Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'E-commerce policy'

Background: E-commerce has with the rapid development of social media created conditions for E-tailers to become more consumer focused and social. The lack of possibility to physically examine products before purchasing has led to loss of revenue as a consequence of increased number of returns. Logistic management regarding returns must focus on optimizing the use of networks, a tool for this is social media. The usage of social media is extra important for clothing retailers because it creates further dimensions to the consumer experience and at the same time consumers use social media as an extended source to find information about companies. An optimal way of using social media is therefore an important success factor for clothing e-tailers. Purpose: The purpose with the study is to create knowledge regarding consumers desire about how e-tailers within the clothing industry should communicate their return policy by using social media. Methodology: The qualitative study is based on a deductive approach where the data has been collected through semi-structured interviews. Conclusion: The result of the study indicates that consumers wish that e-tailers within the clothing industry offers a function for chat on their social medias and their webpages for information and interaction regarding their return policy.<br>Bakgrund: E-handeln har med den snabba utvecklingen av sociala medier skapat förutsättningar för att utvecklas från att vara en produktorienterad miljö till att bli kundcentrerad och social. Samtidigt har den förlorade möjlighet att fysiskt kunna granska en produkt innan köp lett till minskad avkastning för företagen som en följd av ökat antal returer. Management för logistik gällande returer måste i huvudsak fokusera på att optimera användande av nätverk, ett verktyg för detta är sociala medier. Användandet av sociala medier är extra viktigt för e-handlare inom klädbranschen eftersom det skapar en ytterligare dimension för kundupplevelser samtidigt som konsumenter använder sociala medier som en utökad källa för att finna information om företag. Ett optimalt användande av sociala medier är därför en viktig framgångsfaktor för e-handlare inom klädbranschen. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse kring konsumenternas önskan om e-handlare inom klädbranschens användning av sociala medier gällande returpolicy. Metod: Denna kvalitativa studie baseras på ett deduktivt angreppssätt där empirin samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att konsumenter önskar att e-handlare inom klädbranschen erbjuder en chattfunktion på sociala medier och deras hemsida för information och interaktion angående dess returpolicy.

This study provides a comparative analysis of pricing promotions, which create an incentive to buy in Russian and Swedish fashion e-shops. The aim of this work is to determine the national differences in sales promotions used in e-commerce in these countries. This work confirms the existence of modern marketing trend in the e-commerce, which uses discounts as a tool for communication with consumers and for retaining them in the shop as a regular customer, and not just for traditional use of discounts as a way to sell remaining goods. To conduct the study the collected data obtained through systematic observation of application of discounts and promotions as marketing tools in the e-shops in these countries. Following the comparative analysis of statistical data we were able to determine the difference in the periods of sales, the maximum and minimum level of price falls, to create a typology of discounts, typical for both countries and for each of them separately. The recommendations for online retailers who develop the markets of these countries with regard to national specifics in communication with the consumer and based on the most popular types of discounts and promotions are also the important part of this work. The results of this study refute the words of the expert Simonetta Carbonaro that the modern approach to pricing policy in the e-commerce is a "suicide of fashion retail."

