The mobile channel is becoming increasingly relevant within the retail industry and with that, new mobile technologies are being developed and adopted. Past research examines consumer adoption of new technology but rarely analyzes the business component, specifically those businesses developing  these new technologies. This research  seeks to complement past research by investigating mobile commerce ventures. Through a series of semi-structured Interviews with investors, retail experts, and mobile commerce startups, the research collects qualitative data that contributes to a better understanding of the Swedish mobile commerce market and an analysis on mobile commerce startup success factors. The research suggests differences  in consumer and business adoption of technology.  While  consumers adopt technology according to the TAM model, based on enjoyment, usefulness and ease of use, businesses focus on competition, consumer satisfaction and sales. The results suggest that businesses should invest in and develop new retail technologies that fulfill the TAM model  in order to succeed. This research has practical implications for  mobile commerce companies  hoping to succeed and retailers looking to invest in mobile commerce solutions

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Technology: Information Technology, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / In this study, an investigation was conducted to determine an appropriate lightweight framework that could adequately support Very Small Enterprises (VSEs) in documenting their daily business transactions. The VSEs play a significant role in the socioeconomic development of nations by providing employment opportunities. They contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provide a platform for entrepreneurial skills advancement. However, VSEs have very little access to innovative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that could help to address the unique challenges that prohibit their growth and sustainability. In many instances, the documentation of VSEs business transactions is still lacking. This deficiency promotes insufficient, unreliable and untraceable business transaction records which ultimately affect the smooth growth and sustainability of VSEs. Mobile technology provides the VSEs with a unique opportunity because of its support for mobility and low costs of system procurement. Moreover, mobile technology can enable easy connection, access and retrieval of VSE services even in the resource constrained environments anytime and anywhere. However, the inherent limitations of mobile devices such as device size, storage size, computing power and battery lifespan have forced many of the existing ICT business applications to continually rely on desktop computers. The desktop computer applications are huge, complex and not compatible with the current mobile devices. The Design Science Research (DSR) method was used to understand how VSEs conduct their daily business transactions, discover essential factors that influence the business processes of VSEs and derive a lightweight framework for mobile documentation of VSE business transactions. The lightweight framework was prototyped as ICT artefact and evaluated to determine the adoption of mobile applications by VSEs for documentation of daily business transactions. The evaluation results revealed the developed lightweight framework to be effective for mobile documentation of VSEs business transactions.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / Perhaps the African equivalent to the industrial revolution is the mobile revolution we’ve witnessed over the past decade. Specifically the innovation and extraordinary growth of mobile money, mobile technology platforms and ongoing service offerings to millions of otherwise mostly precluded people. The potential for these technologies coupled with latent untapped user demand across sub-Saharan Africa to catalyse investment, crowd in competition and financial service providers and as a result push financial inclusion through access and use, is vast. Link these reasons with the ever sought after global demand for ‘increase in shareholder value’ and it can easily be seen why mobile operators are continuously expanding, partnering with banks and predominantly expanding in emerging and frontier markets in sub-Saharan Africa. This research report explores MTN MobileMoney in Uganda as the case in point; possibly one of the most exciting and rapidly growing platforms in Africa. The research reveals that whilst profitable, it is a very competitive business with tight margins. Continuous education is critical if people from all walks of life are truly to benefit and scale is to be reached to make it even more profitable when servicing the ‘unbanked’ and bottom of the pyramid. Uganda and other countries too, should think strategically about introducing national identity documents, or equivalent, to ensure they maximise the potential ease and reach of technology that can have real and relevant development benefits to people – especially the under-served and poor. Not doing so merely serves as disadvantageous. Broader benefits of mobile money and mobile transactions go far beyond purely the individual user, and include the country’s economy as a whole, providing convenience to corporate as well as small businesses and individuals – the anywhere, anytime factors. Benefits accrue to businesses, and to government, in terms of cost efficiencies and paying large numbers of staff, increased safety and security in a less cash dependent economy. There is significant local and international demand for innovation and new product offerings, driving mobile operators globally and in emerging and frontier markets in particular. There are a number of key factors that make mobile money a commercial success; it’s not just about churn reduction. These factors are explained and explored in this research report. Specifically when data was gathered from MobileMoney users there were no immediate or unexpected surprises. However, what was striking and reassuring was the positive attitude and experience of users, as well as what appears to be latent demand for more services and users’ trust in MTN to provide these.

