The topic of this thesis is the institutional ecology surrounding mobile wireless telecommunication services in Canada. The primary focus is the disconnect between policy pronouncements promoting universal adoption of mobile services, on the one hand, and the fact that mobile adoption remains stubbornly low in both absolute terms and by international comparison. Key concepts in the theory of communication regulation and the historical development of telecommunication policy are laid out, which are used to inform an examination of the development of national mobile communication policy since the 1980s. The thesis then presents two case studies. The first is focused on recent developments in federal mobile policy, directed toward taking greater steps to ensure broad adoption of mobile services. The second examines the changing role of mobile services, from instruments of interpersonal communication to a broader form of information media, and the challenges that this shift has created for policymakers. / October 2015

Marketing and advertisement activities are transforming as new digital media streams emerge. It is believed that the first major digital transition took place when broadcast media such as television and cinema, also called first screen, to the PC Internet, referred to as the second screen, entered the media industry. The last couple of years saw an expanding transition into the third screen, which is the mobile handset, commonly known as cellphones in South Africa. The rapid explosion of mobile phones and other mobile devices has created a new marketing channel. The use of Short Messaging Service, Multimedia Message Service, Graphic WAP Banners, and Video Clips to communicate with customers through their mobile devices / cellphones has gained popularity, making the mobile phone the ultimate medium for one–to–one or one–to–many marketing. And the more mobile handsets penetrate the mass market, the greater are the opportunities for advertising experiences. This exploratory study investigates the impact / effectiveness of mobile advertising to consumers in the short–term insurance industry. The study briefly focuses on whether marketers are reaping the benefits of using this medium to communicate and market their products and services to the identified target market. The findings indicate that mobile advertising has an impact on consumers in the short–term insurance industry. It was also envisaged that where mobile advertising seems to have no effect, the root of the problem lies in the mass marketing approach. Customers are looking for full customisation of mobile marketing messages, based on their individual requirements, tastes, preferences, location, time, and it should also add value to consumers. For maximum impact, it is also recommended that marketers should build measurements, targeting and optimisation into their campaign processes. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Marketing and advertisement activities are transforming as new digital media streams emerge. It is believed that the first major digital transition took place when broadcast media such as television and cinema, also called first screen, to the PC Internet, referred to as the second screen, entered the media industry. The last couple of years saw an expanding transition into the third screen, which is the mobile handset, commonly known as cellphones in South Africa. The rapid explosion of mobile phones and other mobile devices has created a new marketing channel. The use of Short Messaging Service, Multimedia Message Service, Graphic WAP Banners, and Video Clips to communicate with customers through their mobile devices / cellphones has gained popularity, making the mobile phone the ultimate medium for one–to–one or one–to–many marketing. And the more mobile handsets penetrate the mass market, the greater are the opportunities for advertising experiences. This exploratory study investigates the impact / effectiveness of mobile advertising to consumers in the short–term insurance industry. The study briefly focuses on whether marketers are reaping the benefits of using this medium to communicate and market their products and services to the identified target market. The findings indicate that mobile advertising has an impact on consumers in the short–term insurance industry. It was also envisaged that where mobile advertising seems to have no effect, the root of the problem lies in the mass marketing approach. Customers are looking for full customisation of mobile marketing messages, based on their individual requirements, tastes, preferences, location, time, and it should also add value to consumers. For maximum impact, it is also recommended that marketers should build measurements, targeting and optimisation into their campaign processes. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This dissertation is an empirical study of the scientific literacy of 28 young adults (aged 18-26 years) in the context of their decision making about the health risks of mobile phones. The issue of possible health effects is one of a number of socioscientific issues now confronting adults in the 'knowledge/risk' society where scientific knowledge plays an increasingly significant role in people's lives. The focus of interest is the young people's responses to the uncertain science of 'science in the making' (Latour, 1987) and their positioning of this scientific knowledge in their risk assessments. The study is based on an interactive model of the public understanding of science and applies a critical realist and moderate social constructionist methodology. Data construction included focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews. The stimulus for discussion in the focus groups was a recent television news report presenting contradictory scientific research findings about whether mobile phones pose significant health risks. In the individual interviews understanding of the nature of science and risk judgments were explored. Data analysis involved a coding of the discourse in terms of themes and issues and interpretation of these in terms of the theoretical framework of the thesis. A major finding was that these young people interpreted the uncertainty of the scientific knowledge mainly in social terms and with limited understanding of the role of theory in interpreting data. They talked spontaneously of risk but did not draw on scientific knowledge or risk estimates in their judgment about mobile phone safety. Findings have important implications for science education and suggest a broadened conception of scientific literacy which includes critical dimensions and risk literacy. It is argued that this functional scientific literacy is essential for effective citizenship in contemporary society.