L’objet de cette recherche est la modélisation et l'étude de l'impact de la prise en compte des perturbations et des erreurs sur les politiques de réapprovisionnement pour un e-détaillant. Une des principales incertitudes en gestion de stock est l’écart entre la quantité en stock lue dans le système d’information et la quantité réellement disponible dans le système physique. A travers une étude empirique nous avons montré que l’impact de ce type d’erreurs est important dans le cas du e-détaillant. Dans ce contexte, le système d’information joue le premier rôle dans le processus de satisfaction de la demande puisque c’est sur la confrontation entre la demande du client final et les quantités figurant dans le Système d’Information que repose la promesse de vente. A l’exception de quelques contributions, les perturbations en gestion des stocks ont été principalement étudiées dans le contexte du détaillant. Nous avons étudié l’impact de ces perturbations sur la politique de stockage dans un contexte e-détaillant en faisant l’hypothèse d’une modélisation multiplicative des erreurs afin d’optimiser le profit du e-détaillant, et proposé deux modèles de réapprovisionnement, mono- et deux- périodes. Pour le premier, nous avons proposé une extension du modèle classique de vendeur de journaux au contexte de e-détaillant/fournisseur, avec un processus de demande sujet à des perturbations. Une étude analytique nous a permis de comparer l’impact de deux types de modélisation des erreurs, additive et multiplicative. Le deuxième modèle est une extension du premier au cas deux périodes. Avec sa résolution exacte, nous avons démontré que le comportement des quantités optimales était non monotone et qu’une politique myopique n’est pas optimale pour le cas multi-périodes. Grace à une étude numérique nous avons pu proposer des recommandations pour les managers, quant aux quantités à commander pour les deux périodes. Un troisième modèle de réapprovisionnement étudie l’impact des perturbations pour un problème multi-périodes avec minimisation des coûts et en considérant deux taux de service à atteindre, l’un sur la satisfaction des demandes et l’autre sur la satisfaction des ventes. Dans ce contexte, nous avons étudié et discuté plusieurs stratégies d’alignement dont réalisation d’inventaires et déploiement de technologie RFID<br>The aim of this PhD research is to study the impact of the inventory inaccuracy issue on replenishment policies under the wholesaling / e-retailing context. The inventory inaccuracy is defined as a discrepancy between the quantity shown by the Informational System and the quantity actually Physically available for sales. Such discrepancy has as root many sources of errors such as execution, transaction, misplacement, supply unreliability or shrinkage errors. We provide empirical evidence on the wide presence of inventory inaccuracies through one case study of wholesaling organizations. In e-retailing context customers’ demands are remotely satisfied based on the inventory level shown in the information system. The main interest of the research community was about studying the inaccuracy under the retail context. After motivating our research empirically and by the literature review, we develop three inventory frameworks subject to inventory inaccuracies under the wholesaling / e-retailing context with different configurations of the stochastic errors describing the inaccuracy issue. The error configuration could be additive for some sources of inaccuracies such as transaction as well as multiplicative (also known as stochastically proportional) for other sources such as shrinkage. Our first inventory framework aims to extend single-period (Newsvendor) model to the e-retailing/wholesaling context subject to inaccuracy. In Addition, to providing managerial insights, we compare the behavior of the optimal ordering strategies under the additive and the multiplicative error settings. Our second inventory framework is an extension of the former to the case of two selling periods. By solving exactly the two-period problem, we show that the behavior of the optimal ordering quantities is not monotonic, and conclude that a myopic policy could not be optimal. Thanks to a numerical study, we derive some interesting managerial insights about the management of the error risk between the two selling periods. Thanks to the theoretical results of our second inventory framework, we propose a third framework dealing with the inventory inaccuracy issue under a multi-period setting by assuming cost minimizing as a target but also by considering two Cycle Service Level constraints to achieve, the former for the demand satisfaction and the latter for the sales commitment satisfaction. We provide a comprehensive numerical study by comparing several policies as making inspection and RFID deployment

This paper determines the effects of police interventions on darknet markets. Darknet markets have been rapidly growing and the amount of drugs being sold on them keeps rising. This paper finds no significant changes in prices of drug listings before and after drug busts, and no significant changes in price per unit of drugs across the entire market. The results are similar to prior research done on normal drug markets that determined that police interventions have no significant effect on changing drug prices. With the rapid growth of drugs being sold on darknet markets, it is critical for law enforcement to understand how the markets react to police interventions.

I takt med e-handelns starka tillväxt så har även antalet returer ökat och e-handelsföretag kan ha upp till 50 % i returandel vilket kan medföra höga kostnader. Detta har inneburit att returhanteringen blivit en allt viktigare del för e-handelsföretag. Syftet med denna studie är att få en bättre förståelse för hur returhanteringen ser ut hos e-handelsföretag inom klädbranschen. Problemfrågorna berör vilka utmaningar står e-handlare inför idag och vilka aktiviteter kan de använda sig av för att överkomma dessa utmaningar men även hur stort fokus olika stora företag bör lägga på sina returaktiviteter. Studien baseras på en litteraturgenomgång samt en intervjustudie på fyra olika stora e-handelsföretag. De intervjuade företagen är olika stora och har ett olika stort fokus på sin e-handel. Denna studie visar på vad de olika e-handelsföretagen har för fokus på sina returaktiviteter och vad det kan leda till. Returhanteringen och dess utmaningar ser annorlunda ut för olika e-handelsföretag. För att överkomma de utmaningar som e-handelsföretag står inför är det viktigt att ha väl fungerande aktiviteter inom avoidance, gatekeeping och returpolicy som stöds av den operativa returhanteringsprocessen. För både stora och små företag är det viktigt att ha en hög medvetenhet men för mindre företag behöver det inte vara kostnadseffektivt att lägga ett allt för stort fokus på sina returaktiviteter. Syftet med returhantering är att skapa en balans mellan försäljning och kostnader<br>In line with the strong growth of e-commerce, the number of returns has also increased and some e-retailers can have a return ratio of 50 % which can cause high costs. Because of this, return management has become an increasingly important part of e-retailers. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how return management is performed by e-retailers in the apparel business. The problem questions in this study is about what challenges are e-retailers faced with and what activities can they use to respond to these challenges. This study is based on a literature review and the interview of four companies. The interviewed companies are different ones in size with a different focus on their e-commerce. This study shows how much the interviewed companies are focusing on their activities around returns and what the outcome can be. Return management and its challenges are different for different e-retailers. To overcome their challenges, it is important to have well-functioning activities within avoidance, gatekeeping and return policy that supports the operational returns management process. Regardless size on the companies it is important to achieve a high level of awareness, however, it does not need to be profitable for smaller companies to have a strong focus on their return activities as bigger ones. The purpose of return management is to create a balance between sales and cost.

