Esta investigación examina las diversas estrategias de branding online y su efecto en la construcción de valor o Brand equity en los jóvenes millenials de 20 a 30 años en Lima metropolitana, respecto a las aplicaciones móviles de servicios como Rappi y Glovo. Este tema se desarrolla a través de las diversas teorías y comentarios de autores que tienen especialidad en el desarrollo de imagen e identidad para las marcas, así como especialistas que entienden la manera en cómo el público se puede ver influenciado por este tipo de herramienta. Analizando el caso especifico de Rappi y Glovo en Perú, se ha logrado entender la influencia y repercusión de sus estrategias de branding online en el público objetivo definido. Este estudio explora los cinco niveles del brand equity (brand awareness, brand associations, valor percibido, imagen de marca y lealtad de marca) a través del modelo de WPP del Meaninfull Diferrent Framework (MDF) que nos permite entender la saliencia, diferencia y signficiancia de las marcas en un mercado de manera más simple y eficaz. También, apoyándonos en el modelo tradicional del Brand equity podemos entender el nivel en el cual se ubican en este modelo del valor de marca. El alcance de cada nivel de este modelo de análisis ha dependido del impacto y relevancia de los esfuerzos comunicacionales, respecto al branding, en fan pages, aplicaciones móviles de las marca, o las diversas estrategias aplicadas por las empresas para poder ser relevantes para el público. / This research examines the various online branding strategies and their effect on the construction of value or Brand equity in young millennials from 20 to 30 years old in metropolitan Lima, regarding mobile applications of services such as Rappi and Glovo. This theme is developed through the various theories and comments of authors who specialize in the development of image and identity for brands, as well as specialists who understand the way in which the public can be influenced by this type of tool. Analyzing the specific case of Rappi and Glovo in Peru, it has been possible to understand the influence and impact of their online branding strategies on the defined target audience. This study explores the five levels of brand equity (brand awareness, brand associations, perceived value, brand image and brand loyalty) through the WPP model of the Meaninfull Diferrent Framework (MDF) that allows us to understand the salience, difference and significance of brands in a market more simply and effectively. Also, based on the traditional Brand equity model, we can understand the level at which they are located in this brand value model. The scope of each level of this analysis model has depended on the impact and relevance of communication efforts, regarding branding, fan pages, mobile applications of the brand, or the various strategies applied by companies to be relevant to the public. / Trabajo de investigación

Recent advance in health and technology has made mobile apps a viable approach to delivering behavioral interventions in areas including physical activity encouragement, smoking cessation, substance abuse prevention, and mental health management. Due to the chronic nature of most of the disorders and heterogeneity among mobile users, delivery of the interventions needs to be sequential and tailored to individual needs. We operationalize the sequential decision making via a policy that takes a mobile user's past usage pattern and health status as input and outputs an app/intervention recommendation with the goal of optimizing the cumulative rewards of interest in an indefinite horizon setting. There is a plethora of reinforcement learning methods on the development of optimal policies in this case. However, the vast majority of the literature focuses on studying the convergence of the algorithms with infinite amount of data in computer science domain. Their performances in health applications with limited amount of data and high noise are yet to be explored. Technically the nature of sequential decision making results in an objective function that is non-smooth (not even a Lipschitz) and non-convex in the model parameters. This poses theoretical challenges to the characterization of the asymptotic properties of the optimizer of the objective function, as well as computational challenges for optimization. This problem is especially exacerbated with the presence of high dimensional data in mobile health applications. In this dissertation we propose a regularized greedy gradient Q-learning (RGGQ) method to tackle this estimation problem. The optimal policy is estimated via an algorithm which synthesizes the PGM and the GGQ algorithms in the presence of an L₁ regularization, and its asymptotic properties are established. The theoretical framework initiated in this work can be applied to tackle other non-smooth high dimensional problems in reinforcement learning.

