Yes / Online shopping is increasingly becoming people's first choice when shopping, as it is very convenient to choose products based on their reviews. Even for moderately popular products, there are thousands of reviews constantly being posted on e-commerce sites. Such a large volume of data constantly being generated can be considered as a big data challenge for both online businesses and consumers. That makes it difficult for buyers to go through all the reviews to make purchase decisions. In this research, we have developed models based on machine learning that can predict the helpfulness of the consumer reviews using several textual features such as polarity, subjectivity, entropy, and reading ease. The model will automatically assign helpfulness values to an initial review as soon as it is posted on the website so that the review gets a fair chance of being viewed by other buyers. The results of this study will help buyers to write better reviews and thereby assist other buyers in making their purchase decisions, as well as help businesses to improve their websites.

The research was conducted to determine what the success factors for new product development and commercialization were for a selected sample of SMEs in South Africa. Academic literature on success factors for New Product Development and commercialization, as well as small and medium businesseswere reviewed. The review of the literature provided the theoretical framework for 21 success factors relevant to the study. These success factors were further extrapolated to 36 success factors and used as a basis for determining South African SME relevance. The findings were consistent with the literature review and point to several success factors that South African SMEs deem critical to success of new product development. In conclusion, South African SMEs confirm the importance of the success factors as presented in the literature. The ranking by importance of these success factors highlight the specific value that South African SMEs place on these success factors. These need further in-depth research.

Submitted in fulfillment for the degree of Master in Technology: Quality, Durban University of Technology, 2009. / This study examines employee perceptions of the impact of training and development on product quality. The study was undertaken on a sample of 106 individuals, drawn using the convenience sampling technique from a large manufacturing organisation situated in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. The data was collected using a questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised of two (2) sections. The first section required the r(gender, age, grade and length of employmentespondents to provide biographical data ). The second section explored the impact of training and development on product quality (measured in terms of performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics and perceived quality). Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and the results were presented using tabular and graphical representation. This study found that: Significant intercorrelations exist among the dimensions of product quality (performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics and perceived quality) as a result of training and development being conducted in the organisation. here is no significant difference in the perceptions of employees varying in biographical data (gender, age, and length of employment) regarding the influence of training and development on the dimensions of product quality respectively. Based on the findings of the study, a model was developed and presented. This model presents recommendations for enhancing product quality. / National Research Fund

A great challenge for a future sustainable society is to create a new design culture protecting environmental value. A new product’s language is determinant not only for marketing success and public acceptance, but also for a new understanding of the conflict between aesthetics and ethics that haunts the development of this new design language. The designer’s approach to the new trends will certainly deal with the relationship between industry and society, form and function, package and architecture, and it is an opportunity to create new and coherent design.

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