J Ö N K Ö P I N G I N T E R N A T I O N A L B U S I N E S S S C H O O L JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY

Needs and Wants in Online Communities

A case study of Ungdomar.se

Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration

Author: Frost, Emma 881203 Persson, Sanna 910403 Sandström, Jennifer 920305

Tutor: Taube, Magnus

Jönköping May 2013

i

Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the people who have made our bachelor thesis possible! These persons have contributed to the fulfilment of the research purpose and to a success-ful completion of the study, for which we are extremely thankful.

Firstly, we want to express our gratitude to Junedalsskolan, Kunskapskällan, and Brunnen. They enabled us to collect the data needed for answering the research questions. Secondly, we would like to give a special thanks to Ungdomar.se, who did not only provide us with data and information, but also insight and support. Kim Jakobsson and André Vifot Haas, we are sincerely grateful for the collaboration. We would also like to thank Jesper Sand-ström for his excellent language skills.

Finally, we would like to express our greatest gratitude to our tutor, Magnus Taube, who has guided us throughout this thesis, and provided us with his knowledge, support, and ad-vice, all the way from Ecuador.

Emma Frost Sanna Persson

Jennifer Sandström

Jönköping International Business School, May 2013

ii

Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration

Title: Needs and Wants in Online Communities – A case study of Ungdomar.se

Authors: Emma Frost, Sanna Persson and Jennifer Sandström

Tutor: Magnus Taube

Date: 2013-05-14

Subject terms: Marketing, Consumer behaviour, Online communities, Youths, Motivation, Needs and wants.

Abstract

Background Young people constitute a fast growing group of Internet users and they are considered an important market segment. In Sweden, on average nearly 97 % of the people between the ages of 15-19 use Internet every day. A great deal of these people use online communities, and in order for these communities to succeed, it is vital to understand what content the youths perceive as valuable and useful. Furthermore, since using an online community takes time and effort, the community should fulfil a need among its users. Since it is no easy task to understand what motivates consumers, online communities should strive to reach a consensus in common characteristics among these individuals, in terms of what needs and wants they seek to satisfy in online communities. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explore what needs and wants youths in Sweden seek to satisfy in online communities. To demonstrate the findings, Ungdomar.se will be evaluated, and given recommendations accordingly. Method In order to fulfil the purpose of this thesis, a descriptive and explorative study was con-ducted, consisting of both quantitative and qualitative data. The collection of data was made through a survey among youths, and by semi-structured interviews with Ungdomar.se and two people working at the Youth Centre Brunnen. Conclusion The authors have identified a set of needs and wants, that youths seek to satisfy in online communities. This has further been applied to the online community Ungdomar.se, and they have been provided with recommendations on how to satisfy these needs and wants.

iii

Table of Contents

1   Introduction ................................................................................ 1  1.1   Background ................................................................................................ 1  1.2   Specification of problem ............................................................................. 2  1.3   Purpose ...................................................................................................... 2  1.4   Contributions .............................................................................................. 2  1.5   Delimitations ............................................................................................... 3  

2   Pre-understanding of the Topic ................................................ 4  2.1   Online consumer behaviour ........................................................................ 4  2.2   Online community ....................................................................................... 4  2.3   Definitions ................................................................................................... 5  

3   Frame of Reference ................................................................... 6  3.1   Internet and Web 2.0 .................................................................................. 6  3.2   Motivation theory - Needs and wants ......................................................... 6  3.2.1   Maslow’s hierarchy of needs ................................................................... 7  3.2.2   User-generated medias (UGMs) ............................................................. 9  3.3   Creating a sustainable online community ................................................. 11  

4   Method and Methodology ....................................................... 13  4.1   Methodology ............................................................................................. 13  4.1.1   Research philosophy ............................................................................. 13  4.1.2   Research purpose ................................................................................. 13  4.1.3   Research approach ............................................................................... 14  4.2   Method ...................................................................................................... 15  4.2.1   Case study ............................................................................................. 15  4.2.2   Target population ................................................................................... 15  4.2.3   Research strategy ................................................................................. 16  4.2.4   Data collection ....................................................................................... 17  4.2.5   Sampling ................................................................................................ 17  4.2.6   Time horizon .......................................................................................... 19  4.2.7   Quality of the study ................................................................................ 19  4.2.8   Summary of the method ........................................................................ 22  4.2.9   Discussion on the method ..................................................................... 22  

5   Empirical Findings ................................................................... 24  5.1   Findings from the questionnaire ............................................................... 24  5.2   Findings from Brunnen ............................................................................. 30  5.3   Findings from Ungdomar.se ..................................................................... 32  

6   Analysis .................................................................................... 35  6.1   Youths’ needs and wants in online communities ...................................... 35  6.2   Creating a sustainable online community ................................................. 37  6.3   Youths communicating online ................................................................... 41  

7   Conclusion ............................................................................... 42  8   Discussion ................................................................................ 43  8.1   Limitations ................................................................................................ 43  

iv

8.2   Suggestions for future research ............................................................... 44  

9   List of References .................................................................... 46  Appendices .................................................................................... 51  

v

Figures Figure 1 - The hierarchy of needs (Gleitman et al., 2011) ........................................ 8  Figure 2 - Interdependence of people's consuming, participating, and producing on

user-generated media (Shao, 2009) .......................................................... 11  Figure 3 - Research strategy, created by the authors (2013) ................................. 16  Figure 4 - Structure of Ungdomar AB, created by the authors (2013) .................... 32  

Tables Table 1 - Statistics from BRIS-rapporten (BRIS, 2011b, 2012 & 2013) .................... 6  Table 2 - Maslow's hierarchy of needs, in online and offline settings (Kim, 2000) .... 9  

1

1 Introduction This section will present an introduction to the broader concept of the study. The reader will be given a background to the problem, followed by the problem discussion and the purpose. Further on, the authors will declare the contributions of the study and finally, delimitations of the study will be explained.

1.1 Background Global Internet usage is steadily increasing (Kaur & Medury, 2011) and it is considered an important source of information and entertainment (Findahl, 2012). A great deal of people have access to computers and the Internet, and youths constitute a fast growing group of Internet users (Rideout, Foehr & Roberts, 2010). According to Sørensen (2010), people born after 1986 are part of the Internet Generation, due to their heavy Internet usage and the fact that they have been familiar with the phenomenon since their childhood. This In-ternet Generation has defined a new group of consumers (Lee, Conroy & Hii, 2003) and as Chan and Fang (2007) declare, these young people comprise an important market segment. Therefore, online communication platforms that target young people, should be designed with regard to their needs and wants (Chan & Fang, 2007).

In Sweden, on average nearly 97 % of the people between the ages of 15-19, use Internet on a daily basis. Furthermore, a majority of these people use online social networks (Findahl, 2012). These can take the form of online communities.1 Bishop (2007) argues that for an online community to succeed, it is vital to understand what motivates consumers and how they make the decision of whether or not to use the online community. Further-more, Koh et al. (2007) state that consumers who perceive the content as useful will feel motivated to continuously use the community, which in turn will lead to online communi-ties that prosper. In addition, the community should fulfil a need among their consumers, since using an online community takes time and effort (Kim, 2000). As proposed by Barnes and Pressey (2011), “understanding what motivates individuals and their dominant needs would seem a useful precursor to targeting them and effectively fulfilling these needs” (p. 246).

As an established online community, the authors2 consider Ungdomar.se interesting since they currently focus on adapting and developing their website with respect to their target group. Ungdomar.se is a Swedish online community, targeting young people, with 110 000 unique visitors a week (Ungdomar AB, 2013b). According to the CEO, Kim Jakobsson (2013), Ungdomar.se aims to provide a platform that empowers youths in society and ena-bles them to freely express their opinions. The authors believe that online communities could gain from exploring what needs and wants youths seek to satisfy on their websites. This is in line with Jakobsson (2013), who argues that it is essential for an online communi-

1 Online communities are Internet based platforms used for information sharing, problem solving and com-

municating common interests (Andrews, 2002).

2 Throughout this paper, ‘the authors’ will refer to the authors of this particular thesis.

2

ty to possess knowledge about the needs and wants of their consumers. Since Ungdomar.se targets a wide range of young people, similarly to other online communities, and strives to develop their business according to this target group, the authors consider this a suitable case study for this thesis.

1.2 Specification of problem Understanding consumer behaviour is no easy task (Kotler, 2000). Koh et al. (2007) simi-larly state that it is not simple to understand what motivates consumers of online commu-nities; these individuals are both physically dispersed and differing in various aspects, such as age and education. Therefore, Koh et al. (2007) stress the importance for such commu-nities to reach a consensus in common characteristics among these individuals, in terms of what they are looking for in an online community. Furthermore, Zollo (2004) highlights the fact that even though youths are not a homogenous group of consumers, they comprise an important market segment with many common traits.

With support from previous research, the authors argue that online communities, targeting youths, should reach a consensus on what needs and wants these people seek to satisfy in an online community. By doing so, the community will provide content that the consumers perceive as valuable and useful, which is in line with what Koh et al. (2007) suggest. The authors claim that, for instance, it would be of interest for these online communities to know what young people want to read about, what website features they find important and what other attributes they value.

1.3 Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explore what needs and wants youths in Sweden seek to satisfy in online communities. To demonstrate the findings, Ungdomar.se will be evaluated, and given recommendations accordingly.

To fulfil the purpose of this thesis, the following research questions will be answered:

• What needs and wants do youths seek to satisfy in online communities?

• How can Ungdomar.se adapt and improve their website with respect to youths’ needs and wants in online communities?

• Is it possible for Ungdomar.se to provide youths with a function that cannot be provided outside of the Internet and if so, what function would that be?

1.4 Contributions Until now, there is little research within this specific area since consumer behaviour typical-ly relates to commerce settings (Loveland, 2013). Ungdomar.se has not yet undertaken any study to explore their target group. Hence, they believe that it would be valuable to explore the needs and wants of these people in online communities (Jakobsson, 2013). In addition, since the majority of young people in Sweden today are found on the Internet and use online communities (Findahl, 2012), the authors argue that this thesis might serve as a guideline and be helpful for other online communities, with interests in the same target

3

group. Furthermore, this study will contribute to the academic community, since it opens up for further research on online consumer behaviour in relation to youths’ needs and wants in online communities. Lastly, this thesis demonstrates that consumer behaviour is applicable online in a non-commerce setting.

1.5 Delimitations This study focuses on people between the ages of 15-19 in Sweden. Convenience sampling has been applied in the quantitative phase of the study, explained in section 4.2.5. Thus, as Fritz and Morgan (2010) state, the authors of this thesis cannot claim that the sample, hence the result, will be representative of the whole population of interest.

4

2 Pre-understanding of the Topic This section will give the reader a pre-understanding of the topic in order to facilitate the reading. Key con-cepts will be explained and how they are to be interpreted in this thesis. Furthermore, definitions will be brought up.

2.1 Online consumer behaviour The term ‘consumer behaviour’ concerns “how individuals, groups, and organizations se-lect, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires” (Kotler, 2000, p. 87). Gad (2009) further refers to consumer behaviour as the consumers’ attitudes, intentions, decisions and actions that occur in the marketplace. The authors notice that when the concept of consumer behaviour is applied to online settings, it often relates to how consumers make purchasing decisions in e-commerce contexts. However, as stated by Cho and Park (2001), it is important to remember that in online set-tings, consumers can be considered not only as buyers of goods but also as consumers of information. With support from the Marketing Professor Kate Loveland (2013), the au-thors argue that using a website can be seen as a type of consumption while time and effort can be treated as the payment. An online community, such as Ungdomar.se, does not sell goods or services in exchange for money; instead they put value into consumers’ usage of their online community and the fact that individuals invest their time and effort in the community rather than any other website (Jakobsson, 2013). In this particular context, the authors refer to the concept ‘online consumer behaviour’ as how Internet users select and repeatedly consume the services provided in an online community, in order to fulfil their needs and wants. According to this definition, online communities serve as an e-service, which the Internet users consume at no financial cost. Finally, this thesis refers to users of online communities as consumers in the sense that they consume website content, com-pensating with their time and effort. As far as the authors are concerned, there is no estab-lished definition describing exactly this case.3

2.2 Online community In many studies, online communities and virtual communities are interchangeable; both can be viewed as social communities taking place on the Internet (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2002; Bishop, 2007). According to Leimeister, Sidiras and Krcmar (2006), such a communi-ty is “built on a common interest, a common problem, or a common task of its members that is pursued on the basis of implicit and explicit codes of behaviour” (p. 281). The tech-nical platform also helps to create trust among the members, along with a sense of com-munity (Leimeister et al., 2006). In this thesis, the authors will use the definition proposed by Andrews (2002). That is, an online community is a virtual social network, primarily used for communicating common interests, sharing information and solving problems. This communication is supported by computers instead of face-to-face interactions (Andrews,

3 The search terms, used in the search process, can be found in appendix 7.

5

2002). Furthermore, this kind of community often includes user-generated content and can be described as a form of a user-generated media (UGM), since both are based on a shared interest and common goals among the users (Shao, 2009). Therefore, in this thesis, online communities are also viewed as a form of UGMs.

2.3 Definitions Blog: Online journal in which a record of thoughts, activities and beliefs are regularly pre-sented (Nationalencyklopedin, 2013a). BRIS: An organisation working for children’s rights in Sweden. Their main commitment is to support and give feedback to vulnerable children and youths by providing the possibility to contact the organisation regarding any problem (BRIS, 2011a). E-commerce: Retail of goods, services and information over the Internet (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013a). E-service: Providing services over the Internet or any other electronic network (Rust & Kannan, 2002). Facebook: Website, based on social networking and online communication, mainly through texts and photos (Nationalencyklopedin, 2013b). Instagram: Social network mobile application that enables people to share photos (Nat-ionalencyklopedin, 2013c). Online forum: Web application or website that allows Internet users to communicate with each other, although not face-to-face (Laudon & Traver, 2012). Social network: Website or an application that enables people to communicate, for in-stance by sharing photos and information or posting comments and messages (Oxford University Press, 2013). Twitter: Service, that enables the user to send out short messages to groups of people as a sort of micro blog (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013b). YouTube: Website on which people can share videos (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013c).

