Information-seeking behaviour in interactive videotex. Training effects in an experimental investigation

First, we present a conceptual framework designed to measure information-seeking behaviour of non-professional users of Bildschirmtext, the German version of interactive videotex. A training programme is conceived with the aim of improving high school students' information-seeking behaviour in videotex by means of three consumer education lessons. Second, a laboratory investigation is described which set out to measure the influence of user training and the impact of three antecedents (sex, age, and school mark) upon four constructs of information-seeking behaviour, viz., precision of the information goal, user efficiency, content and amount of retrieved information, and satisfaction with the system. We found (a) that the training increased the ability to formulate precise information goals, (b) that the more precise the information goal the less the user efficiency and the less the satisfaction with the system, and (c) that there exist substantial sex-specific differences in information-seeking behaviour.

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Zusammenfassung Um Bildschirmtext (Btx) wirkungsvoll nutzen zu können, muß der Teilnehmer sein Informationsverhalten den Speicherstrukturen dieses interaktiven Systems anpassen, die vom Suchbaum-Menue-Prinzip geprägt sind. Da das alltägliche Informationsverhalten des durchschnittlichen Verbrauchers nicht derart strengen Regeln folgt, ist fraglich, ob Btx eine erfolgreiche Karriere als Verbraucherinformationssystem beschieden sein wird. Für Zwecke der Untersuchung wird zunächst ein Konzept entwickelt, um das Informationsverhalten nicht-professioneller Nutzer an Btx messen zu können. Weiterhin wird ein Trainingsprogramm entwickelt, das geeignet scheint, Schüler/innen im Rahmen der Verbrauchererziehung in dem wirkungsvollen Gebrauch von Bildschirmtext zu unterweisen. Die Wirkung dieses Programms und der Einfluß dreier Antezedenzvariablen (Alter, Geschlecht und Schulnote) wird im Hinblick auf vier Größen des Informationsverhaltens (Präzision des Informationsziels, Effizienz des Nutzerverhaltens, Art und Inhalt der abgerufenen Informationen und Zufriedenheit mit der Btx-Nutzung) bei Jugendlichen zwischen 13 und 16 Jahren gemessen. Zur Analyse wurde das LISREL Programm eingesetzt, das die kausalen Strukturen zwischen beobachtbaren und latenten Variablen abbildet und überprüft. Es zeigt sich, daß (a) das Nutzertrainung die Präzision des Informationsziels erhöht, daß (b) präzisere Informationsziele die Nutzereffizienz und die Zufriedenheit mit dem System reduzieren, und daß (c) die Bildschirmtextnutzung starke geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede aufweist. Die Ergebnisse unterstreichen, daß rechnergestützte, interaktive Informationssysteme für den Verbraucher erst dann von Nutzen sein können, wenn das Informationsangebot konsequent seinen Informationsfähigkeiten und -bedürfnissen angepaßt wird.

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Eberhard Kuhlmann is Professor of Consumer Economics and Ingo Balderjahn Assistant Professor of Quantitative Methods in Economics at the Technical University of Berlin. Mailing address: Technische Universität Berlin, Franklinstr. 28/29; D-1000 Berlin 10, FRG.     

The impact of different fibre access network technologies on cost,competition and welfare

Using a novel approach to the evaluation of new network technologies that combines an engineering cost model with a differentiated multi-player oligopoly model with wholesale access regulation this article evaluates the choice among different Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) architectures. The cost modelling relies upon an engineering bottom-up approach that feeds into a competition model. For addressing competition the pyramid model was chosen, which is an extension of the Hotelling model to multiple firms/services. The paper solves for price setting Nash equilibria between an incumbent, wholesale-access-based entrants and cable as an additional fully integrated network competitor. Welfare tradeoffs are highlighted with respect to cost differences and QoS differences between the various FTTH architectures and between the modes of regulation. According to the analysis architectures that can be unbundled (and that allow for greater speeds) outperform, from a social welfare perspective, architectures that (realistically) allow only for bitstream access.     

Oil and the poor countries: A proposal

One of the more unhappy effects of the recent, massive rise in the price of crude oil has been its impact on those developing countries not fortunate enough to be oil exporters themselves. The authors offer a proposal for rechanneling some of the oil revenues to the impacted developing countries.     

The paddy grows in silence

In the attempt to build a South East Asian Community, similar experiences will be made as in other cases of merging disparate organisations. There are common interests, but also antagonisms, and a complicated network of interdependence will create a completely novel organism whose character cannot be foretold.     

Mobile service innovation: A European failure

The continuing absence of innovation in Europe’s mobile services industry is identified and characterised here, with such examples as mobile Internet and mobile music. Innovation failure is a critical factor leading to a lack of high-income jobs, network effects, and price reductions for data services. Most mobile service innovations have been made in Japan in ‘clubs of operators’ with their suppliers. Apple USA followed the same model of control with its iPhone. Conversely, a lack of this critical type of competition characterises European operators. Revenues per citizen are in some countries similar to those in Japan, but with handsets with less functions. Europe and all other regions face the challenge of competing with Japanese and US innovators. The lessons to be learned are (1) becoming aware of the situation, (2) allocating spectrum that covers a sufficient population size to allow technological competition, and (3) developing a strong customer orientation.     

An economic analysis of consumer class actions in regulated industries

Regulation and consumer class actions can complement, duplicate, or oppose each other, depending, among others, on the leanings of regulatory objective functions towards the industry or consumers. In particular, pro-consumer regulators would like to see consumers benefit from class actions while pro-industry regulators would like to prevent regulated firms from being harmed by them. However, because pro-consumer regulators are already doing their best for consumers and pro-industry regulators their best for firms, they are both usually constrained in their policies. The result is that class actions tend to be less efficient under pro-consumer regulators and more efficient under pro-industry regulators.