Department of Marketing

Online Consumer Behavior in Bangladesh

2026-08-04T00:00:00Z

Online Consumer Behavior in Bangladesh KOWSAR, ALI MOHAMMAD The aim of the study thus is to understand the main factors that would influence online consumer behavior in the Bangladesh market which is in a phase of tremendous digital explosion due to growing impact of globalization, technology and growing internet connectivity. Following the development of e-commerce as one of the fundamental elements of contemporary retail strategy, the motivation, preferences, and decisionmaking patterns of online consumers have emerged as the key concern of local business people and multinational corporations alike. The study includes a mixed-method design: large surveys will be combined with in-depth interviews in order to achieve overall picture of factors which affect online shopping adoption. The research examines the influence of the factors related to demographics, cultural norms, social interactions, psychological motivations, internet use and history of use, and the previous experience of online store, as well as the operational factors to include payment security, privacy protection, trust to the internet vendors, transparency of information, and convenience of navigation by websites. The results indicate that purchase intentions are augmented by convenience, time efficiency, the variety of products, and personalized offers to a very large extent as the perceived risks, the untrusting nature, and the delivery aspect prevent the adoption. Digital literacy and the level of education also prove to be extremely important moderators allowing consumers to make more confident and informed purchase decisions. Moreover, brand popularity and ease of payment options play a crucial role in developing purchase preferences, because of the social influence. Findings also reveal that the young consumers have greater activity in the e-commerce sites than the old users though the latter is more concerned with the issue of frauds and authenticity of products. The paper is a novel contribution as it has offered a contextspecific model of the behavior of online shopping within a Bangladesh context by incorporating technology-related and socio-cultural factors. The implications of the study go beyond the parameters of marketing strategy, platform design, and policy development, and can be used when it comes to improving customer satisfaction, trustrelated maintaining, and competitiveness in a highly dynamic digital economy. Finally, the results provide support of the fact that sustainable development of the online retail market in Bangladesh requires constant innovation, consumer education, and ethical conduct of business. This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Facebook Usage and its Impact on Academic Performance of University Students in Bangladesh

