Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Internet consumer usage'

There has been little understanding of how consumers adopt and use the mobile Internet. This dissertation seeks to bridge this gap in prior literature by focusing on consumers’ cross-platform consumption behavior on mobile devices. The first study of this dissertation addresses how the adoption of mobile applications influences the use of corresponding mobile websites. Pseudo-panel analysis based on repeated cross-sectional data suggests that the introduction of a mobile app by a major national media company leads to a significant increase in demand at the corresponding mobile news website. In addition, it reports that this effect is greater for consumers with higher appreciation for concentrated news content, with stronger propensity for a particular political viewpoint, and with fewer time constraints. The results are consistent with the interpretation that adoption of a provider’s news app stimulates corresponding mobile news website visits. The second study of this dissertation examines whether the quality of local fixed-line Internet service influences mobile Internet adoption and usage. An empirical analysis shows that local fixed-line Internet speed relates negatively to mobile Internet adoption and usage; if the local fixed-line connection is insufficient, consumers tend to get online through their mobile phones. Further, better local mobile Internet speed increases the likelihood of adopting and using the mobile Internet. Neither fixed-line nor mobile Internet speed has significant impacts on mobile-specific offline services such as taking photos or videos. In some circumstances, competition between the two platforms is stronger, such as among younger consumers and those living in areas with lower fixed-line Internet speeds.

Purpose The purpose of this thesis is, looking from a consumer’s perspective, to investigate the influences of students website selection Background Today’s students are a new generation of consumers. They have been brought up with digi-tal media and have different attitudes towards marketing than their parents. Most market management theories were created before the digital revolution. Students are tomorrow’s high income consumers. It is valuable for companies to understand how these consumers orientate themselves on the internet and how to best reach them. Method An exploratory/explanatory deductive study to map what websites students use, how the websites are found and why they are used was conducted. The empirical findings were col-lected through group interviews. Conclusion Students have a very habitual behavior on the internet. They use some of the internet’s largest brands. Each website offers a niche and specialized service, presented in a simple and interactive manner. Students choose one website for each specific service. As the in-ternet is large with a lot of information they have a cluster of chore websites visited on a regular basis. From that base, students use friends and search engines to navigate them-selves to the destinations of their choice. Advertisement offer more trust than enticement to actually visit the sites.

Intergenerational influence is the transmission of information and beliefs from one family generation to the next. Intergenerational influence is at work whenever older generation seek advice from younger generation, or vice versa. The study investigated the influence of young opinion leaders on older generation regarding mobile internet usage.The study followed a convenience research design. A total of 597 online questionnaires were sent to Nedbank Group Technology employees aged over 44 via email. A total of 66 complete, complete, usable, online questionnaires were completed. The key finding was that young opinion leaders are likely to positively influence older generation regarding mobile internet usage. The finding is consistent with previous studies.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
unrestricted

The internet has become a vital part of peoples everyday life and helped connect the world together. With the explosive growth of smaller IoT devices during the 2010s users have surrounded themselves with ever more smart devices. These IoT devices,equipped with sensors and wireless communication capabilities, are capable of forming small networks which support peoples everyday life. Security in IoT has been considered to be somewhat of a jokein the industry due to it often being neglected by manufacturers.This is due to it being built with the SCADA framework in mind but faces many more challenges, for example the limited hardware of the devices, the number of devices communicating and wider range of environments in which they operate. Apart from hardware related risks, the users also runs the risk of having their entire life monitored by these IoT devices by collecting the entire stream of data produced by them as well as these IoT devices can be abused to gain more than necessary information about them. The behaviours of users play a large roll in keeping systems secure. Humans makemistakes, not because they are lazy or stupid, but they tend to choose the path of least resistance, writing passwords down or skipping security measures when it becomes overwhelming. However,developers carry a certain level of responsibility for this, since a well designed user interface can facilitate the use of such security measures. A survey was sent out to get a better understanding of consumers knowledge and behaviours regarding IT,a survey was distributed with almost 100 respondents. The results showed that background were tied to greater knowledge and understanding of IT but did not mean that you had a better mind set of security. Similarly, both consumers with less or more IT knowledge could be lazy for the sake of convenience.

Thesis (M.A.)--Cleveland State University, 2007.
Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 8, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-110). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center. Also available in print.

