The choice of pricing model for software products is a complex procedure due to the different characteristics compared to physical products.

This thesis investigates and compares software pricing models in a B2B setting, and describes how KAM plays a role in executing a pricing model. The research has been conducted as an opportunist case study on Adebro, a technology company in the B2B sector. The thesis have come to the following conclusions, with data from interviews and literature:

• Perpetual license is, and will continue to be, an attractive pricing model for Adebro. However, a subscription-based usage independent pricing model is also attractive for the future.
• Implications of switching pricing model would be largest when changing between a perpetual and subscription model, where revenue will have the most visual impact.
• The most important task for KAM is to communicate the change to current and new customers. KAM and the pricing model must also be structured to support each other to be successful.

The thesis contributes to science by providing research on pricing models for manufacturing related software. However, studies concerning the weighting of importance for different pricing parameters would be of interest for the future.

In today’s digital world digital money has become a reality. With the introduction of Bitcoin and this new branch of digital currency, cryptocurrency, digital money has begun competing with traditional official currencies, e.g. US dollar and Euro. Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer currency allowing anonymous transactions. The currency’s value is solely based on supply and demand and is mainly used for e-commerce. However, in order to really compete with traditional currencies and further push the evolution forward physical transaction that can be used in stores is necessary. The objective of the thesis is thus to explorer how this can be realized as well as investigate how physical stores that accept bitcoins can be mapped and turned into a service. The method used for this exploratory study is an extensive literature study. A survey is also used to give additional depth for the research and analyze the current situation concerning bitcoins and wireless communications technologies in Sweden.

The analysis and findings concluded that it is very much possible to realize the idea with the existing technologies. By using QR-codes and NFC for its intuitive way of communicating, transactions can reach the same accessibility as traditional system like credit/debit cards. Regarding mapping of service points the findings suggest to use both user based input and PoS/store based input. In other words, to utilize the Bitcoin community and its peer-to-peer nature by letting user contribute with information about bitcoin enabled stores as well as using the marketing argument to encourage stores to submit information about themselves

This report combines theoretical and empirical findings to create a holistic framework for market oriented practices within professional service firms. Changes in the business environment of technology consultancy firms, has developed a need to adopt more structured procedures in assessing the market place and in responding, both through external activities as well as through internal optimization. An assumption was made that the market orientation concept was of relevance in addressing this need.

A qualitative empirical investigation was conducted at a large professional service firm mainly operating within the construction consulting industry in Sweden.

The result provides a conceptual framework for practising market orientation, based largely on empirical findings, which in the conclusion is summarized into a model to visualize the interconnection of the different parts of market orientation.

The framework developed is ‘The Market Orientation Model’ which is made up four stages; (1) ‘Assess Current State’ in which the goal is to understand the current state of the firm; current market, current services and current competences. (2) ‘Collect Intelligence’ where the collection of market intelligence, using a set of different processes, about the needs and demands of current, new and internal customers should be gathered. (3) ‘Create Insight’ which is the process of identifying the Market Potential or the Market Demand through processes of organization wide dissemination and analysis of the gathered intelligence. (4a) ‘Create Response Initiative’ where the aim is to create new, or develop existing service offerings to meet the demand or need of the market. (4b) ‘Create Sales Initiative’ which is the initiation of a sales attempt of existing services to new or existing customers.

The model creates a summarized picture of what constitutes market orientation and how it can be adapted to an organization. It can be used to create a standardized approach for an entire organization in building a market oriented firm. By continuously following this model in a market oriented firm, greater alignment with market should be achieved.

A startup’s ability to make correct decisions regarding their Cloud choices is essential if they intend to stay competitively relevant in their business. Choosing the Cloud solutions that allow for an optimal level of production can give startups that operate in most industries a competitive advantage. However, new startups have a plethora of factors to consider when choosing a Cloud provider, which is the basis of the thesis.

