Background: The tourism industry plays a crucial role in the global economy in developing countries such as Nicaragua, where it catalyzes development. Risk perception, safety considerations, user-generated content, and destination image significantly influence travel decision-making processes.    Purpose: The primary purpose of this thesis is to explore the intricate relationship between online travel planning, safety perceptions, and consumer behaviors in unexplored Central American destinations, with Nicaragua as a focal point.   Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants. 11 participants visited Nicaragua, and four residents within the tourism sector were interviewed for a broader overview of the tourism situation in the country of investigation. An inductive approach was used to conduct a qualitative analysis, followed by a thematic examination of the primary data.   Conclusion: This thesis illuminates the intricate relationship between online information, safety perceptions, and consumer behaviors in travel decision-making. By uncovering the significant impact of online travel planning platforms, visual communication, and UGC on shaping travelers' safety perceptions in Nicaragua, the study offers actionable recommendations to support the sustainable development of the country's tourism sector.

Studien syftar till att analysera equity- och debt baserad crowdfunding i förhållande till studiens primära teori om elaboration likelihood model (ELM) och hur dess variabler påverkar potentiella investerares investeringsbedömningar. Informationsasymmetri och behavioral finance har inkluderats i studien som två kompletterande delteorier. För att undersöka detta har studien avgränsats till potentiella investerare som geografiskt är bosatta i Stockholms län. Undersökningen har genomförts med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer där totalt elva potentiella investerare har intervjuats. Respondenterna har baserats på ett snöbollsurval. Intervjuerna har skett genom att respondenterna tagit del av fyra scenarion som innehåller variabler kopplade till teorin om ELM. Studiens resultat påvisar att potentiella investerare bedömer samt väljer investeringsprojekt utifrån den centrala vägen i ELM teorin, som karaktäriseras av projektets kvalitet vilken är motsatsen till den perifera vägen som istället belyser elektronisk word of mouth (WoM). / The study aims to investigate how equity- and debt based crowdfunding in relation to the study’s primary theory of elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and its variables effect on potential investors’ investment decision. Information asymmetry and behavioral finance has also been included in the study as two complementary theories. To investigate this, the study has been delimited to potential investors who are geographically resident in Stockholm County. The survey has been conducted using semi-structured interviews, where a total of eleven potential investors have been interviewed based on a chain sampling. The potential investors have been presented four scenarios that contain variables linked to the theory of ELM. The study's findings show that potential investors assess and choose investment projects based on the central path of ELM theory, characterized by the quality of the project and opposite to the peripheral road that instead illuminates the electronic word of mouth (WoM).

Martin Lindstrom (2005a) 指出除了視覺，嗅覺其實才是人類五官中最重要的，然而目前國內嗅覺相關之研究仍相當稀少。本研究由消費者之觀點出發，主要探討嗅覺線索與標的產品之一致性與否對消費者態度與購買意願的影響，並分析在「涉入程度」及「品牌概念」的調節作用下，對上述關係有何影響。 本研究經由前測，選擇手錶與運動鞋兩產品類別進入正式實驗，手錶產品類別中，以Swatch為象徵型品牌，CASIO為功能型品牌；運動鞋產品類別則以Puma為象徵型品牌，New Balance為功能型品牌。並以模擬的8張彩色平面廣告，施測於530位政大大學部之學生，進行2 (產品類別：手錶/運動鞋) x 2 (嗅覺線索：一致/不一致) x 2 (涉入程度：高/低) x 2 (品牌概念：象徵型品牌/功能型品牌) 的正式實驗。 研究結果顯示：一、就嗅覺線索主效果而言，與標的產品不一致的嗅覺線索比一致性之嗅覺線索更能提高消費者對產品的評價。二、在品牌概念的調節作用下，與標的產品不一致的嗅覺線索比一致性的嗅覺線索更能提升消費者對產品的評價，此情況在消費者面對功能型品牌時比象徵型品牌還要明顯。 整體而言，嗅覺線索的確會影響消費者對產品之評價。本研究提供行銷人員未來在採用嗅覺線索時，可考量的更多因素，以選擇合適的嗅覺線索加以應用。 / Martin Lindstrom (2005a) pointed out that other than sight, smell is the most important sense in the human anatomy. However, research on smell is still rare. This research sets out from the consumer perspective to discuss the effects that consistency between olfactory cues and target products have on purchase intention. Moderating effects of involvement and brand concept are also studied for their effects on the study. Watches and sport shoes were selected as the target products for this study. The symbolic brand in the watch category is Swatch, whereas the functional brand is CASIO; in terms of sport shoes, the symbolic brand is Puma, while the functional brand is New Balance. A2 (product category: watch / sport shoes) x 2 (olfactory cues: congruity / incongruity)x 2 (involvement: high / low) x 2 (brand concept: symbolic brand /functional brand) experimental design collected data from 530 Chengchi university students through 8 color printed advertisements. Research findings indicate the following. (1) In terms of the main olfactory cue effect, olfactory cues that are incongruent with the target product can better increase consumers’ evaluation of the product than congruent olfactory cues. (2) In terms of the brand concept moderating effect, olfactory cues that are incongruent with the target product can better increase consumers’ evaluation of the product than congruent olfactory cues. This is more evident when consumers deal with functional brands than when dealing with symbolic brands. To sum up, olfactory cues do in fact influence consumers’ evaluations of products. This study provides marketers with numerous factors that should be considered when selecting the adequate olfactory cues.