The tourism industry has been identified as the industry with the most potential to create jobs and contribute largely to economic growth. In order to live up to this potential, tourism businesses need to create tourism products for potential tourists which need to be promoted successfully through a number of mediums. The use of the Internet as a medium for promoting and selling tourism products is increasing, however, in order for tourism businesses to successfully promote the tourism product through the Internet, they have to understand the needs and wants of their current and potential target markets. One segment of the tourism market that has come under increasing attention is the mature traveller market. This market is defined as travellers who are 50 years of age and older. Generally, the mature traveller market is viewed as a small homogenous group of old consumers with little or no spending power. However, evidence suggests that this market is comprised of an increasing number of diverse people, who use the Internet and like to spend on tourism products. Therefore, this research will examine differences between Internet users and Internet non-users in the mature traveller market. Specific attention will be paid to investigate differences in demographic, socioeconomic, Internet use and travel-related characteristics. The identification of these characteristics will enable a profile to be d~veloped for each group, which can be used by tourism businesses to effectively promote tourism products over the Internet to the mature market In order to collect data from potential respondents, a questionnaire which was used in a similar study conducted in the US was used. Data was collected using a convenience sample of Internet users and Internet non-users from the Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of South Africa. Cronbach alpha and factor analysis were used to assess the reliability and validity of the research instrument and measurement scales. In order to test whether differences did exist between the two groups the Chi-square and t-test statistics were used. Finally in order to examine which factors where influential in differentiating between Internet users and Internet non-users discriminant analysis was employed. The findings in the present study suggest that there are significant differences in demographics, socioeconomic, Internet use and travel-related characteristics between Internet users and Internet non-users in the mature market. By understanding the differences between Internet users and Internet non-users, tourism businesses can identify marketing strategies that appeal to mature travellers who use the Internet and to those do not, by utilising information gathered from Internet users and Internet non-users demographic, socio-economic and travel-related characteristics.

