This thesis explores the interrelations between the cultural dimensions and the establishment of trust, within the context of foreign distribution partnerships. The empirical data of the research is based on the activities of a Swedish startup during its Chinese market entry. With this study we aim to look closer at the changes of startup’s original cultural standpoints when they find themselves in a situation where they have to react appropriately to the differing cultural positioning of the foreign distribution partner. Further, we analyzed the consequences that have been triggered by the changes in the startup’s original cultural dimensions. Moreover, we have also assessed and speculated on the importance and the possible outcomes of the high and low degree of accuracy in the evaluation of trustworthiness of partners’ competences.We believe that our exploratory study is a first step in the direction to evaluate the importance of developing trust in partnerships accurately by carefully considering the adaptation of cultural codes and its implications. The propositions provided in this thesis can further be developed and tested with a considerably larger sample size across all of the variables of interest.

The overall vagueness of words and sentences can show differences in meaning and perceptions. Applying this to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives can end up being misleading, especially in an online setting such as social media, which has shown as a preferable medium for these kinds of messages. This awoke a curiosity within us as we ourselves have a critical way of thinking because of our studies within media communication and our own experiences with social media messages being somewhat misleading and shady in their nature. With theories and previous research from several authors revolving around complex concepts such as trust, transparency and authenticity. A definition of trustworthiness has been established to be used for this particular bachelor thesis for the basis of our variables and analysis of the results. This study aims to measure if trustworthiness in CSR posts on Instagram change depending on different levels of transparency. Research is conducted with a quantitative experiment with three web-based surveys containing each a different stimuli taking inspiration from real-life companies posts on Instagram. The results showed that the perceived trustworthiness changes depending on the levels of transparency, with a high trustworthiness towards message and action in an Instagram post of high transparency. Instagram posts with mid-range and low levels of transparency showed similarities but the post with low affinity of transparency showed the least amount of perceived trustworthiness. / En överskridande vaghet av ord och meningar kan visa på skiftningar inom mening och uppfattning. När detta appliceras till Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiativ så kan resultat bli missledande, särskilt online på sociala medier, som har visat sig vara ett förmånligt medium för dessa typer av meddelanden. Detta väckte en nyfikenhet inom oss eftersom vi har en kritisk syn att se på saker i och med att vi studerar inom medier och kommunikation. Även våra egna erfarenheter av meddelanden på sociala medier säger oss att de kan vara missledande och lömska i sin natur. Vi har studerat teorier och tidigare forskning från flera författare kring komplexa koncept som tillit, transparens och äkthet. Utifrån detta så har vi etablerat en definition av trovärdighet som vi använder för denna kandidatuppsats, som blir till grunden för våra variabler och analys av resultat. Studien ämnar att mäta om trovärdighet i CSR-inlägg på Instagram förändras beroende på nivån av transparens. Forskningen är gjord med ett kvantitativt experiment som är baserat på tre webbenkäter som alla har ett annorlunda stimuli. Vi har tagit inspiration från riktiga företags inlägg på Instagram. Resultatet visar att den upplevda trovärdigheten ändras beroende på de olika nivåerna av transparens, med hög trovärdighet mot meddelande och handling i ett Instagraminlägg med hög transparens. Instagram-inlägg med medel och låg transparens visade likheter men inlägget med låg transparens visade på den lägsta nivån av trovärdighet.