6

3 Frame of Reference This section will present the frame of reference, which consists of theories and information of relevance for this thesis. It will serve as a foundation for the design of the investigation as well as for the interpretation and analysis of the findings.

3.1 Internet and Web 2.0 The first website was accessible on the Internet in 1991 and ever since, Internet has rapidly evolved (Wee, 2010). According to Sørensen (2010), the Internet Generation4 has been provided with new possibilities when it comes to learning and communicating. Over the years, Internet has developed into the concept Web 2.0, which can be seen as the second generation of the phenomenon. Web 2.0 deals with Internet as a platform where digital material is gathered. Sørensen (2010) further explains that this has opened up a world where people share things with each other, create things together and communicate through social communities. Thus, Web 2.0 strongly relates to the concept of ‘user-generated content’, which is the content produced by the Internet users themselves.

According to BRIS (2013), the new possibilities of communicating can be seen in their dai-ly operations. BRIS reports from the last three years show how there has been a shift when it comes to communication. Today children and youths use Internet as a communication channel to a higher extent than before and they communicate through Internet rather than on telephone (BRIS, 2011a). Table 1 shows how children and youths increasingly choose Internet-based contact mediums over phone calls, when contacting BRIS.

Table 1 - Statistics from BRIS-rapporten (BRIS, 2011b, 2012 & 2013)

3.2 Motivation theory - Needs and wants The behaviour of human beings is based on motivation, which occurs when a certain need is evoked. This need creates a tension that the individual seeks to reduce (Solomon, 2009). According to Hoyer and MacInnis (2008), motivation is ”an inner state of arousal that pro-vides energy needed to achieve a goal” (p. 45). A motivated consumer is eager to engage in an activity that can help fulfil this goal. As proposed by Solomon (2009), motivation closely relates to needs and wants.

4 The Internet Generation consists of people born after 1986 (Sørensen, 2010).

7

Dermody (2009) proposes that “needs and wants reside within the discipline of motivation and are closely interlinked”. Needs concern “the manifestation of physiological, personal, and/or social motives” while wants are “the means of fulfilling them”. Dermody (2009) further argues that needs and wants within consumer behaviour help to obtain an under-standing of the what, why and how of the decisions that people make, both by themselves and in groups.

According to Kim (2000), people choose to participate in communities in order to fulfil different needs. For an online community to succeed, it is vital to know which these needs are. Whether it regards the launching of a new community or the refining of an existing one, communities should strive to see the community through the eyes of their consumers. When seeking to determine consumers’ needs, Kim (2000) suggests three stages: (1) under-stand your members, (2) make a list of their needs, and (3) prioritise your list. At the first stage, communities should ask questions such as who their members are, whether they are homogenous or not, what interests they have, and whether they belong to any other com-munities. The aim is to gain understanding of who their members are. At the second stage, communities should seek to find out why consumers visit their website, whether they look for something specific and what their community can do to make them satisfied. Further-more, the aim is to find out what content consumers look for. The last stage is about decid-ing on which needs and wants that should be prioritised on the website. That is, what web-site attributes consumers value the most. Communities should think of unique features, which they could offer their members (Kim, 2000).

3.2.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

According to Barnes and Pressey (2011), there is no real consensus regarding how to classi-fy motivation and human needs. However, they argue that the most employed needs con-ceptualisation within the marketing field could be Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, developed in 1943. Solomon (2009) explains how this theory for understanding human motivation identifies five categories of needs: (1) Physiological needs, (2) Safety needs, (3) Love or So-cial needs, (4) Esteem needs, and (5) Self-actualisation needs. According to this theory, in-dividuals have to satisfy their physiological needs, such as air, food, shelter and water, be-fore they gradually can satisfy the other needs. The hierarchy of needs takes the form of a pyramid, which implies that lower needs must be fulfilled first (Solomon, 2009).

Maslow (1943) states that the most dominant physiological need is hunger and this need has to be satisfied before any other need can be fulfilled. An individual who is starving pri-orities eating above everything else – without food the individual will simply die. When physiological needs, such as hunger, sleep, thirst and air, have been satisfied, the individual strives to address the safety needs. In order for someone to feel safe, a predictable and or-derly view of the world is desirable. When becoming adults, individuals learn the repetitive patterns of how the reality runs and thus perceive safety. Hence, in a developed and safe society, an adult will eventually satisfy their safety needs. Maslow (1943) further explains that the next level comprises social needs. At this stage, people seek for belonging and love from other individuals and for affectionate relations. The social need fulfils by both giving

8

and receiving love. Next stage in the hierarchy comprises the need for esteem, which con-sists of affiliation, self-respect and high evaluation of oneself. The first type of esteem con-cerns how the individual strives to obtain confidence and confirmation, which in turn leads to esteem in the sense that the individual feels trust in what he or she does, hence obtains a sense of being useful and necessary. The other type of esteem describes how the individual seeks esteem from others, for instance in the form of reputation, prestige and recognition. Finally, when all these level of needs are satisfied, the individual tends to perceive restless-ness, meaning that the last level in the hierarchy of needs is the need for self-actualisation. At this stage, the individual seeks to engage in activities in which he or she has capacity to thrive; “what a man can be, he must be” (Maslow, 1943, p. 382).

Gleitman, Gross and Reisberg (2011) provide an extended version of the pyramid, shown in Figure 1, which includes two more needs: the cognitive need and the aesthetic need. The aesthetic need relates to order and beauty while the cognitive need drives the individual to strive for knowledge and understanding. These needs are placed before the self-actualisation need in the pyramid.

Figure 1 - The hierarchy of needs (Gleitman et al., 2011)

Maslow (1943) states that even though the needs take the form of a pyramid, the hierarchy does not intend to be inflexible. As Maslow (1943) proposes, “most members of our socie-ty who are normal, are partially satisfied in all their basic needs and partially unsatisfied in all their basic needs at the same time” (p. 388). This means that a need must not be fully satisfied before the next need can emerge. In addition, some needs might be considered more important than other needs and the higher up in the hierarchy, the lower the percent-age of satisfaction. This decreasing percentage of satisfaction would be a more realistic view of the hierarchy (Maslow, 1943).

9

Kim (2000) suggests that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, as it first was developed, can be ap-plied to online settings and serve as a helpful tool when designing online communities. By means of the hierarchy, communities can clarify their goals, in order to decide which web-site-features to prioritise. In table 2, Kim (2000) demonstrates how the five needs can take form in both online and offline settings.

Table 2 - Maslow's hierarchy of needs, in online and offline settings (Kim, 2000)

Bishop (2007) proposes that the hierarchical needs theory implies that the reason why some people choose not to participate in an online community is that their physiological or safety needs have not yet been fulfilled. In the same way, people who choose to participate, do so because they seek to meet their higher needs. However, Bishop (2007) questions the idea that individuals’ needs would take the form of a hierarchy, since needs are not mutual-ly exclusive. “It is possible for an individual to be sociable and be creative at the same time and it might not be necessary for them to become secure before they act out social desires” (Bishop, 2007, p. 1882). Therefore, individuals do not necessarily have to feel physiologi-cally satisfied or safe in order to use online communities (Bishop, 2007).

3.2.2 User-generated medias (UGMs)

Today’s Internet users can choose from a wide range of UGMs with different characteris-tics. What all these have in common is that they can refer to as “the new media whose con-tent is made publicly available over the Internet, reflects a certain amount of creative effort, and is created outside of professional routines and practices” (Wunsch-Vincent & Vickery, 2006, cited in Shao, 2009, p. 8).

Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch (1974) proposed that needs can be media-related, indicating that such needs are the underlying motivation of why individuals consume media. These early studies on user and gratification concern the media provided at that time, such as TV, radio and newspaper. However, Shao (2009) argues that these theories from 1974 are somewhat out-dated in relation to today’s modern media, but that they can be revised to fit the modern media context. Consequently, by means of other researchers’ work, Shao

10

(2009) has provided an extension of these traditional theories. According to this extended theory, people have primarily three motives to visit UGMs: (1) Consuming, (2) Participat-ing, and (3) Producing. These motives can help individuals to fulfil certain needs (Shao, 2009).

Firstly, Bowman and Willis (2003, cited in Shao, 2009) explain that consuming concerns watching or reading the website content. It is also a way of seeking entertainment, for in-stance by browsing through videos on YouTube. This kind of information-search attracts people seeking to create sense and understanding of one self, other people, or the world. Therefore, as concluded by Shao (2009), individuals consume content on UMGs to fulfil their needs of information, entertainment and mood management. Secondly, Chan (2006, cited in Shao, 2009) argues that participating on UGMs implies that the individual actively engages in either user-to-user or user-to-content interactions. User-to-user interactions oc-cur through for instance email, chat rooms or message boards while user-to-content inter-actions occur when users save special website features to their favourites, share content with other users, post comments about the website content, and rate things such as pic-tures and stories. According to Shao (2009), joining an online community that is built around user-generated content can help fulfilling social needs. The interaction among users on such website form a virtual community, where people share interests and create a sense of togetherness. Lastly, producing on UGMs relates to when someone actively produce personal content such as texts and photos on a website. Shao (2009) further explains that posting own produced material on UGMs is highly related to the pursuit of self-expression, which implies that people seek to convey their identity to other people. By consciously choosing what parts to expose to others, it is possible to control this identity. In addition to self-expression, many users strive to reach behavioural goals such as recognition, fame or efficacy. This can refer to the need for self-actualisation (Shao, 2009).

The model developed by Shao (2009), shown in Figure 2, describes the interdependence of the three motives, i.e. consuming, participating and producing. The model illustrates how people tend to go through a certain path when using UGMs. According to Shao (2009), the first stage is where people mostly consume information or entertainment without partici-pating. As they become more acquainted with the UGM, they start participating through user-to-user or user-to-content interaction. This gradually increased involvement further advances at the final stage, which involves producing one’s own material. This results in the creation of one’s personal identity, through self-actualisation and self-expression. The model also demonstrates that UGMs rely on users to produce their own material; without users contributing to the website, it would barely exist. However, it is important to note that not all UGM users follow this specific path. Some people might publish their own work while others only interact. There are also users who remain at the first stage, i.e. only consume the content being provided (Shao, 2009).

11

Figure 2 - Interdependence of people's consuming, participating, and producing on user-generated media (Shao, 2009)

3.3 Creating a sustainable online community

It has been proposed by Kim (2000) that a successful and sustainable online community may be characterised by a number of timeless design strategies. These strategies may be useful both in the planning process of a new community but also for those who are already running a community, in order to develop and improve the website, to better meet the needs of its members (Kim, 2000). Seven of these strategies are explained below.

The first strategy relates to the community’s purpose or vision. This should be clearly artic-ulated and implemented in the overall website design. It should also permeate the website features, its technology and prevailing policies (Kim, 2000).

The second strategy concerns building a meaningful gathering place, for instance in the form of discussion forums or chat rooms. These gathering places should strengthen the purpose or the vision, to serve the members’ needs. By allowing members to contribute to the development of the website, the growth of the community may be enhanced (Kim, 2000).

The third strategy involves creating member profiles that include some kind of personal in-formation. This can make the website more vivid. By giving the members a chance to cre-ate their own identity, trust can be enhanced and social relationships encouraged (Kim, 2000).

12

The fourth strategy stresses the importance of recognising that members may have differ-ent roles, depending on how long they have been involved in the community as well as on their level of involvement. Kim (2000) suggests five different roles and how to treat them accordingly: ‘welcome your Visitors’, ‘instruct your Novices’, ‘reward your Regulars’, ‘em-power your Leaders’ and ‘honour your Elders’. For instance, for Visitors to feel welcome, a certain website feature may help them to find out what the community is all about and what the benefits of a membership are. Novices are people who have recently become members, hence may need some guidelines regarding how to use the website. Regulars are people who have been members for a long time and have a higher level of involvement in the community. Kim (2000) further describes these people as “the lifeblood of your com-munity, both socially and economically”. To ensure that Regulars stay involved, the com-munity may offer them certain opportunities and challenges. Furthermore, Leaders can be empowered with respect to the needs of the community. The leadership role can for in-stance involve hosting conversations, making sure that discussion forums stay focused and vivid, or moderating the overall content of the website, ensuring that inappropriate content or behaviour is removed or reported. Finally, Elders are long-time members who have seen the website evolve over time and who are continuously participating and interacting in the community. Many times, these serve as role models, to whom Novices can turn for advice and guidance (Kim, 2000).

The fifth strategy focuses on raising the Leaders of the community. Whether official or un-official, the Leaders are members who assist the community to implement its vision, serv-ing as “the fuel in your engine”. If their efforts are recognised, there is a greater chance that they will remain involved and share content on the website (Kim, 2000). This is further stressed by Koh et al. (2007), who argue that involved leaders are necessary in order to fos-ter members’ engagement in activities on the website. Such engagement can take the form of posting one’s own material or viewing what has already been posted on the website.

The sixth strategy relates to the etiquette prevailing on the website, which can be referred to as the rules to live by. That is, what behaviour that is agreed upon and considered ap-propriate. This kind of regulation is important in order to foster a sense of safety on the website (Kim, 2000).

The seventh strategy involves promoting events, in both online and offline settings. These could be in the form of arrangements, where the members get together and interact, or competitions and challenges on the website. This strategy aims to define the community, i.e. further clarify its vision or purpose (Kim, 2000). Moreover, Koh et al. (2007) state that there is a direct linkage between offline events and the level of online involvement. Kim (2000) similarly suggests that offline interactions may reinforce a sense of solidarity and to-getherness, which in turn may motivate people to more actively participate on the website, i.e. not only view already existing community content.

13

4 Method and Methodology This section will first present and discuss the choice of methodology whereupon the choice of method will be defined. Justifications and explanations for the chosen method will be provided.