The purpose of the study is to explore and gain insight regarding how new startups can make suitable decisions when selecting different Cloud services. The study’s main data collection method is a set of interviews that were conducted with CTOs from some of Sweden’s most promising startup companies.

The study thoroughly discusses the three largest Cloud providers (Amazon Web Services, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform), and attempts to reveal how these Cloud services are positioned in the eyes of the customers that use them on a daily basis.

A main finding of the study was that the most important factors to consider when selecting a Cloud provider is its compatibility with your company’s IT-environment, the quality and quantity of its services, how well managed it is, if it offers data protection compliances, and ultimately, the prices of the services it offers. Furthermore, information derived from the interviews imply that new startups ought to make their IT-solution as simple as possible in order to reduce the chances of running into integration problems with different Cloud solutions. The author intends for the study to be a guideline for new startups to better understand what factors they ought to prioritize when selecting Cloud providers.

With millions of videos with different messages uploaded per year, companies are increasingly looking for means of making their messages stand against competitors. A theory of viral marketing is used to analyze and understand the spread of-and reactions to-a controversial political mega-viral video, Kony 2012. Through this analysis, policy makers and marketers could gain a better understanding of how they can use mediums such as YouTube to extend their messages. Kony 2012 concerns the highly publicized leader of a Ugandan guerrilla group, Joseph Kony. The video was a call to action and an attempt to educate the world about the atrocities committed in Sudan. The video was made by an organization called the Invisible Children and created by filmmaker Jason Russell. Following the extraordinary success of Kony 2012, Jason Russell was infamously arrested in San Diego for indecent exposure. The story and video of Russell's arrest and breakdown similarly went viral. The framework that follows analyzes the virality of a political video and the downfall of its creator.

A theory of viral marketing is used to analyze and understand the spread of—and reactions to—a controversial political megaviral video Kony 2012. Kony 2012 is concerning the highly publicized leader of a Ugandan guerrilla group, Joseph Kony. The video was a call to action and an attempt educate the world about the atrocities committed in Sudan. The video was made by an organization called the Invisible Children and created by filmmaker Jason Russell. Following the extraordinary success of Kony 2012 Jason Russell was infamously arrested in San Diego for indecent exposure. The story and video of Russell’s arrest and breakdown similarly went viral. The framework that follows analyzes the virality of 2 political videos.

The global nature of business today and the advances in information and communications technologies have compelled corporations to employ emerging technologies in order to remain competitive. In recent years electronic business has been adopted by many corporations to improve operational efficiency, profitability, and to strengthen their competitive position. This study examines the impact of web-based e-business on the small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden. The analyses of data collected for this study provide valuable information to the executives of manufacturing and service SMEs. The findings show that the SMEs in the sample have benefited from e-business implementation in both operational and performance areas of their organization.

The information and communication technology industry is constantly affected by rapid changes and new development in technology. During the recent years there is an emerging trend within IT outsourcing where scalable and flexible IT enabled capabilities are delivered as a service over the Internet, called cloud computing. Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of the most adopted cloud service models, which is a software distribution model where applications are hosted by a SaaS provider and made available to the customer over a network.

Tieto is present in this fast changing industry and has recognized a need to move into the cloud in order to stay competitive and meet their customers’ requests. Tieto’s department Energy Utilities wants to transform their broad portfolio of different software solutions to a SaaS delivery model. This transition will affect Tieto’s sales strategies, both in terms of pricing and marketing, and they will face challenges when changing to a SaaS delivery model. Hence, this master thesis aimed to determine important aspects when a company is changing software to a SaaS delivery model, where focus was on pricing and marketing strategies for SaaS.

The objective was accomplished by conducting a case study that involved a qualitative data  ollecting method. Interviews were conducted from three different perspectives: from external SaaS providers, internally at Tieto as well as from a customer point of view.