La capacidad de realizar diversas actividades simultáneamente en el uso de los media está desarrollando abundante investigación. La multitarea también se relaciona con el consumo de contenidos audiovisuales. La creación del hábito de simultanear tareas puede ser debido a la influencia del entorno o fruto de un comportamiento consciente dirigido a objetivos. Los trabajos realizados en el campo de la fisiología, de la neurología y de la psicología social muestran resultados consensuados en los que ambos enfoques -entorno y/o comportamiento dirigido- definen un comportamiento habitual. Como explica LaRose “el usuario inicia de manera activa o reflexiva un comportamiento en una situación concreta pero la asociación de manera repetida de este comportamiento hace que la representación mental de esta costumbre sea cada vez más accesible a la memoria. La repetición en un contexto estable hace que los usuarios respondan a las gratificaciones a medio/largo plazo en lugar de a las expectativas de resultados inmediatos y momentáneos” (LaRose, 2010). Nuestro objetivo es describir las conductas realizadas en el contexto concreto del visionado audiovisual, para explicar los posibles hábitos que se den en dicho contexto, aunque se tiene especial interés en: - La compañía, presencial o virtual, durante el consumo del contenido audiovisual. Y cómo se comparte el visionado. - La realización de otras actividades durante el visionado no relacionadas con mismo, ya que la tecnología permite el control de la reproducción audiovisual y el hábito minimiza el gasto de recursos cognitivos. El producto escogido son las series de ficción y el contexto, la conexión a Internet para un visionado online. Nuestro interés se focaliza en las tecnologías online sin buscar la comparación directa con el visionado de televisión tradicional, aunque somos conscientes de que algunos de los hábitos que se describan pueden producirse también en el visionado frente a la pantalla tradicional. Esto es debido a la variedad de dispositivos que permiten la conexión a Internet. Con esta finalidad se expone en primer lugar, una revisión de trabajos que analizan el consumo del audiovisual en Internet, en segundo lugar se contextualiza el concepto de hábito en los media, en tercer y cuarto lugar se revisan estudios relativos a la Teoría de usos y gratificaciones y a la multitarea como tema de estudio. La parte empírica se realiza mediante método selectivo con encuesta o cuestionario online, que es respondido por 2010 usuarios de la comunidad online Series.ly. El estudio busca responder a interrogantes cómo: ¿Facilita el consumo a través de Internet el compartir virtualmente el visionado? ¿El control de la reproducción facilita el comentario mientras se visiona? ¿Además de comentar o valorar la serie, realizan otro tipo de actividades? ¿Cuáles? Los resultados obtenidos muestran que las series de ficción se comparten en primer lugar con los amigos, seguido de la familia y a ser posible de forma presencial, que el consumo se realiza en la habitación personal (sólo o con los amigos y/o familiares) utilizando preferentemente el portátil y que durante el visionado no sólo se realizan actividades de compartir y comentar el mismo, sino también otras como jugar a videojuegos, hacer deberes, leer que tienen una demanda cognitiva superior al simple comentario simultáneo al visionado. Futuras líneas de investigación permitirán profundizar en el visionado conectado a través de la red tal como se ha realizado en el estudio. En cuanto a multitarea, se propone profundizar en la tipología de actividades así como es necesaria la reflexión sobre la asimilación o comprensión del contenido consumido mientras se realizan dichas actividades simultáneas.
Nowadays, the ability to perform various activities simultaneously using the new media is being the subject of an extensive research. Multitasking is also related to the consuming of audiovisual contents. Creating the habit of performing simultaneous tasks may be due to either the influence of the environment or the result of a conscious goal-directed behavior. Research works done in the field of physiology, neuroscience and social psychology show consensual results in which both approaches -environment and/or directed behavior- define a regular behavior. As LaRose explains "the user starts either actively or reflexively a behavior, in a specific situation, but the continuous repeated association of this behavior causes that the mental representation of this custom be increasingly accessible to memory. Repetition in a stable context makes users answer perks medium / long term rather than the expectations of immediate results and momentary" (LaRose, 2010). Our goal is to describe actions realized in the specific context of audiovisual viewing, to explain the possible habits that occur in this context, although it is particularly interested in: - The case of being with company, in person or online, for the consumption of audiovisual content, as well as how this viewing is shared. - The realization of other activities during the viewing unrelated to it, since the technology allows the control of the audiovisual reproduction and minimizes the spending habit of cognitive resources. The product chosen are fiction series and the context, the Internet connection for an online viewing. Our interest is focused on online technologies without seeking direct comparison with traditional television viewing, although we are aware that some of the habits that are described can also be produced in front of the traditional viewing screen. This is due to the variety of devices that can be connected to the Internet. In order to get this objective, firstly we expose a review of studies analyzing the consumption of online audiovisual; secondly, we contextualize the concept of habit in relation with the media; thirdly and fourthly, we review studies related to the Theory of applications and gratuities, as well as the multitasking as a subject of our research. The empirical part is done through a selective method with an online survey or questionnaire, which is answered by 2010 users from the online community Series.ly. The study seeks to answer questions like: Does the consumption through the Internet facilitate the virtually sharing of the viewing? Does the control of reproduction facilitate the fact of being able to comment during the viewing? Besides comment on or evaluate the series, do you perform other activities? What? The results show that fiction series are first shared with friends, followed by family and if possible in person, that consumption takes place in the personal bedroom (either alone or with and / or friends and family) using preferably the laptop, and during the viewing not only users share and comment, but they also perform other activities such as playing videogames, doing homework, reading…; activities that implies superior cognitive demands than the simply commentary of a viewing. Future research can deepen on the connected viewing through the network as it has been done in this Thesis. As for multitasking, we propose to analyze the types of activities, as well as to reflect on both the assimilation and the understanding of the consumed content while these activities are carried out simultaneously.

The rise of the digital technology, social networking or interactivity have an extensive impact on what is happening in virtual world. Users of Internet are more and more often introduced to the new available on-line tools. Some of them have adapted those new trends with no problems and they have been taking an advantage of them with an ease, whereas others have had problems with converting themselves into the new digital era. Alternatively, others are not fascinated by what Internet offers or they simply cannot afford it due to many circumstances. However, with no doubts, we can say that the Internet and the digital revolution brought about many issues to discuss or to have a research about. To some extent, new trends, especially the expansion of the Internet, are affecting all traditional media and this, in my opinion, might result in the new phenomena like potential division of society into Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants proposed by Prensky (2001a).The project focused on investigating motives for choosing sport websites by both groups with special consideration of interactivity factor. The motives have been checked via in-depth interviews using the sample of ten interviewees both private and professional users of Polish sport informative websites. I wanted to check whether my results either duplicate what Prensky described in his articles or they confirm contradictive opinion given by VanSlyke.Additionally, I have compared those most popular motives with sample of five most often visited Polish sport informative websites, according to Alexa rank (2012). The level of interactivity on those websites was assessed by an appearance of examples of new new media like blogs, podcasts, number of posts on Facebook fan pages, created account on Twitter or channel on YouTube (Levinson, 2010). Also possibility of commenting was taken into consideration. Having checked those variables via cyber ethnography method (secondary method) I was able to identify which of the sampled websites could be considered as most interactive one.Despite persisting limitations, the method has brought reliable and valid data, according to which I have given my conclusions by answering research questions stated at the beginning of this project.

