This thesis describes analysis of user web query behavior associated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Enterprise Search System (Hereafter, ORNL Intranet). The ORNL Intranet provides users a means to search all kinds of data stores for relevant business and research information using a single query. The Global Intranet Trends for 2010 Report suggests the biggest current obstacle for corporate intranets is “findability and Siloed content”. Intranets differ from internets in the way they create, control, and share content which can make it often difficult and sometimes impossible for users to find information. Stenmark (2006) first noted studies of corporate internal search behavior is lacking and so appealed for more published research on the subject. This study employs mature scientific internet web query transaction log analysis (TLA) to examine how corporate intranet users at ORNL search for information. The focus of the study is to better understand general search behaviors and to identify unique trends associated with query composition and vocabulary. The results are compared to published Intranet studies. A literature review suggests only a handful of intranet based web search studies exist and each focus largely on a single aspect of intranet search. This implies that the ORNL study is the first to comprehensively analyze a corporate intranet user web query corpus, providing results to the public. This study analyzes 65,000 user queries submitted to the ORNL intranet from September 17, 2007 through December 31, 2007. A granular relational data model first introduced by Wang, Berry, and Yang (2003) for Web query analysis was adopted and modified for data mining and analysis of the ORNL query corpus. The ORNL query corpus is characterized using Zipf Distributions, descriptive word statistics, and Mutual Information. User search vocabulary is analyzed using frequency distribution and probability statistics. The results showed that ORNL users searched for unique types of information. ORNL users are uncertain of how to best formulate queries and don’t use search interface tools to narrow search scope. Special domain language comprised 38% of the queries. The average results returned per query for ORNL were too high and no hits occurred 16.34%.

This thesis has been motivated by past research, problems and realizations that online library catalog users frequently perform subject searches – using keywords, subject headings and descriptors – and these searches have yielded unsatisfactory results. Web-based catalogs or WebPACs (Web-based Online Public Access Catalogs), belonging to the so-called third generation of online catalogs and providing a wide variety of search options, remain largely underutilized despite the continuous advancement of information retrieval systems. Users still encounter a number of problems, such as those related to translating their concepts to the language of the catalog’s system and cross-references prepared to this purpose. Subject access in online library catalogs can be provided through different access points. To that purpose natural and controlled indexing and retrieval languages are used, and each among them has its advantages and downsides. Natural language indexing is performed by the computer, in which process words from defined fields are automatically extracted. Controlled indexing languages are those in which selection of terms to be assigned to documents is manually performed. These are, for example, classification systems, subject heading languages and thesauri. During the 1970s, a consensus was reached that the best retrieval results are gained when using both types of indexing languages simultaneously. Apart from indexing languages, it is necessary to take into account user search behavior; and while designing user interface one has to allow for the users’ skills and knowledge - ensuring instruction, help and feedback information at every step of the retrieval process. The aim of the research was to determine the variety and quality of subject access to information in WebPACs of British university libraries, including searching by words or classification marks, natural and controlled languages, browsing options, and forming simple and complex queries in order to conclude about existing advancements, offered models and employed methods and compare them to WebPACs of Croatian university libraries.

The Internet – when defined as a massive, uncontrolled database of information – is not a reliable source of information. Despite this, it has developed into the default terminology tool for most translators today. This study explores what criteria are used by translators to define website credibility and whether translation experience affects the criteria used. Three groups of differently experienced translators were asked to translate two technical texts from English to Swedish and document the websites they visited. The documentation was used as the basis for follow-up interviews, where the translators were asked to argue for their choices. The results show a significant similarity in application of criteria between student and experienced translators, indicating that other factors than experience are at play. Moreover, source text complexity does not affect the criteria used but rather to what extent research is performed. These results can be used to encourage further research into the information search behavior of translators.

