Interactive Cultural Experiences using Virtual Identities

People create meaning through narratives or stories. Every culture has stories that are passed along from generation to generation. Culture influences our perspectives, values and behaviour. The story metaphor has been used in Multimedia and Virtual Environments to create interactive stories. Interactive stories enable users to interactively explore the story world and to be actively involved in the outcome of the story. Virtual environments are much richer in terms of freedom of navigation and ease of interaction. Projection-based systems in particular, don’t bind the user to a predefined path and enables the user to have a hands-on experience through immersion and interaction with the virtual world. Our approach for authoring interactive stories in virtual cultural environments allows the creation of several virtual identities, through whose eyes the user perceives the virtual world. Each identity is empowered with knowledge about itself and its perception about and embodiment in the virtual world. This approach allows free interaction and navigation that is appropriate for the specific virtual identity in the culture that is being experienced. This enables the user to experience the culture from many different angles and to get a true reflection and cultural experience

Obstacles to Implementation of Online Booking in Saudi Travel Agencies

This paper examines current experience of online booking technology within travel agencies. A qualitative exploratory approach to research is adopted with a focus examining Saudi travel agent utilization and experience of booking systems and their attitudes and propensity to adopt online booking processes. Also it focuses on the travel agent perspective and identifies barriers to implementation of online booking technology. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and staff at selected travel agencies in Saudi Arabia. A technology acceptance model (TAM) was applied and developed to address the online booking and purchase in travel services and to explain the factors influencing user acceptance of online booking and purchase in travel services. Findings showed that customer culture, lack of customer trust and security, e-payment process, lack of government support, internet services connections, Understanding of services and its benefits have efficiency considerable influences on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of online booking/purchasing acceptance. Keywords: online booking technology; travel agencies in Saudi Arabia; attitudes; customer trust; security; customer cultur

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

Optimal user esperience in social commerce: the role of emotions, flow and user-generated information

This doctoral dissertation aims to understand how to optimize online customer experience in the highly interactive environment of social commerce. In an attempt to go beyond online commercial transactions and to support a consumer-centered and social-oriented perspective, social commerce offers users the necessary tools (e.g., recommendations, referrals, ratings and forums) for fostering social interactions during the online purchasing process. User-generated content, the fruit of these social interactions, can affect and help users in their decision-making process. Hence, the main objective of this dissertation aims to understand online consumer behavior to optimize the customer experience in social commerce. This doctoral dissertation is organized into four studies.Study 1 aims to investigate the customer engagement behavior literature in depth, analyzing the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the engagement generation process in social commerce and the role of emotions within that process. This study proposes a model of the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the engagement generation process. The model analyzes how interactivity, social presence and enjoyment affect sPassion and result in positive sWOM. The results confirm empirically that cognitive experience and emotional feelings derived from the process boost user participation. At the core of the process, sPassion positively affects the spread of sWOM. Study 2 has the objective of reaching a wider understanding of optimal user experience in social commerce and its mediating effect between emotions and behavior. Accordingly, the study is divided into two parts: first, to analyze the dimensionality, structure and measurement of the state of flow; and second, to test how websites can improve user experience to boost positive sWOM while avoiding negative sWOM. The empirical results confirm the three-dimensional nature of the concept and support its second-order reflective structure, thereby helping to establish the basis for measuring state of flow, its structure and factors; and it confirms that passionate users are likely to experience a state of flow and, as a consequence, to share positive sWOM. Study 3 investigates how user-generated versus company-generated information contributes to trust in the social commerce site, at the same time analyzing how user-generational cohorts behave (Generations X, Y and Z). Social commerce websites offer content created by the company itself and by its users, and this content is accessible without time and space constraints; therefore, everyone, regardless of age, can access social commerce information. The mission of social commerce is to boost tradeoffs while offering users the chance to share their own experiences and to obtain information from the experiences of others. Hence, trust transferred in this part of the purchasing decision process will be influenced by trust in the type of information available. Thus, Study 3 analyzes how user-generated and company-generated information contribute to trust in social commerce. The younger the generation, the more trust in social commerce is transferred from trust in user-generated information; the older the generation, the more trust in social commerce is transferred from trust in company-generated information. Study 3 confirms that users cannot be considered as a single group and must be segmented into generational cohorts.Study 4 investigates user experience across cultures, analyzing the effect of hedonic and utilitarian antecedents on optimal user experience and its consequences on user intention. Taking into account the salience of emotions within experiences of digital technologies, this study has a twofold purpose. First, it analyzes how emotions such as sPassion compared with flow state affected by usability, resulting in a positive impact on emotional and behavioral loyalty. Second, as the main focus of the study, cultural background is tested as a moderating effect.This dissertation allows us to draw a number of main conclusions regarding the study of online consumer experience in social commerce. First, on the basis of the importance of emotion in customer experience, this dissertation supports the primary role of emotions in shaping optimal user experience in social commerce. Second, once users are engaged and have reached an optimal experience (state of flow), this situation drives positive changes in their behavior, positively affecting their decision-making process. Third, it is necessary to take into account the fact that generational cohorts behave differently, since they trust information in different ways. Last, but not least, despite the fact that culture influences decision-making processes, the internationalization of markets and multiculturalism is making users more and more similar.<br /