[Truncated abstract] Against a contextual backdrop of slowing growth in developed mobile service markets, the importance of youth as a growth segment, and youth's tendencies to consume mobile services hedonically, two research streams drove this dissertation. The first stream concerned extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to predict youth's behavioural intentions to stay loyal to mobile service providers. Drawing on selfcategorisation theory, a conceptual model extended TPB by replacing subjective norm with group norm, a social influence from behaviourally relevant peers. With the extended TPB as the theoretical framework, the second stream investigated determinants of mobile loyalty intentions. Common to both streams, a key contribution of this dissertation was how hedonic consumption moderated the relationships among mobile loyalty intentions and their determinants. The dissertation addressed five questions in the two research streams, which to the author's knowledge no published studies have explored. Using a triangulation approach to address the research questions, a qualitative survey and literature review yielded six determinants of mobile loyalty intentions. Next, a pretest led to an improved questionnaire before a large-scale survey gathered data for empirical testing. The survey took place with Singaporean youth and yielded a cleaned sample of n = 415. ... For both low and high hedonic consumptions, customer value was insignificant. This might be due to Singapore's competitive mobile service market; youth perceived little differences in value for money among competing mobile service providers. Testing alternative models offered further insights into youth's mobile loyalty intentions. Youth's mobile loyalty behaviour, operationalised as past switching, was not stochastic, suggesting that mobile loyalty intentions contained underlying determinants. Brand trust, salient in other contexts, did not apply to mobile loyalty intentions perhaps because youth perceived little risk in switching mobile service providers in developed markets. An attitude-group norm interaction also did not relate to mobile loyalty intentions, supporting TPB's construct independence and parsimony. Finally, attitude and customer satisfaction were operationally similar in that they related to mobile loyalty intentions similarly. The dissertation concluded by offering academic and managerial implications and contributions, limitations, and future research areas.