4.1 Methodology Methodology relates to the principals of philosophy and logic nature, which different methods are based upon (Svenning, 2003). The concept is also concerned with the strategy, plan, design or process that underpin the choice of method (Crotty, 1998).

4.1.1 Research philosophy

According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2012), the adopted research philosophy com-prises ”your assumptions about the way in which you view the world” (p. 128). These un-derlying assumptions will serve as a foundation for the methods the researchers choose as part of the research strategy. There are several philosophies, also referred to as paradigms, to consider when conducting a research. Under these paradigms, there are different posi-tions out of which positivism and interpretivism are commonly used. Positivism concerns observable realities and seeks to establish generalisations by collecting data. Interpretivism concerns the differences between humans in their role as social actors. A third position, pragmatism, is devoted to neither positivism nor interpretivism. Pragmatism considers the-se two positions as opposing concepts, and instead advocates mixing them. This position supports both quantitative and qualitative research, and the nature of the research topic will determine how to use these two methods. As further stated by Saunders et al. (2012), ac-cording to a pragmatist, “there are many different ways of interpreting the world and un-dertaking research, that no single point of view can ever give the entire picture and that there may be multiple realities” (p. 130).

The pragmatic position underlies this research, thus directs the methodological choices. The reason why the authors consider this philosophical position the best alternative is that the nature of the research questions requires a mix of both quantitative and qualitative data. Furthermore, the authors do not claim that the findings will show a definite reality, since the reality may look different, depending on how researchers conduct the research. Thus, the pragmatic position is well-suited for this study.

4.1.2 Research purpose

There are three common classifications regarding the purpose of a study: explorative, ex-planatory and descriptive. Firstly, explorative studies aim to gain insights to a topic and clarify understanding of a problem (Saunders et al., 2012). In addition, in an explorative study, the research problem tends to be badly understood (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2005). Secondly, according to Saunders et al. (2012), explanatory studies intend to identify cause and effects relationships between variables, by making studies of problems or situations. Finally, descriptive studies seek to give an accurate picture of a phenomenon and can serve as complements to either an explorative or an explanatory study. This kind of study enables

14

researchers to go further and draw conclusions from the data described. Using a descriptive design tends to be appropriate when researchers have knowledge about the specific topic, prior to the data collection (Saunders et al., 2012).

In line with the purpose of this study, the authors consider this partly an explorative study and partly a descriptive study. The reason is that the aim is to obtain understanding of youths’ needs and wants in online communities as well as draw conclusions from a more extensive amount of data in order to give an as accurate picture of the reality as possible.

4.1.3 Research approach Mixed method design When conducting a study, there are three different methodological approaches: qualitative, quantitative or a combination of both (Darlington & Scott, 2002). According to Zikmund (2000), a qualitative approach is rather subjective and focuses on words and observations while a quantitative approach focuses on numbers and exact measurements. Saunders et al. (2012) refer to a combination of both approaches as a mixed method. Creswell and Plano Clark (2007, cited in Saunders et al., 2012), state that in this kind of study, researchers may use quantitative and qualitative research in either an equal or an unequal amount. Accord-ing to Morse and Niehaus (2009), the reason why a mixed method design is used, is that some phenomena cannot be fully described by using only one method. In such situations, by using both a qualitative and a quantitative approach, the study can become more com-plete and the research outcome may be improved.

A mixed method design is used to fulfil the purpose of this study. The reason is that the authors believe using one single method will be insufficient in order to answer the research questions, since they want to collect data from a sizeable population as well as obtain more qualitative information. The qualitative and the quantitative method have equal weight.

Abductive approach

According to Saunders et al. (2012) there are three research approaches to choose from: inductive, deductive and abductive approach. When deciding on which research approach to use, it is important to look at the nature of the research topic. If conducting the research within a field that is new and thus not very explored, the inductive approach is suitable. This approach goes from data to theory, and aim to explore data. Conversely, when there is much literature on the topic, which enables researchers to establish hypotheses and frame-works from which to proceed, the deductive approach may be more appropriate. This ap-proach goes rather from theory to data. Finally, using a combination of the two approaches composes the abductive approach. Such approach is neither moving from data to theory, nor from theory to data; it is moving back and forth. By using this approach, phenomena are explored by means of data, themes and patterns are identified whereupon new theories are created or existing ones are modified. These theories are subsequently tested, often through an additional collection of data. If there is much literature within one context, but less in the particular context in which the research is conducted, an abductive approach is appropriate (Saunders et al., 2012). Furthermore, according to Alvesson and Sköldberg (2007), an abductive approach goes deeper than the other two approaches, in the sense that

15

it seeks to obtain an understanding of underlying patterns of a phenomenon. Researchers alternate between theory and data, whereupon they reinterpret these in light of each other.

To best fulfil the purpose, this study uses an abductive research approach. The research originates from already existing theories regarding consumer behaviour and online com-munities. These theories serve as the foundation for the questionnaire, which is in line with a deductive approach. The interviews are semi-structured and originate in data, from which the authors aim to seek common patterns and understanding, which is in line with an in-ductive approach. Finally, by means of existing theories, the authors analyse the findings al-together in order to answer the research questions. This combination of the approaches supports an abductive approach. Furthermore, the authors go neither from theory to data nor from data to theory, they rather move back and forth. This is in line with the abductive approach as defined by Saunders et al. (2012). Hence, the authors claim that the abductive approach suits this particular thesis. With regard to what Alvesson and Sköldberg (2007) state, the authors argue that an abductive approach will provide the thesis with a deeper understanding than if solely using an inductive or a deductive approach.

4.2 Method The method comprises the techniques or procedures that the researchers use in the collec-tion and analysis of data, to answer a research question or to test a hypothesis (Crotty, 1998).

4.2.1 Case study Case studies are conducted when researchers aim to investigate a phenomenon within its natural environment. This is usually made by collecting data from multiple sources. Single case studies can be used when researchers want to investigate a typical example (Saunders et al., 2012). A single case study composes this thesis and as explained in section 1.1, the authors consider Ungdomar.se suitable.

4.2.2 Target population In Sweden, an ethical industry standard states that people under the age of 15 should not participate in surveys without the consent from their parents or guardians (SMIF – Sveriges Marknadsundersökningsföretag, 2013). Given the time frame, the authors consider such acquisition of consent too time demanding and therefore, they decided to draw a bottom line at the age of 15. For practical reasons, the authors have decided to draw an upper line at the age of 19. These people are found in schools around Sweden, while people older than 19 years are no longer obliged to compulsory school attendance. Hence, they are not gathered at one common location and thus more difficult to reach.

16

4.2.3 Research strategy

The research strategy is the general orientation in which the research is conducted (Bryman & Bell, 2007). According to Saunders et al. (2012), research strategies are not mutually ex-clusive, which implies that several strategies can be used. As stated by Zikmund (2000), the research design can be seen as a master plan, specifying the methods and procedures that are to be used in order to collect and analyse information. When choosing between the dif-ferent strategies, the research questions should serve as a guide; a good research strategy is one that will enable researchers to give answers to these (Zikmund, 2000).

In this study, the authors conduct a questionnaire and three semi-structured interviews, i.e. a mixed method design. The questionnaire is of both quantitative and qualitative nature, in the sense that qualitative data is embedded within the quantitative data. This questionnaire primarily serves the descriptive part of this study, aiming to respondents within the popula-tion of interest. The interviews primarily serve the explorative part of this study. One inter-view is held with two people working closely to youths. As Kotler (2000) argues, under-standing how consumers behave is not simple, since they may not be conscious of their underlying motivations. Thus, the authors believe that two persons working at the Youth Centre Brunnen, located in central Jönköping, will provide insight to the needs of young people, which they may not be fully aware about themselves. Brunnen will also provide in-formation about common interests and concerns among the investigated population and whom they turn to with these concerns. Furthermore, to answer the research questions, the authors consider it important to acquire wide knowledge of what Ungdomar.se, as an online community, currently provides. The authors believe that interviews with two key persons within the company, the CEO and the Web Administrator, will provide this in-formation together with a review of the website.

This strategy results in a combination of quantitative and qualitative findings, described in figure 3. The left-hand box represents the questionnaire, and the right-hand box represents the interviews and the findings from Ungdomar.se. The authors consider these two strate-gies the best alternatives, given the time frame and the resources. Consequently, the au-thors use a concurrent embedded design, which according to Saunders et al. (2012) is when the collection of data is embedded within the collection of the other. In this study, this im-plies that some questions in the questionnaire require a qualitative response.

Figure 3 - Research strategy, created by the authors (2013)

17

4.2.4 Data collection

Data can be either primary or secondary. Researchers themselves collect primary data while secondary data derives from knowledge found by previous researchers. Preferably, re-searchers should carefully examine both types of information sources (Eriksson & Wei-dersheim, 2011). Zikmund (2000) explains that the main advantage of using secondary data is that it saves money and time. On the contrary, the disadvantage is that the data is not de-signed specifically for the researchers’ purpose.

Primary data

Surveys are the most commonly used method for collecting primary data (Zikmund, 2000; Sekaran, 2003). As stated by Saunders et al. (2012), surveys are common in both explorato-ry and descriptive research. According to Bryman and Bell (2007), surveys are comprised by a cross-sectional design, in which data are collected at a single point in time, primarily by using questionnaires or conducting several structured interviews. Researchers seek to dis-tinguish patterns, identify characteristics of a specific group and to measure attitudes (Bry-man & Bell, 2007). Surveys are normally descriptive, but can also provide explorative in-sights or causal explanations, depending on the design (Zikmund, 2000).

Since the authors aim to collect an extensive amount of primary data to analyse, they con-sider questionnaire the best alternative, given the time and resources at hand. Additional primary data is obtained through the semi-structured interviews and the review of the web-site Ungdomar.se. According to Saunders et al. (2012), semi-structured interviews are suit-able when researchers aim to collect qualitative data. In such interview, the interviewer has a list of what subjects to cover as well as predetermined questions. The researchers may omit predetermined questions and ask additional questions, depending on the specific con-text (Saunders et al., 2012).

Secondary data

According to Zikmund (2000), secondary data enables researchers to ”build on past re-search – a body of business knowledge” (p. 125). In this study, the authors use literature found in the library of Jönköping’s University and online databases. The focus is primarily on peer-reviewed articles that are highly cited, due to their high reliability and quality. Dur-ing the search process, the authors face difficulties as many articles and books are too ex-pensive to access. Therefore, there is a risk that the authors might miss some information that could be useful for this study.

4.2.5 Sampling

Questionnaire According to Fritz and Morgan (2010), sampling concerns investigation of a portion of a population, in order to make statements about this certain population. How to select a sample is an essential part when conducting research. There are some evident advantages of sampling instead of exploring the whole population; these include lower costs, higher speed and convenience (Fritz & Morgan, 2010). However, it is important to remember that

18

a sample is only a model of the reality. This in turn can lead to sampling error, which is a measure of how far the model may be from the reality (Trobia, 2008).

Fritz and Morgan (2010) explain four steps in the sampling process. (1) Identify the popu-lation of interest, i.e. the target population. (2) Identify a portion of this target population. This is the sampling frame, based on readily available participants. (3) Create a smaller sample out of this accessible population. (4) Define the actual sample. This contains the in-dividuals who decide to participate in the study, hence whose data is analysed (Fritz & Morgan, 2010).

In this study, the population of interest is people in the ages between 15-19, living in Swe-den. The portion of this population lives in Jönköping and Herrljunga. Selected classes on schools located in Jönköping and Herrljunga constitute the sampling frame. From this, the authors obtain the sample of eight classes, i.e. two classes for every age investigated, with the aim to reach at least 150 students. According to Fritz and Morgan (2010), when decid-ing the sample size, researchers tend to base their decision on practical matters, such as available resources and amount of time. Hence, there is no right answer to how large a sample should be in order to be representative of the whole population. In addition, the re-searchers should consider the anticipated response rate (Fritz & Morgan, 2010).

Nonprobability sampling As stated by Fritz and Morgan (2010), there are two broad categories of sampling methods to choose from: probability sampling and nonprobability sampling. In probability sampling, researchers must have access to all individuals in the accessible population and they should have an equal chance of being selected. In cases when this is neither practical nor feasible, the researchers can use nonprobability sampling (Fritz & Morgan, 2010). As an example, Baker (2002) explains that in much student research, probabilistic methods may be unreal-istic, since resources are limited. In this study, the authors use non-probability sampling, with respect to the resources that they have at hand.

According to Battaglia (2008), there are primarily three categories of nonprobability sam-pling methods: quota sampling, purposive sampling and convenience sampling. In quota sampling, researchers set a target number of respondents, in order to fill predetermined quotas. Purposive sampling concerns selecting a sample based on the characteristics that are important for the sample to represent the whole population. In convenience sampling, the main selection criterion concerns how easy it is to obtain a sample. For instance, re-searchers consider the geographic distribution of the sample, how easy it will be to obtain data from the selected elements and how costly it will be to locate the elements of the pop-ulation of interest (Battaglia, 2008). With regard to the limited resources for this study, the authors use convenience sampling. In an attempt to reach different types of individuals, the authors hand out the questionnaire at the upper secondary school Kunskapskällan in Herrljunga, which offers different programmes. In order to reach ninth-graders, i.e. youths in the age of fifteen, the authors hand out the questionnaire at Junedalsskolan in Jönkö-ping.

19

Interviews

According to Marshall (1996), when conducting qualitative research, sampling is not as im-portant as in quantitative research. The reason is that researchers do not seek to generalise the results but rather develop an understanding of complex problems regarding human be-haviour. Hence, some individuals are considered to provide better insight and understand-ing for such research than others (Marshall, 1996). Consequently, in the qualitative part of this study, the authors select informants based on their knowledge and expertise with re-gard to young people.

4.2.6 Time horizon

When deciding on the time frame for a study, there are primarily two alternatives; longitu-dinal and cross-sectional research. Longitudinal studies observe changes and development over a given period, while cross-sectional research studies an event or a phenomenon at a particular point in time (Saunders et al., 2012). Since this research is time constrained and the authors do not aim to observe changes or development, the authors conduct a cross-sectional study.

