In recent years, due to the rapid growth and development of the Internet, many companies have been investing in developing the web-based arts ticketing system. Not only does it facilitate the ticketing operations, the system also allows arts information to be obtained more easily through internet and improves arts marketing efficiency. Web-based ticketing system greatly enhances the economical benefits and profits, and replaces the traditional laborious manual ticketing operations which cause the arts market to be more dynamic. This thesis explores the field of web-based arts ticketing system. Through the survey, the researcher studies the consumers¡¦ behaviors and the use of the ticketing system in the domestic arts market. The researcher also further exams the correlation between service quality and customer satisfaction in order to understand whether the services provided by web-based arts ticketing system meet consumers¡¦ expectations. The findings of this research are as follows: First, the majority of the consumers are female with university level or above. The web-based ticketing system has a group of regular users. Most of them use the ticketing system from 6 pm to 10 pm. "Drama" and "concert" are two major types of programs selected . Second, all the factors that constitute service quality are positively correlated with customer satisfaction. Furthermore, "usability" is the most crucial factor among them. Third, the drama customer is more satisfied with the usability of the ticketing system than the concert customer. Fourth, among the arts ticketing systems, the ¡§overall satisfaction¡¨ of The NTCH and Tickets Books are better than that of the EAR. According to this research, some suggestions are made for the web-based arts ticketing systems: "Provide ticket exchange or cancellation online," "Cancel or reduce the fee when getting tickets on site or through mail," "Enhance the stability of the ticketing website to prevent the website from crashing when a large number of customers are accessing at the same time," " Safely protect consumers¡¦ personal data and transaction data," "Use social network to increase the exposure of the ticketing system for customers to access" and " Establish online ticket transferral platform."

In order for e-commerce businesses to attract customers and consequently increase revenue, it is essential to understand the behaviour of online consumers. This involves understanding how consumers react to website elements, and what could influence the adoption of online channels. Given the applied nature of this research area, a number of studies have been carried out by marketers and information systems experts in order to develop a better understanding of consumer behaviour and web elements impact on adoption of online services. However, as web services continue to expand, so does the need for further research concentrating on specific types of products or services. Many academic articles have been published to cater for specific web portals such as retailing, banking, governmental transactions, hotel booking, and many other areas. Whilst this is the case, there remains a lack of research examining customer behaviour when using airline websites. Given the specific nature of online consumers, and the amount of business surrounding e-ticketing, it is imperative that this gap in research is addressed. Multi-faceted limitations surrounding online consumer behaviour within the airlines industry emerge from the literature. For example, the majority of previous research has relied solely upon traditional theories and as such, other important perspectives related to travel warrant investigation. Additionally, apparent links between website qualities and website adoption remain under investigated in the context of the airline industry. Another gap in research relates to the investigation of the moderating role of travellers’ characteristics such as their demographics, internet experiences, and travel habits. Based on these limitations, this research aims to develop a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary (i.e. consumer behaviour, information systems, travel and tourism) theoretical model that is capable of examining the factors that influence travellers’ online satisfaction and intention to purchase air tickets from airline websites. In developing this model, this research adopts a positivist, deductive, and quantitative approach. Thus, based on the analysis and synthesis of literature, a conceptual model comprised of nine constructs is proposed. Inspired by the Information Systems Success Model, e-satisfaction is centralised in the model and suggested as the main predictor of intention to purchase airline tickets. Information web qualities and system web qualities are considered as antecedents of e-satisfaction. The two constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) are also integrated into the model. Other important factors such as e-trust, airline reputation, and price perception are also embedded. The suggested model has been validated using a measurement scale based on previously validated items. This research adopts an online survey that targets real travellers from Saudi Arabia who have used airline websites. Interviews, focus groups, and a pilot study were conducted to validate the survey items. Data collection procedures utilized the social media channels for the two operating airlines in Saudi Arabia as well as a snowball method. Data analysis techniques including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling were used to validate the relationships and to test overarching research hypotheses. Additionally, group comparison techniques including invariance analysis were used to explore the moderation effect of demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, education level, monthly income, occupation, and location), internet experience, and travel habits (i.e. origin of the airline used, actual tickets purchase, travel frequency, motivation for travel, type of travel, and type of funding). The results from this research suggest that the most influential factors motivating travellers to purchase online are e-satisfaction followed by website trust. Furthermore, travellers’ perceptions of website quality also played an important role in influencing e-satisfaction. Price was the next influential factor. Several other factors appeared to have direct and indirect associations with intention to purchase and e-satisfaction. Additionally, findings emanating from group analysis suggest that some demographic factors and travel habits have a moderating influence over the research hypotheses. As such, this research makes several contributions to the consumer behaviour and web quality literature within the travel and tourism context. The findings from this research can assist airlines in shaping their web development priorities and enable them to focus on the most influential factors. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the application of these findings, an evaluation of the studies undertaken, and suggestions for future research.

