Preparing for Baby Boomer Retirement: Improving the Video Chat Experience in Intergenerational Communication

abstract: The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of baby boomers' attitudes toward video chat applications and software based on their user experiences through the measurement of the level of use, usefulness, usability and aesthetics preferences. 133 participants recruited at a local public library and at three senior centers took the survey and 14 respondents were interviewed. The results of the study indicate: (1) Baby boomers have diverse attitudes and experiences in video chatting, but their attitudes do not present a significant difference from those of older generations; (2) Baby boomers' preferences for interface design are influenced by their psychological characteristics rather than physical changes; (3) Family members and close friends are a great resource for assistance and motivation for boomers. The knowledge of motivational factors and barrier factors could help maintain the existing baby boomer users and encourage potential users by providing an improved video chat experience design for them to connect with younger generations. This research could also lead social services into the telehealth age by bridging the gap between a traditional intervention and modern instant video communication.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Design 201

Construction of a purchase intention model based on utility theory: a study of foreign banks in Indonesia

The study develops a conceptual model of purchase intention for foreign banks operating within Indonesia based upon utility theory, to test the role and interplay of ethnocentrism, experience, animosity, country of origin, and trust upon purchase intentions. Findings demonstrate the conceptualized and modelled purchase intention for savings and credit card respectively, acknowledges utility theory; finds a new insight of experience; and, presents social class consciousness and self-consciousness contributions in the context of bank consumer choices

Perceptions on online apparel shopping: a gender perspective

This work aims to study the consumers' perceptions of online apparel shopping and understand the differences between genders in Portugal. Thus, it aims to identify what drives consumers, men and women, to shop for clothes online and understand the differences between both genders in order to give recommendations to apparel brands on how to influence both men and women to buy apparel online. For this purpose, a qualitative research method was adopted, 21 people were interviewed, half of these were females and another half were males. For the data analysis no analysis tool was used. However, through the answers given by the interviewed people, a thematic analysis was carried out. Regarding to online shopping in general, women showed to perceive more risks than in online apparel shopping, while men maintained the same opinion. Women showed to be more impulsive in shopping, while men showed to be more focused on the purpose of the purchase. In terms of their process of buying apparel online, for men, the first step was a need, for women, the first step was advertisements on social networks. Men were also influenced by marketing factors like youtubers, emails and videos. Both men and women showed preference for multichannel brands. Between choosing generic online shopping platforms or official brand websites, men and women prefer to buy clothes on the brands’ official website.O presente trabalho visa o estudo das perceções dos consumidores nas compras "online" de vestuário e perceber as diferenças entre género. Tem como objetivo identificar o que leva os consumidores, homens e mulheres, a fazer compras de roupa "online" e perceber as diferenças entre os dois géneros de forma a poder dar recomendações às marcas de roupa sobre como influenciá-los a comprar roupa "online". Para o efeito, adotou-se um método qualitativo, 21 pessoas foram entrevistadas, metade do género feminino e outra metade do género masculino. Para a análise dos dados não foi usada qualquer ferramenta de análise. No entando, através das respostas dadas pelos entrevistados foi feita uma análise temática. Relativamente às compras "online" no geral, as mulheres demonstraram perceber mais riscos do que nas compras "online" de roupa, já os homens, mantiveram a mesma opinião. As mulheres demonstraram ser mais impulsivas nas compras, enquanto os homens demonstraram ser mais focados no objetivo da compra. Quanto ao caminho que ambos os géneros fazem, nos homens, o primeiro passo era uma necessidade, já nas mulheres, o primeiro passo eram anúncios nas redes sociais. Os homens também eram influenciados por fatores do marketing como "youtubers", emails e videos. Tanto os homens como as mulheres demonstraram preferir marcas que estivessem presentes também em loja física. Entre escolher plataformas de compras "online" genéricas ou sites oficias das marcas, homens e mulheres preferem comprar roupa no site oficial da marca