Il successo delle riforme economiche cinesi negli anni '80 e negli anni '90 ha posto in discussione le politiche ufficiali di sviluppo (note come Washington consensus ) delle istituzioni multilaterali. Il consenso, ammettendo che le istituzioni sono importanti per la crescita, prescrive che i Paesi in via di sviluppo dovrebbero adottare governi che da un lato disciplinino un sistema di diritti di proprietà stabili e chiaramente definiti, e che dall'altro creino istituzioni che rafforzino i mercati: la buona governance in termini di liberalizzazione, privatizzazione delle proprietà statali e assenza di corruzione dovrebbe portare allo sviluppo economico. Nessuna di queste condizioni era presente in Cina: i diritti di proprietà apparivano essere né stabili né chiari, la corruzione era diffusa, e il governo era coinvolto in tutti i settori dell'economia. Questa ricerca utilizza i risultati della scuola della political economy per mettere in dubbio la validità dell'incompleta analisi del consenso e per dimostrare come le istituzioni cinesi abbiano appreso la lezione storica del capitalismo: i diritti di proprietà erano instabili, orizzontalmente indefiniti ma verticalmente definiti, e lo stato poté guidare la transizione capitalistica perché il sistema clientelare con il Partito attivo in qualità di political economy residual claimant era compatibile con i costi e i benefici connessi alla diffusione delle attività di mercato.<br>The success of China's economic reforms in the 1980s and in the 1990s has challenged the official development prescriptions known as Washington Consensus of multilateral institutions. By admitting that institutions matter for growth, the consensus suggests that developing countries should install a government which presides over a system of clear and stable property rights, and which does not interfere with markets but creates institutions that strengthen markets: good governance in terms of liberalisation, privatisation of State-owned assets and absence of corruption should result in economic development. None of these conditions were present in China: property rights appeared to be neither stable nor clear, corruption was widespread, and the government was involved in all sectors of the economy. This research draws on the findings of the political economy school to question the validity of the incomplete analysis of the consensus and to show how China's institutions learned the historical lesson of capitalism: property rights were unstable and horizontally unclear but vertically clear, and the state could guide the capitalist transition because the patron-client framework with the Party as the political economy residual claimant was compatible with the costs and benefits related to the rise of market activities.

Il successo delle riforme economiche cinesi negli anni '80 e negli anni '90 ha posto in discussione le politiche ufficiali di sviluppo (note come Washington consensus ) delle istituzioni multilaterali. Il consenso, ammettendo che le istituzioni sono importanti per la crescita, prescrive che i Paesi in via di sviluppo dovrebbero adottare governi che da un lato disciplinino un sistema di diritti di proprietà stabili e chiaramente definiti, e che dall'altro creino istituzioni che rafforzino i mercati: la buona governance in termini di liberalizzazione, privatizzazione delle proprietà statali e assenza di corruzione dovrebbe portare allo sviluppo economico. Nessuna di queste condizioni era presente in Cina: i diritti di proprietà apparivano essere né stabili né chiari, la corruzione era diffusa, e il governo era coinvolto in tutti i settori dell'economia. Questa ricerca utilizza i risultati della scuola della political economy per mettere in dubbio la validità dell'incompleta analisi del consenso e per dimostrare come le istituzioni cinesi abbiano appreso la lezione storica del capitalismo: i diritti di proprietà erano instabili, orizzontalmente indefiniti ma verticalmente definiti, e lo stato poté guidare la transizione capitalistica perché il sistema clientelare con il Partito attivo in qualità di political economy residual claimant era compatibile con i costi e i benefici connessi alla diffusione delle attività di mercato.<br>The success of China's economic reforms in the 1980s and in the 1990s has challenged the official development prescriptions known as Washington Consensus of multilateral institutions. By admitting that institutions matter for growth, the consensus suggests that developing countries should install a government which presides over a system of clear and stable property rights, and which does not interfere with markets but creates institutions that strengthen markets: good governance in terms of liberalisation, privatisation of State-owned assets and absence of corruption should result in economic development. None of these conditions were present in China: property rights appeared to be neither stable nor clear, corruption was widespread, and the government was involved in all sectors of the economy. This research draws on the findings of the political economy school to question the validity of the incomplete analysis of the consensus and to show how China's institutions learned the historical lesson of capitalism: property rights were unstable and horizontally unclear but vertically clear, and the state could guide the capitalist transition because the patron-client framework with the Party as the political economy residual claimant was compatible with the costs and benefits related to the rise of market activities.

