Yes / Social commerce (s-commerce) has gained prominence with advances in social media and social networking technologies over the last decade. Prior research has employed diverse theoretical perspectives to understand and explain consumer behavior within s-commerce but has also produced inconsistent results. This study integrates different theoretical perspectives including trust, social support, and social presence. The research portrays an integrated research model involving factors that impact behavioral intention and use behavior of s-commerce consumers whilst synthesizing prior empirical findings. A meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) method was used to synthesize 189 findings reported in 68 s-commerce studies and to analyze the structural model. Our findings show that trust and informational support have positive effects on behavioral intention while trust and emotional support have positive effects on use behavior. Furthermore, our findings highlight that behavioral intention influences use behavior and mediates the effect of trust and informational support on use behavior. The implications for research and practice are discussed in detail.

After the newspaper prohibition period, the News industry entry into the diversity free market competition in Taiwan. Each news group and the collective have their own abundant resources to occupy the market. In the past prohibition rule, the local newspaper media industry can not hold the benefit, the issued hurriedly reduced. After that, how to renew to find the market value and the localization, that is mass communication worker and the researcher was very concern question. There are three variables in this research. We focus on the life model variable (includes population statistic), readers satisfy and in need, then marketing promotion strategy. We assume those three variables affect the local paper consumer to purchase policy-making the factor. In this research, we make the questionnaire for these news consumers who stay in the Kaohsiung area. We will inquire the local paper, what is special characteristics can hold the reader after the market redefine? What is factor influence these consumers purchase policy-making? In this research, we will use sample investigation in the ¡§The Commons Daily, Chinese daily and Taiwan News circulation ratio. In Kaohsiung area , we will proceed investigation in subscription household name list , altogether obtains effective sample 315; In another way , I penetrated the chain store to obtains three local newspapers retail 106 household, four nationwide newspaper (union newspaper, the Chinese Times, apple daily paper, liberty Times) retail the household 200 effective samples. After statistical analysis, I find out three main points as following: First, our local newspaper consumer¡¦s age between 35 and 45 years old, month income range between one ten thousand to three ten thousand working race for the main race group, then most of reader belong no party and ¡§pan-green party¡¨. Second, There are 70 % above Kaohsiung area local newspaper consumer satisfies about the local newspaper for the content of local news , the local information, the specific information content, seeks employment classified ad content affect the local newspaper consumer to purchase the policy-making important attribute. Third, local newspaper consumer to local paper opinion standpoint has higher identification, if they can pay attention to newspaper arrangement, printing and set price¡K.etc packaging. It also coordinates effective promotion to be helpful to the local paper marketing. Finally, the researcher discovery on this research suggested the local newspaperman should be concern what the reader in needs, and provide region market for the nationwide newspaper, and refer to relative research with suggestion in the future.

[pt] O aumento da expectativa de vida dos brasileiros é cada vez maior e, conseqüentemente, também sua presença na economia. Assim como o público idoso, o mercado de cartões de crédito também cresce em ritmo acelerado. Este trabalho estuda as características do portador de cartão de crédito do segmento da Terceira Idade, ou melhor, pessoas com mais de 60 anos, assim como seu comportamento em relação ao uso do cartão de crédito. Aplicou-se uma pesquisa qualitativa, através de entrevistas em profundidade, que levou à análise de outras faixas etárias para fins de comparação do comportamento de uso do cartão de crédito, assim como a aplicação de um questionário no aspecto quantitativo. Os resultados apontaram para características conservadoras por parte da Terceira Idade no que se refere ao uso do cartão de crédito. / [en] The increase of life expectation of the Brazilians grows bigger and bigger and, consequently, also their presence in the country's economy. Just as the aged public, the credit card market also grows in an accelerated rhythm. This work studies the characteristics of the Third Age credit card bearer segment, in other words, people over the sixties, as well as their behavior regarding the credit card use. A qualitative research was applied, by means of in- depth interviews, which lead to the analysis of other age groups aiming at the comparison of the credit card use behavior, as well as the application of a quantitative wise questionnaire. The results point towards conservative characteristics on the part of the Third Age as far as the credit card use is concerned.

No description available.