Digital Marketing in Luso-Nihon: a comparative study from Portugal to Japan

Portugal and Japan have a long history of cultural and commercial exchange. However, digital marketing approaches and strategies are influenced by several factors, including cultural factors specific to each country. This is evident in the differences in digital marketing approaches between Japan and Portugal, which has a direct impact on Portuguese or Japanese companies seeking to reach audiences in the other country. There is a need to understand whether companies in one country can learn from the other. Through literature review and qualitative research, based on unstructured interviews conducted with five Japanese and Portuguese professionals in the field, the results suggest that companies in Japan respond more slowly to digitisation, customers prioritise online privacy, digital communication has higher formality requirements, and advertising materials tend to have a greater amount of text and colour clash. The empirical experience reported by the interviewees following the analysis of the interviews was contrasted and compared with the literature review. On this basis, it is concluded that Japanese companies can learn from Portuguese digital marketing strategies, as the way digital marketing has been approached in Japan to date cannot be considered the most effective. The opposite cannot be said of Portuguese companies since they have shown to execute digital marketing strategies more congruently with market demand and current reality.Portugal e o Japão têm uma longa história de intercâmbio cultural e comercial. No entanto, as abordagens e estratégias de marketing digital são influenciadas por vários fatores, incluindo factores culturais específicos de cada país. Isto é evidente nas diferenças de abordagem do marketing digital entre o Japão e Portugal, o que tem um impacto direto nas empresas portuguesas ou japonesas que procuram alcançar audiências no outro país. Há necessidade de compreender se as empresas de um país podem aprender com o outro. Através de revisão de literatura e investigação qualitativa, baseada em entrevistas não estruturadas realizadas com cinco profissionais japoneses e portugueses na área, os resultados sugerem que as empresas no Japão respondem mais lentamente à digitalização, os clientes dão prioridade à privacidade online, a comunicação digital tem maiores exigências de formalidade, e os materiais publicitários tendem a ter uma maior quantidade de texto e choque de cores. A experiência empírica relatada pelos entrevistados após a análise das entrevistas foi contrastada e comparada com a revisão da literatura. Nesta base, conclui-se que as empresas japonesas podem aprender com as estratégias de marketing digital portuguesas, uma vez que a forma como o marketing digital tem sido abordado no Japão até à data não pode ser considerada a mais eficaz. O oposto não pode ser dito das empresas portuguesas, uma vez que demonstraram executar estratégias de marketing digital de forma mais congruente com a procura do mercado e a realidade atual

The research on customer structure characteristics and marketing measures of regional bank agency: a case from the Agricultural Bank of China

