consistent vs. Inconsistent) were the antecedents of perceived risk and purchase intention in apparel online shopping context. In addition to the quasi-experimental design, a survey design was also used to examine the relationships among experiences with catalog, TV, and online shopping for apparel products and the relationships among experience with apparel online shopping, perceived risk and purchase intention. Data was collected by online surveys using a national sample, and 455 apparel online shoppers living in the U.S. participated. Factor analysis results showed that the valence and extent of the experiences were two different constructs, and therefore, the two aspects of experience were included in the study. The extent of the experience is about how often consumers buy products, how much money they spend, and how many items they buy (Klopping & McKinney, 2006; Seock, 2003; Ward, 2001). The feelings experienced are called the valence of the experience, and these feelings are usually described in the literature as good/bad, enjoyed/not enjoyed, or satisfied/ dissatisfied with the experience (Chen & Dubinsky, 2003; Folkes & Patrick, 2003; Mano & Oliver, 1993; Raghubir & Menon, 2005). The first purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships between consumers' experience with apparel catalog/TV shopping and their experience with apparel online shopping. The results showed that participants who had more experiences and who had a positive feeling about their experience with buying apparel products from catalogs had more experiences with apparel online shopping. However, participants' TV shopping experiences did not have significant relationships with apparel online shopping. Participants who had more positive feelings about their experience with buying apparel products online purchased apparel product more frequently, bought more apparel items, and spent greater amount of money on apparel products online. The second purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of consumers' experience with apparel online shopping and brand-self image congruity on their experience with a specific brand. The results showed that participants who had more experiences with buying apparel products online and who perceived the image of a specific brand as more consistent with their self image had more experiences with a specific brand, indicating that they purchased apparel product of the brand more frequently, bought more items of the brand, and spent greater amount of money on the brand. The third purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of consumers' experience with a specific brand and brand-self image congruity on their perceived risk and purchase intention in buying a specific brand online. The results of perceived risk showed that for all participants, including those with and without experience with a specific brand, those had more experiences with a specific brand and those perceived the image of a specific brand as more consistent with their self-image perceived less risk in buying the apparel products of the brand online. However, participants who already had experience with a specific brand perceived less risk in buying the brand online if they had positive feeling about their experience with the brand despite of the frequency of previous experience (i.e., the extent of the experience with a specific brand). In the results of purchase intention, similar results to that of perceived risk were found for all participants. Those had more experiences with a specific brand and those perceived the image of a specific brand as more consistent with their self-image had higher purchase intention in buying the apparel products of the brand online. However, among the participants who had experience with the specific brand, only brand-self image congruity influenced their perceived risk and purchase intention. Either the extent or valence of the experience with the brand did not directly influence their purchase intention in buying the brand online. Instead, these experiences indirectly influenced the purchase intention through perceived risk. In conclusion, participants' experience with apparel online shopping and brand-self image congruity were significant factors on their perceived risk and purchase intention in apparel online shopping context. Participants who had more and positive experience with apparel online shopping and those whose self image was more consistent with the brand image perceived less risk and had higher purchase intention in buying apparel products of the brand online. This study extends the understanding of consumers' apparel online shopping behavior by identifying the roles of experiences and brand-self image congruity in apparel online shopping context. Based on the findings, suggestions for marketing strategies in apparel online shopping were provided. / Ph. D.