Undoubtedly one of the most significant developments to affect marketing worldwide in the 21st century has been the development of the Internet. As a communication tool the Internet is emerging as a new challenge to mass media advertising. As a result advertising agencies need to readdress their techniques, services and agency structure. Additionally, the shape and form of the traditional advertising agency will need to change along with the adoption and usage of this new interactive media channel. Agencies are now being forced to consider broadening their service offerings to clients. Apart from widening their service offerings, advertising agencies are being driven to invest in building and sustaining valuable client relationships to establish client loyalty, with profit and a healthy bottom-line being the ultimate objectives. Bush, Bush and Harris (1998) point out however, that whilst a growing number of companies are interested in developing an online presence, significant confusion remains about what this new medium will offer stakeholders in the advertising industry. The study undertaken in this thesis explores the relationship between two influential stakeholders in the advertising industry - advertising agencies and their clients. To explore this relationship, the study modified Parasuraman, Zeithamal and Berry's (1988) SERVQUAL model to explore whether gaps exist between agency-client expectations of the value of the Internet as a promotional tool. The SERVQUAL model, which was designed for measuring gaps between service expectations and perceptions, was adapted for use in the business-to-business environment (B2B). In the marketing literature there is little evidence of B2B research in relation to agency-client relationships, nor has there been significant scholarly work exploring the effect of the introduction of the Internet as a promotional tool on the agency-client relationship. The research undertaken in this study aims to respond to this gap in the marketing literature by addressing the broad research question: &quotHow will the introduction of the Internet as a promotional tool impact agency-client relationships?" Undertaking a review of agency-client expectations of the value of the Internet will ascertain whether gaps exist between agency and client expectations of the value of the Internet as a promotional tool. The discovery of gaps in the agency-client relationship in relation to Internet perceptions will indicate potential opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed by advertising agencies interested in extending their advertising services to embrace the Internet as a promotional tool. A major assumption in this inquiry was that gaps would exist between agency and client perceptions of Internet value. In particular, that advertising agencies would perceive the Internet to be a more valuable promotional tool than their clients. This assumption was informed from mass media and industry press, which indicated that advertising agencies were embracing new advertising creative in website design and strategic marketing activities using interactive media such as newsgroups and email to reach customers. However, the research of Bush et al. (1998) and Ducoffe (1996) suggests that little is known about the value of these Internet-based activities. Such thinking raises questions, such as: are advertisers feeling compelled to jump on the Internet bandwagon because of its popularity, or are businesses' desires to use Internet advertising a manifestation of Internet hype? To begin to answer these questions advertising industry stakeholders need to identify whether gaps do exist between agency and client perceptions of the value of the Internet as a promotional tool. The existence of such gaps could lead to tension in the agency-client relationship, which may ultimately mean a loss of client accounts for the advertising agency. Identifying and remedying such gaps could therefore aid in ensuring long-term and profitable working relationships with the agency's clients. To undertake this advertising industry research and respond to the research questions in this study an international advertising agency network, made up of 206 offices in 90 countries and a selection of their clients, were recruited to participate in the study. A two stage survey method approach was adopted because it was a time-efficient and affordable method for collecting detailed information from a dispersed network of professionals. The survey tool was a web-based questionnaire which was firstly submitted to a selection of advertising agencies within the international agency network. On completion of the questionnaire, agencies were asked to provide contact details for their top three billing clients. The second stage of the survey research involved the submission of a client questionnaire to the client contacts provided by the advertising agency. Both questionnaires used a modified SERVQUAL multi-item scale to measure service expectations. Discrete agency and client questions were also included in the respective questionnaires to situate the SERVQUAL analysis within the context of Internet usage, value perceptions and organisational characteristics (e.g. agency size, advertising spend, experience in using interactive media). The major finding of this study is that within the international advertising agency network there were no significant gaps in agency-client expectations concerning the value of the Internet as a promotional tool. Whilst several statistical analyses were undertaken, including bivariate and multivariate techniques such as Pearson's Chi-Square cross-tabulations, independent t-tests and ANOVAs, no statistically significant results are reported. In fact, it was found that advertising agencies and clients have similar expectations of the value of the Internet as a promotional tool. Gaps actually exist in relation to the clients who use the Internet as a promotional tool and agencies who supply Internet advertising services. Many agencies within this international agency network