The aim of this thesis is to identify factors that affect the university students&rsquo / acceptance of multi-purpose Smart Cards. The findings of this study will be beneficial to facilitate the use of Smart-Card enabled system both n universities and in other institutions which either have these systems in use or plan to invest on these systems in the future. The research methodology employed within this study is based on quantitative methods. A survey instrument comprising 51 5-point Likert-type questions has been developed and applied to 207 university Middle East Technical University students. The data collected has been analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis to categorize factors having items. According to analysis results, the data classified under 5 factors / Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Behavioral Intention, Anxiety, and Technological Complexity. Then, the relations between these 5 factors identified and a measurement model was created. For assessing the proposed model Discriminant and Convergent Validity scores were calculated by Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Then, Structural Equation Modeling was conducted with Partial Least Squares for validating the model&rsquo / s estimated influence. The study has shown that the main Technology Acceptance Model constructs fit for determining the university students&rsquo / intention of Smart Card usage except for Perceived Ease of Use over Behavioral Intention. Moreover, study showed that Anxiety and Technological Complexity were the external factors that have effect on willingness of using multi-purpose Smart Cards. If students have Anxiety, this affects their perception of easiness of the system and it has negative indirect effect on the perceived usefulness and direct effect on intention. Technological Complexity is another factor which has direct affect on the perception of easiness and usefulness and intention.

The aim of this thesis was to examine the concept of self-compassion in relation to psychopathology with mediating effects of experiential avoidance and metacognition in a Turkish university student sample. Self-Compassion which is a recently formulated promising concept in western psychology consists of three components: self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness. In addition to self-compassion, recent psychological concepts of cognitive (metacognition) and behavioral (experiential avoidance) perspectives were investigated through models. In this thesis, the negative relationship between self-compassion and psychopathology (depression and anxiety) with mediating effects of experiential avoidance and metacognition was tested. Prior to main analyses, psychometric properties of the scales measuring self-compassion and experiential avoidance were tested. Then, three different models were tested with structural equation modeling (SEM). In these analyses, the proposed full mediation models were compared to empirically alternative models. Self-compassion was found to be significantly and negatively related to both depression, and anxiety. In the first model experiential avoidance fully mediated the relationship between self-compassion and psychopathology. Moreover, metacognitive factors and metacognition as a whole concept mediated the relation between self-compassion and psychopathology. However, they were not as powerful as experiential avoidance. Results of this thesis supported the literature about empowering effect of self-compassion against psychopathology. Furthermore, relationships were mediated by concepts of both modern cognitive and behavior therapies. However, self-compassion, as a fundamental element of psychotherapy, was the focus of this thesis. Findings of the study were discussed in the context of the relevant literature.

This paper proposed a revised technology acceptance model for measuring end user computing (EUC) acceptance. An empirical study was conducted to collect data and the revised model was evaluated by structural equation modeling, and then confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test if the empirical data confirmed to the presumed model. The results demonstrated that the model explained 56% of the variance. The finding contributes to an expanded understanding of the factors that promote the EUC acceptance.

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate post-international strategic alliance (ISA) formation issues, which have been neglected in the ISA literature. The specific research questions were 1) how do ISA partners develop their relationships? 2) how does this relationship development impact effective management of resources contributed by each ISA partner? and 3) how does effective resource management influence ISA performance? Data were collected by mail and web surveys from those who were/are involved in ISA operations. Structural equation modeling using LISREL was employed to test the conceptual model and multiple regression analysis was adopted to test the moderating effects in the model. The model was modified by introducing second order factors to correctly interpret the relationships between factors and achieve a more parsimonious model. Results indicate that alliance partnership interactions between ISA partners (i.e., reciprocity, transparency, formal and informal communication, two-way and participative communication, and cultural sensitivity) positively influenced the development of desire for joint action between them which is based on trust and commitment. Desire for joint action positively influenced alliance coordination effectiveness (ACE: integration and utilization of resources) which underlies effective resource management between ISA partners. ACE positively affected ISA performance. Market environment turbulence (i.e., host government interference and technology turbulence), however, did not have moderating effects between ACE and ISA performance. The first question was answered by introducing alliance partnership interaction factors which influence the building of the positive relationship between ISA partners. The introduction of ACE explained how ISA partners manage the resources provided by each partner. The significant impact of ACE on ISA performance and the nonsignificant impact of the moderating variables indicate that ACE has strong impact on ISA performance that can absorb the effects of host government interference and technology turbulence in the operation of ISAs.