現今社群媒體已經是人們生活的一大部分，而網路提供了更容易與消費者接觸的平台給廠商呈現其廣告訴求，廣告訴求是一種策略，利用其所呈現的訴求說服消費者作出購買決策，或是改變消費者對於品牌的態度。本研究探討廣告內容的訊息訴求對於消費者購買決策的影響，並利用推敲可能性模型分析消費者的決策路徑。 因為先前針對推敲可能性模型的決策路徑主要都是以推論為主，本研究設計了一個測量中央及邊陲路徑的問卷，藉此了解受測者實際感受到的決策路徑。而整體的問卷透過一個網路實驗收集資料，結果發現廣告訴求對思考路徑有顯著的關係，理性的廣告訴求會使消費者傾向於使用中央路徑；感性的廣告訴求則會使消費者傾向於使用邊陲路徑，而認知需求會對這個關係有交互作用的影響。同時也發現思考路徑對於購買意願會有顯著影響，不同的產品類型會對於這個關係有交互作用的影響。 / Social media and the Internet are inseparable elements of modern human life. Online advertising becomes a popular method for vendors to access their consumers. Advertising appeals are important in attracting consumers’ attention of products and services. In this study, we investigate the effect of online advertising appeals on consumer’s purchase decision using the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) that proposes a central-peripheral dual-route persuasion mechanism. We designed an instrument to measure the perceived route in decision processes and applied it in an online experiment to examine how different appeals affect the central and peripheral routes in consumers’ decision processes. The results indicate that advertising appeals have significant effect on decision routes. Cognitive needs are found to have interaction effects. Decision through different routes also have significant effect on consumers’ decision, while product types have moderation effects.

軟體專案承諾升級現象發生時，可能會造成更多資源成本的投入，若投入更多的資源，而專案依然失敗，則會造成更多的浪費，是企業界最不希望看到的情形。本研究利用推敲可能性理論探討此現象，了解不同的說服方式如何影響受測者的決策過程。根據遇到專案的狀況，依照訊息訴求分成理性訴求與感性訴求的敘述方式，加入框架效應 (正向／負向) 以及訊息強度 (低／中／高) 兩變數，以自我責任作為調節變項進行探討，研究在不同情況敘述下，決策制定者接收專案訊息描述後其決策過程中的推敲可能性，以及推敲可能性與決策之間的關係。 研究發現如下： 1. 單一效果影響下，訊息強度中比起其他兩個強度較容易引起訊息接收者運用中央路徑思考。 2. 訊息訴求、訊息框架以及訊息強度會交互影響受測者推敲可能性，在正向框架下，訊息訴求與訊息強度對訊息接收者運用中央路徑做決策有顯著的交互作用。 3. 在訊息強度中與強的情況下訊息訴求與訊息框架對訊息接收者運用中央路徑做決策有顯著的交互作用。 4. 在感性訴求、正向框架與訊息強度強的訊息描述下，訊息接收者運用中央路徑思考時，較不容易做出承諾升級的決定。 5. 在自我責任調節下，則是感性訴求、負向框架與訊息強度弱的訊息描述，會引起訊息接收者運用中央路徑思考時，較不容易做出專案繼續的決策。 / Escalation of commitment is common in software project development. There are a few theories that have been used to explain this behavior, including the framing effect and self-responsibility. This study investigates the issue from the dual-path elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to examine how different persuasion routes may play roles in the decision process. An experiment was designed to study the effect of different descriptions of project status that may lead to different decision routes (central versus peripheral routes). The experiment design includes message appealing (rational vs emotional appealing), message strength (strong, medium and weak), and framing (positive vs. negative) as main variables and the responsibility as a moderator. The subject was asked to decide whether s/he would continue the project under a given scenario. Our results includes the following: 1. Message appealing, message framing, and message strength have significant interaction effect on the subject’s decision routes; 2. In positive framing, message appealing and strength has significant interaction effect on the use of the central route; 3. When message strength is medium or strong, message appealing and framing has significant interaction effect on the use of the central route; 4. Regarding to decision escalation, the likelihood of escalation is lower when the decision route is central (thinking) under the emotional appealing, positive framing, and strong message; 5. The likelihood of escalation is lower when the decision route is central under the emotional appealing, negative framing, and weak message description.