Despite the growing body of research in related disciplines, including economics, management, politics, psychology, and sociology, marketing research has largely overlooked the downstream consequences of economic inequality, despite its undeniable impact on individuals' consumption decisions and experiences. This dissertation endeavors to bridge this knowledge gap by uncovering two novel consumer consequences of economic inequality. To accomplish this, it draws upon a diverse range of data sources, including individual-level experimental and survey data, as well as aggregate-level transaction and census data. Additionally, it examines economic inequality across multiple levels, encompassing communities, counties, states, and countries, and operationalizes it both as objective and perceived economic inequality. In Essay 1, I investigate how economic inequality in a consumer's region affects their access to peer-to-peer (P2P) services. Across diverse types of P2P services, I find convergent evidence that increased economic inequality in a consumer's region reduces providers' willingness to serve them, ultimately resulting in their diminished access to P2P services. This adverse effect of economic inequality can be attributed to providers perceiving consumers from more unequal regions as less trustworthy. This perception leads them to perceive heightened financial risks associated with serving these consumers. Moreover, this negative impact of economic inequality attenuates when providers perceive greater interpersonal similarity with consumers from unequal regions. In Essay 2, I explore how economic inequality within one's society affects their education decisions through the lens of perceived education premium. Firstly, it encourages people to attend college as it amplifies the perceived education premium of college—the income gap between college graduates and high school graduates. Secondly, it motivates people to choose majors with higher earning potential but lower personal interests, as opposed to those that align more with their genuine interests but pay less. This shift towards prioritizing extrinsic motivations over intrinsic ones is driven by people's perception of a more significant education premium between majors—the income disparity between higher-paying and lower-paying majors. / Doctor of Philosophy / Economic inequality, defined as the unequal distribution of income among various groups in a society, has been on the rise globally in recent decades. Amid the growing economic inequality, researchers have been delving into its profound impacts on individuals across diverse domains, exploring its influences on their mindsets, perspectives on the world, social lives, and overall well-being. It's surprising that there has been relatively little research on how economic inequality affects people's consumption decisions and experiences, given its undeniable influence on them. In this dissertation, I explore the impacts of economic inequality on consumers' access to P2P services and education decision-making. In Essay 1, I investigate how economic inequality in a consumer's region affects their access to peer-to-peer (P2P) services. I examine whether P2P providers are equally willing to serve consumers from regions with varying levels of economic inequality. I reveal a disconcerting reality: providers are less willing to offer P2P services to consumers from more unequal regions, driven by the perception of these consumers as less trustworthy and posing a higher financial risk. These differing attitudes ultimately lead to reduced access to P2P services and region-based discrimination for consumers from regions characterized by higher economic inequality. Fortunately, these adverse outcomes can be mitigated by an increase in perceived interpersonal similarity between providers and consumers. In Essay 2, I investigate how economic inequality in one's society shapes their education decisions. I find that as economic inequality rises, people become more willing to pursue a college education because they perceive a wider income gap between well-educated individuals and those with lower levels of education. Besides college decisions, economic inequality also influences people's choice of major for a similar reason. In a society characterized by greater economic inequality, people gravitate towards majors that promise higher earning potential, even if these fields do not align closely with their personal interests. This preference is driven by their perception of a greater wage difference between higher- and lower-paying majors. These findings provide policy implications for several pressing challenges in higher education.

Online services such as e-marketplaces, social networking sites, online gaming environments etc have grown in popularity in the recent years. These services represent situation where participants do not get to negotiate face to face before interaction and most of the time parties to transaction remain anonymous. It is thus necessary to have a system that rightly assesses trustworthiness of the other party in order to maintain quality assurance in such systems. Recent works on Trust and Reputation in online communities have focused on identifying probable defaulters, but less effort has been put to come up with system that make cooperation attractive over defection in order to achieve cooperation without enforcement. Our work in this regard concerns design and investigation of trust assessment systems that not only filter defaulters but also promote evolution of cooperativeness in player society. Based on the concept of game theory and prisoner¿s dilemma, we model business games and design incentive method, compensation method, acquaintance based assessment method and decision theoretic assessment method as mechanisms to assure trustworthiness in online business environments. Effectiveness of each of these methods in promoting the evolution of cooperation in player society has been investigated. Our results show that these methods contribute positively in promoting cooperative evolution. We have further extended our trust assessment model to suit the needs of a mobile ad-hoc network setting. The effectiveness of this model has been tested against its capability to reduce packet drop rate and energy conservation. In both of these the results show promise. / EU Asia-link project TH/Asia Link/004(91712) East-West and its local host Kantipur Engineering College in Nepal, and Kathmandu University.

