A study of individual consumer level culture in B2C e-commerce through a multi-perspective iTrust model

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.Building trust and understanding their relationship with consumer online purchasing decisions is important to business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce firms seeking to extend their reach to consumers globally. This study addresses the gap in the knowledge about this relationship by studying the cognitive and affective responses of consumers towards a B2C e-commerce website. Based on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) model, this study examines the moderating role of individual consumer culture on the relationship between web design (website accessibility, visual appearance (colour and images) and social networking services), consumer behaviour (religiosity), privacy, security, emotions (fear and joy) and interpersonal trust (iTrust), cognitive and affect-based trust concerning online purchasing intentions. The motivation of this study includes testing and comparing individual consumer cultural values (individualism and uncertainty avoidance) difference moderators in proposed multi-perspective model of online interpersonal trust (iTrust) across two different societies (Australia and Pakistan). This research applied a quantitative methodology and a cross-sectional survey design approach. In order to empirically test the research model, surveys were conducted in Pakistan and Australia. A total of 270 participants from Pakistan and 255 from Australia responded to the survey. The data of the survey were analysed with the SEM-Partial Least Square (PLS) approach using SmartPLS 3.0. The results of the analysis generated mixed findings. It was found that depending on the stimulus (S) towards which a reaction is made provides a signal regarding the cognitive and affect-based trust (Organism) of B2C e-commerce website, which influence consumers purchase intentions (Response) at the individual level across culture. The results of this study highlight the need to consider individual consumer level cultural differences when identifying the mix of e-commerce strategies to employ in B2C websites, not only at the country level but also in culturally diverse country such as Australia

A Research Stream on Sentiment Analysis

The authors study the effect of coupling a specialized lexicon to a general lexicon and its effect on the SA results

Machine Learning Approaches to Sentiment Analytics

One key aspect of sentiment analytics is emotion classification. This research studies the use of machine learning approaches to classify human emotion. Two different machine learning approaches were compared in an experimental study. In one approach, emotions from both genders were used to train the machine. In another approach, genders were separated and two separate machines were used to learn the emotions of the two genders. We also manipulated the training sample sizes and study the effect of training sample sizes on the two machine learning approaches. Our preliminary results show that the approach where the genders were separated produces a higher accuracy in classifying emotions. We also observe that training sample sizes have different impact on the two approaches

Enhancing trust in dental care recommendation systems : using trust-enhanced information from social networks to improve the matching between patients and dentists

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.The recent growth in social media has impacted the way users are searching and sharing health information online. Crowdsources, such as review and rating websites, provide an outlet for consumers to share their opinions on healthcare professionals. Yet, faced with the enormity and diversity of information across multiple online sources, finding the right information can be a challenge for users, particularly when there is no consistency in the evaluation criteria across various sources. This difficulty is manifested when existing review and rating websites do not take patient information into consideration. Extremely biased views – positive or negative – are capable of skewing recommendations and thereby compounding the situation. This makes it important to filter trustworthy information from health social networks and dental crowdsources. In the case of dental care, the invasive nature of many dental treatments highlights the importance of selecting a suitable trustworthy provider for many patients, who may be anxious or reluctant to visit a new dentist. By analysing, from multiple perspectives, the trustworthiness of information available to patients, this study proposes a new trust-enhanced information model for dental care recommendation systems. In this model, dentists are profiled based on subjective information extracted from dental crowdsources. Subjective qualities are also used to profile patients. Currently, online social network data cannot be used for profiling purposes due to privacy and identification concerns. Instead, one of the popular personality tests, the DISC personality test, is used in this study. The importance and suitability of subjective qualities for recommendations is explored. Two matching algorithms are evaluated based on the responses to an online survey. When the patients are classified based on their levels of fear, preferred search methods and other attributes, their list of recommended dentists changes. The subjective characteristics of both patients and dentists are important factors which need to be incorporated to improve the matching capability of dental care recommendation systems. Including the subjective qualities of users could change the way that recommendations are provided in the future, especially in the health sector where the wrong information can lead to adverse impacts on health. Although patients’ discussions about their health are sensitive and private, they can benefit from more accurate recommendations in relation to health care providers

