Wong Wai-Yiu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-120). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction and Outline of the Dissertation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Collaborative Infomediaries --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Measuring Factors that Influence the Success of Infomediary --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Contributions --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Thesis Organization --- p.7 / Chapter 2 --- Related Work on Collaborative Infomediary --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- RECOMMENDER SYSTEM - Infomediary --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Utility-based recommenders --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Knowledge-based recommenders --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Content-based recommenders --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- Collaborative recommenders --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.5 --- Hybrid recommenders --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2 --- Types of Collaborative Filtering --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Memory-based methods --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Model-based methods --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3 --- Similarity Measures --- p.16 / Chapter 2.4 --- Prediction algorithm --- p.19 / Chapter 2.5 --- User Profile --- p.20 / Chapter 2.6 --- Relevance Feedback --- p.21 / Chapter 2.7 --- Comparison basis for user similarity --- p.22 / Chapter 3 --- Research Methodology --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1 --- Collaborative Infomediary System Design --- p.24 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- System Functionalities --- p.24 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Overview of System Design --- p.24 / Chapter 3.2 --- User Profile --- p.26 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Sources of news articles --- p.27 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Regions of news --- p.27 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Categories of Industries --- p.28 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Listed Companies --- p.29 / Chapter 3.2.5 --- User-specified Keywords --- p.30 / Chapter 3.2.6 --- User Profile Scoring (Scoreprofile) --- p.30 / Chapter 3.3 --- User Feedback --- p.31 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Scoring formulation for feedback (Score feedback) --- p.31 / Chapter 3.4 --- User Similarity --- p.33 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Source --- p.34 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Regions of news --- p.35 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Category of Industries --- p.35 / Chapter 3.4.4 --- Listed companies in Hong Kong stock market and Userspecified Keywords --- p.36 / Chapter 3.4.5 --- Overall Similarity --- p.36 / Chapter 3.5 --- News Article Scoring --- p.37 / Chapter 3.6 --- User Interface of Collaborative Infomediary --- p.38 / Chapter 3.6.1 --- User Registration and Preference Setting --- p.38 / Chapter 3.6.2 --- Current Day News Retrieval --- p.42 / Chapter 3.6.3 --- Past News Retrieval --- p.46 / Chapter 3.6.4 --- Search News --- p.47 / Chapter 4 --- Evaluation Methodology & Experimental Results --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1 --- Experimental Design & Setup --- p.51 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Performance Measures --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2 --- Experiment Results & Discussions --- p.54 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Similarity Threshold against average number of collaborators --- p.54 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Performance Measures among setups --- p.55 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Performance Measures against Similarity Threshold --- p.59 / Chapter 5 --- Related work on the Measuring Factors that Influence the Success of Infomediary --- p.64 / Chapter 5.1 --- Different approaches to IS success measurement --- p.64 / Chapter 5.2 --- User Information Satisfaction/End-User Computing Satisfaction --- p.66 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Definition of user satisfaction --- p.66 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Factors/dimensions affecting IS user satisfaction --- p.67 / Chapter 5.3 --- Evaluation of Web-site --- p.69 / Chapter 5.4 --- Web Customer Satisfaction --- p.70 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Customer satisfaction --- p.71 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Factors/Dimensions affecting customer information satisfaction --- p.72 / Chapter 6 --- Research Methodology --- p.78 / Chapter 6.1 --- Methodological Approach --- p.78 / Chapter 6.2 --- Construct Definition and Item Pool Generation --- p.79 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Customer Values on Infomediary --- p.79 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Means Objectives and Fundamental Objectives --- p.80 / Chapter 6.3 --- Relationships between Customer Values --- p.85 / Chapter 6.4 --- Survey Instrument --- p.86 / Chapter 6.4.1 --- Task File --- p.87 / Chapter 6.4.2 --- Questionnaire: Demographic Variables and Measures . --- p.87 / Chapter 6.4.3 --- Sample Description and Survey Administration --- p.88 / Chapter 7 --- Data Analysis and Results --- p.90 / Chapter 7.1 --- DATA ANALYSIS APPROACH --- p.90 / Chapter 7.1.1 --- Purification --- p.90 / Chapter 7.1.2 --- Identification of Factor Structure --- p.92 / Chapter 7.1.3 --- Construct validity --- p.97 / Chapter 7.2 --- RESEARCH FINDINGS --- p.98 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- Descriptive statistics --- p.98 / Chapter 7.2.2 --- Purification- Means Objectives --- p.99 / Chapter 7.2.3 --- Factor Structure Identification- Means Objectives --- p.99 / Chapter 7.2.4 --- Construct validity- Means Objectives --- p.104 / Chapter 7.2.5 --- Purification- Fundamental Objectives --- p.104 / Chapter 7.2.6 --- Factor Structure Identification- Fundamental Objectives --- p.105 / Chapter 7.2.7 --- Construct validity- Fundamental Objectives --- p.107 / Chapter 7.2.8 --- A Model for Measuring factors that Influence Infomediary Success --- p.108 / Chapter 8 --- Conclusions and Future Work --- p.109 / Chapter 8.1 --- "Implications, Limitations and Future Work - Collaborative Infomediary" --- p.109 / Chapter 8.2 --- "Implications, Limitations and Future Work - Infomediary Success Factors" --- p.110 / Chapter 8.3 --- Conclusions --- p.112 / Bibliography --- p.113 / Chapter A --- Means Objectives Fundamental Objectives --- p.121 / Chapter A.1 --- List of Means Objectives & Fundamental Objectives --- p.121 / Chapter B --- Statistical Results for Collaborative Infomediary Experiment --- p.129 / Chapter C --- Statistical Results for Measuring Factors that influence success of Infomediary --- p.136 / Chapter D --- Survey Task File Questionnaire --- p.152 / Chapter E --- Tutorial Guide for experiment on Collaborative Infomediary --- p.170

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: no abstract available / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: geen opsomming

In my dissertation, I study the strategic interplay among firm’s online communication, firm’s digital strategies and its impact on consumer decision making. I identify important strategies that firms can adopt while targeting consumers on search engine platforms, such as Google and Bing. For technology-firms interested in providing information cues to consumers, online advertising serves as an important tool to nudge consumers decision making. Through the use of diverse methodologies, including empirical, analytical, and behavioral, I attempt to answer important questions in this research space. Moreover, I investigate how firm strategies are affected by factors such as heterogeneity of consumer preferences, product quality, and competition. The research spans across disciplines, and makes contributions to Information Systems, Operations Management and Marketing. In essay 1 I investigate the novel context of “competitive poaching”, a phenomenon where firms can generate traffic from search advertising by bidding on competitors’ keywords. In this research I examine the factors that influence the effectiveness of competitive poaching, specifically the role of different ad copies and the type of competitor (poached brand) from which a brand is “poaching. ”I also examine how the presence of sponsored ads from the poached brand and its physical location affect competitive poaching. In Essay 2, I investigate a similar context but here instead of only competing against each other, firms are simultaneously competing and cooperating with each other while advertising on the search engine. Thus, we have a novel context where a firm and its third-party referral partner (often referred to as “Infomediaries”) compete and cooperate while advertising simultaneously on the search engine. In this context, how equilibrium payment and advertising strategies are affected by factors such as traffic quality, advertising effectiveness, leakage, and the nature of contract between the two firms, remains an open question. Using a game-theoretic model, I show that the novel balance between the competitive and the collaborative nature of the interaction, which itself gets affected by the choice of contract and changes in the environmental factors, alters equilibrium strategies commonly expected in existing literature. In my third essay, I study the novel yet increasingly common phenomenon of “multiscreen viewing”, a phenomenon where consumers are increasingly using additional devices (like smartphones or tablets) while watching TV. This provides an additional advertising channel for marketers, specifically the second screen. However, this is not without its complexities; as marketers must optimally time advertisements on the second screen conditional on multiple factors including consumers’ engagement level on the primary screen, consumers’ engagement level on the second screen, and the psychological involvement with the content on the primary screen. Administering multiple behavioral experiments, I investigate how factors such as users’ engagement with the primary screen (e.g., TV), users’ engagement with a second screen (e.g., Mobile), timing of the advertisement, and message congruence, affect second screen usage and ad recall. Theoretical and managerial contributions of each of these essays are discussed. / Business Administration/Management Information Systems

