This thesis explores the impact of the usage of text-generative artificial intelligence (AI) in digital marketing on user satisfaction. Recently, concerns regarding job displacement and human expertise arose due to the efficiency and improved workflow provided by AI-powered tools. This study addresses these concerns by evaluating whether ChatGPT 3.5 is able to generate website texts with minimal human supervision while maintaining user satisfaction. Our investigation employs a mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative research, utilising controlled experiments with 14 participants aged between 20 and 31 to compare AI-generated texts with human-written texts. The controlled experiment included two identically looking prototypes, one containing human-written texts and the other containing texts generated by ChatGPT 3.5. Both prototypes had three different pages: Home, Joining and About. Additionally, two types of surveys were created, a Satisfactory Survey for each prototype and a Final Survey. The Satisfactory Survey contained Likert scales from one (1) to five (5) which enabled participants to rank the texts together with open-ended questions. The Final Survey included questions about demographics and an overall prototype preference. Having tested texts on the three different pages in each prototype on satisfaction, informativeness and appeal, the biggest difference was found in the satisfaction of the individual pages. While participants preferred human-written texts on the Home and the About page, they favoured AI-generated texts on the Joining page. Findings suggest that ChatGPT 3.5 can, with minimal human supervision, produce texts of nearly equally good satisfaction from a user perspective compared to texts written by humans. The study underscores the importance of human oversight and expertise in optimising AI-generated outputs and contributes to the ongoing discourse on integrating AI into marketing practices.

Predominantly white institutions (PWIs) are experiencing a racial history crisis. This crisis is occurring partially in response to current events including the multiple deaths of Black men and women at the hands of White police officers: Michael Brown in 2014, Breonna Taylor in 2020, and George Floyd also in 2020. Additionally, there has been a resurgence of investigation and national debate around building names and statues on college campuses memorializing people who supported slavery or were members of hate groups. These events coupled with the lack of truth-telling around the roles of Black and African American people and other minoritized communities within the development and prosperity of colleges and universities has centered history as focal point in the diversity, equity, and inclusion spaces. Nearly all colleges and universities include diversity, equity, and inclusion as a center piece of their mission statements, but few address their racialized history. Often, the university's history is told from an ahistorical perspective which places whiteness at the center of the history narrative. With a conceptual framework incorporating both critical race theory and white institutional presence, the study interrogated how universities are telling the stories of their histories regarding African American people. The sample selected for the study included 16 universities designated as leaders in the field of diversity, equity and inclusion. The selected universities received the designation of Diversity Champion from Insight Into Diversity magazine. The history narratives, typically found on the About page of the universities' website, were examined for instances of white institutional presence and counternarratives. Findings were filtered through a critical whiteness framework resulting in four types of categories. Exemplar institutions were countering white institutional presence and whiteness through multiple instances of counternarratives, centering Black and African American history, and confronting racist ideologies within their institutional history narratives. The remaining three categories of institutions were discussed for these instances as well. Overall, the findings concluded that some universities have made progress in the area of historical truth telling, most universities have not fully engaged in this work. The study offered implications for further research in the areas of critical whiteness, white institutional presence, and diverse learning environments. Incorporating the findings of the exemplar university cases, the study also discussed implications for policy and practice for institutions interested in or working on investigating their histories as related to minoritized communities, but specifically histories involving African American people. / Doctor of Philosophy / Predominantly white institutions (PWIs) are experiencing a racial history crisis. This crisis is occurring partially in response to current events including the multiple deaths of Black men and women at the hands of White police officers: Michael Brown in 2014, Breonna Taylor in 2020, and George Floyd also in 2020. Additionally, there has been a resurgence of investigation and national debate around building names and statues on college campuses memorializing people who supported slavery or were members of hate groups. These events coupled with the lack of truth-telling around the roles of Black and African American people and other minoritized communities within the development and prosperity of colleges and universities has centered history as focal point in the diversity, equity, and inclusion spaces. Nearly all colleges and universities include diversity, equity, and inclusion as a center piece of their mission statements, but few address their racialized history. Often, the university's history is told from an ahistorical perspective which places whiteness at the center of the history narrative. With a conceptual framework incorporating both critical race theory and white institutional presence, the study interrogated how universities are telling the stories of their histories regarding African American people. The sample selected for the study included 16 universities designated as leaders in the field of diversity, equity and inclusion.

