AbstractThe European Central Bank defines virtual currencies as ”unregulated, digital money, which is issued and usuallycontrolled by its developers, and used and accepted among the members of a specific virtual community.”(European Central Bank, 2012, p. 5) The interest in virtual currencies has increased immensely over the last fewyears as they become increasingly prevalent in our society across many different industries. Up until now, the field ofvirtual currencies has been mainly uncharted land and despite interest in specific currencies, few attempts havebeen made at understanding or structuring the entire landscapeThe main research question in this thesis is related to the previously mentioned dilemma: understanding andstructuring the virtual currency ecosystem, today and in the future. How can the virtual currency landscape currentlybe analyzed in a structured manner and what framework can be used to reflect and make predictions on the futuredevelopment?The thesis is based on four different sources of information: a literature study of existing material, corporateinterviews with companies dealing with virtual currencies and consumer interviews with potential early adopters, anonline survey and a case study performed at Ericsson M-Commerce. The case study of Ericsson M-Commerce hasprovided valuable insight into understanding how companies reason when considering adopting virtual currenciesinto their product portfolio and greatly helped the process of structuring the virtual currency market in acomprehensive manner. In return, the thesis has also provided decision material for the department concerningvirtual currencies.This thesis divides virtual currencies into five groups: Prepaid Value, Loyalty Points, Monetization Currencies, GamingCurrencies and Value Encoded Currencies. This model has been developed as a framework for the analysis of thecurrent situation in this thesis. However, the analysis in the thesis has shown that as virtual currencies evolve, it willprobably become more relevant to instead consider their functions. It is likely that virtual currencies will consolidateinto three distinct functional types: virtual currency as a unit of account, virtual currency as a business model formonetization, and virtual currencies as a product that can be sold.As virtual currencies evolve, the future is not only filled with many challenges, but also many new opportunities. Inthis thesis, an attempt to gain an abstract understanding of how the field is developing has been made, but it remains to be seen what the real impacts of virtual currencies will be as they continue to gain traction.

Submitted by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2017-04-12T16:29:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LeonardoGondinhodeOliveiraDissertacao2015.pdf: 1064516 bytes, checksum: 20c4b0964249cf25258e28d01761cc50 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2017-04-12T16:29:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 LeonardoGondinhodeOliveiraDissertacao2015.pdf: 1064516 bytes, checksum: 20c4b0964249cf25258e28d01761cc50 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-12T16:29:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LeonardoGondinhodeOliveiraDissertacao2015.pdf: 1064516 bytes, checksum: 20c4b0964249cf25258e28d01761cc50 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-01 / In the present work, it aims to examine the tax aspects of commercial ICMS with the new direct electronic trade, M-Commerce, of B2C, and the reflexes caused mainly to the State public funds. As this form of trade has increased in the last years, the State has been much worried about its tax regulation in order to framing, in an egalitarian way, the suppliers of intangible goods that act in the Worldwide Web and the consumers who use this sales channel. This work searches its implications in the economy and national market, as there is no legal provision that works effectively on several elements that exist in the electronic trade and that assure legal certainty and fair taxation to the suppliers including those that do not trade their goods through the Worldwide Web with M-Commerce.Above all, when such goods have no physical support, as there are no appropriate devices from the Tax Authorities to frame these transactions in the same way of the classical trade. For this, the necessary concepts are studied to understand the electronic mobile trade and its models of negotiation, establishing a relation with the tax legal system of Brazil and a criticism to the proposal of taxation on the destiny of the goods, as well as, the behavior of the commerce ICMS. At last, the work addresses the possible solutions to manage both the losses in the collection of commerce ICMS and the admission of egalitarian treatment to the taxpayers of this tax. / No presente trabalho, busca-se examinar os aspectos tribut??rios do ICMS mercantil com o novo com??rcio eletr??nico m??vel, o M-Commercedireto do tipo B2C, e os reflexos causados, principalmente, aos cofres p??blicos estaduais. Como essa modalidade comercial tem crescido nos ??ltimos anos, o Estado tem se preocupado pouco ou quase nada com sua regulamenta????o tribut??ria, para enquadrar de forma ison??mica os fornecedores de bens intang??veis atuantes por meio da Rede Mundial de Computadores e dos consumidores que usufruem desse canal de vendas. Busca-se estudar as suas implica????es na economia e no mercado nacional, j?? que n??o h?? previs??o legal que regule de forma eficaz sobre diversos elementos presentes no com??rcio eletr??nico m??vel e que configure seguran??a jur??dica e justi??a fiscal aos fornecedores, inclusive ??queles que n??o comercializam suas mercadorias peloM-Commerce, sobretudo, quando essas mercadorias n??o possuem suporte f??sico, j?? que n??o existem mecanismos apropriados pelo Fisco para enquadrar essas transa????es da mesma maneira que o com??rcio cl??ssico. Para tanto, s??o estudados os conceitos necess??rios para compreender o com??rcio eletr??nico m??vel e seus modelos de negocia????o, estabelecendo uma rela????o com o sistema jur??dico tribut??rio do Brasil e uma cr??tica a proposta de tributa????o no destino, bem como o comportamento do ICMS mercantil. Por derradeiro, o trabalho indica as solu????es poss??veis para contornar tanto as perdas na arrecada????o com o ICMS mercantil, bem como as consequ??ncias quanto ?? admiss??o de tratamento ison??mico aos contribuintes desse imposto.

Ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει η αυξημένη ανάγκη για εφαρμογές εσωτερικού χώρου οι οποίες να είναι σε θέση να χρησιμοποιούν την ασύρματη τεχνολογία για να εντοπίσουν την θέση των χρηστών με σκοπό την εκμετάλλευση της πληροφορίας της θέσης τους για την αποστολή διαφόρων πληροφοριών ενδιαφέροντος. Στην εργασία αυτή προτείνεται ένα σύστημα εντοπισμού θέσης του οποίου η εξαγόμενη πληροφορία χρησιμοποιείται σε m-commerce εφαρμογές (mobile commerce) μέσω τεχνικών εξόρυξης γνώσης (data mining). Το σύστημα το οποίο προτείνεται αποτελείται από δύο κεντρικά υποσυστήματα. Το πρώτο υποσύστημα αποτελεί ένα σύστημα εντοπισμού θέσης μέσα σε ένα Wi-Fi δίκτυο. Το δεύτερο υποσύστημα περιλαμβάνει την λογική για την εξόρυξη δεδομένων από το πληροφοριακό περιεχόμενο της θέσης των χρηστών ώστε να μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί στον εμπορικό τομέα. / The increased need for applications of indoor localization which use wireless technology in order to locate users’ position and exploiting this position information for extracting deeper knowledge has motivated this paper. In this work it is proposed a system of localization where the exported information is used in m-commerce applications (mobile commerce) via techniques of data mining. The system which is suggested is constituted of two central sub systems. The first sub system constitutes a system of localization in a Wi-Fi network. The second sub system includes the logic of the excavation of data from the informative content of users’ position so that it can be used in the commercial sector.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2016-10-14T21:35:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 SilviaAparecidaDeOliveiraDeAlencarMatos_DISSERT.pdf: 7293599 bytes, checksum: 1008edea07585b4c75bbe9da97c7d749 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-10-14T21:47:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 SilviaAparecidaDeOliveiraDeAlencarMatos_DISSERT.pdf: 7293599 bytes, checksum: 1008edea07585b4c75bbe9da97c7d749 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-14T21:47:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SilviaAparecidaDeOliveiraDeAlencarMatos_DISSERT.pdf: 7293599 bytes, checksum: 1008edea07585b4c75bbe9da97c7d749 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-26 / Motivados pela descoberta em literatura de que usu?rios revelavam relut?ncia em comprar via aplicativos m?veis (m-commerce) em smartphones, tivemos como primeira inten??o utilizar a t?cnica de Avalia??o Cooperativa com usu?rios para investigar a usabilidade nestes ambientes de compra. Uma das etapas da Avalia??o Cooperativa ? a elabora??o de uma lista de tarefas que o usu?rio deve realizar para avaliar a interface. Fez-se necess?rio, ent?o, definir as tarefas que deveriam compor a avalia??o de usabilidade. Procuramos, sem ?xito, um processo de compra em aplicaivos para smartphones a fim de definir quais tarefas deveriam ser testadas pelos usu?rios. Encontramos, em literatura, somente processos de compra para sites. Com a participa??o de usu?rios adaptamos, ent?o, um dos processos de compra para sites ao contexto do site da Livraria Saraiva, objeto eleito para viabilizar o nosso estudo. Com este novo processo de compra para o contexto do site da Livraria Saraiva, verificamos se as etapas de compra eram correspondentes ?quelas referentes ao aplicativo m?vel para smartphones da mesma livraria. Verificadas as discrep?ncias, finalmente propusemos, junto com usu?rios, um processo de compra m?vel em aplicativos para