117,552 research outputs found
Using Reputation Information on Internet-of-Services Markets
The paper identifies trusting problems between autonomousservices in the Internet-of-Services (IoS). This scenario visiondescribes a general computational paradigm, which allowscompanies to procure computational resources externally.The arising conflicting interests between providersand consumers lead to strategic behaviour of single services.Usually trust and reputation models are proposed to set incentivesfor acting honestly. But when using Double Auctionsto match buyers and sellers, these trust and reputationmodels fail to close this “trusting gap”. This paper proposesa modified Double Auction protocol fulfilling the deductedrequirements. Simulation experiments show that the usageof this modified protocol leads to increased trustworthinessfor the participants
Talking to the Empowered Consumer Dealing with the Shift of Power
The concept of the empowered consumer cannot be considered as a field of exact scientific
research yet. Nevertheless, it has become part of scholars’ interest and gains more and more
importance in the research of organisational relationships with customers. It is suggested that
two influencing criteria are especially at the forefront: The emergence of the Internet, which
effected that barriers to collect and to disseminate information across boundaries were
decisively reduced. As a consequence consumers could organise globally and collect and
exchange information and experiences about organisations and their products. Furthermore,
flexible interactivity between companies and consumers, but particularly from consumers to
consumers enable direct interaction changing many previously established rules of doing
business. Due to these new opportunities new business models developed and the proposition
is that intangible values such as reputation gained even more importance and influence
tangible outcomes.
Suggestions are that 1.), this concept links communication, corporate behaviour and
legitimacy of activities influencing reputation as a driver of value. 2.), reputation as a
corporate asset can be managed but it is beyond the pure control of an organisation. 3.),
reputation is part of public perception, which an organisation has to build, maintain and
expand depending on communicative abilities and willingness to accept consumers as a centre
of power. The following discussion will present Grunig et al.’s communication model
explaining changed organisational challenges. It is put forward as a framework for marketing
for times in which online opportunities added to the earlier b2b and b2c models c2c and P2P
considerations and architectures.
The annual studies of the market research institute puls undertaking regular representative
research among German consumers since November 2005 will present evidence for the
relationship of improved prices, which may be achieved, and the perception a firm possesses.
This paper deals mostly with German examples and data, but the hypothesis is that a) the
general situation in other Western countries is alike, but needs b) specific additional research,
since cultural differences are expected to have a considerable influence, especially when
criteria such as individualist and collectivist organisation of society and high and low context
communication styles are involved. Hence, the results of the same study in different countries
are therefore expected to present some variation.
Additionally, the Cluetrain Manifesto challenges corporate behaviour of those companies still
believing to have the ability to control information disseminated by and written about it.
Examples provided will support the hypothesis that powerful consumers may have significant
impact on organisational behaviour, decision-making and outcomes.
Keywords: Empowered Consumer Concept, Symmetric Two-way communication,
Reputation, c2c, P2
Why forums? An empirical analysis into the facilitating factors of carding forums
Over the last decade, the nature of cybercrime has transformed from naive vandalism to profit-driven, leading to the emergence of a global underground economy. A noticeable trend which has surfaced in this economy is the repeated use of forums to operate online stolen data markets. Using interaction data from three prominent carding forums: Shadowcrew, Cardersmarket and Darkmarket, this study sets out to understand why forums are repeatedly chosen to operate online stolen data markets despite numerous successful infiltrations by law enforcement in the past. Drawing on theories from criminology, social psychology, economics and network science, this study has identified four fundamental socio-economic mechanisms offered by carding forums: (1) formal control and coordination; (2) social networking; (3) identity uncertainty mitigation; (4) quality uncertainty mitigation. Together, they give rise to a sophisticated underground market regulatory system that facilitates underground trading over the Internet and thus drives the expansion of the underground economy
Characterizing Key Stakeholders in an Online Black-Hat Marketplace
Over the past few years, many black-hat marketplaces have emerged that
facilitate access to reputation manipulation services such as fake Facebook
likes, fraudulent search engine optimization (SEO), or bogus Amazon reviews. In
order to deploy effective technical and legal countermeasures, it is important
to understand how these black-hat marketplaces operate, shedding light on the
services they offer, who is selling, who is buying, what are they buying, who
is more successful, why are they successful, etc. Toward this goal, in this
paper, we present a detailed micro-economic analysis of a popular online
black-hat marketplace, namely, SEOClerks.com. As the site provides
non-anonymized transaction information, we set to analyze selling and buying
behavior of individual users, propose a strategy to identify key users, and
study their tactics as compared to other (non-key) users. We find that key
users: (1) are mostly located in Asian countries, (2) are focused more on
selling black-hat SEO services, (3) tend to list more lower priced services,
and (4) sometimes buy services from other sellers and then sell at higher
prices. Finally, we discuss the implications of our analysis with respect to
devising effective economic and legal intervention strategies against
marketplace operators and key users.Comment: 12th IEEE/APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime 2017
'TV Format Protection through Marketing Strategies?'
Commercially successful programme ideas are often imitated or adapted. Television formats, in particular, are routinely copied. Starting from radio formats in the 1950s to game shows and reality programme formats of today, producers have accused others of “stealing”. Although formats constitute one of the most important exports for British TV producers, there is still no certainty about the legal protection of TV formats from copycat versions. Since TV formats fail to fall neatly within the definitions of protected material under international copyright and trade mark regimes, producers have been trying to devise innovative means to protect their formats from plagiarism.
The globalization of cultural and entertainment markets may itself have contributed to the rise of TV formats, interconnecting programming industries in a world of multiplying channels. This paper theorizes that global broadcasting and programme marketing strategies can also be used by TV format producers to protect their formats. Specifically, eight different strategies may be used: (a) trade show infrastructure and dynamics; (b) visual brand identity and channel fit; (c) brand extension and merchandising; (d) corporate branding; (e) national branding; (f) genre branding; (g) constant brand innovation; (h) fan communities.
The paper develops a methodology for capturing the use and effectiveness of these eight strategies in preventing the copying of formats
Recommended from our members
Corporate Social (Ir)Responsibility in Media and Communication Industries
Microsoft is the most socially responsible company in the world, followed by Google on rank 2 and The Walt Disney Company on rank 3 – at least according to the perceptions of 47,000 people from 15 countries that participated in a survey conducted by the consultancy firm Reputation Institute. In this paper I take a critical look at Corporate Social Responsibility in media and communication industries. Within the debate on CSR media are often only discussed in regard to their role of raising awareness and enabling public debate about corporate social responsibility. What is missing are theoretical and empirical studies about the corporate social (ir)responsibility of media and communication companies themselves. This paper contributes to overcoming this blind spot. First I systematically describe four different ways of relating profit goals and social goals of media and communication companies. I argue for a dialectical perspective that considers how profit interests and social responsibilities mutually shape each other. Such a perspective can draw on a critical political economy of media and communication. Based on this approach I take a closer look at Microsoft, Google and The Walt Disney Company and show that their actual practices do not correspond to their reputation. This analysis points at flaws in the concept CSR. I argue that despite these limitations CSR still contains a rational element that can however only be realised by going beyond CSR. I therefore suggest a new concept that turns CSR off its head and places it upon its feet
- …