Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Contextual trust'

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory study was to explain how contextual targeting affects customer attitudes, privacy concerns, trust, and loyalty.  Literature Review: The reviewed literature included concepts that are important within the banking market. Such as attitude (cognitive, affective, and conative), privacy concerns, trust, and loyalty. Based on the literature review the authors proposed six hypotheses that together formed the research model.  Methodology: A positivistic and deductive research approach was adopted in the form of a quantitative research design. Primary data was collected through an online questionnaire created in Google Forms which generated a total of 132 responses. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, and Pearson's correlation stood as a basis to analyze and interpret the data. Lastly, regression analysis was conducted in order to address the authors' proposed hypotheses stemming from the literature review.  Findings: The study found that contextual targeting had a significant positive effect on the three components of attitudes, cognitive, affective, and conative. Contextual targeting did not have a significant positive effect on privacy concerns, rather a negative effect in this study. Trust and loyalty were significantly positively affected by contextual targeting. The findings implied that contextual targeting positively affected visibility, awareness, preferences among customers of banks as well as their final purchase decision. Also, that contextual targeting affected trust and loyalty towards banks positively implying the positive aspects of utilizing the marketing strategy.  Keywords - Contextual targeting, Attitudes, Cognitive, Affective, Conative, Privacy concerns, Trust, Loyalty

Trust modeling is widely recognized as an aspect of essential importance in the construction of agents and multi agent systems (MAS). As a consequence, several trust formalisms have been proposed over the last years. All of them have a limitation: they can determine the trustworthiness or untrustworthiness of the information received from a given agent, but they don't supply mechanisms for correcting this information, in the case of it being unaccurate, in order to extract some utility from it. In order to overcome this limitation, this thesis introduces the concept of reliability as a generalization of trust, and presents Fuzzy Contextual Filters (FCF) as reliability modeling methods loosely based on system identification and signal processing techniques. This thesis illustrates their applicability to two domains: the appraisal variance estimation problem in the Agent Reputation and Trust (ART) testbed and Bar Systems, a class of optimization algorithms for reactive MAS
El modelatge de la confiança és àmpliament reconegut com un aspecte d'importància fonamental en la construcció dels agents i de sistemes d'agents múltiples (MAS). Com a conseqüència, s'han proposat en els últims anys diversos formalismes de confiança. Tots ells tenen una limitació: que puguin determinar la fiabilitat o la manca de credibilitat de la informació rebuda d'un agent determinat, però no subministrarà els mecanismes per a la correcció d'aquesta informació, en el cas que sigui inexacte, per tal d'extreure alguna utilitat ella. Per superar aquesta limitació, aquesta tesi presenta el concepte de fiabilitat com una generalització de la confiança, i presenta Filtres contextuals Fuzzy (FCF) com a mètodes de modelatge fiabilitat vagament basada en la identificació de sistemes i tècniques de processament de senyal. En aquesta tesi s'il·lustra la seva aplicació a dos dominis: el problema d'estimació de variància d'avaluació de la reputació d'agent i Trust (ART) banc de proves i Bar Systems, una classe d'algorismes d'optimització per reactiva MAS

Trust is an intrinsic component of any loyal “consumer friendship” between customers and service providers, and is a by-product of shared understanding. Nowhere is the notion of trust more relevant than in technical service—such as professional legal practice, architecture, medical care and auto repair—where the primary commodities exchanged are specialized knowledge, equipment and skills. A common challenge in dialogue between expert providers and novice customers in this context is meaningful sharing of technical information. A successful exchange requires care in representation, language, attitude, delivery and timing. Furthermore, with communication breakdowns, trust falters, and business relationships run the risk of falling apart. Rather than relying on simple transactional exchanges of information in service, a customer’s journey could be enriched by framing service touchpoints as individual opportunities for learning. Learning activities occur in everyday life via interactions with society, artifacts or programs, and often involve the pursuit of knowledge or skills without the structure of a formal curriculum. This study explores how learning might function as a channel for strengthening multi-faceted trust relations in service through integration into programs and artifacts. In this project, an auto repair shop was investigated as a case study in technical service, given its long inglorious history of customer mistrust. Through exploration in the context of a local mechanic shop, prototypes for experiential and transformative service learning were implemented, tested, and re-shaped into a four-part framework designed to improve technical communications

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, 2008.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 23, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4493. Advisers: James L. Perry; Evan Ringquist.