<p>This master thesis investigates the principal capability of artificial evolution to produce tool use behavior in adaptive agents, excluding the application of life-time learning or adaptation mechanisms. Tool use is one aspect of complex behavior that is expected from autonomous agents acting in real-world environments. In order to achieve tool use behavior an agent needs to identify environmental objects as potential tools before it can use the tools in a problem-solving task. Up to now research in robotics has focused on life-time learning mechanisms in order to achieve this. However, these techniques impose great demands on resources, e.g. in terms of memory or computational power. All of them have shown limited results with respect to a general adaptivity. One might argue that even nature does not present any kind of omni-adaptive agent. While humans seem to be a good example of natural agents that master an impressive variety of life conditions and environments (at least from a human perspective, other examples are spectacular survivability observations of octopuses, scorpions or various viruses) even the most advanced engineering approaches can hardly compete with the simplest life-forms in terms of adaptation. This thesis tries to contribute to engineering approaches by promoting the application of artificial evolution as a complementing element with the presentation of successful pioneering experiments. The results of these experiments show that artificial evolution is indeed capable to render tool use behavior at different levels of complexity and shows that the application of artificial evolution might be a good complement to life-time approaches in order to create agents that are able to implicitly extract concepts and display tool use behavior. The author believes that off-loading at least parts of the concept retrieval process to artificial evolution will reduce resource efforts at life-time when creating autonomous agents with complex behavior such as tool use. This might be a first step towards the vision of a higher level of autonomy and adaptability. Moreover, it shows the demand for an experimental verification of commonly accepted limits between qualities of learned and evolved tool use capabilities.</p>

O periódico eletrônico ganha cada vez mais credibilidade no campo da informação científica, e muitas são as iniciativas para a criação de novos periódicos. Contudo, apesar desse crescimento em número, são poucos os estudos que abordam a busca e o uso de informação realizados nas versões eletrônicas destes produtos, assim como o internauta que os acessa. A análise de logs é um método que objetiva identificar as ações dos usuários de um site através da investigação dos arquivos de logs do servidor web. Esse tipo de análise pode auxiliar no levantamento de informações sobre a utilização de um periódico eletrônico, mas poucas foram as pesquisas brasileiras que adotaram este método. Dessa forma, torna-se necessário também avaliar esse método aplicado ao estudo de periódicos. O foco da pesquisa é analisar o comportamento de busca e uso da informação em periódicos científicos eletrônicos por meio da análise de logs da revista Psicologia: reflexão e crítica. Esse trabalho objetiva também levantar as diferentes formas de acesso ao periódico, verificar o número de acessos e sua distribuição pelo território nacional, verificar a freqüência de uso do periódico, verificar os tipos de internauta a visitar o periódico, levantar os padrões de comportamento de busca e uso possíveis. As bases teóricas para essa pesquisa são os conceitos de comportamento de busca e uso da informação, periódico científico eletrônico e visibilidade. A metodologia utilizada é a análise de logs fornecidos pela Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), para a obtenção de dados quantitativos, e entrevistas, para a obtenção de dados qualitativos. Por meio da metodologia aplicada chegou-se a um panorama geral da busca e uso do periódico, onde foram determinadas a freqüência de visitação, quem utiliza, quais suas ações no periódico e a origem desses internautas. Constatou-se também a existência de oito padrões de comportamento informacional, que são as seqüências de ações com maior probabilidade de serem realizadas pelos usuários do periódico. / The electronic journals are increasingly gaining more credibility in the information science field, and there are many initiatives for the creation of new journals. However, despite this growth in quantity, there are only a few studies on the information search and use performed in the electronic version of these products, as well as the user who access them. The log analysis is a method which aims to identify the actions of the users of a site through the investigation of the web server’s log files. This type of analysis can help in obtaining information regarding the use of an electronic journal, but there are only a few Brazilian studies which adopted this method. Hence, it is also necessary to evaluate this methodology applied to the journals study. The focus of this research is to analyze the information search and use behavior in scientific electronic journals through the logs analysis of the journal Psicologia: reflexão e crítica. This work also aims to identify the different forms of accessing the journal, to verify the access number and its distribution in the national territory, to verify the frequency of use of the journal, to verify the types of users that visit the journal, and to identify the patterns of the possible information search and use behavior. The theoretic basis for this research are the concepts of information search and use behavior, scientific electronic journal and visibility. The used methodology is the analysis of the logs provided by the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), for gathering the quantitative data, and interviews, for gathering the qualitative data. Through the applied methodology we have reached a general view of information search and use behavior in the journal, and in this occasion it was determined the visiting frequency, who uses it, what were his/her actions in the journal and the origin of there users. It was also identified the existence of eight patterns of informational behavior, which are the sequences of actions with the biggest probability of being performed by the users of the journal.