The use of e-mail communication between consumers has been growing and companies are seeking to increase their understanding of this type of private communication medium between consumers. The privacy and cost-effectiveness characteristics of e-mail make it an important communication medium for consumers. Consumers use e-mail to exchange a variety of information including electronic word of mouth (eWOM) about products, services and organisations. The travel industry, the context of this study, is increasingly being delivered online. Understanding what influences consumers and how consumers evaluate eWOM will increase the travel industry’s knowledge about its consumer base. This study aims to contribute to existing knowledge on the impact of eWOM on consumer purchase intention. Its focus is on an interpersonal context where eWOM is sent from the source to the receiver in an e-mail about holiday destination. The study, which was undertaken from a positivist perspective, used qualitative and quantitative research techniques to better understand the influence of eWOM on purchase intention. The literature on word of mouth (WOM) and eWOM was initially examined to identify the major factors that have an influence on the receiver of eWOM. Consistent with previous studies, both perceived expertise and similarity were identified as source characteristics that have an influence on the receiver’s purchase intention. The literature also indicated that trustworthiness belief would have a key effect on the influence of eWOM on the attitude of the receiver. Consequently, this study examined each trustworthiness dimension – ability, benevolence, and integrity – with respect to its role in the influence of eWOM on purchase intention. The literature review also revealed that certain receiver characteristics were important in the process of influence, especially consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence. The relationships between the variables identified were further developed into the research model, which has its roots in the theory of reasoned-action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) and the dual process theory of influence (Deutsch and Gerard, 1955). Methodologically, a scenario-building approach to developing authentic e-mail was used. The qualitative data gathered from eight focus group discussions were analysed using “framework analysis” (Ritchie and Spencer, 1994) to develop eight scenarios. This was then used to manipulate the moderating variables in the scenario. Three manipulations, each with two levels, were included: eWOM direction “positive and negative”; source characteristic of “expert/non-expert”; and source characteristic of “similar/non-similar”. These scenarios formed part of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of University of Bradford students. The final number of usable questionnaires was 477. Structural equation modelling was used to determine the validity of the conceptual model and test the hypotheses. In particular, multiple group analysis was used to assess both the measurement and structural models, and to identify the impact of the eWOM direction. The theoretical model that describes the relationships between the exogenous variables (source’s and receiver’s characteristics) and the endogenous variables (trustworthiness dimensions, interpersonal influence and purchase intention) was accepted. The research findings provided empirical evidence on the difference in the impact of positive and negative eWOM on purchase intention. The source’s and receiver’s characteristics and related trustworthiness beliefs, (i.e. ability, benevolence, and integrity) are influenced by the direction of eWOM. The findings show that positive and negative eWOM differ with respect to how they impact on consumers’ attitudes and intentions. For instance, consumers have more belief in the credibility of a source who provides negative eWOM. However, the overall influence of the source’s characteristics tends to be stronger with positive than with negative eWOM. The findings of this study provide insights for both academics and practitioners to understand the potential of eWOM. This might be tailored to help develop more private relationships with customers through e-mail marketing strategies that incorporate eWOM. Negative eWOM is more credible but less directly useful to marketers. Nevertheless, it is important for marketers to realise the significance of managing dissatisfaction and to harness the power of negative eWOM. Similarly, positive eWOM is effective especially when the source is both expert and similar. This might be translated into online marketing campaigns that use consumer-to-consumer discussions in addition to viral marketing. Future research might test the model in different contexts, (e.g. financial services), to provide a more comprehensive picture of the influence of eWOM on purchase intention.