碩士
國立高雄第一科技大學
資訊管理所
91
Electronic commerce is significantly prospering with online finance service requirement increasing. For satisfying this requirement, banks provide Internet banking service to obtain or retain customer base. Internet banking is a web-based finance information system, web design quality becomes the determinant of satisfaction. However, the growths of website’s population increase significantly for several years in compare with the amount of Internet banking users. Obviously, the entry barriers of Internet banking are higher than banking sector perceived. Thus, we propose a framework based on Technology Acceptance Model plus system-enabled barrier to analyze the affecting factors. Then constructing an experimental design, which observes the diversity between user expectation and acknowledgement of Internet banking services. The finding shows that perceived factors affect Internet banking usage, system factors affect the usage partially, and personal characteristics factors are non-significant effect. It imply that psychological factors are the main determinants of the usage, follow with system factors. The contribution of this research is showing user reluctance of Internet banking usage. According to the finding, we suggest that Internet banking system development should make more consideration about interface simplification and human nature with target consumers. Furthermore, this research response to the TAM research finding and providing a viewpoint that not perceived factors but system factors affect Internet banking usage. For further research, this research provides an extending field for information system usage, which is related to both perceived factors and system factors.

碩士
國立虎尾科技大學
資訊管理研究所
101
Ecommerce (electronic commerce) with the support of the information technology applications have been popular with many consumers. One of the most useful applications is Internet banking service. In order to understand the using Internet banking in Vietnam of consumers, TAM (technology acceptance model) model is used to investigate the factors that influence the acceptance of new technology applications and how two factors including Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease-to-Use affect customers‘ Behavioral Intention to use the Internet banking services. This study aims to understand the consumers'' emotional and cognitive in using the online banking in transaction and find out the factors to improve consumer service and competitiveness in the electronic market in Vietnam. Three aspects are included in this research: (1) Reviewing of the rate of Internet banking users in Vietnam‘s Ecommerce, (2) Finding out the factors affecting consumer‘ satisfaction and the solutions in improving the competitiveness of service quality, and (3) Finding out the potential consumers from the b ehavioral intention. A total of 329 participants from Hanoi capital and HoChiMinh city were surveyed for the purpose of this study. The findings from this study show that the factors such as Perceived Ease-to-Use (PEOU), Perceived Usefulness(PU), Perceived Convenience (PC), Perceived Risk (PR) and Perceived Behavior Control (PBC) are significant influence on consumer behavior. In addition, there are differences between age and internet usage, between income and internet banking usage. Perceived Ease-to-Use (PEOU) is strongest influence to consumers.

碩士
中華大學
資訊管理學系碩士在職專班
101
In recent years, the popularization of technologies, such as, mobile Internet, smart phones, and cloud services becomes an important marketing trend to achieve the advertising effectiveness with micro-films. The main objective of this research is to discuss the influence of consumer types and motivation types of Internet usages on the advertising effectiveness of micro-films. In addition, this study explores factors, such as, the personal background of consumers, the experience of using Internet, on-line shopping experience and the perception value to micro-films, etc., and finds out whether these factors will affect the advertising effectiveness of micro-films or not. The hierarchical model was adopted into the advertising effectiveness of micro-films in this study to categorize the effectiveness into six levels for the further discussions: awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase. Both online questionnaires and physical questionnaires were used in this research. Total of 422 valid samples were collected with an effectiveness of 93.99%. This study targets on Taiwan Internet users as examples and focuses on the Internet consumers’ views of micro-films. The result shows that motivation types of Internet usages and consumer types affect the advertising effectiveness. At the same time, the higher perception value of consumers to micro-films is, the more significant advertising effectiveness to micro-films is. Furthermore, the advertising effectiveness of micro-films is impacted by the difference of consumers’ backgrounds, experience of Internet usages, and on-line shopping experience.

