http://hdl.handle.net/10398/74 2013-06-19T03:48:16Z 2013-06-19T03:48:16Z Yonatany, Moshe http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8309 2011-09-09T00:03:38Z 2011-05-25T00:00:00Z

The Internationalization Process of Digital Service Providers Yonatany, Moshe The aim of this study is elaborating the current understanding of a relatively new phenomenon: the internationalization process of digital service providers. It deploys a multiple case study methodology. Based on the case analyses and the discovery of new insights this study proposes a conceptual framework attempting at elaborating existing International Business theory. The analytical process of this study begins with explaining its context and developing definitions that are necessary for the purpose of data collection and case construction. Next, selected International Business theories and concepts are reviewed and contextualized propositions are developed. Following a detailed presentation of the case studies, the propositions are analyzed through per-case analyses. This analysis is coupled with a theory development exercise (which is presented in subsequent distinct sections). Here, unique findings of each case are analyzed in sequential per-case analyses in order to identify emerging patterns. Rudimentary concepts, which are grounded in the case findings, are proposed through the cross case analysis. In addition, the analysis of the propositions is summarized at this stage. Subsequently, a conceptual framework is proposed. To provide foundations for the framework, the proposed constructs are defined and explored more deeply, also through collecting additional data and integrating additional external literature. The conceptual framework is presented in the form of testable hypotheses. Finally, implications for International Business theory are drawn from the analyses and the conceptual framework.

2011-05-25T00:00:00Z Shi, Qingxin http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8167 2011-09-09T00:03:31Z 2010-09-20T00:00:00Z

An Empirical Study of Thinking Aloud Usability Testing from a Cultural Perspective Shi, Qingxin Usability evaluation methods are widely used to assess and improve the user interface design. This dissertation investigates the thinking aloud usability testing from a cultural perspective. In a test situation, representative users are required to verbalize their thoughts as they perform their tasks while using the system, and an evaluator observes the user’s task performance and comes up with usability problems. The primary goal of a usability test is to find a list of usability problems. In this research, the impacts of evaluators’ and users’ cultural backgrounds on both the result and the process of the thinking aloud usability testing were investigated. Regarding the results of the usability testing, the identified usability problem was the main focus, whereas for the process of testing, the communication between users and evaluators was the main focus. In this dissertation, culture was regarded as cognitive styles and communication orientations. For the theories of thinking aloud, both Ericsson and Simon’s classic model, and Boren and Ramey’s revised model for usability testing were taken into account. Based on the culture theories and thinking aloud models, hypotheses were developed to investigate the evaluators’ identified usability problems in different cultural settings, and themes were put forward to investigate the evaluators’ and users’ communications. In order to investigate the hypotheses and themes, an experimental study was conducted. The experimental design consisted of four independent groups with evaluators and users from similar or different cultures (Danish and Chinese). Empirical data were collected by using background questionnaires, usability problem forms, usability problem lists, video recordings of the testing and interviews. The usability testing software “Morae” was used to record the whole testing, including the faces of the evaluators and users, the screen and keyboard activities. Evaluators’ and users’ communications were analyzed by the behavioural coding and analysis software “Observer XT 8.0” with a well defined coding system. The results of the systematic study of the thinking aloud usability testing in the context of the intra- and inter-cultural usability engineering show that the evaluators’ cultural backgrounds do have some influences on the usability testing; however, the influences are different for the tests with Western and East Asian users. The main findings of this research have implications for both usability research and practice. The methodological approach also gives inspiration for usability evaluation studies

2010-09-20T00:00:00Z Busquets, Javier http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8164 2010-08-31T11:27:22Z 2010-08-31T00:00:00Z

Orchestrating Network Behavior for Innovation Busquets, Javier This thesis is about innovation and power. Human nature has always been expressed by our capacity to innovate and adapt to almost any environment (Bowlby, 1962; Giddens, 1991). In the 20th century, the primary function of business organisations was to invent, produce and commercialise their products and services in different markets. As a matter of fact, business organisations in the last century proved to be the best way of disseminating innovation (Schön, 1971). Currently in the 21st century, there is a call to better understand how new ideas, technology and sources of knowledge are managed, based on the premise that novelty can unfold anywhere and that innovation cannot be considered a linear process consisting of a chain of activities.