The potential use of the Internet for apparel retail marketing is extremely viable (Murphy, 1998); however, most of the journal papers on apparel Internet shoppers are limited to the comparison of demographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics between shoppers and non-shoppers (McKinney, 2004). Little empirical research has addressed the role of impulsiveness in online apparel shopping behavior. In the past, impulse buying was considered as something bad and consumers felt guilty after impulse buying (Ainslie 1975; Levy 1976). However, most researchers now no longer view impulse buying as a negative phenomenon because studies showed that impulse buying satisfies a number of hedonic desires (Piron 1991; Rook & Fisher 1995; Thompson, Locander, & Pollio 1990). Impulse buyers exhibited greater feelings of amusement, delight, enthusiasm, and joy (Weinberg & Gottwald, 1982) and often felt uplifted or energized after a shopping experience that involves impulse buying (Rook, 1987; Gardner & Rook, 1988; 1993) because impulse buying can provide the enjoyment of novelty and surprise, and the ability of mood alteration (i.e., breaking out of negative mood state) (Gardner & Rook, 1988; Rook, 1987). Recognizing the positive feelings generated from impulse buying and considering the increasing frequency of college students'' Internet shopping (Seock, 2003), one strategy to create competitive advantages in the apparel market of college students is to understand the variables related to impulse buying and based on the understanding provide a website that generates pleasurable shopping. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between online apparel impulse buying behavior and apparel involvement, apparel website attributes, and product category/price. The data were collected using an online survey with a structured questionnaire. To recruit participants, 37,590 e-mails were sent to six universities located in different regions of the United States. A total of 687 college students responded to the survey including 284 online apparel buyers, 194 non-online apparel buyers, and 209 non-apparel website visitors. When the impulsiveness of online apparel purchases in general was used to divide the participants into impulse buyer and non-impulse buyer groups, the Chi-square test results showed that there were significantly more female respondents in the impulse buyer group than in the non-impulse buyer group. However, when impulsiveness of last purchase was used to divide the participants into impulse purchase and non-impulse purchase groups, the results showed no significant difference between the genders. For other results, the findings were all consistent. Respondents in the impulse buyer and purchase groups than the non-impulse buyer and purchase groups had a greater amount of total monthly income and spent more money on apparel products. The impulse buyer and purchase groups visited websites that sold clothing/accessories more frequently and purchased more apparel products online over the past six months than the non-impulse buyer and purchase groups. These results suggest that impulse buyers are an important segment of the apparel online market. Four hypotheses were put forward to test the relationships among the variables. Before the proposed hypotheses could be examined, the factor analysis was first conducted to determine the constructs of apparel involvement and website attributes. The results showed that apparel involvement consisted of three factors (i.e., sign value/perceived importance, pleasure value, risk importance/probability) and website attributes consisted of four factors (i.e., website design, product presentation, promotion, product search/policy information). The results of MANOVA showed that the impulse buyer group perceived the sign value/perceived importance and the pleasure value of apparel involvement significantly higher, and perceived the risk importance/probability of apparel involvement significantly lower than the non-impulse buyer group. Based on the results, H1 was supported. Impulsive and non-impulsive online apparel buyers differed significantly in their apparel involvement. For H2, the results indicated that the impulse purchase group evaluated the website where they bought the last apparel item significantly better in website design, product presentation, promotion, and product search/policy information than the non-impulse purchase group. Based on the results, H2 was supported. The evaluations of the attributes of websites where impulse purchases and non-impulse purchases of apparel products were made were significantly different. Test of H3 showed that some product categories purchased by the respondents in the impulse purchase group were significantly different from those bought by the non-impulse purchase group. Categories such as shirt/blouse and belt were bought more frequently by the respondents in the impulse purchase group whereas shoes were bought more frequently by those in the non-impulse purchase group. The respondents