This thesis employs models of homogenous and differentiated products to empirically investigate the demand for mobile phone services in Sub-Saharan African countries. The thesis consists of a short introductory chapter, three self-contained empirical chapters, and a summary chapter. In Chapter 2, we use survey data conducted in 2011 in eleven countries in Sub-Saharan African to analyze how the availability of physical infrastructure influences the adoption of mobile phones and usage of mobile services. The availability of physical service infrastructure is approximated by data on night-time light intensity in the areas in which survey respondents reside. After controlling for a number of individual and household characteristics including disposable income, we find that adoption of mobile phones is higher in areas with better physical infrastructure. However, in the group of mobile phone adopters, the use of mobile phones for mobile financial transactions is negatively influenced by the level of infrastructure. Mobile phone users who live in areas with poor infrastructure are more likely to rely on mobile phones to make financial transactions than individuals living in areas with better infrastructure. On the other hand, the use of mobile phones to access services such as email, skype, social media networks and Internet browsing is not dependent on the availability of physical infrastructure. Our results support the notion that mobile phones improve the livelihoods of individuals residing in remote areas by providing them with access to financial services which are otherwise not available physically. Chapter 3 examines the effect of mobile number portability (MNP) on own- and cross-price elasticities. Using quarterly data for 28 mobile operators in seven Sub-Saharan Africa countries between 2010Q4 to 2014Q4 to estimate a differentiated products demand model, we find that MNP increased own-price elasticities of demand in countries that have implemented the facility. This increase in price elasticities may be a result of a reduction in switching costs between operators. On average, the introduction of MNP increases own-price elasticities by 0.47 in absolute value. We compare the level of price elasticities before and after the implementation of MNP in Ghana and Kenya, which implemented this policy in the time period of our study. Our results suggest that in Ghana, MNP increased own-price elasticities by an average of 0.35 in absolute terms from an average value across firms and over time of -0.74. In Kenya, the introduction of MNP increased own-price elasticities by an average of 0.21 in absolute terms from a lower average value across firms and over time of -0.39. However, we find that in Kenya and Ghana the average own-price elasticities remained small even after the implementation of MNP relative to other countries without MNP in place. Thus, our results suggest that MNP is not the ultimate solution for increasing competitiveness within the mobile industry. While in Chapter 3 we use a product differentiated model of demand, in Chapter 4 we make assumptions that allow us to use a homogenous model of demand to examine the effect of regulatory policies on mobile retail prices. Using aggregated quarterly data for eight African countries for the period 2010:Q4 to 2014:Q4, we estimate structural demand and supply equations. We find that mobile termination rates (MTR) have a significant positive impact on mobile retail prices. A decline in average MTR of 10% decreases average mobile retail prices by 2.5%. On the other hand, MNP has an insignificant effect on price and subscriptions in selected African countries. This may be due to inadequate implementation of MNP, which subsequently lead to low demand for porting numbers. The average market conduct in the mobile telecommunications industry for selected African countries can be approximated by Cournot Nash equilibrium. In Chapter 4 we find price elasticities that are closer to 1 in absolute terms. The price elasticity, however, is estimated at an average of -0.27 for Sub-Saharan Africa countries in Chapter 4. We attribute this inconsistency to the different assumptions made in each chapter.

The dangers of using a cell phone while driving are well documented, but recently studies have aimed at determining the effect cell phones have on a pedestrians’ walking behaviors. This observational experiment captured video footage of distracted pedestrians, or pedestrians using cell phones, when using two different crosswalks (midblock and intersection) on the campus of Mississippi State University in order to study safety behaviors, such as speed, number of looks, and wait time. Two types of crosswalks were filmed until a sufficient number of pedestrians (N=982) were recorded. All variables (cell phone use, gender, type of crosswalk, presence of car, time of day, and density) significantly influenced speed and number of looks. Gender, type of crosswalk and presence of car all showed significant effects on wait time of pedestrians. Pedestrians observed using earphones were observed to look more and to walk slower than any other level of cell phone use.

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Abstract Background: In Sweden self-harm behaviors among young people have been a difficult area to handle in psychiatric care. From the government's efforts have been made to synchronize the knowledge and experience from the local level aiming to prevent, reduce and faster identify self-harm among young people. M-Health refers to technology such as smartphones, notebooks and mobile phones provide.  These mobile devices have come to revolutionize aspects of health care perhaps mostly among young people, live their digital lives by these electronic media. Aim: To illuminate the use of m-Health in the treatment of mental illness and to present a draft of a mobile application that helps professionals in work with young people active in a mild to moderate self-injury. Method: A literature review based on an analysis of twelve scientific articles with qualitative and quantitative approach. We searched in November 2013-January 2014 Ebsco and PubMed databases.  Results: The literature review is presented as gains and losses in use of m-Health in the treatment of mental illness. The focus has been on what is possible to achieve with a mobile application in this area of concern. It appeared that young people show positive attitudes to using an application in monitoring of psychiatric symptoms and gained more control mental health. The professionals sees advantage in terms of more truthful symptom monitoring in real time in comparison with retrospective self-monitoring, expedited handling processes and better treatment outcomes. Conclusion: We interpret the results of the studies about m-Health as an opportunity for nurses to meet young people, active in a mild to moderate self-harm. An m- Health intervention based on an application for young people could make it easier for nurses to improve their communication and treatment outcomes. Care initiatives and relevant actions can then be tailored to young people's cultural values, beliefs and lifestyle.

