Web Acceptance and Usage Model: A Comparison between Goal-directed and Experiential Web Users

In this paper we analyse the Web acceptance and usage between goal-directed users and experiential users, incorporating intrinsic motives to improve the particular and explanatory TAM value –traditionally related to extrinsic motives-. A field study was conducted to validate measures used to operationalize model variables and to test the hypothesised network of relationships. The data analysis method used was Partial Least Squares (PLS).The empirical results provided strong support for the hypotheses, highlighting the roles of flow, ease of use and usefulness in determining the actual use of the Web among experiential and goal-directed users. In contrast with previous research that suggests that flow would be more likely to occur during experiential activities than goal-directed activities, we found clear evidence of flow for goal-directed activities. In particular the study findings indicate that flow might play a powerfulrole in determining the attitude towards usage,intention to useand, in turn,actual Web use among experiential and goal-directed users

The economics of cities: from theory to data

Economic activity is highly unevenly distributed within cities, as reflected in the concentration of economic functions in specific locations, such as finance in the Square Mile in London. The extent to which this concentration reflects natural advantages versus agglomeration forces is central to a range of public policy issues, including the impact of local taxation and transport infrastructure improvements. This paper reviews recent quantitative urban models, which incorporate both differences in natural advantages and agglomeration forces and can be taken directly to observed data on cities. We show that these models can be used to estimate the strength of agglomeration forces and evaluate the impact of transportation infrastructure improvements on welfare and the spatial distribution of economic activity

Challenges in Complex Systems Science

FuturICT foundations are social science, complex systems science, and ICT. The main concerns and challenges in the science of complex systems in the context of FuturICT are laid out in this paper with special emphasis on the Complex Systems route to Social Sciences. This include complex systems having: many heterogeneous interacting parts; multiple scales; complicated transition laws; unexpected or unpredicted emergence; sensitive dependence on initial conditions; path-dependent dynamics; networked hierarchical connectivities; interaction of autonomous agents; self-organisation; non-equilibrium dynamics; combinatorial explosion; adaptivity to changing environments; co-evolving subsystems; ill-defined boundaries; and multilevel dynamics. In this context, science is seen as the process of abstracting the dynamics of systems from data. This presents many challenges including: data gathering by large-scale experiment, participatory sensing and social computation, managing huge distributed dynamic and heterogeneous databases; moving from data to dynamical models, going beyond correlations to cause-effect relationships, understanding the relationship between simple and comprehensive models with appropriate choices of variables, ensemble modeling and data assimilation, modeling systems of systems of systems with many levels between micro and macro; and formulating new approaches to prediction, forecasting, and risk, especially in systems that can reflect on and change their behaviour in response to predictions, and systems whose apparently predictable behaviour is disrupted by apparently unpredictable rare or extreme events. These challenges are part of the FuturICT agenda

The Effects of Media Capabilities on the Rationalization of Online Consumer Fraud

This research develops and tests a model of online consumer fraud to determine how the capabilities of communication technologies affect the rationalization of fraudulent behaviors. The model is based on research about the rationalization of fraud, media capabilities, and computer-mediated deception. This investigation empirically tests this model by analyzing 459 Facebook advertisements and 1,896 surveys completed by university students. The findings indicate that the capabilities provided by communication technologies affect the extent to which media mask cues of deceit and dehumanize others. As a result, some media capabilities increase one’s willingness to engage in fraudulent behaviors while other capabilities deter those actions. Media capabilities that mask cues of deceit and reduce social presence increase the inclination of individuals to rationalize fraudulent activities, while media capabilities that expose cues of deceit and increase social presence deter individuals from rationalizing acts of fraud. Media offering greater capabilities for reprocessability and transmission velocity decrease the inclination to rationalize fraud, whereas greater capabilities for anonymity, rehearsability, and parallelism increase the inclination to rationalize fraud. In contrast, symbol set variety does not appear to significantly affect the inclination to rationalize fraud

Negotiating Identities in CARICOM: How CARICOM Nationals Experience Intra-Regional Migration and Regionalism

As the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) deepens its economic and political integration, the development of the CARICOM identity is seen as both a natural outgrowth, and as paramount to its success. This is because a regional identity can promote social cohesion and shape political objects, including social policies. Regional identities are also shaped by politics, social relations and personal attributes. Using data from a cross-national survey and semi-structured interviews, this thesis examines the nuances of identity formation in CARICOM. It specifically asks three questions: a) how do intra-regional CARICOM migrants negotiate their identities and self-identify? b) How do intra-regional CARICOM migrants construct their lived-experiences in other CARICOM countries? And c) how do intra-regional migrants rationalize the impact of CARICOM regionalism on their identities? These data are analyzed statistically, and through the interpretations of migrants’ discourses and experiences. The study identifies six factors that determine attachments to CARICOM: education level, citizenship region, the meaningfulness of CARICOM, benefits of CARICOM, belonging in member countries, and the nature of migratory experiences. All these variables moderately impact attachment to CARICOM except perceived benefits, which is strongly associated with identification with CARICOM. Perceptions of benefits also impact how migrants rationalized regionalism and their experiences. Overall, support for regional integration and a regional identity are strong, but the CARICOM identity is weak and non-salient primarily because expectations of benefits do not match lived realities. The deepening of the CARICOM identity are therefore contingent on: people experiencing CARICOM’s expected benefits; the development of policies that address perceived failures; CARICOM rebranding itself and being more engaged with its constituents; and on collaborative actions being taken to embed the regional identity into national ones