in the impulse purchase group bought more items that cost less than $25 than those in the non-impulse purchase group. Based on the results H3 was supported. The product categories purchased by the impulse purchase group and non-impulse purchase group were significantly different. The multiple regression results showed that the sign value/perceived importance of apparel involvement contributed the most in explaining impulsiveness of online apparel buying behavior, followed by product price, risk importance/probability of apparel involvement, and product presentation of website attributes. Other factors, such as the pleasure value of apparel involvement and website attributes in website design, promotion, and product search/policy information, had no significant linear relationships with the impulsiveness of online apparel buying behavior. Based on the results, H4 was partially supported. From the results of the present study, it is concluded that apparel involvement, website attributes, and product price are closely related to the impulsiveness of consumers'' online apparel buying behavior. This study is beneficial to researchers and marketers by identifying possible psychological reasons for impulse buying as well as suggesting strategies to develop an apparel website that facilitate impulse buying behavior. / Ph. D.

Following proper guidelines and recommendations are crucial in software security, which is mostly obstructed by accidental human errors. Automatic screening tools have great potentials to reduce the gap between the theory and the practice. However, the goal of scalable automated code screening is largely hindered by the practical difficulty of reducing false positives without compromising analysis quality. To enable compile-time security checking of cryptographic vulnerabilities, I developed highly precise static analysis tools (CryptoGuard and TaintCrypt) that developers can use routinely. The main technical enabler for CryptoGuard is a set of detection algorithms that refine program slices by leveraging language-specific insights, where TaintCrypt relies on symbolic execution-based path-sensitive analysis to reduce false positives. Both CryptoGuard and TaintCrypt uncovered numerous vulnerabilities in real-world software, which proves the effectiveness. Oracle has implemented our cryptographic code screening algorithms for Java in its internal code analysis platform, Parfait, and detected numerous vulnerabilities that were previously unknown. I also designed a specification language named SpanL to easily express rules for automated code screening. SpanL enables domain experts to create domain-specific security checking. Unfortunately, tools and guidelines are not sufficient to ensure baseline security in internet-wide ecosystems. I found that the lack of proper compliance checking induced a huge gap in the payment card industry (PCI) ecosystem. I showed that none of the PCI scanners (out of 6), we tested are fully compliant with the guidelines, issuing certificates to merchants that still have major vulnerabilities. Consequently, 86% (out of 1,203) of the e-commerce websites we tested, are non-compliant. To improve the testbeds in the light of our work, the PCI Security Council shared a copy of our PCI measurement paper to the dedicated companies that host, manage, and maintain the PCI certification testbeds. / Doctor of Philosophy / Automatic screening tools have great potentials to reduce the gap between the theory and the practice of software security. However, the goal of scalable automated code screening is largely hindered by the practical difficulty of reducing false positives without compromising analysis quality. To enable compile-time security checking of cryptographic vulnerabilities, I developed highly precise static analysis tools (CryptoGuard and TaintCrypt) that developers can use routinely. Both CryptoGuard and TaintCrypt uncovered numerous vulnerabilities in real-world software, which proves the effectiveness. Oracle has implemented our cryptographic code screening algorithms for Java in its internal code analysis platform, Parfait, and detected numerous vulnerabilities that were previously unknown. I also designed a specification language named SpanL to easily express rules for automated code screening. SpanL enables domain experts to create domain-specific security checking. Unfortunately, tools and guidelines are not sufficient to ensure baseline security in internet-wide ecosystems. I found that the lack of proper compliance checking induced a huge gap in the payment card industry (PCI) ecosystem. I showed that none of the PCI scanners (out of 6), we tested are fully compliant with the guidelines, issuing certificates to merchants that still have major vulnerabilities. Consequently, 86% (out of 1,203) of the e-commerce websites we tested, are non-compliant. To improve the testbeds in the light of our work, the PCI Security Council shared a copy of our PCI measurement paper to the dedicated companies that host the PCI certification testbeds.

