Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-130). / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / xii, 130 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2001. / Adviser: Fred Rothbaum. Submitted to the Dept. of Child Development. Includes bibliographical references. Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-148).

Thesis (M.Info.Sys.-Res.)--University of Wollongong, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 209-220.

Thesis (MIS.(Information Science))-University of Pretoria, 2008. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / On title page: Master of Philosophy in Information and Knowledge Management. Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration in Project Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / The beginning of the 2011 academic year in South Africa saw a number of Institutions of Higher Learning introducing online registration for their students. The efficiency and effectiveness of Information Systems is increasingly becoming a necessity and not an option for many organizations. An information system should be able to allow end users to access information easily and navigate with ease. The selected University of Technology (UoT) in this research is one of the largest public institution of higher learning in the Western Cape Province and boasts of an enrolment of more than 30 000 students per academic year. An observation was made that, during registration students stand in long queues waiting to register or for assistance to register. The system tends to ‘freeze’ whilst students are registering and students are in most cases unfamiliar with the system interface. They constantly have to enquire what to do next when going through online registration process. This study adopted a quantitative approach. The study uses constructs of the updated DeLone and McLean IS success model (2003) to analyse and explain the student’s perceptions of the online registration system. The research was undertaken to establish the student’s perceptions of the online registration system. This research identifies the challenges and success factors of introducing an online registration system, from a students’ perspective, whilst highlighting the extent to which this system has been able to solve problems associated with the manual registration era. The study seeks to assist management and those responsible for managing the current system to determine how well the system is working or not working to achieve user satisfaction. It will also assist them going forward on what to consider before, during and after implementation of an information system. Stemming from the findings of this study, recommendations were made such as making online registration available on mobile devices, online registration orientation can assist students navigate the system easily. The UoT should also consider thorough training for staff that assist students during registration to ensure good service quality.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management / Junehee Kwon / With the advancement of the Internet and information technology, consumers have access to a massive amount of information before purchase. In the hospitality industry, consumers frequently search online information to make decisions. However, there has been limited hospitality research exploring the actual information search behaviors in the online setting. The purpose of this research was to assess the actual information search behaviors of consumers when choosing restaurants through consumer review websites. To accomplish the purpose, three mixed-methods were used including eye-tracking experiments (Phase I), qualitative, retrospective think-aloud (RTA) interviews (Phase II), and a scenario-based survey (Phase III). In the eye-tracking experiments, 30 participants were recruited and instructed to conduct restaurant search tasks. Variables included fixation duration, fixation count, and visit count, indicating how long and how often consumers’ attention had been attracted to certain information areas. The eye-tracking data was also visualized through heat maps and gaze plots. Following eye-tracking experiments, RTA interviews were conducted to investigate the underlying thinking process of consumers. A playback of the recorded eye-tracking video was presented to each participant while participants verbalized their thinking process and reasoning of information search behaviors. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through grounded-theory model to identify important information elements. To overcome the limited generalizability of the eye-tracking experiments and interviews, a scenario-based survey was created, and seven hypotheses were developed to evaluate impacts of online reviews, images, and advertisements on consumers’ interests and restaurant visit intentions based on the results of Phases I and II. Restaurant selection scenarios were provided to the participants to look through screenshots of webpages in order to mimic the online environment. The online survey company Amazon MTurk was used for data collection. A total of 406 usable survey responses were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-sample Chi-square tests, and visualized heat maps. Eye-tracking experiment results revealed that images, consumer reviews, and filter functions were the top information areas to which consumers paid considerable attention. Advertisements in Yelp also received much attention from participants, but during RTA interviews, advertisements were found to be less impactful for consumers’ decision-making than the number of reviews, images with food items, and consumer reviews. Five out of seven hypotheses in Phase III were supported, indicating that it was mostly consistent with findings of the eye-tracking experiments and interviews (Phase I and II). Specifically, consumers’ interests and intentions to visit restaurants were greater for restaurants with a higher number of reviews, food images, and without advertisements. Consumers also were more interested in extremely rated reviews and preferred evenly-distributed image groups. This study contributes to the existing hospitality literature related to consumer behavior with the utilization of the innovative, combined methods of eye-tracking technology, RTA interviews, and scenario-based survey. This approach allowed the researcher to obtain a holistic view of actual consumer behavior, thinking process accompanying the behavior as well as the verification with large sample. Consumer review websites and restaurateurs were provided with specific recommendations to enhance the online user experience and improve customer satisfaction, respectively.

M.Comm. / The Financial Services industry is in the throes of significant changes and challenges. Managers confronted with the metoric of the "information age" may experience a variety of emotions, ranging from excitement to suspicion or even outright scepticism. What has changed is that more and more businesses are defining their strategies in terms of information or knowledge. Today we hear and read much about "the learning organisation", "working knowledge", "knowledge networks", "business ntelligence", "competitor intelligence". These concepts may be popular to all but to executives they need to be clear — they make strategic decisions. Executives must realise these MIS, CIS and Expert Systems, are more than tools, they are a way of life, a way to gain strategic competitive advantage in a new market — called global isation. Managers need to rely on knowledge to make decisions and add value to the financial performance and use their collective experience without becoming bogged down in methodological or technological complexity. Biggest is no longer necessary the best. Today it is often more profitable to focus attraction the best customers than to attempt to reduce cost. Executives should be cautious, even suspicious; of the technological and software solutions being offered and sceptical that one concept can do it all. This is not surprising because we are dealing with knowledge, information and above all people. Add these together and we are to paraphrase the physicist, Freeman Dyoon, "infinite in all direction". Nevertheless companies understand that past experience has shown that common purpose, culture and focus can mobilise people for profitable and personally rewarding creativity and achievement. The future competitive landscape demands no less!