Creating a framework for eliciting consumer satisfaction in Second Life

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyUsing consumer satisfaction as an example of complex communication and a virtual world as a mediating platform, a novel framework for eliciting consumer satisfaction has been developed. Consumer satisfaction is a key element for business success, while the elicitation of satisfaction perceptions from consumers can help vendors to assess and to improve their business performance. The objectives here are: how consumer satisfaction is defined, understood and measured; how virtual worlds function, both as a platform and a product; how users typically perceive their experiences in virtual worlds; and how consumer satisfaction metrics can be translated into a virtual environment. Second Life is used as an enabling technology for gathering requirements as well as for the construction, refinement and validation of the framework. Second Life is a virtual world, a multi-user, 3D, immersive environment, which has its own internal economy. The choice of using this social virtual world was due to Second Life being a resilient and widely used platform. The main contribution of this thesis is a framework that can be used to identify and categorise the complex and inter-related factors that affect the use of Second Life in terms of consumer satisfaction perceptions. Another contribution here is a novel approach to Search Engine trend analysis, which focuses on the number or search results returned as opposed to the number of queries for a given search phrase. Based on the research conducted by the author and knowledge gained from the literature, a framework has been developed which identifies interrelated components that provide a wider context to perceive the user experience of Second Life. The approach taken by the framework enables it to be used as a means to comprehend Second Life both as a product and as a platform. A Straussian Grounded Theory approach was taken to data gathering, analysis and interpretation in the context of the framework; further refinements are made to the framework as a consequence of emergent themes revealed through the process of analysing the gathered data. Guidance is given in brief as to how the framework can be adapted to reveal consumer satisfaction perceptions from other internet based services

Close Knit: Using Consumption Communities to Overcome Loneliness

Purpose: This paper aims to highlight the role of consumption communities as a self-help support group to ameliorate loneliness. The authors suggest that the self-help element of consumption communities has been overlooked because of a focus on communities pursuing hegemonic masculinity. Instead, the authors focus on a female-led and – dominated consumption community. Design/methodology/approach: A longitudinal ethnography was undertaken with the aim of understanding consumer behaviour in a “hyper-feminine” environment. Participant observation, depth interviews and netnography were carried out over five years within the Knitting community, focussing on an Irish Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group. Findings: A dimension of consumption communities has been overlooked in the extant literature; this female-led and -dominated community functions as a self-help support group used as a “treatment” for loneliness. It also demonstrates all the characteristics of a support group. Research limitations/implications: This study offers a framework with which new studies of community consumption can be examined or existing studies can be re-examined, through rather than cases of loneliness and self-help support groups. Practical implications: Marketers have an opportunity to build supportive consumption communities that provide a safe space for support where commerce and brand-building can also occur. Groups aimed at ameliorating loneliness may wish to consider integration of the consumption community model. Originality/value: Calls have been made for a reconceptualisation of consumption communities as current typologies seem inadequate. This paper responds with a critical examination through the lens of the self-help support group, while also taking steps towards resolving the gender imbalance in the consumption community literature. The paper explores loneliness, a previously underexamined motivator for consumption community membership

Purchasing through Social Platforms with Buy Buttons: Academic and Practical Considerations

