The shifting focus in the role of academic libraries entail a better understanding, awareness and responsiveness to the needs of the library users. In an environment of change and an age of accountability academic libraries have to determine and demonstrate the impact their resources and services are having on their institutional mission. Service quality is not based exclusively on the perception of the librarians, but also dependent on the perception of users. Only customers judge quality; all other judgments are essentially irrelevant" (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, Berry 1999). The reason of this study was to assess quality in the library and to determine the perceptions of the Vaal Triangle Campus Library users as they relate to quality service and to develop a model to improve service quality. The aim was to determine library users' minimum expectations for services, their desired level of service and then to identify the extent of service they currently perceive on three dimensions of service quality: affect of service, library as place and access to information. A triangulation, mixed method research methodology was employed in this study. Data was collected using focus group as well as individual interviews and the LibQUAL questionnaire. Purposive sampling was used to determine participants for the interviews while a total market survey was employed for the questionnaire respondents. Findings indicate that there is a gap between the users' expectations and perception of service quality. The results indicate that there are variations within the different user groups regarding the expectations and perceptions of service quality at the Vaal Triangle Campus library. In view of the findings, the study concluded by developing a service quality model based on Deming's PDCA cycle, the ISO model and the Hoshin Kanri process / Information Science / M. Inf.

There has been an increasing demand for commercial organisations to foster real-time interaction with customers, because harnessing customer competencies has been shown to be a major contributor towards various benefits, such as growth, innovation and competition. This may drive organisations to embrace the development of multimodal interaction and complement Electronic Customer Knowledge Management Systems (E-CKMS) with metaphors of audio-visual nature. Although the implementation of E-CKMS encounters several challenges, such as lack of trust and information overload, few empirical studies were devoted to assess the role of audio-visual metaphors, and investigate whether these technologies can be put into practice. Therefore, this thesis describes a comparative evaluation study carried out to examine the implication of incorporating multimodal metaphors into E-CKMS interfaces on not only usability of E-CKMS, but also the user's trust, knowledge and acceptance. An experimental E-CKMS platform was implemented with three different modes of interaction: Visual-only E-CKMS (VCKMS) with text and graphics, Multimodal E-CKMS (MCKMS) with speech, earcons and auditory icons and Avatar-enhanced multimodal E-CKMS (ACKMS). The three platforms were evaluated by three independent groups of twenty participants each (total=60) who carried out eight common tasks of increasing complexity and design based on three different styles. Another dependent group of forty-eight participants (n=48) was instructed to interact with the systems under similar usability conditions by performing six common tasks of two styles, and fill a questionnaire devised to measure the aspects of user acceptance. The results therein revealed that ACKMS was more usable and acceptable than both MCKMS and VCKMS, whereas MCKMS was more usable than VCKMS, but less acceptable. Inferential Statistics indicated that these results were statistically significant.

This doctoral thesis represents an investigation into financial fraud in online banking and card payment systems in the UK and China, involving network security, online financial transactions, internet fraud, card payment systems and individuals' perception of and behaviours towards electronic environments. In contrast to previous studies, the research questions were tackled by survey questionnaires both in the UK and China, with a particular interest in fraud and attempted fraud. The main findings from the UK respondents were that those with higher IT skill and younger respondents are more likely to be defrauded on the internet. Certain types of online activities are associated with higher risks of fraud, these being internet banking; online shopping and media downloading. Furthermore, four predictors (internet banking, online education services, downloading media and length of debit card usage) provided significant effects in the logistic regression model to explain fraud occurrence in the UK. Based on the data collected in China, younger respondents were more likely to have higher general IT skill and higher educational qualifications. However, online shopping was the only online activity which was significantly correlated to fraud occurrence. Finally, two predictors (frequency of usage of online shopping and number of debit cards) were selected in the logistic regression model to explain fraud occurrence in China.

