CLSBE - Dissertações de Mestrado / Master Dissertations
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- 100 years skincare for life : analysis and impact of NIVEA’s campaign in the portuguese marketPublication . Arruda, Ana de Almeida e Silva Neves; Celeste, Pedro Manuel Amador RodriguesIn 2011, NIVEA achieved one century of existence and felt the need of refocus on its core competence – skincare; rejuvenate its image; and become closer to its both current consumers and future ones. This dissertation was written with the objective of presenting to marketing students, the greatest and global NIVEA’s campaign ever, in fully detail; evaluate its performance in the Portuguese market; and the way how NIVEA has assessed the achievement of its short- and long-term objectives. These goals were achieved through a case study, which introduces NIVEA and the campaign in its global context and also all the campaign stages and elements respecting the Portuguese context and; moreover, through a quantitative analysis based on a conduction of an on-line survey. The main findings of thesis refer to the evaluation of the campaign’s outcomes, as well as, to NIVEA’s efficiency respecting marketing measurement performance.
- 14 graus : fighting for the survival of its online marketplacePublication . Simões, Maria Bação Pinto; Guedes, Nuno MagalhãesThis Case Study addresses the early days of a small online marketplace that sells other brands' sustainable products, from personal hygiene items to clothing and home decoration. The Portuguese company was founded a year and a half earlier, and from the beginning it faced several difficulties in acquiring sales and customers. The company was created with the founders’ own investment and based on the success of its informative sustainability community on Instagram. Several operational changes were made, and additional sources of revenue were developed, although none of them generated a significant increase in the marketplace sales. The strategies followed by 14 Graus can be an interesting topic for discussion, including the sustainability market in Portugal, the challenges in launching a business, the influence of social networks, and the problems related to product diversification and differentiation in an online marketplace. This Master's Thesis includes a Literature Review, on relevant topics related to the Case Study, and a Teaching Note in order to assist instructors to prepare the Case discussion.
- 3D-printed jewelry : a new era for online jewelry customization : exploring consumer perceptions, consumption drivers and barriers for the portuguese online marketPublication . Soares, Alfredo Duarte Lóia de Almeida Silva; Rita, Miguel Fontes Casegas CorreiaThe jewelry industry has been forever re-shaped by the introduction of 3D printing technology. When compared to the centuries-old production methods still in use, 3D printing allows the creation of previously "impossible" designs, fully customized and at a fraction of the cost and time. Driven by the international growth of this business and the increasing trend for online purchases among Portuguese consumers, this research aims to determine their perceptions of this disruptive product, as well as the drivers and barriers for its adoption/purchase. Following a thorough review of the literature, this study has adopted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and expanded it to incorporate additional variables relevant to the research subject. For this study, 10 in-depth interviews were conducted, followed by an online questionnaire that generated 115 valid responses. From the data analysis, it was possible to conclude that despite the low levels of awareness and purchase of 3D-printed jewelry in the Portuguese market, a significant percentage of consumers demonstrated strong indicators toward the adoption and acquisition of this product. Moreover, the perceived ease of use, usefulness, compatibility, customization level, along with the aesthetic features of the jewelry, the tech optimism of the consumer and his/her attitude toward the use of the product, were identified as the key purchase drivers, influencing the behavioral usage intention of 3D-printed jewelry. In contrast, the perceived cost, the lack of awareness along with the problems and concerns associated to the online jewelry shopping were identified as the main barriers for consumers’ purchase.
- 4.5 stars for this hotel : user-generated content and its impact on hotel decision-makingPublication . Lopes, Ricardo Filipe Marçal; Rodrigues, Helena Maria Correia Neves CordeiroWith an undeniable importance in several areas, social media changed consumers, who are not only more demanding but also, they have the information in a click distance, and tourism is not an exception. Tourists use social media before, during and even after a trip, but user-generated content is not just about sharing. The content generated by other consumers is also a source of information and therefore is used as electronic word-of-mouth, since that same content will be available and will be used by other tourists during the decision-making process. However, the impact that different types of user-generated content have on consumers’ hotel decision-making process is still unclear. This study is aimed to understand not only how positive and negative user-generated content impact the process of deciding a hotel, in particular hotels in the European city centers, but also which type of user-generated content (pictures or reviews) has more impact as electronic word-of-mouth in that same decision-making process. The conclusion is that these two types of user-generated content are perceived by consumers as unseparated content, meaning that consumers are not able to only consider reviews or pictures separately, since they consider that these types of content complement each other.