Mobile enterprise applications (MEAs) are found in increasing numbers in organisations as smart-devices become an everyday necessity amongst employees and customers. Large amounts are invested in these applications, so it is important to see the value in improved business processes and the consequential improvement in business performance. Realising the benefits from their use is important to obtain the value from these investments. Yet, benefits management (BM) is poorly implemented in companies and a first step to improve this situation is to improve the visibility of the benefits that can be achieved by using MEAs. Hence the primary question asked in this study is “How can MEA benefits be successfully realised?” The strategy used to answer the question was action research in a single organisation using three MEAs in two different action research cycles. The study was conducted in a short-term insurance company in the Western Cape of South Africa with an established IT and project capability. Globally, the short-term insurance industry is under a significant threat from disruption by market entrants who don’t have to navigate legacy systems and who are more agile with their product offerings. Traditional insurers are looking for innovative solutions to transform the way in which insurance is sold and serviced. A BM process, which was modified from the literature, was refined through action cycles in three MEA projects to improve benefits realisation. The result showed that for MEA projects, which are not very large investments relative to other IT projects, a lighter, less cumbersome process was more practical and acceptable in the organisation. The creation of a benefits and risks template, during the action cycles, helped the organisation to build stronger business cases for MEA projects and also allowed for more comprehensive benefit identification, measurement and tracking, ultimately realising business performance improvements. The study also used a survey amongst 88 brokers and assessors to determine the factors which influence their adoption of these MEAs. The most significant factors influencing user adoption were the company’s willingness to fund the smart-devices, the ease of use of the MEA, job relevance and location dependence. A limitation of this study is that the organisation has a particular approach to project funding whereby the importance of BM is weighed against the cost of the project, hence BM is more important for very expensive projects. While the model prescribed in this study was sufficient in this context, it may not be suitable for organisations that are more conscientious about BM. This model would need to be tested in other contexts for transferability. A further limitation was the duration of time available for conducting this study because this was a PhD research project. Further action cycles might have refined the process further. The findings from this study are relevant to researchers and to organisations wanting to deploy MEAs. The BM process defined in this study can be used in MEA projects as a process to manage the identified benefits and ensure that they are realised. The benefits template can be used as a first step in the BM process to build the business case and the risks template can be used to identify potential problems that could hinder benefits realisation and can used to put mitigating actions in place to prevent problems to benefits realisation. The identification of factors influencing adoption of MEA can help organisations focus on these factors to ensure that their MEAs are used and they thereby derive benefits. The theoretical contributions of this study are a process model for the BM body of knowledge and a model explaining the factors influencing symbolic adoption of MEA. The identification and description of benefits and risks extends the body of knowledge for mobile applications research. These specific issues in the context of MEAs in the short-term insurance industry are understudied.

Scholars have paid increased attention to the impact of social technologies on organizational communication but have yet to explore how their use has influenced organizational socialization, a process in which organizational newcomers transition into the organization. To fill this gap, this thesis investigates the use of social networking applications, a type of social technology, and its relation to three key processes in organizational socialization: information seeking, identity work, and workplace relationship development. Drawing on the concepts of affordance and paradox, this thesis examines how technological features and human factors such as mobile communication culture, technological frames of users, and organizational contexts shape processes of using social networking applications during organizational entry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese organizational newcomers regarding their experience of using WeChat, the most popular social networking mobile application in China. Findings suggest that WeChat provides communicative opportunities that are otherwise not available in other communication platforms or channels. The participants obtain official and unofficial information from using WeChat. In addition to conventional, direct information seeking, the participants rely on persistence of information afforded by WeChat to indirectly access information. The participants seek information about identity expectations through indirect methods such as observation and experiment with their provisional identities using WeChat Moments. Details of mundane everyday work life and achievements are the most frequently mentioned content for identity construction. For workplace relationship development, the participants develop metaknowledge of their coworkers through browsing their coworkers' posts from WeChat Moments. WeChat work groups provide opportunities for newcomers to initiate and develop relationships with their coworkers with low social costs. Despite that WeChat provides lots of benefits, the participants describe WeChat as a problematic tool in that they could be trapped in paradoxical situations when they are concerned with engagement in organizational communication flows, construction of flexible identities, genres of professional communication enabled by WeChat, and blurred boundaries between professional and personal life. Dealing with these paradoxes provides opportunities for newcomers to learn technology culture of their organizations, reflect on their technological frames, and adjust their expectations and behaviors with respect to WeChat use. This technologically occasioned learning is an unexpected outcome of responding to the paradoxes of using WeChat during organizational entry. This thesis extends organizational communication research to provide an initial exploration of the use of social technologies in organizational socialization, uncovering how social networking sites and applications both enable and constrain information seeking, identity work, and workplace relationship development. It also provides insights into how various individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors influence the perceived affordances of social networking mobile applications and how these factors interact to shape the paradoxical user experience. With their wide adoption in the contemporary workplace, social networking sites and applications have huge potential to help newcomers transition into new organizations and have become an important aspect in organizational socialization. By learning and adapting to the norms of use for social networking sites and applications in new organizations and making sense of paradoxes in their user experience, newcomers can begin to understand the technology culture of their new organization. This thesis argues that it is necessary to reconceptualize organizational socialization, taking into consideration distinctive processes enabled and constrained by social technologies, and to reflect upon how organizational tactics and the design of social technologies can help newcomers to learn, to adapt, and to thrive in their organizations.

This thesis looks to explore from a user-centered standpoint, which mobile application features are relevant in the social integration of new arrivals in Sweden. Mobiles are used by individuals who are moving away from home not only to stay connected to their close ones but also as a way for empowerment and adaption in their new homes. Access to information helps immigrants to face the new challenges new host societies present. Nowadays mobiles and more specifically smartphones are becoming the principal sources for new arrivals to obtain information. As mobiles become more common among immigration groups, governments and institutions are turning to them as new ways for addressing migration challenges such as integration. This thesis, through a participatory design study, explores possible mobile digital application features that could be relevant in the social integration of immigrants. The goal is to develop through a cooperative and co-design method a prototype of a mobile application that can fit better with the necessities of new arrivals and can also facilitate better ways for social integration. As a result, it could be determinate that features that provide users the ability to gather information from one source are the most important for immigrants. Additionally, users want to be able to have control over the information they are receiving according to what phase they are at the integration process. Also, digital features seem not to be enough and digital and offline cooperation are suggested. In the process, participants provided innovative ways on how integration challenges can be addressed.