Purpose: The relationship between context and e-governance has been gaining a significant momentum in academic circles due its social and technical complexities. There are many challenges posed by the disparity between the context and the system when it comes to e-governance in developing countries. This research aims to reveal more successful adoption of e-governance initiatives and exposes factors that hinder its implementation. We develop a conceptual framework showing the reciprocity between the context and the system or what is termed “Context-System Gap”. Therefore, this research will study the appropriateness of the context and its influence on the system and the influence of the system on the context. The purpose of this research is to explore the factors that enable successful e-government adoption in Lebanon, where e-governance is still at its initial stage. Most empirical research and theories on the implementation of e-governance in developing countries remain at the macro-level and miss out on the complexities of the context of deployment and the role of the gap between the citizens and the government. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an empirical model differentiating between the electronic context and the electronic system and shed a light over a new gap, government-citizen gap, in the adoption of e-government. Design/methodology/approach: Following previous research on e-government services adoption, this study uses several technology use and acceptance models and literature to examine the elements behind the adoption and use of e-government services in Lebanon from citizen and government perspectives. The research strategy is a quantitative method approach employing questionnaire. Quantitative data will be collected from e-government users (citizens) and statistical tests will be conducted in order to examine the relation between variables. Practical implications: The findings are useful for policy-makers and decision-makers to develop a better understanding of citizens' needs. The proposed model can be used as a guideline for the implementation of e-government services in developing countries. Originality/value: This study is the only one to examine the dimensions influencing citizens’ adoption of e-government technologies in developing countries using a unified model merging context and system elements.

Contextual effects have previously been shown to be related to political attitudes and behaviour. Focusing on the contextual effect of social exclusion, this paper evaluates whether individuals living in areas with higher levels of social exclusion tend to be less trusting of political institutions. Regression analysis was used based on data from the Swedish Citizen Survey 2003 and Small Areas for Market Statistics. The results showed no evidence for a relationship between social exclusion and political trust.

Contextual effects have previously been shown to be related to political attitudes and behaviour. Focusing on the contextual effect of social exclusion, this paper evaluates whether individuals living in areas with higher levels of social exclusion tend to be less trusting of political institutions. Regression analysis was used based on data from the Swedish Citizen Survey 2003 and Small Areas for Market Statistics. The results showed no evidence for a relationship between social exclusion and political trust.

This study explores the relationship between journalists and NGOs in news making from a social exchange theory perspective. Drawing on semi-structured reconstruction interviews with journalists from Swedish media and representatives from the communications departments of Swedish NGOs, it examines motivations, contextual influences, and trust building processes that shape the relationship. The findings from the thematic analysis suggest three main characteristics of the journalist-NGO relationship. Firstly, the actors are motivated to interact due to a mutual dependency despite having separate goals. Secondly, the interactions are marked by an initiative imbalance caused by the contextual norm of a ruling media logic. Thirdly, trustworthiness is established between the actors through successful social exchanges which tend to reoccur and rationalize professional processes, ergolong-term relations lead to trust and efficacy. This thesis further concludes that journalists hold an upper hand in the news making process which NGOs accommodate to be recognized by media. Simultaneously, the NGOs play an important part in supplementing and substituting journalistic shortages which enhances their influence on news content. This leads to a relationship of mutual dependency which is sustained through reciprocal social exchanges that build trust and enable efficiency on both an interpersonal micro level, and an organizational meso level.

Organisations are under enormous pressure to become more innovative in all areas of their operations if they are going to continue to compete successfully (Leavy, 2003). The first stage of successful innovation is ensuring that creativity, the generation of novel ideas, is achieved (McFadzean, et al., 2004). With regards to an organisation's creative environment, theory has suggested that the basic orientation of a company's support for creativity comes directly from the behaviours of the highest levels of management (Amabile, 1996). Despite this proposed relationship, little empirical research has been conducted that examines the role that senior management of an organisation play in influencing a work environment that stimulates creativity. A research model has been developed that illustrates the possible relationships between the functions of senior managers and the creative work environment of an organisation. Essentially this model is be utilised as a framework to examine how do the management functions create the stimulants and impediments of an organisation's environment that affect creativity? The method used to investigate this research question is a qualitative investigation of two manufacturing plants that operate in a larger New Zealand food processing company. This entailed gathering information through semi-structured interviews with employees from the senior management to lower level employees. In addition, direct observations at the plants and archival data in the form of company reports, articles and prior studies were used to gather further information. From this research, three key findings were established. (1) Amabile, et al's., (1996) theory that a number of variables stimulate creativity, while others impede it, was supported. (2) Trust was found to be the key intervening variable, the foundation, upon which a creative context can be built. (3) The Senior Manager, in the case of this research the Operations Manager and Production Centre Manager, played a crucial role in providing the contextual variables that facilitate creativity. As this research suggests, organisational creativity is complicated by the fact that it is affected by the social dynamics operating between key parties within an organisation. Consequently, it is characterised by informal relationships, freedom and resource allocation that ultimately requires that a level of trust exists between key parties. It is senior management's responsibility to ensure that such a work environment is created. These managers are only able to build trust within their organisations by acting with benevolence, integrity and demonstrating that they are committed to employee creativity.

