Universiẗat, Diss. 2006--Würzburg, 2006.

Broadcast, infrastructure and services play an essential role in both the modernization and social development of a nation. They have become indispensable to enabling countries to compete on equitable terms in an international community, which is now governed by interdependence and by the imperatives of a global economy. They are therefore critical to the achievement of Africa's recovery. In Africa, the broadcast arena or region offer a diverse range of business opportunities and tremendous scope for expanding both basic and advanced telecommunication servIces. This unique event will be the perfect meeting point for key players from industry and governments of the region. It will be a real opportunity for us to help bridge the Digital Divide and to bring modern communications services within reach of all of Africa's or sub-Saharan Africa or South Africa. The digital divide refers to the unequal distribution of access to information technology resources within or between countries. The digital divide is exacerbated by among other factors, income level, employment inequity, disparities in infrastructure development, racial discrimination, social status, gender inequalities lack of access to information , geographic location, an political influence . The divide creates an environment where disadvantaged groups are unable to contribute to and benefit from the information age and global communities created by the Internet in Sub-Saharan Africa ,efforts to bridge the digital divide mistakenly put great emphasis on 11 the digital imbalance between the rich North and the poor South, and often do not consider the gaps within individual countries. This narrow perception alienates the indigenous knowledge component from efforts to bridge the divide. (Scecsal 2002 The need to extend access to services to all South Africans, in order to integrate our country into the world economy, South Africa has made dramatic improvements in the development of a modem communication infrastructure previously denied to the majority. This study will provide the ideal research opportunity to investigate and appraise new products and services and also to explore the possibilities of acquiring the very latest in broadcast technology. This will be the ultimate networking opportunity, which may give us all a clearer vision of the future. Together, let us add strength and speed to Africa's efforts to Bridge the Digital Divide. / Thesis (MBA) - University of Natal, 2003.

Univ., Diss. u.d.T.: Olderog, Torsten: Faktoren des Markterfolges im elektronischen Einzelhandel--Witten/Herdecke, 2003.

Online shopping is a growing phenomenon all over the world, and it has thus had an influence on the shopping process for many consumers (Brengman et al., 2005:79; Brown et al., 2003:1667; Kau et al., 2003:139). Consumers are now choosing to shop online due to changes in their lifestyles and demographic diversity (Kau et al., 2003:139). The purpose of this research was to examine the extent to which demographic diversity influenced online shopping orientation and propensity to buy online. The researcher first conducted an in-depth theoretical study of previous research into demographic diversity, online shopping orientation and propensity to buy online. Next, the researcher conducted an empirical survey questionnaire, in order to assess the opinions of students at the three selected Eastern Cape universities. Phinney's (1992:156) multi-group ethnic identity measure was administered in order to identify how respondents feel about their ethnicity and/or how they react to their own ethnic group. Kau et al.,'s (2003) online shopping orientation measure was used to help identify six relevant online shopping factors. The six online shopping factors where then used to describe six online shopping orientation types. The main findings of this research conducted at three Universities in the Eastern Cape can be summarised as follows: Ethnic Identity Profile: - Within this research it was found that respondents at all three universities in general had a strong ethnic identity to their specified ethnic group, according to the two ethnic identity factors namely; commitment and exploration. Online Shopping Orientation Profile: - Within this research it was found that the respondents at all three universities in general could be categorised in one of six online shopping orientation types according to six online shopping factors. The extent to which demographic diversity influences types of online shopping orientation: - From the research hypotheses it was concluded that a relationship exists between demographic diversity and types of online shopping orientations, whereby the gender, race and ethnicity of respondent is likely to influence the way consumers shop online, namely the consumers‟ online shopping orientation. The extent to which demographic diversity influences propensity to buy online: - From the research hypotheses it was concluded that a relationship exists between demographic diversity and propensity to buy online, whereby the gender of respondents is likely to influence whether consumers buy online in the future. - From the research hypotheses it was concluded that no relationship exists between demographic diversity and propensity to buy online, whereby the race and ethnicity of respondents is not likely to influence whether consumers buy online in the future. The extent to which types of online shopping orientation influence propensity to buy online: - The findings suggest that different online shopping orientations have different propensities to buy online in the future. Hence, marketers should be aware of the online shopping orientations more likely to buy online in the future and focus their marketing programs on them. They should also try new ways to attract the online shopping orientations that may not buy online, in the hopes of changing their opinions and perceptions of the Internet and online shopping. South Africa, in particular, consists of multi-racial and diverse ethnic origins, which has resulted in a demographically diverse South African nation. Therefore, marketers need to develop a better understanding of consumers‟ online shopping orientation (Donthu and Garcia, 1999:57; Jayawardhena and Foley, 2000:19; Kau et al., 2003:140). Understanding consumers' online shopping orientation will assist marketers in being able to market to specific consumers and meet the needs of consumers effectively (Kau et al., 2003:140). Since demographic diversity influences the online shopping orientations of consumers, major opportunities for marketers will be provided by accommodating for a demographically diverse South African nation.