Made available in DSpace on 2009-11-18T19:01:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Licia-Rios.pdf: 436670 bytes, checksum: c571e18c2289fd9b46b9f90f3f105395 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Este estudo objetivou verificar a percepção do consumidor sobre a relação entre as variáveis independentes: uso de dados secundários não autorizados, percepção de invasão de privacidade, percepção de proteção de privacidade, percepção de confidencialidade, percepção de autenticação, percepção de erro, comportamento intencional de uso e a variável dependente propensão à compra on line. Realizou-se um levantamento com aplicação de questionários em uma amostra de 451 usuários de Internet, alunos de graduação e de pós-graduação das Instituições de Ensino Superior de São Luís, Maranhão. A análise estatística englobou Análise Descritiva e Regressão Múltipla. Concluiu-se que apenas uma variável, comportamento intencional de uso, está correlacionada à variável dependente. Algumas limitações, implicações e sugestões de pesquisa futura foram analisadas neste estudo. / The goal of this essay was verify consumer perception about the relationship among independents variables: unauthorized data use perception, privacy invasion perception, protection privacy perception, confidentiality perception, intentional use behavior, error, authenticity perception, and the dependent variable willingness to buy on line. A Survey was used in 451 undergraduate and postgraduate students, Internet user‘s in Universities in São Luís, Maranhão. Statistics Analyses used was Descriptive and Multiple Regression. In conclusion, only one variable, intentional use behavior was correlated to the dependent variable. Some limitations, implications and suggestions to future research were analyzed in this study.

O periódico eletrônico ganha cada vez mais credibilidade no campo da informação científica, e muitas são as iniciativas para a criação de novos periódicos. Contudo, apesar desse crescimento em número, são poucos os estudos que abordam a busca e o uso de informação realizados nas versões eletrônicas destes produtos, assim como o internauta que os acessa. A análise de logs é um método que objetiva identificar as ações dos usuários de um site através da investigação dos arquivos de logs do servidor web. Esse tipo de análise pode auxiliar no levantamento de informações sobre a utilização de um periódico eletrônico, mas poucas foram as pesquisas brasileiras que adotaram este método. Dessa forma, torna-se necessário também avaliar esse método aplicado ao estudo de periódicos. O foco da pesquisa é analisar o comportamento de busca e uso da informação em periódicos científicos eletrônicos por meio da análise de logs da revista Psicologia: reflexão e crítica. Esse trabalho objetiva também levantar as diferentes formas de acesso ao periódico, verificar o número de acessos e sua distribuição pelo território nacional, verificar a freqüência de uso do periódico, verificar os tipos de internauta a visitar o periódico, levantar os padrões de comportamento de busca e uso possíveis. As bases teóricas para essa pesquisa são os conceitos de comportamento de busca e uso da informação, periódico científico eletrônico e visibilidade. A metodologia utilizada é a análise de logs fornecidos pela Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), para a obtenção de dados quantitativos, e entrevistas, para a obtenção de dados qualitativos. Por meio da metodologia aplicada chegou-se a um panorama geral da busca e uso do periódico, onde foram determinadas a freqüência de visitação, quem utiliza, quais suas ações no periódico e a origem desses internautas. Constatou-se também a existência de oito padrões de comportamento informacional, que são as seqüências de ações com maior probabilidade de serem realizadas pelos usuários do periódico. / The electronic journals are increasingly gaining more credibility in the information science field, and there are many initiatives for the creation of new journals. However, despite this growth in quantity, there are only a few studies on the information search and use performed in the electronic version of these products, as well as the user who access them. The log analysis is a method which aims to identify the actions of the users of a site through the investigation of the web server’s log files. This type of analysis can help in obtaining information regarding the use of an electronic journal, but there are only a few Brazilian studies which adopted this method. Hence, it is also necessary to evaluate this methodology applied to the journals study. The focus of this research is to analyze the information search and use behavior in scientific electronic journals through the logs analysis of the journal Psicologia: reflexão e crítica. This work also aims to identify the different forms of accessing the journal, to verify the access number and its distribution in the national territory, to verify the frequency of use of the journal, to verify the types of users that visit the journal, and to identify the patterns of the possible information search and use behavior. The theoretic basis for this research are the concepts of information search and use behavior, scientific electronic journal and visibility. The used methodology is the analysis of the logs provided by the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), for gathering the quantitative data, and interviews, for gathering the qualitative data. Through the applied methodology we have reached a general view of information search and use behavior in the journal, and in this occasion it was determined the visiting frequency, who uses it, what were his/her actions in the journal and the origin of there users. It was also identified the existence of eight patterns of informational behavior, which are the sequences of actions with the biggest probability of being performed by the users of the journal.