碩士
輔仁大學
金融與國際企業學系金融碩士班
105
The purpose of this paper is to explore the consumer acceptability of usage based insurance (this article is referred to as UBI insurance) in the context of vehicle networking. The research and analysis are carried out by the combination of qualitative and quantitative research. This study first uses the interview method. The research selects two large insurance company management personnel or the project head as the interview object and takes the UBI insurance present situation and the future development as the topic to carry on the semi-structured interview. The visitors think that UBI insurance is the future development trend, but in mainland China market, insurance companies are still in the exploratory stage of UBI insurance. The insurance companies need to have national policy-oriented, in line with the transformation and upgrading of insurance companies to enhance their own credibility to win the trust of consumers. The product design should be tailored to different segments of the market to make different changes in order to save product costs and meet the personalized needs of consumers. For future development, the focus should be on improving the quality of services. In addition, the insurance companies in the positive innovation, but also need to increase cooperation with technology companies and big data companies to increase customer loyalty. Furthermore, this study uses questionnaires to collect sample data on vehicle owner's acceptance of UBI insurance, monitoring acceptance of funds and good degree of driving habits, and apply the linear regression model to find out the significant factors that affect consumers' purchasing tendency of UBI insurance. The results show that, first, the more the record, the lower purchase propensity of UBI insurance that consumers have. The future of insurance records in UBI is still likely to be an important indicator of whether consumers buy UBI insurance. Second, compared with traditional insurance, the higher the acceptance of UBI insurance, the higher purchase propensity of UBI insurance that consumers have. Compared to a single traditional insurance, personalized UBI insurance is more easily favored by consumers. Third, the higher the acceptance of personal information monitored during driving, the higher purchase propensity of UBI insurance that consumers have. The information security in the bigdata era highlights its importance. The insurance companies in the development of innovative products at the same time, should pay attention to consumer privacy protection.

Thesis (M.Com. (Information Systems))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2015.
This research study investigated the key factors that contribute to both current usage and future usage intention of online banking by South African users. The research was focused on online banking from all banks and regions in South Africa, hence making the results generalisable to the South African context. The variables (Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Facilitating Conditions and Social Influence) were derived from UTAUT model. Trust, Switching Costs and Availability of Alternatives were also added. The conceptual model was moderated by age, gender and experience. The variables used within the study were derived from literature review based on previous studies. From a survey of 300 online banking consumers, results were drawn from 105 responses. In South Africa, Trust, Effort expectancy and facilitating conditions, presented significant and positive impact on future usage intention of using online banking. Age and Experience were also significant to Future Usage intentions. However Social Influence, Switching Costs and Availability of Alternatives do not play a considerable role in influencing the user’s future usage in South Africa. While current usage did not directly impact future usage intentions of using online banking, the findings on frequency of usage and functionality (applications) added value to understanding the concept of current usage. The model had an R2 = 0.25 which suggests that within the South African context, there are more factors to be considered for academia and practitioners to understand online banking behaviour amongst consumers. We cannot completely apply theories and models from other countries to the South African context. There is a need to look at factors unique to South Africa, including how customers interpret questionnaires. The research also contributes to the current body of work and interest by banks in South Africa to move from “bricks to clicks”, (moving customers from the branches onto electronic platforms) that are more accessible from any location, and require less staff to operate. To do that, practitioners need add “trust” factors to online banking as well as increase frequency of users logging on to transact. It is vital for banks to also focus on functionality that is simple, reliable and dependable, as well as adds value to customers to ensure their frequent and continued usage thereof.

碩士
國立中興大學
科技管理研究所
100
In view of non-smokestack industry and the Internet booming, travelers aren’t limited to plan their journeys through travel agency or read travel books. Instead, they widely use the Internet to get the travel-related information, and publicly recommend or comment the spots. In the past, most of researches weren’t separated the travel period. However, it is different that the travelers how and why to use the Internet in different stages of travel. The purpose of this study is to understand the travelers’ motivation of usage the Internet in different timing. Therefore, in this study the travel period will be divided into three phases: before traveling, during traveling, and after traveling. “Uses and gratifications theory” is one of the most influential theories that are used in media research. This study has two-phase survey. The first stage is open questionnaire, based on “Uses and gratifications theory”, to collect the keywords which are consumers’ motivation of Internet usage. The second stage is survey. Both of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) are used to analysis 435 questionnaires. The results show four dimensions for each traveling stage could encourage the travelers to use the Internet.. Before traveling (Convenience, travel reviews, price rating, information collecting) ; during traveling (Real-time sharing, real-time queries, entertainment, real-time interaction) ; after traveling (Community share, network resources, leisure, website operators) Before traveling, consumers focus on collecting and comparing the comprehensive travel information. During traveling, they focus on the immediate travel experience sharing and emotional exchanges. After traveling, they focus on manage the community website and record the tourism notes. In the future, tourism-related operators can self-determine whether they have the characteristics to attract travelers to use their site or software, when they conducting e-commerce marketing.

