Att styra utan att styra : en kvalitativ studie om digital nudging i organisationer marknadskommunikation

Sammanfattning

This study examines how organizations apply behavioral design and digital nudging in their digital marketing communication, as well as the ethical risks and challenges associated with these strategies. The thesis is written in Swedish. The research is based on six semi-structured interviews with people working with or responsible for marketing in different organizational contexts and industries.The findings suggest that digital nudging is largely shaped by organizational size, resources, customer relationships and strategic priorities. Larger organizations mostly rely on nudges such as Call-to-Action buttons (CTA), limited-time offers and key performance indicators (KPI). Smaller businesses instead put their emphasis on nudges that drive relational trust, reputation and personal interactions. Across contexts, strategies involving behavioral design techniques, such as price framing, cta-elements, visual hierarchy, personalization and social proof are widely and frequently used, though often intuitively rather than explicitly termed as nudging. The results from the study further highlight and illustrate a strategic tension between short-term conversion and long-term relationship building. Alongside this tension, a shared normative significance on transparency and ethical responsibility regarding marketing appears, despite its practical gray areas. Artificial intelligence emerges as a double-edged tool, enabling efficiency, automation and personalization, while simultaneously also raising concerns related to authenticity and trust.Overall the study suggests that digital nudging in practice involves a balancing act between short-term business outcomes such as conversion and engagement as well as maintaining long-term customer relationships and ethical integrity, a tension that becomes increasingly complex with the rise of AI-driven personalization.