Η ραγδαία ανάπτυξη του Παγκόσμιου Ιστού και η ταχύτατη διείσδυσή του σε κάθε έκφανση της καθημερινότητας του σύγχρονου ανθρώπου είναι έκδηλη. Με την ανάπτυξη της τεχνολογίας των κινητών τηλεφώνων νέας γενιάς και των αντίστοιχων δικτύων, η πρόσβαση στον Παγκόσμιο Ιστό μέσω κινητών συσκευών δεν γίνεται μόνο περιστασιακά, αλλά πολλές φορές αποτελεί τον πρωτεύοντα τρόπο πρόσβασης. Επομένως, η ανάγκη αξιοποίησης των δυνατοτήτων των κινητών τηλεφώνων και αυτών που προσφέρει το Web2.0 είναι συνεχώς αυξανόμενη. Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, η παροχή κάθε προσφερόμενης υπηρεσίας των Συστημάτων Υποστήριξης Επιχειρηματολογίας στο Web και στις κινητές συσκευές, φαίνεται αρκετά υποσχόμενη. Αυτό μπορεί να γίνει είτε δημιουργώντας τις αντίστοιχες Mobile εφαρμογές, είτε δημιουργώντας υπηρεσίες, οι οποίες είναι απόλυτα προσβάσιμες και από τις συσκευές κινητών τηλεφώνων. Στα πλαίσια της Διπλωματικής εργασίας προσπαθήσαμε να εκμεταλλευτούμε τα πλεονεκτήματα που δίνει ένα κινητό τηλέφωνο, όσον αφορά την ευχρηστία, την ευκολία πρόσβασης και τη χρήση του Web2.0, δημιουργώντας μία Mobile εφαρμογή που παρέχει σε χρήστες κινητού τηλεφώνου, με λειτουργικό σύστημα Windows Mobile, τη δυνατότητα να συμμετέχουν σε ένα συγκεκριμένο Σύστημα Υποστήριξης Επιχειρηματολογίας, το CoPe_it!. Με αυτόν τον τρόπο επιχειρούμε να συνεισφέρουμε στην προσπάθεια διεύρυνσης των πιθανών χρήσεων του συγκεκριμένου συστήματος. Σε πρώτη φάση μελετήθηκε η εξέλιξη του Παγκόσμιου Ιστού από το Web1.0 στο Web2.0 και οι προσφερόμενες σε αυτόν υπηρεσίες. Έπειτα παρουσιάστηκε η ανάπτυξη του Κινητού Παγκόσμιου Ιστού και το πώς μέσα από τις τεχνολογικές εξελίξεις αλλά και τις καθημερινές συνήθειες του μέσου ανθρώπου, οδηγούμαστε στην ανάγκη ύπαρξης δυνατότητας μεταφοράς κάθε είδους δραστηριότητας και προσφερόμενων υπηρεσιών από το Web στο Mobile Web. Στη συνέχεια μελετήθηκαν τα Συστήματα Υποστήριξης Επιχειρηματολογίας, ξεκινώντας από την ανάλυση κάποιων βασικών εννοιών, συνεχίζοντας με τα μοντέλα διαχείρισης επιχειρημάτων και καταλήγοντας σε εμπεριστατωμένη έρευνα των αντιστοίχων ηλεκτρονικών εργαλείων υποστήριξης που είναι διαθέσιμα είτε απλά ως ηλεκτρονικές εφαρμογές, είτε ως on-line Web-based εφαρμογές. Έπειτα αποκαλύπτεται το κενό που υπάρχει στο αντίστοιχο πεδίο του Mobile Web από την έλλειψη αντίστοιχης εφαρμογής, με μοναδικό «φωτεινό» σημείο την ύπαρξη εφαρμογών παραπλήσιου ενδιαφέροντος. Τέλος, παρουσιάστηκε η όλη διαδικασία ανάπτυξης της on-line κινητής εφαρμογής, Mobile CoPe_it!, αφού προηγήθηκε εκτενής παρουσίαση του ήδη υπάρχοντος μητρικού συστήματος. / --

The main purpose of this study was to examine the use of mobile phones by Generation Y students in the city of Johannesburg in order to increase understanding of this segment's consumer behaviour. Generation Y is an important market segment in that it is making more independent purchase-related decisions and has a large amount of disposable income. The primary data for this study is based on focus group interviews and a quantitative study of a sample of 200 Generation Y tertiary students. Some of the findings are as follows: * Generation Y's use of mobile phones: Generation Y respondents have owned a mobile phone for between three to five years; the majority own Nokia mobile phones, are on prepaid packages and are not big spenders on airtime; furthermore, SMS is seen as the most cost-effective way to communicate. * Competition in the mobile phone market: The perceptions of this segment are that Vodacom is the "cool" operator, MTN is the most "expensive" network operator and Cell C is "cheap and youthful". * Mobile phone brand awareness: Nokia was the most cited brand of mobile phone and was found to be the first choice of many of the respondents. Samsung was reported as the second most cited brand with Motorola, Siemens and Sony Ericsson following. The results have implications for network providers, handset manufacturers and marketers alike as they will ultimately improve these stakeholder's chances of marketing effectively to this dynamic youth market. / Business Management / M. Comm. (Business Management)

