Amongst production industries, the fashion industry is one of those with the most negative impact on the environment. Globalization has driven consumption of contemporary fashion products, such as clothes, to the highest quantities ever recorded in history. Where, to globally maintain a lifestyle based on the Swedish population alone, at least four earths would have been needed. Post-purchase behaviour is an influencer on future consumer decision-making and therefore a potential driver of collaborative consumption, yet little research has focused on this field in the second-hand clothing setting. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the post-purchase behaviour of the Swedish second-hand clothing consumer. The research extends expectation confirmation theory into the new scope of double hybrid business models, where consumers make second-hand clothing purchases within a mesh of both online and offline services, from a mixture of C2C and B2C transactions. The study utilizes a qualitative method, and the result is collected from eight in-depth one-on-one interviews with Swedish consumers. The findings show that expectations, when purchasing second-hand clothes, may differ between online and offline platforms. Subsequently the concepts of post-purchase behaviour are also experienced differently depending on the purchase having been made in a physical store or from an online seller. Practical implications are connected to the risk minimizing strategies that consumers adopt when trying to avoid disappointing and regretful purchases. The study provides new information about the differences in expectations and post-purchase behaviour between online and in store purchases of second-hand clothing and examines the Swedish consumer from a collaborative fashion consumption perspective.

There is currently a digital revolution in the real estate industry. Property technology, or PropTech is seeing new startups emerge in a rapid rate. The management of real estate assets is an area that PropTech is currently digitalizing, and part of it is facilitating tenant communication and property maintenance. This includes the digitalization of the existing process of issue reporting for tenants and the subsequent delegation of property caretakers to issues. A part of successfully digitalizing the issue reporting process is decreasing the amount of phone calls and email to the service reception, and instead diverting traffic to the web-based issue reporting service. A startup providing such services has identified that a considerable amount of communication to the service reception is concerning ongoing issue reports. This was recognized even with issues that were reported digitally, tenants make follow- up correspondence about an issue they have reported. An exploratory research study was therefore conducted to discover why and when tenants inquire about an ongoing issue, and to determine in what ways a confirmation process of a web- based issue reporting service can be developed, such that it appeases tenants’ concerns about their ongoing issue report. The results of the study show that tenants make a follow-up inquiry about their issues when the following factors are not met: expectation, transparency in communication, and assurance. These same factors should be considered in designing a confirmation process. A web-based issue reporting service should have a confirmation process that meets the tenant’s expectations on how their issues should be addressed, allow property managers to be transparent to their tenants in order to frame said expectations, and provide adequate assurance to the tenants that their issue report has been received by a service representative. / Det finns för närvarande en digital revolution inom fastighetsbranschen. Fastighetsteknologi, eller PropTech ser nya startups växa i snabb takt. Förvaltningen av fastighetstillgångar är ett område som PropTech för närvarande digitaliserar, och en del av det underlättar hyresgästkommunikation och fastighetsunderhåll. Detta inkluderar digitaliseringen av den befintliga processen för rapportering av problem för hyresgäster och den efterföljande delegeringen av arbetsorder till fastighetsskötare. En del av att framgångsrikt digitalisera felanmälningsprocessen är att minska antalet telefonsamtal och e-post till servicemottagningen, och istället att omdirigera trafik till den webbaserade felanmälningstjänst. En startup som tillhandahåller sådana tjänster har identifierat att en betydande mängd kommunikation till servicemottagningen gäller pågående rapporter. Detta erkändes även med felanmälan som rapporterades digitalt, hyresgästerna följer upp korrespondens om ett problem de har rapporterat. En undersökande forskningsstudie genomfördes därför för att upptäcka varför och när hyresgäster frågar om en pågående fråga, och för att avgöra på vilket sätt en bekräftelseprocess för en webbaserad problemrapporteringstjänst kan utvecklas, så att den lugnar hyresgästens oro över deras pågående utgivningsrapport. Resultaten av studien visar att hyresgäster gör en uppföljningsfråga om sina felanmälan när följande faktorer inte är uppfyllda: förväntningar, öppenhet i kommunikation och försäkran. Samma faktorer bör beaktas vid utformningen av en bekräftelseprocess. En webbaserad problemrapporteringstjänst bör ha en bekräftelseprocess som uppfyller hyresgästens förväntningar på hur deras frågor ska hanteras, tillåta fastighetsförvaltare att vara transparenta för sina hyresgäster för att inrama förväntningarna och försäkra hyresgästerna att deras fråga rapporten har tagits emot av en servicerepresentant.