Social commerce sales are considerably increasing in recent years. Social platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, and WeChat) play a strategic role in world economy. However, social platforms ran into several burning issues: low ad conversion rates, social platform users’ free-riding behaviors, etc. Although buy buttons, a clickable navigation element leading users from a social platform to an e-commerce platform, could be a solution for such issues, the outcomes of using buy buttons did not reach many professionals’ expectation. This thesis studied four issues related to social shopping with buy buttons. First, as it is undetermined whether a social platform should roll out the buy-button feature or not, it is necessary to study whether the presence of buy button is associated with better outcomes (e.g. users’ higher willingness to purchase through the social platform) or not. Second, as social commerce is a remote shopping mode in which buyers and sellers cannot have face-to-face interactions, high risk and low trust could be two crucial barriers of social commerce. Hence, it is needed to study how risk- and trust-related factors influence users’ direct purchasing behavior. Third, considering that social commerce could be risky, this thesis wants to examine whether the presence of safe shopping measures (vs. an unsafe shopping scenario) can improve the performance of social shopping or not. Finally, social commerce involves a purchase path from a social platform to an e-commerce platform. There are many pain points (e.g., re-entering billing and shipping information) in the purchase path. Meanwhile, as social shopping risks and pain points in the purchase path could be caused by a same factor, the silos between social platforms and e-commerce platforms. It is interesting to study how safe shopping measures and integrated path-to-purchase (users can complete a purchase without leaving the social platform; vs. separated path-to-purchase in which users have to leave the social platform and go to the e-commerce platform to complete a purchase) jointly influence users. In order to answer these questions, three essays have been included in this thesis. Several online surveys were conducted. The between-subjects experimental design and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique were used. The results showed that the presence of buy button was related to better outcomes. It found that risk- and trust-related factors significantly influenced users’ direct purchasing behavior. Both the safe shopping measures and the integrated path-to-purchase design can generate better outcomes of using a buy button in social shopping. In most circumstances, users showed more positive reactions when the safe shopping measures or the integrated path-to-purchase was present. However, no significant interaction effects between the safe shopping measures (vs. an unsafe shopping scenario) and the integrated path-to-purchase (vs. the separated path-to-purchase) were found. The theoretical contributions have been discussed in contrast to previous literature. This thesis has added academic value by offering new insights for previously established variable relationships in a different research context and studying variable relationships that have not been examined in previously relevant studies. From a practical viewpoint, as buy buttons inject e-commerce capabilities into social platforms, this thesis implies that socially focused platforms could reap benefits from social commerce by rolling out a buy-button feature. It is recommended that social platforms wanting to roll out buy buttons take safe shopping measures and create a seamless shopping experience for users.Tesis Univ. Granada.China Scholarship Council grant number: 201606170055National Natural Science Foundation of China grant number: 7170206

Zilian : the marketing strategy to reach the Millennial consumer

With the analysis of Zilian’s practical dilemma regarding brand positioning in the Millennial generation, some topics like targeting and positioning, the importance of brand and marketing mix are explored through the dissertation. Zilian is a Portuguese footwear brand focused in creating feminine shoes. The brand is for hard working, cosmopolitan, and demanding women. As years passed by, Zilian noticed that, despite having products for many ages, the Millennial generation is not purchasing the brand’s products. With this situation in mind, it was chosen to give a refresh to the brand, turning it into a modern and totally engaged in the digital world Zilian, without loosing its established identity. Zilian believes this strategy can conquer the missing stake in its portfolio of clients. This strategy, consequently, brought the problem the thesis tries to address: Is a digital strategy the best way to reach the Millennial target?. To explore the evidence around the topic, primary and secondary data were collected and some results helped answering to the stated problem. It was found that many companies in the market place are already adopting the digital incorporation approach, but this is not enough to conquer the Millennial consumer. These were born in the digital Era, therefore, it is required a digital presence to communicate with this target, but the identity of the brand, its congruent image and its engaging content is a fundamental component to capture the target’s attention and loyalty.Através da análise do problema de posicionamento da marca Zillian na geração Millennial, tópicos como a escolha do público-alvo e posicionamento, a importância da marca e do seu marketing mix são explorados nesta dissertação. A Zillian é uma marca de calçado portuguesa empenhada na criação de sapatos femininos. A marca destina-se a mulheres trabalhadoras, cosmopolitas e exigentes. Com o passar dos anos, foi notado que, apesar da Zilian ter produtos para os Millennials, estes não estão a adquiri-los. Devido a esta situação, decidiu-se renovar a marca tornando-a mais moderna e inteiramente ligada ao digital sem, contudo, perder a sua estabelecida identidade. A Zillian acredita que, por meio de uma estratégia digital, poderá conquistar o lugar que procura junto dos seus potenciais clientes. Esta tentativa de reposicionamento traz, por consequência, o problema que esta tese intenta abordar: será a estratégia digital a melhor maneira de alcançar o público Millennial? Para explorar toda a informação disponível em torno deste tópico, foram recolhidos dados primários e secundários e certos resultados responderam ao problema apresentado. A estratégia digital, já adoptada por diversas empresas no mercado, só por si não é suficiente para conquistar o consumidor Millennial. Apesar desta geração ter nascido na Era digital - sendo, por isso, necessária uma presença online para comunicar com este público-alvo - a identidade, a imagem congruente e o conteúdo atractivo da marca são componentes fundamentais para capturar a atenção e a lealdade dos consumidores