- Abandoning the online shopping cart before finalizing the purchase : influences form attitudes, subjective norms and internet experience : a study with contributions from the theory of reasoned actionPublication . Fernandes, Bárbara; Mead, Nicole L.This thesis addresses the problem of online shopping carts abandonment from the point of view of the consumer behaviour: what drives consumers into completing versus abandoning the online purchase? This is analyzed by the means of a questionnaire, distributed online to a heterogeneous sample, which aims to reduce the sampling bias and ensure a better representation of the online shoppers’ community. It is hypothesized that internet experience, attitudes and subjective norms have a predictive power in explaining consumers’ intentions to abandon versus to finalize the online purchase. Additionally, it is hypothesized the existence of a behaviour-action gap, leading consumers who originally intended to purchase, to abandon the e-shopping cart. This gap is suggested to be triggered by the intention to procrastinate the purchase. The results show the existence of a positive relationship between internet experience and attitudes towards online shopping. In the same line, consumers with higher attitudes towards e-shopping and higher levels of social influence showed higher intentions to finalize the purchase. Consumers with lower levels of attitudes and social influence showed higher intentions to abandon the purchase. Consumers with higher intentions to abandon the purchase have also admitted to abandon a higher percentage of e-carts. Finally, the intention-action gap is stimulated by the intention to postpone the purchase only when intentions to purchase are negative. However, when the intentions to purchase are positive, online procrastination does not influence abandonment. These results provide insight into the problem of online shopping cart abandonment, and can be applied to the field of online buying behaviour. The results suggest that marketing campaigns targeted at increasing internet experience as well as the attitudes and social influence will decrease e-shopping cart abandonment. However, postponement is not a good predictive of e-shopping cart abandonment for consumers who originally intended to finalize the purchase.
- Accelerating sustainable mobility : empirical insights into machine learning-based electric vehicle price predictionPublication . Moraes, Reece Cavan; Fernandes, Pedro AfonsoThis thesis endeavours to discern the primary variables influencing pricing differentials among electric vehicle manufacturers. Leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms, the study scrutinizes the impact of fifteen distinct features that potentially contribute to pricing variations. The models are meticulously trained and constructed on a comprehensive dataset, subsequently tested on an independent sample to ascertain optimal precision and accuracy metrics. While too many studies have successfully implemented this innovative methodology within the domain of internal combustion vehicles, its application to the electric vehicle domain remains a nascent area of inquiry. This pioneering approach, coupled with the evolving landscape of machine learning, holds the promise of delivering dual benefits: affording companies the ability to establish an appropriate pricing spectrum for their vehicles, and providing consumers with access to value-added electric vehicles. The study incorporates a diverse set of regression techniques, including Multiple Linear Regression, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest Regression, Decision Trees and XGBoost Regression. The target variable under consideration is price, characterized by its continuous nature. Consequently, the utilization and implementation of regression methodologies exclusively aligns with the nature of the output variable. In the domain of electric vehicles (EVs), research focused on employing machine learning for pricing determination has been relatively limited in its momentum and significance within the automotive industry. Despite the anticipated proliferation of these battery-powered vehicles driven by global imperatives for carbon neutrality, their widespread adoption is still in its early stages in the 21st century.