Strategies for sustainable socio-economic development and mechanisms their implementation in the global dimension

The authors of the book have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to effectively use modern approaches to developing and implementation strategies of sustainable socio-economic development in order to increase efficiency and competitiveness of economic entities. Basic research focuses on economic diagnostics of socio-economic potential and financial results of economic entities, transition period in the economy of individual countries and ensuring their competitiveness, assessment of educational processes and knowledge management. The research results have been implemented in the different models and strategies of supply and logistics management, development of non-profit organizations, competitiveness of tourism and transport, financing strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises, cross-border cooperation. The results of the study can be used in decision-making at the level the economic entities in different areas of activity and organizational-legal forms of ownership, ministries and departments that promote of development the economic entities on the basis of models and strategies for sustainable socio-economic development. The results can also be used by students and young scientists in modern concepts and mechanisms for management of sustainable socio-economic development of economic entities in the condition of global economic transformations and challenges

Household Responses to Individual Shocks: Disability and Labor Supply

What are idiosyncratic shocks and how do people respond to them? This paper starts from the observation that idiosyncratic shocks are experienced at the individual level, but responses to shocks can encompass the whole household. Understanding and accurately modeling these responses is essential to the analysis of intra-household allocations, especially labor supply. Using longitudinal data from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) we exploit information about disability and health status to develop a life-cycle framework which rationalizes observed responses of household members to idiosyncratic shocks. Two puzzling findings associated to disability onset motivate our work: (1) the almost complete absence of `added worker' effects within households and, (2) the fact that single agents' labor supply responses to disability shocks are larger and more persistent than those of married agents. We show that a first-pass, basic model of the household has predictions about dynamic labor supply responses which are at odds with these facts; despite such failure, we argue that these facts are consistent with optimal household behavior when we account for two simple mechanisms: the first mechanism relates to selection into and out of marriage, while the second hinges on insurance transfers taking place within households. We show that these mechanisms arise naturally when we allow for three features: a linkage between human capital accumulation and life-cycle labor supply, endogenous marriage contracts and the possibility of time transfers between partners. We also report evidence that the extended model with endogenous marriage contracts can fit divorce patterns observed in Canadian data, as well as correlations between disability prevalence and marital status, providing an ideal framework to study intra-household risk-sharing with limited commitment.Idiosyncratic Risk, Disability, Life Cycle Labor Supply, Intrahousehold Insurance

AN EXAMINATION OF THE ANTECEDENTS OF TRUST IN FACEBOOK ONLINE HEALTH COMMUNITIES

Online Health Communities have become an increasingly popular information resource. Participants use them to seek health information, to seek support and to source advice regarding health challenges. The resulting lack of dependency on traditional health information channels has not only changed the way in which people source health information, but more importantly, the health information that they choose to trust and consequently act upon. Despite this fact, the factors that predict or inhibit users’ trust in online health communities remain unclear. This study seeks to contribute to our understanding of the factors that influence individuals trust in such communities. Data were collected from 410 Brazilian participants of several online health communities on Facebook. The research model was tested using partial least squares, and the results show support for two new predictors of trust in online health communities: Online Community Responsiveness and Community Support. Also, we found that Information Credibility and Propensity to Trust positively influence individual’s trust responses. These findings contribute both to the trust literature and to social media research knowledge. From a practitioner perspective, these findings can also serve as a guide for moderators and managers who wish to improve participants’ trust in their online health communities

For the Sake of Love - A study of attitudes and values among young Swedish women in cohabiting partnerships

Sweden is often considered a global forerunner of family demographic shifts brought about by increasing individualization and globalization. While modern theories often depict a general movement away from romantic love sentiments and toward more rational, equal and casual exchanges and defamilization, feminist scholarship critiques the optimism of these claims in light of persisting structural inequalities. What these lines of thought often share is a common treatment of romantic love as a harmful lingering remnant of patriarchal dominance. This thesis explores how young Swedish women living in heterosexual cohabiting partnerships conceive of romantic love themselves in relation to their partnerships and other aspects of their lives including unemployment, uncoupling and first-time childbirth. Informants view romantic love sentiments to be an essential element in their partnerships, however they do so in ways that complicate and challenge conventional scholarship on contemporary “individualistic” partnerships. The study analyzes in-depth interviews and previous research across social and behavioral science disciplines relating to romantic love, gender norms, individualization, democratization of relationships and the newly articulated life stage of emerging adulthood