Conclusions from this thesis, was that important aspects when marketing SaaS involved:  managing the customers’ preconceptions, handling the impact of irrational factors,  nderstanding customer need and have the capability to guide and advise customers when purchasing a SaaS solution. The empirical findings showed that a value-based pricing approach was the most common strategy, using a user-based charging method and a model with different levels of subscriptions. The customers expressed that the price level was not the determining factor; instead the difference between the price level and the potential revenue generated from the SaaS solution was of importance. Furthermore, transparency and clearness are desirable conditions in a SaaS pricing model. Several challenges have been identified when transforming software to a SaaS delivery model, where multi-tenancy, security, pricing and standardization were the most common ones.

The development of digital solutions has changed the way consumers complete purchases today. New distribution channels through internet and mobile applications have come to challenge the business of traditional retailers. Thus, retailers must find new ways of keeping customers loyal to the store. One way of retaining customers is to provide a more prominent customer experience. This study focuses on technological solutions for the food retail industry that enables the creation of this experience, more specifically self-scanning applications provided by the Swedish company Datema.The Swedish market, in which Datema acts, is among the most technologically advanced in the world regarding self-scanning solutions and has begun to reach a maturity phase. This, along with desires to expand the marketplace, has created an attraction to larger foreign markets such as North America. Similarities in business culture and a strong buying power have led to a certain interest in the Northeastern part of America. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the need for self-scanning solutions in this specific area and to provide recommendations for how the market could be targeted.To create an overview of the market structure the consumer market has been studied through an in-depth literature review of the latest market investigations. Furthermore, the technological level of Northeastern supermarket chains was investigated through market observations and interviews with store managers in Boston, Massachusetts. To create the holistic view of the market, interviews with experts in the US retail market and with US IT-vendors were conducted. Additionally, interviews with management consultants and experts in market entries have contributed to answering the question of how the market should be entered. Finally, in order to provide conclusions and recommendations, the results have been analyzed with relevant literature and theories within marketing, change management and entry mode management.The findings in this master thesis indicates that there is a need for technological solutions that enhance the customer experience in the Northeastern American food retail market. Furthermore, the technological level of the existing supermarket chains in Boston is considered low and that the level and acceptance varies with the store concept. The previous resistance towards implementation of new technological solutions in the stores was found to mainly depend on a low knowledge, low trust in the consumers and fear of losing customer interaction.Datema is recommended to address the middle and high-end supermarket chains with a follower approach. Further recommendations include that the market should be entered through a joint venture with a local partner.

Parody, or spoof advertising, is as old as advertising itself. However, the rise of consumer generated content and its rapid diffusion have created a veritable epidemic of spoof ads aimed at companies and their brands. Brands are increasingly becoming the targets of burlesque. Marketers, faced with a loss of control over their message, are left wondering why some brands are mercilessly ridiculed while others seem impervious and immune. In this paper we address the central question of “which brands are most at risk of being parodied, and why?” To this end we develop a theory of spoof advertising based on the literatures of burlesque, satire, and caricature. We then apply the theoretical model to a well-known spoof ad to illustrate the theory’s explanatory power. Finally, we discuss avenues for future research in this area.

This thesis investigates the strategic stance of a political brand and the factors that affect its positioning. The question related to the positioning of a political brand is complex. Nowadays, political leaders should be able to define the characteristics of their political brand. To succeed in the political arena, they must understand, identify, and utilize the most appropriate mechanism of communication to create an accurate perception of their political image in the market that is strictly linked to the characteristics of their brand and to reach these targets. For these reasons, it is mandatory to have measurement methods and comparable results over time. It was decided to divide the overall research problem into four different research questions to explore and explain the mechanism of political brand creation and the interaction between political brands and the electorate and to do so through four different papers. In paper 1, the political environment has been observed and studied. Subsequently, a theory of consumer and product orientation has been identified and utilized to both understand and to strategize how politicians can better position and present themselves to the public and voters. Paper 2 proposes a methodology to measure political positioning and constituent perception. The specific aim of the research is to explore interrelations between a political party's positioning in two different periods to discover possible discrepancies and changes over time. Paper 3 investigates whether the negative impact of a political brand can influence a country's brand. The fourth paper tried to measure how the quality, readability, and frequencies of political messages could provide insight into the effectiveness of viral communication using a political blog. This thesis contributes to the understanding that influence in a political environment happens in a bidirectional manner, where politicians are influenced by voter sentiment and voters are influenced by politicians. The key strategic question then becomes not whether the stance is right but if it is appropriate for the environmental condition in which the party or brand finds itself. If it is, then the party or brand must both reinforce and maintain the mode of focus; if it is not appropriate, then strategists need to identify a more appropriate stance and engineer ways for the brand to move in that direction. Political marketing managers could find the results of this thesis useful for revealing the difference between a political party's positioning and its perceived positioning as well as monitoring it in different periods to discover possible discrepancies over time.