The effects that cellular (cell) phone conversation may have on pedestrian road-crossing performance is unknown. A series of experiments was conducted using a virtual reality road crossing simulator to examine this issue. The participants were primarily university students aged between 18 and 24 years old, although one study compared a group aged 18 to 24 to a group between 50 and 67 years old. Two experimental situations were used: a gap-choice situation, in which the participants had to choose a gap to cross through; and an infrequency situation, where vehicles were present on only 10% of the trials. Participants were impaired by a simulated phone conversation task when compared to no-conversation task, as evidenced by longer reaction times, slower walking speeds, poorer gap choices, and more cautious behaviours. Most importantly, conversation was related to a decrease in the mean margins of safety, and the participants were hit or nearly hit by vehicles more often when talking. The general performance of the older participants did not differ from that of the younger participants, and both groups were impaired to a similar extent by the conversation task. Participants were found to use irrelevant distance information to inform their gap-choice decisions, a strategy associated with a decrease in safety as the distance between the vehicles increased. It was also found that their use of time-to-arrival information was impaired when engaged in the conversation task. Overall, talking on a cell phone while crossing a road may represent an unnecessary increase in risk; therefore, care should be taken if these two acts are being conducted concurrently.

Brand avoidance is a new topic in consumer behavior research. The purpose of the study was to find the main driver(s) of the brand avoidance behavior among the Chinese mobile consumers. The study was based on the core framework of Lee, et al. (2009) and Knittel et al (2016). The study also applied Ma’s research (2012) to segment the Chinese mobile consumers. A survey was conducted based on the literatures. The findings show that Chinese mobile consumers do not share the same driver for the brand avoidance behavior, the main driver for fashion-taste consumers, trendy but cost-efficient consumers and conservative consumers is moral and identity avoidance. Rational and price-sensitive consumers avoid the brand because of the moral and identity avoidance, and the experiential avoidance for product. Business communication consumers avoid the brand because of the moral and identity avoidance and advertising avoidance. Organizations can use these findings to adjust their marketing strategies and content accordingly.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: “My social extension” – Twelve girls on the relationship with the mobile phone (“Min sociala</p><p>anknytning” – Tolv tjejer om relationen till mobiltelefonen)</p><p>Number of pages: 42 (43 including enclosure)</p><p>Author: Mattias Köhlmark</p><p>Tutor: Göran Svensson</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies D</p><p>Period: Spring semester 2006</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,</p><p>Uppsala University.</p><p>Purpose/Aim: To investigate the emotional aspect of mobile phones and the source of those</p><p>emotions.</p><p>Material/Method: The data presented stems from three unstructured focus groups with participants</p><p>at the age of 16-19 years.</p><p>Main results: The key findings largely supports Vincents theories that the emotional language</p><p>guided towards mobile phones comes from the friends it allows us connect with. Also emancipation</p><p>can be seen as a driving force behind these emotions.</p><p>Keywords: mobile phone, mobility, absent present others, emancipation, cell phone, emotion,</p><p>emotional language,</p>

Abstract Title: “My social extension” – Twelve girls on the relationship with the mobile phone (“Min sociala anknytning” – Tolv tjejer om relationen till mobiltelefonen) Number of pages: 42 (43 including enclosure) Author: Mattias Köhlmark Tutor: Göran Svensson Course: Media and Communication Studies D Period: Spring semester 2006 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University. Purpose/Aim: To investigate the emotional aspect of mobile phones and the source of those emotions. Material/Method: The data presented stems from three unstructured focus groups with participants at the age of 16-19 years. Main results: The key findings largely supports Vincents theories that the emotional language guided towards mobile phones comes from the friends it allows us connect with. Also emancipation can be seen as a driving force behind these emotions. Keywords: mobile phone, mobility, absent present others, emancipation, cell phone, emotion, emotional language,

The innovation of technology and product has made uncertain highly of the beginnings of emerging industry. Smart phone industry belongs to emerging industry. The manufacturers in Taiwan of smart phone include HTC, Quanta, Innopac, Asus, and Arimacomm etc. and HTC is the maximum of shipment of smart phone with Microsoft platform. Therefore, it is necessary that we study the purchasing strategies of smart phone industry. The research methodologies applied to this study are literature review, case study and deep interview. It applies purchasing portfolio model to classify components come from different industries, and it is proposed different purchasing strategies. The conclusions of this study reveal as follows: 1. Early Purchasing Involvement (EPI) will help to get external advanced technology resource so that we can improve the competitive advantage of the corporate in emerging industry. 2. Different purchasing strategies and relationship management can be applied to different component industry and suppliers respectively. 3. The performance evaluation, remediation, and selection of suppliers can be adopted into the management cycle in A company, and the standards will depend on industry environment and the resource A company has.

In this dissertation, the study mainly focuses on small-size multiband mobile phone antennas for practical applications. Loop antenna is chosen to be the antenna type for designing the compact internal multiband antenna. Four antenna designs are presented, including ¡§Compact Multiband Folded Loop Chip Antenna for Small-Size Mobile Phone¡¨, ¡§Very-Small-Size Folded Loop Antenna with a Band-Stop Matching Circuit for Penta-Band Mobile Phone Application¡¨, ¡§Very-Small-Size Printed Loop Antenna for GSMDCSPCSUMTS Operation¡¨, and ¡§Printed Loop Mobile Phone Antenna with an Internal Printed Matching Circuit¡¨. The first two antenna designs occupy a volume of 1.0 cm3 and 0.6 cm3 respectively and the last two antenna designs are to be directly printed on the system circuit board of the mobile phone. Either of them can operate as a quad-band antenna for GSM/DCS/PCS/UMTS operation or as a penta-band antenna for GSM850/900/1800/1900/UMTS operation.