Pervasive digitization of human environment has dramatically changed our everyday lives. New technologies which have become an integral part of our daily routine have deeply affected our perception of the surrounding world and have opened qualitatively new opportunities. In an urban environment, the influence of such changes is especially tangible and acute. For example, ubiquitous computing (also commonly referred to as UbiComp) is a pure vision no more and has transformed the digital world dramatically. Pervasive use of smartphones, integration of processing power into various artefacts as well as the overall miniaturization of computing devices can already be witnessed on a daily basis even by laypersons. In particular, transport being an integral part of any urban ecosystem have been affected by these changes. Consequently, public transport systems have undergone transformation as well and are currently dynamically evolving. In many cities around the world, the concept of the so-called electronic ticketing (e-ticketing) is being extensively used for issuing travel permissions which may eventually result in conventional paper-based tickets being completely phased out already in the nearest future. Opal Card in Sydney, Oyster Card in London, Touch & Travel in Germany and many more are all the examples of how well the e-ticketing has been accepted both by customers and public transport companies. Despite numerous benefits provided by such e-ticketing systems for public transport, serious privacy concern arise. The main reason lies in the fact that using these systems may imply the dramatic multiplication of digital traces left by individuals, also beyond the transport scope. Unfortunately, there has been little effort so far to explicitly tackle this issue. There is still not enough motivation and public pressure imposed on industry to invest into privacy. In academia, the majority of solutions targeted at this problem quite often limit the real-world pertinence of the resultant privacy-preserving concepts due to the fact that inherent advantages of e-ticketing systems for public transport cannot be fully leveraged. This thesis is aimed at solving the aforementioned problem by providing a privacy-preserving framework which can be used for developing e-ticketing systems for public transport with privacy protection integrated from the outset. At the same time, the advantages of e-ticketing such as fine-grained billing, flexible pricing schemes, and transparent use (which are often the main drivers for public to roll out such systems) can be retained.

