The effects of online social networking on retail consumer dynamics in the attractions industry: The case of ‘E-da’ theme park, Taiwan

Purpose of this study is to examine the trends in retail consumers’ consumption dynamics and patterns of purchase behavior within this new-technology-mediated environment. A behavioral purchase model was developed and tested to understand the ways social networks influence the decision making of individuals planning to visit a theme park. In particular, the proposed model delineates how online social networking (OSN) experience factors affect actual use (AU) of social media for purchasing of theme park services through an assessment of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU). An electronic survey was conducted with members of a theme park’s brand fan page on the Facebook social media site namely, the E-da World Theme park in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. Smart PLS 3, a partial least squares analysis, was employed to examine a series of eleven research hypotheses. The findings revealed a series of statistically significant influences from five exogenous variables on PU and PEOU, as well as the mediating role of PU on the PEOU – AU relationship. The results also provide important practical implications both for academics and practitioners by shedding light on the way social media works to encourage and support online purchasing of amusement services.

Контекстно-залежне керування автономними системами електроживлення

У монографії описано принцип контекстно-залежного керування автономними системами електроживлення, який дозволяє інтегрувати джерела енергії силовому та інформаційному рівні за допомогою використання різнотипних даних – контексту. Проаналізовано особливості формування та прогнозування контексту на основі математичних моделей джерел енергії і особливості його використання при створенні правил керування системою електроживлення на основі знань експертів. Для забезпечення цілісності та несуперечливості правил керування і підвищення якості прийняття рішень формувати контекст пропонується з використанням онтології – сукупності даних про структуру системи електроживлення.The book describes the principle of a context-aware control of an autonomous power supply systems that allows integrating power converters on energy and information levels on basis context data. The features of formation and prediction of the context based on mathematical models and rules for the management of power system by using expert knowledge are analyzed. The context developed on the basis an ontology that is a data set about a structure of the power supply system. It ensures the integrity and consistency of the rules and quality control decisions shape.В монографии описан принцип контекстно-зависимого управления автономными системами электропитания, который позволяет интегрировать источники энергии силовом и информационном уровне с помощью использования разнотипных данных - контекста. Проанализированы особенности формирования и прогнозирования контекста на основе математических моделей источников энергии и особенности его использования при создании правил управления системой электропитания на основе знаний экспертов. Для обеспечения целостности и непротиворечивости правил управления и повышения качества принятия решений формировать контекст предлагается с использованием онтологии - совокупности данных о структуре системы электропитания

GECAF : a generic and extensible framework for developing context-aware smart environments

The new pervasive and context-aware computing models have resulted in the development of modern environments which are responsive to the changing needs of the people who live, work or socialise in them. These are called smart envirnments and they employ high degree of intelligence to consume and process information in order to provide services to users in accordance with their current needs. To achieve this level of intelligence, such environments collect, store, represent and interpret a vast amount of information which describes the current context of their users. Since context-aware systems differ in the way they interact with users and interpret the context of their entities and the actions they need to take, each individual system is developed in its own way with no common architecture. This fact makes the development of every context aware system a challenge. To address this issue, a new and generic framework has been developed which is based on the Pipe-and-Filter software architectural style, and can be applied to many systems. This framework uses a number of independent components that represent the usual functions of any context-aware system. These components can be configured in different arrangements to suit the various systems' requirements. The framework and architecture use a model to represent raw context information as a function of context primitives, referred to as Who, When, Where, What and How (4W1H). Historical context information is also defined and added to the model to predict some actions in the system. The framework uses XML code to represent the model and describes the sequence in which context information is being processed by the architecture's components (or filters). Moreover, a mechanism for describing interpretation rules for the purpose of context reasoning is proposed and implemented. A set of guidelines is provided for both the deployment and rule languages to help application developers in constructing and customising their own systems using various components of the new framework. To test and demonstrate the functionality of the generic architecture, a smart classroom environment has been adopted as a case study. An evaluation of the new framework has also been conducted using two methods: quantitative and case study driven evaluation. The quantitative method used information obtained from reviewing the literature which is then analysed and compared with the new framework in order to verify the completeness of the framework's components for different xiisituations. On the other hand, in the case study method the new framework has been applied in the implementation of different scenarios of well known systems. This method is used for verifying the applicability and generic nature of the framework. As an outcome, the framework is proven to be extensible with high degree of reusability and adaptability, and can be used to develop various context-aware systems.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Impact of volunteer management practice on volunteer motivation and satisfaction to enhance volunteer retention