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本研究針對房屋本身具有高度異質性、昂貴性、耐久性、低重複購買頻率、消費與投資雙重性等特性，使得一般行銷研究結果，套用在解釋購屋搜尋行為可能產生問題。但以往房屋市場之搜尋行為研究，多著重價格之搜尋，且忽略其他管道使用情形，難以全面窺視購屋者之搜尋行為，故本研究依據前述房屋主要的幾個特性，藉由回顧搜尋行為相關理論與文獻提出研究假說，透過存活分析法與多項邏輯特模型進行實證，重新審視購屋者之搜尋行為。 首先，考量房屋不同於一般消費性商品之特性，可能使得一般行銷研究結果，套用在解釋購屋搜尋行為時產生問題，故以存活分析探討這些特性對搜尋期間可能造成的影響。研究結果發現購屋目的顯著影響搜尋期間，且購屋者在搜尋時會同時重視產品與價格，其重視程度增加將拉長搜尋期間，而時間壓力對搜尋期間影響則不顯著。最後，透過仲介購屋之購屋者，因為可供考慮物件增多，且服務費用多寡與取得物件數量無關，因此，其搜尋期間較自行搜尋者增加。研究結果在實務上的意涵為，當景氣處於較低迷時，業者應多提供購屋者關於產品之外部資訊，特別是與家戶切身相關之房屋資訊，並極力避免價格戰，而仲介業者也應重新檢討目前的服務方式，以期達成協助購屋者迅速成交之企業訴求。 而房屋的消費與投資雙重性與經驗財之特性，使得個人對房價的認知與預期的差異，影響其搜尋期間，而產生有限理性之決策。本研究以存活分析探討個人目前房價認知與未來房價預期差異對搜尋期間的影響。結果顯示定錨效應確實影響購屋搜尋行為，在納入個人目前房價認知後，自住者對房價看法看漲者參考點較高，搜尋期間縮短，反之，看跌者搜尋期間較長。也就是對目前房價看法越樂觀，但對一年後房價看法悲觀者，其參考點向下修正幅度越高。研究結果主要貢獻在釐清購屋搜尋行為為有限理性決策，房價看法應由目前房價認知與未來房價預期共同構成，且未來房價預期有加強定錨效應的情況。 除前述特性以外，房屋尚有低重複購買頻率的特性，雖然相關研究證實經驗確實會影響搜尋期間，卻忽略租屋經驗可能造成的影響，特別是租屋搜尋與購屋搜尋有部分相似，但以往卻少有研究討論，更遑論深入分析兩種經驗個別對購屋搜尋行為的影響。本研究透過存活分析法，去探討購屋經驗、租屋經驗，對預售屋、成屋購屋搜尋行為的影響。研究結果顯示，就購買成屋部分，相對於無任何經驗之購屋搜尋者，租屋經驗與搜尋期間為正向關係，購屋經驗與搜尋期間為負向關係。而仲介服務則有助於提升中度經驗者之經驗水準，縮短其搜尋期間。就購買預售屋部分，僅購屋經驗有顯著負向影響，但租屋經驗似乎難以延伸至預售屋之購買。研究結果主要貢獻在於，釐清先前租屋經驗確實可延伸至本次的購屋搜尋，而購屋經驗對購屋搜尋期間之影響為負向，租屋經驗對搜尋期間影響為正向，且兩者對預售屋、成屋之購屋搜尋期間影響不同，故在進行分析與研究結論的引用時，應予以分別討論。 除探討搜尋期間外，本研究更針對含個人來源與商業來源不同管道對搜尋期間之影響進行討論。研究結果顯示，購屋者資訊搜尋管道之選擇，以商業來源與混合來源居多，且常使用含個人來源搜尋之購屋者，搜尋期間較有使用商業來源者短。此結果表示對購屋者而言，搜尋管道並非互斥，購屋者會努力使用不同管道去搜尋資訊，以降低決策之不確定性，且隱含購屋者對商業來源有一定程度的不信任。因此，建議業者除維持現有行銷管道，應加強口碑行銷，以提升溝通效率。 / House is a durable good with heterogeneity, expensiveness, and low liquidity, and also an investment and consumption product. Those characteristics made housing search behavior not to be applied appropriately from the general marketing research results. This dissertation employs search theory, behavior theory, survival analysis, and multinomial logit model to study four relative essays. The first essay tries to explain the difference between houses and consumer goods. Our research tested three hypotheses by questionnaires which investigated the person who is in charge family livelihood and bought house during 1998 and 2002 in Tai-chung. The three hypotheses have been confirmed. First, because the house is a good important to all family members, the search duration of the houses for self-living is longer than those for investment. Second, not only the price differences affect the search duration but also the product differences do; however, the influences of time pressure and purchase experience on search duration are not significant. Last but not least, because house searchers have more house selling information through brokers and no additional cost from visiting one more house, they prefer to