Rapid diffusion and use of smartphones in Africa are challenging, given the state of its infrastructural facilities. The problem addressed was a lack of information on the adoption behavior and the sociodevelopmental effect of smartphone acceptance among rural and urban users in Nigeria. The purpose of this study was to examine the adoption behavior and the sociodevelopmental effect of smartphone acceptance among rural and urban residents. Research questions examined the relationship of performance expectancy, social influence, price value, and habit on adopters' intentions to use smartphones, continued use of smartphones, and the sociodevelopmental effect on smartphone users lives and standard of living. The theoretical foundation of the study was based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, and expectation confirmation theory. A nonexperimental cross-sectional survey design was used to collect and analyze data obtained from the target population of approximately 14 million with a sample size of 385 based on 95% confidence level. Survey data were collected using a research instrument developed by Bhattacherjee, Venkatesh, and others and analyzed via multivariate regression. Findings indicated that the positive effect of performance expectancy on intent to use smartphones was stronger among urban than among rural dwellers. No other location-moderated relationships were found. There was a strong positive correlation (β = .761, p < .001) between intent to use smartphones and continued use of smartphones. The findings of this study may promote social change by providing valuable data to service providers and regulators for realignment of investment strategies and the reevaluation of national policies on communication technology development.

There was a lack of knowledge about the user’s acceptance of smart devices as ubiquitous learning (u-learning) tools at higher education institutions in Sweden. As the mobile technology grows, the demand for mobile devices, particularly smart devices increases as well. With the increase in the usage of smart devices, the higher education institutions provide mobile learning platforms to attract more customers in the competitive industry of education. Thus, understanding the key factors from the perspectives of end-users is important for the institutions to survive in the competitive market. This study explores and explains Behavioral and Continuance intentions of students regarding the acceptance and usage of smart devices (Smartphones and Personal Digital Assistants or PDA) as u-learning tools. Key factors related to the users’ intentions to accept and continue using smart devices as u-learning tools were identified and hypothesized in the Swedish context. Ten hypotheses were suggested based on TAM, UTAUT, and ECT. To achieve the aim and objective of this study, a quantitative approach was chosen, and a survey strategy based on purposive and convenience sampling techniques were used. A web-based questionnaire on five-points Likert Scale was designed to collect the required data. 115 (96 valid) students answered the questionnaire. The collected data were used to conduct statistical operations in SPSS. Five hypotheses were supported, and the other five were not. The findings suggest that Performance Expectancy, Perceived Mobility value, Confirmation, and Satisfaction positively influence both Behavioral and Continuance Intentions of students to accept and continue using smart devices as u-learning tools. According to the findings, Confirmation and Satisfaction from ECT can be included as separate constructs in UTAUT and UTAUT2. Higher education institutions planning to have (and those that already have) learning platforms, compatible with smart devices, can benefit from the findings. Higher education institutions can also design their u-learning platforms according to the Performance Expectancy, Perceived Mobility value, Confirmation, and Satisfaction of the students. / Master program in Strategic-IT Management