The rapidly changing technological advancements have made the world a small place to live in. In this age of globalization, when internet access has become a vital and an indispensable part of our lives, we can understand the span of consumer base active on the internet. Various E-Commerce websites have emerged in the online business scenario. Many international companies have entered in this segment to emerge as leaders. Companies like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal etc. have got a strong hold in the Online shopping segment. Recently, on 26th December, 2018, the Government made some changes in the policy on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in E-Commerce, which has shaken up the Online business by these companies. The changes made in the policy have been discussed in this project, and the impact it has done on the consumers and how their buying behaviour has changed over the period before and after the implementation of this policy on 1st February, 2019 have been studied.

碩士<br>國立成功大學<br>工業與資訊管理學系碩士在職專班<br>105<br>The development of online shopping has become increasingly convenient and diversified that almost any merchandise can be found on the Internet platform. It is quite common in e-commerce that if the consumers are not satisfied after receiving their orders for certain reasons, they might want to return the goods. Most of the implementation of the return policy adopted by the e-commerce platforms in Taiwan offers free return shipping. This means that the sellers absorb the logistics costs of the returned goods. This study aims to assess the return policy with discount to evaluate if the return policy with discount can be used to attract consumers to buy products and reduce the negative effects of returned goods. The study is based on the existence of two retailers and the consumers are equally distributed on the market in a competitive environment. Two return policies are considered:　One is a free shipping return policy, and the other is a return policy with discount. In addition, consumers have different preferences on return policy which influences their purchase decisions. This study discusses the impact of the changing marketing environment of return policy through parametric analysis. We found that the proportion of consumers who are more likely to find the products a good fit has a positive impact on the profit. An increase of this proportion will improve the sales of goods on the Internet.