The effects of travelling reasons on social media resources and tourist expectations

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo examinar la relación de las fuentes del contenido generado por el usuario (UGC) en las redes sociales, que proviene generalmente de fuentes de lazos fuertes y fuentes de lazos débiles, en la generación de expectativas turísticas sobre los recursos básicos y los recursos o factores de apoyo de los destinos. También se analiza el efecto moderador de las razones para viajar en la relación de las fuentes UGC y las expectativas turísticas. Para esta investigación, se recogieron 375 encuestas. Los resultados señalan que las razones o motivos del viaje son un factor importante a considerar en la generación de las expectativas turísticas, y en nuestro caso, el UGC que provenía de las fuentes de lazos débiles influyen de manera significativa en la generación de expectativas del turista cuando viaja por motivos de trabajo.This research aims to examine the relationship of user generated content (UGC) sources in social media which is provided by strong-tie sources and weak-tie sources on tourist expectations on core resources and factor supporting of the destinations, and also analyze the moderate effect of the reasons of travelling on the relationship of UGC sources and tourist expectations. 375 samples were collected. The results demonstrate that travelling reasons is an important factor to consider about the origin of tourist expectations. The UGC that was provided by weak-tie source has influence on tourist expectations when they travel with business reason

Transformative Education in a Broken World: Feminist and Jesuit Pedagogy on the Importance of Context

This chapter relates the concept of positionality from feminist theory and pedagogy to the Ignatian paradigm to show how its focus on the individual, at the expense of the structural, fails to acknowledge the unequal power relationships that disadvantage students from minority groups. Focusing on the positionality of gay and lesbian students in the author\u27s classroom at a Jesuit college, it explores how becoming attentive to our own positions with respect to our students allows us better to examine how relationships of domination and subordination between members of oppressed and privileged groups in larger social and ecclesial contexts are re-created at the micro-level in the classroom

Visual representation of concepts : exploring users’ and designers’ concepts of everyday products

To address the question on how to enhance the design of user-artefact interaction at the initial stages of the design process, this study focuses on exploring the differences between designers and users in regard to their concepts of an artefact usage. It also considers that human experience determines people’s knowledge and concepts of the artefacts they interact with, and broadens or limits their concept of context of use. In this exploratory study visual representation of concepts is used to elicit information from designers and users, and to explore how these concepts are influenced by their individual experience. Observation, concurrent verbal and retrospective protocols and thematic interviews are employed to access more in depth information about users’ and designers’ concepts. The experiment was conducted with designers and users who were asked about their concepts of an everyday product. Three types of data were produced in each session: sketches, transcriptions from retrospectives verbal reports and observations. Through an iterative process, references about context, use and experience were identified in the data collected; this led to the definition of a coding system of categories that was applied for the interpretation of visuals and texts. The methodology was tested through preliminary studies. Their initial outcomes indicate that the main differences between designers’ and users’ concepts come from their knowledge domain, while main similarities are related to human experience as source that drives concept formulation. Cultural background has been found to influence concepts about product usability and its context of use. The use of visual representation of concepts with retrospective reports and interviews allowed access to insightful information on how human experience influence people’s knowledge about product usability and its context of use. It is expected that this knowledge contributes to the enhancement of the design of product usability

Taste and the algorithm

Today, a consistent part of our everyday interaction with art and aesthetic artefacts occurs through digital media, and our preferences and choices are systematically tracked and analyzed by algorithms in ways that are far from transparent. Our consumption is constantly documented, and then, we are fed back through tailored information. We are therefore witnessing the emergence of a complex interrelation between our aesthetic choices, their digital elaboration, and also the production of content and the dynamics of creative processes. All are involved in a process of mutual influences, and are partially determined by the invisible guiding hand of algorithms. With regard to this topic, this paper will introduce some key issues concerning the role of algorithms in aesthetic domains, such as taste detection and formation, cultural consumption and production, and showing how aesthetics can contribute to the ongoing debate about the impact of today’s “algorithmic culture”