La réalisation de prédictions précises et surprenantes est une pratique essentielle des sciences empiriques et la confirmation de ces prédictions semble représenter l’un de leurs principaux succès théoriques et pratiques. Ainsi de nombreux scientifiques et épistémologues attribuent-ils aux succès prédictifs le pouvoir de confirmer des hypothèses, d’influencer le cours de l’histoire scientifique, voire de révéler quelles théories reflètent la réalité. Pourtant les prédictions s’appuient souvent sur des représentations simplifiées, idéalisées ou fictionnelles de la réalité. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’analyser l’activité prédictive pour comprendre en quoi consistent les succès prédictifs et quelle portée on peut légitimement leur conférer. L’enjeu de cette analyse est notamment de savoir si une théorie ayant engendré un succès prédictif peut être considérée comme vraie ou partiellement vraie.La première partie de la thèse est consacrée à l’analyse de l’activité prédictive et conclut qu’il existe une pluralité de raisonnements et de succès prédictifs. La deuxième partie étudie l’influence de ces succès sur l’évolution d’une discipline, la cosmologie, de 1917 à nos jours et montre que les scientifiques attribuent de l’importance aux prédictions qui indiquent la capacité prédictive d’une hypothèse ou d’une théorie. Dans la troisième partie, je soutiens que le rôle des prédictions dans le choix rationnel des hypothèses est de permettre de juger de leur fécondité. La quatrième partie étudie les limites de la portée des succès prédictifs en montrant qu’ils ne permettent pas de savoir quels aspects des théories dont ils sont issus reflètent la réalité. / Deriving precise and surprising predictions is a key feature of scientific activity. The confirmation of these predictions by severe tests seems to represent major theoretical and practical successes in the field of empirical sciences. Therefore, many scientists and philosophers of science view predictive successes as having an important weight in scientific change, theory choice and for the identification of true claims about reality. However, predictions are often derived from simplified or idealised representations of real-world systems. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse the predictive activity of empirical sciences in order to circumscribe the scope of predictive success. First, I claim that predictive successes come in many forms and structures. In the second part, I investigate the impact of successful predictions in the history of modern cosmology since 1917 and argue that scientists value predictions attesting the predictive capacity of new hypotheses. In a third part, I examine the weight of successful predictions in the confirmation of hypotheses and claim that they serve as a proxy for one of the most important virtues of theories: fruitfulness. The last part is dedicated to the limits of scientific successes and shows that novel predictions cannot help us to circumscribe which posits of scientific theories are worthy of belief.

This thesis examines the effects of Culture, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT) and Technology Readiness (TR) on the satisfaction and usage continuance intention of Internet banking customers within the Saudi Arabian context. The aim is to develop and test a new framework for use in determining the factors that affect Internet banking customers’ actual usage behaviours, with a special focus on the role of cognitive processes, and cultural and personal psychological traits. This research uses cross-sectional survey questionnaire methods within a quantitative approach. 261 valid responses were received. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesised relationships within the research model in Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS 20) software. ECT is well established in conventional marketing literature and explains how cognitive beliefs and affects lead to customers’ repurchasing behaviour. It was first adopted for the Information Systems (IS) context and then customised to explain IS continuance intention behaviour. However, previous ECT customisations in the IS context present a significant knowledge gap because technology-based services are sensitive to individuals’ psychological traits, which ECT does not account for. This research integrates psychological traits and culture into the ECT framework to explain customer satisfaction and continuance intentions in the context of Internet banking usage. It combines ECT with the UTAUT in order to expand ECT to include more cognitive beliefs. Then it integrates TR and Culture to account for psychological and sociological traits. The results present a new contribution to the body of knowledge by validating a theoretically backed integration of the above models into one structural model. This model broadens the understanding of the factors that influence IS satisfaction and usage continuance intention. Compared to previous studies, the explanatory power of this model is a major improvement, with an R2 of (0.61) for usage continuance intention.

Intelligent conversational agents (ICAs) are artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled systems that can communicate with humans through text or voice using natural language. The first ICA, “Eliza,” appeared in 1966 to simulate human conversation using pattern matching. Commercial ICAs appeared on the AOL and MSN platforms in 2001 and aided in developing advanced AI and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Since then, ICAs have progressively appeared in consumer products and services. Their success depends on the user’s experience and attitude towards these services. This research examines customer attitudes towards ICAs through a theoretical framework of integrated Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT) and Task Technology Fit Theory (TTF). By exploring user experience via an experiment that engages end-users with ICA’s different functions and tasks, this study examines user perception of ICA’s AI capabilities, such as Conversation Ability, Friendliness, Intelligence, Responsiveness, Task Performance, and Trust. This research investigates how customer satisfaction with ICA capabilities and perceived task technology fit influence their intention to use ICAs. A field survey of 380 Canadian end-users utilizing ICAs on the websites of five large Canadian telecom service providers enabled empirical testing of the model. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)