Market research is a crucial element in a firm’s internationalization process. Expanding into new markets comes with a variety of challenges and high risk of failure which ultimately would impact a firm’s finances negatively. In order to reduce the uncertainty of entering foreign markets, market research is conducted. It aims to collect information and thereby is supposed to help a firm’s decision- making on market entry. However, firms commonly face the issue of having either too much or too little information of a market. This study pursues to identify the information, also known as decision criteria, for Swedish manufacturing firms that seek international market development. This may give firms a superior understanding of important decision criteria when there is an information overload. In addition to that, this study investigates the sources of information which may be useful if too little information is available. Through the research approach – case study – this paper provides in-depth explanations of the how firms conduct market research. It shows that the internet is a useful tool to unveil multiple decision criteria. Moreover, networks are introduced as a source of information which previous scholars have not discussed sufficiently. Using networks complements the internet in a good manner since it information through networks is more detailed and prescriptive, as opposed to the internet which entails objective information.

Submitted by Mariana Cerigatto (maricerigatto@yahoo.com.br) on 2018-04-09T20:27:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 relatorio_final_tese_mariana_cerigatto..pdf: 3815929 bytes, checksum: 67c02cde9ce0d2327dcdfecb988b79c7 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Satie Tagara (satie@marilia.unesp.br) on 2018-04-10T14:27:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 cerigatto_mp_dr_mar.pdf: 3815929 bytes, checksum: 67c02cde9ce0d2327dcdfecb988b79c7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-10T14:27:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 cerigatto_mp_dr_mar.pdf: 3815929 bytes, checksum: 67c02cde9ce0d2327dcdfecb988b79c7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-09 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A cultura da participação, promovida pelas tecnologias digitais, renova o cenário da informação e da comunicação, assim como faz surgir demandas inéditas de alfabetização. Com a disponibilidade de diferentes conteúdos e informações, surgem novos desafios à área de competência informacional. Este estudo contribui para acrescer respaldo teórico à competência informacional no ambiente vivenciado das novas tecnologias, identificando as contribuições da competência midiática para a caracterização e avaliação crítica de conteúdos midiáticos enquanto fonte de informação, disseminados diariamente na internet. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida através de um levantamento sistemático da literatura científica da área de competência informacional (information literacy) e de competência midiática (media literacy), através de pesquisa bibliográfica. Também foram analisados documentos de entidades internacionais significativas da área para levantar a visão dessas instituições quanto à articulação das duas áreas, qual a noção de competência midiática que se faz, entre outras categorias. Os documentos foram selecionados a partir da sua relevância para a temática, por meio de busca nos sites oficiais das instituições. Foram priorizados documentos com data mais atual e que inserem a competência informacional também em contexto acadêmico. Os dados levantados foram analisados de forma qualitativa, utilizando-se a análise de conteúdo. Os resultados gerais apontam que, apesar das duas áreas possuírem origens e desenvolvimento acadêmico muito distintas, ambas possuem objetivos em comum e que poderiam, em um projeto conjunto, contribuir para o desenvolvimento de competências no cenário digital, principalmente. Identificou-se que a information literacy não incorporou em seus estudos e projetos aplicados a compreensão crítica da informação em diversos contextos, especialmente no que se refere à avaliação de conteúdos que não estão restritos somente a ambientes acadêmicos. A pesquisa evidencia a necessidade da área olhar para os diversos conteúdos produzidos fora dos muros das universidades, tais como os conteúdos midiáticos difundidos na internet, e também das mídias tradicionais. Foram identificadas algumas lacunas quanto à atualização do conceito de fonte de informação e à necessidade de aprimorar critérios de avaliação diante conteúdos acessados diariamente pela população nas redes sociais, por exemplo. A avaliação pode recorrer a critérios desenvolvidos pela media literacy, por exemplo, para uma análise mais crítica. O distanciamento entre a informatio literacy e a media literacy é confirmado no levantamento de pesquisas sobre a articulação dos dois campos e ainda na análise de documentos de competência informacional que, apesar de considerarem as mídias como objetos de estudo e relevantes fontes de informação, quase não há recomendações sobre como se deve trabalhar com elas dentro de uma proposta de desenvolvimento de letramento informacional. Foi possível reforçar cenários de alfabetização em que a articulação e os conhecimentos das duas áreas são indispensáveis. Acredita-se que a tese possa colaborar com o fortalecimento teórico da área de competência informacional em trabalhos aplicados, para que alcancem um melhor preparo dos indivíduos para lidarem com as mídias enquanto fonte de informação, em particular no contexto escolar. / The culture of participation, promoted by digital technologies, renews the information and communication scenario, as well as unprecedented demands for literacy. With the availability of different contents, the great availability of information, among other recent phenomena on the Internet, new challenges arise in the area of information literacy. This study contributes to increase theoretical support for informational competence in the new technologies and culture of participation, identifying the contributions of media competence for the characterization and critical evaluation of media contents as a source of information, disseminated daily on the internet. The research was developed through a systematic survey of the scientific literature in