Doctoral thesis in Business Administration<br>The fast growth of the Internet-based economy has been mainly characterised by the emergence and impact of both information-technology products and virtual transactions upon businesses and communication. Research in the area has subsequently focused on evaluating the frameworks of online business portfolios. Notably, most studies carrying out an investigation of different aspects of the ecommerce paradigm have focused on the nature and effectiveness of online marketing structures, therefore overlooking a detailed understanding of the effectiveness of product policies employed by the vast majority of e-commerce companies. This research study addresses the gap which exists in e-commerce business portfolio literature by evaluating the effectiveness of product policies employed by e-commerce companies. The analysis begins by identifying the theoretical institutions that define e-commerce companies and how firms can maximise profits with selected factors that reduce their transaction costs. The empirical section of the research begins with a first study that utilises data from a leading software source, more specifically, the download.com platform, which contains data on the downloads from the majority of companies offering software products globally. Findings reveal that consumers have strong preferences for free products over paid products. Critics’ reviews and assessments and users’ reviews both have significant positive relationships with product downloads for both free and paid software. The factors with the largest positive associations with product downloads, of both free and paid software, are advertising and branding. Finally, advertising for paid products has the largest association with higher downloads. The second study employs a longitudinal approach by using companies’ financial data for a period ranging from 10 to 14 years to assess the effectiveness of e-commerce companies’ product policies. The empirical results support the economic premise that the most efficient companies satisfy the optimality condition that a firm’s marginal costs equal its marginal revenue. The findings from the research offer relevant, in-depth insights for theory as well as for managers/practitioners and education.<br>O rápido crescimento da economia baseada na Internet tem-se caracterizado pela emergência e pelo impacto dos produtos ligados a tecnologias de informação e transações virtuais. A investigação na área tem-se focado em avaliar as carteiras de negócios on-line. Notavelmente, a maioria dos estudos que realizam uma investigação sob diferentes perspectivas ligadas ao e-commerce têm-se concentrado na natureza e eficácia das estruturas de marketing on-line, portanto, ignorando uma compreensão detalhada da eficácia das políticas de produtos empregados pelas empresas de comércio eletrónico. Este estudo borda a lacuna que existe na literatura de portfólio de negócios de e-commerce ao avaliar a eficácia das políticas de produto desenvolvidas pelas empresas de e-commerce. o estudo identifica as instituições que definem as empresas de e-commerce e como as empresas podem maximizar os lucros com fatores selecionados que reduzem os seus custos de transação. A seção empírica do estudo inicia com um primeiro trabalho que utiliza dados de uma das principais fontes de software, em particular, a plataforma download.com. Esta plataforma contém dados sobre os downloads de empresas que oferecem produtos de software globalmente. Os resultados demonstram que os consumidores têm preferência por produtos gratuitos quando comparados com produtos pagos. Revisões e avaliações de críticos e usuários têm uma relação positiva com downloads de software gratuito e pago. Os fatores com a associação positiva mais forte em relação ao download de software livre e pago, são a publicidade e o branding. Finalmente, a publicidade de produtos pagos tem a associação mais forte com o número de downloads. O segundo estudo realiza uma abordagem longitudinal, utilizando os dados de empresas durante num período de 10 a 14 anos para avaliar a eficácia das políticas de produtos das empresas de e-commerce. Os resultados empíricos sustentam a premissa económica que as empresas mais eficientes satisfazem a condição de optimalidade onde custos marginais de uma empresa são iguais à sua receita marginal. Os resultados da investigação permitem retirar ilações relevantes e aprofundadas para a teoria, assim como para os gestores/practitioners e ensino.

碩士<br>國立政治大學<br>經營管理碩士學程<br>93<br>Industries in Taiwan have been facing severe competition in the global marketplace since Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). E-Commerce is touted as the necessary technology and management innovation for the retailing industry in Taiwan to improve its productivity and competitiveness. Since most retailers in Taiwan are small and medium firms, they frequently lack sufficient resource to implement E-Commerce. Consequently, government must provide the retailers with necessary support and guidance to upgrade their E-Commerce practices. The Department of Commerce (DOC) in Taiwan has been actively assisting the retailers with their e-commerce implementation. Between 2001 and 2004, DOC embarked on the “E-Commerce Promotion and Assistance Plan” and successfully established 127 E-Commerce systems, sponsored 127 firms who subsequently involved 26,641 affiliated firms downstream to implement various B2B programs, including e-Procurement, e-Payment, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment (CPFR). The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of DOC’s current E-Commerce policy for supporting the retailers in Taiwan. To collect necessary information, this study surveyed 42 systems, 42 sponsored firms and 5,697 affiliated firms, visited several individual retailers, and interviewed a few industry experts. The following is the research procedure followed by this study. 1. Based on the completed questionnaires from the affiliated firms, this study analyzed and studied the progress, effectiveness, sales contribution, difficulties, and satisfaction of their E-Commerce implementation. Accordingly, several suggestions for improvement were proposed. 2. The feedback from the affiliated firms was provided to those sponsored firms for adjusting their future E-Commerce strategies. 3. Identified several sponsored firms who had either low or high usage of the established E-Commerce programs and conducted in-depth interviews to understand the success and failure of the implementation. 4. Solicited expert opinions from a few DOC-sponsored meetings. With valuable information collected from the above sources, this study intends to shed light in the effectiveness of the government’s current E-Commerce policy. Additionally, this study hopes to provide suggestions to the government, the retailing industry, and the IT industry for improving the practice of E-Commerce and ultimately the global competitiveness of the retailing industry in Taiwan.

