<p><p><em>Making a decision today is quite important, especially in companies, where the consequences can bring benefits or costs. Sometimes the decisions to be made are complex and we need to evaluate many criterions that can involve several factors. In those cases, it is not easy to have a good overview of all choices and for this reason it is important to have a system that helps us in making complex decisions, when it is not possible to evaluate all the alternatives manually. This thesis describes different algorithms and tools that can aid in the process of making decisions. Based on the review of existing tools a new web based application is proposed. The new tool, Decision Maker, uses both the full Analytical Hierarchical Process approach and Chainwise Paired Comparisons method to evaluate different alternatives.</em></p></p>

<p>This thesis will look into what kind of solutions a company or a private person can use if they want to create a dynamic website using only free software. To do this we divided our work in two parts. In the first part, we developed a dynamic website for a Swedish company. On the server side we used exclusively free software with open source code. There are different meanings in how the term “free” should be used when referring to software, which we will explain in the thesis. We have also chosen to work with the XMLtechnology to see if it lives up to its expectations and to see if we could benefit from the technology. Alongside with the development of our site, another company developed a site for the same company as us, by using non-free software. We have described both implementations and compared them to see if it is possible to do the same thing with both free and non-free software. </p><p>The investigating part of our work consisted of getting information about what other people think about the free software phenomenon. To do so we created an online questionnaire where we randomly picked 100 Swedish web agencies and asked them to answer 8 questions about what kind of software they used in their company, and what they thought about free software. To get some more opinions we also interviewed two persons involved in these kinds of topics. Jan Sandred, who is a well known expert advisor in topics concerning the Information Technology area and Richard Stallman, the founder of GNU and the Free Software Movement. </p><p>The reason for dividing the thesis in two parts was to get an overall picture on the subject. We did not only want to base our results on other people’s thoughts. We wanted to make our own conclusions based on the implementation we did. This approach showed out to be very good. We got to try working with free software ourselves to see its pros and cons and build our own opinions about it. We could then proceed to compare our impressions to other people’s impressions about free software.</p>

<p>Describe and explore how French companies having a Website/homepage use Web tools and their Website/homepage.</p><p>The authors have gathered primary data through a quantitative research method. The research method chosen is the checklist observational method. The checklist used for this paper is composed of 29 items that have been observed on a sample of 20 French companies.</p>

<p>Title: French luxury companies: Challenge to do E-Commerce withoutaffecting their brand image</p><p>Authors: Clément LEMAIRE and Paul LASSALLE</p><p>Supervisor: Jean-Charles Languilaire</p><p>Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, Marketing</p><p>Key words: Marketing, E-commerce, E-merchandising, E-CRM, Louis Vuitton, Luxury market, French market, Website, Brand and Reputation</p><p>Purpose: How French luxury companies, in a context of changing demand, use the e-commerce without affecting the image of their brand?</p><p>Method: In the method we explain that we decide to use a descriptive method of research. We collect secondary data from our University Library and primary data from our observation of Louis Vuitton website. We also explain why we choose this company and what the limits of our study are.</p><p>Theoretical framework: In a first part, we have written all the definitions and information about definitions that we have used in the empirical part. It means E-Commerce, E-Merchandising, Marketing mix and ECRM. Then, we have given some information about website elements as the first page, the graphic website, buying process, electronic payment and website security. Finally, we have defined all the information about the brand and its different powers on the market: We start by a “brand awareness” explication, then we have defined “how is build a brand” to finish by the topic “band and reputation”.</p><p>Conclusions: We present the answer of our purpose. French Luxury companies use marketing tools in order to protect the image of their brand when they do e-commerce. We also bring some suggestions to Louis Vuitton and give some critics concerning our study. Finally we open our reflexion to related studies that could be interesting to do.</p>

This paper examines the results of a usability study for finding aids from the Special Collections Research Center at North Carolina State University. In 2005, the Special Collections Research Center reformatted its finding aids so that the container information, typically located on the left-hand side of the document, moved to the right-hand side of the document. The study tested the effectiveness of this change, and determined that traditional finding aids performed better. The analysis of the study’s results is followed by a discussion about Web usability guidelines for online finding aids.

