Consumer attitudes toward personalization features and intention to purchase online

In this study, a model of attitude toward personalization and purchase intention is developed to investigate how consumer attitudes and intention to purchase using personalization features are influenced by privacy and security concerns and by previous online purchase experiences. The behavioral intention model (Fishbein, 197 5) has been adopted for theoretical model building. To collect data, an e-mail survey was distributed to 7,000 online consumers who had at least online shopping experience and a sample of 1140 usable responses were used for data analysis. The results indicated that 1) attitudes toward personalization features were important determinants of consumer intentions to purchase online, 2) consumer concerns about privacy and security had a significant influence on consumer attitudes toward personalization features, and 3) previous online purchase experience had no influence on consumer attitudes toward personalization features. Implications and directions for future research are discussed

Development of a mobile application for sales and marketing: a case of Raha beverages company limited

A Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile System of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyRaha Beverage Company Limited is a wine-producing company based in Arusha Tanzania. It was experienced with the challenge of products advertisement to reach more customers. The problem extended to a lack of knowledge on market demand because there was no prior orders collection before product delivery, also the market demand fluctuation results in either less quantity delivery to wholesalers or delivery delay, causing wholesalers to stay out of stock for a while. Hence decreases customer satisfaction. The proposed RahaSales mobile application was designed to address and mitigate the encountered challenges by the company. The study showed that the mobile application would easily connect the company with their customers for instant communication and getting insights on the market ground. To reflect what was the exact puzzle to be solved; the data was collected from the sales representative and known customers through interviews, questionnaires, and observation. The mobile application was developed through the agile method known as scrum, and then the application was tested by both customers and sales representatives from the company to reflect what the application is required to do. The developed mobile application connects the supplier and wholesalers to enable them to share business information like market demand and product availability. According to the findings, mobile applications can be used to improve client loyalty as well as sales. From the developed application, I would like to recommend further studies to utilize the GPS locations collected from the customers to map all customers in the Google map for easy visualization of current customers and will help the company to determine where there is a gap in the market share and focus more in terms of advertisement and promotions

Computer forensics methodology and praxis.

This thesis lays the groundwork for creation of a graduate-level computer forensics course. It begins with an introduction explaining how computing has invaded modern life and explains what computer forensics is and its necessity. The thesis then argues why universities need to be at the forefront of educating students in the science of computer forensics as opposed to proprietary education courses and the benefits to law enforcement agencies of having a computer scientist perform forensic analyses. It continues to detail what computer forensics is and is not. The thesis then addresses legal issues and the motivation for the topic. Following this section is a review of current literature pertaining to the topic. The last half of the thesis lays a groundwork for design of a computer forensics course at the graduate level by detailing a methodology to implement which contains associated laboratory praxis for the students to follow

Information-seeking on the Web with Trusted Social Networks - from Theory to Systems

This research investigates how synergies between the Web and social networks can enhance the process of obtaining relevant and trustworthy information. A review of literature on personalised search, social search, recommender systems, social networks and trust propagation reveals limitations of existing technology in areas such as relevance, collaboration, task-adaptivity and trust. In response to these limitations I present a Web-based approach to information-seeking using social networks. This approach takes a source-centric perspective on the information-seeking process, aiming to identify trustworthy sources of relevant information from within the user's social network. An empirical study of source-selection decisions in information- and recommendation-seeking identified five factors that influence the choice of source, and its perceived trustworthiness. The priority given to each of these factors was found to vary according to the criticality and subjectivity of the task. A series of algorithms have been developed that operationalise three of these factors (expertise, experience, affinity) and generate from various data sources a number of trust metrics for use in social network-based information seeking. The most significant of these data sources is Revyu.com, a reviewing and rating Web site implemented as part of this research, that takes input from regular users and makes it available on the Semantic Web for easy re-use by the implemented algorithms. Output of the algorithms is used in Hoonoh.com, a Semantic Web-based system that has been developed to support users in identifying relevant and trustworthy information sources within their social networks. Evaluation of this system's ability to predict source selections showed more promising results for the experience factor than for expertise or affinity. This may be attributed to the greater demands these two factors place in terms of input data. Limitations of the work and opportunities for future research are discussed

Understanding security risks and users perception towards adopting wearable Internet of Medical Things

