In the recent years, the mobile phone from analog era to the 2G era and more to 3G, mobile phones is not only a single kind of communication products, but also it became an integral part in daily life. Advances in hardware and the popularity of telecommunications providers to provide 3G network service, makes smart phones became convenience and functional. It brings consumers a new experience. In June 2007, Apple led the launch of the iPhone. Its intuitive touch interface, multi-application software, and humanness designs, coupled with value-added services to mobile carrier model, and combined Internet community effect, creates a leading mobile company. Consumers still demand for the smart phones, and drive to the multi-function in the compound-oriented. Thus, a powerful portable devices become a must need. However, in varied mobile phone manufacturers, the most representative product is iPhone. In order to understand the niche market, we have to study the customer loyalty. And, we create literature related subject and conceptual framework for the iPhone users. In the study, the main structures are how customer satisfaction, brand identity and customer lock-in affect the customer loyalty. And, we will discover the co-related factors of the main frame. However, the point of view for the iPhone user will be also considered if the customer satisfaction (affection) will influence in customer loyalty. The affection factors will be considered as perceived usefulness, ease of use, compatibility and enjoyment. Last, w will reveal the analysis result and implication management.

Recently, more business reduced marketing expenses for responding the changes of macro-economic environment. The business strategy turned traditional marketing into internet marketing. More business used internet marketing to compete with others. Because internet industry grown speedily that ¡§Otaku Economy ¡§changed consumer behavior on shopping. In addition, these economy models become more strong shopping power. Consumers change their shopping patterns that it carries more opportunities and economy effects when the environment is in a slump. The research has four purposes as follows: First, to discuss e-commerce bring the effectiveness of brand essentially. Second, to explore affected on purchase decision-making whether internal or external factors when consumers use e-commerce process. However, people perceive differently for online shopping on decision model. People have difference effects on perceived price, perceived quality, perceived value and purchase intention in their mind. In addition, we want to discuss that consumer¡¦s brand loyalty when people face more choice on online shopping websites. Finally, we observed effectiveness on brand A and the gap between business and consumer in business side. The model was tested using SPSS 17.0 Variate Statistical Analysis and Case Study. The sample size of this survey includes 360 respondents, 335 were identified as usable. PayEasy were selected for the study. The findings are as follows: 1. We demonstrated the price-perceived value concept model that found consumers considered the more quality on products/ website the more overall value in their mind. The result created more purchase probability. 2. Two group are 15-18 year-old students and office workers bought cosmetic products online frequently because without time and space limit. More and more female consumers interest in online shopping. 3. In fact, people have lower brand loyalty on online shopping due to they have more choices. Product substitution and cheaper price could affect consumer decision-making behavior. 4. PayEasy has more unique competitiveness on information flow, product flow, cash flow, logistics and CRM. The key contribution of the research is that we reflect opinions of people and perspectives gap on e-commerce in consumer and business side. Further, we understand factors of decision-making process in consumer¡¦s mind that will help to enhance relationship between business and consumers on e-commerce. And helping business create more new innovate model to increase brand effectiveness.

¡§Introductory Price¡¨ is a quality signal used in the service introductory period, implying consumers that introductory price brought the loss to service providers. Consumers will guess service providers wish them repurchase the service to recover their loss, so the service should be higher quality and higher value. Past researchers¡¦ empirical studies about signal theory mostly focused on products. Therefore, the objective of this study is to verify whether ¡§Introductory Price¡¨ is an effective quality signal in service industry, and find out other potential variables which have moderate effect with ¡§Introductory Price¡¨. This study use experimental design to examine consumers¡¦ perceived quality, perceived sacrifice, perceived value, and purchase intention when they hear about the introductory price information of new service. Besides, this study use ¡§Price estimate¡¨ to develop a new concept ¡§Relative Introductory Price¡¨. ¡§Introductory Price¡¨, ¡§Competitor¡¦s Price Information¡¨, and ¡§Cost Information¡¨ will influence ¡§Relative Introductory Price¡¨, which will influence the consumers¡¦ perceived quality. The result shows that even though consumers can¡¦t differentiate the introductory price and long-term price, and still think ¡§low price means low quality¡¨, but other price information still has the moderate effect with ¡§Introductory Price¡¨ to influence the ¡§Relative Introductory Price¡¨. Besides, the service providers in Taiwan used to make a high origin price. This kind of pricing style makes existence of other price information become more important.