當今行動裝置愈來愈普及，人們在接收和處理資訊、消費、娛樂以及種種生活便利服務的需求不減反增，衍生出的行動加值性服務也愈來愈多元，造就了行動商務的蓬勃發展。由於台灣行動電話持有率與全民上網普及率均在全球市場上名列前矛，然而消費者對行動商務的接受度普遍仍不高，因此本研究目的在找出影響台灣地區使用者採用行動商務的因素，並探索這些因素之間如何相互影響，最後如何影響使用者的採用意願。 本研究將以Sally& Indrit所提出的概念性整合性行動商務採用模型為基礎，加以修正後利用結構方程式進行假說驗證，並以不同類型的行動商務服務如功利型與享樂型作為調節變數，探討使用者在使用不同類型的服務時，影響其採用該服務的因素會對其採用態度有何種程度的影響，試圖解釋台灣地區使用者的採用行動商務之行為。 本研究結果發現： (1)使用者愈認為該行動商務的服務是有用的、有娛樂性的、使用過程是安全的和能維護隱私的，以及價格愈合理，使用者採用該行動商務服務的態度即愈正向。 (2)價格因素除了直接影響採用態度之外，還會對採用意願有直接影響。 (3)當使用者覺得該服務容易使用時，同時也較會認為該服務是有用的。 (4)當使用者認為該行動商務之服務為有用時，同時則認為該服務的娛樂性是較低的。 (5)使用者先前的使用知識與經驗及其所能掌控該服務的能力愈高，會增加其認知易用性，進而透過認知有用性的提升，其採用態度愈正向。 (6)使用者認為該服務有用與否及是否具有娛樂性，易受同儕或廠商的行銷活動影響，進而影響其採用態度，外部影響力與廠商的行銷活動對採用態度有間接的影響。 (7)使用者在使用功利型服務時，相較於使用享樂型的服務時，其對服務的認知有用性這項因素對其採用該服務的態度會有較大的影響。 (8)使用者所認知的易用性這項因素在使用者採用享樂型服務時更顯重要。 / With the higher availability of mobile devices, people’s needs in receiving information, consuming, pursuing entertainment, and other convenient services in life have augmented, resulting in the increase the variety of mobile services and attributing to the prosperity of mobile commerce. Both the possession rate of mobile phones and the penetration rate of the access to the Internet in Taiwan occupied the leading positions in global market, yet the consumers’ acceptance for mobile commerce is comparatively low. Thus, the purpose of the research is to discover possible factors that influence users’ adoption of mobile commerce in Taiwan, and to explore how these factors affect one another and further make impact on the users’ intention to use. This research, based on the conceptual framework for the acceptance of mobile commerce proposed by Sally & Indrit (2007), underwent the revision of the model and validated the hypotheses, including using different kinds of mobile services such as utilitarian and hedonic types as moderators to explore how these factors can influence the users’ attitude toward use differently when adopting different types of mobile services. The research intends to explicate the users’ adoption behavior of mobile commerce in Taiwan. The research induces the following findings: (1)The higher degree the users perceive that the mobile services are useful, joyful, secure, and that the price of the services is reasonable, the more positive the users’ attitude toward adoption for mobile services is. (2)The factor of price not merely influences the users’ attitude toward use, but also influences their intention to use. (3)When the users find the mobile services easy to use, they tend to feel that the services are useful. (4)When the users find the mobile services very useful, they tend to perceive less enjoyment of the services. (5)When the users possess more prior knowledge, experience, and behavior control for the mobile services, they tend to perceive higher degree of ease of use, which results in higher perceived usefulness, and their attitude toward use for mobile services will be more positive. (6)Peer influence and promotion from the enterprises can easily affect the users’ perception of usefulness and enjoyment for mobile services, which further influences their attitude toward use. External influence and promotion from the enterprises will make indirect impact on users’ attitude toward use. (7)The users’ perceived enjoyment makes greater influence to their attitude toward use when using utilitarian services than hedonic services. (8)The users’ perceived ease of use makes greater influence to their attitude toward use when using hedonic services than utilitarian services.