In spite of the rapid growth and internalization of banking services in particular, managers first need to correctly identify the antecedents of what the local consumer perceives as service quality and its link to service climate, thus the strengths of this relationship would be beneficial as a global competitive tool. Although significant studies had been done regarding issues and factors contributing to service quality and service climate in the banking industry, very little has been published regarding the connection between perceptions of these dimensions. The purpose of this study is to describe an accomplished research to determine whether Malaysian local bank customers’ perceptions of service quality and its dimensions relate to employees’ perceptions of service climate and its dimensions; and to ascertain whether various background elements’ reported differences influence the relationships between the dimensions of service quality and service climate. This study encapsulated two phases of survey with open-ended and close-ended questionnaires consecutively. The researcher employed the Profile Accumulation Technique in the first phase and from the respondents’ results, close-ended questionnaires were constructed with responses from four local banks in Malaysia, corroborated together with previous scholars’ findings. Several analyses were carried out such as demographic, reliability, validity, performance, non-parametric and parametric tests and elaboration analysis. The main findings produced nine dimensions of service quality (Automated Teller Machine; corporate image; customer interaction and customer service; online and phone banking; physical feature and facilities; products and services; rates and charges; management and staff) and eleven dimensions of service climate (benefit, bonus, reward and salary; corporate image; customer service; facilities; organization; department and branch; management; organization output; products and services; workforce; myself). There were significant relationships between service quality and service climate dimensions. Respondents’ characteristics influenced the strength of the relationships between dimensions, service quality and service climate. Consequently, the results offered significant implications for participating banks to improve quality in their environment concerning their employees and customers; using customer-oriented processes and training programs within an increasingly diverse marketplace. Economic development, the political situation, socio-cultural system and the level of sector maturity do need to be considered by managers and policy makers so as to investigate their influence on service quality and service climate.

Customers today use travel agencies that exist on the internet more frequently. However, what makes the customer trust a specific website? The purpose of this study is to examine if a customers’ trust towards a travel agency is affected by the agency’s website and the role trust plays in customers’ decision-making process. To examine this purpose a web survey and interviews were carried out. The web survey totals 110 responses and 15 people were selected through snowball sampling for the interviews. Results demonstrate that customers are affected by the design of the website in a way that it decides whether or not the customer will invest time and use the website. Furthermore, after getting past the first stage customers then decide whether or not a website is trustworthy depending on a set of factors including but not limited to security, information and navigation. The customers’ decision-making process is affected by trust in a later stage when the customer evaluates the possible alternatives. However when it comes to choosing a website, a customer might choose to buy a product from a website he/she has previously used due to already having built a trust towards the website and therefore refrains from using an unknown website. In that sense, trust is present from previous experiences and affects the customer in an earlier stage of the decision-making process. / Användningen av internet i vardagen har ökat under de senaste två decennierna. Som en form av marknadsföring är internet rätt ny och kan därmed medföra utmaningar för marknadsförare. För att kunna locka till sig kunder via internet samt behålla dem måste ett företags hemsida kunna tillfredsställa kunderna på olika sätt. Om en hemsida misslyckas med detta kan resultatet bli att kunderna avstår från att använda sig av en hemsida och använda andra företags hemsidor. Kunder använder idag resebyråer som finns på internet oftare. Men vad får kunden att ge sitt förtroende till en viss hemsida? Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om kunders förtroende mot en resebyrå påverkas av resebyråns hemsida och vilken roll förtroendet spelar för kundernas beslutsprocess. För att undersöka detta syfte genomfördes en websurvey och intervjuer. Websurvey uppgick till 110 svar och 15 personer valdes genom snöbollsurval för intervjuerna. Resultatet visar att kunderna påverkas av designen på ett sätt som avgör om kunden kommer investera tid och använda hemsidan eller inte. Efter att ha tagit sig förbi det första steget bestämmer kunderna huruvida en hemsida är pålitlig eller inte beroende på en uppsättning faktorer, inklusive men inte begränsat till säkerhet, information och navigering. Kundernas beslutsprocess påverkas av förtroende i ett senare skede när kunden utvärderar möjliga alternativ. Men när det gäller att välja en hemsida kan en kund välja att köpa en produkt från en webbplats som hen tidigare använt på grund av att hen redan har byggt upp tillit till hemsidan och därför avstår från att använda en okänd hemsida. På så sätt är förtroendet närvarande från tidigare erfarenheter och påverkar kunden i ett tidigare skede av beslutsprocessen.