碩士<br>國立交通大學<br>管理學院運輸物流學程<br>107<br>Convenient stores (hereinafter called the “CVS”) have been trying to promote online sales for common commodities (e.g., beverages) using the business model of “buying in boxes via an e-commerce website, and being free of transportation charge as picking up at a CVS”. CVS takes advantage of strong negotiation power to purchase products at a very economic price, and drives promotion with attractive discount prices. Consumers’ demands are usually very sensitive to the selling price since they mostly have full information on common commodities – it means price changes have significant impact on consumers’ demands and consequently, the revenue of CVS from online sales. Pricing is crucial to the profit of CVS from online sales since high (low) prices lead to strong (weak) demand. Therefore, we would investigate the relationship between pricing and demand to maximize the profit of CVS from online sales. We employ regression analysis to build the relationship between consumers’ demands and discount prices as well as seasonality. Making use of the relationship, we formulate the profit functions of CVS from online sales in hot seasons and low seasons, respectively and obtains the closed-form solutions of the optimal selling price and the optimal procurement quantity that maximize the profit of CVS. Also, we demonstrate that the proposed model serves as a good decision-support tool to determine optimal procurement and pricing policy in online sales of CVS.

abstract: States place a heavy reliance on sales tax revenues to finance government activities. The rise in e-commerce, coupled with constitutional restrictions on imposing sales tax nexus, has resulted in a decline in sales tax revenues in many states. States have responded by enacting legislation and reinterpreting existing statutes to curb these declining revenues. This study provides evidence that sales tax revenues are larger after states enforce some, but not all, sales tax measures aimed at imposing nexus on Internet retailers. Further evidence suggests a shift in consumer preferences to local consumption in states enforcing broadened nexus, as evidenced by greater state-level retail gross domestic product (GDP) after states enforce broadened sales tax nexus. Additionally, the number of physical establishments of Internet retailers is lower after states expand sales tax nexus, suggesting these retailers remove their physical presence in states to avoid collecting sales taxes. Finally, the increase in retail GDP has a spillover effect on corporate income taxes, with states enforcing broader sales tax nexus on Internet sales realizing larger corporate income tax revenues.<br>Dissertation/Thesis<br>Doctoral Dissertation Accountancy 2017

碩士<br>國立中正大學<br>會計與資訊科技研究所<br>107<br>The booming of third-party payment brings up various payment ways for consumers in Taiwan recently. However, regulations related to third-party payment in Taiwan are not comprehensive and insufficient. Forthermore, related regulations in Taiwan are far behind those regulations in America and mainland China. Therefore, many information security problems occur in the environment of third-party payment in Taiwan. This study aims to explore the platforms, regulations and management strategies of third-party payment from America, Mainland China and Taiwan. This study selects Paypal, ALiPay and O’Pay as research targets to explore their business models. Then, this study compares the regulations listed on the above three platforms to figure out the differences among them.The above three platforms are binding with Debit card or Credit card to fulfill the payment of cash flow.However smart-phones has becoming the major device of payment,so that study further compares Apple Pay,Taiwan Pay and We chat Pay.The research finding show that QR Code combined with smart-phones is the most popular technologue.The binding way is to bind with accounts in a pacific bank to make sure that the payment can be fulfilled. The research findings reveals that “The Self-Guiding Regulations of Contract Third-Party Payment Providers for Credit Card Issuers” in Taiwan is not comprehensive. This study suggests that “Uniform Money Services Act” of America and “Administrative Measures for the on-line Payment Business of Non-Banking Payment Institutions” in Mainland China can amend the insufficient of related regulations in Taiwan. After discussing how to amend the insufficient, this study expect the research findings can be beneficial for the development of third-party payment market in Taiwan.

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) markets provide benefits for both buyers and sellers; however, because of cyber security risks consumers are reluctant to transact online. Trust in e-commerce is paramount for adoption. Trust as a subject for research has been a term considered in depth by numerous researchers in various fields of study, including psychology and information technology. Various models have been developed in e-commerce to alleviate consumer fears, thus promoting trust in online environments. Third-party web seals and online scanning tools are some of the existing models used in e-commerce environments, but they have some deficiencies, e.g. failure to incorporate compliance, which need to be addressed. This research proposes an e-commerce assurance model for safe online shopping. The machine learning model is called the Page ranking analytical hierarchy process (PRAHP). PRAHP builds complementary strengths of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and Page ranking (PR) techniques to evaluate the trustworthiness of web attributes. The attributes that are assessed are Adaptive legislation, Adaptive International Organisation for Standardisation Standards, Availability, Policy and Advanced Security login. The attributes were selected based on the literature reviewed from accredited journals and some of the reputable e-commerce websites. PRAHP’s paradigms were evaluated extensively through detailed experiments on business-to-business, business-to-consumer, cloud-based and general e-commerce websites. The results of the assessments were validated by customer inputs regarding the website. The reliability and robustness of PRAHP was tested by varying the damping factor and the inbound links. In all the experiments, the results revealed that the model provides reliable results to guide customers in making informed purchasing decisions. The research also reveals hidden e-commerce topics that have not received attention, which generates knowledge and opens research questions for future researchers. These ultimately made significant contributions in e-commerce assurance, in areas such as security and compliance through the fusing of AHP and PR, integrated into a decision table for alleviating trustworthiness anxiety in various e-commerce transacting partners, e-commerce platforms and markets.<br>College of Engineering, Science and Technology<br>D. Phil. Information Systems