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation / Resistance to technological innovation by its end users is a crucial indicator which highlights information which could be utilised for a successful implementation of an innovation. The adoption of a technological innovation puts in jeopardy the internal environment, culture, identity and traditional practices of an industry. End-users have been known to be receptive to innovations as long as they do not change industry practices and help improve industry performance. This research seeks to address how an industry in the second economy characterised by high poverty, less education and minimum skills adopts and diffuse technological innovations. A survey was conducted and responses from 182 taxi owners was analysed. The research has identified that education, technology experience, relative advantage and trialability influence the probability of adoption. The results indicated that due to the nature of a social system there are different results about innovation attributes and different adopter categories can be identified in different social systems. Education and knowledge need to be addressed in order to formalise and modernise the taxi industry not just taxi owners but for taxi drivers and other members of the social system. The results have indicated that most taxi owners have positive attitudes about the electronic fare collection system. This research can contribute to the actual adoption and diffusion of the electronic payment system in the south African taxi industry. The electronic fare collection system needs to be sold for its commercial benefit to the taxi industry instead of being presented as a regulatory case for change. / MT2017

A Research Report submitted in fulfilment with the partial requirements for the Master of Management in the field of Strategic Marketing, in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 2016 / Over the past few years, mobile marketing has generated an increasing interest among academics and practitioners. While numerous studies have provided important insights into mobile marketing, our understanding of this topic of growing interest and importance remains deficient. Therefore, the objective of this literature is to provide a comprehensive framework intended to guide research efforts focusing on mobile marketing via SMS/MMS as well as to aid practitioners in their quest to achieve mobile marketing success. The literature is built around brand equity and awareness and whether this form of direct marketing enhances the brand. It begins with a brief background to the research situation. Mobile marketing is also defined and the researcher also looks at mobile marketing in South Africa. The researcher also outlines mobile marketing from marketing communications mix perspective and provides a comprehensive overview of the benefit of mobile marketing. The literature concludes with a detailed description of, what’s in it for companies, along with speed and simplicity of this form of direct marketing. / GR2018

Submitted by Vanessa Nunes (vnunes@unisinos.br) on 2015-03-20T14:01:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PauloCazarotto.pdf: 2368123 bytes, checksum: ee9ef223d6270c29dbdc67ab2ce0bec6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-20T14:01:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PauloCazarotto.pdf: 2368123 bytes, checksum: ee9ef223d6270c29dbdc67ab2ce0bec6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Nenhuma / A crescente adoção de meios eletrônicos para comércio de produtos e serviços oferece a empresas um canal entre consumidores e vendedores. Este canal de comunicação para vendas é mantido tradicionalmente através de investimentos em plataformas de e-commerce. No cenário atual, cada empresa adquire ou desenvolve sua própria plataforma de comércio eletrônico. Este método possui um custo elevado e inviabiliza a entrada de pequenas e micro empresas no canal de comunicação. Neste âmbito, este trabalho propõe a disponibilização de um serviço compartilhado para publicação de ofertas e demandas que possibilita