- Acceptance of artificial intelligence in the workplace : the influence of employees fixed or growth mindset on AI acceptancePublication . Böcher, Leonie Merle; Almeida, Filipa deArtificial Intelligence (AI) has already changed the way humans interact with the world and continues to even transform the world of work. To effectively implement human-machine collaboration and leverage the potential benefits of AI tools, employees must accept the AI tools they interact within their organizations. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine whether an employee's mindset, either fixed or growth-oriented, influences their acceptance of AI in the workplace. Moreover, the study aims to examine the effect of employee's attitudes towards change and their technology familiarity on AI acceptance. In order to identify the interactions between the variables, a quantitative research method in the form of a survey was conducted. The comprehensive analysis of the collected data has shown that an employee's mindset marginally significantly influences their acceptance of AI technology in the workplace. The results further indicated that there is a significant negative effect of employee's attitudes toward change and a significant positive effect of their technology familiarity on the acceptance of AI, with greater technology familiarity associated with increased acceptance. This dissertation intends to contribute to the increasing literature in the areas of mindset and acceptance of AI, as well as to provide valuable implications for organizations considering the implementation of AI technologies.
- Accepting generative artificial intelligence in consulting services : an analysis of success factorsPublication . Herzog, Inessa; Lancastre, FilipaThe present study examines the success factors that influence the acceptance of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) among business consultants. While numerous research studies have developed and expanded models for general technology acceptance, there are still few studies that address the acceptance of GenAI in specific professional contexts such as the consulting industry. This work fills this research gap by developing a new model to investigate the acceptance factors of GenAI among business consultants. The model is based on established theories such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) model, which have been combined into a new conceptual framework. For empirical verification, a quantitative study was conducted with 147 business consultants to identify key success factors on the intention to use and acceptance of GenAI. The results show that the fit between technology and tasks (Task-Technology Fit, TTF), the expected performance improvement (Performance Expectancy, PE) and the Behavioural Intention (BI) play a crucial role in the acceptance of GenAI in the business consulting context. The study highlights the need amongst companies for targeted training, practical use cases, and a strategic integration of GenAI into existing workflows to promote sustainable acceptance. The results provide both theoretical and practical implications for consulting firms to support the successful implementation of GenAI
- Access to finance and the type of ownership : do different firms behave differently when constrained?Publication . Teles, António Maria Cunha; Bonfim, Diana Carina Ribeiro GuimarãesThe purpose of this thesis is to understand how European SME’s capital structure varies with credit restrictions, taking into account the type of ownership of the firm. Departing from the previous literature, I explicitly consider differences between public firms, family firms, business owned by other businesses, venture capitalists owned firms and singular owned firms. Using the ECB’s SAFE dataset I try to see if the behaviour of different types of ownership is by itself a differentiating factor. This is done for cases where firms are constrained and unconstrained. Moreover, the same is done considering constraints to different types of external financing in which we can distinguish bank loans, trade credit, credit lines and other type of external financing. Furthermore, this thesis also looks for differences in the way shareholders react when they are constrained vs. when they are not. The empirical results surprisingly show that in many cases, when firms are constrained they still increase their leverage ratio. However, when comparing the leverage level, the significant results suggest a decrease when constrained. For the constrained case, when I compare the types of shareholder, I find no significant differences between firms, while some firms show bigger percentages of increase in the leverage ratio when compared to others in the unconstrained case.
- Access to the public debt market effect on corporate leverage : evidence from the USPublication . Kostyunina, Maria; Bonfim, Diana Carina Ribeiro GuimarãesThis study addresses the research question largely underestimated in the previous empirical works: how supply-side constrain factors influence firms’ financing opportunities and capital structure. In particular, it examines the effect of firms’ access to the public debt market estimated by the possession of a credit rating on firms’ leverage level. Findings show that after controlling for demand-side determinants of firms’ demand for debt, firms that have a credit rating are 1.8% up to 2.5% more levered than firms without a credit rating. Furthermore, this study’s findings suggest that the impact of firms having access to the public debt market – on firms’ leverage is time variant and is particularly sharp and significant during the years of economic downturn. During the economic crisis of the year 2000 and the most recent financial crisis of 2008 firms with a credit rating were up to 9 – 10% more levered than non-rated firms, at 1% significance level.