2026-08-04T00:00:00Z

Facebook Usage and its Impact on Academic Performance of University Students in Bangladesh Akther, Suma The prompt rise of digital technologies and social networking podiums has changed the way students interact, communicate, and access information. Facebook, amongst those podiums, has become exclusively prevalent in university students' day-to-day practices in Bangladesh. Facebook deals with several educational advantages, like group discussions, knowledge sharing, and staying informed etc. So, it is a growing concern over its impact on students’ academic attention, time management, and largely academic performance. This study carried out with the intent to identify the Facebook usage and its impact on academic performance of university students in Bangladesh. The primary objectives of this study are threefold: (1) To identify the usage patterns of Facebook among university students in Bangladesh, (2) To examine how Facebook usage influences academic performance, and (3) To analyze the specific effects of such usage on university students’ academic achievement. The research also marks three research questions affiliated with the objectives and tests three null hypotheses relating collaboration, communication, and resource sharing over Facebook to academic performance. This cross-sectional study involved a mixed-methods approach, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative. Total of 462 students from three public universities (University of Dhaka, Jahangirnagar University, and Comilla University) and three private universities (North South University, Daffodil International University, and Bangladesh University of Business and Technology) were surveyed using a structured questionnaire. Convenience sampling was applied. The data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0, SMART PLS 4.0, and VOSViewer, incorporating Descriptive statistics, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The major findings of the study are summarizing as follows based on the analyzed data: Based on survey 57 percent respondents were male and 43 percent respondents were female. Eighty six percent respondents belong to age group 22 to 25 years, and 14 percent respondents belong to age group 18 to 21 years. Forty three percent respondents studying fourth year, 29 percent respondents studying second year, 14 percent respondents studying first year and 14 percent respondents studying fifth year. Eighty six percent respondents studying undergraduate level and 14 percent respondents studying master’s level. Forty three percent respondents studying public universities, 57 percent respondents studying private universities. Fifty seven percent respondents visited Facebook, 29 percent respondents vii visited Whatsapp, 14 percent respondents visited you tube. Forty three percent respondents use mobile for browsing internet, 43 percent respondents use laptop for browsing internet and 14 percent respondents use desktop for browsing internet. Seventy one percent respondents use internet at home and 29 percent respondents use internet at university premises. All respondents use internet daily basis. Seventy one percent respondents spent 0-5 hrs for academic purpose and 29 percent respondents spent 5-10hrs for academic purpose. Forty three percent respondents use internet to visit social sites, 43 percent respondents use internet for group study and 14 percent respondents use internet for sharing files. Fifty seven percent respondents usage internet sharing and downloading lecture notes, 29 percent respondents usage internet sharing and downloading journal articles and 14 percent respondents usage internet sharing and downloading e-books. Fifty seven percent respondents spent 1-3 hrs daily basis to visit social media sites, 29 percent respondents spent 3-6 hrs daily basis to visit social media sites and 14 percent respondents spent more than 6 hrs daily basis to visit social media sites. Eighty six percent respondents spent less than 5 hrs on Facebook for academic related activities weekly basis and 14 percent respondents spent 5-10 hrs on Facebook for academic related activities weekly basis. Average Facebook friends of the respondents around 953 and they spent time on Facebook average 3.43 hrs daily basis. The mean of the individual items' scores was used to calculate the four constructs or components. The means of all four constructs are near the central scale point (four on a five-point Likert scale) and have an SD of less than two. All four constructs have skewness and kurtosis coefficients that are less than two. Every factor loading is higher than 0.5. Academic performance's R2 score is 0.229.Cohen (1988) states that an R2 value of 2 percent indicates a modest influence, an R2 value of 13 percent indicates a medium effect, and an R2 value of 26 percent indicates a strong effect. Accordingly, the model had a medium impact on the endogenous characteristics and explained 22.9 percent of academic performance. Factor loading above 0.5, which is adequate for the construct and convergent validities, is demonstrated by the CFA approach. All independent variables have factor loadings greater than 0.5. Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (CR) values for each construct were evaluated, and they were all above Cohen's recommended critical level of 0.7 (1988). All constructs had average variance extracted (AVE) values that were higher than the threshold value of 0.50 proposed by Hair et al. (2017). Heterait-monotrait, or simply HTMT, is a novel approach to obtaining the discriminant validity that was offered by Heseler et al. (2015) as an additional method for proving discriminant validity. According to Heseler et al. (2015), the strict HTMT threshold value of 0.85 must be less than 0.9, which is a loosen criterion. All of the values fall below 0.85, meeting the necessary threshold value and hence viii establishing discriminant validity. According to the Fornell and Larcker technique, a variable must differ more from its own items or self than from other variables. According to Hair et al. (2011), the diagonal values in the table must be bigger than the column and row they represent because they are the square root of AVE. All of the diagonal values satisfy the required standards, guaranteeing discriminant validity. When two variables have a strong relationship or when one predictor variable in multiple regression can be linearly predicted from another, this is known as collinearity (Hair et al, 2014). Collinearity can be checked using the inner VIF. Since the VIF values for every component were less than five (Hair et al., 2017), the results show that collinearity was not an issue. The cross-loading method is another way to measure discriminant validity; although though it is not employed nowadays, it is still used to assess validity. Each item's loading in its own variable must be bigger than the item's value in cross loadings in other variables, and the cross-loading method ensures that every item is loaded (Hair et al 2011; Hair Jr et al 2014). According to Gefen and Straub (2005), there must be a difference of more than 0.1 between the cross loadings of the item on its own variable and other constructs. The researchers used PLS-SEM to examine the structural model after evaluating the measurement model (Hair et al. 2019). The PLS approach (Partial Least Square) was used to test the hypothesis, and boot strapping was used to run the results (Haenlein and Kaplan 2004). From the original data set, this method produced 5000 subsamples in total (Hair Jr et al 2014). The model predictive quality (R2) was examined in order to assess the structural model. R2 has three possible values: high, moderate, and low. A number greater than 0.6 is regarded as high, a value between 0.3 and 0.6 as moderate, and a value less than 0.3 as low (Sanchez 2014).It displays a low R2 value of 0.229. The findings indicate that there is a positive significant relationship between collaboration and academic performance (β=0.286, t=9.332, p<0.000), communication and academic performance (β=0.364, t=9.562, p<0.000), and resource sharing and academic performance (β=-0.319, t=9.572, p<0.000). This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Effects of Online Marketing on Small Enterprises: A Study on the Local Clothing Brands in Bangladesh