Les études montrent que la pénétration des e-services continue à progresser dans la majorité des pays. Mais ce n’est pas le cas du Liban. En effet, le e-commerce n’a jamais réussi à vraiment décoller dans ce pays atypique. Cette thèse s’intéresse à ce cas particulier. Elle présente une recherche qui a été effectuée sur les antécédents de l’acceptation / rejet des e-services au Liban. Deux e-services ont été choisis: le e-banking et le e-ticketing. L’objectif de cette recherche est donc de souligner l’importance des variables culturelles locales dans le processus d’acceptation du e-banking et du e-ticketing au Liban. Ainsi, pour réussir cet objectif nous avons choisi un positionnement post-positiviste et un design de recherche mixte. Ainsi dans une première phase exploratoire qualitative, nous sommes partis des modèles généraux d'adoption des innovations et d’acceptation/rejet des technologies de l'information et de la communication et nous les avons adaptés au contexte du Liban en ajoutant les spécificités culturelles locales. Ainsi, dix-sept entretiens semi-directifs centrés ont été effectués auprès des professionnels spécialistes du e-banking et du e-ticketing, des consommateurs potentiels choisis au hasard et des hommes de religion. Durant cette première phase qualitative, des questions ouvertes ont été posées sur les e-services et leur acceptation/refus et sur les raisons d'une telle acceptation ou refus. A partir des résultats des entretiens et de le revue de la littérature, nous avons pu proposer un modèle spécifique que nous avons baptisé e-servac (e-services acceptation). Une des particularités de ce modèle est qu'il prend en compte la religion/la religiosité, un concept qui a été rarement étudié en gestion. En effet, la religiosité est la première caractéristique du contexte culturel libanais. Dans une deuxième phase quantitative confirmatoire, le modèle e-servac a été testé empiriquement à partir des données recueillies auprès de 288 libanais utilisateurs potentiels des e-services. Les résultats montrent que les facteurs traditionnels, comme les facteurs cognitifs, affectifs, les influences sociales et les e-compétences techniques sont déterminants et influencent l'intention d'acceptation/rejet des e-services. Les résultats soulignent également l'ancrage culturel de l’acceptation puisque la religiosité intrinsèque et la religiosité extrinsèque ont un rôle saillant dans le processus d'acceptation. Notre thèse détaille, commente et interprète ces résultats. / Studies show that the penetration of e-services continues to increase in most countries. But this is not the case of Lebanon. Indeed, e-commerce has never been able to really take off in this uncommon country. This thesis focuses on this particular case. It presents research that was conducted on the history of the acceptance / rejection of e-services in Lebanon. Two e-services have been selected : the e-banking and e-ticketing. The objective of this research is to highlight the importance of local cultural variables in the acceptance of e-banking and e-ticketing process in Lebanon. Thus, to accomplish that goal, we have chosen a post-positivist position and design of joint research. Thus in a first exploratory qualitative phase we went general models of innovation adoption and acceptance / rejection of information technology and communication and we have adapted to the context of Lebanon by adding local cultural specificities. Seventeen semi-structured centered interviews were conducted with professional specialists in e-banking and e-ticketing, potential consumers randomly selected and men of religion. During the first qualitative phase, open-ended questions were asked about the e-services and their acceptance / rejection and the reasons for such acceptance or rejection. From the results of the interviews and the literature review, we were able to propose a specific model we have called e-Servac (e-services acceptance). One feature of this model is that it takes into account the religion / religiosity, a concept that has rarely been studied in management. Indeed, religiosity is the first characteristic of the Lebanese cultural context. In a second confirmatory quantitative phase, e-Servac modal was empirically tested using data collected from 288 Lebanese potential users of e-services. The results show that traditional factors, such as cognitive, emotional factors, social influences and techniques e-kills are critical and influence the intention of acceptance / rejection of e-services. The results also emphasize the cultural roots of acceptance since the intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity have a salien role in the acceptance process. Our thesis details, comments and interpreting these results.

Travel agents, traditionally the sector of the travel and tourism industry that has held a strong position of power by providing an important link in the distribution channel between principals and consumers, are now finding their business under threat. Rapid changes in consumer demand, information technology and business systems are impacting on travel agency viability around the world. Increasing distribution costs have seen travel principals aiming to reach their customers with distribution that is much more direct than in the past, cutting the travel agent out of the system, or at the very least, reducing agency commissions. Strategic alliances have also given suppliers - particularly airlines - marketing synergies, and again reduced their need to rely on agents to distribute their product. Further synergies have come from the use of diagonal integration, a process whereby firms use information technologies to logically combine services for best productivity and most profitability; for example, Internet booking plus electronic ticketing. In addition the motivations and consumer behaviour of travellers are changing. The &64;new tourists&64; want experiences, not just a vacation, are more likely to know what they want, to do their own pre-purchase research, and to have a stronger preference for tailor-made arrangements. This market is independent, and more likely to rely on the Internet as a source of tourism information than to rely on the services of a travel agent to plan their trip. This thesis analyses the changes in the travel and tourism distribution system that point towards the apparent disintermediation of travel agents, and makes recommendations for new marketing strategies for travel agents, so that they may retain their viability into the twenty-first century.