Orientação: António Augusto Teixeira da Costa<br>Diplomacia econômica e relações internacionais são os temas abordados nesta dissertação, pois em uma economia globalizada as vantagens competitivas duradouras são suportadas por elementos localizados como conhecimento, motivações e relacionamentos estabelecidos em um espaço geográfico ou em uma região aos quais empresas rivais não têm acesso. O objetivo geral é debater o papel da diplomacia econômica brasileira no que concerne ao comércio de produtos do agronegócio nas relações entre Brasil e Japão. Na Metodologia adotou-se a triangulação de três tipos de pesquisa que se complementam em seus objetivos e técnicas: Pesquisa bibliográfica – diversos autores, livros, artigos, relatórios técnicos foram usados; Pesquisa documental – relatórios publicados pelo Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, Secretaria de Relações Internacionais e Estudo de Caso Descritivo. Quanto à natureza trata-se de uma pesquisa quali-quanti. Conclui-se que a diplomacia econômica brasileira é uma atividade de competência preponderante do Poder Executivo, tendo o Ministério das Relações Exteriores como o ator central nas decisões políticas e na representação internacional, sendo as demais pastas consideradas atores relevantes. As decisões são tomadas embasadas em um conjunto de atores de variadas instituições e com interesses, nem sempre semelhantes, mas que buscam influir nas posições internacionais. O Ministério das Relações Exteriores deve buscar convergência, sem perder o domínio sobre a decisão final. Com esta estratégia o setor agrícola brasileiro se transformou e impulsionou sua internacionalização e o processo de associação do agronegócio com as instituições foi um dos responsáveis por essa nova visão do setor. Pode-se afirmar que as políticas de comércio exterior adotadas pelo Brasil foram, significativamente, positivas para a maior integração do agronegócio brasileiro aos fluxos de comércio internacional e à economia mundial, em 2015, a participação do agronegócio no Produto Interno Bruto Brasileiro foi de 21,46%. A renda do agronegócio brasileiro estimada para o ano de 2015 é de R$ 1,212 trilhão, sendo R$ 819,16 bilhões (67,6%) do ramo agrícola e R$ 393,1 bilhões (32,4%) do agrícola. Quanto às exportações agropecuárias para o Japão, em 2014, caíram para US$ 2,57 bilhões em função da redução dos embarques de milho. Outros produtos exportados para Japão: carnes de frango, café, soja em grão e suco de laranja.<br>Economic diplomacy and international relations are the topics addressed in this dissertation, because in a globalized economy the lasting competitive advantages are supported by localized elements such as knowledge, motivations and relationships established in a geographic space or in a region to which rival companies do not have access. The general objective is to discuss the role of Brazilian economic diplomacy in relation to the trade of agribusiness products in the relations between Brazil and Japan. The Methodology adopted the triangulation of three types of research that complement each other in their objectives and techniques: Bibliographic research - various authors, books, articles, technical reports were used; Documentary research - reports published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Secretariat for International Relations and Descriptive Case Study. As for nature, this is a qualitative-quantitative research. It is concluded that the Brazilian economic diplomacy is an activity of preponderant competence of the Executive Power, having the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the central actor in the political decisions and in the international representation, being the other folders considered relevant actors. Decisions are taken based on a set of actors from various institutions and interests, not always similar, but who seek to influence international positions. The Foreign Ministry must seek convergence, without losing control over the final decision. With this strategy the Brazilian agricultural sector has transformed and promoted its internationalization and the process of association of agribusiness with the institutions was one of the responsible for this new vision of the sector. It can be stated that the foreign trade policies adopted by Brazil were significantly positive for the greater integration of Brazilian agribusiness into international trade flows and the world economy, in 2015, the share of agribusiness in the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product was 21.46%. The Brazilian agribusiness income estimated for 2015 is R$ 1.212 trillion, of which R$ 819.16 billion (67.6%) in the agricultural sector and R$ 393.1 billion (32.4%) in agriculture. Regarding agricultural exports to Japan in 2014, they fell to US$ 2.57 billion due to reduced shipments of corn. Other products exported to Japan: chicken meats, coffee, soybeans and orange juice.