smartphones no ambiente da Livraria Saraiva. A partir deste diagrama, fizemos uma Avalia??o Cooperativa no aplicativo de m-commerce da referida livraria. Este trabalho resultou na elabora??o, com a participa??o dos usu?rios, de um processo de compra considerando as etapas de compra que refletissem a forma de comprar dos usu?rios, quando est?o diantes da interface de aplicativos m?veis de m-commerce desenvolvidas para smartphones, o que orientou a avalia??o da usabilidade na interface do aplicativo m?vel de m-commerce da Livraria Saraiva e, poder? servir a outros estudos, tanto como base metodol?gica quanto como diagrama de aplica??o em interfaces an?logas. Ainda, os resultados nos fizeram concluir que incluir os usu?rios na avalia??o de interfaces deve, se poss?vel, tamb?m pressupor a inclus?o dos mesmos no ajuste dos par?metros dos instrumentos que ser?o usados na avalia??o. ABSTRACT: We were motivated to do this work because we have found in literature about m?commerce most users revealed reluctance to buy via mobile applications in smartphones. At first we meant to use the technique of cooperative evaluation with users to investigate the usability of these shopping environments in mobile applications to smartphones. One of the steps of cooperative evaluation is the preparation of a tasks list which the user must do to evaluate the interface. It was necessary, then, to define the tasks which should compose the usability evaluation. A purchasing process in applications for smartphones was seeked, unsuccessfully, in order to define which tasks should be tested by the users. In the wide information source we only found site?s process of purchase. We made some changes for sites in the purchasing context of the site of Saraiva Bookstore with the participation of users, then, the elected object to enable this study. With this new diagram for the context of Saraiva Bookstore's site, it was checked if the steps were corresponding in the mobile application for smartphones of the same bookstore. The discrepancies were verified and it was proposed, with the users, a diagram for the purchasing process in applications for smartphones in Saraiva bookstore's shopping environment. Based on this diagram we have defined which tasks should be tested by users and the cooperative evaluation was made in the application of m-commerce of this bookstore. This work led to the development, with the users, of a diagram with purchasing steps and these steps reflected the way users purchase when they were faced to m-commerce mobile applications developed for smartphones. The purchase process diagram guided the cooperative evaluation with the application of m?commerce studied and helped us to conclude that including users in the evaluation of interfaces should, if possible, also mean to include them in the construction of their own instruments. This led to the develop steps of purchasing process, with the participation of the users considering buying which reflected the way users buy when they have to use m?commerce applications developed for smartphones mobile interface and this guided the evaluation of the usability of mobile application m-commerce Saraiva interface. This study may be applied to other studies, both as a methodological basis and as well as a diagram analogous application interfaces. Still, the results have made us conclude including users in the evaluation of interfaces should, if possible, also assume their inclusion in adjusting the parameters of the instruments which will be used in the evaluation of the interface.