A mudança de comportamento dos consumidores através do advento da tecnologia e das redes sociais gera um grande empoderamento dos mesmos, alterando substancialmente a forma de relacionamento das empresas com seu público final. Atentas a este mercado, as empresas de mídia passam por profundas mudanças, tanto do ponto de vista da entrega de conteúdo ao seu público, quanto no seu formato administrativo, estratégico e financeiro. Sendo assim, a presente dissertação apresenta abordagens apoiadas em técnicas multivariadas para composição de equipes comerciais e de remuneração dos times de venda de uma empresa de comunicação. No artigo 1, objetiva-se gerar um modelo para estimar a premiação comercial das equipes de venda das rádios do Grupo RBS. Para tanto, inicialmente geram-se agrupamentos das emissoras de rádio do Grupo RBS no estado do Rio Grande do Sul e de Santa Catarina com base nos seus perfis de similaridades. Para cada cluster gerado, gera-se uma regressão linear múltipla da premiação comercial validado através de validação cruzada por intermédio do R2 ajustado e Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). O segundo artigo aborda a clusterização dos top clientes do Grupo RBS e o impacto na composição das equipes comerciais por meio do método da seleção de variáveis. As 7 variáveis originais foram avaliadas através do método de seleção de variáveis “Omita uma variável por vez”; o melhor Silhouette Index (SI) médio, métrica utilizada para avaliar a qualidade dos agrupamentos gerados, foi obtido quando 3 variáveis foram retidas. Os agrupamentos gerados por tais variáveis refletem o comportamento de compra de mídia dos clientes; os agrupamentos foram considerados satisfatórios quando avaliados por especialistas do Grupo RBS. / The change in the behavior of consumers with the advent of technology and social networks generates a great empowerment of themselves, substantially altering the relationship form of companies to their final audience. Attentive to this market, media companies undergo profound changes, both from the point of view of delivering content to their audience, as well as in their administrative, strategic and financial format. Thus, the present dissertation presents approaches supported by multivariate techniques for the composition of commercial and remuneration teams of the sales group of a communication company. In article 1, the objective is to generate a model to estimate the commercial awards of the sales teams of the RBS Group radios. To do this, we initially generate groupings of radio stations from the RBS Group in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina based on their profiles of similarities. For each cluster generated, a multiple linear regression of the commercial award is generated, validated through cross validation through the adjusted R2 and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). The second article addresses the clustering of RBS Group top clients and the impact on the composition of business teams through the variable selection method. The original 7 variables were evaluated through the variable selection method "Omit one variable at a time"; the best Silhouette Index (SI) average, metric used to evaluate the quality of the generated clusters, was obtained when 3 variables were retained. Clusters generated by such variables reflect customers' buying behavior of media; the clusters were considered satisfactory when evaluated by RBS Group experts.

Submitted by Joana Azevedo (joanad@id.uff.br) on 2017-06-30T18:59:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Denise de Araujo Nascimento.pdf: 2248172 bytes, checksum: 7078e4f4b66f2e7714159d4ffc09b47b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Biblioteca da Escola de Engenharia (bee@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-07-05T17:02:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Denise de Araujo Nascimento.pdf: 2248172 bytes, checksum: 7078e4f4b66f2e7714159d4ffc09b47b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-05T17:02:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Denise de Araujo Nascimento.pdf: 2248172 bytes, checksum: 7078e4f4b66f2e7714159d4ffc09b47b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-20 / A presente investigação tem por objetivo propor um modelo de avaliação para o Setor de Supervisão e Orientação Pedagógica de uma instituição pública da Rede Federal de Educação Básica, com a contribuição das famílias. O setor tem como uma de suas funções a de ser o interlocutor entre a escola e os responsáveis dos alunos, sendo importante, portanto, que sejam diagnosticados aspectos que venham a contribuir com o aprimoramento desse atendimento. A pesquisa foi realizada em um dos 14 Campi da instituição localizada em um bairro da Zona Sul de uma das principais capitais brasileiras. Para alcance dos objetivos foi realizado a aplicação de um questionário com perguntas fechadas e uma pesquisa documental no Campus e na Reitoria da Instituição. O questionário foi aplicado em uma amostra constituída por responsáveis de alunos do 5º ano/2016 do Ensino Fundamental. Como principais resultados positivos apontados estão a Comunicação, a Cortesia e a Presteza no atendimento. Como pontos negativos foram indicados a Facilidade de Acesso e a Interferência de Sons Externos no local de atendimento. Com este trabalho pretende-se aperfeiçoar a avaliação dos setores da organização escolar assim como os estudos acerca da relação dos stakeholders com a instituição educacional. / This research aims to propose an evaluation model for the Sector Supervision and Teaching Orientation of a public institution of the Federal Network of Elementary Education, with the contribution of families. The sector has as one of its functions to be the interlocutor between the school and the legally responsible for the students, it is important therefore to diagnosed aspects that will contribute to the improvement of this service. The survey was conducted in one of the 14 campus of the institution located in a neighborhood of the South Zone one of the main Brazilian capitals. To achieve the objectives was conducted applying a questionnaire with closed questions and documentary research on Campus and Dean of the institution. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of students in charge of the 5th grade / 2016 Elementary School. The main positive evaluation results presented are the communication, the courtesy and promptness in attendance. The negatively evaluated points were the Ease of Access and Interference of External Sound on-site service. This work is intended to improve the evaluation of the sectors of school organization as well as studies of the relationship of stakeholders with the educational institution.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:19:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2008 - Jucimara Martins dos Santos.pdf: 4936328 bytes, checksum: c3a6df22694e5aabbd58ccabaa3be80e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-09-04 / Not only eat quantities of nutrients and calories to keep the body functioning at an appropriate level: the act of eating understands, too, forms of expression and affirmation of social identities. It involves the selection, the choices, the occasions and rituals that may be organized and classified in order to understand the social dynamics that takes place in the human experience of living day to day. Culture and consumption, thus, processes are interconnected and inseparable and only makes sense to discuss them within a specific cultural scheme. The objective of this case study was to understand the processes that occur in the restaurant that Nutrinatural stimulated, either formally or informally, retention and hence the loyalty of customers . The locus of the research was the natural food restaurant in the self-service kilo, Nutrinatural. To develop the work, we need to contextualize the locus of the study and the city where he falls; describe the structure and ways of operating the restaurant, identifying the situations that lead customers to return to the restaurant; understand the levels of sociability established between customers and employees, customers and the owners of the restaurant. We chose to develop a study with the basic qualitative ethnographic perspective through coday visit to the restaurant. This co-trip took one to two times per week on different days and times. The report was prepared from the participatory observation and informal conversations with customers in time for lunch, for 11 months (May 2007 to March 2008), and through semi-structured interviews with 12 clients who attend the restaurant so continuous, and also with the owners. The results were classified according to the principle of saturation in 05 categories. It has been proved that the keynote to the process of loyalty in the study, is related to the feeling of being in the family is doing Nutrinatural meals in the restaurant. The sociability proved to be as important as the health and flavor. / N?o comemos apenas quantidades de nutrientes e calorias para manter o funcionamento corporal em n?vel adequado: o ato de comer compreende, tamb?m, formas de express?o e afirma??o de identidades sociais. Envolve a sele??o, as escolhas, as ocasi?es e os rituais que podem ser organizados e classificados com vistas a compreender a din?mica social que se desenrola na experi?ncia humana do viver o dia-a-dia. Cultura e consumo, assim, s?o processos interligados e indissoci?veis e s? faz sentido discuti-las dentro de um esquema cultural espec?fico. O objetivo deste estudo de caso foi compreender os processos que ocorrem no Restaurante Nutrinatural que estimularam, formal ou informalmente, a reten??o e, logo, a fideliza??o dos clientes. O l?cus da pesquisa foi o restaurante de comida natural self service a quilo, Nutrinatural. Para desenvolver o trabalho, precisamos contextualizar o l?cus do estudo e o munic?pio em que ele se insere; descrever a estrutura e as formas de funcionamento do restaurante; identificar as situa??es que levam os clientes a retornarem ao restaurante; compreender os n?veis de sociabilidade estabelecidos entre os clientes e os funcion?rios, os clientes e as propriet?rias do restaurante. Optou-se por desenvolver um estudo de base qualitativa com perspectiva etnogr?fica atrav?s da co-visita di?ria ao restaurante. Esta co-visita se deu de uma a duas vezes por semana em dias e hor?rios diferentes. O relato foi elaborado a partir da observa??o participativa e das conversas informais com os clientes nos hor?rios de almo?o, durante 11 meses (maio de 2007 a mar?o de 2008), e atrav?s de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com 12 clientes que freq?entam o restaurante de forma cont?nua, e tamb?m com as propriet?rias. Os resultados foram classificados segundo o princ?pio de satura??o em 05 categorias. Comprovou-se que a t?nica para o processo de fideliza??o, no estudo, est? relacionada ? sensa??o de estar em fam?lia ao se fazer as refei??es no Restaurante Nutrinatural. A sociabilidade mostrou-se t?o importante quanto a saudabilidade e o sabor.