extend their search duration compared to those who search by himself. The meaning of our research in practice is that the house seller should provide more product information to house buyer and give every effort to avoid price war. The second essay is to discuss how house searchers measure search costs and benefits with utility or price if they are rational decision-makers. We develop a hypothesis and a search model of indefinite and sampling without recall which integrates the studies on worker search, prospect theory, and search behavior. The data comes from “Taiwan Housing Demand Survey” and includes home-buyers and home-searchers from 2003Q1 to 2003Q4. The result shows that the buyers are bounded rational, and the stopping ratio has time dependency. The buyers tend to search for minimum price during the economic fluctuation. When the consumption buyers have a higher housing price perception, they also have a higher reference points, it makes them shorten their search duration. And their price expectation would enhance the anchoring effect. Searching more can bring the buyers benefits mainly from utility increase but not price discount. Therefore, it seems reasonable to subsume individual price perception and expectation when analyzing home-buyers’ search behaviors. The third essay focuses on the effects of homebuyers’ buying and renting experience on their search behaviors. The data also comes from “Taiwan Housing Demand Survey” and includes home-buyers and home-searchers from 2003Q1 to 2004Q1. The results show that our two hypotheses are supported. The effects of homebuyers’ prior house buying experience on search duration are different from their prior house renting experience. While buying a pre-sale or existing house, the buyers with renting experience have longer duration than the buyer with buying or non-experience. In addition, only buying experiences of homebuyers have positive relation with the search duration of pre-sale houses. The final essay has two goals. One is to explore how homebuyers choose information sources. The other is to examine the relationship between information sources and search duration. The data comes from “Taiwan Housing Demand Survey” and includes the questionnaires from sampled homebuyers of 2005Q3. We also use survival model to test our hypotheses. The results show that homebuyers incline to use the commercial sources and mix sources. Even the limit of personal source, it can reduce the buyers’ search duration. Therefore, in order to improve transaction efficiency, the firms should make use of their existing marketing channels and try to build good word-of-mouth as well.