Universities in the new millennium find themselves in a knowledge-driven economy that is challenging them to produce a qualified and adaptable work force if they are to contribute to societal development. Owing to the structural change in the economy, entrepreneurs require high level scientists, professionals and technicians who not only have the capability to create and support innovations by adapting knowledge to local use but also people with managerial and lifelong learning skills. Such are they who can accelerate changes and make organizations more productive and efficient in the services they render. Consequently, universities in Sub-Saharan Africa are challenged to transform learning so as to produce graduates who have both knowledge and competencies. Such a system will create a balance between university education and the changing labour market. Satisfying these new educational demands are only possible through research and unhindered access to global information resources. Paradoxically, some private university libraries, because of limited funding, find themselves fiscally constrained in the provision of unhindered access to global stores of information particularly at a time of exponential growth both in number and cost of information resources. This had led libraries to re-examine resource sharing as a viable option to meeting the new demands placed on universities. It is for the reasons above that this study examines the practice, problems and prospects of resource-sharing in selected Seventh-day Adventist university libraries in Sub-Saharan Africa. It examines scientifically the causes of poor sharing practices that are unique to each library, the situational and environmental factors that can enhance resource sharing. It provides also research-based information that will help to determine the best ways by which each library can have greater access to information resources. There are proposals for resolving the problems, and there are recommendations for dealing with the matter on a more permanent basis. The study advances resource-sharing model called Consortium of Adventist University Libraries in Africa (CAULA) as a resource sharing network for Seventh-day Adventist libraries in Africa. The organizational structure for CAULA are outlined and discussed. The proposed cooperation is not only sustainable but also structured to provide efficiency and greater regional cooperation of SDA libraries in Sub-Saharan Africa. / Information Science / DLITT ET PHIL (INF SCIENCE)

Universities in the new millennium find themselves in a knowledge-driven economy that is challenging them to produce a qualified and adaptable work force if they are to contribute to societal development. Owing to the structural change in the economy, entrepreneurs require high level scientists, professionals and technicians who not only have the capability to create and support innovations by adapting knowledge to local use but also people with managerial and lifelong learning skills. Such are they who can accelerate changes and make organizations more productive and efficient in the services they render. Consequently, universities in Sub-Saharan Africa are challenged to transform learning so as to produce graduates who have both knowledge and competencies. Such a system will create a balance between university education and the changing labour market. Satisfying these new educational demands are only possible through research and unhindered access to global information resources. Paradoxically, some private university libraries, because of limited funding, find themselves fiscally constrained in the provision of unhindered access to global stores of information particularly at a time of exponential growth both in number and cost of information resources. This had led libraries to re-examine resource sharing as a viable option to meeting the new demands placed on universities. It is for the reasons above that this study examines the practice, problems and prospects of resource-sharing in selected Seventh-day Adventist university libraries in Sub-Saharan Africa. It examines scientifically the causes of poor sharing practices that are unique to each library, the situational and environmental factors that can enhance resource sharing. It provides also research-based information that will help to determine the best ways by which each library can have greater access to information resources. There are proposals for resolving the problems, and there are recommendations for dealing with the matter on a more permanent basis. The study advances resource-sharing model called Consortium of Adventist University Libraries in Africa (CAULA) as a resource sharing network for Seventh-day Adventist libraries in Africa. The organizational structure for CAULA are outlined and discussed. The proposed cooperation is not only sustainable but also structured to provide efficiency and greater regional cooperation of SDA libraries in Sub-Saharan Africa. / Information Science / DLITT ET PHIL (INF SCIENCE)