Transfer between community colleges and four-year institutions has become more common as student mobility increases. Accordingly, the higher education system has coped with the fluidity by establishing articulation agreements that facilitate pathways from one institution to another. The forward-facing policies and guides to inform students on those pathways are known to be complicated, leading to the development of web-based tools like Transferology to help students navigate the system. Still, credit loss is common, whether through misunderstandings, lack of awareness, or changing degree plans. A proliferation of literature examines the experiences of transfer students and other agents in the process like community college advisors, but few pieces interrogate the underlying website structures that facilitate those experiences as the unit of analysis. Information related to facilitating transfer from one institution to another is often fragmented across multiple webpages or policies and uses language not optimal for communicating with students – creating what are called "information asymmetries" between the students and institutions. The premise of an exchange having information asymmetries is that one or more parties in the exchange have more or better information than the others, leading to an imbalance in power. In the case of higher education, transfer students – and their advisors by extension – can be subjected to manipulation by the invisible hands of the four-year institutions through language gaps and scattered sources of information. Accordingly, this dissertation explored four-year university websites, a major point of contact students have with information on transfer, to address the following main research question: "How are information asymmetries in curricular policies/procedures apparent for engineering students on institutional webpages in terms of language and fragmentation?" The subsequent research question synthesized the results of the first question: "Looking across information asymmetry measures, what are the different narratives of information asymmetry that integrate themes of language and fragmentation across institutions?" A fully integrated mixed methods design using all existing data was employed to address the two research questions. A stratified random sample was taken with respect to institution size based on their Carnegie classifications (n = 38). The collection of relevant public webpages based on a set of keywords from the sampled institutions was transformed into three network measures - hierarchy, centrality, and nonlinear – that were used in cluster analyses to group the institutions based on their information structures. Sequential mixed methods sampling was used to choose institutions purposefully from each cluster based on notable features recorded during the first stage of data collection. Two-cycle coding followed the cluster analysis by elaborating on the networks formed during data collection. I used joint displays to organize the networks and In-Vivo codes in the same picture and develop themes related to fragmentation and language simultaneously. K-means and K-medoids cluster methods both produced the same four cluster solution illustrating one aspect of information asymmetries through fragmentation. The clustering solution highlighted four major network patterns, plus one cluster mixing two of the patterns: 1) linear browsing, 2) centralized expansive browsing, 3) branched browsing, and 4) mixed browsing. Further qualitative analysis of the sampled institutions revealed several types of missteps where information is obscured through language or dispersed in the network. I explored a subset of 16 institutions and identified four themes related to fragmentation (unlinked divergence, progressive disclosure, lack of uniformity, and neighborhood linking) and six themes related to language (hedging transferability and applicability, legalese handwaving, building rapport, exclusivity, deviance from common practice, and defining terms). The missteps were contextualized further using six narratives with institutional examples. This work characterized the information design for transfer students as a messy web of loosely connected structures with language that complicates understanding. Integrated narratives illustrate a landscape of loosely coupled information structures that become more expansive as state initiatives interact with already existing local agreements. Moreover, institutional websites describing transfer processes use communication strategies similar to private companies writing online privacy policies. In light of the themes of information asymmetries, opportunities for supporting transfer were highlighted. For example, institutions are encouraged to create visual representations of the transfer credit process, ensure terms are defined upfront while minimizing jargon, and avoid linking to information that is easily summarizable on the current page. This research would be of interest to institutions looking to improve the presentation of their transfer information by critically examining their designs for the missteps described here. In addition, engineering education practitioners and researchers studying transfer student pathways and