This quantitative study derived from an on-going federal experimental research project targeting Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) receiving services in four program models: control/experimental transitional bilingual education (TBE) and control/experimental structured English immersion (SEI). The purpose of my study was (a) to capture the growth trajectory and rate of oral English acquisition, (b) to investigate the role of oral English development in acquiring English reading skills, and (c) to compare program models in order to identify practices that promote ELLs’ English oral and reading competency at the early elementary level. Structural equation modeling was utilized. Participants consisted of 534 Spanish-speaking ELLs who started at kindergarten and continued through first grade in their respective models. Striking similarities were found among the four instructional models that English oral proficiency improved significantly (p < .05) in a linear fashion over two years. However, the magnitude differed in that the experimental TBE demonstrated a steeper growth (p < .025) than that of the control group that started at the same level. Even though experimental SEI group started at a much lower level in oral English, they progressed at a rate significantly higher (p < .05) than that of the control group. In relation to English reading comprehension, for experimental SEI groups, the initial level of English oral proficiency is of great concern in reading achievement (p < .05). For both TBE groups, effective intervention is desired because the growth of English oral proficiency strongly impacts reading achievement (p < .05), and, in addition, initial level strongly predicts reading comprehension. The intervention was successfully implemented so that students advanced to a substantial amount in academic English oray. It is also evident that first language (L1) instruction did not impede the learning of a second language. On the contrary, for those students receiving a larger proportion of L1 instruction, alterations in program models are needed to nurture English oracy at a faster rate of growth, which in turn facilitates English literacy acquisition. Findings also indicate that without effective English intervention, students placed in control TBE classrooms remain below all the students in oral English proficiency.

As virtual channels on the internet grow full-blown, two major chain department store corporations in Taiwan entered internet markets one after another in 2007. Since the department store is a typical service industry highly based on interactions, the salesclerk has been a major mediator for serving customers and therefore face-to-face interaction between consumers and salesclerks is especially important. With the coming of brand-new self-service system combined with technology, consumers are able to take advantage of the technology to serve themselves. The relationship between corporations and consumers is hence transformed with a delivery system of ¡§low contact but high technology.¡¨ Researchers of previous studies mainly focus on interpersonal-based service encounter for investigation of relationship marketing and customer loyalty and researches about technology-based self-service and interaction with consumers are rarely seen. This research takes department store customers as subjects of investigation and adopts their viewpoints from questionnaire, aiming to probe into the influence of the department store¡¦s introduction of self-service technology on the effect of relationship marketing for better understanding of the relationship between the effect and customers loyalty. The study will take questionnaire survey of internet, and put the questionnaire on the Telecommunication Laboratories (TL) website to gather data via the customer¡¦s e-mail in cooperation with the Web-based Newspaper for the credit card users of the department store of the department store. The questionnaire will put for one month from February 1 to February 28, 2008 to gather enough data for analysis. A total of 1412 copies of questionnaire are issued, retrieving 396 copies, with 1016 copies of effective questionnaire. Structural Equation Modeling is used in this research. The followings are four points of conclusion: (1) the quality of web-based self service has significantly positive influence on result indicators of relational benefits by means of customer relational benefits; (2) the quality of web-based self service, except for delivery service speed, has significantly positive influence on customer relational benefits; (3) customer relational benefits have significantly positive influence on result indicators of relational benefits; (4) customer relational benefits bring significant effect as a mediator between web-based self service and result indicators of relational benefits. Therefore, we suggest that the department store managers shall create more elements of relationship benefit so that the customers all feel highly of the relationship benefit in the hope to enhance the customer's satisfaction and loyalty on the enterprise.

Many environmental behavior models have been proposed to predict or explain environmental behavior in the past two decades. Due to limitations in practice, these models were mostly tested on a basis of self-reported measures of environmental behavior. How would these models perform if an observed measure of environmental behavior was used? What are the differences between the results of testing a model with a self-reported environmental behavior (SB) measure and the same model with an other-reported environmental behavior (OB) measure? And, what do these differences imply? A major model, Ajzen¡¦s (1985) theory of planned behavior (TPB), was tested with SB and OB measures respectively with structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Data were collected through questionnaires and participant observation in which students living in dormitories in a university were trained to observe their 172 roommates¡¦ five environmental behaviors. The other-reports of these roommates¡¦ environmental behavior made by the observers were based on their observation as well as experiences in living with and understanding of their roommates. Results showed that there existed significant frequency gaps between behavioral intention (BI) and SB and between SB and OB. The difference between SB and OB frequency was about 1.25 points on a 7-point scale. The BI-SB correlation (.87) was much larger than BI-OB correlation (.31) implying that SB was better predicted than OB was by BI. It was found that the subjects¡¦ SB tended to be conservative compared with BI and that OB was provided even more conservatively by the observers. BI could be the common cause of both SB and OB or SB could intervene in the relationship between BI and OB. A few significant differences were found in the results of testing the TPB model with SB and OB. The preference for the behavior might have played an essential role in predicting one¡¦s SB. The model had a very large proportion of variance explained (.814) because of the strong connection between BI and SB. It also seemed to have a better model fit when SB was used while the model¡¦s capability in predicting behavior was greatly reduced due to the large disparity between BI and OB when OB was used. Finally, it seemed that social desirability was a not cause of the SB-OB gap.