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.This research has developed a research relationship model for understanding the relationship between volunteer management practice correlates and volunteer retention using volunteer motivation and volunteer satisfaction as mediators. The model uses social exchange theory, human resource management theory, volunteer functional inventory and volunteer satisfaction index as part of the theoretical underpinning for its validation and contributed to gain knowledge on the application of management theory widely used in the for-profit organisations to the non-profit and volunteer dependent sectors. A comprehensive literature review provided the basis to identify the research gap, formulate the research questions, aim and objectives, leading to the development of the theoretical framework and the research relationship model. The theoretical framework in turn enabled the researcher to develop the research methodology to collect data and test the model.The main research gap was the lack of knowledge about the correlates of volunteer management practice as determinants of volunteer retention and influence of volunteer motivation and volunteer satisfaction as mediators. The concept of mediation was introduced in this research as a novel technique that enabled the researcher to conduct a deeper investigation into the relationship between volunteer management practice correlates and volunteer retention. However prior to the introduction of the mediator concept, the original model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) was tested and found to be statistically insignificant. This provided the basis for modifying the model investigated by Cuskelly et al. (2006) leading to the development of the research model for this research. The various relationships developed in the research model were hypothesized. The model was tested using the data collected through the research instrument developed for the purpose. Quantitative research method was used to collect data from a sample set of volunteers using survey questionnaire in a context-free environment. Pilot survey enabled the researcher to confirm the utility of the instrument for using in the main survey. 386 participants provided their response to the online questionnaire that was posted on a web portal. The collected data was subjected to rigourous statistical tests. Descriptive statistics, reliability tests and validity tests were conducted on the data. Exploratory Factor analysis revealed underlying factors of volunteer management practice different from those identified by other researchers namely Cuskelly et al. (2006) whose model was used as the base model in this research. Further, structural equation modelling was used to test the model and verify hypothesis. The results indicated that two volunteer management practice correlates namely volunteer training and support and volunteer performance management and recognition, were found to indirectly influence volunteer retention. Volunteer training and support influenced volunteer retention through volunteer motivation as well as volunteer satisfaction. Volunteer performance management and recognition influenced volunteer retention through volunteer satisfaction. In addition volunteer planning and recruitment was identified as a moderator of volunteer training and support and volunteer performance management and recognition as correlates. These findings contribute significantly to helping both volunteer managers and volunteers in improving the intention of volunteers to stay longer with an organisation. Thus by implementing the findings of this research; volunteer managers can enhance their volunteer management practice leading to retention of volunteers for longer periods than now. The research findings contribute to theory in terms of widening the understanding of the operationalization of social exchange and HRM theories in a combined manner in understanding the relationship between volunteer management practice and volunteer retention

Achieving Autonomic Web Service Compositions with Models at Runtime

Over the last years, Web services have become increasingly popular. It is because they allow businesses to share data and business process (BP) logic through a programmatic interface across networks. In order to reach the full potential of Web services, they can be combined to achieve specifi c functionalities. Web services run in complex contexts where arising events may compromise the quality of the system (e.g. a sudden security attack). As a result, it is desirable to count on mechanisms to adapt Web service compositions (or simply called service compositions) according to problematic events in the context. Since critical systems may require prompt responses, manual adaptations are unfeasible in large and intricate service compositions. Thus, it is suitable to have autonomic mechanisms to guide their self-adaptation. One way to achieve this is by implementing variability constructs at the language level. However, this approach may become tedious, difficult to manage, and error-prone as the number of con figurations for the service composition grows. The goal of this thesis is to provide a model-driven framework to guide autonomic adjustments of context-aware service compositions. This framework spans over design time and runtime to face arising known and unknown context events (i.e., foreseen and unforeseen at design time) in the close and open worlds respectively. At design time, we propose a methodology for creating the models that guide autonomic changes. Since Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) lacks support for systematic reuse of service operations, we represent service operations as Software Product Line (SPL) features in a variability model. As a result, our approach can support the construction of service composition families in mass production-environments. In order to reach optimum adaptations, the variability model and its possible con figurations are verifi ed at design time using Constraint Programming (CP). At runtime, when problematic events arise in the context, the variability model is leveraged for guiding autonomic changes of the service composition. The activation and deactivation of features in the variability model result in changes in a composition model that abstracts the underlying service composition. Changes in the variability model are refl ected into the service composition by adding or removing fragments of Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) code, which are deployed at runtime. Model-driven strategies guide the safe migration of running service composition instances. Under the closed-world assumption, the possible context events are fully known at design time. These events will eventually trigger the dynamic adaptation of the service composition. Nevertheless, it is diffi cult to foresee all the possible situations arising in uncertain contexts where service compositions run. Therefore, we extend our framework to cover the dynamic evolution of service compositions to deal with unexpected events in the open world. If model adaptations cannot solve uncertainty, the supporting models self-evolve according to abstract tactics that preserve expected requirements.Alférez Salinas, GH. (2013). Achieving Autonomic Web Service Compositions with Models at Runtime [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/34672TESI

Methods of implementation of context-aware platforms and context-aware user interfaces for applications in consumer electronics

U okviru disertacije predstavljene su metode realizacije kontekstualnih platformi i kontekstualnih korisničkih sprega za uređaje potrošačke elektronike. Predloženi su algoritmi semantizacije konteksta i procene zauzetosti korisnika, arhitektura rešenja i rezultati evaluacije.  In this dissertation methods of implementation of context-aware platforms and context-aware user interfaces for applications in consumer electronics are presented. The work includes the proposition of algorithms for context semantization and user availability estimation, architecture of the solution as well as the results of evaluation experiments