Information Search

Supporting context-based collaboration among online users is an important issue to computer-mediated collaboration to fulfill specified tasks. However, several problems make it difficult to be aware of the context. The context of the user task can be (i) dynamic (i.e., changing over time), and (ii) mixed with multiple sub-contexts together. We propose a novel ontology-based platform to overcome these problems.

The authors investigated whether need for cognitive closure (NFCC) affected one’s style of information search (attribute-based search vs. alternative-based search) in consumer choice. There has been grow- ing interest in NFCC in marketing and its relationship to consumer information processing. However, no study to date has examined the different information search strategies that consumers employ when they (1) possess different levels of NFCC or (2) are exposed to situa- tions that evoke more or less NFCC. Across two studies where Study 1 measured NFCC while Study 2 manipulated NFCC, the authors com- monly found that higher NFCC compared to lower NFCC resulted in (1) a greater preference for the attribute-based search over the alternative-based search and (2) a consideration of a smaller amount of information to make a final choice. Implications for consumer information processing and sales strategies are discussed along with future research directions.

Resumen: Los toxicólogos del siglo XXI han de ser capaces de buscar y manejar con eficacia la exponencialmente crecien- te información toxicológica, gran parte de la cual está disponi- ble gratuitamente en Internet. Con esta finalidad el Área de Toxicología de la Universidad de Sevilla ha desarrollado un módulo práctico específico para toxicólogos establecidos y estudiantes de Toxicología, tanto presenciales

Intuition is usually seen as fast, automatic, high processing capacity, yet only few studies focused directly on the connection with the amount of information search. In this paper we present two studies examining two different domains (financial and recruiting) and employing different manipulations (time stress and instruction). The main aim of both studies was to examine whether preference for intuition (as cognitive style) would lead to less information
search with respect to expert and non-expert population, with experience as moderator affecting intuitive people more in terms of searching for less information. Generally, our results indicate
that situational manipulations, such as inducing time stress or giving instruction to think intuitively, affect information search more than preferred cognitive style and that it is necessary to examine intuition in context-specific tasks as the experience plays a crucial role in the searching information when making decisions.

While developing countries are increasingly benefitting from the convenience and time savings brought by online shopping, the concept has not gained much popularity in Pakistan. Keeping in view the rise in the number of professional women in Pakistan and their struggle with work-life balance. The paper attempts to find out why professional women in Pakistan are not taking advantage of online shopping facility followed by recommendations regarding how online shopping experience can be made better for them. Purposive sampling was used to select 30 professional females for collecting the data. A semi-structured questionnaire comprising of 20 items was used to obtain the data. Grounded theory was used to identify the key factors involved in the online shopping behavior of professional women. The research findings revealed, firstly, that professional women are more likely to purchase online when complete product information in terms of Price, Variants, Mode of Payment and Brand history was provided. Secondly, Seller Credibility was found to be a major factor influencing the online purchase decision. And lastly, Buyers prefer delivery within 3 days to one week along with an exchange/return option to increase their confidence level in online purchases. This research shall help in increasing the online shopping trend in Pakistan which will help professional women in maintaining work-life balance through a suggested online shopping framework.

Despite the importance of market segmentation, the growth of the travel and tourism industry in Taiwan, and the repeat travel phenomenon in tourism, relatively few studies have examined the behavior of repeat travelers in the East Asia region. The present study was designed to fill this gap. This exploratory study applied multistage segmentation in the context of repeat travel behavior to Taiwan. It examined the socio-demographic profile, trip characteristics and expenditures of Taiwan inbound repeat travelers. The results indicated that nationality, income, type of travel arrangements and information search behavior significantly affected repeat travel behavior. In terms of travel expenditures, males spent significantly more than females. Those travelers between 40 and 60 years old tended to spend the most when they visited Taiwan compared to other groups. Chinese travelers were most likely to have traveled to Taiwan more than once among all nationalities compared in this study. Those from Korea and Japan spent the most money among all nationality groups. This study provided several significant implications for the marketers of tourism in Taiwan.