Multi-Cloud Information Security Policy Development

Organizations’ ever lasting desire to utilize new trending technologies for optimizing their businesses have been increasing by the years. Cloud computing has been around for a while, and for many became a vital part of their day-to-day operations. The concept of multi-cloud has allowed organizations to take advantage of every cloud vendor’s best services, hinder vendor lock-in, resulting in cost optimization, and resulting in more available services. With every new technology, there are new vulnerabilities ready to be exploited at any time. As there is little prior research regarding this field, threat actors can exploit an organization’s ignorance on important challenges such as interoperability issues, implementing multiple vendors resulting in losing track of their services, and the lack of expertise in this newly founded field. To alleviate such issues, one approach could be to develop information security policies, hence our research question for the thesis: How to develop information security policies in a multi-cloud environment with considerations of the unique challenges it offers? To uncover the research question, we have conducted a systematic literature review followed up by a qualitative research approach. This has resulted in six semi-structured interviews from respondents with a variety of experience within the multi-cloud realm. The most prominent findings from this exploratory study has been the focus of thoroughly planning the need of a multi-cloud and information security policies, as well as applying a top-down approach for the policy development phase. This gives a more holistic view over the process, and additionally having the right competence is important. An interesting finding was that multi-cloud on paper should prevent the vendor lock-in issue, but in reality may provoke the matter. Using the tools and services provided by the cloud service providers may enhance the development of information security policies, but proves to be difficult in multi-cloud as the problem of interoperability hinders this. Lastly, reviewing policies becomes more timeconsuming and resource heavy in a multi-cloud because of the frequent updates and changes in technology, which has to be monitored. This research presents a conceptual framework, which by no means is a one-size-fits-all solution, but raises discussion for future work in this field

Multi-Cloud Information Security Policy Development

Organizations’ ever lasting desire to utilize new trending technologies for optimizing their businesses have been increasing by the years. Cloud computing has been around for a while, and for many became a vital part of their day-to-day operations. The concept of multi-cloud has allowed organizations to take advantage of every cloud vendor’s best services, hinder vendor lock-in, resulting in cost optimization, and resulting in more available services. With every new technology, there are new vulnerabilities ready to be exploited at any time. As there is little prior research regarding this field, threat actors can exploit an organization’s ignorance on important challenges such as interoperability issues, implementing multiple vendors resulting in losing track of their services, and the lack of expertise in this newly founded field. To alleviate such issues, one approach could be to develop information security policies, hence our research question for the thesis: How to develop information security policies in a multi-cloud environment with considerations of the unique challenges it offers? To uncover the research question, we have conducted a systematic literature review followed up by a qualitative research approach. This has resulted in six semi-structured interviews from respondents with a variety of experience within the multi-cloud realm. The most prominent findings from this exploratory study has been the focus of thoroughly planning the need of a multi-cloud and information security policies, as well as applying a top-down approach for the policy development phase. This gives a more holistic view over the process, and additionally having the right competence is important. An interesting finding was that multi-cloud on paper should prevent the vendor lock-in issue, but in reality may provoke the matter. Using the tools and services provided by the cloud service providers may enhance the development of information security policies, but proves to be difficult in multi-cloud as the problem of interoperability hinders this. Lastly, reviewing policies becomes more timeconsuming and resource heavy in a multi-cloud because of the frequent updates and changes in technology, which has to be monitored. This research presents a conceptual framework, which by no means is a one-size-fits-all solution, but raises discussion for future work in this field