a identificação de oportunidades de negócio baseadas na localização dos usuários. Diferente de trabalhos relacionados estudados, o modelo é projetado para tirar proveito das funcionalidades disponibilizadas pela computação em nuvem, fácil provisionamento e baixo custo. Para tal, o modelo realiza o matching entre oferta e demanda utilizando estratégias de processamento em uma organização hierárquica, baseada em regiões. Através da implementação de um protótipo baseado neste modelo de processamento, chamado de GTTracker, foi possível compreender como um serviço projetado para atuar sobre recursos virtualizados escalonáveis pode se comportar. É foco da avaliação a apresentação do perfil de consumo dos recursos de infraestrutura durante diferentes cenários de acesso ao serviço. Os experimentos demonstraram que alguns mecanismos utilizados no serviço podem reduzir o consumo de recursos da infraestrutura e aumentar o desempenho do serviço proposto. A avaliação demonstra que é possível a implantação do serviço de forma progressiva, sobre uma plataforma de baixo custo, oferecendo um canal de comunicação acessível para quem deseja comprar e vender em qualquer lugar e a qualquer hora, utilizando um dispositivo móvel. / The increased adoption of electronic commerce for product and service allows companies to use a new channel between consumers and vendors. This communication channel for sales is traditionally held through investments in e-commerce platforms. In the current scenario, each company acquires or develops its own e-commerce platform. This method has a high cost and slows the entry of small companies in the communication channel. In this context, this work proposes a shared service for supply and demand publishing, which allows the identification of business opportunities based on user’s location. Unlike related works studied, the model is designed to take advantage of the features offered by cloud computing, such as easy provisioning and low-cost. Furthermore, the model performs the matching between supply and demand using processing strategies in a hierarchical organization, based on regions. We implemented a prototype based on this model, called GTTracker, to understand how the designed servisse performs on scalable virtualized resources. The focus of this assessment is profiling the infrastructure resources consumption, employing scenarios with different access patterns. The experiments demonstrated which mechanisms, used in the service, can reduce the resources consumption. Moreover, the evaluation shows an increase in the performance of GTTracker. The evaluation shows that managers can deploy the application gradually, using a low-cost platform. Additionally, GTTracker provides a channel of communication accessible to those users looking to buy or sell products wherever they are and at anytime, using a mobile device.

在網際網路與行動電話市場兩者成長快速之際，無線通訊與網際網路的結合，是配合現代人機動的生活與工作型態的重要發展之一。本研究目的即是對台灣地區之無線網際網路消費者及潛在消費者作市場區隔，透過網路問卷調查方式蒐集資料，將無線網際網路市場利用服務應用屬性進行市場區隔，然後運用人口統計變數、使用型態變數、生活型態變數及新觀念反應等變數作區隔描述，以協助相關業者找尋目標市場，發現潛在顧客。本研究以服務應用屬性，進行因素分析後萃取出「娛樂導向」、「交易導向」、「網路應用導向」、「生活資訊導向」及「個人輔助導向」等五個因素，並以此五個因素作為進行市場區隔的基礎，利用集群分析法，將市場區隔為「玩樂派」、「實用派」、「科技派」三集群。最後經由卡方檢定與變異數分析發現： 1. 各區隔在人口統計變數上，「性別」、「教育程度」、「零用金金額」等三變數有顯著差異。 2. 各區隔在使用型態變數上，「網路使用經歷」、「網路使用量」、「上網地點」、「上網目的」、「行動電話使用目的」等變數上有顯著差異。 3. 各區隔在生活型態變數上，利用因素分析，萃取出生活型態七個因素，包括「品牌時尚導向」、「務實成就導向」、「家庭休閒導向」、「社交領導導向」、「保守節儉導向」、「理性抉擇導向」、「隨緣感性導向」，各因素在三區隔中皆有顯著差異。 4. 各區隔在新觀念反應變數上，「無線上網意願」、「硬體設備滿意度」變數皆具有顯著差異。 根據研究結果，本研究最後就用戶面、經濟面、應用面及硬體面加以整合分析，並分別針對三個區隔市場，提出產品與價格策略、通路策略、及促銷策略，作為無線通訊相關業者當前及未來從事行銷活動之策略規劃時的參考。

