PERSONALIZED RECOMMENDATION OF MOBILE TOURISM: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL USER MODEL

With rapid advances in e-business and mobile technology, the personalized recommendation of mobile tourism becomes a critical issue for both researchers and practitioners. The big data, problems of new users and similar recommendations remain barriers for mobile tourism. Through a large dataset gathered by questionnaires, this paper develops a novel multidimensional user model from the perspective of context. The dimensions of our model include several factors: historical behaviour, context and demographic feature of users. To make a better understanding of the model, a case study was adopted. Besides, an experiment is also conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed model. As a conclusion, limitations and future researches are discussed

Não-objetos: a perceção de uso de objetos inteligentes. O caso do smartphone

This article is part of a research conducted with the aim of obtaining the degree of Doctorate in Design, in the Product Design area. The definition of non-objects through the study of perception of use is the aim of our work. The focus on intelligent objects, namely the smartphone, comes from the growing pervasiveness of these objects in daily life, which is leading to new personal, social and working behaviours. We intend to investigate amongst other issues: how users perceive smart objects, in particular smartphones; if design as a practice embraces the ambiguous traits of these devices; understand which smart objects have more acceptance in daily life; to have a clearer notion regarding the use of smartphones: functionalities, personal or work related use; understand how important it is for the smartphone to be personal; and if users are aware of being dependent of these devices and how it provokes distancing and distraction in relation to other activities through its compulsive use. Here we review the methodology used in the research process, which includes a literary revision of key concepts and relevant authors, and a questionnaire, with the aim of understanding whether smart objects, smartphones in particular, can be defined as nonobjects.Este artigo faz parte de uma investigação com vista à obtenção do grau de Doutor em Design, na área do Design de Produto. A definição de não-objetos através do estudo da perceção de uso é o objetivo do nosso trabalho. O foco nos objetos inteligentes, nomeadamente no smartphone, vem da crescente universalidade destes objetos na vida quotidiana, que está a originar novos comportamentos pessoais, sociais e de trabalho. Pretendemos averiguar, entre outros pontos: como os utilizadores percecionam os objetos inteligentes, especificamente, o smarpthone; se a prática do design apreende as características ambíguas deste tipo de objetos; perceber quais os objetos inteligentes com mais aceitação na vida quotidiana; ter uma ideia mais clara sobre o tipo de uso de smartphones: funcionalidades, uso para trabalho ou pessoal; entender da importância de o smartphone ser um objeto pessoal; e se os utilizadores têm a noção da sua dependência e de como este provoca distanciamento e distração face a outras atividades, pelo seu uso compulsivo. Revemos aqui a metodologia empregue no trabalho de pesquisa, e que usa a revisão literária de conceitos- -chave e de autores relevantes, e um questionário, com o objetivo de perceber se os objetos inteligentes, em particular os smartphones, podem ser definidos como não-objetos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The influence of national culture on the attitude towards mobile recommender systems

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.This study aimed to identify factors that influence user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems and to examine how these factors interact with cultural values to affect attitudes towards this technology. Based on the theory of reasoned action, belief factors for mobile recommender systems are identified in three dimensions: functional, contextual, and social. Hypotheses explaining different impacts of cultural values on the factors affecting attitudes were also proposed. The research model was tested based on data collected in China, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Findings indicate that functional and social factors have significant impacts on user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems. The relationships between belief factors and attitudes are moderated by two cultural values: collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. The theoretical and practical implications of applying theory of reasoned action and innovation diffusion theory to explain the adoption of new technologies in societies with different cultures are also discussed.National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean governmen

Consumer behavior in augmented shopping reality: A review, synthesis, and research agenda

The application of augmented reality (AR) is receiving great interest in e-commerce, m-commerce, and brick-and-mortar-retailing. A growing body of literature has explored several different facets of how consumers react to the upcoming augmented shopping reality. This systematic literature review summarizes the findings of 56 empirical papers that analyzed consumers’ experience with AR, acceptance of AR, and behavioral reactions to AR in various online and offline environments. The review synthesizes current knowledge and critically discusses the empirical studies conceptually and methodologically. Finally, the review outlines the theoretical basis as well as the independent, mediating, moderating, and dependent variables analyzed in previous AR research. Based on this synthesis, the paper develops an integrative framework model, which helps derive directives for future research on augmented shopping reality

Principles for sustainable public open spaces in Sandton: a recommendation for the Johannesburg Metropolitan Open Space System (JMOSS)