Advertising, brand penetration and retailer service have been playing important roles in marketing for a long time. There are many studies which discuss about the effects of advertising on brand penetration, the effects of advertising on perceived quality, and the effects of brand penetration on perceived quality. However, the relationship among the advertising, brand penetration and perceived quality has rarely been studied. Furthermore, the studies about the effects of retailer service on perceived quality are much fewer. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to examine the effect of brand penetration and retailer service on perceived quality. The experiment with 2¡Ñ2¡Ñ2 factorial design is conducted to collect the empirical data. In the factorial design, we have 217 respondents in the 8 cells. The experiment variables have the effects of advertising, brand penetration and retailer service on perceived quality. The respondents are the more than the junior students of Sun Yat-sen University and National Taiwan University, and the product of this study is ¡§Notebook¡¨. This study applied structural equation model (SEM) to verify. The main results of this study are as follow: (1) Advertising positively influences perceived quality and that brand penetration partially mediates this influence. (2) Advertising positively influences perceived quality and that retailer service partially mediates this influence. The findings of this study can help the chief marketing officer to make strategic decision to increase the effect of advertising on perceived quality effectively.

Nowadays experience marketing is the most common strategy to promote. Cultural- based activities in Kaohsiung is one of the examples to use such strategy. Culture is far more powerful than economy and politics. The influence by art and culture activities is direct, indirect and derivative on regional economy. Promoting art and culture activities as well as tourism industries significantly enhances conglomerate economy strength in the city. In terms of criticizing culture, the study concerns what aesthetic type created by urban experiential marketing strategy as well as what internet communications influence on cultural marketing. The study theory is based on B. Joseph Pine¢º& James H. Gilmore¡¦s experiential marketing aesthetics in 1998 and Schmitt¡¦s experience marketing theory in 1999, and thus explores three dimensions as experiential marketing strategy, aesthetics culture index and communication results. The survey research was performed by a questionnaire through convenient sampling method. A total of 280 questionnaires were administered, and 263 questionnaires were retrieved. AMOS Statistical Software was used to apply data analysis of the correlation among variables by using Structure Equation Modeling (SEM). The research results showed that: (1) experiential marketing strategy has positive effect on enhancing aesthetics culture; (2) there is no mediating effect about computer-mediated communication (CMC) between experiential marketing strategy and enhancing aesthetics culture of urban culture; (3) the cultural activities of experiential marketing strategy are prone to the entertainment. In addition to the entertainment, the long-term strategy of the government shall emphasize both on artistic and educative function when promoting the experiential marketing on urban culture. On the aspect of information context, both richness and interactivity of computer-mediated communication media content shall be enhanced. From the perspective of esthetical form of experiential marketing, we expect the findings of this study are helpful to consider the cultural information into the field of communication research in future planning for the urban cultural marketing to advance a city's global competitiveness.

Urban transport systems are facing seemingly irreconcilable problems.Sustainable transport policies are necessary to address this sustainability challenge. However,their effectiveness highly depends on the public attitude towards them. A method combiningboth qualitative and quantitative research was used to redefine a sustainable transport policybased on sustainability principles, and find out the key factors of public attitude towardssustainable transport policies. Furthermore, the interrelations between these factors arerevealed by using structural equation modelling. 1685 questionnaires were sent to fourrepresentative cities in Sweden: Stockholm, Göteborg, Uppsala and Karlskrona. By using thisfirst hand data, we discovered some differences between Karlskrona and these other threecities. The negative attitudes towards reducing car use and promoting public transport inKarlskrona is opposite to the positive attitudes in other cities. The acceptance of taxes, speedlimitation and parking regulation is notably different as well. The results also indicate that citycharacteristics influence public attitudes towards sustainable transport policies more thancitizens’ characteristics. The functionality of a city is the most significant factor. Moreover,the results show a high dependence on individual car use. This suggests that planners shouldnot use the experience gained from other cities without investigating actual local conditions.