4.2.7 Quality of the study According to Saunders et al. (2012), to optimise the quality of a study, researchers should ensure reliability and validity. Reliability relates to consistency, i.e. whether the means of collecting data would give the same result if other researchers conducted the same study. It also concerns to which extent the researchers show transparency in how they have inter-preted the data. Validity concerns whether the chosen method of collecting data correctly measures what the researchers were intended to investigate (Saunders et al., 2012). To op-timise the reliability of this study, the authors strive to be as explicit and transparent as pos-sible throughout the thesis, in order to enable other researchers to conduct the same study. Validity is faced primarily by carefully designing the questionnaire. For the interviews, in order to ensure trustworthiness, the authors take different forms of bias into consideration.

Questionnaire

The questionnaire, originally in Swedish, and translated into English, can be found in ap-pendix 1 and 2, respectively.

Conducting questionnaires has both advantages and disadvantages; it is an inexpensive way to collect a large amount of data from a substantial population (Saunders et al., 2012; Gill-ham, 2007). Moreover, it is a quick and efficient way to assess information (Crotty, 1998; Gillham, 2007). Gillham (2007) further states advantages such as no interviewer bias, straightforward data to analyse, and anonymity of the respondents. However, disadvantages include generally low response rate, problems controlling the quality of the data, and the fact that possible misunderstandings cannot be corrected (Gillham, 2007). The authors are aware about these disadvantages and find it important to highlight that these factors may affect the result.

Saunders et al. (2012), stress the importance of conducting pilot tests in order for the re-

20

searchers to optimise the validity of the questions and to see whether the data will be relia-ble. Furthermore, such a small-scale test can ensure that the respondents do not have any problems understanding the questions (Saunders et al., 2012). To see whether there are any questions that need to be clarified or rephrased in this study, the authors conduct a pilot test with one person from every age investigated. In addition, this can ensure that the ques-tions are interpreted in the way they are intended to.

Translating empirical data into theory is acknowledged as a difficult task. Researchers have to consider that various factors can affect the investigation (Svenning, 2003). In order to minimise the risk of bias, it is vital to carefully think the research design through (Sekaran, 2003). To ensure validity, it is important to consider how to formulate the questions, how to measure the answers and how the questionnaire should be organised overall (Sekaran, 2003; Saunders et al., 2012).

When designing the questionnaire, the authors considered these four recommendations provided by Zikmund (2000):

• What questions should be asked? • How should the questions be phrased? • How should the questionnaire layout be designed? • In which order should the questions be organised?

A questionnaire should only include questions relevant to what the questionnaire intends to investigate. There might be numerous questions that researchers want to ask, but they have to decide upon what they have to ask (Gillham, 2007). In this study, the authors only in-clude questions that can help answering the research questions. The questions are carefully selected and refined, in order for the questionnaire to be relevant.

Zikmund (2000) recommends using questions that are specific and formulated in a simple language, with a layout that is neat and easy to follow. Correspondingly, the authors con-ducting this study strive to create straightforward questions formulated in a conversational language, to avoid ambiguity and complexity. In addition, since the respondents are Swe-dish students, the questions are in Swedish. Furthermore, the authors use a plain question-naire layout in which the respondents are introduced to the study in the beginning of the questionnaire. As explained by Gillham (2007), if the respondents understand the research-ers’ purpose, they are more likely to put their effort into providing appropriate answers.

Questions that might be perceived as sensitive should be asked in the end of the question-naire, as this can make the respondents might feel more comfortable in answering them (Zikmund, 2000). In this study’s questionnaire, the order of the questions is intended to first obtain a general understanding of the respondents (question 1-4). These questions aim to obtain data about age, Internet usage and interests, and to give the respondent a com-fortable start. The remaining questions (question 5-8) aim to more specifically obtain an-swers regarding what needs and wants online communities can address. Finally, the last question (question 9) might be perceived as more sensitive.

21

According to Bryman and Bell (2007), researchers formulate questions in either an open or a closed format. Open questions allow the respondent to answer freely while closed ques-tions give the respondent a set of fixed alternatives (Bryman & Bell, 2007). The longer the questionnaire, the fewer people may be likely to respond (Van Selm and Jankowski, 2006; Gillham, 2007). To reduce the risk of a low response rate, the authors in this study use mainly questions with fixed alternatives, together with open questions. According to Gill-ham (2007), fixed alternatives are easier to answer and take less time. Furthermore, the questionnaire in this study gives the respondents the opportunity to comment or come up with their own answer. Thereby, the authors want to ensure that they do not exclude other possible alternatives than those provided. Moreover, when providing multiple alternatives, the respondents can choose more than one, but three at most. The authors believe that such limitation may require them to deliberate upon their answers, hence prioritise which answers they perceive as most correct. Finally, the authors categorise the fixed alternatives with regard to the theories provided by Maslow (1943), Gleitman et al. (2011), Shao (2009), and Kim (2000). This is further explained in appendix 3.

Since the questionnaire contains qualitative elements such as open questions, and the pos-sibility for the respondents to provide their own answers, the authors do not consider it appropriate for this study to use statistical measurements such as analysis of variance, standard deviation and confidence interval. Instead, bar charts accompanied by clarifying comments will demonstrate the results in an explicit manner. Furthermore, as stated by Trobia (2008), it is not possible to determine the sampling error, since the study uses nonprobability sampling.

Interviews

Saunders et al. (2012) state that when conducting semi-structured interviews, researchers should consider different forms of bias, such as interviewer bias and interviewee or re-sponse bias. Interviewer bias occurs if the interviewer may have an impact on what the re-spondent answers, for instance by having a certain tone or giving specific comments. Inter-viewee and response bias are linked to interviewer bias and may occur as a result of how the respondent perceives the interviewer (Saunders et al., 2012).

Since the intention with the interview conducted at Brunnen differs from the intentions with those interviews conducted with Ungdomar.se, the authors do not have to consider is-sues such as using the same tone of voice and non-verbal behaviour for every interview. Regarding the interviews at Brunnen, the authors interview two persons at the same time. Therefore, the authors strive to give them the same possibility to tell their opinion. To min-imise the risk for interviewer and interviewee bias, the authors avoid leading questions. Furthermore, all the interviews are recorded, which enables the authors to go through the data several times, hence minimise the risk for misinterpretations. According to Saunders et al. (2012), the result of semi-structured interviews is not generalisable to the whole popula-tion. Thus, the authors of this study do not claim that the result from the interviews can be generalised. Finally, to further increase the trustworthiness of the interviews, these are held in Swedish, which is the mother tongue of the interviewees and the authors. The interview questions can be found in appendix 4 and 5.

22

4.2.8 Summary of the method This is partly an explorative and partly a descriptive study, which takes the stance of prag-matism. An abductive approach is used together with a mixed method design. In order to collect primary data, a questionnaire is handed out to the investigated population by using convenience sampling. This primarily serves the descriptive part of the study and has a concurrent embedded design, in the sense that qualitative data is embedded within the quantitative data. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews are conducted with the Youth Centre Brunnen and with Ungdomar.se, which provide further primary data. The inter-views primarily serve the explorative part and are qualitative in their nature. Information on the website Ungdomar.se provides further information about the company. The secondary data is collected from books in the library of Jönköping's University and through academic articles provided in online databases. Finally, the study is cross-sectional.

4.2.9 Discussion on the method In most literature regarding the concept ‘online consumer behaviour’, the authors note that studies primarily concern how consumers behave in commerce settings online. As men-tioned previously, in this particular context, the concept of consumer behaviour can relate to consumers who spend their time and effort rather than their money. When reading arti-cles referring to consumers as purchasers, the authors interpret this information in light of Cho and Park’s (2001) statement; in online settings, consumers can be seen as consumers of information and not only as purchasers. The authors regard this the best option, due to the limited amount of previous research and since they consider much of the information applicable to non-commerce settings as well. When discussing how consumers behave on the Internet in this particular context, the thesis consistently refers to online consumer be-haviour as explained in section 2.1.

It is important to note that other methods could have been suitable for this study. As Saunders et al. (2012) state, focus groups and in-depth interviews yield more qualitative in-formation and deeper understanding of the problem. The authors considered this, but since some respondents might perceive certain questions as intimidating and sensitive, they would be less likely to discuss these in focus groups or in interviews. Therefore, the authors still consider using a questionnaire the best alternative, as focus groups and interviews might have limited the respondents’ ability to give their honest opinion.

In the beginning of this study, the authors considered using an online questionnaire. In or-der to reach as many people in the target population as possible, the questionnaire would have been linked from the website Ungdomar.se. However, an online survey brought some problems that could not be overlooked. For instance, it would not be possible to establish a proper sampling frame, since the authors are not able to recognise the accessible popula-tion. Furthermore, it would have been difficult to calculate a response rate, since it would not be possible to determine how many people in the target population that had seen the questionnaire and chosen not to participate. In addition, it would not have been possible to control whether the respondents actually were in the ages between 15-19, since age is easy to fake on the Internet. Finally, linking the questionnaire on Ungdomar.se could result in

23

bias, since the result would only reflect users of the community. Through the actual choice of method, the authors can avoid these deficiencies. Furthermore, in order to ensure a more representative sample, the authors did also consider random sampling. However, due to the limited resources for this study, such sampling is not feasible. It might be argued that random sampling could have been used on the schools in Jönköping and Herrljunga. How-ever, such method could have generated a sample comprised by individuals representing a narrow range of programmes. Therefore, the authors do not consider this the best alterna-tive.

24

5 Empirical Findings This section will first present the empirical data obtained from the questionnaire. In order for the reader to get a clear picture of the quantitative findings, bar charts and comments will be provided to each question. Thereafter, a summary from the interview conducted with professionals at Brunnen will follow. Finally, a summarised version of the interviews conducted with contacts at Ungdomar.se, as well as the website review will be provided.

5.1 Findings from the questionnaire The questionnaire was handed out at Kunskapskällan in Herrljunga between the 8th and 9th of April and at Junedalskolan in Jönköping the 9th of April. As mentioned previously, the aim was a sample size of 150 students. The actual sample size was 170 students, with 149 responses. This yields a response rate of 87.6 %. The reason why not all students respond-ed was that some were missing in class or provided incomplete questionnaires. Question number 5, 6, 7 and 8 allowed the respondents to choose more than one alternative. There-fore, the number of respondents on these questions exceeds 149. The questionnaire, in Swedish and translated into English, are found in appendix 1 and 2, respectively. 1. How old are you?

A majority of the respondents are 17 years old while there are fewest respondents in the ages of 15 and 19. The reason for this is that the other ages, i.e. 16, 17 and 18, can be found in two grades, depending on what time of the year the student was born. However, the analysis will discuss the population as a whole and avoid focusing on age. Therefore, this information intends to present an idea of the age distribution among the respondents.

25

2. How often do you use Internet?

The findings show that 96% of the respondents use Internet on a daily basis while 4% an-swer that they use Internet 3-6 times a week. None of the respondents answer that they use Internet less often than that. 3. Do you visit any online communities?

The findings show that 93% of the respondents visit some kind of online community, whereas 7% do not.

26

4. What is your primary interest?

This open question asks the respondents to give their own answer. Thus, to be able to pre-sent the answers in a comprehensive manner, they are compiled into appropriate catego-ries. The primary interest of the respondents is sport/exercise. This involves sports such as dancing, horse riding and ice hockey. The most common sport however, is football, which 22 of the respondents have chosen as their primary interest. In addition, many respondents answer ‘working out’, which is categorised as exercise. Other common interests are spend-ing time with friends, watching TV and films, reading books and listening to music. Six re-spondents consider their primary interest to be some kind of social media, for instance Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Furthermore, fashion and work are brought up three times each. Examples of other interests being mentioned, which only occur once, are pho-tography, science and food.

5. What would you most preferably like to read about in an online community?

The most popular answer among the respondents is that they would like to read about physical health. Nearly 50% of the respondents put this as one of their answers. Thereafter, the following five topics are equally popular: love and sex, inspiration, relationships, cul-

27

ture, and jobs. 30% of the respondents choose one or several of these. Furthermore, there is an equal interest for societal issues and education, and these are followed by psychologi-cal well-being. Lastly, seven respondents would like to read about the body. Comments for this question include that the respondents want to read stories from real life and other people’s blogs.

There is a relation between the respondents’ primary interests and what they want to read about in an online community. For instance, many respondents want to read about culture, and state interests such as ‘writing’, ‘music’ and ‘watching movies’, which is categorised as Music/TV/Films/Books. In addition, out of those who want to read about physical health, a majority have some kind of sport-related interest, which is categorised as Sport/Exercise.

6. How do you use an online community?

Most respondents answer that when visiting an online community, they mostly consume. In the questionnaire, ‘consume’ is described as reading articles and texts, looking at other’s photos and learning new things. Almost as many respondents answer ‘participate’, which is described as making new friends, discussing things, and asking questions to experts. Finally, less respondents state ‘produce’, which is described as uploading own photos and texts.

28

7. What would you most preferably like to do in an online community?

The most popular answers, which are of equal interest among the respondents, are to ‘read interesting articles and texts’ and ‘learn new things’. Furthermore, many of the respondents would like to discuss things in online communities, make new friends, and ask questions to experts. Compiling the answers relating to photos, 70 respondents answer that they most preferably would like to upload photos and/or look at other people’s photos. The least chosen alternatives are to upload texts and read others’ texts. ‘Other’, i.e. answers provided by the respondents themselves, includes participating in competitions and challenges, and chatting with friends.

8. If I visit an online community, following things are most important:

Most of the respondents think that it is important that an online community is easy to use. Thereafter, the respondents consider it important to feel safe and have the possibility to be anonymous in the online community. Furthermore, it is equally important that the re-spondents’ friends use the online community, as it is for the respondent to be seen and

29

heard. Lastly, fewer respondents consider a nice design as most important. Three respond-ents provide their own answer and all concern the importance of having a nice atmosphere among the members.