行動電視是發展行動商務的重要基礎，近年來由於傳輸技術的進展使得行動電視服務的提供成為可能，透過數位電視廣播技術與行動通訊網路的整合包裝，業者可提供更豐富的行動商務內容。行動通訊業者、廣播電視業者，及手機業者由於亟欲開發下一波的主流商品和服務，紛紛投入行動電視的相關發展。不過，行動電視屬於全新且跨領域的商業模式，還有許多問題有待克服。本研究企圖將這些問題釐清，除了探討行動電視價值鏈上各價值活動的發展方向以及整合模式，亦進一步探討行動電視服務的關鍵成功因素，以及南韓SK Telecom與日本NTT DoCoMo發展行動電視服務的策略。針對上述研究問題，本研究之研究結論如下： 1. 行動電視價值鏈的發展：內容業者必須針對手機平台開發專屬的節目內容；數位電視廣播技術以及行動通訊網路將朝向互補整合的方向，才能為消費者創造更多價值；手機製造業者必須克服天線、耗電量，以及體積的問題，並且設計容易使用的操作介面。 2. 整合模式：分為由行動通訊業者主導、由廣播電視業者主導、由行動通訊業者與廣播電視業者共同合作，以及由第三方業者提供服務這四種主要的營運模式。其中，行動通訊業者與廣播電視業者共同合作被視為較可能普及的營運模式。 3. 關鍵成功因素：透過產業資料分析以及專家訪談，本研究整理出以下六點要素，分別為政府的態度、良好的網路傳輸品質、終端設備的設計、各方可接受的營運模式、具吸引力的內容，以及可負擔的價格。 4. 個案探討：南韓SK Telecom與日本NTT DoCoMo皆非常注重內容的發展，除了重新設計節目內容、持續發展新內容，亦不斷累積相關的數位內容資源，由其策略發展重點，也可以再次印證關鍵成功因素—「內容」的重要性。 / Mobile TV is considered as the basis of mobile commerce. Through the integration of digital broadcasting and cellular network, companies can provide more mobile service. Due to the development of digital broadcasting and cellular network, offering service of mobile TV becomes possible. Mobile operators, broadcasters, and mobile phone manufactures are all eager to develop new products and service. Therefore, they start to develop mobile TV business. However, mobile TV is a brand new business model and relates to different industries. There are still lots of difficulties that need to be conquered. This research analyzes the development of mobile TV value chain, possible business models, key success factors, and the cases of SK Telecom and NTT DoCoMo. The following is the conclusion of this research. 1. Development of Mobile TV value chain: content providers have to develop exclusive programs for mobile phone; digital broadcasting and cellular network should be integrated; mobile phone manufactures need to conquer the problems of battery, aerial, and size. 2. Business model: there are four possible business models, inclusive of leading by mobile operators, leading by content providers, cooperation of mobile operators and content providers, and service offered by the third party. The third business model is considered as the one which will be popular. 3. Key success factors: there are six factors, inclusive of government’s attitude, good transmitting quality, design of hand-held device, business model accepted by all involved parties, attractive content, and acceptable price. 4. Case discussion: SK Telecom and NTT DoCoMo all think highly of the development of content. They plan to develop exclusive programs, enrich the content, and accumulate related digital contents. Their strategies reveal the importance of content again.

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική υλοποιείται εφαρμογή, η οποία χρησιμοποιεί τεχνικές εξόρυξης δεδομένων σε αποτελέσματα εντοπισμού της θέσης κινητού χρήστη για παραγωγή πληροφορίας σε μορφή κανόνων συσχέτισης, ενώ παράλληλα γίνεται αξιοποίηση των αποτελεσμάτων εντοπισμού της θέσης σε M-commerce εφαρμογές. Η εφαρμογή υλοποιήθηκε για χρήση της σε μια υπεραγορά, στην οποία οι πελάτες θα ανιχνεύονται στα διάφορα τμήματά της, κατά την πραγματοποίηση των αγορών τους. Από τα αποτελέσματα εντοπισμού της θέσης του χρήστη, παράγονται κανόνες συσχέτισης, οι οποίοι αφορούν τις ανιχνεύσεις των πελατών στα τμήματα αυτά. Επίσης παρουσιάζεται η πορεία των χρηστών στην υπεραγορά, ενώ τελικά αποστέλονται σε αυτούς M-commerce σχετικά μηνύματα. / In this thesis, we present an application that utilizes Data Mining techniques on data collected by a user positioning application, to extract useful information in the form of association Rules. Furthermore, user positioning results are being used for M-commerce purposes. The application is developed to be used by a supermarket, in which all customers are detected, so that their location becomes known. By using the positioning results, association rules are extracted. Apart from the extraction of association rules, the application presents each customer’s route in the supermarket. Finally, M-commerce related messages are being sent to the customers, according to their preferences, concerning the areas of the supermarket.