Abstract This study examines the relationship between perceived brand fit, perceived risk, perceived value and intention to purchase in the context of co-branded hotels and restaurants. Today’s market contains many products and services that can look very similar, and companies use co-branding of their products to make them distinctive from other products on the market. A better understanding of consumer behaviour and attitude to co-branding may improve restaurant profitability and hotel occupancy. One important question to be considered is what determines consumers’ willingness to purchase in co-branded hotel and restaurants? In spite of a number of research papers on hotel-restaurant co-branding written in recent years, previous academic studies have not addressed the relationship between co-branding of hotels and restaurants and intention to purchase. The aim of this research is to examine how the relationship of brand fit, risk and value relate to intention to purchase, and to do this three research questions and eleven hypotheses are proposed. A previous study by Boo and Matilla (2002) has proposed a conceptual model of hotel-restaurant brand alliance strategies, relating management strategy characteristics and consumer characteristics with the consequences of perceived brand fit. The present study develops this existing model by examining the components of brand fit that determine consumer intention to purchase. The study investigates three main areas: firstly, it examines the relationship between perceived brand fit and intention to purchase in terms of perceived fit (overall), complementary fit based on product usage and product goal, and transferability fit based on service quality. Secondly, it examines the relationship between perceived risk and intention to purchase in terms of personal characteristics including risk-taking behaviour and self-confidence; uncertainty of loss including financial loss, time loss and physical loss, and, performance risk. Thirdly, it examines the relationship between perceived value and intention to purchase in terms of perceived brand image, perceived quality and perceived sacrifice, based on monetary and non-monetary price. A quantitative approach involving survey of hotel guests has been employed with data collected in four and five star hotels in Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand from August to September 2008. A survey questionnaire was administered to guests and a total of 511 completed responses were collected. The data analyses performed using a standard multiple regression method, a paired sample T-test, a chi-square test and a multiple response technique. The results indicate that the model of perceived brand fit in this study has two key components which positively influence a consumer’s intention to purchase. Firstly, the perceived fit (overall), and, secondly, complement fit based on product usage and product goal. Furthermore, for the perceived risk model the finding also indicates two key components which positively influence a consumer’s intention to purchase. The first component is uncertainty of loss in terms of financial, time and physical loss. The second component is performance risk in terms of product and service performance. Lastly, the results indicate that the perceived value model revealed three components which are positively related to consumer’s intention to purchase. The first component is perceived brand image, the second component is perceived quality, and the last component is perceived sacrifice in terms of both monetary and non-monetary price. The conceptual framework developed and tested in this study can be used as a guideline to enable an appropriate co-branding marketing strategy to be developed.

Submitted by Lucia Salmonson Guimarães Barros (lucia.barros@fgv.br) on 2017-02-16T11:43:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Crowdfunding_biblioteca_vf.pdf: 1891312 bytes, checksum: 6d94a5e4f152497a8a5a503ccfc37e36 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2017-02-23T17:49:40Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Crowdfunding_biblioteca_vf.pdf: 1891312 bytes, checksum: 6d94a5e4f152497a8a5a503ccfc37e36 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-24T12:55:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Crowdfunding_biblioteca_vf.pdf: 1891312 bytes, checksum: 6d94a5e4f152497a8a5a503ccfc37e36 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-01-30 / Although there has been growing interest in how solicitors and funders behave in crowdfunding platforms, it is an open question whether and if so how information about the time left to complete the campaign and past funding impact funder’s decision in all-or-nothing non-investment crowdfunding platforms. Relying on a new outcome measure: the funding rate (i.e., the ratio of the number of supports to number of web page visits on a given week), and a unique dataset of about three and a half million web page visits and 79.6 thousand supports for 931 different projects, this research investigates the impact of past funding and time on a project’s funding rate in the largest 'all or nothing' non-investment Brazilian crowdfunding platform. We found that people seem concerned about the usefulness of their funds: they are willing to help solicitors, but mainly when they believe the project is good (i.e., it has a minimum chance of reaching the target) and when 'their help really helps' (i.e., before the target is reached).