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在電子商務網站上，網站設計的品質是影響使用者體驗和滿意度的主要原因。 在過去許多現有的文獻已證實他們之間的關係。不過，大部分研究則是透過問卷調查法了解用戶的反應，也就是說用戶回應有可能不準確並且存在著主觀的共同方法偏誤。而近年來，隨著腦神經科學方法的進步，利用神經科學設備去收集使用者身理資訊在社會科學和資訊系統領域已越來越受到關注。因此有趣的是，比較行為和腦神經研究結果，可以讓我們去了解是否這個新方法會幫助我們洞察網站設計效果。 基於上述目的，本研究設計了一個在台灣和中國現有的網路購物網站的現場實驗。本研究利用行為和神經科學方法去收集沉浸體驗和使用者滿意度的資料。收集腦波數據的特殊儀器是單點腦電圖（EEG），它被用於測量專注度和放鬆度。在本研究模型包括五個主要的網站設計元素（方便，美感，內容，互動性和客製化）做為自變量，沉浸經驗作為中介變量，使用者滿意度作為因變量。行為研究結果發現所有網站設計元素五個設計因素有顯著影響的沉浸體驗、沉浸經驗有顯著正向影響使用者滿意度。然而在神經科學的研究則有不同的發現，網站設計元素僅有方便，內容和客製化對沉浸經驗有正向的顯著影響。雖然沉浸經驗（由專注質和放鬆來衡量）對使用者滿意度的影響仍然存在，但是總體變異被解釋的比例值則較低（從0.56降低到0.10）。本研究認為有兩種可能的解釋：第一種是，我們所使用的腦波測量可能無法像問卷調查可以完全涵括到到整體沉浸經驗。另外可能的解釋是，先前的研究關於沉浸體驗和使用者滿意度可能在分析資料時忽略了潛在的共同方法偏差問題。 另外為了解不同地區網站設計差異，我們分析台灣大陸地區網站資料，行為研究結果發現台灣購物網站設計元素(方便、互動性、客製化)顯著影響的沉浸體驗、而大陸購物網站則是在內容、美感、客製化構面有顯著影響的沉浸體驗，兩者沉浸經驗對使用者滿意度的影響都存在。詢問受測者實際體驗經驗歸納出網站設計特性與行為研究結果相呼應。研究發現台灣一般購物網站具有反應時間快、人性化介面設計、好用搜尋和商品推薦功能特性，業者可以豐富商品內容、改進網站美感提升顧客網站體驗經驗。大陸購物網站具有商品內容豐富、商品平價大眾化、優良推薦功能、界面分類清楚好操作、網站圖片大小適中，配色和文字令人感到舒服等特性，業者可以改進網站反應時間、將網站採用繁體文字、或是提供台灣族群熟悉的網站版型方便顧客與網站互動。 / The quality of website design is a main factor that affects user experience and satisfaction with an e-commerce site. This has been confirmed by many existing literature. However, most of these studies are based on user response through questionnaire surveys. It is well-known that user responses are potentially inaccurate and are subjective to the common method bias. Recently, neuroscience method that takes advantage of neuro-scientific equipment to collect psychophysiological evidence has gained much attention in social sciences and information systems. Therefore, it is interesting to compare our findings from behavioral and neuroscience studies to see whether this new method may provide insights into our understanding of website design effect. With the above purpose in mind, this study designed a field experiment on existing e-tailing websites in Taiwan and China. Both behavioral and neuroscience methods were applied to collect data about their flow experience and user satisfaction. The particular instrument for collecting brain wave data was a one-point electro-encephalogram (EEG), which is useful for measuring attention and relaxation. Our research model includes five main website design factors (convenience, aesthetics, content, interactivity and customization) as independent variables, flow experience as a mediator, and user satisfaction as the dependent variable. Our results indicate that all five design factors had significant impact on the flow experience and the flow experience had significant positive effect on user satisfaction in our behavior study. Our neuroscience study, however, shows different findings: only convenience, content, and customization had positive impact on the flow experience. Although the effect of flow experience (measured by attention and relaxation) on user satisfaction still exist, but the R-square value is much lower (reduced from 0.56 to 0.10). We argue that there are two possible interpretations: one is that the measurement we used may not be able to capture the full flow experience as a questionnaire could do. Another alerting explanation is that previous research on flow experience and user satisfaction may have overlooked the potential common method bias issue in analyzing their data. In order to understand the difference of website design in Taiwan and China, we analysis these data. Our behavioral study shows that Taiwan online shopping design factors( convenience、interactive、customization) had significant impact on the flow experience. And China online shopping design factors (content、aesthetic、customization) had significant impact on the flow experience. Both regions data shows that the flow experience had significant positive effect on user satisfaction.The behavior study result is consistent with the website design features that inquire about users shopping experience. This study found Taiwan shopping sites have these features that including quickly response time、user-friendly interface design、 easy to search and good product recommendation function. Managers can consider enriching commodity content and improving website aesthetic feeling, in order to improve customer website experience. China shopping sites have these features that including abundant commodity、inexpensive merchandise、excellent recommendation function、clear interface classification、 appropriate image size、comfortable colors and character. Managers can improved site response time、use traditional text or provide Taiwan user familiar site type to facilitate customer interaction with website.