The dissertation employs laboratory experimental methodology to study decision-making when people face trade-offs between ethical and economic values. More explicitly, the three chapters investigate 1) consumer behaviour when a substantially equivalent version of a product is more expensive because it was produced without child labour, 2) the interaction between an expert advisor and an ignorant decision-maker, when the former may gain from lying and the latter has to decide whether or not to trust in the advice, and 3) fairness in divisions of an economic gain between two people who were both involved in creating the gain, but only one of them provided real effort. Here, a focus is on the impact of power structure, i.e. who decides, on divisions and fairness judgments. All studies discuss implications of experimental behaviour for market and business domains. In addition, the thesis emphasizes ethical theories as complementary to normative benchmark from economic and psychological theory.
La tesis utiliza una metodología experimental para investigar las decisiones de los individuos cuando hay un conflicto entre valores éticos y económicos. Mas específicamente, los tres capítulos investigan sobre 1) el comportamiento del consumidor cuando se enfrenta a dos versiones de un mismo producto, siendo una de ellas más cara por ser producida sin trabajo infantil, 2) la interacción entre un agente experto y un agente desinformado que debe tomar una decisión confiando o no en el consejo del experto, el cuál puede mentir para ganar más dinero, y 3) el reparto justo de una ganancia económica entre dos personas de las cuales sólo una ha contribuido trabajando en un ejercicio. Este último estudio se centra en el impacto de la estructura de poder, es decir quién decide, en el reparto y en los juicios de que es lo justo. Los estudios analizan las implicaciones del comportamiento experimental sobre los mercados y las empresas. Además, la tesis propone teorías éticas para complementar las teorías económicas y psicológicas.

The primary objective of this research is to address a basic question: What types of governmental structures serve to enhance the public's trust in government? It develops and tests a theory linking local political characteristics to citizen attitudes toward government. These relationships are analyzed by (1) collecting original survey data on citizen attitudes toward local governments and information on local political characteristics, and (2) using multi-level analytical techniques to investigate how the context created by various governmental structures and political realities impacts the political attitudes of residents. The research presented here unites much of the political, social, and psychological research on political trust by presenting a model of the attitude based on individual-level judgments about the policies, processes, and people of local government as well as the political structures and realities that surround these individuals. This study also provides insight into how contextual variables can contribute to an understanding of individual-level attitudes by showing how a person's political surroundings can operate to shape their feelings of trust in the government.

This study diagnoses performance in a mature manufacturing company based on an inquiry into contextual ambidexterity. Previous research has shown that creating a high performance context is founded upon the constructs of performance management and social support; however, this research has been conducted in fast evolving, relatively young companies such as software design firms. To date, no research has shown if a well established manufacturing firm can create a context with high levels of performance management and social support establishing a high performance environment and therefore be contextually ambidextrous. The presented contextual ambidexterity inquiry considers social support based upon four specific types of support, namely emotional, appraisal, informational, and instrumental support. Within social support, the concepts of trust and burnout are also vital in establishing the proper culture to achieve high performance. Further, performance management is founded upon human capital management established in a suitable corporate culture. In this study, this approach to a contextual ambidexterity inquiry is applied within the context of a U.S. based division of a global manufacturing company based on a survey, participant observation, and individual interviews. The research contributes to both the academic and practitioner environments with a greater understanding of the antecedents of high performance in an environment outside that of a young, fast evolving software firms. Further, it is shown that a high performance context may exist within organizations that are vastly different from those previously studied. In addition, this study offers an approach to a contextual ambidexterity inquiry with refined definitions and measures based on established constructs as well as new constructs. The implications of these additions to our understanding of contextual ambidexterity to both academia and practice are discussed and several avenues of future research are proposed.