A FRAMEWORK FOR BIOPROFILE ANALYSIS OVER GRID

An important trend in modern medicine is towards individualisation of healthcare to tailor care to the needs of the individual. This makes it possible, for example, to personalise diagnosis and treatment to improve outcome. However, the benefits of this can only be fully realised if healthcare and ICT resources are exploited (e.g. to provide access to relevant data, analysis algorithms, knowledge and expertise). Potentially, grid can play an important role in this by allowing sharing of resources and expertise to improve the quality of care. The integration of grid and the new concept of bioprofile represents a new topic in the healthgrid for individualisation of healthcare. A bioprofile represents a personal dynamic "fingerprint" that fuses together a person's current and past bio-history, biopatterns and prognosis. It combines not just data, but also analysis and predictions of future or likely susceptibility to disease, such as brain diseases and cancer. The creation and use of bioprofile require the support of a number of healthcare and ICT technologies and techniques, such as medical imaging and electrophysiology and related facilities, analysis tools, data storage and computation clusters. The need to share clinical data, storage and computation resources between different bioprofile centres creates not only local problems, but also global problems. Existing ICT technologies are inappropriate for bioprofiling because of the difficulties in the use and management of heterogeneous IT resources at different bioprofile centres. Grid as an emerging resource sharing concept fulfils the needs of bioprofile in several aspects, including discovery, access, monitoring and allocation of distributed bioprofile databases, computation resoiuces, bioprofile knowledge bases, etc. However, the challenge of how to integrate the grid and bioprofile technologies together in order to offer an advanced distributed bioprofile environment to support individualized healthcare remains. The aim of this project is to develop a framework for one of the key meta-level bioprofile applications: bioprofile analysis over grid to support individualised healthcare. Bioprofile analysis is a critical part of bioprofiling (i.e. the creation, use and update of bioprofiles). Analysis makes it possible, for example, to extract markers from data for diagnosis and to assess individual's health status. The framework provides a basis for a "grid-based" solution to the challenge of "distributed bioprofile analysis" in bioprofiling. The main contributions of the thesis are fourfold: A. An architecture for bioprofile analysis over grid. The design of a suitable aichitecture is fundamental to the development of any ICT systems. The architecture creates a meaiis for categorisation, determination and organisation of core grid components to support the development and use of grid for bioprofile analysis; B. A service model for bioprofile analysis over grid. The service model proposes a service design principle, a service architecture for bioprofile analysis over grid, and a distributed EEG analysis service model. The service design principle addresses the main service design considerations behind the service model, in the aspects of usability, flexibility, extensibility, reusability, etc. The service architecture identifies the main categories of services and outlines an approach in organising services to realise certain functionalities required by distributed bioprofile analysis applications. The EEG analysis service model demonstrates the utilisation and development of services to enable bioprofile analysis over grid; C. Two grid test-beds and a practical implementation of EEG analysis over grid. The two grid test-beds: the BIOPATTERN grid and PlymGRID are built based on existing grid middleware tools. They provide essential experimental platforms for research in bioprofiling over grid. The work here demonstrates how resources, grid middleware and services can be utilised, organised and implemented to support distributed EEG analysis for early detection of dementia. The distributed Electroencephalography (EEG) analysis environment can be used to support a variety of research activities in EEG analysis; D. A scheme for organising multiple (heterogeneous) descriptions of individual grid entities for knowledge representation of grid. The scheme solves the compatibility and adaptability problems in managing heterogeneous descriptions (i.e. descriptions using different languages and schemas/ontologies) for collaborated representation of a grid environment in different scales. It underpins the concept of bioprofile analysis over grid in the aspect of knowledge-based global coordination between components of bioprofile analysis over grid

Global Art Market in the Aftermath of COVID-19

Although the global art market has often been resilient to international economic and political events, it has recently faced some of its biggest challenges under the influence of COVID-19. Among others, the pandemic and the accompanying restrictive administrative measures taken by world governments have significantly influenced such key economic indicators as gallery employment, art sales, and the organization of international art fairs. The Special Issue "Global Art Market in the Aftermath of COVID-19" studies various economic, social, and political impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global art market’s current state and future evolution