The purpose of this study is to problematize the technological transition from traditional retail to mobile commerce, its following challenges, and its impact on organizations. Further, to highlight what companies need in order to consider the implemention of this technological transition. Finally, this study aims to tackle synergies that are exposed in this study that defines factors which drive the technological transition from traditional retail to m-commerce.

Presented diploma work represents a further development of my bachelor-degree diploma work, dealing with new technologies in retail business. In contrast of said bachelor diploma work, which extent was limited to theoretical part of the problem, practical application of the objective new technologies has been analyzed within TESCO stores buiseness environment. Therefore, this diploma work deals with specific technologies, which are really used in the TESCO retail network. The technologies analyzed in this work were chosen on the basis of Retail Summit 2011 topics. Application potential of m-commerce and e-commerce is analyzed and EDI technology innovation, which makes this option available for small companies, is described. Beside self-service cash desks, which are currently widely used, the RFID, NFC and LCD price tags, which are still in the testing process, are dealt with.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-01T19:11:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 122703.pdf: 2436085 bytes, checksum: 2d0b7934770fd02db88671666032c2bc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-07-02 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / M-commerce trata-se do serviço móvel de comércio eletrônico. Desde seu surgimento, têm-se pesquisado a influência de conceitos para compreender o uso do serviço. Entretanto, observou-se que boa parte dos estudos analisam as mesmas variáveis, o que limita o entendimento sobre o campo. Considerando isso, esta dissertação tem como objetivo a identificação dos fatores críticos relacionados ao uso do mcommerce. Para tal, criou-se uma taxonomia dos fatores críticos, transferência de conceitos do e-commerce para o mcommerce e gerou-se um modelo de influências ao uso do mcommerce. A base teórica utiliza o Modelo de Aceitação da Tecnologia (TAM) e a Teoria do Comportamento Planejado (TPB). Quanto à abordagem metodológica, trata-se de um estudo qualitativo, que utilizou como estratégia a pesquisa documental. Realizou-se revisão de literatura sobre os temas ecommerce e m-commerce, buscando identificar fatores que influenciam o uso de ambos os serviços. Na análise dos dados criou-se uma taxonomia dos fatores críticos identificados na revisão da literatura, transferiu-se conceitos do e-commerce para o m-commerce, considerando as características específicas do serviço móvel, e gerou-se um modelo de influências ao uso do m-commerce. Os resultados encontrados indicam que existem diversas lacunas de pesquisa no m-commerce e que grande parte dos conceitos pesquisados no e-commerce ainda não foram analisados no caso do serviço móvel. Identificou-se também que a maioria dos conceitos pesquisados no ecommerce é compatível às características do m-commerce, o que permitiu sua transferência. No entanto, em alguns casos, fez-se necessária a adaptação da nomenclatura para adequação do termo ao serviço móvel. Verificou-se ainda que, em alguns aspectos, as pesquisas sobre o serviço móvel avançaram mais do que as pesquisas sobre o comércio eletrônico tradicional.

This paper reports a study on the usability of e-commerce accessed through smartphones. There is much research in the usability of mobile interfaces and many sets of design patterns have been created but a few studies are available for specific domains, and in this report we focus on mobile e-commerce. In this study a framework is developed for how to design mobile e-commerce interfaces with a high degree of usability. Furthermore, the study also contributes a method to how other specific domain can develop a framework with general standards to work from when creating a web interface. By examining two sets of design principles and 14 design patterns, we evaluate which ones are critical in the design of a mobile e-commerce interface for achieving a high degree of usability. We have done this by applying the survey in two e-commerce sites with different design approaches to examine how they relate to the selected design patterns and design principles. The survey is conducted in three phases through an online survey, a content analysis and an observational study to investigate the interface usability based on theoretical- and practical perspectives. The study shows that in order to create a good usability of e-commerce sites accessed through smartphones, the user want to recognize themselves in how the content is presented and communicated, as well as the interface should obtain certain key functions.

The wide-spread presence of wireless networks and the availability of mobile devices has enabled the development of mobile applications that take us a step closer to accomplishing Weiser’s vision of ubiquitous computing (Weiser, 1991). Unfortunately however, network connectivity is still not given anywhere and at any time. To increase the benefit of mobile applications, the next logical step is to provide support for an offline modethat allows to continuously work with an application, even when the device is not connected to a network. In this paper typical problems of replicating data are explained, possible solutions are discussed and two architectural patterns that could be used to implement hybrid support are illustrated.

The evolution of mobile telephony and social media platforms gave birth to different new concepts of electronic commerce (e-commerce), such as mobile commerce (m-commerce) and social commerce (s-commerce). In 2014 a new concept called mobile social commerce (mscommerce) was introduced. This concept occurs when e-commerce activities are performed on social media platforms using mobile devices. Many researchers did look into e-commerce and its different concepts, but not so many did look into ms-commerce, especially when it comes to exploring the consumers’ perception of this concept and their shopping motivation. The aim of this study is to explore the relation between ms-commerce and the Swedish consumers in order to find out what is the consumers’ perception of ms-commerce in Sweden, and how ms-commerce affects consumers’ shopping motivation. To do this a qualitative approach is used where interviews with 9 people using ms-commerce platforms to buy products were conducted. The research is based on the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model (UTAUT2). The findings of this study indicate that consumers perceive ms-commerce in Sweden as a very useful and entertaining technology that has economic benefits for the consumers, but they also perceive it to have privacy issues and to be lacking trustworthiness. Furthermore, the findings strongly suggest that ms-commerce comments on products available on ms-commerce platforms have a direct influence on consumers’ shopping motivation, the live chat feature available on ms-commerce platforms is a very good tool that has a positive influence on consumers shopping motivation, and targeted advertisement in ms-commerce has no influence on consumers’ shopping motivation.