Since the development of the Internet, the amount of individuals and organisations making use of the World Wide Web (or Web) has grown significantly, and it is likely to continue increasing as the world continues to become intertwined. With the Internet, users are able to conduct various activities online, one being online shopping which has changed the retailing sector. Online shoppers are able to purchase goods and services over the Web in the comfort of their own homes without having to set foot into a physical store. Due to the fact that greater numbers of South African consumers are becoming accustomed to online shopping and the number of online retailers is growing, there is a need to determine which quality factors of websites influence these consumers when shopping online, which is the primary purpose of this study. A broad and in-depth literature review was provided on online shopping as well as the website quality factors influencing online shopping. An empirical study was conducted, where the data were collected from South Africans who met the requirements by means of an Internet-based self-administered questionnaire. The study followed a quantitative approach in order to satisfy the research objectives of the study. Based on the research results, it was found that all system, information and service quality factors influence respondents when shopping online and therefore need to be taken into consideration by online retailers when developing shopping sites. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

My dissertation aims to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how consumers make sense of online word-of-mouth. Each essay in my dissertation probes beyond the effect of rating valence and explores the role of textual content. In the first essay, I explore negativity bias among online consumers evaluating peer information about potential sellers. I propose that both the likelihood of negativity bias and resistance to change after a trust violation will depend on the domain of information discussed in a review. Three experiments showed that negativity bias is more prominent for information regarding sellers' integrity than information regarding their competence. These findings suggest that the universality of negativity bias in a seller review setting has been exaggerated. In the second essay, I examine the impact of emotional arousal on the perceived helpfulness of text reviews. I propose an inverse U-shaped relationship by which the arousal conveyed in a text review will be associated by readers with lower perceived helpfulness only beyond an optimal level, and that the detrimental effect of arousal is present for negative reviews even when objective review content is controlled for. To test these hypotheses, two studies were conducted in the context of Apple's mobile application market. In Study 1, I collected actual review data from Apple's App Store, coded those reviews for arousal using text analysis tools, and examined the non-linear relationship between arousal and review helpfulness. In Study 2, I experimentally manipulated the emotional arousal of reviews at moderate to high levels while holding objective content constant. Results were largely consistent with the hypotheses. This essay reveals the necessity of considering emotional arousal when evaluating review helpfulness, and the results carry important practical implications. In the third essay, I explore effects of the emotions embedded in a seller review on its perceived helpfulness to readers. I propose that over and above the well-known negativity bias, the impact of discrete emotions in a review will vary, and that one source of this variance is perceptions of reviewers' cognitive effort. I focus on the roles of two distinct, negative emotions common to seller reviews: anxiety and anger. In Studies 1 and 2, experimental methods were utilized to identify and explain the differential impact of anxiety and anger in terms of perceived reviewer effort. In Study 3, actual seller reviews from Yahoo! Shopping websites were collected to examine the relationship between emotional review content and helpfulness ratings. These findings demonstrate the importance of discriminating between discrete emotions in online word-of-mouth, and they have important repercussions for consumers and online retailers.