The Internet is widely used by political parties to report events and to send messages to the voting population. Politicians used digital media (websites, blogs, bulletin boards/lists, and chat/instant messaging) in recent elections, together with traditional media (television, newspapers, rallies, etc.). Political blogs represent not only an additional communication channel but also an instrument for spreading editorial content and messages, virally infecting more traditional media channels. A key task for any political party or politician is to make the blog understandable and easy to read as a first step to ignite and spread the right viral effect. To reach this goal, writers must consider both their content and their target audience. This article measures the readability of the text of a political blog to provide insight on the effectiveness of viral communication using blogs. The Beppegrillo.it blog was analyzed from January 2005 to May 2012 and is a unique example of a political blog using a single official media. This blog switched in the period of the study from being a personal blog to a political blog. The posts were divided into two different phases: the former were intended to discuss political topics and were written by a not-yet-political contributor; the latter were posts written by an active politician. Content analysis using simple word and sentence counts for every year of posts was undertaken, along with a readability analysis using the Microsoft Word Spelling and Grammar function, and both the Gunning Fog Index and the Gulpease Index. The two different phases were compared to determine if any change occurred in readability, complexity of the text, and volume of communication. In this way, we can explore the differences in the communication techniques used in the political field unofficially and then officially. Finally, our findings indicate that levels of readability of communications, particularly among broad-based audiences, may be deteriorating significantly when the blog becomes a political one and the communication becomes more institutional.

In this article, we propose a methodology in order to measure political positioning and constituent perception. Political leaders should be able to effectively define the distinctive characteristics of their political brand and to subsequently utilize the most appropriate mechanisms of communication to promote an accurate perception of political image in the market. The specific aim of this research is to explore interrelations between a political party's positioning in two different periods in order to discover possible discrepancies and changes over time. The official blog of a political party, containing both official communication and the people's feedback, represents a perfect place in which to observe the concepts and the values on which both the political brand identity and image are founded. Leximancer, a content analysis tool, was utilized to analyze communications between a political party leader and his or her constituents. Illustrating the methodology, the blog of Beppe Grillo, founder of the Movimento 5 Stelle is analyzed.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a theory of consumer and product orientation in the realm of political branding to illustrate how politicians can choose to position and present themselves to voters. It is evident that some politicians play an active role in shaping the beliefs and actions of their constituents, while others are more influenced by voter sentiment. The effectiveness of the political strategy is highly influenced by the market realities of the voting body in question. Design/methodology/approach - A dichotomy is presented to shed light on how consumer and product orientation might influence the way in which politicians choose to address the public. Specifically, four modified strategic orientation archetypes are presented and analyzed with particular focus on political brands and strategy. Findings - Product and consumer orientations have been shown to also be applicable to the strategic positioning of political brands. While it can be argued that no strategy is superior over another, careful consideration of the political environment in question and subsequent execution of an appropriate stance can be used to better manage the relationship between the electorate and politicians. Research limitations/implications - This study provides academics in this area with a comprehensive examination of strategic orientation literature in political contexts, and lays out a strong groundwork for future studies. In this burgeoning area of research, there are several opportunities for marketing and political strategy academics to dive deeper into the intricacies that drive politicians to adopt specific strategic orientations, and how these strategies evolve over time and in differing political environments. Practical implications - This analysis suggests that there are opportunities for political strategists to explore the relationship between the identified strategic orientations and political brands, and for political marketing scholars to investigate the modes of focus presented. Originality/value - This analysis provides better understanding of how politicians can influence voters and voters can influence political brands, and how the strategic orientation archetypes can be used to influence decisions about political strategy.