The study investigate the subjective aspect of consumers' online information satisfaction within the frame of flow experience in two processes: ongoing and goal-directed information search. A total of 391 samples for ongoing processes and 415 samples for goal-directed processes obtained in this study were analyzed with structural equation modelling. Flow is conceptualized in the study with Enjoyment, Time Distortion, Curiosity, Perceived Control and Concentration dimensions. The results indicate that flow experience has significant effects on consumers' online information satisfaction in both processes. Enjoyment, Time distortion, Curiosity and Perceived Control dimensions affect online information satisfaction positively in the ongoing process, which is largely carried out with hedonic urges. In addition to Enjoyment, Perceived Control and Concentration dimensions have positive and Curiosity dimension has negative effects in goal-directed online information satisfaction, which is largely carried out with utilitarian urges. In addition, the results indicate that Enjoyment, Time distortion and Curiosity dimensions have significantly stronger positive effects on online information satisfaction in ongoing search processes compared with goal-directed processes, and Concentration dimension has significantly stronger positive effects on online information satisfaction in goal-directed search processes compared with ongoing processes.

Extending human capital approaches to entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur’s “inputs” relating to their general (i.e. education and work experience) and entrepreneurship-specific human capital profile (i.e. business ownership experience, managerial capabilities, entrepreneurial capabilities and technical capabilities) are presumed to be related to entrepreneurial “outputs” in the form of business opportunity identification and pursuit. Valid and reliable independent variables were gathered from a stratified random sample of 588 owners of private firms. Ordered logit analysis was used to test several theoretically derived hypotheses. With regard to the number of business opportunities identified and pursued, entrepreneurship-specific rather than general human capital variables “explained” more of the variance. Entrepreneurs reporting higher information search intensity identified significantly more business opportunities, but they did not pursue markedly more or less opportunities. The use of publications as a source of information was positively associated with the probability of identifying more opportunities, while information emanating from personal, professional and business networks was not. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.

Despite the explosive growth of electronic commerce and the rapidly increasing number of consumers who use interactive media (such as the World Wide Web) for prepurchase information search and online shopping, very little is known about how consumers make purchase decisions in such settings. A unique characteristic of online shopping environments is that they allow vendors to create retail interfaces with highly interactive features. One desirable form of interactivity from a consumer perspective is the implementation of sophisticated tools to assist shoppers in their purchase decisions by customizing the electronic shopping environment to their individual preferences. The availability of such tools, which we refer to as interactive decision aids for consumers, may lead to a transformation of the way in which shoppers search for product information and make purchase decisions. The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the nature of the effects that interactive decision a...

This article facilitates deeper insight into label-related consumer information acquisition behaviour. An integrated framework of label information search (LIS) has been developed based on a synthesis of related literature and explorative research conducted by analysing online discussions among customers (netnography). The framework focuses on three main groups of personal factors that serve as antecedents of LIS: general personal factors (e.g. health consciousness and socio-demographics), label-related personal factors (e.g. label-related self-efficacy, trust in labels and the perceived usefulness of labels) and product category-related personal factors (trust in food products, enduring involvement, experience and perceived quality differences). Important  characteristics of the framework are its process-oriented nature and the dynamically
changing relationships among its concepts. LIS is an antecedent to and a consequence of influencing factors. This article offers managerial implications and serves to incite future inquiry in this field.

Abstraksi Pencarian merupakan proses dasar dalam pengolahan data. Proses pencarian adalah menemukan nilai (data) tertentu di dalam sekumpulan data yang bertipe sama (baik bertipe dasar atau bertipe bentukan). Sebagai contoh, untuk mengubah (update) data tertentu, langkah pertama yang harus dilakukan adalah mencari keberadaan data tersebut di dalam kumpulannya. Jika data yang dicari ditemukan, maka data tersebut dapat diubah nilainya dengan data yang baru. Aktivitas awal yang sama juga dilakukan pada proses penambahan (insert) data baru. Metode Depth First Search adalah Proses pencarian akan dilaksanakan pada semua anaknya sebelum dilakukan pencarian ke node-node yang selevel. Pencarian dimulai dan node akar ke level yang lebih tinggi, proses ini diulangi terus hingga ditemukannya solusi. Pencarian dilakukan pada suatu simpul dalam setiap level dari yang paling kiri. Jika level yang paling dalam tidak ditemukan solusi,maka pencarian dilanjutkan pada simpul sebelah kanan dan simpul yang kiri dapat dihapus dan memori. Jika pada level yang paling dalam tidak ditemukan solusi, maka pencarian dilanjutkan pada level sebelumnya.