2025-02-19T00:00:00Z

Effects of Online Marketing on Small Enterprises: A Study on the Local Clothing Brands in Bangladesh Khan, Md. Shahidur Rahman The rapidly growing clothing sector in Bangladesh, particularly among informal Small Enterprises, now appears to be at a crossroads – a context marked by the creative potential of global digitalization and a demand for change. A key dilemma, however, is that most marketing and innovation adoption theories are rooted in strong formal institutional and resource-rich contexts. This significantly limits their ability to examine value creation in resource-constrained, informal economies effectively. This outmoded paradigm, based on conditions that have not yet materialized for most informal sector entrepreneurs, leaves a significant theoretical and practical gap. This study effectively fills a crucial gap by investigating how local, informal micro and small clothing enterprises in Bangladesh efficiently use online marketing as a viable solution to overcome common systemic and market barriers. In arguing for a profoundly context-dependent theoretical grounding, this study offers valuable insights into how the processes of digital adoption and value creation unfold under context-specific socio-cultural, infrastructural, and gender barriers in a developing nation. It seeks to create a refined representation that captures the essence of the concept and lays the foundation for identifying new value-creating sources in future generations of business worlds, where established business models do not provide suitable instruments. More than simply descriptive, this study undertakes the challenging task of promoting a rigorous line of inquiry into the effects of online marketing by questioning the need to advance theory through the firm formalization of financial performance measures—namely, sales revenue. Beyond the more superficial analysis of engagement metrics, such as likes, shares, and comments, this study adopts an in-depth measurement of how digital culture impacts an individual. The results provide up-to-date and actionable competitive insights, pinpointing viii exactly where to focus online marketing efforts for the greatest return on investment for smaller firms in this evolving marketplace. This offers a theoretically grounded glimpse into the critical mechanisms and motivations shaping micro- to small-sized firms at the global periphery in ways that allow them to negotiate, overcoming resource deficiencies, the complex terrain of late digital technology adoption and diffusion. To address the identified theoretical, methodological, and contextual gaps intentionally, a systematic, multi-step mixed-methods research design was employed in the study. This holistic model was purposively built on six theoretical bases, namely the AIDA Model, Trusted AIDA Model, Social Exchange Theory (SET), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory, Resource-Based View (RBV), and Customer Engagement Theory (CET). This comprehensive theoretical model provides a strong basis for understanding the multidimensional adoption process of online marketing, ranging from macro or external-level to micro or behavioral-level influencing factors. This particular coupling of theories had the critical advantage of providing an opportunity to develop a more nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between individual agency and structural context in creating effective online marketing structures, particularly in resource-constrained and informal settings. The quantitative phase of this study, employing an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach, grounded the understanding of online marketing effectiveness in small Bangladeshi clothing businesses. A systematic random sample was taken from a master list of 1264 digitally active small clothing businesses in Bangladesh (the study population, provided by BSCIC databases). This rigorous sampling criterion helped ensure that all 510 respondents (corresponding to a rich 40% of the potential sample) were online marketing-active respondents, and consequently, considerably increased the credibility and validity of the data for regression ix and factor analysis. This rigorous technique led to the discovery of four critical factors in online marketing. Multivariate analysis, performed through multiple regression analysis, showed that Digital Engagement (β = 0.445) was the most relevant predictor of sales. In contrast, Web Optimization (β = 0.309), Viral Content (β = 0.283), and Affiliate Campaigns (β = 0.102) were other relevant and equally important predictors. More importantly, the model accounted for an outstanding 74.2% of the variation in sales revenue (R² = 0.742), which underscores the joint and significant effect of these factors in enhancing business performance within resource-scarce environments. These results provide strong evidence on the internet marketing strategies that work best for small firms in the informal sector of the economy. Complementing this, the inductive, in-depth qualitative phase, which included 20 expert interviews and four embedded case studies, revealed a complex and nuanced picture of the micro- and macro-level processes constraining online marketing uptake. Rigorously inductively coded and narrowly focused on the consolidation of quantitative constructs, entrepreneurs' lived experiences revealed important micro-level issues, such as digital fatigue, content burnout, platform-specific skill gaps, and the balance of skills between traditional and online marketing. At the same time, substantial obstacles to effective online marketing were also encountered at both macro and organizational levels, including low visibility associated with gender, the significant influence of informal networks, and a notable lack of digital support. Hundreds of these qualitative data provide a complementary strength to the quantitative results by offering a detailed description of what, on the ground, the realities and structural settings that have a significant impact on the adoption and performance of online marketing practices look like. This key data triangulation—and even more so for Digital Engagement, where powerful evidence-based influences and robust effect sizes generated by the quantitative side were substantiated by x qualitative material insights into emotional labor and peer support aspects—significantly strengthens the study's meta-validity. This system's focus not only highlights the urgent need for localized, inclusive, and scalable approaches to both individual and system-level barriers to informal business but also starkly suggests that online marketing can only serve as a sustained competitive advantage if these multi-level constraints are appropriately mitigated. This research makes several significant contributions to theory. Firstly, it significantly enhances the TAM model by integrating socio-cultural legitimating and gendered visibility into the model, thereby better explaining non-formal technology adoption and making it more context-specific and generalizable across varied cultural contexts. Second, this study contributes to the Resource-Based View (RBV) by describing how informal ventures productively assess and utilize readily available, low-cost online tools. They skillfully apply social capital and resourceful ingenuity to compensate for their lack of traditional resources, thus adding value to a critical coverage area where RBV is used in emerging countries. Third, it advances the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory by not only contesting the linear models primarily posited in the industrialized world but also by emphasizing that deeply rooted social norms and well-entrenched infrastructural bottlenecks are significant obstacles to the diffusion of complex technologies. This offers a fresh perspective on the unique strategic logic of informal enterprises and their distinctive, often non-linear, search for viral content, alongside a hybridization of traditional and online marketing tools and other performance dimensions beyond standard metrics. The study results also have several practical implications. Diverging recommendations for informal entrepreneurs, therefore, are to facilitate culture-appropriate content creation, promote gradual internet adoption, design relevant content literacy programs, and strategically xi exploit informal affiliate networks for organic growth. Importantly, the lessons are broader than just for individual enterprises, yielding essential policy implications for governments and donors to support infrastructure-sensitive digital enablement at the national and sub-national levels. Simply, this approach takes into account the existing economic and socio-cultural constraints and advocates for gender-inclusive digital literacy programs for equity of access and participation. And interestingly, these are not just "best practices" – in the traditional "one-size-fits-all" sense – but are very deeply and specifically rooted in, and emerge directly from, the particular context, the local conditions of implementation, of the informal economy in Bangladesh, a resource-starved, information-dark, infrastructure-weak country – and very likely context-specific, context-contingent in other low-infrastructure economies. Recognizing the cross-sectional nature and self-reported sources of data as potential sources of bias and limitations to the generalizability of the results to other domains or cultural contexts, this study provides novel empirical evidence essential for understanding the process of digital transformation in the informal economy. While emphatically rejecting the mechanical transfer of Western online use, it also strongly promotes a bottom-up, inclusive, and performance-oriented strategy, as it is far more responsive to changing market conditions. The findings also highlight an urgent and undeniable demand for contextually specific, culturally embedded digital interventions for informal economies. From a future research perspective, researchers should consider using longitudinal panel studies to track the development of digital maturity and gendered digital practices among adolescents, while also examining the effects of local digital service providers as mediators and the dynamics between regions. In addition, the results emphasize the urgent and unavoidable need for further theoretical exploration in this xii crucial topic, to develop a comprehensive understanding of the socio-cultural embeddedness and adaptive susceptibility of digital adoption. This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Entrepreneurial Marketing Practices in Small and Medium Enterprises in Bangladesh: Prospects and Challenges