Most multinational enterprises face difficulties regarding what and how to best communicate activities related to corporate social responsibility. Therefore, this master thesis addresses the online communication of corporate social responsibility by Swedish multinational enterprises. The purpose is to contribute to the understanding of the way Swedish multinational enterprises reveal messages regarding corporate social responsibility to their international stakeholders while communicating with them online via their websites and social media. This research is of qualitative nature and follows a multiple case study design. The six Swedish MNEs the Volvo Group, H&amp;M, Atlas Copco, Securitas AB, Svenska Kullagerfabriken, and Svenska Cellulosa AB are included in the sample. Two methods for data collection are combined: online observation of the communication regarding corporate social responsibility on the corporate websites including sustainability reports or alike and in social media as well as qualitative, semi-structured interviews with the employees in charge of corporate social responsibility. The results indicate that the examined multinational enterprises communicated corporate social responsibility in different ways depending on whether they communicate via their corporate websites, their reports or in social media. This master thesis concludes with practical recommendations for multinational enterprises involved in communication of corporate social responsibility.

Heritage tourism is one of the fastest growing sub-categories of the tourism industry, which is arguably the largest industry in the world. When communities and regions compete for a greater share of the heritage tourism market, the authenticity and integrity of a heritage can be compromised by the way it is represented. One way to represent heritage is a “cultural route,” which has recently been added to definition of “cultural heritage” in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. The interpretation of a “cultural route,” however, continues to evolve, especially in Latin America. In anticipation of the bicentennial celebration of independence from Spain, two cultural routes were separately inaugurated in 2009: the Ruta del Libertador in Ecuador and Venezuela, and the Ruta Libertadora in Colombia. After providing an overview of the historical, political and cultural contexts that surround these routes, this paper draws upon a website content analysis to explores how national identity, cultural heritage and the legacy of Simón Bolívar are represented by the governments of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. These observations and analyses show that while both routes represent a shared heritage, the differences in their representations straddle the definitions of “authenticity” and “cultural heritage,” as the Ruta Libertadora in Colombia is a “cultural route” and the Ruta del Libertador in Ecuador and Venezuela is a “cultural tourism route.” However, when considered together, the Ruta del Libertador and Ruta Libertadora are a cultural route that more accurately represents a crucial moment in Latin American history: the liberation of South America from Spain, led by Simón Bolívar, “El Libertador.” / text

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