2010-08-31T00:00:00Z Secher, Christine http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8000 2010-01-27T10:53:38Z 2010-01-13T00:00:00Z

E-deltagelse i praksis Secher, Christine This thesis is about how different e-participation user groups co-construct technology through the use in practice. It is studied how technology is used on a municipality level for citizen-communication and -participation with an online debate forum as a case in point. Users of online debates are citizens, politicians and the administration. In this thesis, I have chosen to focus on how politicians and the administration use online debates. I show how politicians and the administration participate in very distinct ways on the debate forum and thereby create specific forms of citizen communication and participation. Everybody can participate in the online debate as long as they give up their name and email. Periodically, citizens write quite a lot of contributions on the debate forum. But politicians’ and the administration’s perception of what is happening on the debate influence which role the citizens’s contributions will have for the politicians and administration, as well as forms of interaction between users. In this thesis, I argue that the users’ (politicians’s and administration’s) sensemaking about online debates as well as the mediation of the use of online debates have a crucial influence on which types of practice of online debate can develop. Online debate is perceived as an equivocal technology in the sense that the use of the technology is not clear cut but a result of the user’s sensemaking about the technology and thereby the sensemaking about possible acts and interactions with the technology and other users. Sensemaking is the primary theoretical frame with a special focus on situation-specific cue-frame-relations. The Municipality of Odder is the case and a unique one with its 11 years of experience within municipally facilitated online debate. The empirical data are contributions written from September 3rd, 2005 to April 15, 2008 (a total of 1983 contributions), 17 semi-structured interviews of ½-1½ hours length with administration and politicians in the municipality as well as different written documents from the municipality. In this thesis I show that politicians and administration act as users of the online debate in four different ways: Political candidate, councilor, administrator and mediator. The political candidate run for the municipal election and is only present in the debate the last three months before the election. The political candidate see online debates as a good opportunity to make him/herself visible to voters and competing candidates, and therefore (s)he writes a lot of contributions during this period. The political candidate rarely answers ordinary citizen’s contributions but instead decides to write new contributions or answer contributions started by competitors. The political candidate rarely gets involved in real discussions on the debate but instead choose to give his/her visions for the future of the Municipality of Odder. The councilor see the debate as the citizen’s opportunity to voice their meaning and therefore rarely participate in the debate, as this could have a negative effect on citizens motivation to write on the debate. The councilor reads the citizens’ contributions and once in a while the contributions act as input for internal council discussions. When the contribution reflect misunderstanding and when it is not only a few citizens who share the misunderstanding, the councilor chooses to write a report for the debate. It is usually the relevant committee chairman or equivalent who writes the contribution. The administrator believes that the majority of the contributions on the debate are political and therefore (s)he should not participate in the debate. The administrator sees citizens and business as partners. It is groups of professionals, which cover associations, organizations etc. and does not necessarily, see the individual citizen as a key stakeholder. The groups of professionals use other media, such as mails and letters, in their communication with the administration, as their input is often long reports and technical judgments. The administrator chooses only to answer factual misunderstandings in ongoing processes or more general issues in the municipality. The mediator, which is a role only a small part of the administration acts in, generally works with the implementing and forming the use of technology in the municipality. (S)he sees ICT as a way of increasing openness and effectiveness in the municipality. Online debates is a solution which the mediator believes especially increases openness and (s)he works with the aim of ensuring a continued debate. The mediator focuses on maximizing the number of contributions, on making it easy to participate and to make it possible to discuss anything, which is why the debate is in no editor or guided use of the debate. The result is that the individual user – political candidate, councilor and administrator – mediate the use of the debate and develop filters for their own and others’ ability to act on the online debate. That politicians and administration appear in these four roles in relation to online debate problematic several aspects of the use of e-participation practices in a municipal context. One aspect is that the four roles develop different practices for the use of the debate which function parallel on the debate without the development of a common practice. A second aspect is that a mediator role is established. An actor who mediates the interaction between citizen and politician, and thereby an actor who has a high degree of importance for what online debating becomes in practice. A third aspect is that the administration takes the mediating role and becomes a political advisor or an administrator of political decisions. A shift which neither the politicians nor the administrator are aware of. At the same time, the way the technology is mediated creates both synergy and conflict between the councilor, the political candidate and the administrator. Synergy and conflict which primarily can be related to the focus of the mediator on the increased use of the technology and the missing focus on contextualization of the online debate.

2010-01-13T00:00:00Z