Forskningsfrågor: 1. Hur påverkar den upplevda attraktiviteten hos influencers köpintentionen hos deras följare? 2. Vilka faktorer i relationen mellan influencers och konsumenter leder till en ökad upplevd attraktivitet hos influencers? Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och få en djupare förståelse för vad som påverkar influencers upplevda attraktivitet. Vidare kommer uppsatsen att undersöka vilka faktorer i konsumenters relation till influencers som leder till köp med attraktivitet i fokus. Följande faktorer som undersökts är attraktivitet, expertis, trovärdighet, community, autenticitet och köpintention. Genom att analysera dessa faktorer i relationer mellan konsumenter och influencers kan studien bidra med insikter som kan ligga till grund för framtida marknadsföringsstrategier. Metod: Studien har utgått från en kvantitativ undersökning där data har samlats in med hjälp av en enkätstudie med 355 respondenter. Vidare har data analyserats med hjälp av analysverktyget SPSS Statistics. I analysprogrammet har korrelationsanalyser, korstabuleringar, Cronbach’s reliabilitetsanalyser och regressionsanalyser genomförts för att tolka insamlad data.  Slutsats: Studien visar att det finns ett mycket signifikant och säkert positivt samband mellan attraktivitet och köpintention. Attraktivitet påverkas dessutom av expertis, trovärdighet, community och autenticitet. Kunder som känner attraktion till sin influencer i den mån att de har liknande intressen och värderingar kommer påverkas av marknadsföring från sin influencer på ett positivt sätt. Företag bör ha det i beaktning när de väljer influencers som ska marknadsföra deras varor. / Research questions: 1. How does the perceived attractiveness of influencers affect the purchase intention of their followers? 2. Which factors in the relationship between influencers and consumers lead to an increased perceived attractiveness of influencers? Purpose: The study aims to investigate and gain a deeper understanding of what affects the perceived attractiveness of influencers. Furthermore, the study will be researching which factors in the consumers' relationship with influencers lead to increased purchases intention, with attractiveness in focus. The following factors investigated are attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness, community, authenticity and purchase intention. By analyzing these factors in relationships between consumers and influencers, the study can contribute with insights that can form the basis of future marketing strategies. Method: The study has been based on quantitative research where data has been collected using a questionnaire study with 355 respondents. Furthermore, the data has been analyzed using the analysis tool SPSS Statistics. In the analyses program, correlation analyses, cross-tabulations, Cronbach's reliability analyses and regression analyses have been carried out to interpret the collected data. Conclusion: The study shows that there is a very significant and certainly positive relationship between attractiveness and purchase intention. Attractiveness is also influenced by expertise, trustworthiness, community and authenticity. Customers who feel attraction to their influencer to the extent that they have similar interests and values will be affected by marketing from their influencer in a positive way. Companies should take this into consideration when choosing influencers to promote their products.

The aim of this study was to unify a South African model of organisational trust with the globally accepted Integrative model of organisational trust on a theoretical and empirical level. The antecedents of trust in direct supervisors represented by five personality dimensions and four managerial practices were used to extract the facets of trustworthiness of ability, benevolence and integrity to create a unified trust model. Based on literature, a methodology was developed to re-assign the various dimensions on an item level into three new scales representing the antecedents of trust. Data gathered between 1995 and 2013 in South African organisations by means of the Trust Relationship Audit was used and subject matter experts reassigned the items into the three antecedents of trust. Structural equation modelling was employed to replicate the Martins (2000) model and to test the measurement and structural regression models, arriving at a five-factor model. A unified model of trust in supervisors was fitted to the data and validated. This unified model emphasises the importance of the affective component as an antecedent of trust towards supervisors in organisations in an African context. Managerial concern, based on benevolent managerial practices and communication, was found to have the biggest impact on trust. Integrity as a personality trait was the only other component that had a positive impact on trust. Contrary to most studies, ability had a minimal or negative impact on interpersonal trust in direct superiors, but is a prerequisite for high integrity and benevolence as facets of trustworthiness. Managerial ability and, to a lesser degree, a benevolent personality are necessary but not sufficient for trust to develop. Being very agreeable and competent is not sufficient to be perceived as trustworthy; managers or supervisors also need to exhibit high levels of concern and integrity. In this study the author responds to the calls in the literature that a common terminology be used in trust research. The multitude of measures causes a situation where studies and concepts cannot be compared and therefore no basis exists upon which to build trust research. Future researchers can now with confidence apply the South African model of organisational trust within the context of a globally accepted model. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The theme of this work is the phenomenon of trustworthiness. With reference to the approach of the European Values Survey, the trustworthiness is mapped by attitudes justification of behaviours called as the every day crime (avoiding a fare on public transport, cheating on taxes, etc.) and other phenomena, that might be questionable or dilemmatic from an ethical perspective (adultery, abortion, etc. ). Through cluster analysis are defined four groups of people, different in trustworthy level and the importance they attach to the problems under consideration. The aim of the following analysis is to discover whether and to what extent, from each of these groups differ in terms of trust and socio-demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The results show, that interpersonal and institutional trust is not the same in the groups, but this diference, with the exception of trust in the Church, is not great. The analysis also suggests a connection between untrustworthiness and younger age and dissatisfaction with a life. The phenomenon of trust is examined using data from the European Values Study, specifically the wave realized in 2008. The work relates to the situation in the Czech Republic Key words: trustworthiness, interpersonal trust, institutional trust, every day crime, legal cynicism, social...