Different reasons can be found of firms’ involvement in merger and acquisitiondeals. These expanding the operational capacity, reducing costs of production, increasing sales, revenue and profits. This thesis analysis such impacts of merger and acquisitions on the Swedish newspaper industry using the financial data of more than 100 companies from 1990 to 2007. Using the difference-in- difference technique, the thesis found that the merger and acquisitions in the Swedish newspaper industry have no significant impact on operations and the profitability of the industry. The results of the model has important policy implications for the Swedish newspaper industry in particular and generally for the whole industry of the EU region.

The purpose with this paper is to analyze the way top management acted in order to adapt a former railroad monopolist to a new deregulated environment and by that decreasing the amounts of employees with 75 % as well as developing a new corporate strategy. In particular, focus is placed on analyzing how top management acted in order to support the learning needed internally to create acceptance of the fundamental changes of both corporate strategy and structure. The approach used is an investigation on the consistency between the content of change, the context for it as well as the process of change ‐ by using an in‐depth case study. There are few in‐depth case studies on how top management acts in order to support change, particularly in terms of creating learning even though the topic as such have been addressed for several decades. The numbers of failures in change initiatives are severe and over the last twenty years or so, many problems have been raised within this field of research. Several of them boil down to the importance of creating internal understanding for the change needed. This case study show that consistency between actions taken by top management and the content and context of change appeared and is likely to be one major reason why this change process can be considered as successful.

This paper bring forward a methodology that makes it possible to handle different theoretical models simultaneously when analyzing cases of outsourcing - without ending up with contradictory conclusions. The approach used in the paper is a development of a framework, the analysis of three commonly used models (The Make-or-buy model, the Network approach, and Industrial strategy) and a case study where outsourcing of shift-gears in the car industry is analyzed. The paper addresses the basic need to clarify the fundamental assumptions embedded in theories applied on outsourcing. It also clarifies hands-on how the suggested methodology can be used.

In this conceptual paper a management-perspective towards the field of innovation is addressed. Important basic aspects towards the paradoxes embedded in the field are investigated. On one hand we are asking for innovations and on the other hand we can observe the difficulty of introducing new methods and tools to the field – for instance the adaptation of design models. Professionals often continue working the same way as previously. In the article it is claimed that this is related to our basic education and the “tool-box” we learn early in life, gradually becoming professionals. A profound comprehension of what mental models underlie the actions of the different kind of engineers managers have to “manage” is useful if management aims at facilitating an innovative and creative management culture. If introducing new design tools and methods this ought to be considered, as well as handled, by managers.

Research in the field of new learning methods has previously shown the pedagogical value of participants being active and doing hands-on exercises, as well as having a close teacher interaction. From a pedagogical point of view, case-based learning methods are often preferred. However, in practice, case-based methods are often difficult to scale up. Therefore, these methods are not often applied when many participants are involved in a learning environment. This article explores the possibility of creating “real active learning” with large numbers of participants. A case where 23,000 employees at SAS, Scandinavian Airlines, participated in a large-scale learning event is analyzed. The paper concludes that well-prepared learning processes can support “real active learning” with large numbers of participants. The case shows that the difficulty of scaling up, a problem often assumed to be an obstacle for the use of case-based learning, can be overcome.

