University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology. / Department of Computer and Information Science

Decisions regarding exploration and exploitation are strategically important to Chinese new ventures. Most previous studies have tended to study these two processes in isolation rather than jointly despite the obvious symbiosis between them, not to mention that even less attention has been paid to identify how contextual factors influence how these two processes are managed and controlled. / In conclusion, the evidence noticeably refutes the static or fragmented perspectives on exploration and exploitation, strong and weak ties, and incremental and radical CE and demonstrates that a system dynamics model linking them is warranted. / Study 1 involved system dynamics modeling based on case studies. The findings were as follows: first, performance gap is positively related to exploration and negatively related to exploitation during the early, middle, and late stages of organizational development; exploration is positively related to total knowledge stock and total knowledge stock in turn is positively related to exploitation in the early stage; and exploitation is negatively related to firm-specific uncertainty and firm-specific uncertainty in turn is positively related to performance gap in both the early half of the middle and the late stages. Second, strong ties facilitate exploitation and weak ties facilitate exploration during the early, middle, and late stages; also, firm-specific uncertainty is positively related to weak ties and negatively related to strong ties in the early stage and in the early half of both the middle and the late stages. Third, radical CE directs exploration and incremental CE directs exploitation in the early stage; and total knowledge stock facilitates both incremental and radical CE during the early, middle, and late stages. / Study 2 involved structural equation modeling based on a large sample of new ventures. The findings were as follows: first, most of the recursive positive relationships in Study 1 were supported in the total sample. Second, for three sub-samples of new ventures during different development stages, only the recursive positive relationships between radical CE and exploration and between incremental CE and exploitation were supported among all the three sub-samples, which was not consistent with the findings in Study 1. Third, the change patterns of the significant relationships in different samples were generally consistent with those findings in Study 1. / This thesis develops a system dynamics model of exploration and exploitation. The main propositions are that exploration is dynamically linked with exploitation and social network and corporate entrepreneurship systematically influence the dynamic relationship. Two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, were conducted in the empirical setting of Chinese new ventures. Generally, supporting evidence was found for the main hypotheses. / Jiang Chunyan. / "February 2006." / Adviser: Shige Makino. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4248. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-171). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

This thesis draws from research done in a particular urban setting, and illustrates the foundations of a type of social structure called "respite community". "Respite community" is a specifically urban phenomenon which can be defined as temporal, ad hoc, face to face, an aggregate of people who seek temporary relief from social stresses and support through socialized interaction.

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Online communities are growing at a phenomenal rate and with the large number of users these communities contain, attackers are drawn to exploit these users. Denial of information (DoI) attacks and information leakage attacks are two popular attacks that target users on online communities. These information based attacks are linked by their opposing views on low-quality information. On the one hand denial of information attacks which primarily use low-quality information (such as spam and phishing) are a nuisance for information consumers. On the other hand information leakage attacks, which use inadvertently leaked information, are less effective when low-quality information is used, and thus leakage of low-quality information is prefered by private information producers. In this dissertation, I introduce techniques for preventing abuse against these attacks in online communities using meta-model classification and information unification approaches, respectively. The meta-model classification approach involves classifying the ``connected payload" associated with the information and using the classification result for the determination. This approach allows for detection of DoI attacks in emerging domains where the amount of information may be constrained. My information unification approach allows for modeling and mitigating information leakage attacks. Unifying information across domains followed by a quantificiation of the information leaked, provides one of the first studies on users' susceptibality to information leakage attacks. Further, the modeling introduced allows me to quantify the reduced threat of information leakage attacks after applying information cloaking.

Public press and companies have increasingly strong interests in the impact on businesses brought about by virtual communities. In recent years, virtual communities have become significant sources of information for consumers and businesses by offering unprecedented opportunities for information sharing. Scholars recognize that information posted in virtual communities has important implications for the behaviors of community members and subsequent economic decisions and market performance. However, relatively less is explored about how the informational value of virtual communities results from an aggregated or fragmented community of information. In particular, the underlying motives and mechanisms of user interactions in virtual communities are challenging to understand because of the amount of information available and the potential noises. To investigate user dynamics and the resulting informational value in virtual communities, I explore three major issues in my dissertation. First, I empirically examine whether community fragmentation or aggregation prevails in the context of virtual investment communities. Results indicate that instead of the common belief of virtual communities serving as melting pots that comprise opinions, online investors, in particular, show strong homophily behavior in virtual investment communities. Second, using data from virtual investment communities, I investigate the interactions among online investors that drive homophily and community fragmentation. I find that psychological needs for supportive opinions mainly drive the information seeking and interaction behaviors of online investors as compared to economic rationales. Following this line of exploration, I also identify the informational impact of virtual communities on user behaviors in the context of electronic markets. With data from online retailers, I examine the possible shrinkage of consumer product consideration that is reinforced by online recommendations. A resultant change of consumer consideration leads to a landscape shift of product competition for online retailers, suggesting strategic implications to manufacturers. All in all, my dissertation contributes to an understanding of the value of virtual communities as informational media, how virtual communities shape online user opinions, and how online user preferences impact businesses and markets in a networked economy. My research pushes the frontier toward understanding virtual communities and sheds light on the insights into exploring online network dynamics. / text