Il processo di digitalizzazione sta influenzando il modo in cui l'arte viene veicolata, rendendone la sua fruizione più interattiva e dinamica e portando le istituzioni artistiche e culturali a riconoscere un’enorme importanza alle leve strategiche del mondo del marketing. In particolare, il primo paper mira a comprendere, attraverso il caso studio ‘Artvisor’ come le organizzazioni artistiche e culturali abbiano avviato un processo di disintermediazione attraverso dispositivi digitali riconoscendo un ruolo centrale alle nuove tecnologie nell’ambito della gestione artistica. L'obiettivo del secondo lavoro è esaminare le dimensioni di brand trustworthiness, perceived quality e visitor satisfaction considerate componenti chiave nella prospettiva dello studio del comportamento del visitatore in una logica esperienziale della visita museale. Con il terzo paper viene analizzato nello specifico il ruolo delle nuove tecnologie in relazione alla dimensione dell’engagement nell'era dei selfie, dei social media, dei dispositivi digitali e dei social network. / The digitalization process now occurring in many sectors has influenced the way that art is consumed and has contributed to making arts consumption more interactive and dynamic recognizing a huge importance to the role of marketing. The general purpose of the proposed research is to develop an understanding of how people engage with arts in the digital era through digital devices and social networks and how important it is to recognize a role to proper marketing strategies. In particular, the first paper aims to understand how arts organizations are starting to decouple their structures and to initiate a disintermediation processes through digital devices: the example of ‘Artvisor’ allows the author to examine how a gallery might face the digitalization process with the goal to identify sensitive areas within the online arts experience which arts administrators need to be conscious of as we enter a more dynamic era of art consumption. The object of the second paper is to examine the role of brand trustworthiness, perceived quality and visitor satisfaction as antecedents of consumer behavioural intentions in a museum context and developed a research framework to investigate the relationships among all the construct taken into consideration. The object of the third paper is to deal with the role of the new technologies in the arts management context to understand how people engage with art and culture in the era of selfies, social media, digital devices and social networks.

Trustworthiness of a website relies foremost on a good first impression which includes the visitor’s perception of the user interface. The focus of this research is to investigate the effects of website design elements on user perception of trustworthiness of a site and provide a set of guidelines for website designers. The research design is based on Yosef Jabardeen’s (2009) “conceptual framework analysis”. In this research paper, a holistic model is developed to depict the relationships among website design elements and trustworthiness. The model was tested, validated and updated using the results of the repertory grid technique, a process that elicits perceptions about a topic from an individual. For this research, the topic was website trust, the objects were the website design elements, and the constructs were elicited perceptions regarding those website design elements. The repertory grid technique was applied in two stages to a set of participants made up of website users and website designers. Analysis yielded useful information regarding website design associations and correlations of perceptions. The research findings confirmed original suggestions regarding associations and produced an updated, validated model of website design elements. The research indicated that while all design elements had their importance regarding trust, those elements that provided for the function and security of the website rated the highest in importance and expectation. The validated model will aid website designers in understanding what elements are appealing to the visual senses and conjure credibility and trust. Most importantly, this new understanding may help designers to create websites that attract and retain new users and establishing a successful presence on the Internet.