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In the recent years, due to the rapid advance of internet technology and its characteristics such as boundary-less, low cost, high-speed, and two-way communication, the airline companies have created websites and employed internet as a marketing tool to sell tickets directly to end-customers via the airline websites. This trend is gradually replacing the traditional technique such as selling the tickets via travel agencies. There are two major advantages of selling tickets via the airline websites. First, it could reduce the commission fee paid to the intermediary effectively; secondly, due to the utilization of electronic ticketing system, the airline companies could further reduce its overall operating cost by 10%. Thus, increasing number of firms, including the six major airline companies in Taiwan, in the airline industry are switching the ticket-selling channel to online-selling. However, it is uncertain whether the functional service provided by the airline companies in Taiwan meets the needs and expectation of the customers. Therefore, the survey developed in this research aims to confer three aspects of existing service of the major Taiwanese airline companies; these three aspects include: the service quality of the online ticketing system, customer satisfaction, and behavior intention. Furthermore, the research takes a step further to discuss the relationship between these three aspects and whether acknowledgement-differences occur between customer attribute and customer spending-behavior toward these three aspects. The findings of this research are as follows: 1. The five major factors that constitute service quality are positively related with customer satisfaction. Among the five, ¡§service convenience¡¨ has the greatest effect on customer satisfaction. 2. The five major factors that constitute service quality are highly and positively related with the ¡§customer loyalty¡¨ factor under the behavior intention aspect. 3. Customer Satisfaction is highly and positively related with the ¡§customer loyalty¡¨ factor under the behavior intention aspect; but it is unrelated with ¡§pay more¡¨ and ¡§switching and complaint¡¨. 4. The two Taiwanese airlines, China Airline and Eva Airline, which serves international route on a regular basis, outperforms the other four national airline companies ¡]Trains Asia Airways¡BFar Eastern Air Transport¡BMandarin Airlines¡BUni Air¡^on ¡§service tangibility¡¨ and ¡§service customization.¡¨ 5. The major customer for purchasing air tickets online is characterized by: younger age (21~35), high education, male and heavy internet user. Keywords: Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Behavior Intention,Online-Ticketing, Electronic-Ticket, Airline Companies

Over the last several decades, punishment in school has become increasingly harsh. Students are suspended and expelled for minor infractions or are being referred to the criminal justice system for behaviors that, in the past, were largely dealt with by school administrators. In addition, school districts are hiring their own police and security forces, and surveillance technologies are becoming a permanent part of school budgets and spaces. Three converging social trends have facilitated these changes in school discipline: (1) the steady growth of a pervasive sense of social anxiety coupled with a political and cultural shift away from rehabilitative to more punitive forms of punishment (e.g., imprisonment, the death penalty, etc.); (2) a series of moral panics in the 1980s and 1990s about drugs, gangs, and violence that heightened fear of, and for, the nation’s youth; and, (3) shifts in both policing philosophy and funding towards increased police penetration into community settings. Concerns are mounting that the intertwining of schools and criminal justice has forged a “school-to-prison pipeline” for some students, especially special education students, poor students and students of color. My dissertation focuses on one aspect of the pipeline: issuing citations to students for school misbehavior. There are three questions I seek to address: For what behaviors or activities are students being ticketed? What are the characteristics of students being ticketed? After school- based citations enter the courtroom, how are these students processed? I use quantitative and qualitative data to address these questions. My larger argument is that school discipline processes not only have significant consequences for the life chances of our country’s young people, but they also have very serious consequences for the civil liberties of all public school students and for the socialization of our young people into the principals of democratic citizenship. / text

This thesis contributes to the ongoing debate on the future of smart ticketing in the United Kingdom, and in particular the role of ITSO in that future. Through evaluation of commentary from prominent elite personnel connected with the transport industry and from local and national government departments, this thesis identifies the environment in which smart ticketing is intended to operate, the means by which that is achieved and the significance of the outcomes. Key themes which emerged from the research were Partnership Working and Governance, the Customer Proposition and the ITSO Question, which focused on the operationalisation of smart ticketing in the bus industry. In terms of the evaluation of the outcomes of ITSO, conclusions are reached as to the success ITSO has achieved in terms of the national concessionary schemes as well as the limited success it has achieved in relation to commercial interoperable ticketing in a deregulated environment which has been revealed to work against the concept of interoperability.