With intensified opening degree and increasingly fierce market competition of commercial banks, commercial banks innovate their products constantly and improve their service quality at the same time. The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) is a state-owned commercial bank that has built branches in all county-level districts. Instead, branches of ABC in county-level have become the weakest links that reduce ABC’s competitive power. If the flaws in customer and market maintenance in the county-level branches are ever to be repaired, in my opinion, meeting customer perceived service quality and customer demands efficiently based on understanding of customer needs should be put in the first priority currently. Firstly, this part studies the customer segmentation of ** branch of Agricultural Bank of China. This thesis puts forward approach to segment bank customers based on the improved k-means clustering. The results show that the improvement algorithm effectively overcomes the defect that traditional k-means algorithm easily falls into local optimal value, increasing the accuracy of customer classification, and contributing to more reasonable clustering results. Secondly, this thesis uses the econometric panel data model to study the relationship between customer structure and bank performance. The results indicate that a good customer structure can bring benefits for banks and improve their competitiveness. Thirdly, this part analyzes different service quality requirements of different types customer in the ** branch of Agricultural Bank of China. We combine service quality evaluation theory and the background of Chinese commercial banks, establishing the SERVQUAL model for the ** branch. The Study has shown that the correlation coefficient between overall perception of service quality and customer satisfaction is positive; the overall perception of service quality and customer willingness to recommend are also positively correlated, but the degree of correlation is lower than the correlation between the overall perception of service quality and customer satisfaction; the correlation of overall perceived quality of service for all samples and willingness to accept the services of other banks correlation was not significant. At the same time, there is still a gap between the customer perceived service quality and customer expectation in the ** branch of Agricultural Bank of China. Finally, according to the results of customer structure classification and service quality survey of the ** branch of Agricultural Bank of China, the marketing strategies for different customer groups are proposed.Com o crescente grau de comercialização da indústria bancária chinesa e a entrada continua de bancos estrangeiros, a competição entre bancos está a tornar-se cada vez mais feroz, e as estratégias dos bancos comerciais com vista a ganhar vantagens competitivas muda gradualmente. Para além do lançamento de uma variedade de produtos financeiros, os bancos comerciais utilizam serviços diferenciados para poder dar resposta á procura do mercado diversificado de consumidores. Estes bancos estão igualmente a começar a entender que para os bancos gradualmente convergirem devem não só atingir uma vantagem competitiva através da oferta de produtos financeiros bem como serviços diferenciados de alta qualidade. Este meio tornou-se na única forma forma que o banco dispõe para poder vencer a sua competição. Portanto, para os bancos comerciais, estamos num período de inovação onde o aumento da qualidade de serviço é inevitável. O Agricultural Bank of China é um banco comercial do estado que possui uma filial em todas as regiões administrativas a nível de condado. Ligações e serviços, citadinos e urbanos tem sido a maior vantagem do Agricultural Bank of China, mas a situação actual não é favorável. A filial a nível de condado tem-se tornado na ligação pior e mais fraca da fundação deste banco. Ao mesmo tempo, bancos privados têm emergido em paridade com o rápido desenvolvimento dos instrumentos financeiros online e, o Agricultural Bank of China, como o representante dos bancos tradicionais está a enfrentar competição feroz. Em especial desvantagem no que toca a recursos ao consumidor e instrumentos online que os outros bancos oferecem. Os bancos comerciais tradicionais, estão desta forma confrontados com a perda de clientes bem como o elevado custo de adquirir novos clientes. O risco operacional do banco aumenta á medida que a estabilidade do mercado consumidor piora. Se querem mudar o status quo das filiais a nível de condado, necessitam entender a actual necessidade da qualidade de serviço ao cliente, analisar as características da procura do consumidor e estabelecer um mecanismo de ciclo virtuoso de mercado-consumidor-beneficio - são as maiores prioridades agora. Baseado nisto, este estudo usará marketing, processo de decisão da gerência, teoria e métodos, mineração de dados, técnicas estatísticas e métodos econométricos para analisar as características de procura do consumidor do Agricultural Bank of China. Primeiro, utilizar a análise de cluster de mineração de dados para efectuar uma estratificação analítica do grupo de consumidores do banco para manter a estrutura da procura dos consumidores e serviços; classificação da informação de procura dos consumidores, acesso ás tendências de procura dos consumidores do banco e tendência de produtos competitivos; na base de quantificar os requerimentos do consumidor, usamos o painel de dados econométricos para efectuar uma análise empírica sobre a estrutura de procura dos consumidores e a performance do Agricultural Bank of China

SenMinCom: Pervasive Distributed Dynamic Sensor Data Mining for Effective Commerce

In last few years, the use of wireless sensor networks and cell phones has become ubiquitous; fusing these technologies in the field of business will open up new possibilities. To fill this lacuna, I propose a novel idea where the combination of these will facilitate companies to receive feedback on their products and services. System\u27s unobtrusive sensors will not only collect shopping, mobile usage data from consumers but will also make effective use of this information to increase revenue, cut costs, etc.; the use of mobile agent based data mining allows analyzing the data from different dimensions, categorizing it on factors such as product positioning, promotion of goods, etc. as in the case of a shopping store. Additionally, because of the dynamic mining system the companies get on-the-scene recommendation of products rather than off-the-scene. In this thesis, a novel distributed pervasive mining system is proposed to get dynamic shopping information and mobile device usage of the customers