A Research Report submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Science in Town and Regional Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016Public open spaces such as parks provide vibrancy to the ordinary city by means of providing spaces for the community for recreational, health and leisure activities. A sustainable public open space provides an opportunity for a city to become more sustainable where a public open space is more than a space for the community. This research aims at developing a set of principles that may be adopted by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Open Space System (JMOSS) in order to create sustainable public open spaces. The objectives of the research report include unpacking various debates regarding the use, users and definition of public open spaces, identifying what the existing principles are for open spaces as used by JMOSS, identifying where the parks and vacant parcels of land are in the Sandton and surrounding area, identifying what makes a public open space coherent, contextual and co-existent, identifying the shortfalls of the public open spaces in Sandton in terms of their coherency, co-existence, contextuality and sustainability, and identifying local and international precedents of Sustainable Public Open Spaces. The nature of this research report will include qualitative research where in depth interviews, photographs, mapping and case studies will be used in order to develop the principles for sustainable public open spaces. Two main concepts will be drawn on to develop the principles for sustainable public open spaces. Firstly, the concept of sustainable public open spaces by Reiter (2004) whereby the three principles of coherence, co-existence and contextuality are used. Secondly, the concept of sustainability as discussed by Gedikli (n.d.) where sustainable urban development incorporates social justice, sustainable economies, and environmental sustainability. Therefore, the concept of sustainability is the focus of how public open spaces can become more resilient, adaptable, efficient and effective spaces within the city for the public to use, by developing a set of principles for sustainable public open spaces. This research report culminates in the development of a set of principles for sustainable public open spaces, entitled “The Three Cs for Sustainable Public Open Spaces”. These principles can be applied on a generic scale but require guidelines in the context in which they are applied. Therefore, these principles are derived alongside guidelines for the context of the public open spaces within and around the Sandton CBD.MT201

Living Labs and user engagement for innovation and sustainability

This exploratory study, investigating the role of Living Labs (LLs) in promoting innovation and sustainability, has two main goals. Firstly, it seeks to understand how stakeholders and users, in a Quadruple Helix Model, can participate in LL activities and support the process of achieving a more sustainable society. Secondly, it guides the setting up of LLs with the aim of directly contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Research, based on a multiple case study, has shown that LLs are able to actively engage users, including firms and business systems, in promoting co-creation of value so as to benefit the economy, society and the environment. We have selected some good practices and derived some policy implications that could inspire LLs to promote innovation and encourage transition towards sustainable development at the local level, within the context of a QHM model

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

The snow, the dirt and the smartphone : exploring mobile technology use by blue-collar mobile workers

The utilization of mobile phones has led to higher levels of accountability among blue-collar mobile field workers, who mostly rely on the physical performance of their work. Nowadays, maintenance and construction employees are responsible to report information about their work practices and outcomes through mobile technology in the field to greater extents than when reporting was done by filling paper forms. Such data serves the back office to administrate movement of resources such as trucks and supplies required in the work tasks and to monitor manual labour carried out in dispersed locations or when isolated in the field. Mobile workers face various limitations and mental workloads arising from their distinctive technical work conditions and due to their spatial mobility, which affect their ability to interact with devices and to comply with workplace demands. Further, the complexity of their work tasks often increases due to no readily available information technology solutions. As a result, mobile workers often experience uncertainty and ambiguity when reporting and processing information, which can subsequently hinder work in the field instead of supporting it. The main aim of this study is to learn how different contextual limitations and usability issues affect the practices of utilizing mobile phones for the purpose of reporting data in the field. Focus is put on the study context of M-Reporting, a mobile application through which the thesis explores the practices of reporting task-related data by maintainers, drivers and construction workers. A field study guided by the contextual inquiry data-collection technique was conducted amongst 12 participants carrying out their real tasks and interacting with ICTs across nine work sites. The field study enabled collecting rich qualitative data which was interpreted and analyzed. The findings were analyzed by using theoretical analysis frameworks on mobility. To assess the usability of M-Reporting, Hertzum’s method of usability analysis was applied. The findings reveal that workers face different contextual limitations that negatively affect their ability to report from the field. As a result, workers were found to improvise by delaying data entry, by favoring available alternatives to report and by prioritizing their other work tasks when there was no compelling need to report immediately. In addition, workers were found to develop particular reporting habits due to situational and organizational usability issues. In order to better adopt the process of reporting by blue-collar mobile workers within the field, future process improvement considerations were drawn and presented to the service provider and to the blue-collar mobile workplace