the area of information literacy and media literacy, through bibliographic research. Also analyzed were documents of significant international entities of the area to raise the vision of these institutions regarding the articulation of the two areas, what is the notion of media competence that is done, among other categories. The documents were selected based on their relevance to the theme, through search of the official sites of the institutions. Priority was given to documents with a more current date that include informational competence in an academic context. The collected data were analyzed in a qualitative way, using content analysis. The general results indicate that, although the two areas have very different origins and academic development, both have common objectives and could, in a joint project, contribute to the development of skills in the digital scenario, mainly. It was identified that information literacy did not incorporate in its studies and applied projects the critical understanding of the information in diverse contexts, especially with respect to the evaluation of contents that are not restricted only to academic environments. The research evidences the need of the area to look at the diverse contents produced outside the university walls, such as the media contents spread on the internet, as well as traditional media. Some gaps have been identified as updating the concept of information source and the need to improve evaluation criteria against content accessed daily by the population in social networks, for example. The evaluation may use criteria developed by media literacy, for example, for a more critical analysis. The distance between informatio literacy and media literacy is confirmed in the survey of the articulation of the two fields and also in the analysis of documents of informational competence that, although they consider the media as objects of study and relevant sources of information, there are few recommendations on how to work with them within an information literacy development proposal. It was possible to reinforce literacy scenarios in which the articulation and knowledge of the two areas are indispensable. It is believed that the thesis can collaborate with the theoretical strengthening of the area of informational competence in applied works, so that they can better prepare individuals to deal with the media as a source of information, particularly in the school context.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-08-04T13:39:16Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação 3.pdf: 2039878 bytes, checksum: df82cd19b9f43736fd390b56b791e7e7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-04T13:39:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação 3.pdf: 2039878 bytes, checksum: df82cd19b9f43736fd390b56b791e7e7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-25 / FACEPE / Trata das relações entre pesquisadores especializados e os critérios de seleção de fontes de informações na internet. Objetiva em propor critérios atualizados para a avaliação e seleção de fontes de informações na internet para pesquisadores especializados na área de saúde. Para tanto, se delineiam os seguintes objetivos específicos: I) identificar, a partir de revisão bibliográfica, critérios de avaliação de fontes de informação disponíveis na internet voltados a pesquisadores; II) elaborar critérios de avaliação de fontes de informação baseados em literatura científica internacional; III) validar os critérios propostos a partir de questionários aplicados a pesquisadores do Instituto de Comunicação e Tecnologia em Saúde (ICICT) da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz). A pesquisa é caracterizada como exploratória e metodológica, uma vez, que objetiva construir um percurso metodológico evidenciando critérios para avaliação da qualidade das fontes de informação para pesquisadores especializados. Como resultado constata-se que, os pesquisadores da saúde desconhecem critérios específicos para a avaliação de fontes e utilizam de suas experiências para avaliar informações recuperadas. / Deals with the relationship between expert researchers and the criteria for selection of information sources on the Internet. It aims to propose updated criteria for evaluation and selection of information sources on the Internet to specialized researchers in healthcare. Therefore, this dissertation has the following specific goals: I) identify, from literature review, information sources evaluation criteria available on the Internet aimed at researchers; II) develop criteria for evaluation of information sources based on international scientific literature; III) validate the criteria proposed from questionnaires given to researchers from the Institute of Communication and Technology in Health (ICICT) of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). The research is characterized as exploratory and methodological, its goal was to build a methodological approach showing criteria for evaluation the quality of information sources for specialized researchers. As a result, it was observed that health researchers don‟t know specific criteria for assessing sources and use their experiences to evaluate information retrieved.

Political consumers, by using their consumerism to make political statements, constitute a potential force in changing global consumption patterns towards more sustainable ones. Thus new insights concerning this specific group and its ways of searching for information prior to a purchase decision might help understand the mechanisms behind sustainable consumption choices. This study is based on a series of twelve personal qualitative interviews conducted with Swedish consumers of sustainable goods. These interviews confirmed certain characteristics known to political consumers, such as a high level of commitment, high standards regarding information and the frequent use of labelling schemes. Furthermore this study has shown the complexity experienced by this group of consumers regarding sustainability claims and the role of a chosen “sustainability champion” in helping make sense of this complex information. Finally this study reminds of the significance of respecting the consumer and his trust for a message as well as the need for simple and clear information tools to distinguish proper sustainable goods from others.