This thesis examines users’ perception of trust within the context of security and privacy of Wearable Internet of Medical Things (WIoMT). WIoMT is a collective term for all medical devices connected to internet to facilitate collection and sharing of health-related data such as blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen level and more. Common wearable devices include smart watches and fitness bands. WIoMT, a phenomenon due to Internet of Things (IoT) has become prevalent in managing the day-to-day activities and health of individuals. This increased growth and adoption poses severe security and privacy concerns. Similar to IoT, there is a need to analyse WIoMT security risks as they are used by individuals and organisations on regular basis, risking personal and confidential information. Additionally, for better implementation, performance, adoption, and secured wearable medical devices, it is crucial to observe users’ perception. Users’ perspectives towards trust are critical for adopting WIoMT. This research aimed to understand users’ perception of trust in the adoption of WIoMT, while also exploring the security risks associated with adopting wearable IoMT. Employing a quantitative method approach, 189 participants from Western Sydney University completed an online survey. The results of the study and research model indicated more than half of the variance (R2 = 0.553) in the Intention to Use WIoMT devices, which was determined by the significant predictors (95% Confidence Interval; p < 0.05), Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Security and Privacy. Among these two, the domain Perceived Security and Privacy was found to have significant outcomes. Hence, this study reinforced that a WIoMT user intends to use the device only if he/she trusts the device; trust here has been defined in terms of its usefulness, easy to use and security and privacy features. This finding will be a steppingstone for equipment vendors and manufacturers to have a good grasp on the health industry, since the proper utilisation of WIoMT devices results in the effective and efficient management of health and wellbeing of users. The expected outcome from this research also aims to identify how users’ security and perception matters while adopting WIoMT, which in future can benefit security professionals to examine trust factors when implementing new and advanced WIoMT devices. Moreover, the expected result will help consumers as well as different healthcare industry to create a device which can be easily adopted and used securely by consumers

Examination of Adherence, the Quality of the Physician/Patient Relationship, and Illness-Related Beliefs Among Adults with Long QT Syndrome

Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) is a cardiac arrhythmia disorder that affects 1 in 2,000 individuals and is a precursor to various cardiac events, including sudden cardiac arrest (Schwartz et al., 2016). As a precaution, individuals with all types of LQTS have been advised to modify their lifestyles to avoid triggers, including limiting physical activity (PA). Nonadherence to treatment recommendations could result in devastating outcomes. The purpose of the study was to explore characteristics pertaining to adherence and nonadherence to PA recommendations, including the quality of the physician/patient relationship and illness beliefs among adults with LQTS. An Internet survey was completed by 91 adults with LQTS who were recruited through various social media and medical group venues. The findings indicated that agreement on treatment goal between participants and cardiologists accounted for 3% and 4% of the variances, respectively, of perceptions of personal and treatment control over LQTS. Positive perceptions of personal and treatment control significantly predicted adherence. These results can be explained by the self-regulatory model, which describes the connection between health behaviors and illness perceptions. The findings generate many opportunities for future directions with the LQTS population and other medical populations, including research, intervention development, and advocacy

Collaborative infomediaries and the measuring factors that influence the success of infomediary.