In Chapter 1 of the dissertation, the role of social networks is analyzed as an important determinant in the search behavior of the unemployed. Based on the hypothesis that the unemployed generate information on vacancies through their social network, search theory predicts that individuals with large social networks should experience an increased productivity of informal search, and reduce their search in formal channels. Due to the higher productivity of search, unemployed with a larger network are also expected to have a higher reservation wage than unemployed with a small network. The model-theoretic predictions are tested and confirmed empirically. It is found that the search behavior of unemployed is significantly affected by the presence of social contacts, with larger networks implying a stronger substitution away from formal search channels towards informal channels. The substitution is particularly pronounced for passive formal search methods, i.e., search methods that generate rather non-specific types of job offer information at low relative cost. We also find small but significant positive effects of an increase of the network size on the reservation wage. These results have important implications on the analysis of the job search monitoring or counseling measures that are usually targeted at formal search only. Chapter 2 of the dissertation addresses the labor market effects of vacancy information during the early stages of unemployment. The outcomes considered are the speed of exit from unemployment, the effects on the quality of employment and the short-and medium-term effects on active labor market program (ALMP) participation. It is found that vacancy information significantly increases the speed of entry into employment; at the same time the probability to participate in ALMP is significantly reduced. Whereas the long-term reduction in the ALMP arises in consequence of the earlier exit from unemployment, we also observe a short-run decrease for some labor market groups which suggest that caseworker use high and low intensity activation measures interchangeably which is clearly questionable from an efficiency point of view. For unemployed who find a job through vacancy information we observe a small negative effect on the weekly number of hours worked. In Chapter 3, the long-term effects of participation in ALMP are assessed for unemployed youth under 25 years of age. Complementary to the analysis in Chapter 2, the effects of participation in time- and cost-intensive measures of active labor market policies are examined. In particular we study the effects of job creation schemes, wage subsidies, short-and long-term training measures and measures to promote the participation in vocational training. The outcome variables of interest are the probability to be in regular employment, and participation in further education during the 60 months following program entry. The analysis shows that all programs, except job creation schemes have positive and long-term effects on the employment probability of youth. In the short-run only short-term training measures generate positive effects, as long-term training programs and wage subsidies exhibit significant locking-in'' effects. Measures to promote vocational training are found to increase the probability of attending education and training significantly, whereas all other programs have either no or a negative effect on training participation. Effect heterogeneity with respect to the pre-treatment level education shows that young people with higher pre-treatment educational levels benefit more from participation most programs. However, for longer-term wage subsidies we also find strong positive effects for young people with low initial education levels. The relative benefit of training measures is higher in West than in East Germany. In the evaluation studies of Chapters 2 and 3 semi-parametric balancing methods of Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) are used to eliminate the effects of counfounding factors that influence both the treatment participation as well as the outcome variable of interest, and to establish a causal relation between program participation and outcome differences. While PSM and IPW are intuitive and methodologically attractive as they do not require parametric assumptions, the practical implementation may become quite challenging due to their sensitivity to various data features. Given the importance of these methods in the evaluation literature, and the vast number of recent methodological contributions in this field, Chapter 4 aims to reduce the knowledge gap between the methodological and applied literature by summarizing new findings of the empirical and statistical literature and practical guidelines for future applied research. In contrast to previous publications this study does not only focus on the estimation of causal effects, but stresses that the balancing challenge can and should be discussed independent of question of causal identification of treatment effects on most empirical applications. Following a brief outline of the practical implementation steps required for PSM and IPW, these steps are presented in detail chronologically, outlining practical advice for each step. Subsequently, the topics of effect estimation, inference, sensitivity analysis and the combination with parametric estimation methods are discussed. Finally, new extensions of the methodology and avenues for future research are presented. / In Kapitel 1 der Dissertation wird die Rolle von sozialen Netzwerken als Determinante im Suchverhalten von Arbeitslosen analysiert. Basierend auf der Hypothese, dass Arbeitslose durch ihr soziales Netzwerk Informationen über Stellenangebote generieren, sollten Personen mit großen sozialen Netzwerken eine erhöhte Produktivität ihrer informellen Suche erfahren, und ihre Suche in formellen Kanälen reduzieren. Durch die höhere Produktivität der Suche sollte für diese Personen zudem der Reservationslohn steigen. Die modelltheoretischen Vorhersagen werden empirisch getestet, wobei die Netzwerkinformationen durch die Anzahl guter Freunde, sowie Kontakthäufigkeit zu früheren Kollegen approximiert wird. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass das Suchverhalten der Arbeitslosen durch das Vorhandensein sozialer Kontakte signifikant beeinflusst wird. Insbesondere sinkt mit der Netzwerkgröße formelle Arbeitssuche - die Substitution ist besonders ausgeprägt für passive formelle Suchmethoden, d.h. Informationsquellen die eher unspezifische Arten von Jobangeboten bei niedrigen relativen Kosten erzeugen. Im Einklang mit den Vorhersagen des theoretischen Modells finden sich auch deutlich positive Auswirkungen einer Erhöhung der Netzwerkgröße auf den Reservationslohn. Kapitel 2 befasst sich mit den Arbeitsmarkteffekten von Vermittlungsangeboten (VI) in der frühzeitigen Aktivierungsphase von Arbeitslosen. Die Nutzung von VI könnte dabei eine „doppelte Dividende“ versprechen. Zum einen reduziert die frühe Aktivierung die Dauer der Arbeitslosigkeit, und somit auch die Notwendigkeit späterer Teilnahme in Arbeitsmarktprogrammen (ALMP). Zum anderen ist die Aktivierung durch Information mit geringeren locking-in‘‘ Effekten verbunden als die Teilnahme in ALMP. Ziel der Analyse ist es, die Effekte von frühen VI auf die Eingliederungsgeschwindigkeit, sowie die Teilnahmewahrscheinlichkeit in ALMP zu messen. Zudem werden mögliche Effekte auf die Qualität der Beschäftigung untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass VI die Beschäftigungswahrscheinlichkeit signifikant erhöhen, und dass gleichzeitig die Wahrscheinlichkeit in ALMP teilzunehmen signifikant reduziert wird. Für die meisten betrachteten Subgruppen ergibt sich die langfristige Reduktion der ALMP Teilnahme als Konsequenz der schnelleren Eingliederung. Für einzelne Arbeitsmarktgruppen ergibt sich zudem eine frühe und temporare Reduktion, was darauf hinweist, dass Maßnahmen mit hohen und geringen „locking-in“ Effekten aus Sicht der Sachbearbeiter austauschbar sind, was aus Effizienzgesichtspunkten fragwürdig ist. Es wird ein geringer negativer Effekt auf die wöchentliche Stundenanzahl in der ersten abhängigen Beschäftigung nach Arbeitslosigkeit beobachtet. In Kapitel 3 werden die Langzeiteffekte von ALMP für arbeitslose Jugendliche unter 25 Jahren ermittelt. Die untersuchten ALMP sind ABM-Maßnahmen, Lohnsubventionen, kurz-und langfristige Maßnahmen der beruflichen Bildung sowie Maßnahmen zur Förderung der Teilnahme an Berufsausbildung. Ab Eintritt in die Maßnahme werden Teilnehmer und Nicht-Teilnehmer für einen Zeitraum von sechs Jahren beobachtet. Als Zielvariable wird die Wahrscheinlichkeit regulärer Beschäftigung, sowie die Teilnahme in Ausbildung untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass alle Programme, bis auf ABM, positive und langfristige Effekte auf die Beschäftigungswahrscheinlichkeit von Jugendlichen haben. Kurzfristig finden wir jedoch nur für kurze Trainingsmaßnahmen positive Effekte, da lange Trainingsmaßnahmen und Lohnzuschüsse mit signifikanten locking-in‘‘ Effekten verbunden sind. Maßnahmen zur Förderung der Berufsausbildung erhöhen die Wahrscheinlichkeit der Teilnahme an einer Ausbildung, während alle anderen Programme keinen oder einen negativen Effekt auf die Ausbildungsteilnahme haben. Jugendliche mit höherem Ausbildungsniveau profitieren stärker von der Programmteilnahme. Jedoch zeigen sich für längerfristige Lohnsubventionen ebenfalls starke positive Effekte für Jugendliche mit geringer Vorbildung. Der relative Nutzen von Trainingsmaßnahmen ist höher in West- als in Ostdeutschland. In den Evaluationsstudien der Kapitel 2 und 3 werden die semi-parametrischen Gewichtungsverfahren Propensity Score Matching (PSM) und Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) verwendet, um den Einfluss verzerrender Faktoren, die sowohl die Maßnahmenteilnahme als auch die Zielvariablen beeinflussen zu beseitigen, und kausale Effekte der Programmteilahme zu ermitteln. Während PSM and IPW intuitiv und methodisch sehr attraktiv sind, stellt die Implementierung der Methoden in der Praxis jedoch oft eine große Herausforderung dar. Das Ziel von Kapitel 4 ist es daher, praktische Hinweise zur Implementierung dieser Methoden zu geben. Zu diesem Zweck werden neue Erkenntnisse der empirischen und statistischen Literatur zusammengefasst und praxisbezogene Richtlinien für die angewandte Forschung abgeleitet. Basierend auf einer theoretischen Motivation und einer Skizzierung der praktischen Implementierungsschritte von PSM und IPW werden diese Schritte chronologisch dargestellt, wobei auch auf praxisrelevante Erkenntnisse aus der methodischen Forschung eingegangen wird. Im Anschluss werden die Themen Effektschätzung, Inferenz, Sensitivitätsanalyse und die Kombination von IPW und PSM mit anderen statistischen Methoden diskutiert. Abschließend werden neue Erweiterungen der Methodik aufgeführt.