Context. Every day software practitioners need information for resolving a number of questions. This information need should be identified and addressed in order to successfully develop and deliver a software system. One of the ways to address these information needs is to make use of some information sources like blogs, websites, documentation etc. Identifying the needs and sources of software practitioners can improve and benefit the practitioners as well as the software development process. But the information needs and sources of software practitioners are partially studied and rather it is mostly focused on the knowledge management in software engineering. So, the current context of this study is to identify the information needs and information sources of software practitioners and also to investigate the practitioner’s perception on different information sources.            Objectives. In this study we primarily investigated some of the information needs of software practitioners and the information sources that they use to fulfill their needs. Secondly we investigated the practitioner’s perception on available information sources by identifying the aspects that they consider while using different information sources.  Methods. To achieve the research objectives this study conducted an empirical investigation by performing a survey, with two data collection techniques. A simple literature review was also performed initially to identify some of the information needs and sources of software practitioners. Then we started survey by conducting the semi-structured interviews, based on the data obtained from the literature. Moreover, an online questionnaire was designed, after conducting the preliminary analysis of the data obtained from both the interviews and literature review. Coding process of grounded theory was used for analyzing the data obtained from the interviews and descriptive statistics were used for analyzing the data obtained from the online questionnaire. The data obtained from both the qualitative and quantitative methods is triangulated by comparing the identified information needs and sources with those that are presented in the literature.  Results. From the preliminary literature review, we identified seven information needs and six information sources. Based on the results of the literature review, we then conducted interviews with software practitioners and identified nine information needs and thirteen information sources. From the interviews we also investigated the aspects that software practitioners look into, while using different information sources and thus we identified four major aspects. We then validated the results from the literature review and interviews with the help of an online questionnaire. From the online questionnaire, we finally identified the frequency of occurrence of the identified information needs and the frequency of use of different information sources.      Conclusions. We identified that the software practitioners are currently facing nine type of information needs, out of which, information on clarifying the requirements and information on produce design and architecture are the most frequently faced needs. To address these needs most of the practitioners are using the information sources like blogs and community forums, product documentation and discussion with colleagues. While the research articles are moderately used and the IT magazines and social networking sites are least used to address their needs. We also identified that most of the practitioners consider the reliability/accuracy of the information source as an extremely important factor. The identified information needs and sources along with the practitioner’s perception are clearly elucidated in the document. A future direction of this work could be, testing the applicability of the identified information needs by extending the sample population. Also, there is a scope for research on how the identified information needs can be minimized to make the information acquisition more easy for the practitioners.

The South African higher education sector is currently facing many challenges. Factors such as a decrease in government funding, mergers and student unrest compel higher education institutions to apply effective strategies for funding and recruitment of quality students. Higher education institutions are forced to focus on restructuring and repositioning themselves, build a strong brand, communicate their image and to sustain their position in order to ensure a competitive advantage. In order to be locally relevant and globally competitive, higher education institutions need to become more marketing-oriented. In a restricted financial environment, higher education institutions will have to assess and reassess marketing strategies aimed at attracting quality first year students. A proper assessment of the importance of the choice factors students consider when selecting a higher education institution as well as the usefulness of the information sources they consider, will enable institutions to allocate funds, time and resources more efficiently and effectively. A quantitative study with a self-administrated questionnaire was used to allow students to complete the questionnaire during class lectures. Non-probability convenience sampling was used and a sample of 1241 students responded from six higher education institutions: the University of Pretoria, Tshwane University of Technology, University of Johannesburg, University of the Free State, University of Kwa–Zulu Natal and the North-West University. The sample consisted of 64 percent females and 36 percent male students. The ethnic orientation distribution was as follows: 46 percent Caucasian, 41 percent Black African, 9 percent Indian, 3 percent Coloured and 1 percent students of other ethnic groups. The main goal of this study was to investigate the relevant importance of the choice factors, as well as the usefulness of the information sources, that first year Economic and Management Sciences students at selected higher education institutions in South Africa considered when they decided to enrol at a specific higher education institution. The findings indicated that some choice factors were more important to students than others, as well as the fact that students from different gender groups, ethnic groups, language groups and institutions differed in the importance they attached to the choice factors. The top ten choice factors respondents regarded as important in the selection of a higher education institution are: quality of teaching, employment prospects (possible job opportunities), campus safety and security, academic facilities (libraries and laboratories), international links (study and job opportunities), language policy, image of higher education institution, flexible study mode (evening classes and use of computers), academic reputation (prestige), and a wide choice of subjects/courses. The findings also revealed that information sources directly from a higher education institution, such as open days and campus visits, university publications and websites are the most useful to students, while information from mass media such as radio, television, magazines and newspaper advertisements are not as useful. The findings give marketing educators an indication of the importance of choice factors considered by prospective students in selecting a higher education institution, and enable higher education institutions to use their limited funds more efficiently to attract quality students, create a unique position and gain a competitive advantage. Based on the usefulness of information sources and the importance of choice factors considered, student focused marketing communication can be developed. This should aid students to make more informed decisions about the higher education institution they wish to attend. The study also add to existing theory in the fields of services marketing, higher education marketing and consumer behaviour, especially the field of outlet selection, as the institution can be viewed as the outlet for buying education. Information obtained from this study also contributes to the available research and literature on this topic and could be used by other researchers as a basis for future research. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Marketing Management / PhD / Unrestricted