In this paper a new way of using industrial employment statistics in order to understand major industrial changes will be shown. The case used in order to present this method will be the country of Sweden and a new way of representing official employment‐data. In the case the whole (and not parts) of Sweden’s employment‐changes will be analyzed in categories where NACE‐codes (in Swedish terms: SNI‐codes) will be divided at a five‐figure‐level and a new pattern of branches/sectors will be developed. The employment‐development of these branches will be presented and analyzed with a graphical representation using Adobe Flash interactive software. The presentations shows a whole pattern where changes of specific branches can be analyzed together and compared to other branches in order to describe and understand why major changes occur. This representation makes it possible to analyze Sweden’s industrial transformation during the last 15 years – as a whole.

The executive leadership vision is vital in corporate-wide development and implementation of a corporate strategy. The vision on climate change, among other strategic issues, is expressed in annual CEO letters. This study applies a content analysis approach to review 1000 annual reports from European publicly‐traded companies published in years 2000 through 2008. The content analysis of the CEO letters indicate that: (a) corporate interest in the climate change was nearly nonexistent prior to 2004; (b) the greatest interest in the issues was shown in 2007, but since then interest has declined; and (c) meanwhile interest in external economic conditions doubled in 2008 compared to 2006. In summary, our findings raise questions as to whether corporate interest in climate change issues already has peaked, even as well adapted by industry as can be reasonably expected, or if environmental interest will rise again after the current global financial crisis is over.

As the former U.S. Secretary of Education expressed it: “We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that done yet exist…in order to solve problems we don’t know are problems yet”. This implies a need for Engineering Education to adapt to the fact that the nature of work is changing. This paper discuss how a retargeted Engineering Curriculum can be defined with the help of future pictures of industry. By presenting a different categorization of labor employment statistics new pictures of industry future can be predicted usable when developing the new Engineering Curriculum.

Scenario planning is a commonly used method in order to analyse complex aspects of the energy system. Historically it has been an important tool to prepare for long-term action. Today however, due to the deregulated market, it could be assumed that scenario analysis is abandoned. Maybe more (the only) attention is on short-term action.This paper presents a review over the time period of 1970 to 2010 on scenario-planning articles. The overall purpose is to evaluate how historical scenario studies stand in a situation of today’s deregulated energy markets.Articles surveyed are published in well-respected and internationally well-spread peer-reviewed journals. Focus is put on 1, when, and by whom, articles have been published 2, for what reasons projects have been taken and with what method 3, what aspect that have been in focus. The articles are also analysed in terms of possible use in today’s deregulated situation.Three conclusions are drawn. Firstly, the main use of scenario planning still tends to be a support to political processes. Secondly, three major issues and drivers for change dominate when different aspects of the energy system are analysed in scenario projects: climate change, security in terms of demand/supply and economic development. Thirdly, it is concluded that scenario planning still tend to be of value when analysing the future of the deregulated energy sector in Europe.However, in order to be fully utilized for the future scenario methodology must take into account that energy industry actors are not being controlled by politics as they where during the regulated period.

The deregulation of energy industries in combination with internationalization and a changing Europe requires strategic efforts to be undertaken in a different way than earlier. Policy activitites do not control this sector to the same extent as before – corporate strategies and activities have also become important to understand. During 2002 the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences engaged more than one hundred experts from industry, government and academia to analyze energy within the project “Energy Foresight – Sweden in Europe”. One part of the project, the structure foresight panel, sketched out four different scenarios that each describes a possible European setting for the energy industries - meaning: corporate action was in the center. In this article the aim is to evaluate the result from that scenario project in hindsight and to compare it with other similar scenario projects in this field.

The CEO letters included in annual reports express strategic issues and the leadership vision. This study applies a content analysis approach to review 2400 CEO letters from European and US-based publicly‐traded companies published in years 2000 through 2009. The aim is to analyze the development of the interest in adapting climate change issues on the corporate strategic agenda versus other issues of possible concern. The analysis show that the interest in climate issues on one hand has developed in a similar pattern in both regions. Between the years 2000 until 2004 the interest was very limited in both regions, the big growth of interest happened year 2005, since year 2007 the interest have decreased. In summary the findings on the other hand indicate that US industry is lagging behind Europe when it comes to adapting climate change on the corporate strategic agenda.