were found to be actively using the Internet, but their Internet advertising functions were not being provided by their traditional advertising agency. Descriptive analyses reported in the findings from this research study indicate that advertising agencies in this international network need to better understand their clients' Internet promotion needs. This will ensure the establishment of healthy, profitable and long-term agency-client relationships in the future. The research findings from this study offer advertising agencies worldwide insight into client expectations of the Internet, as well as other agency services. Furthermore, the findings reported contribute to the current small body of research in relation to B2B relationships in the advertising industry. The groundwork is set for future analysis of agency-client relationships in the advertising industry. In summary, while gaps between agency and client expectations of the value of the Internet as a promotional tool were expected, this research study found that agency and client expectations are quite similar. Analysis did reveal that one important factor, which influences the agency-client relationship, relates to the provision of Internet advertising services. Specifically, when an agency is not responsible for developing and maintaining clients' Internet advertising, these clients are utilising services from external providers of Internet services. These new stakeholders, who provide specialist services (i.e. graphic design houses, Internet advertising specialists and client's in-house Internet services), are changing the competitive environment of advertising services in the industry. Another interesting discovery, specific to the sample population, was that one third of agencies within the study did not provide Internet advertising services to current clients. However, these agencies have clients that use Internet advertising. On the one hand, this finding indicates that opportunities exist for these agencies to extend their service portfolio to embrace Internet advertising. However, it also raises an important question: that is, have these agencies created greater competition by not providing a full service communication portfolio for clients? These factors, and other methodological issues will inform directions for future research to explain the influential role of the Internet within the agency-client relationship in the advertising industry.

A internet é, seguramente, a mídia que mais se expande no mundo, tendo importância crescente em todos os campos da atividade humana, seja profissional, educacional ou meramente recreativo. Essa importância é visível não apenas no grande número de pessoas que a usam em seu dia-a-dia (cerca de 33 milhões de pessoas no Brasil, 220 milhões nos Estados Unidos e mais de 1 bilhão de pessoas no mundo inteiro), nem somente pelo ritmo de crescimento nos primeiros anos da web comercial, mas principalmente pelo enorme leque de possibilidades de conteúdos e serviços disponíveis para os internautas. Dentre essas possibilidades estão os serviços de comércio eletrônico ou ecommerce, um dos mais importantes e com maior crescimento nos últimos anos, e o internet banking ou e-banking, responsável por profundas mudanças na relação dos usuários de serviços bancários com seus bancos, chegando ao ponto de correntistas não freqüentarem suas agências bancárias por anos seguidos, servindo-se apenas dos serviços online para resolver seus problemas diários e usando-se dos ATMs para saques financeiros. Esta dissertação tem o intuito de aprofundar o conhecimento da relação dos internautas com esses dois serviços, e-commerce e e-banking, analisando o fato de os dados disponíveis sobre o uso residencial da internet no Brasil indicarem que há queda no uso do segundo serviço, enquanto o primeiro continua em contínua ascensão. Esse conhecimento é importante, principalmente porque ambos são considerados similares pela literatura e, além disso, apresentavam curvas de crescimento similar até o final de 2003. Esse conhecimento passa também por entender o motivo que faz com que a intersecção dos grupos de usuários residenciais dos dois serviços seja em torno de 50% apenas, já que o internauta brasileiro, basicamente das classes A e B, tende a ser um consumidor de ambos os serviços off-line. / The internet is, for sure, the media with faster and higher growth in the world, with growing importance in all areas of human activities, from professional, educational or for entertainment. Such importance is visible not only because there are a huge number people with internet access for daily activities (around 33 million in Brazil, 220 million in the United States and 1 billion people around the world, nor because its very positive growth curve, but mainly due to its range of possibilities of contents and services available to the users. Among these possibilities are the e-commerce, one of the most important and with great growth during the recent years, and the e-banking, responsible for deep changes in the relation between banking services users and the banks, allowing some clients to stop visiting their physical agencies, using only the online channel to solve their daily problems and the ATMs to get some cash. This work intends to go deep in the knowledge of the relation among the internet users and the two services, namely e-commerce e e-banking, analyzing why the available at-home data about the Brazilian web use indicates that the second mentioned service loses audience, while the first one continues to grow in terms of visitors. Such knowledge is important, especially because both services are considered similar by the literature and, besides that, used to present a similar growth curve until de end of the year 2003. This knowledge also needs to understand why the intersection of the two groups of domestic users of both mentioned services is around 50% only, as the Brazilian internet user belongs to the richest A and B socio-economic classes, and because of this fact tends to be a consumer of both services off-line.