This master thesis deals with internet information portal ikvalita.cz review. The main goal is to propose possible improvements. The thesis contains theoretical part which is concerned with information sources and improvement metodology. Practical part proceed from analysis on current state of information portal. It contents content analysis, structure analysis and also SWOT analysis which was made to summarize what was find out and to identify strengths and opportunities for improvements. Specific actions follow for both short time period (half year) and also for long-term time horizont. Commercialization is the topic of final chapter, which propose different ways.

Thesis deals with the use of Competitive Intelligence methods for selected IT company. The main objective of this work is the use of competitive intelligence analysis within the company and the characteristics of the company's competitive environment. Another goal is to identify appropriate information sources to obtain information about the external business environment and tools for monitoring them. The theoretical part of this work comes from the professional literature and focuses on the characteristics of competitive intelligence, and the intelligence cycle, including a description of its phases. Furthermore is mentioned the categorization of information sources and described the tools for collecting and analyzing information on the Internet. Part of theoretical part is a chapter devoted to CI in small and medium-sized companies. The practical part of this thesis deals with designing a system of competitive intelligence for a particular company. The first part includes the evaluation of the current situation in the ICT sector. Next chapter contains useful information sources to track and monitor information. Part of the proposed solution is a proposal profile person responsible for the conduct of CI. Thesis contribution in general involves a practical demonstration of using the CI methods possibilities in small business. From the practical side is the benefit mainly evaluating various analyzes, the conclusions and recommendations drawn from them.

El internet ha generado una serie de cambios en el trabajo periodístico que ha llevado a muchos a preguntarse si el producto informativo de los medios son de calidad, principalmente porque en los medios digitales impera, muchas veces, la exigencia de la inmediatez sobre el trabajo básico del periodista: seleccionar el hecho noticioso, corroborar la información, buscar fuentes adicionales que acerque a la audiencia a la comprensión del hecho noticioso abordado y construir responsablemente la publicación. El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como finalidad identificar el nivel de cumplimiento de los estándares de calidad periodística propuestos por Lorenzo Gomis y el VAP-UC en los medios digitales de IDL Reporteros, El Comercio y La República. Se decidió someter a evaluación las notas periodísticas que desarrollaron los tres medios a partir de una serie de screenshots del chat “La Botica” que cada medio obtuvo en exclusiva. La investigación parte de la premisa de que los chats, como fuente de información, son parte de la vida privada de las personas y que su exposición no solo debería estar justificada sino bien argumentada en el producto periodístico. / The internet has generated a series of changes in journalistic work, mainly because of one factor: time. Journalists have to select the news event, corroborate the information, find additional sources to contextualize the case and build a responsable publication in a shorter time than ever, because of the digital media which demands immediacy. That´s why, many researchers has wondered if the media's informative product fulfills quality standards. The cuestion borns in a digital media times, where immediacy can be considered more important than publish a deeper or complete contextualization of the news. This research will identify in which level the digital media of IDL Reporters, El Comercio and La República fulfills the standards of journalistic quality proposed by Lorenzo Gomis and the VAP-UC. The nine publications selected has been built from a principal source of information: a series of screenshots of La Botica’s chat, that each media obtained exclusively. The investigation is based on the premise that chats, as a source of information, are part of people's private life and their publication should not only be justified also well argued in the journalistic product. / Tesis

The study reported in this article investigates whether or not consumers from Turkey and New Zealand attach similar levels of importance to various information sources in their purchase decisions and whether they are similar (dissimilar) in their opinions on advertisement in various media. Customers surveyed in Istanbul and Wellington serve as the database. Study results and their implications are discussed.