An investigation of factors affecting initial trust in Internet banking services in Jordan

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.Despite the rapid growth in technology and the research effort given on investigating the adoption of Internet banking services (IBS), both banks and academic researchers in developing countries perceive the problem of low-level adoption of IBS. The vast majority of studies which have investigated the adoption, acceptance, or intention to use IBS, have agreed that customers’ trust is one of the most important impediments that have frustrated the success of the adoption process. Therefore, in developed countries, customers’ trust became the pivot of research studies that investigated the electronic dealings between customers and new IT/IS innovations. Recently, a few researchers have started investigating online trust in developing countries. However, existing research studies on online trust lacks a comprehensive view that addresses the issue from multiple perspectives (technical, psychological, and cultural) and offers more knowledge and understanding of the problem. To fill this gap, this study has conducted an intensive review of the literature (on online trust and on the adoption of new technological innovation). Consequently, building and examining a comprehensive unified model of initial trust in IBS adoption has been the main aim of this study. The model constructs are developed using trust antecedents, national culture, and the diffusion of innovation theory. The study model was then verified and examined using a rigorous research design that employed a sequential mixed approach that consist of: (i) a quantitative method that involved both a pilot study and a large-scale survey, and (ii) a qualitative method that adopted semi-structured interviews to collect data from nine academic and industry experts. Teachers were surveyed and 540 questionnaires were identified as valid. The obtained quantitative data of the study was analysed using manifold statistical techniques including: Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA, measurement model), and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using the AMOS software. Moreover, a content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data in order to confirm the quantitative results, validate the initial trust model in IBS, and provide recommendations for future research. The results of this study show that organizational structural assurance, banks’ reputation, perceived relative advantages, and uncertainty avoidance are the most important determinants of customers’ initial trust in IBS in Jordan. In addition, the results indicate that initial trust in IBS positively influences intention to use IBS. The obtained results underpin the claim that national culture has a significant role in forming customers’ initial trust in IBS, particularly in developing context. The current study provides a cornerstone for the intention to use new technological innovations in developing countries, especially IBS. Furthermore, the study provides a set of academic and practical implications, and discusses the research limitations and future directions

The impact of online reciprocal peer tutoring on students' academic performance

Students learn and teach each other is believed able to optimize their learning outcome. Today, with the rapidly emergent online technology has provided the students' opportunity to gain knowledge without relying solely on teachers. By implementing a peer learning like reciprocal peer tutoring strategy, incorporating with the popular and trendy online platform such as Facebook can be used to improve educational outcomes. In this study, the reciprocal peer tutoring strategies have been implemented using Facebook as a platform for students to learn and discuss the subject matter. This study investigates the effectiveness of online reciprocal peer tutoring in improving their academic performance. A pre-experimental (Pre-and post-test) was conducted across 4 weeks, involving 29 undergraduate students. The result suggests the online reciprocal peer tutoring environment was found to significantly influence the students’ performance test. Thus, the online reciprocal peer tutoring can be promising in higher education

Fostering Communication between the Elderly and the Youth with Social Games

In today’s aging societies, elderly people often have difficulties to find people to communicate with. To address this loneliness of the elderly, it has been suggested to create more opportunities for children and elderly people to engage in various shared activities together. In this ongoing research, we investigate that social offline games can facilitate communication between the generations by creating a mutually enjoyable environment where elderly and young persons can interact with each other. A longitudinal approach is used to investigate whether intergenerational communication actually is enhanced by utilizing social offline games as the medium. Prior research has been conducted in related topics, such as the perceptions of the young and elderly participants towards each other in a game setting, as well as the impacts to communication behaviours among players of the same generation. We aim to build a model that connects game enjoyment, intergenerational perceptions and communication, and ultimately contribute to improving the well-being and relieving the loneliness experienced by many elderly people