experiences will find the results of interest – especially in considering how to support the students despite the large information gaps. Finally, those looking to implement a fully integrated mixed methods design or use existing/archival data in their own context will find the use of mixing strategies of interest. / Doctor of Philosophy / Transfer between community colleges and four-year institutions has become more common as student mobility increases, especially for engineering. Institutions have coped with this inter-institutional movement by establishing agreements with each other that facilitate pathways between programs. The forward-facing policies and guides to inform students on such pathways are known to be complicated, leading to the development of web-based tools like Transferology to help students navigate the system. Despite these advances, transfer students continue to struggle in their information search. The purpose of this dissertation was to describe the extent to which information for engineering transfer students is scattered across multiple web-based sources and written in a manner not conducive to understanding. I used a fully integrated mixed methods design to create narratives capturing the interactions between the more quantitative idea of scatter using network analysis and the more qualitative aspect of language-use using visually based two-cycle coding across 38 U.S. four-year institutions. All data was readily available online, which were transformed and combined using several mixing strategies to form integrated stories of information asymmetries. The resulting narratives characterized the information design for transfer students as a messy web of loosely connected structures with language that complicates understanding. Moreover, institutional websites describing transfer processes use communication strategies similar to private companies writing online privacy policies. In light of the themes of information asymmetries, opportunities for supporting transfer were highlighted. This work will be of interest to those interested in engineering transfer student experiences and pathways. Also, those looking to implement fully integrated mixed methods approaches or make extensive use of existing data, especially mixing during analysis, will see strategies applicable in their own work.

The purpose of this study was to document and examine the use of technology to facilitate communication among the three protagonists of learning — parents, teachers, and children in an early childhood education classroom. Specifically, the process of the co-construction of a website, by parents and teachers and subsequent use of the website for information exchange and parent involvement was documented and examined by the researcher using ethnographic methodologies. The study provides a description of the process of co-constructing the website. Through this description, the researcher came to better understanding of developing a website, parent-teacher communication, children and their learning, and herself as a teacher-researcher. The study includes examples of the website pages as well as recommendations and implications for future use of a classroom website. / Master of Science

I denna uppsats undersöks om svenska kommuner uppfyller lagarna om tillgänglighetsanpassning på offentliga webbplatser. I dagens digitaliserade samhälle används internet som ett kommunikationsverktyg för att framföra samhällsinformation. På grund av olika varianter av funktionsnedsättningar kan information som publiceras på internet vara svår att ta del av. Genom att en webbplats fullföljer lagarna för tillgänglighetsanpassning på offentliga webbplatser kan information som publiceras nå ut till en bredare målgrupp. Eftersom kommunal information är viktig för alla invånare bosatt i en kommun är det av stor betydelse att invånare har möjlighet att ta del av information som publiceras på kommunala webbplatser. I denna uppsats undersöker vi 10 webbplatser från olika kommuner i olika delar av Sverige; sedan analyseras materialet och framställer om det finns skillnader mellan de olika kommunerna. Undersökningen utförs utifrån europeiska standarden EN 301 549 V3.2.1, baserad på WCAG 2.1. Materialet presenteras med hjälp av diagram samt med beskrivande text. / This essay examines how Swedish municipalities follow the laws on accessibility adaptation on public websites. In today's digitized society, the internet is used as a communication tool to convey social information. Due to different types of disabilities, information published on the Internet can be difficult to read. By complying with the laws for accessibility on public websites, published information can reach a wider target group. As municipal information is important for all residents of a municipality, it is important that residents can get the information that is published on municipal websites. In this essay, we examine 10 websites from different municipalities in different parts of Sweden; then we analyse the material and present whether there are differences between the different municipalities. The examination is carried out based on the European standard EN 301 549 V3.2.1, based on WCAG 2.1. The material is presented using diagrams and descriptive text.

