An Exploratory Study on the Interrelationship of Internet Addiction, Internet Usage Motivation, Internet Usage Behavior and User Characteristics for Taiwan High School Students. Chieh-Ju Tung Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationship among motivation and gratification level, activities, personality and Internet addiction for Taiwan¡¦s high school students based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory. The characteristics of those identified as addicted are investigated along with the factors of demographic data, motivation and gratification, web attitude and personality. Moreover, structural equation modeling was used to verify the Theory. The study was conducted using purposive sampling at two major municipals in Taiwan. Questionnaires including Pathological Internet Use Scale for Taiwan high school student, Diagnoistic Questionnaires, Internet usage Motivation and Gratification Scale, Interpersonal Relationship Scale, Self-Esteem Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Internet Usage Behavior Questionnaire, Perceptions of the Internet Influences and Demographic Data. Of the 1708 qualified samples, 236 were classified as Internet addicted. Major findings of the study are: 1. Entertainment is the major factor for high school students to use Internet, information searching stands as second. Surfing with motivation of social and entertainment has positive correlation with Internet addiction. Those classified as addicted have higher motivation on social and entertainment and have higher satisfaction thereafter. 2. Males who own computer, with grades in lower two-thirds of the class, with more than 4 years Internet usage experience, always using cyber-café or surfing during weekday have higher tendency to become addicted. 3. System and location of school, the grade attended or whether access Internet at home have no relationship with addiction. 4. The average weekly hours on Internet is positive correlated with Internet addiction. 5. Students with personality of dependence, shyness, depression or lower self-esteem have higher tendency to become addicted. 6. The probability of males to become addicted is 2.6 times that of females. Vocational high school students have higher tendency to become addicted than non-vocational high school students. 7. The average weekly hours on Internet for those addicted is 21.2 hours, it¡¦s 1.75 times that of normal ones. 8. Those identified as addicted always surf in cyber-café and favor on-line games, chat room and sex-related activities. 9. Those identified as addicted have lower self-esteem and higher depression. 10. Internet addiction has significant canonical correlation with motivation on social/entertainment and hours on Internet. 11. Internet addiction has significant canonical correlation with shyness, depression emotion, poor interpersonal relationship, negative self-concept and lower self-esteem. 12. The theoretical model constructed in this study could explain the relationship among main variables by Amos. 13. ¡§Internet usage motivation¡¨ has greatest direct effect on addiction. It has greatest total effect when combines with the factor of ¡§Average weekly hours on Internet ¡¨. 14. The predictability for Internet addiction is 62% when six variables were used (Motivation on social, Motivation on entertainment, Average weekly hours on Internet, Interpersonal relationship, Depression and Self-esteem). Finally, suggestions on counseling addicted students are made for government and high school authorities, counselors and parents. Issues for futher study are also discussed.

In this thesis, we present a review of the current practices of user involvement. Different methods and tools have proliferated for user-involvement, however, to comprehend the explicit features of a small and medium-sized web-based platform service companies, we contrast our findings with previous experiences and research of user involvement in big companies. In the basis of the aforementioned, we identify methods and contexts that may be appropriate in the context of small and medium-sized web-based platform service companies. Mainly, we reviewed the research field of: user-involvement and new service development.   The central purpose of this study is to determine how do small and medium-sized web-based platform service companies utilize the process of the user involvement across the stages of new service development. Building on previous researches, we suggested that there are different methods to consider under the service development stage (i.e. ideation, development and testing). These methods are grouped under the following terms user-involvement ecosystem, user-involvement interactions, user-involvement platform and user-involvement personnel. The aforementioned methods are suggested to help web-based platform service companies utilize user involvement across the new service development stages. This study is of qualitative nature with a deductive approach. We conducted eight semi-structured interviews in order to get insights from high-level managers responsible of the user-involvement process. All the small and medium-sized companies operated in the service sector and provided a web-based platform. The theoretical framework was utilized in order to analyze the empirical data gathered. We used thematic analysis for our deductive study approach, to interpret the gathered material in order to conclude the results and answer the research question.   Our results revealed that in the ideation and development stages the following is vital: involving lead-users or those who are tech-savvy and tolerant to ambiguity, educating users to familiarize them with the company’s system, moderate rules and structure, mixing focus groups, encouraging user-to-user communication, small number of participants, multi-media approach and online tools, and encouraging idea hunting culture among company’s staff. However, in testing the following is recommended: involving average-users or those who are open-minded and tolerant to risk and innovation, unifying goals and common view by tangibilizing the service, setting rules and regulations for testing the service, having permanent interactions with users, and large number of participants. Finally, it is important to ensure a close relationship, transparency, motivation, face-to-face interactions, and to have an entrepreneurial leader to oversee the whole process across all the former three stages of NSD. To improve on this study, we would recommend the investigation on the user perspective to gain insights on their views of the process of user-involvement across the NSD, as they are directly involved in the development of a new service. Hence, a more extensive research on the user-involvement in web-based platform service companies on both, internal and external facets instantaneously would be of great significance.