9. If you have any concerns or questions of sensitive nature, to whom would you most preferably turn?

The majority of the respondents turn to their friends with sensitive concerns or problems. Parents are the second most popular alternative, and thereafter the Internet. Few respond-ents turn to a school counsellor or a school nurse. Furthermore, there are 18 respondents without concerns and 14 who do not talk to anyone about their problems. The respondents who have chosen ‘other’, mainly answer that they turn to girl- or boyfriends, siblings or closely related adults. The majority of the respondents who preferably turn to friends or parents, want to read about physical health, while the majority of the respondents who preferably turn to the Internet, want to read about relationships, and love and sex.

30

5.2 Findings from Brunnen These findings were obtained from the interview that was held the 5th of April at Brunnen. Brunnen is a meeting place for youths between the ages of 15-25, located in central Jönkö-ping. The interview was conducted with Malin Wulff and Helena Höijer, who have 8 and 24 years of working experience with youths, respectively. They are positioned as Fritid-spedagoger (Recreation Instructors), and their role is mainly to listen to youths’ needs and ideas, arrange activities, and serve as a link between youths and the adult world. Before the interview, they were asked to have people between the ages of 15-19 in mind, in order for the findings to represent the population investigated. The interview lasted 45 minutes and the questions can be found in appendix 4.

Common concerns and questions

According to Wulff’s and Höijer’s experience, all sorts of youths turn to them with differ-ent concerns. There is a range of common issues brought up, although the most common questions concern the future. Wulff explains that people in this age seem to be concerned about what they are going to do after graduation and they often want to get tips and advice, regarding education, work and leaving home. According to Höijer, the most frequently asked questions on Ung0365, also involve concerns about the future. Overall, the questions that youths bring to Brunnen tend to be of a light-hearted nature. As an example, Wulff and Höijer state that common questions concern upcoming events and suggestions for fu-ture activities that the youths want to arrange. Wulff further explains, “From my experi-ence, there are many youths that just want to come here and talk about anything between heaven and earth”. In addition to the questions concerning the future, Wulff states that many youths want to talk about love and friendship. For instance, some people want to get advice on how to ask someone out or how to break up with someone. Wulff and Höijer further explain that questions concerning sex and the body are not common. They both be-lieve that such issues are something that young people do not tend to discuss with older people like them.

Serious concerns and questions

Even though it is rare, there have been occasions when youths have turned to Wulff and Höijer with more serious problems and concerns. As an example, Höijer explains that she has met youths who have been abused or sexually assaulted. On those rare occasions, youths tend to ask questions in third person, as if it would concern someone else. In addi-tion, most youths do not talk about serious problems the first time they meet, but rather when they know that they can trust them. In such situations, Wulff and Höijer may help these people to get in contact with a professional, for instance someone working at a youth clinic or at the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority. These people can help them further.

5 UNG036 is a website ‘arranged by youths for youths’ in Jönköping (Jönköpings Kommun, n.d.).

31

General patterns

One of the questions is whether they can distinguish any patterns among youths visiting Brunnen. They both agree that the youths they meet often have poor control over their personal economy, in the sense that they do not fully understand the value of money. As Höijer explains, “I do not believe that this is a new phenomenon, but something that is typical for the young generation”. Höijer further state that today, there are many opportu-nities that did not exist some years ago, such as payday loans. Therefore, the risk of getting into financial trouble is bigger today and many youths would need more information on this issue. Furthermore, both Wulff and Höijer have noticed that many youths seem to be more willing to communicate through writing rather than speech. As an example, Wulff explains that some youths do not talk about their concerns face-to-face but rather on the chat, available on Brunnen’s Facebook profile. They have also noticed that many of the youths with whom they have contact, prefer sending text messages to calling. Over the years, Wulff explains, she has noticed a difference in the sense that today youths do not ask as many questions as before. Wulff believes that this has to do with the fact that youths can find information on the Internet and they are just a click away from the answer. However, Wulff adds that from her experience, many youths still seem to appreciate getting advice from real persons. Preferably, this person should be someone whom the youths trust or look up to. Recently, Ung036 had different experts or professionals to whom youths could ask their questions and this became very popular. Finally, Wulff and Höijer state that lately, a so-called ‘Internet hate’ has emerged. This includes for instance bullying and personal at-tacks online. Wulff and Höijer both believe that it is important for many youths to feel a sense of security online, since they spend much of their time there.

32

5.3 Findings from Ungdomar.se These findings were obtained from two interviews and from a review of the website Ungdomar.se. One interview was held through telephone on the 7th of February with the Web Administrator of Ungdomar.se, André Vifot Haas. This interview lasted 71 minutes. The other interview was held with the CEO, Kim Jakobsson, on the 5th of March at their head office in Stockholm. This interview lasted 93 minutes. Jakobsson assumed the posi-tion of CEO in 2011, i.e. two years ago, while Vifot Haas possesses eight years of working experience within the company. The interview questions can be found in appendix 5.

Company structure and background

Ungdomar AB is a Ltd company operating through three individual sections: web, event and print. The web-based section, Ungdomar.se, serves as the core of the company and the other two sections are based on this part. The content of the website determines the theme for the events, and the printed material, such as books and magazines.

Figure 4 - Structure of Ungdomar AB, created by the authors (2013)

Ungdomar.se was founded in November 2003 and initially served as an online platform where young people could meet and interact. In 2005, the website merged with a website that provided young people the possibility to ask questions to adults. Since then, the two websites together form Ungdomar.se. Today, the aim is not only to serve as a platform for social interaction, but also to provide young people with the possibility to participate in, and influence the on-going public debate. Their target group is people between the ages of 15-24 but according to Jakobsson, they want to reach out to as many young people as pos-sible, regardless of their age. Further, Jakobsson declares, “At Ungdomar.se, we want to understand our target group and gain a comprehension of how they want to use an online community”. Jakobsson believes that this information would enable them to create an even more customised online community to their existent and future consumers. Furthermore,

33

Vifot Haas explains that the company’s two main income sources are sponsorships and ad-vertisements on the website.

Core values and Vision

According to Vifot Haas, Ungdomar.se rests on a strong set of values and their three core values are well-being, sustainability and inspiration. “These values are visible throughout all three sections, however not always explicitly. Instead, these values permeate the company and the way we do things”, Vifot Haas explains. Furthermore, according to Jakobsson, they continuously seek to improve young people’s wellbeing and contribute to sounder social climate. Therefore, Jakobsson states, Ungdomar.se is more than just an online community; their vision is to provide young people a safe online environment and to help them to make their voices heard in public debates.

The website

Ungdomar.se is a free e-service, open for everyone. By registering an account, people can create their own profile and actively participate in forums. People who are not members play a more passive role, since they can mainly read what has been posted and not post any material themselves. Hence, there is a difference between the members and non-members.

When entering Ungdomar.se a start page appears and welcomes the visitors with the phrase: “Come here and talk, ask questions, read, chill out, meet new friends and much more” (Ungdomar.se, 2013a). From this point, the visitor is able to navigate further to the three sections on which the website is based. These are: (1) Forum, in which youths can take part in and create their own discussion threads, (2) Swajpet, which provides different kind of texts and articles, and (3) Support and Advice, where youths can ask questions or talk about their concerns with experts. Screen captures of these different sections are pro-vided in appendix 6. The forum contains different threads and all members can create threads of their own. Therefore, there is no clear theme, which implies that the members can talk about anything. Swajpet contains texts that Ungdomar.se selects and publishes. The themes of the texts often relate to their core values. In the Support and Advice sec-tion, various concerns are discussed, Jakobsson explains. From her experience, the most common concern relates to being normal. Many youths believe that they are abnormal and seek confirmation to ensure that this is not the case. Furthermore, Vifot Haas explains, “From my experience, questions regarding sex are without hesitation the most common ones”. Since Ungdomar.se provides the possibility to be anonymous, Vifot Haas believes that youths may ask questions that they would not ask face-to-face. The second most common issue, according to Vifot Haas, relates to some kind of anxiety. This anxiety is connected to bullying, eating disorders and family issues. Moreover, the website also in-cludes pages such as ‘About us’, which gives information about Ungdomar.se, ‘Rules’, which tells how to behave on Ungdomar.se, ‘User policy’ which is an extension of the rules and ‘For parents’, which provides information to parents of those youths who use Ungdomar.se.

Jakobsson mentions that they have many loyal consumers, who have been members for many years. Hence, these members have seen the website evolve. Some of them are now

34

experts, which means that they are engaged in the website and serve an important role in the Support and Advice section. Vifot Haas explains that in order to control what kind of content that is posted on the website, forum moderators oversee the website activities on a regular basis. In addition, it is easy for the members themselves to report offending or in-appropriate content.

The website has recently undergone radical changes, since they do not have the capability to compete with larger social networks, such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Instead of offering the same types of functions as their competitors, Vifot Haas explains that it will be possible for members to link other websites through their profile on Ungdomar.se. This in order to create a more ’clean’, easy-navigated and ’niched’ portal. Vifot Haas believes that making the website more distinct will strengthen their brand image.

Events

Jakobsson explains that since 2010, the company has arranged big events in collaboration with partners such as the clothing company H&M and the furniture company IKEA. The-se events have been carried out in the form of tours on selected upper secondary schools around Sweden. In 2010, the focus of the tour was on motivation and inspiration, whereas the next tour, in 2012, focused on sustainability. By means of lecturers from both the pri-vate and the public sector, the aim of the tours is to inform young people about these top-ics and to raise their awareness. According to Jakobsson, last year’s tour was very success-ful. Since sustainability is such a relevant topic, they have kept the same theme of this year’s tour (2013).

35

6 Analysis This section will use the concepts and theories discussed in the frame of reference, in order to throw light on the empirical findings.

6.1 Youths’ needs and wants in online communities

Needs in different forms

When exploring needs, the authors find it important to note that these may take different forms. For instance, individuals searching for information may seek to address both safety and cognitive needs. The information youths obtain in an online community, regarding fu-ture anxieties, may enable them to satisfy the safety need, since such information might help them confronting these issues. With support from Shao (2009), the authors argue that such information seeking could also relate to the cognitive need, since the underlying rea-son is to create sense and understanding. The authors interpret the needs derived from the findings in light of Shao’s (2009) definition of the three motives and Maslow’s (1943) hier-archy of needs.

Needs are not mutually exclusive

The hierarchy of needs is flexible in the sense that individuals can be partly satisfied and partly unsatisfied in all their basic needs, thus seeking to address several needs at the same time (Maslow, 1943). This can be observed in the findings from the questionnaire. When asking the respondents to state what they find most important when visiting an online community, most of them select more than one answer. For instance, many of the re-spondents state that it is important to feel safe in the online community, but also that their friends are present there. This implies that they most likely seek to fulfil more than one need at the same time, which is line with what Bishop (2007) argues; needs are not mutually exclusive.

Consuming, participating and producing

When compiling the answers on how the respondents use online communities in terms of consuming, participating, and producing, it is evident that all of these behaviours are repre-sented. However, producing appears to be less common than consuming and participating. Producing is the final stage of the certain path that many people tend to follow on UGMs (Shao, 2009) and this may explain why it is less common among the respondents. This im-plies that not everyone has reached the final stage yet. Furthermore, some answers indicate that respondents may have only one motive out of the three, which may be in line with what Shao (2009) states; some individuals do not follow this specific path, but skip some of the stages and go their own way. The findings are not descriptive enough to tell whether these respondents have followed this path before reaching a certain stage or not.

36

Cognitive need

Online communities consist of users who consume, participate and produce. As consum-ing relates to the need for information and entertainment (Shao, 2009), the authors claim that this may refer to a cognitive need, with regard to the definition provided by Gleitman et al. (2011). This need is evident in the questionnaire findings when asking the respond-ents what they most preferably would like to do in an online community. For this question, ‘reading interesting articles’ and ‘learning new things’ are the most popular answers and these are both ways of consuming website content.

Social need

Participating concerns engagement in either user-to-user or user-to-content interactions. Thus, the individual seeks to interact with other people in the online community to feel a sense of belongingness, which in turn addresses social needs (Shao, 2009). Since many of the respondents answer that they participate when using online communities, it is reasona-ble that they seek to satisfy their social need. Moreover, as proposed by Kim (2000), this need can take the form of the urge of belonging to a community, which the authors find applicable in this context. Fulfilling the social need in online communities does also seem to be of importance when asking the respondents what they most preferably would like to do in an online community. Common answers to this question are ‘taking part in discus-sions’, ‘making new friends’ and ‘asking questions to experts’ and these do all relate to Shao’s (2009) definition of participating. In addition, many of the respondents state that it is important that their friends use the same online community. This also indicates that the respondents seek to fulfil the social need.

Need for Esteem and Self-actualisation

According to Shao (2009), producing strongly relates to the pursuit of self-expression, which according to the authors relates to Maslow’s (1943) definition of the need for esteem and self-actualisation. In the questionnaire, the authors describe producing as uploading own photos and texts. The act of producing suggests that the individual wants to express his or her identity to other users (Shao, 2009), which is in line with what the respondents find important in an online community: to be seen and heard. This answer indicates that those respondents want to expose their identity to others. Kim (2000) describes the esteem need in online settings as the urge to contribute to the community and to be recognised for those contributions. Through the questionnaire findings, it is apparent that many respond-ents would like to upload photos and texts in an online community. By doing so, they con-tribute to the website content and other people can recognise those contributions. There-fore, the authors’ interpretation is that they seek to satisfy their need for esteem and/or self-actualisation. Seeking self-actualisation can open up for further opportunities and de-velopment of skills (Kim, 2000). The authors argue that joining challenges and competi-tions are ways to contribute to the community, gain recognition from other members and perhaps even thrive. Hence, the need for esteem and self-actualisation may also be demon-strated by the fact that some respondents want to be able to join challenges and competi-tions on the website.