Businesses are entering into a period of transformation, where winners and losers may be separated according to their ability to succeed in a carbon-constrained world. CEO’s vision is vital for accelerating the response to this transformation. We examined CEO letters in order to understand the strategic importance of this issue to CEOs.

During the last decade, IT had a big burst. The introduction of smartphones and tablets that are always connected to the Internet changed our way of “consuming” it. All that lead to digitalization of betting services and moving them to the Internet. In their early days online betting services had an easy job to do regarding positioning, they only needed to exist on the Internet and that attracted customers. But, times have changed and online betting services face new challenges. They must find a clear positioning and have a competitive advantage over their competitors, but that is not an easy task to do. Therefore, this study concentrated on the investigation of the positioning for these services.

Case study approach was chosen for this thesis and the investigated company was Betsson Group, which is one of the bigger companies with many brands in their portfolio. However, the research was delimited to their three most popular brands: Betsson, Betsafe and NordicBet with exception to text mining where Bet365 (a competitor) were also analyzed. Empirical data gather during this study came from interviews at the case company, questionnaire with customers and through text mining of online betting services reviews.

The study resulted in finding the gap, in positioning, between the company, the customers and the online reviewers. Customers view and reviewers view align quite well, however company view is completely unaligned. When choosing an online betting service, customers mostly care about best odds, bonuses and variety of bets, where on the other hand companies position themselves in a static way with targets group of folksy, nerdy and luxurious. Customers tend to not care about the brand positioning, and push companies into a price war, however, they need to know the brand in order to trust it with their money.

The study contributes to understanding the customers view when they choose an online betting service and this aspect can be generalized for the online betting industry as a whole. Moreover, some of the theories can be applied to other online services where best price is searched for.

Deal of the day, also known as social couponing, is an e-commerce business model that offers consumers heavily discounted deals on a regular (daily) basis, and gives merchants access to a mailing list of potential new customers in exchange for a commission. There are thousands of deal Web sites worldwide, offering deals from industries as diverse as hospitality, consumer electronics, fashion, and medical services. This study was performed to learn more about consumers' attitude toward deal of the day, and their motivations for purchasing (or not purchasing) daily deals. A systematic qualitative methodology called BASIC IDS was used to analyze 30 consumer-generated YouTube videos about deal Web sites. The analysis showed that many deal-prone consumers can be considered deal mavens; they take effort to learn about different sites and offerings and are eager to share their knowledge with others. Although many of these mavens show hedonistic shopping tendencies, others appear to focus mainly on utility, that is, monetary savings. Consumers with a negative attitude toward deal of the day are often worried about receiving poor service, and some believe that redeeming a deal voucher makes them look cheap.

Deal of the day is a new business model that has been adopted by thousands of companies worldwide. For marketers and consumers, deal of the day is a form of sales promotion in which an intermediary manages a list of subscribers, and allows merchants access to promote their offerings at a discount, in exchange for a commission.

However, deal of the day is in some ways different from traditional forms of sales promotion. Deals are bought online and redeemed later, moving the risk of non-redemption from merchant to consumer. Additionally, deals are typically offered by companies in the hospitality sector, while knowledge about sales promotion is primarily based on shopper data for basic goods.

The aim of the first two papers is to learn more about deal of the day. Paper 1 shows that deal of the day is used by companies from various sectors, and that they have many options to restrict purchase and consumption of deals to suit their purpose. Paper 2 finds that most consumers buy only a few deals per year, and that only a small segment buys at a very high frequency.

The next two papers assess the impact that deal of the day has on existing knowledge about how consumers respond to sales promotion. Paper 3 identifies segments within the deal of the day subscriber base that should be targeted individually. Paper 4 determines that high-frequency deal purchasers are knowledgeable and social, and important for both intermediaries and merchants.

This thesis shows that although consumers’ response to deal of the day is similar to what is known about traditional promotion, the wide range of merchants and deals makes it dangerous to generalize about their intentions and behavior.