Rural communities have been disconnected from the global world in the past due to lack of infrastructure that rendered connectivity a challenge for them. Recent developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have led to improved connectivity in these areas. As a result, mobile phones have become ubiquitous in these rural communities. A matrix was proposed in this study in order to evaluate and assess the impact of mobile devices on development of the rural communities. Existing measurement tools have not yet explored how the usages of mobile phones and other ICTs are impacting the lives of people in rural communities of South Africa. The aim of this study was to understand the existing criteria used to measure the impact of ICTs in rural communities. This was be achieved by focusing on the use of mobile phones in the community of Phake Rebone, taking into account different users. Once this was established, the study had a primary objective to design a matrix that would assist in evaluating and assessing the impact of a mobile phone in social activities such as learning, business and governance. This was achieved by using a case study method, employing qualitative and quantitative research methods. Cases within a case study were used to uncover how the core groups within the community used the mobile phone. A mixed method approach was used in data gathering and analysis to enable the researcher to identify usages and challenges related to the mobile phones. Data was collected from 401 participants and was analysed through the computer-aided tools such GoogleDocs and Microsoft Excel. The findings of the study showed a greater usage of the mobile phone. The literature findings of the use of the mobile phone for basic communication as well as growing adoption of applications such as social media and Internet were confirmed. The use in community related activities and work purposes that impacted the community members were minimal. The need of training to gain knowledge on how to use the device more effectively was established. The proposed matrix therefore seemed v relevant not only to measure impact but also to highlight the areas in which the community members can be trained on. The noted usage trends and needs by the community were then used to formulate indicators that could be used for the matrix. The indicators were then used to develop a matrix that could be used by community members and other interested parties to measure the impact of mobile phone on development of the users. The results of the matrix were also proved to be efficient in assisting individual users in recording the skills acquired through the use of the mobile phone. The matrix can be used in consultation with the guidelines that were formulated to ensure that each user, particularly from rural communities, benefits from such an evaluation tool / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

No description available.

Actualmente, el uso de teléfonos celulares cumple un rol cada vez más importante en la vida de las personas. Gracias a los constantes avances tecnológicos y su variada utilidad este es una posesión muy valiosa y un recurso indispensable para la vida y trabajo de varios. Asimismo, la imagen de la marca y la satisfacción del consumidor son factores cada vez más importantes dentro de una marca y categoría. Ya que, estos presentan un valor distinto al consumidor, el cual lo afecta de manera cognitiva y emocional tanto al momento previo como posterior de la compra. Es por ello que esta investigación busca identificar la relación entre las variables de Brand Image, Precio y Customer Satisfaction en Purchase Intention en la categoría de Mobile Phones.   El diseño del estudio que se realizará es correlacional, con un tipo de estudio cuantitativo, de carácter concluyente y con un estadístico de ecuación estructural medido en programa Smart PLS. Se va a utilizar una escala de Likert de 5 puntos. Asimismo, se utilizará una muestra no probabilística, con un cálculo de población de 400 encuestados. El público objetivo al cual se le realizará el estudio mediante encuesta son hombres y mujeres entre los 20 y 40 años de Lima Metropolitana, quienes en el último año han adquirido un nuevo smartphone. / Nowadays, the use of mobile phones plays an increasingly important role in people's lives. Mainly due to the constant technological advances and its variety of usage, this has become a valuable possession and an indispensable resource for the life and work of many. Also, brand image and consumer satisfaction are increasingly important factors within a brand and category. Since these present a different value to the consumer, which affects him cognitively and emotionally both before and after the purchase. That is why this research seeks to identify the relationship between the variables of Brand Image, Price, and Customer Satisfaction in Purchase Intention in the Mobile Phones category. The design of the study to be carried out is correlational, with a type of quantitative study, of a conclusive nature and with a structural equation statistic measured in the Smart PLS program. Using a 5-point Likert scale. Likewise, a non-probabilistic sample will be used, with a population estimate of 400 respondents. The target audience to which the study will be carried out by means of a survey are men and women between the ages of 20 and 40 living in Metropolitan Lima, who in the last year have acquired a new smartphone. / Trabajo de investigación