37

Safety need

The questionnaire findings show that it is important for many of the respondents to feel safe in an online community. In addition, the respondents seem to value the possibility to be anonymous. The authors argue that according to the definition mentioned by Maslow (1943) and Kim (2000) both of these features go under the need for safety. For instance, anonymity may protect the individual from personal attacks, which is mentioned by Kim (2000). The information obtained from the interviews at Brunnen further highlights this pursuit of anonymity; many youths prefer talking about sensitive problems and questions in third person, as if these concerned a friend rather than themselves.

According to the findings, many respondents want to read about topics that, in the authors’ opinion, can relate to the future, such as jobs and relationships. Wulff and Höijer corre-spondingly mention that it is common that youths have concerns about the future. The au-thors interpret this information as if the youths seek for a predictable environment, which Maslow (1943) states is related to safety. The importance of providing youths a safe Inter-net environment is recognised by both Jakobsson, and Wulff and Höijer. Furthermore, Wulff and Höijer stress that youths seem to value safety, as they generally do not turn to Brunnen with sensitive issues when they meet for the first time but rather when trust has been built up, i.e. when they feel safe.

Aesthetic need

When asking what the respondents consider most important in an online community, the most selected alternative is that the website should be easy to use. This may be interpreted as a need for order, which according to Gleitman et al. (2011) resides within the aesthetic need. Furthermore, some of the respondents find a nice design important, which may also count as an aesthetic need, since it relates to beauty.

6.2 Creating a sustainable online community Three stages to determine consumer needs

In the authors’ opinion, the three stages suggested by Kim (2000), regarding the determina-tion of consumers’ needs, will help Ungdomar.se when they are to define the needs of their target group. The first stage concerns understanding the community members, and the findings tell that the respondents are rather homogenous in their frequent use of the Inter-net and whether they use online communities. Even though the youths are dispersed in terms of interests, it is clear that sport and exercise is a common interest among the re-spondents. The authors argue that this information can be useful for online communities, since the findings indicate that many respondents would like to read about their interest. By exploring this kind of information among their consumers, Ungdomar.se will gain an un-derstanding of which their consumers are in terms of what they do in their spare time and thus might want to read about in an online community. Another common characteristic among youths, as stated by Wulff and Höijer, is their lack of control over money. Hence, they would benefit from some guidance regarding their personal economy. This infor-mation might be useful for Ungdomar.se, since they could provide such guidance.

38

In accordance to the second stage (Kim, 2000), the authors argue that Ungdomar.se should make a list of their consumers’ needs, to ensure that these can be satisfied in the communi-ty. Lastly, Kim (2000) states that in the third stage, these needs should be prioritised in a list. From the findings, the authors can identify what needs the respondents have in online communities. However, it is not possible to state which needs to prioritise the most, since the answers differ among the respondents. In addition, since Ungdomar.se targets a wide group of youths, the authors argue that all these needs should be equally emphasised. This further signifies that even though the respondents mention consuming and participating more frequently than producing, the authors recommend Ungdomar.se to include all three of them.

Safety need - Clear vision or purpose and etiquette

In addition to the stages mentioned above, Kim (2000) proposes a number of strategies, which can serve as a guideline when creating a sustainable online community. These are guidelines for online communities in general but when analysed in light of the empirical findings of this study, the authors argue that these can be useful for Ungdomar.se specifi-cally. Through these strategies, Kim (2000) shades light on the importance for an online community to have a clear purpose or vision that should be implemented in the overall website design. As stated by Maslow (1943), an orderly view of the world improves the probabilities for an individual to feel safe. The authors believe that a clear purpose or vi-sion can lead to an orderly view of the website, thus address the need for safety. As stated previously, the vision of Ungdomar.se is to provide their consumers a safe online commu-nity and enable their consumers to make their voices heard in public debates. The core val-ues are well-being, sustainability and inspiration. The vision and the core values both serve as the foundation of the website. At the current state, the vision and the core values are in the authors’ opinion not clearly communicated to the website visitors; when entering the website, it is not obvious what they want to provide their consumers. Their start page states: “Come here and talk, ask questions, read, chill out, meet new friends and much more”. This gives an impression of a safe and friendly website environment, which accord-ing to the questionnaire findings seems to be important for many respondents. However, it does not explain that they also want to enable their consumers to make their voices heard in public debates, which would be in accordance with their vision. Nevertheless, Vifot Haas seems to be aware of this as he explains that the core values rather permeate the whole company than are explicitly stated on the website. The authors recommend Ungdomar.se to make their vision and core values more explicit throughout the website. By making the website content more coherent, Ungdomar.se could address the need for safety, since this might result in a more orderly view of the website. For instance, they could convey their vi-sion at the start page, for visitors to immediately find out what they can gain by using Ungdomar.se.

The vision and the purpose of an online community can be further strengthened through meeting places on the website, such as discussion forums and chat rooms (Kim, 2000). To-day Ungdomar.se provides a discussion forum but not a chat room. In the current state, the forum threads are rather dispersed and a majority of the threads discuss topics without

39

connection to the core values. As the findings tell, Swajpet brings up issues that are more in line with the core values. The authors believe that the main reason why the core values are permeating Swajpet but not the forum threads is that threads are created by members, while the content in Swajpet is decided by people working at Ungdomar.se. The authors recommend Ungdomar.se to extend the roles of their moderators so that they, in addition to their current role, are responsible for creating threads in line with the vision and the core values.

Kim (2000) advocates having rules to live by, i.e. an etiquette, on the website. This also ad-dresses the need for safety, since such rules may encourage a sense of safety. Ungdomar.se communicates their etiquette through the page called ‘rules’ and Vifot Haas stresses that they do not tolerate inappropriate behaviour on the website, since they want their consum-ers to feel safe when using Ungdomar.se.

Social need - Offline events, friends and a chat room

To further clarify the community’s vision and purpose, Kim (2000) advocates the arrange-ment of events. In the current state of Ungdomar.se, the authors observe that the theme of the tour is one of their core values (sustainability), which is coherent to their vision. The ar-rangement of events is supported by Koh et al. (2007) who suggest that offline interactions may strengthen the togetherness among the consumers of the community, even in the online setting. However, as the tour aims only for students at selected upper-secondary schools in Sweden, the authors argue that it might be fruitful to arrange additional events, aiming specifically for their members. This could create a sense of togetherness among the members and address the social need. In addition, Ungdomar.se should note what the questionnaire findings tell; many respondents find it important that their friends use the same online community. Thus, the authors recommend Ungdomar.se to arrange activities where members get to engage their friends in the community. The authors also find it im-portant to note that many of the respondents want to make new friends in an online com-munity. Hence, the authors suggest that Ungdomar.se should create a chat room, in which members can get to know each other in private. However, it is important to ensure the safety of a chat room, as safety is an important need among the respondents. Thus, the au-thors recommend Ungdomar.se to emphasise their etiquette if, or when, they create a chat room, and to include clear information on how to report inappropriate behaviour.

Safety need and Social need - Member profiles or anonymity

Member profiles may encourage trust and social relationships (Kim, 2000). The authors ar-gue that in order to address the safety need and the social need, which both are important among the respondents, member profiles should be available. As mentioned previously, many of the respondents also value the possibility to be anonymous on the website. There-fore, the authors believe that the need for safety may be addressed in different ways, either by staying anonymous to avoid personal attacks, or by providing personal information to create trust and create relationships. As mentioned by Vifot Haas, Ungdomar.se offers the possibility to have a profile as well as being anonymous.

40

Esteem need and Self-actualisation need - Competitions and challenges

In addition to offline events, Kim (2000) encourages events in online settings. This can be in the form of competitions and challenges on the website. According to the questionnaire findings, respondents seem to find such activities appealing. The authors argue that Ungdomar.se could make a challenge or competition a regular activity, recurring every week or month. This might address the need for esteem or self-actualisation, which accord-ing to the findings are needs that the respondents seek to satisfy in an online community. For instance, the authors recommend Ungdomar.se to utilise the fact that the respondents are certainly interested in photos, by arranging photo competitions with varying themes. In these competitions, users could vote for their favourite, which would recognise the pro-ducer for his or her contribution to the website content and address the need for esteem. In addition, some users will see their chance to excel, which can address the need for self-actualisation.

Aesthetic need - The website design

As mentioned previously, the findings from the questionnaire show that many respondents find it important that the website is easy to use. As explained by Vifot Haas, they have fo-cused on creating a clean and easy-navigated website. This implies that Ungdomar.se is al-ready aware about the importance of providing a website that is easy to use. Ungdomar.se should also consider the respondents’ need for a nice design.

Cognitive need - Interesting articles and learning new things

The authors argue that individuals, who consume information, can address the cognitive need in the sense that they can gain knowledge and understanding. As the questionnaire findings tell, the respondents want to learn new things in an online community. Hence, this need can be satisfied in all the sections on Ungdomar.se, since they do all offer informative content. Those respondents who want to read interesting articles can satisfy their cognitive need in Swajpet.

Consuming, participating and producing

When analysing the questionnaire findings in light of the roles (Visitors, Novices, Regular, Leaders and Elders) suggested by Kim (2000), it is reasonable that the respondents have different roles in online communities. For instance, some respondents want to produce their own content while others only consume the website content. The page called ‘about us’ on Ungdomar.se, may serve the needs of Visitors, since it provides information about the website and what they can find there. Novices, i.e. new members, may also find what they need to know in this section. Moreover, Jakobsson talks about the importance of their loyal members. The authors suggest that these members can be seen as both Regulars and Leaders. In addition, Vifot Haas mentions moderators, and in the authors’ opinion, these people can be referred to as Leaders as well, since they ensure that inappropriate content or behaviour is reported or removed. In the case of Ungdomar.se, Elders may be the experts hosting the Support and Advice section, since they offer other members advice and guid-ance. As Wulff explains, many youths seem to appreciate advice from people whom they trust in or look up to. This is in line with what Kim (2000) states about Elders serving as

41

role models. The authors argue that the Elders also can bring a sense of trust since they have been engaged in the community for a long time. Most youths visiting Brunnen open up themselves first when they know Wulff and Höijer, and feel safe. If members of an online community have seen these Elders giving advice and guidance to other members, they might feel comfortable asking them questions, since trust can be built up over time.

The questionnaire findings show that the respondents want to consume, participate and produce in an online community. Today, it is not possible to upload any content of one’s own to Ungdomar.se, i.e. to produce one’s own material. As suggested by Kim (2000), communities may grow by allowing members to contribute to the website’s development. The findings indicate that the respondents seem to be keen on contributing to such website development, as many of them state that they want to participate and produce in the online community. Vifot Haas mentions that it is difficult to compete with other online communi-ties that provide ‘produce’ features. Nevertheless, the authors recommend Ungdomar.se to develop a function that stands out from these competitors. Developing features that are unique in relation to competitors is something that Kim (2000) recommends online com-munities to do.

6.3 Youths communicating online The findings show that a majority of the population investigated use Internet on a daily ba-sis. As stated by Sørensen (2010), these people are part of the Internet generation and this is confirmed by the findings from the questionnaire; 97 % of the respondents use Internet every day. The remaining 3 % use Internet 3-6 times a week, which is a high number as well. This finding indicates that the level of Internet involvement is substantially high among the respondents, thus in line with what Findahl (2012) declares; people in this age use Internet to a high degree.

Wulff and Höijer explain that in some situations, many youths prefer written communica-tion to verbal communication. For instance, if it is possible to use a chat online, this is many times preferred when asking sensitive questions. This corresponds to the information from the annual reports from BRIS, indicating that young people increasingly choose to communicate through Internet rather than phone calls.

The questionnaire findings show that there are respondents who most preferably would turn to the Internet when having sensitive concerns or problem. In addition, the authors can see a linkage between these findings and the findings from the interviews. Firstly, the majority of the respondents, who preferably turn to the Internet with their sensitive con-cerns, want to read about love and sex. Secondly, in the Support and Advice section, sex related questions are most common, as Vifot Haas explains. Lastly, Wulff and Höijer ex-plain that youths do not tend to come to them with questions and concerns related to sex. This may imply that online communities can provide youths the possibility to ask this kind of questions, which they do not feel comfortable asking someone face-to-face. Hence, a feature such as the Support and Advice section, provided on Ungdomar.se, could be rele-vant for online communities when seeking to enable youths to communicate sensitive is-sues.

42

7 Conclusion This section will provide answers to each research question and conclusions will be drawn. Thus, the purpose of the thesis will be achieved.

RQ1: What needs and wants do youths seek to satisfy in online communities?

In online communities, youths seek to satisfy safety needs, love or social needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs and self-actualisation needs. These needs can exist simultaneously. The findings also imply that youths want to consume, participate and pro-duce website content, which in turn can satisfy certain needs. Moreover, the result shows that a majority of the youths investigated, want to read about their primary interest in an online community.

RQ2: How can Ungdomar.se adapt and improve their website with respect to youths’ needs and wants in online communities?

With respect to the youths’ needs and wants in online communities, the authors identify features and activities that Ungdomar.se can develop or improve, in order to meet the needs and wants of their target group. Overall, Ungdomar.se provides a safe website envi-ronment. Nonetheless, the safety needs could be further addressed by clearly communi-cating the online community’s core values and vision to their consumers. Consequently, their consumers will perceive the website as more coherent and predictable, which most likely will lead to a higher level of perceived safety. Social, esteem, and self-actualisation needs could be addressed through the arrangement of events and activities for all the members, both online and offline. Finally, the authors argue that the most important find-ing is that many youths want to produce their own material in online communities. How-ever, Ungdomar.se only allows their members to consume website content and participate through interactions. By implementing a ‘produce’ feature in the online community, for in-stance a weekly photo competition, Ungdomar.se could address the need for esteem and self-actualisation.

RQ3: Is it possible for Ungdomar.se to provide youths with a function that cannot be provided outside of the Internet and if so, what function would that be?

The authors find it reasonable to interpret the findings as if many youths are likely to use the Internet when the communication regards topics perceived as sensitive in their nature, such as sex. Hence, the function that Ungdomar.se can provide youths is a communication channel, in which experts give them support and advice regarding topics that these youths do not want to discuss offline.