Wong Wai-Yiu.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-120).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Chapter 1 --- Introduction and Outline of the Dissertation --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Collaborative Infomediaries --- p.1Chapter 1.2 --- Measuring Factors that Influence the Success of Infomediary --- p.3Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Contributions --- p.5Chapter 1.4 --- Thesis Organization --- p.7Chapter 2 --- Related Work on Collaborative Infomediary --- p.8Chapter 2.1 --- RECOMMENDER SYSTEM - Infomediary --- p.8Chapter 2.1.1 --- Utility-based recommenders --- p.9Chapter 2.1.2 --- Knowledge-based recommenders --- p.10Chapter 2.1.3 --- Content-based recommenders --- p.11Chapter 2.1.4 --- Collaborative recommenders --- p.12Chapter 2.1.5 --- Hybrid recommenders --- p.14Chapter 2.2 --- Types of Collaborative Filtering --- p.15Chapter 2.2.1 --- Memory-based methods --- p.15Chapter 2.2.2 --- Model-based methods --- p.16Chapter 2.3 --- Similarity Measures --- p.16Chapter 2.4 --- Prediction algorithm --- p.19Chapter 2.5 --- User Profile --- p.20Chapter 2.6 --- Relevance Feedback --- p.21Chapter 2.7 --- Comparison basis for user similarity --- p.22Chapter 3 --- Research Methodology --- p.23Chapter 3.1 --- Collaborative Infomediary System Design --- p.24Chapter 3.1.1 --- System Functionalities --- p.24Chapter 3.1.2 --- Overview of System Design --- p.24Chapter 3.2 --- User Profile --- p.26Chapter 3.2.1 --- Sources of news articles --- p.27Chapter 3.2.2 --- Regions of news --- p.27Chapter 3.2.3 --- Categories of Industries --- p.28Chapter 3.2.4 --- Listed Companies --- p.29Chapter 3.2.5 --- User-specified Keywords --- p.30Chapter 3.2.6 --- User Profile Scoring (Scoreprofile) --- p.30Chapter 3.3 --- User Feedback --- p.31Chapter 3.3.1 --- Scoring formulation for feedback (Score feedback) --- p.31Chapter 3.4 --- User Similarity --- p.33Chapter 3.4.1 --- Source --- p.34Chapter 3.4.2 --- Regions of news --- p.35Chapter 3.4.3 --- Category of Industries --- p.35Chapter 3.4.4 --- Listed companies in Hong Kong stock market and Userspecified Keywords --- p.36Chapter 3.4.5 --- Overall Similarity --- p.36Chapter 3.5 --- News Article Scoring --- p.37Chapter 3.6 --- User Interface of Collaborative Infomediary --- p.38Chapter 3.6.1 --- User Registration and Preference Setting --- p.38Chapter 3.6.2 --- Current Day News Retrieval --- p.42Chapter 3.6.3 --- Past News Retrieval --- p.46Chapter 3.6.4 --- Search News --- p.47Chapter 4 --- Evaluation Methodology & Experimental Results --- p.50Chapter 4.1 --- Experimental Design & Setup --- p.51Chapter 4.1.1 --- Performance Measures --- p.53Chapter 4.2 --- Experiment Results & Discussions --- p.54Chapter 4.2.1 --- Similarity Threshold against average number of collaborators --- p.54Chapter 4.2.2 --- Performance Measures among setups --- p.55Chapter 4.2.3 --- Performance Measures against Similarity Threshold --- p.59Chapter 5 --- Related work on the Measuring Factors that Influence the Success of Infomediary --- p.64Chapter 5.1 --- Different approaches to IS success measurement --- p.64Chapter 5.2 --- User Information Satisfaction/End-User Computing Satisfaction --- p.66Chapter 5.2.1 --- Definition of user satisfaction --- p.66Chapter 5.2.2 --- Factors/dimensions affecting IS user satisfaction --- p.67Chapter 5.3 --- Evaluation of Web-site --- p.69Chapter 5.4 --- Web Customer Satisfaction --- p.70Chapter 5.4.1 --- Customer satisfaction --- p.71Chapter 5.4.2 --- Factors/Dimensions affecting customer information satisfaction --- p.72Chapter 6 --- Research Methodology --- p.78Chapter 6.1 --- Methodological Approach --- p.78Chapter 6.2 --- Construct Definition and Item Pool Generation --- p.79Chapter 6.2.1 --- Customer Values on Infomediary --- p.79Chapter 6.2.2 --- Means Objectives and Fundamental Objectives --- p.80Chapter 6.3 --- Relationships between Customer Values --- p.85Chapter 6.4 --- Survey Instrument --- p.86Chapter 6.4.1 --- Task File --- p.87Chapter 6.4.2 --- Questionnaire: Demographic Variables and Measures . --- p.87Chapter 6.4.3 --- Sample Description and Survey Administration --- p.88Chapter 7 --- Data Analysis and Results --- p.90Chapter 7.1 --- DATA ANALYSIS APPROACH --- p.90Chapter 7.1.1 --- Purification --- p.90Chapter 7.1.2 --- Identification of Factor Structure --- p.92Chapter 7.1.3 --- Construct validity --- p.97Chapter 7.2 --- RESEARCH FINDINGS --- p.98Chapter 7.2.1 --- Descriptive statistics --- p.98Chapter 7.2.2 --- Purification- Means Objectives --- p.99Chapter 7.2.3 --- Factor Structure Identification- Means Objectives --- p.99Chapter 7.2.4 --- Construct validity- Means Objectives --- p.104Chapter 7.2.5 --- Purification- Fundamental Objectives --- p.104Chapter 7.2.6 --- Factor Structure Identification- Fundamental Objectives --- p.105Chapter 7.2.7 --- Construct validity- Fundamental Objectives --- p.107Chapter 7.2.8 --- A Model for Measuring factors that Influence Infomediary Success --- p.108Chapter 8 --- Conclusions and Future Work --- p.109Chapter 8.1 --- "Implications, Limitations and Future Work - Collaborative Infomediary" --- p.109Chapter 8.2 --- "Implications, Limitations and Future Work - Infomediary Success Factors" --- p.110Chapter 8.3 --- Conclusions --- p.112Bibliography --- p.113Chapter A --- Means Objectives Fundamental Objectives --- p.121Chapter A.1 --- List of Means Objectives & Fundamental Objectives --- p.121Chapter B --- Statistical Results for Collaborative Infomediary Experiment --- p.129Chapter C --- Statistical Results for Measuring Factors that influence success of Infomediary --- p.136Chapter D --- Survey Task File Questionnaire --- p.152Chapter E --- Tutorial Guide for experiment on Collaborative Infomediary --- p.17

Improving password system effectiveness.

As computers reach more aspects of our everyday life, so too do the passwords that keep them secure. Coping with these passwords can be a problem for many individuals and organisations who have to deal with the consequences of passwords being forgotten, yet little is known of this issue. This thesis considers the effectiveness of password authentication systems for three groups of stakeholders including users, support staff, and system owners. The initial problem of how to create memorable but secure passwords is reconceptualised as how to improve password system effectiveness. Interview, questionnaire, and system log studies in BT, and experiments at UCL-CS confirm some basic hypotheses about key variables impacting performance, and show that other variables than the memorability of password content are also important which have hitherto not figured in security research and practice. Interventions based on these findings are proposed. Empirical evaluation suggests that the interventions proposed that 'redesign' the user but exclude other parts of the system would fail. Reason's (1990) Generic Error Modelling System (GEMS) is used as a basis for modelling password system performance at the level of individual users. GEMS and the Basic Elements of Production are used generalise these findings, and for the first time to model information security. This new model, "Elevation", is validated by expert review, and a modified version is presented