Over 90% of faculty members in higher education have access to smart mobile devices. However, data are lacking about community college faculty members’ use of smart mobile devices and applications for instruction and content delivery. The purpose of this study was to examine Tennessee community college full-time faculty’s use of smart mobile devices, to determine if there were any significant differences in the mean scores measuring attitudes and use of smart mobile devices by generational age grouping, teaching discipline, rank, years of teaching and to determine if Tennessee community college faculty members who under-utilize mobile technologies for teaching also hold negative opinions about them. This study measured Tennessee Community College faculty use of smart mobile devices and their attitudes and use of smart mobile devices by generational age groups, teaching discipline, rank, and years of teaching. This study used quantitative, nonexperimental survey design. The survey instrument was an electronic questionnaire, consisting of 15 items that were divided into 7 dimensions. The dimensions were: Learning Preference, Institutional Training, Frequency, Attitude, Willingness to Attend PD Training, Willingness to Use, and Competence. Of the 267 possible participants, 93 (35%) responded to the survey. Data from the survey were used to analyze 5 research questions and 35 null hypotheses. Two research questions were analyzed using independent-samples t test 2 and 3 analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. Testing the null hypotheses associated with the 5 research questions resulted in 7 significant findings and 28 findings that were not significant. The findings indicated that there were significant differences in professional development training scores by generational age, and by academic rank. There were significant findings in learning preference by teaching discipline and training by teaching disciplines. Last, there were significant differences in some of the dimensions by years of experience. The results of this study may benefit administrators and educators in knowing what groups are open to professional development training for using smart mobile devices for instruction and in what areas to provide training.

Since the advent of the smartphone, mobile applications on these devices have increasingly gained in popularity and have become a staple in the everyday lives of people. This trend has resulted in the development of millions of applications, yet the majority of them are never downloaded or used for a variety of reasons. It is therefore important for consumer behavior research to be conducted on a continuous basis in order to analyze and stay up to date with factors that lead to intention and thereafter, usage of mobile applications. Also, it is necessary to take into account the immense popularity of social media, which has provided firms with an effective avenue to market new applications. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate the determinants of usage intention of new and free mobile apps in the context of social media marketing.  In order to measure intention, two proven and tested theoretical models were incorporated into the creation of the research model of this study and the formation of the hypothesis; namely the theory of planned behavior (TPB), as well as the technology acceptance model (TAM). To test the hypothesis, a quantitative study was conducted with the help of a self-completion questionnaire which was distributed on social media, and the data collection resulted in 250 valid respondents. The data was processed and analyzed using multiple regression using the statistical program SPSS in order to test the significance of the various independent variables with intention to use new and free apps. The regression analysis resulted in several hypothesis being accepted. Notably, intention to use was highly influenced by attitude, as well as significant relationships between intention and perceived ease of use, as well as perceived behavioral control. Significant relationships were also discovered between attitude, perceived usefulness, and trust. Marketers of new and free mobile apps should focus on fostering a positive attitude through marketing on social media, always be intent on trust-building activities, and work with the developers to create easy to use and highly useful apps. The authors recommend that future studies focus on the influence of different kinds of social media activities on consumers intention to use new and free apps, as social media was only the context of the current study.

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AIM: To review and characterize dental mobile apps in the peer-reviewed literature and two popular mobile app stores, and assess their quality. METHODS: A scoping review methodology was used to identify different types of mobile dental apps in seven medical and technical databases. The data of the identified research studies on dental apps were extracted (coded) by two researchers in a systematic process and the results were analyzed. Dental apps’ characteristics, publication pattern, development methodology, efficacy, and usability were reported. Then, a systematic review was conducted in Google Play and iOS app stores to identify patient-facing dental apps. Popular keywords were identified from multiple sources such as using Google Trends. Two researchers extracted the information of the identified dental apps and descriptive, and correlation analyses were conducted. Apps were evaluated for the presence of behavior change techniques (BCTs), evidence-based guidelines, technological features, privacy and security, credibility and health literacy. Lastly, a quality assessment using MARS scale was conducted for a selected sample of dental patient-facing apps from the published literature and the popular app stores. RESULTS: The search resulted in 38 studies on dental apps. The identified dental apps (37) targeted multiple users and the common topic was oral pathology such as dental caries. The majority of dental apps was developed for diagnostics and screening purposes (40.5%). Apps included varied features and educational strategies. Only two papers used theories for developing dental apps, and five studies followed user-centered design principles. Fourteen papers only reported the use of clinical guidelines for developing dental apps (36.8%). Mobile app search resulted in 52 patient-facing dental apps (37 Android apps, and 15 iOS apps). The majority of apps focused on Oral Hygiene Behavior (31%). Apps targeted multiple users and contained varied features and BCTs including instructions (80.8%) and credible source (67.3%). Eleven apps were identified for the third project and the highest total MARS score was Philips Sonicare. The app contained the largest number of features compared to other apps (24). CONCLUSION: The dissertation will warrant the selection and prescription of high-quality dental apps, and will advance the research work in mobile apps in dentistry.

No description available.