The subject selected for this research project is the identification of the strategies to establish an Internet market agency in the United Arab Emirates(UAE) that offers advertising assistance via web sites to companies doing business in this country.

The study addresses the limited and fragmented approaches of consumer behaviour studies in the existing literature and a lack of comprehensive integrated theoretical models of online consumer behaviour. The aim of the study is to propose a conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour which suggests a deviation from the existing purchasing approaches to consumer behaviour - hence a move towards an understanding of consumer behaviour in terms of two new approaches, namely the web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches, is proposed. The study addresses two main research problems, namely that inadequate knowledge and information exist on online consumers’ behavioural processes, especially their internal psychological behavioural processes during their exposure to web-based communication messages and their progression through the complete web-based communication experience; and that there is no conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour in the literature. This study, firstly, allows for systematic theoretical exploration, description, interpretation and integration of existing literature and theory on offline and online consumer behaviour including the following: theoretical perspectives and approaches; determinants; decision making; consumer information processing and response; and theoretical foundations. This systematic theoretical exploration and description of consumer behaviour literature and theory commences with the contextualisation and proposal of a new definition, perspective and theoretical approaches to online consumer behaviour; the discussion and analysis of the theory of the determinants of consumer behaviour; the discussion and analysis of decision-making theory; the proposition of a new online information decision-making perspective and model; the discussion and analysis of consumer information-processing and response theory and models; the discussion and analysis of the theoretical foundations of consumer behaviour; and the identification of theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour. Declaration – acknowledgements - abstract Secondly, the study develops a conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour, thereby theoretically grounding online consumer behavioural processes in the context of internal psychological behavioural processes and exposure to web-based communication messages. It is hence posited that the study provides a more precise understanding of online consumers’ complicated internal cognitive and psychological behavioural processes in their interactive search for and experience of online web-based communication and information, which can be seen as a major contribution to the field of study. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

The study addresses the limited and fragmented approaches of consumer behaviour studies in the existing literature and a lack of comprehensive integrated theoretical models of online consumer behaviour. The aim of the study is to propose a conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour which suggests a deviation from the existing purchasing approaches to consumer behaviour - hence a move towards an understanding of consumer behaviour in terms of two new approaches, namely the web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches, is proposed. The study addresses two main research problems, namely that inadequate knowledge and information exist on online consumers’ behavioural processes, especially their internal psychological behavioural processes during their exposure to web-based communication messages and their progression through the complete web-based communication experience; and that there is no conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour in the literature. This study, firstly, allows for systematic theoretical exploration, description, interpretation and integration of existing literature and theory on offline and online consumer behaviour including the following: theoretical perspectives and approaches; determinants; decision making; consumer information processing and response; and theoretical foundations. This systematic theoretical exploration and description of consumer behaviour literature and theory commences with the contextualisation and proposal of a new definition, perspective and theoretical approaches to online consumer behaviour; the discussion and analysis of the theory of the determinants of consumer behaviour; the discussion and analysis of decision-making theory; the proposition of a new online information decision-making perspective and model; the discussion and analysis of consumer information-processing and response theory and models; the discussion and analysis of the theoretical foundations of consumer behaviour; and the identification of theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour. Declaration – acknowledgements - abstract Secondly, the study develops a conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour, thereby theoretically grounding online consumer behavioural processes in the context of internal psychological behavioural processes and exposure to web-based communication messages. It is hence posited that the study provides a more precise understanding of online consumers’ complicated internal cognitive and psychological behavioural processes in their interactive search for and experience of online web-based communication and information, which can be seen as a major contribution to the field of study. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)