博士
國立臺灣大學
商學研究所
97
In complex and uncertain competitive environments, organizations usually employ both aggressive and collaborative strategies that develop into a state of competitive interaction. This is not only beneficial to promoting higher managing efficiency but also helpful in increasing profit. This research models after small and medium-sized accounting firms whose market structure is categorized as monopolistic. With extreme expertise heterogeneity on non-audit services, small and medium-sized accounting firms must sometimes cooperate with one another to retain market share when competing with international firms and local tax agents. This research will closely examine the “co-opetitional” strategies among the small and medium-sized firms. Moreover, since the collaborations among firms are seldom regulated by contract, simple trust usually becomes the deciding factor for alliance. This research intends to explore: a) how trust among individuals and/or organizations affects the co-opetitional relationship, b) what role trust mechanism takes in conducting cross-organizational co-opetition, and c) how co-opetition affects organizational performance. This research employs questionnaire for data collection and the questionnaire is filled out by accountants registered to the Taiwan CPA Association. In regard to empirical analysis, this research utilizes several methods for evaluation: 1) structural equation modeling, SEM; 2) hierarchical linear modeling, HLM; 3) mediated moderation model; 4) polynomial regression models; and 5) ANOVA. This research first examines the hypothetical model with LISREL to test for goodness-of-fit. Then OLS regression model is applied to test the moderating model and the significance of the trust mechanism. To raise the validity of the results, polynomial regression is employed to further assess the moderating effect and the result is presented with a 3-D moderating effects plot graph. Finally, ANOVA is applied for analysis on co-opetitonal strategy’s effects on organizational performance. The results of analysis clearly indicate that: (1) a positive relationship between resource heterogeneity and price competitive action; (2) a positive relationship between resource heterogeneity and non-price competitive action; (3) a positive relationship between resource complementarity and joint action; (4) a positive relationship between joint action and organizational performance; (5) the relationship between resource heterogeneity and price competitive action is weaker when organizations exist interpersonal trust; (6) the relationship between resource heterogeneity and non-price competitive action is weaker when organizations exist interpersonal trust; (7) the relationship between resource complementarity and joint action is stronger when organizations exist interpersonal trust; (8) the relationship between resource heterogeneity and price competitive action is weaker when organizations exist interorganizational trust; (9) the relationship between resource heterogeneity and non-price competitive action is weaker when organizations exist interorganizational trust; (10) a positive relationship between interorganizational trust and joint action; (11) a negative relationship between interorganizational trust and price competitive action; and (12) a negative relationship between interorganizational trust and non-price competitive action. In the last part of this research, a matrix demonstrating the relationship between resource characteristics and co-opetition strategy is constructed to form strategic implications and practical applications. In addition to evidence from the empirical studies, this research also incorporates case studies as complementary supports. Four distinctive case studies are included to demonstrate the interaction and selections in co-opetition strategies, and the findings are termed “Co-opetitional Model for Accountants.” Several practical implications can be drawn from this investigation. This study develops the co-opetitional model for accountants. Also, this study shows the matrix relationship between resource and co-opetition strategy. Finally, the findings from this study and their implications are discussed.

Text in Afrikaans
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a life-threatening disease. When heart patients in the treatment of their disease, due to certain subjugating discourses practised by the biomedical model or biomedicine, are treated in a way that contributes to their anxiety and they feel themselves marginalised by society, then CAD becomes even more threatening. The narrative-pastoral approach of this study aims to treat heart patients in a way that has a calming effect on them that could assist them to deal with their heart disease more efficiently. This study shows how a heart patient's illness stories can be centralised by means of narrative therapy and how a pastoral and ethical attitude of love and respect can produce a climate that's conducive to better health and well-being. I indicate how my methodology of participatory action research succeeds in making the heart patients active participants to the research project. Their active participation indicates that meaning is not created on their behalf in therapy; rather, they are responsible for the process of richer construction of meaning. I describe how the participants socially co-constructed alternative and richer descriptions of their illness. Futhermore, I point out how their richer descriptions of illness contribute to perceptible and measurable results that are of value to the heart patients.
Koronere hartvatsiekte (KHS) is 'n lewensbedreigende siekte. Wanneer hartpasiente in die behandeling van hul siekte vanwee sekere onderdrukkende diskoerse van siekte vanuit die biomediese model of biomedisyne s6 hanteer word dat dit spanning op hul plaas en deur die samelewing gemarginaliseer word, word KHS des te meer gevaarlik. In hierdie studie gaan dit oor 'n narratief-pastorale benadering wat hartpasiente op 'n kalmerende manier hanteer sodat hulle kan kom tot 'n meer doeltreffende hantering van hul hartsiekte. Hierdie studie toon aan hoe hartpasiente se siekteverhale deur middel van narratiewe terapie gesentreer word en hoe 'n etiese en pastorale gesindheid van liefde en respek 'n klimaat skep wat bevorderlik is vir beter gesondheid en welwese. Ek dui aan hoe my metodologie van deelnemende aksienavorsing daarin geslaag het om die hartpasiente aktiewe deelnemers te maak aan die navorsingsprojek. Hul aktiewe deelname impliseer dat betekenis nie in terapie vir hulle geskep word nie, maar dat hulle self skeppend betrokke is in die proses van ryker betekeniskonstruering. Ek beskryf hoe die deelnemers altematiewe en ryker beskrywings van hul siekte sosiaal ko-konstrueer. Ek dui verder aan hoe hul ryker beskrywings van siekte bydra tot sigbare en meetbare resultate wat vir hartpasiente van waarde is.
Practical Theology
D. Th. (Praktiese Teologie)