M.Comm.
This dissertation reports on the findings of a study conducted in order to understand the factors that impact on retail bank customers‘ attitudes towards and usage of internet and cell phone banking services in Gauteng, South Africa. A conceptual model based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) plus other variables including trust, subjective norm and demographic variables was used to help understand factors that impact on adoption of electronic banking. Data was collected from customers of the four biggest banks in South Africa namely ABSA, Standard Bank, First National Bank and Nedbank. A total of 394 usable responses were obtained. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. A number of statistical tools were used in the analysis including descriptive statistics, correlation analysis correlation analysis, regression analysis and independent sample ttesting. The findings of the study reveal that customers‘ attitude towards internet and cell phone banking contributes significantly to customer‘s intention to start using or continue using internet and cell phone banking services. The findings also show that while differences in attitude may exist between customers across different demographic groups, demographic factors, alone, are weak predictors of attitude. The study found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and trust; significantly contribute to customers‘ attitude towards internet and cell phone banking. Of these variables, trust emerged as the most important predictor of attitude towards internet and cell phone banking while the subjective norm was found to be the weakest predicator of attitude. The findings have wider implications on efforts aimed at attracting more customers to start using or continue using internet or cell phone banking services. The implications have also been discussed and suggestions for future research made.

Os filhos começam a ter um lugar de destaque nas famílias, nomeadamente no que diz respeito à influência que têm nas decisões de consumo familiar. Esta influência foi comprovada em pesquisas anteriores, sendo que variaconforme características da família, das crianças e do produto em causa. Em Portugal a estrutura familiar tem sofrido alterações que contribuem para um aumento da influência das crianças. A presente investigação enquadra-se no comportamento de consumo das famílias com crianças e apresenta como principal enfoque o papel de influenciador do filho na utilização do serviço de Internet no agregado familiar. Fazendo parte de uma geração que se relaciona de forma diferente com as tecnologias, as crianças e adolescentes são muitas vezes pioneiros e os utilizadores mais activos e mais intensivos do serviço de Internet na sua casa. Recentemente o incentivo à utilização das novas tecnologias por parte das empresas e das instituições públicas tem sido notória e acompanhada por uma adesão e utilização crescentes do serviço de Internet. A conjugação destes dois factores prevê que as crianças tenham influência nas decisões de consumo relacionadas com o serviço de Internet. Após uma revisão da literatura e do estabelecimento de hipóteses, realizou-se um questionário on-line, através das redes sociais, com o qual se obteve resposta de 155 indivíduos, com filhos entreos 6 e os 17 anos, provenientes de uma amostra de conveniência. Da análise do inquérito concluiu-se que, para a amostra em questão, as crianças têm alguma influência na utilização da Internet na sua casa uma vez que as necessidades das crianças a média de idades dos filhos e o número de filhos no agregado familiar influenciam a frequência de utilização da Internet.
The influence of children in the family consumptiondecisions are increasing. Academic research demonstrated that family size, children demographics and product characteristics are important moderator factors on this, influence. In Portugal several studies analyzed that the evolution of family structure has contributed to the growth of child influence in family consumption. This research aims to analyze the roleof children in determining the family’s consumption of Internet services. Nowadays children is viewed as a technological generation for whom is quite important having an active behaviour and belonging to a reference group. They are behaving as heavy users of internet, such as Facebook, etc.. Also, there has been an increase of technological incentive form companies and public institutions, followed by an increase of subscriptions and Internet service usage. Combining all these factors, we can predict that children will have influence in familyconsumption decisions regarding to the Internet service. After a review of the literature on the families’ consumption behaviour and the use of internet, some hypothesis were formulated. An on-line survey was held, through social networks, obtaining 155 responses of individuals with children from 6 to 17 years old. Results suggest that children have some influence regarding usage of home Internet service, once child needs, children age average, and the number of children in the household influenced Internet usage frequency.