Syfte och forskningsfrågor: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka på vilka sätt enmans- och mikroföretag tar till sig sökmotoroptimering. Detta för att bättre förstå vilka hinder företag upplever med att ta till sig sökmotoroptimering, så att kunskap om hur företag skulle kunna ta sig förbi identifierade hinder genereras.  1. På vilka sätt tar enmans- och mikroföretag till sig sökmotoroptimering som den digitala utvecklingen möjliggjort?  2. Vad finns det för hinder för enmans- och mikroföretag att ta till sig sökmotoroptimering?  Metod: Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och har genomförts med en induktiv ansats. Datainsamlingen har främst skett genom åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter från enmans- och mikroföretag samt med experter inom området från marknadsföringsbyråer.  Slutsats: Studien har resulterat i kunskap kring hur enmans- och mikroföretag tar till sig sökmotoroptimering. Resultatet visar att enmans- och mikroföretag upplever fyra framträdande hinder när de tar till sig SEO vilka är brist på finansiella resurser, tidsbrist, extern påverkan och bristen av kunskap inom informationsteknik och strategi. Studien har vidare identifierat fem nya hinder vid implementering av SEO vilka är kunskapsbrist om teknisk implementering av SEO, föråldrad generation på företag, brist på tillit, konjunkturell påverkan samt tidsbrist. Dessa hinder kategoriseras som interna eller externa hinder beroende på hur de påverkar företag. Kunskap har även genererats kring hur enmans- och mikroföretag skulle kunna ta sig förbi dessa hinder. / Purpose and research questions: The purpose of this study is to investigate how one-person- and microenterprises relate to search engine optimization. This to better understand what kind of barriers companies experience when adopting search engine optimization, to generate knowledge about how companies could overcome the identified barriers.  1. In what ways does one-person- and microenterprises adopt search engine optimization which the digital development has enabled?  2. What kind of barriers do one-person- and microenterprises experience when adopting search engine optimization?  Method: The study is of qualitative nature and has been implemented with an inductive approach. The data has mainly been collected through eight semistructured interviews with respondents from one-person- and microenterprises as well as experts in the field from marketing agencies.  Conclusion: The study has resulted in knowledge about how one-person- and microenterprises relate to search engine optimization. The result shows that one-person- and microenterprises experience four prominent barriers when approaching SEO. These four barriers are lack of financial resources, lack of time, external impact and lack of knowledge in information technology and strategy. The study has further identified five new barriers when enterprises approach SEO which are lack of knowledge about technical implementation of SEO, elderly generations at the company, lack of trust, impact of business cycle and lack of time. These barriers are categorized as internal or external barriers depending on how they affect companies. The study has also generated knowledge about how one-person and microenterprises could overcome these barriers.