The use of alcohol and drugs by women has become a major health issue; though men use and abuse alcohol and drugs at a higher rate than women, this gap is closing and at an alarming rate. / In this study, the hypothesis is that women who have positive social support relationships have a higher probability to sustain and maintain their sobriety over time. Information was obtained through qualitative exploration N = (10) as these women recounted their experiences. The objective is to explore the similar factors that assisted these women throughout their recovery process. / The findings show that women come to recognize their need for recovery, as their sense of self develops and evolves over time: through positive attachments with others, rediscovery of self and identifying positive feelings. / The issue of women and recovery is a relevant factor for social work practitioners as clients and social workers need to function together as partners throughout the problem solving process.

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential link between quality of life and social support networks, among clients with mild to borderline intellectual handicaps. This study also explored differences between how the clients assess their quality of life and support networks and how primary caseworkers asses the quality of life and support networks of their clients. / Thirty intellectually handicapped adults (18 men & 12 women) and their primary caseworkers were randomly selected to participate in the study. Significant differences were found between client and primary caseworker evaluations of clients' quality of life and their social support networks. Friends as support providers was strongly associated with better quality of life. The findings also indicated that there were significant differences in female and male client satisfaction with quality of life.

Expatriate social interactions and psychological well-being are two underemphasized areas in expatriate literature. This paper revisits the expatriate adjustment construct and proposes a definition from interactive perspective for expatriate adjustment. Expatriate adjustment is defined, in this study, as a process in which the expatriate interacts with the social aspects of the local environment to obtain psychological well-being. In turn, an expatriate's psychological well-being at one point in time will influence his/her next interactions in the local environment. Based on the proposed definition of expatriate adjustment and supported by literatures of sociology and psychology, a research model and hypotheses are developed. The research model predicts that expatriate network structural characteristics will influence expatriate perceived social support and further influence expatriate psychological well-being and performance. The influence of social support on expatriate psychological well-being and performance is predicted to be moderated by cultural distance, role characteristics and locus of control of expatriates. Spousal support is another immediate factor that will influence expatriate psychological well-being. In order to empirically test this research model, two pilot studies and one main study were conducted. The purpose of Pilot Study 1 was to develop network structural characteristic measurement and social support measurement. Pilot Study 2 was conducted to test the measurement developed in Pilot Study 1 and check the workability of the whole questionnaire. The main survey was conducted in China. Expatriates from North America, Europe, and other countries and regions in Asia were sampled to complete the questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed to test the hypotheses. The results show significant support for the proposed model. Expatriate network structural characteristics have both direct and indirect influence on expatriate psychological well-

South Africa, since 1994, has developed both politically and technologically resulting in an opening of communications both locally and globally. The 2009 national elections had been earmarked as a 'make or break' milestone for the political and social future of the young democracy. This election occurred amidst media analysts‘ concerns for the level of freedom of expression allowed to traditional forms of the South African media. New media, however, is not at present subject to the same regulations. Although a few cases of slander relating, for example, to Facebook have occurred, ephemeral cyber space appears to enjoy a greater degree of freedom of expression than the press and broadcast media. As a result the ability of these traditional forms of media to function effectively as a public sphere may be questioned, and some theorists claim that the Internet may offer an alternative medium for this function. This thesis looks at the potential of online communities to facilitate democratic expression by analysing a Facebook newsgroup text at the time of the election. In my exploration of the Facebook newsgroup Help us stop Jacob Zuma from becoming SA's next President I have analysed the text using two qualitative approaches. The critical discourse analysis traces competing South African discourses relating to the myths of the inherent violence of black men and the inherent racism of whites, the topics of crime and violence, Jacob Zuma and South Africanness. This approach‘s theoretical guidelines enforced a more objective view of the text, although interpretive methods in general grapple with subjectivity at a more observable level than do quantitative methods. The ethnographic hermeneutic component of the research is aimed at "making the obscure plain" (Blaikie, 1993: 28, cited in Neuman, 1997: 68) in the text, as well as documenting the inner workings of the online community and its relation to South African issues at the time of the national election. The findings are then measured against public sphere theory from Habermas' conception of the bourgeois public sphere to revisionist accounts (Fraser, 1997 and McKee, 2005) / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.