43

8 Discussion This section will present a discussion on the authors’ own thoughts, regarding issues related to the thesis and how the research process has proceeded. Strong points as well as limitations will be declared. Finally, sugges-tions for future research will be elaborated upon.

Throughout the research process, the authors have gained knowledge and new insights into the research topic. Furthermore, they have faced limitations that should be recognised and discussed. In addition, the authors have observed that there is room for further studies, re-lating to youths’ needs and wants in online communities.

The authors claim that a strength of this study is the mixed method design. By using both quantitative and qualitative data, the authors have been able to address the problem from different angles, to better answer the research questions. Moreover, this thesis demon-strates that consumer behaviour can be applied to other settings than commerce settings. With support from Loveland (2013), the authors state that consumer behaviour can be ap-plied even when the consumer is not making a purchase decision. Through the arguments in this thesis, the authors make clear that Internet users can be treated as consumers of website content, paying with time and effort instead of money.

During this study, the authors realised that online communities should make use of tech-nical tools to further explore their members’ behaviour, and needs and wants. For in-stance, Google Analytics6 could be used to measure exactly how many users that visit the online community and how these individuals navigate when browsing through the online community. Google Analytics could provide information about the consumers’ de-mographics, in which sections people spend the most time, which sections that are most visited, and by whom. Such technical tools could help online communities to understand their consumers even better, which is in line with what is advocated by Kim (2000).

The authors would like to highlight that they did not consider all primary data collected relevant for the fulfilment of the purpose. Therefore, the empirical findings only include information that the authors found necessary in order to answer the research questions.

Even though the authors believe that the findings might be helpful for other online com-munities targeting young people in Sweden, it is important to note that this study focuses specifically on Ungdomar.se. Therefore, each community should adapt the findings to their specific company, vision and culture.

8.1 Limitations In addition to the limitations mentioned in the method section, the authors have recog-nised a number of limitations that should be highlighted. Research limitations may lead to weaknesses in the study and the authors state that these are important to keep in mind.

6 Google Analytics is a free tool created by Google, that provides websites with statistical information about

the website’s visitors (Plaza, 2009)

44

The research is limited to online communities targeting youths in Sweden, since a study of the entire market of online communities targeting youths, would have been unfeasible. Fur-thermore, this thesis focuses on Ungdomar.se, which means that a single case study serves as the source of information. In order to obtain other online communities’ views on the topic, a multiple case study could have been beneficial. However, to be able to demonstrate the findings by evaluating and providing recommendations to a specific online community, a close collaboration with Ungdomar.se was considered necessary. In order to achieve ob-jectivity and gain further insight, Brunnen served as an additional source of information. Moreover, in order to obtain information about youths from multiple sources, the study could have included additional interviews with people working closely to youths, such as school counsellors or school nurses. However, due to the assigned time frame, this was not considered feasible.

Another limitation to this study is the sampling process. Since the method of data collec-tion was changed during the study, explained in section 4.2.9, there was a delay in the time schedule. If the authors had realised the weaknesses of an online survey earlier in the study, they would have had more time to conduct a sample comprised by students not only from Herrljunga and Jönköping, but also from other parts in Sweden. On the other hand, by ac-tively selecting the classes in which to hand out the questionnaire, it was possible to choose different programmes. The authors believe that this increased the chance of reaching indi-viduals with different characteristics, resulting in a more varied sample. Given the prevail-ing conditions, the aim was to obtain an as representative sample as possible. Finally, the authors chose not to conduct focus groups, as explained in section 4.2.9. However, with more time at hand, this could have been fruitful in addition to the questionnaire.

The questionnaire did not ask the participants about their gender. The reason is that the au-thors chose to treat all the answers as a whole rather than looking into differences and/or similarities between genders. However, in hindsight, the authors realised that it could have been of interest to see the distribution of gender among the respondents. The distribution would tell if the sample is representative of both boys and girls. Even though the authors claim that there was an equal distribution of boys and girls in the selected classes, it would still be more credible to demonstrate this through real numbers.

8.2 Suggestions for future research The authors have determined a range of different needs that youths can satisfy when using online communities. This is useful information when deciding what features and content to include in an online community. However, further research could be beneficial in order to understand why these needs are apparent among youths using online communities. Through such information, online communities could adapt their content and features more exten-sively, with respect to their target group.

This study has focused on needs and wants as the drivers of motivation. It is important to keep in mind though, that consumers’ final choice of what to consume does not only origi-nate in needs and wants. According to Solomon (2009), factors such as attitudes, values and an individual’s different selves are also crucial determinants in consumers’ decision-

45

making. Thus, in order to comprehend what factors that lead individuals to consume con-tent in online communities, further research on such factors could serve as a complement to the findings in this study.

46

9 List of References Alvesson, M. & Sköldberg, K. (2007). Tolkning och reflection: Vetenskapsfilosofi och kvalitativ metod (2nd ed.). Lund: Studentlitteratur AB.

Andrews, D.C. (2002). Audience-Specific Online Community Design. Communications of the ACM, 45(4), pp. 64-68.

Bagozzi, R.P. & Dholakia, U.M (2002). Intentional social action in virtual communities. Journal of interactive marketing, 16(2), pp. 2-21.

Baker, M.J. (2002). Sampling. The Marketing Review, 3, pp. 103-120.

Barnes, J. & Pressey, A.D. (2011). Who needs cyberspace? Examining drivers of needs in Second Life. Internet Research, 21(3), pp. 236-254.

Battaglia, M.P. (2008). Nonprobability Sampling. In Paul J. Lavrakas (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods. Available at: http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/survey/n337.xml [Accessed 10 March 2013].

Bishop, J. (2007). Increasing participation in online communities: A framework for human– computer interaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, pp. 1881-1893.

BRIS. (2011a). BRIS 40 år. [pdf] Available at: http://bris.se/upload/Articles/BRIS_40ar.pdf [Accessed 11 April 2013].

BRIS. (2011b). BRIS-rapporten 2011. [pdf] Available at: http://www.bris.se/?pageID=231 [Accessed 1 April 2013].

BRIS. (2012). BRIS-rapporten 2012. [pdf] Available at: http://www.bris.se/?pageID=231 [Accessed 1 April 2013].

BRIS. (2013). BRIS-rapporten 2013. [pdf] Available at: http://www.bris.se/?pageID=231 [Accessed 1 April 2013].

Bryman, A. & Bell, E. (2007). Business research methods (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chan, K. & Fang, W (2007). Use of the internet and traditional media among young peo-ple. Young Consumers, 8(4), pp. 244-256.

Cho, N. & Park, S. (2001). Development of electronic commerce user-consumer satisfac-tion index (ECUSI) for Internet shopping. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 101(8), pp. 400-405.

Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: meaning and perspective in the research process. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Darlington, Y. & Scott, D. (2002). Qualitative research in practice. Berkshire: Open University Press.

47

Dermody, J. (2009). Consumer Needs and Wants. In C. Wankel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Busi- ness in Today's World. Available at: http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/businesstoday/n213.xml?rskey=9eTHKW& row=1 [Accessed 15 March 2013].

Encyclopædia Britannica. (2013a). E-commerce. Available at: http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/183748/e-commerce [Accessed 15 April 2013].

Encyclopædia Britannica. (2013b). Twitter. Available at: http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1370976/Twitter [Accessed 8 April 2013]. Encyclopædia Britannica. (2013c). YouTube. Available at:

http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1262578/YouTube [Accessed 8 April 2013].

Eriksson, L.T. & Weidersheim-Paul, F. (2011). Att utreda, forska och rapportera (5th ed.). Malmö: Liber.

Findahl, O. (2012). Svenskarna och Internet 2012. [pdf] Ödeshög: Stiftelsen för Internetinfra- struktur: Available at: https://www.iis.se/docs/SOI2012.pdf [Accessed 5 February 2013].

Fritz, A.E & Morgan, G.A. (2010). Sampling. In N. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Research De- sign. Available at: http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/researchdesign/n398.xml [Accessed 20 March 2013].

Gad, M.S. (2009). Consumer Behavior. In C. Wankel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Business in Today’s World. Available at: http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/businesstoday/n212.xml [Accessed 3 March 2013].

Ghauri, P. & Grønhaug, K. (2005). Research methods in business studies: a practical guide (3rd ed.). Harlow: FT Prentice Hall.

Gillham, B. (2007). Designing a questionnaire (2nd ed.). London: Continuum. Gleitman, H., Gross, J. & Reisberg, D. (2011). Psychology (8th ed.). London: WW Norton & Company.

Hoyer, W.D. & MacInnis, D.J. (2008). Consumer behavior (5th ed.). Mason, OH: South- Western.

Jakobsson, K. (2013). Interview on Ungdomar.se. [interview] (Personal communication, 5 March, 2013).

Jönköpings Kommun. (n.d.). Om UNG036. Available at: http://ung036.se/om [Accessed 24 April 2013].

48

Katz, E., Blumler, J.G. & Gurevitch, M. (1974). Uses and Gratifications Research. The Pub-lic Opinion Quarterly, 37(4), pp. 509-523.

Kaur, A. & Medury, Y. (2011). Impact of the internet on teenagers’ influence on family purchases. Young Consumers, 12(1), pp. 27-38,

Kim, A.J. (2000). Community building on the web: secret strategies for successful online communities. Berkeley: Peachpit Press.

Koh, J., Kim, Y.G., Butler, B. & Bock, G.W. (2007). Encouraging participation in virtual communities. Communications of the ACM, 50(2), pp. 68-73.

Kotler, P. (2000) Marketing Management Millennium Edition (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Laudon, K.C. & Traver, C.G. (2012). E-commerce 2012 - business, technology, society (8th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Lee, C.K., Conroy, D.M. & Hii, C. (2003). The internet: a consumer socialization agent for teenagers. In: ANZMAC 2003 Conference Proceedings, Adelaide, South Australia, 1-3 De-cember 2003.

Leimeister, J.M., Sidiras, P. & Krcmar, H. (2006). Exploring Success Factors of Virtual Communities: The Perspectives of Members and Operators. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 16(3-4), pp. 279-300.

Loveland, K. (2013). Correspondence about Online Consumer Behaviour [e-mail] (Personal com-munication, 10 April, 2013).

Marshall, M.N. (1996). Sampling for qualitative research. Family Practice, 13, pp. 522-525.

Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, pp. 370-96.

Morse, J.M. & Niehaus, L. (2009). Mixed Method Design - Principles and Procedures. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, Inc.

Nationalencyklopedin. (2013a). Blogg. Available at: http://www.ne.se/lang/blogg [Accessed 27 February 2013].

Nationalencyklopedin. (2013b). Facebook. Available at: http://www.ne.se/lang/facebook [Accessed 27 February 2013].

Nationalencyklopedin. (2013c). Instagram. Available at: http://www.ne.se/instagram [Accessed 27 February 2013].

Oxford University Press. (2013). Social Network. Available at: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/social+network [Accessed 27 February 2013].

49

Plaza, B. (2009). Monitoring web traffic source effectiveness with Google Analytics: An experiment with time series. Aslib Proceedings, 61(5), pp. 474-482. Rideout, V.J., Foehr, U.G. & Roberts, D.F. (2010). Generation M2: media in the lives of 8- to 18- year-olds – A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. [pdf]. Menlo Park: California. Available at: http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/8010.pdf [Accessed 20 April 2013].

Rust, R.T. & Kannan, P.K. (2002). E-service: New Directions in Theory and Practice. Armonk, New York, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2012). Research methods for business students (6th ed.). Harlow: FT Prentice Hall.

Sekaran, U. (2003). Research methods for business: A skill building approach (4th ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Shao, G. (2009). Understanding the appeal of user-generated media: a uses and gratification perspective. Internet Research, 19, pp. 7-25.

SMIF – Sveriges Marknadsundersökningsföretag. (2013). Barn och Ungdom. Available at: http://www.smif.se/lagar-a-etik/barn-och-ungdom [Accessed 19 February 2013].

Solomon, M.R. (2009). Consumer Behaviour; Buying, having, and being (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River. NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

Sørensen, B.H. (2010). 2.0 – Children In and Outside School. In Carlsson, U. (Ed.), Chil-dren and youth in the digital media culture – from a Nordic perspective (pp. 51-63.) Göteborg: Nordicom.

Svenning, C. (2003). Metodboken (5th ed.). Eslöv: Lorenz Förlag.

Trobia, A. (2008). Sampling. In Paul J. Lavrakas (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods. Available at: http://srmo.sagepub.com/view/encyclopedia-of-survey-research- methods/n508.xml [Accessed 10 March 2013].

Ungdomar AB. (2013a). Hallå där!. Available at: http://ungdomar.se/ [Accessed 27 February 2013].

Ungdomar AB. (2013b). Webb. Available at: http://ungdomarab.se/hem/online-media/ [Accessed 1 April 2013].

Van Selm, M. & Jankowski, N.W. (2006). Conducting online surveys. Quality & Quantity, 40, pp. 435-456.

Vifot Haas, A. (2013). Interview on Ungdomar.se [telephone] (Personal communication, 7 Feb-ruary, 2013).

Wee, W. (2010). Teen Media - Hollywood and the Youth Market in the Digital Age. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.

50

Zikmund, W.G. (2000). Business research methods (6th ed.). Orlando, FL: The Dryden Press.

Zollo, P. (2004). Getting Wiser to Teens. Ithaca, NY: New Strategist Publications, Inc.

51

Appendices APPENDIX 1 – Questionnaire (Original in Swedish)

En undersökning om ungas användande av Online Communities

En online community är ett socialt nätverk på Internet där människor kan mötas, kommu-nicera och diskutera olika ämnen. Det finns ofta funktioner som frågespalter, diskussions-

forum, chatt, bildalbum och blogg.