A internet é, seguramente, a mídia que mais se expande no mundo, tendo importância crescente em todos os campos da atividade humana, seja profissional, educacional ou meramente recreativo. Essa importância é visível não apenas no grande número de pessoas que a usam em seu dia-a-dia (cerca de 33 milhões de pessoas no Brasil, 220 milhões nos Estados Unidos e mais de 1 bilhão de pessoas no mundo inteiro), nem somente pelo ritmo de crescimento nos primeiros anos da web comercial, mas principalmente pelo enorme leque de possibilidades de conteúdos e serviços disponíveis para os internautas. Dentre essas possibilidades estão os serviços de comércio eletrônico ou ecommerce, um dos mais importantes e com maior crescimento nos últimos anos, e o internet banking ou e-banking, responsável por profundas mudanças na relação dos usuários de serviços bancários com seus bancos, chegando ao ponto de correntistas não freqüentarem suas agências bancárias por anos seguidos, servindo-se apenas dos serviços online para resolver seus problemas diários e usando-se dos ATMs para saques financeiros. Esta dissertação tem o intuito de aprofundar o conhecimento da relação dos internautas com esses dois serviços, e-commerce e e-banking, analisando o fato de os dados disponíveis sobre o uso residencial da internet no Brasil indicarem que há queda no uso do segundo serviço, enquanto o primeiro continua em contínua ascensão. Esse conhecimento é importante, principalmente porque ambos são considerados similares pela literatura e, além disso, apresentavam curvas de crescimento similar até o final de 2003. Esse conhecimento passa também por entender o motivo que faz com que a intersecção dos grupos de usuários residenciais dos dois serviços seja em torno de 50% apenas, já que o internauta brasileiro, basicamente das classes A e B, tende a ser um consumidor de ambos os serviços off-line. / The internet is, for sure, the media with faster and higher growth in the world, with growing importance in all areas of human activities, from professional, educational or for entertainment. Such importance is visible not only because there are a huge number people with internet access for daily activities (around 33 million in Brazil, 220 million in the United States and 1 billion people around the world, nor because its very positive growth curve, but mainly due to its range of possibilities of contents and services available to the users. Among these possibilities are the e-commerce, one of the most important and with great growth during the recent years, and the e-banking, responsible for deep changes in the relation between banking services users and the banks, allowing some clients to stop visiting their physical agencies, using only the online channel to solve their daily problems and the ATMs to get some cash. This work intends to go deep in the knowledge of the relation among the internet users and the two services, namely e-commerce e e-banking, analyzing why the available at-home data about the Brazilian web use indicates that the second mentioned service loses audience, while the first one continues to grow in terms of visitors. Such knowledge is important, especially because both services are considered similar by the literature and, besides that, used to present a similar growth curve until de end of the year 2003. This knowledge also needs to understand why the intersection of the two groups of domestic users of both mentioned services is around 50% only, as the Brazilian internet user belongs to the richest A and B socio-economic classes, and because of this fact tends to be a consumer of both services off-line.

Idag är konsumtion en av de största faktorerna till en ökad global uppvärmning, och människors negativa vanor till matkonsumtion ökar. I dagens samhälle är därför klimatet en viktig fråga, och klimatförändringarna som uppstår kan ha negativa konsekvenser på människors levnadssätt. E-handel har blivit vanligare då samhället blivit allt mer digitaliserat och detta är en av anledningarna till varför konsumtionen och människors beteende är ohållbart. Denna studie utfördes med hjälp av en designorienterad forskningsansats. Utifrån litteraturstudien identifierades de målbaserade spelelementen badges, progresionsmätare och poäng. De målbaserade spelelementen kombineras med riktlinjer för design av hållbar beteendeförändring, därefter var studiens syfte att undersöka huruvida kombinationen av dessa kan användas för att främja ett hållbart konsumtionsbeteende. Studiens resultat visar att kombinationen av målbaserade spelelement med riktlinjer för design av hållbar beteendeförändring kan leverera drivkraft, självmedvetenhet och vägledning vid konsumtionsprocessen. / Today, consumption is one of the biggest factors when it comes to increased global warming, and people’s negative habits of food consumption are increasing. In today's society the climate is an important issue, and the climate changes that occur may have negative consequences to the peoples mode of life. E-commerce has become more common because of the constant growth of digitalization, and this is one of the reasons why people's consumption behaviour is unsustainable. This study was performed with a designoriented research approach.  From the literature study we identified the goalbased game elements badges, progression meter and points. The goalbased game elements were combined with guidelines for design of sustainable behavior change, thereafter the purpose of the study was to investigate however the combination of goalbased game elements with guidelines of design for a sustainable behaviour change can promote a sustainable consumption behaviour. The results of the study shows that the combination of goalbased game elements with guidelines of design for a sustainable behaviour change can provide drive, self-awareness and guidance in the consumption process.