Submitted by Elba Lopes (elba.lopes@fecap.br) on 2018-05-25T14:06:10Z No. of bitstreams: 2 ROBSON MARTINS BESSA.pdf: 2509113 bytes, checksum: 3396c1d8382e5c3b9d995543637c2e6f (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-25T14:06:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 ROBSON MARTINS BESSA.pdf: 2509113 bytes, checksum: 3396c1d8382e5c3b9d995543637c2e6f (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-04 / Several are the standards that deal with revenues in international accounting. Some studies show that problems involving revenue recognition are among the most recurring in publicly traded companies' reports. The problematic studied was the accounting innovations that users of accounting information should observe, given the emergence of IFRS 15 as the new unified accounting standard in relation to current accounting standards of revenue recognition. The objective of this work is the critical analysis of the main requirements in the relevant aspects brought by the new standard in relation to the current literature on international accounting in the Brazilian environment as well as the challenges to be faced by preparers of financial statements in the adoption and adaptation of IFRS 15 in relation to what exists in the current literature in international accounting. For this group of existing norms and current transactions we denominate of "peacock tail". This research used a qualitative approach, through documentary analysis and content obtained from the financial statements of a relevant publicly traded company in the chemical sector. We sought to base the importance of the subject on accounting science through previous scientific research, practical aspects of IFRS, the basis for conclusion of the new IFRS standard 15 as well as economic aspects about the subject. We identified several challenging aspects for the company to comply with IFRS 15 and that the level of information currently disclosed does not meet the new requirements minimally. As a result, we conclude that IFRS 15 will bring many challenges and innovations to the accounting class in light of its new revenue recognition requirements and especially its disclosures. / Diversas s??o as normas que tratam sobre receitas em contabilidade internacional. Alguns estudos demonstram que problemas que envolvem reconhecimento de receitas est??o entre os mais recorrentes nos relat??rios das companhias de capital aberto. O problema estudado foi sobre as inova????es cont??beis que os usu??rios da informa????o cont??bil devem observar, dado o surgimento do IFRS 15 como o novo ordenamento cont??bil unificado, em rela????o ??s atuais normas cont??beis de reconhecimento de receitas. O objetivo deste trabalho ?? a an??lise cr??tica dos principais requerimentos, em seus aspectos relevantes, trazidos pela nova norma frente ?? literatura atual em contabilidade internacional no ambiente brasileiro bem como os desafios a serem enfrentados pelos preparadores de demonstra????es financeiras na ado????o e adapta????o do IFRS 15 em rela????o ao que existe na literatura atual em contabilidade internacional. A este grupo de normas e transa????es atuais n??s denominamos de ???rabo de pav??o???. Esta pesquisa utilizou-se de uma abordagem qualitativa, atrav??s de an??lise documental e de conte??do obtido das demonstra????es financeiras de uma companhia de capital aberto do setor qu??mico. Procurou-se fundamentar a import??ncia do tema ?? ci??ncia cont??bil atrav??s de pesquisas cient??ficas anteriores, aspectos pr??ticos das normas IFRS, da base de conclus??o da nova norma IFRS 15 bem como aspectos econ??micos acerca do tema. Identificamos diversos aspectos desafiadores para a empresa para atendimento ?? IFRS 15 e que o n??vel de informa????es hoje divulgadas n??o atende minimamente aos requisitos novos. Por consequ??ncia, conclu??mos que a IFRS 15 trar?? muitos desafios e inova????es ?? classe cont??bil em fun????o de seus novos requerimentos para reconhecimento de receitas e especialmente suas divulga????es.

This dissertation collects principles and insights from various sources related to design for the developing world. These principles and insights form part of the foundation that can guide other engineers working in this area. The sources are the published literature, practitioners, non-governmental organizations, and our own field studies. From the engineering literature, we identified nine principles to guide engineers as they design poverty alleviating products for developing communities. Each principle is articulated, supporting literature is described, an in-depth example from the literature is given, followed by suggestions for how the principle can be applied to day-to-day engineering activities. Next, the work from engineering practitioners is studied. Information from various field reports was analyzed, a list of seven common pitfalls was derived, and the Design for the Developing World Canvas is introduced. This tool is similar to a Business Model Canvas, but it focuses on the product development process rather than the development of a business model. The Design for the Developing World Canvas can be used by design teams to facilitate discussions and make decisions that will allowthem to avoid the common pitfalls identified. A case study is then shared from a non-governmental organization called WHOlives.org about their experience with the Village Drill, a human-powered machine that digs boreholes for water wells. The case study outlines the development of the drill, a timeline of its implementation in 15 countries across three continents, specific values related to cashflows of the organization, and a conservative estimate of their impact in developing communities. A study of our original research conducting field studies using a technique called ethnography is then shared. This study was conducted in four countries on four continents and shows the impact of various conditions on the ability of the design team to collect information that is useful for making product development decisions. The conditions in this study include cultural familiarity, language fluency, gender and age of the respondent, information source type, use of prototypes, and others. The results can guide design teams as they make decisions about who to include on the design team, which projects to pursue, and how to conduct their own field studies. Lastly, conclusions related to design for the developing world are made based on the work presented and potential areas of future work are outlined.