The Internet in Social Marketing Research

SUMMARY

Social marketing campaigns are usually aimed at problems that exact a large toll in the community. Any campaign must be properly researched during the development process and afterward, to assess its impact. The target market for social marketing campaigns often includes younger members of the community. The research methodology used when developing or assessing these campaigns must therefore be appropriate to adolescents.

This article discusses the application of Internet technology to research among adolescents using experience gained while testing potential anti-smoking messages among a sample of UK school students to illustrate the issues.

Internet-based research has the potential to generate data that is comparable to that generated by conventional research methods and with improved efficiency in terms of timescale, cost, quality, and quantity of responses.     

From the wired to wireless generation? Investigating teens’ Internet use through the mobile phone

Scholars have an enduring interest in investigating whether a new medium displaces or complements existing media whenever a new medium is introduced to the society. In this study, it is sought to investigate the extent to which the mobile phone would replace or reinforce teens’ traditional Internet use through computers. Surveys were conducted on 1875 youths between 12 to 17 years old in 5 digital cities in East Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, and Tokyo. The findings profile a digital generation that is highly connected in the 21st century. Ninety percent of all respondents used the Internet. Almost 90% of the teens in this study used the mobile phone, and two-thirds of them ever surfed the Web via their mobile devices. Through a factor analysis, three dimensions of teens’ use of mobile Internet were identified, namely, task-based activities, information seeking and communication activities, and recreational activities. In general, the teens tend to use the mobile phone for recreation and entertainment purposes, especially playing games and listening to music. They are less likely to use the mobile phone for more sophisticated purposes, such as petitioning, voting, or shopping. Drawing upon the niche theory, the patterns between teens' mobile Internet and PC Internet use were further compared. Our analysis shows that mobile Internet primarily serves as an extension of teens’ Internet activities via PC, rather than as a replacement. Such positive relationships are quadratic and non-linear.     

Extending the scope of hotel client reactions to employee injustice: Hotel employer reviews on the Internet

Third-party literature is concerned about the way others perceive what happens in organizations. When dealing with the perceived justice of the employer-employee relationship, it has mainly adopted an on-site approach. The scarce research focusing on the consequences of perceived justice for client variables in hotels has shown that it can impact client loyalty. In this study, we adopt an on-line view, and we analyze how the comments posted by hotel employees on the Internet about their work conditions influence guest perceptions. This topic is relevant because it is well known that clients’ perceptions influence client satisfaction, WOM and revisit intentions. Through an experiment based on real hotel employer reviews, results confirm that these comments have an impact on the organizational image dimension of service quality, hotel clients’ satisfaction, WOM, and revisit intentions. Thus, as occurs with client eWOM, hotel managers should be aware of these comments and manage them appropriately.     

An overview of Internet-based surveys in hospitality and tourism journals

Survey research has reached an era when the Internet is commonly used as a research tool in different fields of study. Yet, the use of this method in tourism and hospitality research has not been fully explored. This study provides a state-of-the-art assessment of journal publications in the past ten years to reveal how the Internet has been incorporated into tourism and hospitality research. Various aspects of online research in tourism and hospitality are identified via reviewing relevant articles retrieved from the EBSCOhost.     

Persistence and Change at the Top of the IT Sector

We use the DATAMATION index of the top 50 domestic IT companies (1975–1995) to track persistence and change at the top of the sector. The trends that we uncover are increasing instability, rejuvenation (declining average age of entrants coupled with increasing average age of quitters), democratization (diminishing revenue inequality at the top) and growing supply‐side intertwining of sub‐sectors and industries within IT due to diversification by long‐term survivors.     

The role of WiBro: Filling the gaps in mobile broadband technologies

This paper analyzes WiBro, one of the emerging wireless technologies for portable Internet services (PIS), which are designed to enable mobile broadband access. Based on an empirical examination of consumer preferences for mobile broadband technologies and an estimation of the future demand for WiBro, this study proposes that WiBro should fill the gaps between competing mobile broadband technologies, such as 3G and WLAN.     

Internet user behaviour in France and Britain: exploring socio‐spatial disparity among adolescents

The Internet has radically transformed society – although its diffusion has been uneven. Various studies of digital inequality have been undertaken in Anglo‐Saxon communities. Few studies have investigated digital inequality from a socio‐spatial perspective (urban vs. suburban, rather than urban vs. rural) in a French setting. This absence underscores a gap in knowledge and methodology. It highlights the complexities of gathering comparable data on Internet user behaviour beyond national borders. This paper takes a multidisciplinary approach to investigate emerging trends in Internet use across different territories (inner‐city and suburban, as opposed to urban vs. rural) by means of in‐depth interviews with Internet users aged 13–15 years old in France and Britain. The aim is to provide a broad understanding of the way in which teenage Internet users behave online in different territories. The investigation reveals a number of converging trends that are common to both France and Britain and some unexpected disparity.     

论因特网对图书出版业的影响

论述了计算机网络技术的发展对传统的图书出版业的工作方式、发行方式、纸介质出版物等带来的影响。     

Dividing or uniting Europe? Internet usage in the EU

Using Heckman’s sample selection procedure, we first analyse access to the Internet and then specific Internet usage given individual Internet access, across the EU countries using Eurobarometer data for 2004 and 2005. Internet access varies more within countries than between them. But the reverse is the case for Internet usage given access. Two specific country attributes are identified: first gross national income and the rule of law reflecting the extent to which people have confidence in the security of the Internet. Further variables also emphasize the importance of trust.     

基于因特网的监控录像系统的实现

介绍了一种基于因特网的监控录像系统，详细介绍了本系统的建模和软硬件模型，并阐述了本系统的软硬件实现方法。