2025-11-05T00:00:00Z

Entrepreneurial Marketing Practices in Small and Medium Enterprises in Bangladesh: Prospects and Challenges Khan, Farhana When conventional marketing strategies are not suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises, entrepreneurs must unlearn existing principles and substitute them with new, innovative concepts and endeavors, such as entrepreneurial marketing (EM). In this paper, the effects of EM dimensions on Bangladeshi SMEs are taken into consideration. Chapter one includes an introductory presentation and definitions of core study materials, such as the definition of small and medium enterprises, the definition of entrepreneurial marketing, the background of the study, the research gap of the study, the purposes of the study, the problem of the study, and finally, the overall structure of the study. The second chapter provides a review of the literature, including various definitions of research experts, operational variables, and previous research on marketing for entrepreneurs. It also examines previous studies that have explored the relationship between entrepreneurial marketing and sustainability in SMEs. Chapter three shows and explains theories of entrepreneurial marketing that include different opinions and findings of other researchers, and some implications for further research. Chapter four includes research questions, objectives, hypotheses, and research methodology. This study aimed to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial marketing aspects on the performance of small and medium-sized businesses. The quantitative research approach was used to collect the necessary data. In particular, 627 SMEs in Bangladesh participated in a structured survey that yielded the primary data. The environmental background of entrepreneurial marketing is explained in Chapter Five. This chapter compiles Micro and Macro environmental forces that affect the entrepreneur and their business. Among many entrepreneurs, there are some case studies of them included in chapter six. A list of some other entrepreneurs is shown in this chapter. Chapter Seven presented the findings of this study. To determine the validity and reliability of the measuring 5 | P a g e items and to confirm the influence of entrepreneurial marketing aspects on business performance, the acquired data were further examined using the SPSS methodology. The findings demonstrated that value creation and client intensity improve business performance. The results also demonstrated a positive correlation between company success, innovativeness, and resource leveraging. Risk-taking's impact on business performance, however, was determined to be negligible. Lastly, it was discovered that opportunity focus and pro-activeness significantly improve business performance. According to the findings summary, respondents are often very opportunity-focused and see the value of resource leveraging. Despite the fact that value creation is regarded as a crucial aspect of entrepreneurial marketing, respondents are reluctant to take chances and are not typically proactive, creative, or customer-focused. By filling up the current research gaps between the chosen aspects of entrepreneurial marketing and company performance, this study advances resource-advantage theory and empirical literature. Lastly, the study's limitations and recommendations for additional research are discussed. This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.