O periódico eletrônico ganha cada vez mais credibilidade no campo da informação científica, e muitas são as iniciativas para a criação de novos periódicos. Contudo, apesar desse crescimento em número, são poucos os estudos que abordam a busca e o uso de informação realizados nas versões eletrônicas destes produtos, assim como o internauta que os acessa. A análise de logs é um método que objetiva identificar as ações dos usuários de um site através da investigação dos arquivos de logs do servidor web. Esse tipo de análise pode auxiliar no levantamento de informações sobre a utilização de um periódico eletrônico, mas poucas foram as pesquisas brasileiras que adotaram este método. Dessa forma, torna-se necessário também avaliar esse método aplicado ao estudo de periódicos. O foco da pesquisa é analisar o comportamento de busca e uso da informação em periódicos científicos eletrônicos por meio da análise de logs da revista Psicologia: reflexão e crítica. Esse trabalho objetiva também levantar as diferentes formas de acesso ao periódico, verificar o número de acessos e sua distribuição pelo território nacional, verificar a freqüência de uso do periódico, verificar os tipos de internauta a visitar o periódico, levantar os padrões de comportamento de busca e uso possíveis. As bases teóricas para essa pesquisa são os conceitos de comportamento de busca e uso da informação, periódico científico eletrônico e visibilidade. A metodologia utilizada é a análise de logs fornecidos pela Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), para a obtenção de dados quantitativos, e entrevistas, para a obtenção de dados qualitativos. Por meio da metodologia aplicada chegou-se a um panorama geral da busca e uso do periódico, onde foram determinadas a freqüência de visitação, quem utiliza, quais suas ações no periódico e a origem desses internautas. Constatou-se também a existência de oito padrões de comportamento informacional, que são as seqüências de ações com maior probabilidade de serem realizadas pelos usuários do periódico. / The electronic journals are increasingly gaining more credibility in the information science field, and there are many initiatives for the creation of new journals. However, despite this growth in quantity, there are only a few studies on the information search and use performed in the electronic version of these products, as well as the user who access them. The log analysis is a method which aims to identify the actions of the users of a site through the investigation of the web server’s log files. This type of analysis can help in obtaining information regarding the use of an electronic journal, but there are only a few Brazilian studies which adopted this method. Hence, it is also necessary to evaluate this methodology applied to the journals study. The focus of this research is to analyze the information search and use behavior in scientific electronic journals through the logs analysis of the journal Psicologia: reflexão e crítica. This work also aims to identify the different forms of accessing the journal, to verify the access number and its distribution in the national territory, to verify the frequency of use of the journal, to verify the types of users that visit the journal, and to identify the patterns of the possible information search and use behavior. The theoretic basis for this research are the concepts of information search and use behavior, scientific electronic journal and visibility. The used methodology is the analysis of the logs provided by the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), for gathering the quantitative data, and interviews, for gathering the qualitative data. Through the applied methodology we have reached a general view of information search and use behavior in the journal, and in this occasion it was determined the visiting frequency, who uses it, what were his/her actions in the journal and the origin of there users. It was also identified the existence of eight patterns of informational behavior, which are the sequences of actions with the biggest probability of being performed by the users of the journal.

This master thesis investigates the principal capability of artificial evolution to produce tool use behavior in adaptive agents, excluding the application of life-time learning or adaptation mechanisms. Tool use is one aspect of complex behavior that is expected from autonomous agents acting in real-world environments. In order to achieve tool use behavior an agent needs to identify environmental objects as potential tools before it can use the tools in a problem-solving task. Up to now research in robotics has focused on life-time learning mechanisms in order to achieve this. However, these techniques impose great demands on resources, e.g. in terms of memory or computational power. All of them have shown limited results with respect to a general adaptivity. One might argue that even nature does not present any kind of omni-adaptive agent. While humans seem to be a good example of natural agents that master an impressive variety of life conditions and environments (at least from a human perspective, other examples are spectacular survivability observations of octopuses, scorpions or various viruses) even the most advanced engineering approaches can hardly compete with the simplest life-forms in terms of adaptation. This thesis tries to contribute to engineering approaches by promoting the application of artificial evolution as a complementing element with the presentation of successful pioneering experiments. The results of these experiments show that artificial evolution is indeed capable to render tool use behavior at different levels of complexity and shows that the application of artificial evolution might be a good complement to life-time approaches in order to create agents that are able to implicitly extract concepts and display tool use behavior. The author believes that off-loading at least parts of the concept retrieval process to artificial evolution will reduce resource efforts at life-time when creating autonomous agents with complex behavior such as tool use. This might be a first step towards the vision of a higher level of autonomy and adaptability. Moreover, it shows the demand for an experimental verification of commonly accepted limits between qualities of learned and evolved tool use capabilities.