台灣加入WTO後，各產業面臨全球化之激烈競爭，而國內流通業者如何在連鎖化、大型化、多樣化、差異化的趨勢中，善用高科技，創新經營模式，提升競爭力，已是刻不容緩的課題。台灣流通業者，規模小，數量多，e化人才不足，因此政府在這方面之協助，更顯重要性。 商業司自民國90年起推動「商業e化輔導推動計畫」至民國93年止已輔導了127個體系，共由127家受輔導廠商及其帶動上線企業26,641家接受政府補助進行各項B2B需求鏈的e化應用，如電子採購(e-Procurement)、電子帳務處理(e-Payment)、企業資源規劃(Enterprise Resource Planning)、協同規劃/預測/補貨系統(Collaborative Planning， Forecasting & Replenishment)等。 為了暸解其效益，本研究就民國93年年度接受政府輔導的11個行業別，42個體系，42家受輔導廠商及5,697家帶動上線企業進行問卷普查，及個案訪談加上專家意見，進行方式與步驟如下： 1. 針對帶動上線企業之問卷調查與分析，暸解其持續上線狀況，e化效益，e化交易金額比重，e化困難點，e化滿意度並給予企業提出相關建議等。 2. 依據帶動上線企業各項問卷普查及意見彙整後，再提供受輔導廠商予以回覆，並了解關鍵性績效指標之改善或提升程度。 3. 針對回卷率特別偏低或高，或無持續上線率偏高，或持續上線率高，之受輔導廠商進行深度個案訪談。 4. 佐以商業司主辦的各項會議之專家意見 本研究綜合上述各項調查、個案訪談、意見彙總，除瞭解政府商業e化推動措施對流通業及物流業之效益外，亦針對政府、流通業及資服業提出建議，希望能在產官學研的共同努力下，利用e化提升我國流通業之競爭力。 / Industries in Taiwan have been facing severe competition in the global marketplace since Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). E-Commerce is touted as the necessary technology and management innovation for the retailing industry in Taiwan to improve its productivity and competitiveness. Since most retailers in Taiwan are small and medium firms, they frequently lack sufficient resource to implement E-Commerce. Consequently, government must provide the retailers with necessary support and guidance to upgrade their E-Commerce practices. The Department of Commerce (DOC) in Taiwan has been actively assisting the retailers with their e-commerce implementation. Between 2001 and 2004, DOC embarked on the “E-Commerce Promotion and Assistance Plan” and successfully established 127 E-Commerce systems, sponsored 127 firms who subsequently involved 26,641 affiliated firms downstream to implement various B2B programs, including e-Procurement, e-Payment, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment (CPFR). The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of DOC’s current E-Commerce policy for supporting the retailers in Taiwan. To collect necessary information, this study surveyed 42 systems, 42 sponsored firms and 5,697 affiliated firms, visited several individual retailers, and interviewed a few industry experts. The following is the research procedure followed by this study. 1. Based on the completed questionnaires from the affiliated firms, this study analyzed and studied the progress, effectiveness, sales contribution, difficulties, and satisfaction of their E-Commerce implementation. Accordingly, several suggestions for improvement were proposed. 2. The feedback from the affiliated firms was provided to those sponsored firms for adjusting their future E-Commerce strategies. 3. Identified several sponsored firms who had either low or high usage of the established E-Commerce programs and conducted in-depth interviews to understand the success and failure of the implementation. 4. Solicited expert opinions from a few DOC-sponsored meetings. With valuable information collected from the above sources, this study intends to shed light in the effectiveness of the government’s current E-Commerce policy. Additionally, this study hopes to provide suggestions to the government, the retailing industry, and the IT industry for improving the practice of E-Commerce and ultimately the global competitiveness of the retailing industry in Taiwan.