Continuance Intention of Food Blog Users in Pakistan

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between different factors affecting the interest of Pakistani blog users reading food blogs using components of the ECT model. Methodology: With the sample size of 392 food blog readers, the study analyzes the impact of expectation confirmation theory, blog user’s involvement, and habit on continuance intention of using the blog, and satisfaction level. Findings: User habit and user involvement both are positively related to factors which are users’ perceived enjoyment, satisfaction, and intention to revisit the blog. Users’ perceived enjoyment is positively related to user satisfaction and intention to revisit the food blog. Findings suggest that when bog users are satisfied, they intend to revisit the blog. Blogging time does not moderate the effect of habit on either perceived enjoyment, satisfaction, or continuance intention. Conclusion: It is concluded from the research that ECT can be applied to examine the satisfaction of blog users and their intention to continue blog use. However, further research is required to analyze the impact of ECT in another context apart from food blog readers and the blogging domain. This research extends the efforts of earlier research as previous research emphasized enjoyment and user involvement and rarely have, they covered the moderating effect caused by blogging time and the effect of blog users’ habits specifically in the food and beverage industry

Group level influence on blog's design behaviour

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The purpose of this research is twofold. Firstly, this research aims to investigate whether the design preferences of bloggers in selected countries from different cultural backgrounds are influenced by national culture traits. The investigation involves two categories of blogs selected within a country where the bloggers share similar attributes such as language or geographical location. Secondly, simultaneously, this research intends to discover the possibility of the impact of group level influence on design preferences of bloggers who are linked together in a network through bloggers’ linkage or blogrolls. To achieve the said purposes, observations on both the global and local blogs of six selected countries are conducted using the content analysis method. This method allows this research to observe web pages and rate design preferences of bloggers via a coding system, similar to the method used to analyse documents or manuscripts to find common themes or keywords. A total of 612 blogs (306 global and 306 local) are observed for a period of nine months to identify cultural traits on design behaviour based on national culture indicators chosen from prominent literatures. To prevent a systematic error, an independent second observer was appointed and the results obtained are compared using a statistical methodology. In addition, translators were also engaged to verify that the translations are of a correct meaning and comprehension since blogs use various national languages on their web pages. The data were statistically tested using SPSS engaging in statistical analysis of frequency table, Cross-Tabulation and cluster analyses and MANOVA. Results shown that design preferences between both the global and local blogs in each country, has significant differences in most of the design indicators chosen. The findings indicate that the national culture influence on design preferences in linked networks of blogs is weakening indicating another type of influence might be in existence. The results also provide evidence that blogs in linked networks are statistically significant as a cluster or a group by themselves and are independent from one cluster to another. The research, however, studies only six countries from six different cultural dimensions. The inclusion of other countries, similar to or different from the countries under investigation, would be an added advantage. Furthermore, the use of only a single type of global blog provider (blogspot.com) in this research could be extended to other global blog providers such as wordpress.com to give fairer coverage of major and popular global blogs as well as providing a wider generalisation effect of the research findings

An exploration of the role of bloggers and blogger characteristics, in the consumer buying process for cosmetics in the Thai market

Consumers often use online information to help them make better buying decisions (Cheung, 2014; Lu et al., 2014). Blogs and bloggers’ opinion can be one of the most important sources of information for consumers evaluating products and services, reducing a consumer’s cognitive effort and uncertainty before making a purchase (Mrazek, 2010). Employing bloggers to spread information on products has become one of the most powerful word-of-mouth strategies for marketers (Kempe, 2003; Sussman, Siegal et al., 2003; Scoble, 2006). This thesis aims to understand how bloggers and social media influence consumers’ decision-making processes and to explore the characteristics of blogs and bloggers in term of trustworthiness and credibility in the environment of the marketing practices for beauty products in the Thai market. Qualitative research methods were used, including online observations and interviews. The interviewees covered 38 Thai women who have experience in using online beauty reviews. This thesis develops the Theory of Planned Behaviour Model (TPB) to understand how beauty bloggers have influenced the consumer’s decision-making process. Moreover, the characteristics of blogs and bloggers in terms of trustworthiness and credibility are explored and explained in relation to the dual processes (central route and peripheral route) from the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). The thesis contributes new knowledge in relation to the content-based factors existing in the central route and their relationship to the peripheral route (sincerity, actual use, expertise, and experience). Therefore, bloggers can show their ability and potential to use a product and criticize its quality through writing, photography, and videos. Furthermore, the analysis found that factors from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) could be adapted and applied to explain further the consumer perception of bloggers