1. Hur gammal är du?

☐ 15 ☐ 16 ☐ 17 ☐ 18 ☐ 19

2. Hur ofta använder du Internet?

☐ Varje dag ☐ 3-6 ggr i veckan ☐ 1-2 ggr i veckan ☐ Varannan vecka ☐ Var tredje vecka ☐ Mindre än en gång i månaden ☐ Aldrig

3. Besöker du några online communities?

☐ Ja ☐ Nej

4. Vilket är ditt främsta intresse? Ange endast ett svar.

_______________________________________________________________

5. Vad skulle du helst vilja du läsa om på en online community? Ange max 3 alternativ.

☐ Relationer (tex. kompisar & familj) ☐ Kärlek & Sex ☐ Kroppen ☐ Fysisk hälsa (tex. Träning & kost) ☐ Utbildning (tex. programval & vidareutbildning) ☐ Jobb (tex. sommarjobb, praktik, tips) ☐ Samhällsfrågor (tex. politik, miljö & religion) ☐ Kultur (tex. musik & film) ☐ Inspiration (tex. förebilder & allmänna tips) ☐ Psykisk hälsa (tex. stress, självkänsla & självförtroende) ☐ Kommentera gärna ditt svar eller skriv ett eget:

_______________________________________________________________

52

6. Hur använder du en online community? Du kan välja fler än ett alternativ.

☐ Ta del av hemsidans innehåll (t.ex. läsa artiklar & texter, titta på andras bilder & lära mig nya saker) ☐ Delta (t.ex. skaffa nya vänner, diskutera saker och ställa frågor till experter) ☐ Skapa eget material (t.ex. ladda upp foton och egna texter)

7. Vad vill du helst kunna göra på en online community, om du besöker en? Ange max 3 alternativ.

☐ Skaffa nya vänner ☐ Diskutera olika ämnen ☐ Läsa intressanta artiklar ☐ Ladda upp bilder ☐ Titta på andras bilder ☐ Ladda upp egna texter ☐ Läsa andras texter ☐ Lära mig om nya saker ☐ Ställa frågor till experter inom olika ämnen ☐ Kommentera gärna ditt svar eller skriv ett eget:

______________________________________________________________

8. Om jag skulle besöka en online community, är följande saker viktigast: Ange max 3 alternativ. ☐ Jag kan vara anonym ☐ Hemsidan har en snygg design ☐ Jag känner mig trygg ☐ Jag känner mig hörd och sedd ☐ Mina vänner finns där ☐ Hemsidan är lättanvänd ☐ Kommentera gärna ditt svar eller skriv ett eget:

_______________________________________________________________

53

9. Om du har känsliga frågor eller problem, vart vänder du dig helst då? Ange max 3 alternativ. ☐ Föräldrar ☐ Internet ☐ Skolkurator/skolsyster ☐ Kompisar ☐ Jag pratar inte med någon om mina problem ☐ Jag har inte sådana frågor eller problem ☐ Kommentera gärna ditt svar eller skriv ett eget:

_______________________________________________________________

54

APPENDIX 2 – Questionnaire (Translated into English)

A survey of young people's use of Online Communities.

An online community is a social network on the Internet, where people can meet, com-municate and discuss different issues. There are often functions such as Q&A sections, dis-

cussion forums, chat, photo albums and blogs.

1. How old are you? ☐ 15 ☐ 16 ☐ 17 ☐ 18 ☐ 19 2. How often do you use Internet? ☐ Every day☐ 3-6 times a week ☐ 1-2 times a week ☐ Every other week ☐ Every third week ☐ Less than once a month ☐ Never 3. Do you visit any online communities?

☐ Yes ☐ No 4. What is your primary interest? Please mention only one. _______________________________________________________________ 5. What would you most preferably like to read about on an online community? Please mention at most 3 things ☐ Relationships (e.g. friends & family) ☐ Love & Sex ☐ The body ☐ Physical health (e.g. work-out & nutrition) ☐ Education (e.g. orientation guide & higher education) ☐ Jobs (e.g. summer jobs, internships & tips) ☐ Societal issues (e.g. politics, environment & religion) ☐ Culture (e.g. music & movies) ☐ Inspiration (e.g. role models & general advice) ☐ Psychological well-being (stress, self-esteem & self-confidence) ☐ Please comment your answer or come up with your own answer: _______________________________________________________________

55

6. How do you use an online community? You may select more than one alternative. ☐ Consume (e.g. read articles and texts, look at others’ photos & learn new things) ☐ Participate (e.g. make new friends, discuss things, ask questions to experts) ☐ Produce (e.g. upload photos & texts) 7. What would you most preferably like to do on an online community? Please mention at most 3 things. ☐ Make new friends ☐ Discuss different things ☐ Read interesting articles ☐ Upload photos ☐ Look at others’ photos ☐ Upload my own texts ☐ Read others’ texts ☐ Learn new things ☐ Ask questions to experts ☐ Please comment your answer or come up with your own answer: _______________________________________________________________ 8. If I would visit an online community, following things are most important: Please mention at most 3 things. ☐ I can be anonymous ☐ The website has a nice design ☐ I feel safe ☐ My friends use the online community ☐ The website is easy to use ☐ I feel seen and heard ☐ Please comment your answer or come up with your own answer: _______________________________________________________________ 9. If you have any concerns or questions of sensitive nature, to whom would you most preferably turn? Please mention at most 3 things. ☐ Parents ☐ The Internet ☐ School counsellor/School nurse ☐ Friends ☐ I don’t talk about my problems ☐ I don’t have such concerns or questions ☐ Please comment your answer or come up with your own answer:

_______________________________________________________________

56

APPENDIX 3 – The logic behind the questionnaire 1. How old are you?

☐ 15 ☐ 16 ☐ 17 ☐ 18 ☐ 19

This information provides a good overview of the age distribution, to ensure that respondents from every age are represented within the sample.

2. How often do you use Internet?

☐ Every day ☐ 3-6 times a week ☐ 1-2 times a week ☐ Every other week ☐ Every third week ☐ Less than once a month ☐ Never Through this question, the authors seek to find out how often the respondent use Internet. This is made in order to find out the level of involvement and to see whether the result reflects people who actually use Inter-net.

3. Do you visit any online communities?

☐ Yes ☐ No

This question investigates how common the usage of online communities is among the respondents.

4. What is your primary interest?

This question will give a hint of what interests that are most common. It also enables the authors to com-pare their primary interest with the answer on question 5, in order to see whether there is a relation between their interest and what they want to read about in an online community. Question 1-4 is aimed to get a general understanding of the respondents, as suggested by Kim (2000).

57

5. What would you most preferably like to read about in an online community?

☐ Relationships (e.g. friends & family) ☐ Love & Sex ☐ The body ☐ Physical health (e.g. work-out & nutrition) ☐ Education (e.g. orientation guide & higher education) ☐ Jobs (e.g. summer jobs, internships & tips) ☐ Societal issues (e.g. politics, environment & religion) ☐ Culture (e.g. music & movies) ☐ Inspiration (e.g. role models & general advice) ☐ Psychological well-being (stress, esteem & self-confidence) ☐ Please comment your answer or come up with your own answer:

This question will give insight to what kind of content that is perceived as interesting and valuable to the re-spondents. The respondents are requested to choose at most three alternatives. To give them a hint of what the different alternatives may include, examples are provided within brackets to every alternative. The re-spondents may also come up with another answer than those mentioned.

6. How do you use an online community?

☐ Consume (e.g. read articles and texts, look at others’ photos & learn new things)

☐ Participate (e.g. make new friends, discuss things, ask questions to experts)

☐ Produce (e.g. upload photos & texts)

This question seeks to find out what the respondents do when visiting online communities, in terms of the motives proposed by Shao (2009): Consuming, Participating and Producing. This information enables the authors to compare the result from question number 7, to ensure that these are in compliance. Examples are provided within brackets.

58

7. What would you most preferably like to do in an online community?

☐ Read interesting articles à Consume à Need of information, entertainment and mood management ☐ Look at others’ photos à Consume à Need of information, entertainment and mood management ☐ Read others’ texts à Consume à Need of information, entertainment and mood management ☐ Learn new things à Consume à Need of information, entertainment and mood management

☐ Make new friends à Participate à Social need ☐ Discuss different things à Participate à Social need ☐ Ask questions to experts à Participate à Social need ☐ Upload photos à Produce à Esteem / Self-actualisation ☐ Upload my own texts à Produce à Esteem / Self-actualisation ☐ Please comment your answer or come up with your own answer:

This question will also give insight about what content the respondents find interesting in terms of website features. The respondents can at most choose three alternatives. This information also gives a hint about in which way the respondents preferably use online communities. The respondents are provided the option to come up with another alternative and if so, the authors categorise their answers accordingly. The categories are based on the theories provided by Maslow (1943) and Shao (2009).

8. If I would visit an online community, following things are most important: ☐ I can be anonymous à Safety need

☐ I feel safe à Safety need

☐ My friends use the online community à Social need

☐ I feel seen and heard à Esteem / Self-actualisation

☐ The website is easy to use à Aesthetic need

☐ The website has a nice design à Aesthetic need

☐ Please comment your answer or come up with your own answer:

This question does not relate specifically to text content or website features, but more to abstract factors, which may contribute to why the respondent choose to spend time in an online community. The respondents can at most choose three alternatives and are allowed to come up with another answer than those mentioned.

59

If so, the authors categorise the answers according to which need they may fulfil. The categories are based on the theories provided by Maslow (1943) and Gleitman et al. (2011).

9. If you have any concerns or questions of sensitive nature, to whom would you most preferably turn?

☐ Parents ☐ The Internet ☐ School counsellor/School nurse ☐ Friends ☐ I don’t talk about my problems ☐ I don’t have such concerns or questions ☐ Please comment your answer or come up with your own answer: This question seeks to find out to whom the respondent preferably turn, if they have some problem or concern of sensitive nature. By asking this question, the authors seek to find out whether they consider Internet an option or if they would rather talk to someone face-to-face. The respondents can at most choose three alter-natives and are provided the option to come up with another answer than those provided.

60

APPENDIX 4 – Interview questions to Brunnen

(Translated to English)

1. What is your position here at Brunnen? 2. Is it common that youths turn to you with questions/problems? 3. How old are the persons who most frequently turn to you with questions/problems? 4. According to your experience, within what areas do you think that these youths have most questions/problems? 5. Are there any specific questions that are commonly asked? - If so, which is the most commonly asked question? 6. Do you have any idea if there are questions or problems, which youths do not want to/feel uncomfortable with asking you about? - If so, to whom/where do you think they turn with these questions/problems? 7. Do you think that the questions that are asked on the Internet, differ from those that you are facing? - If so, in which way do you think they differ and why? 8. Do you have any idea whether the youths coming here share some common characteris-tics? 9. Have you noticed any difference, both regarding what questions/problems that youths bring to you and also whether there has been a increase or decrease over the last years?

Interview Questions to Brunnen

(Original in Swedish)

1. Vilken är er jobbposition här på Brunnen? 2. Är det vanligt att ungdomar kommer till er med frågor/problem? - I så fall, är det vanligt att dessa funderingar/problem är av känslig natur? 3. Hur gamla är de personer som mest frekvent kommer till er med funderingar/ problem? 4. Enligt din erfarenhet, inom vilka områden tror du att dessa ungdomar har flest funde-ringar/problem? 5. Finns det några specifika frågor som ni ofta får? - I så fall, vilken är den vanligaste frågan? 6. Har ni någon uppfattning om ifall det finns frågor/funderingar som ungdomar inte vill eller känner sig obekväma med att ställa till er? - I så fall, till vem/vart tror ni att de vänder sig med dessa frågor/funderingar? 7. Tror ni att de frågor som ställs på Internet skiljer sig från de frågor som ställs till er? - I så fall, på vilket sätt och varför? 8. Har ni någon uppfattning om ifall de ungdomar som kommer till er delar några särskilda karaktärsdrag? 9. Har ni märkt någon förändring; dels kring vilka frågor/problem som ungdomar kommer med till er och dels om det har skett en ökning eller minskning på senare år?

61

APPENDIX 5 – Interview questions to Ungdomar.se

(Translated into English)

Regarding Ungdomar.se:

• Could you to tell us a bit about the company’s history and background? • What is the structure of the company? • What does the relation to your partners look like? • What are your plans for the future, when it comes to growth and expansion? • What changes have been made on the website? • What will be the focus in the future? • What are your primary sources of income? • In what way does the three core values affect the company? (Well-being, Sustaina-

bility and Inspiration) • What do you want to contribute with, through Ungdomar.se? • Is Ungdomar.se supervised or monitored? • What is a satisfied consumer to you? • What are the most common questions asked on the website?

Regarding the thesis:

• What are your expectations? • What do you think we should focus on? • What is important for you to find out

(Original in Swedish)

Angående Ungdomar.se:

• Skulle du kunna berätta lite om företagets historia och bakgrund? • Hur är företaget uppbyggt ? • Hur ser relationen till era partners ut? • Hur planerar ni för framtiden när det kommer till tillväxt och expansion? • Vad är det för förändringar som har skett på hemsidan? • Vad kommer att stå i fokus i framtiden? • Vilka är era främsta intäktskällor? • På vilket sätt märks era tre värden i företaget? (Hälsa, Hållbarhet och Inspiration) • Vad vill ni kunna bidra med genom Ungdomar.se? • Är Ungdomar.se på något sätt övervakat? • Hur ser en nöjd besökare ut för er? • Vilka är de vanligaste förekommande frågorna?

Angående C-uppsatsen:

• Vad har ni för förväntningar? • Vad tycker ni att vi ska fokusera på? • Vad är viktigt för er?

62

APPENDIX 6 – Screen captures from the website Ungdomar.se, translated into English through Google Translate.

Start page on Ungdomar.se

Forum on Ungdomar.se

63

Support and Advice on Ungdomar.se

64

Swajpet on Ungdomar.se

65

APPENDIX 7 - Search words

These words have been combined in different arrangements.

Adolescents

Community/ies

Consumer behaviour/behavior

Consumer/s

E-consumer

E-service

Internet users

Motivation

Maslow

Needs and wants

Online

Online community/ies

On the Internet

Social media

Social network

Self-concept

Teens

Teenagers

User behaviour/behavior

User gratification model

Virtual

Viral

Young people

Youths

Website