Trust is a concept used throughout our daily lives. We give trust to friends, colleagues and strangers. We also give trust to the technical artifacts we use in our everyday lives. We must also rely on the services we use to work the way we expect them to. There is plenty of research on trust in e-commerce and online banking on website based platforms. What is missing is research on how we give trust to mobile map applications (and mobile applications in general), and how this trust, or lack of trust, affect our use of map applications in everyday life. We will also use a model of trust to see if we can get a deeper understanding of this trust.

Background: Globalization and the aggravation of world economic integration make lots of overseas enterprises enter the Chinese market and win the market share by integrating Chinese elements into their brand names, logos, advertisements, and products. Therefore, what should local brands do to gain market share? Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to investigate the different effects of local Chinese brands with global, foreign, or local elements on consumers' perceived brand globalness, perceived functional benefits, perceived symbolic benefits, and purchase intentions. Methods: In this study, a quantitative method was used to collect data online through a pre-test questionnaire and a formal experimental questionnaire. And then statistically analyzed for valid data using SPSS. Findings: The results of the study show that consumers have higher perceived brand globalness for local brands that incorporate global and foreign elements, and higher purchase intentions for local brands that incorporate global elements. Perceived symbolic benefits have a higher impact on purchase intentions than the Perceived functional benefits. Perceived functional benefits and symbolic benefits mediate the effect of perceived brand globalness on purchase intention.

The quantity and variety of product information available online today has increased significantly in recent years. This situation has exacerbated user information overload perceptions and made it difficult for online shoppers to choose between various online products and services. This is especially true for older adults, who typically have limitations in cognitive abilities due to the natural aging process and, as such, may perceive additional difficulties processing large amounts of information online. In response, Recommendation Agents (RAs) have become popular as decision support tools for online consumers in general, and older adults in particular. However, in the information systems literature, there is a lack of understanding regarding the design of RAs to suit the needs of different segments of the population, including older adults. Grounded in the theory of planned behaviour, and the “aging and IS adoption” literatures, this study investigates the impact of cognitive age and RA comprehensiveness on user perceptions towards the complexity of the input and output stages of an RA, and their subsequent impact on the antecedents of a user’s intention to utilize the RA for online shopping. This experimental study finds that: (i) an individual’s cognitive age significantly increases perceived RA input and output complexity perceptions; (ii) higher levels of RA comprehensiveness increases a user’s RA input and output complexity perceptions significantly; (iii) RA output complexity plays a more critical role than RA input complexity in shaping user perceptions of the overall complexity of an RA; and, (iv) increased levels of RA comprehensiveness increases individual perceptions of RA usefulness. Additionally, and as expected, cognitive age moderates the relationship between RA comprehensiveness and input/output complexity such that the effect is stronger for older adults. Surprisingly, however, cognitive age also moderates the relationship between RA comprehensiveness and perceived RA usefulness such that it is stronger for older adults. Theoretically, this study helps us to better understand how different levels of RA comprehensiveness, in terms of both the input and output stages of the RA operation, impact the intention of users of different cognitive ages to use online RAs. For practitioners, the results highlight the importance of customizing the design of RAs, in both their input and output stages, for consumers with different cognitive ages. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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)

This research regards internet users with hearing-impairment as the target. The purpose is to investigate the factors which will influence hearing-impaired people use internet. This research is theoretically based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). According to the literatures, join subject norm, media richness, internet self-efficacy and perceived enjoyment. A total of 255 effective samples were collected via internet questionnaire. Through the survey and analysis, we could prove that subject norm, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use will influence the behavioral intention directly. Subject norm, media richness, perceived enjoyment and perceived ease of use will influence the perceived usefulness directly. And media richness, internet self-efficacy and perceived enjoyment will influence the perceived ease of use. According to the findings of research, there are the following suggestions. (1) Hearing-impaired communities should offer information courses of computer and internet. (2)The government should offer more services through internet, and social welfare organizations should update information as instant as possible. (3)Implement the execution of the regulations of web accessibility.