在電子商務中，評論會影響消費者的購買決策，透過評論幫助性可以篩選出關鍵的評論，以利消費者進行決策。本研究以推敲可能性模式作為研究架構，透過文字探勘挖掘評論的文本特性來探討影響幫助性之要素，中央線索除了評論長度與可讀性外，利用LDA主題模型衡量評論主題廣度；周邊線索則是透過環狀情緒模型進行情感分析，並透過評論者排名來衡量來源可信度，利用亞馬遜商店中的資料進行驗證分析。結果發現，消費者在判斷評論幫助性時，會參考中央以及周邊線索。具備高論點品質的中央線索將有效提升評論幫助性；周邊線索整體而言，證實了社會中存在負向偏誤，具備喚起度的負向情感較容易提升評論幫助性，而評論是否被認為有幫助確實會受到評論者的排名所影響。進階分析結果顯示，周邊的情感效果會受到評論者排名高低的影響，前段評論者應保持中立避免帶有個人情緒；中段評論者的評論幫助性會隨著情緒喚起度而增加；後段評論者則需要增加自身的負向情感，才能夠對於評論幫助性有正向影響。 / Online reviews are important factors in consumers’ purchase decision. The helpfulness of reviews allows consumers to quickly identify useful reviews. The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of online reviews that affect their helpfulness through the lens of the elaboration likelihood model. For the central cues, we adopt latent dirichlet allocation to measure review breadth in addition to review length and review readability. For the peripheral cues, we use the sentiment analysis based on the circumplex model to catch the emotion effect and use the ranking of the reviewers to measure the source credibility. We used a dataset collected from Amazon.com to evaluate our model. The result suggests that consumers focus both central and peripheral cues when they read reviews. Consumers care about the length, breadth and readability of reviews associated with the central route, and the emotional effects associated with the peripheral route. In the advanced research, we split our sample into 3 groups by their ranking of the reviewers. We found that the top reviewers should keep neutral and avoid personal feelings to make their reviews more helpful; the middle reviewers can use more arousal words to improve their review helpfulness; the bottom reviewers must increase their emotional valence strength, especially the negative emotion to higher the perceived review helpfulness.

<p>Security breaches nowadays are not limited to technological orientation. Research in the information security domain is gradually shifting towards human behavioral orientation toward breaches that target weaknesses arising from human behaviors (Workman et al., 2007). Currently, social engineering breaches are more effective than many technical attacks. In fact, the majority of cyber assaults have a social engineering component. Social Engineering is the art of manipulating human flaws towards a malicious objective (Breda et al., 2017). In the likely future, social engineering will be the most predominant attack vector within cyber security (Breda et al., 2017). Human failures, persuasion and social influences are key elements to understand when considering security behaviors. With the increasing concerns for social engineering and advancements in human factors-based technology, phishing emails are becoming more prevalent in exploiting human factors and external factors. Such factors have been researched upon in pairs, not overall. Till date, there is not much research done to identify the collaborative links between authority, urgency, risk perception and human factors such as personality traits, and knowledge. This study investigates about phishing email characters, external influences, human factors influences, and their collaborative effects. </p>

The concept of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) has been promoted in the past few decades all over the world. Non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners play an important role in that aspect in the U.S. because of their number (about 16 millions), the size of forest land under their control (about half of all forest land in the continental US), and the dynamism of their population (increasing number of new owners). This study sought to better understand how NIPF owners come to a decision for adoption (or non-adoption) of SFM practices. We developed a theoretical model combining four theories (the Value-Belief-Norm theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Elaboration Likelihood Model, and the Innovation-Diffusion Process) to explain NIPF's decision making. Using multivariate analyses, we determined which elements of the developed theoretical model were significant in explaining adoption of eight groups of practices. Overall, some of the most significant predictors of adoption we identified were technical assistance, motivations for owning land and the use of a written management plan. Particular attention was also directed toward the eventual relationship between education and adoption of SFM practices and it was found that NIPF owners who attended educational programs tended to be likely adopters compared to those who did not attend any educational program. Since SFM was not limited to the US, we also analyzed the concept of SFM with the same goals as in the US, but under a completely different context (socio-cultural, economic and ecologic) in Africa, through the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) system. We used four case studies and focused on criteria such as participation, equity (both procedural and distributive, power devolution, trust, etc) to analyze how CBNRM works on the field, what lessons to take from the cases to better ensure the goal of sustainability of the resources. / Ph. D.

No description available.

No description available.