Nutrition and eating behaviour in older adulthood

In response to increasing number of older Australians (from 13% over 65 in 2004 to 28% by 2051), policy makers have been exploring strategies aimed at maintaining older adults\u27 quality of life. Nutrition has been recognised as an effective preventive measure to promote well-being among older adults. The purpose of the current paper is to review relevant literature in the area of nutrition and eating behaviour in older adulthood. Biological issues, psychological factors, and social as well as environmental aspects are reviewed. Issues related to the ageing process, mental illness, chronic conditions, body image, social isolation and poverty represent barriers to healthy eating whereas factors such as self-motivation, positive perception of aging, social engagement and social support are facilitators to a healthy diet. However, much of the existing research focuses on describing eating behaviour rather than providing better understanding of its causes. It is concluded that research identifying the perspectives of older adults on nutrition is paramount to make significant contribution to the body of knowledge, inform policy makers and enhance practice. The ageing of the Australian population (from 13% over 65 in 2004 to 28% by 2051, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006a), has highlighted the importance of studies that focus on maintaining older adults\u27 quality of life. Nutrition has been recognised as an effective preventive measure to promote well-being among older adults. The present study was designed to qualitatively explore older adults\u27 perspectives concerning nutrition and healthy eating behaviours beyond the age of 65. Data were collected through the use of in-depth, semi structured interviews with eight participants aged 65 and over. Thematic content analysis was conducted in order to identify core issues and themes. Three major themes emerged from the data: Perception and attitude toward nutrition, psychosocial aspects of eating; and challenges of the ageing process. These demonstrated that older adults value nutrition for its link to health and well being. The findings indicated that older adults aspire to have a healthy diet despite the perceived lack of existing nutritional services aimed at seniors and scepticism toward health promotion. This study has identified several barriers and facilitators of healthy eating among older adults and can make a significant contribution to the body of knowledge, inform policy makers and enhance practice

Understanding Customer Switching Behaviour in the Retail Banking Sector: The Case of Nigeria and the Gambia

This thesis examines customer switching behaviour in Nigeria and Gambia, focusing on the retail banking sector. The study’s key objective is to provide new knowledge on customer banking behaviour in the retail banking sector. The study is grounded in Bansal et al.’s (2005) push-pull-mooring model. A qualitative method was employed in the data collection, incorporating a triangulation approach, whereby direct observations were combined with thematic interviews and focus group discussions. The intention behind this method was to increase the validity of the research results. Ultimately, the study findings indicate significant factors and subfactors influencing customer switching behaviour in the retail banking sector. The results are categorised as push, pull, or mooring factors. It identifies seven push factors with thirteen subfactors, four pull factors with ten subfactors, and six mooring factors with three subfactors. The study’s significant contribution to existing knowledge of services marketing is the identification of new and emerging constructs, thus extending the existing knowledge in the literature. The study’s findings support numerous results of prior relevant research, while some findings disagree with those of previous research. Furthermore, the new constructs that emerge from this research are highly relevant to today’s consumers. For example, factors like banking products, perceived knowledge of banking products, perceived relative security of banking products, satisfaction with the current bank, emotions (e.g., regret or anger), liquidity challenges, bank staff career development prospects, and ethical banking issues are the study’s unique contributions to the push factors and subfactors. In addition, the emerging pull factors and subfactors include technological advancement, coronavirus pandemic-induced switching, a bank’s physical appearance, positive banking expectations, a bank’s relative proximity, expected switching benefits, perceived usefulness of a bank’s digital platforms, perceived ease of banking transactions, personalised banking offerings, and repositioning banking business models. Lastly, the new mooring factors and subfactors identified in this study are inertia, changes in customer needs or tastes, involuntary switching, and bank responsiveness. Consequently, the author has developed a framework/model based on the findings of this study. The new framework/model presented comprehensive results with practical implications and a valuable contribution to the current knowledge of customer switching behaviour