Yes / This study investigates the impact of three-dimensional (3D) product presentation quality (3D-Q) on attitude toward presented product and attitude toward website, which in turn affect users’ satisfaction. Therefore, this research developed a hypothetical online retailer website, which presents a variety of 3D laptops that allows users to control the content and form of the 3D flashes. We measured 3D-quality based on a multi-dimensional construct. In other words, we define and operationalize 3D-quality based on information quality, system quality, authenticity, and enjoyment (second-order). We employed a non-student sample (n=410) to collect the data. We find that 3D-quality determines perceptions of attitude toward presented product and attitude toward website, which in turn influence users’ satisfaction. Furthermore, we find that virtual product experience moderates the relationships between attitude toward presented product, attitude toward website and users’ satisfaction. Our study provides important implications for e-tailers.

In this thesis, three websites are explored in-depth and serve as a case study for an intercultural comparison of websites as public relations tools. The websites of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), and Citibank were evaluated for this specific study because they represent three models of current banks operating in a culturally-evolving Chinese society. The two-way symmetrical model of public relations and the personal influence model have provided basic framework for this thesis. To establish the two-way symmetrical public relations via the website, these three banks employ different public relations strategies due to the different organizational structure and operating systems. In addition, culture has played an important role for banks to build relationships with their various publics. Specifically, Confucian ideology, the foundation for Chinese culture, provides insights for this thesis. To cater to the publics, ICBC adhered more strictly to Chinese culture norms, while SPDB's website is a reflection of a hybrid of Western and Chinese culture. Moreover, although Citibank does not make many efforts to culturally cater to its Chinese publics, Citibank successfully built its reputation and image through building a business-oriented and expert website. / Master of Arts

This project involves the development of an administration interface that continuously scans the company's websites. The scanning focuses on three main areas. Firstly, it checks if URLs return HTTP 200 responses for all links on the site to ensure link availability. Secondly, it monitors DNS traffic by checking Name Servers and DNS A-records to ensure correct traffic routing. Thirdly, it oversees the validity and expiration dates of SSL certificates to ensure they are current and valid. All errors are documented and notified via email and Slack for quick resolution. The project was conducted in collaboration with The Generation AB, with Martin Werner serving as the supervisor. The primary goal is to optimize and make the websites more user-friendly. The development utilizes Laravel and Inertia for the back-end, along with Vue.js and Tailwind for the front-end. The project includes a detailed methodology, construction, and reflections on the execution. The report discusses encountered challenges and lessons learned, incorporating planning, technical solutions and theory. In summary, the project has succeeded, and all parts of the application functioned as expected and required / Detta projekt omfattar framställningen av ett administrationsgränssnitt som kontinuerligt skannar företagets webbplatser. Skanningen består framför allt av tre olika delar. Den första kontrollerar webbplatsens tillgänglighet genom att skanna alla länkar på webbplatsen för att säkerställa att de returnerar ett HTTP 200-svar. Den andra delen kontrollerar av DNS-trafik genom att kolla Name Servers samt DNS A-record för att säkerställa korrekt dirigering av trafik. Den tredje delen kontrollerar SSL-certifikatets giltighet samt utgångsdatum för att säkerställa att certifikaten är aktuella och giltiga. Eventuella fel ska dokumenteras samt notifieras via E-post samt Slack för enkel och snabb felhantering. Detta projekt är utfört i samarbete med The Generation AB med Martin Werner som handledare. Huvudmålet är att effektivisera och göra mer användarvänliga webbplatser. Utvecklingen sker med hjälp av Laravel och Inertia för back-end samt Vue.js och Tailwind för front-end. Projektet omfattar en detaljerad metodbeskrivning, konstruktion samt reflektioner över arbetets genomförande. Rapporten diskuterar utmaningar som uppstått samt lärdomar att ta med sig. Den inkluderar även planering, tekniska lösningar samt teori. Sammanfattningsvis har projektet lyckats och samtliga delar av applikationen fungerat som förväntat och efterfrågat.