O Presente trabalho de dissertação contextualiza a evolução e as reformas da administração pública, passando pelos novos conceitos e modelos, como a New Public Management (Nova Gestão Pública), baseada nas orientações gestionárias das organizações privadas e o New Public Service (Nova Administração Pública), orientada nas transformações da gestão profissional e da organização institucional do modelo de administração Weberiano dos Estados democráticos europeus. Também são abordados os conceitos de Governança e Accountability, que reforçam as formas democráticas de relacionamento, entre o Estado e a sociedade, principalmente em países recém saídos de longos períodos de ditaduras, como o Brasil. Em seguida, contextualiza-se o Governo Eletrônico, passando pelas iniciativas que contribuíram para a origem da Sociedade da Informação; com destaque para as Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação – TICs, nos avanços do governo e comércio eletrônicos. O foco do trabalho está na análise da legislação brasileira de compras públicas, no tocante a regulamentação do pregão eletrônico, cuja implantação permitiu, ao Governo Federal, criar um sistema de Comércio Eletrônico visando à realização de compras públicas. Por fim, os estudos são sumarizados com uma análise comparativa dos dois maiores portais de compras públicas: o “Comprasnet” do Governo Federal e o “Licitações-e” do Banco do Brasil, onde estão elencados os históricos, quantidades de usuários, volumes negociados, modelos de receitas e custos, certificações e reconhecimentos recebidos e, em última análise, a existência ou não de maior transparência e redução de custos para a administração pública na utilização de um portal integrado de compras públicas.<br>The Present dissertation contextualizes the evolution and reform of public administration, through the new concepts and models such as the New Publical Management, based on the main guide of private organizations and New Public Servic, focused on changes in professional management and institutional organization of the Weberian model os European States’ administration and democracy. There is also a following description about concepts in government and accountability to strengthen the democratic forms of relationship between state and society, especially in countries which are increasing after a long period of dictatorships, such as Brazil. Moreover, “e-government” is then contextualized through the initiatives that contributed to the origin of the information society with emphasis on Information and Communication Technologies – ICTs - in advancing electronic government and electronic trading. The focus of the work is an analysis in Brazilian laws for public bids, concerning the electronic tradings’ regulations, which allowed the Federal Government to implement a system of electronic commerce, in order to conduct bids. Tom summarize, there will be a comparative analysis of the two major publical “e-commerces”, such as: “Comprasnet”, from the Federal Government Bids, and the “licitaçoes-e” from Banco do Brasil. Both of them bring the main methods of bidding, the amount of users, the trading volumes, and the revenue models. They also aim to analysis about the existence or not of greater transparency and lower costs for public administration in the use of an integrated portal for publical electronic trading.

O objetivo principal desta tese é chegar a uma melhor compreensão da forma como Portugal se liga ao Mundo e do significado dessa ligação na evolução interna da sociedade. Na base do presente estudo estão duas dicotomias nacionais: a relação entre a visão da política externa e a realidade da rede diplomática portuguesa; e o confronto ou harmonia que existe entre a política externa portuguesa e as relações externas. No século XX, Portugal teve uma evolução semelhante às outras sociedades da Europa do Sul e Ocidental, mas com fortes traços de originalidade. Uma importante componente na compreensão desta originalidade são os fatores externos e a forma como o interno e o externo se interligam no caso português, criando uma “disfunção” no sistema internacional. Neste estudo analisamos cinco períodos de transição em termos de relações externas / política externa de Portugal ao longo do século XX: 1908-11; 1935-1939; 1949-1953, 1969-1976; 1986-1992. A partir dos discursos dos governantes e de outros documentos oficiais identificamos as grandes linhas da política externa nacional oficial e a forma como se relaciona com os objetivos do Governo para a evolução da sociedade portuguesa. Num segundo momento, comparamos esta teoria oficial com a da rede diplomática portuguesa criada para executar a política externa. Num terceiro momento, centramos a nossa análise em duas outras redes importantes no campo das relações externas: a rede dos fluxos humanos de emigração e a rede das trocas comerciais com o exterior. Do cruzamento dos dados obtidos pelas três redes retiramos conclusões acerca da existência de concordância entre a visão dos responsáveis portugueses acerca do sistema internacional e a realidade nacional e sobre a influência do sistema internacional na originalidade de Portugal.<br>The principal objective of this thesis is to reach a greater understanding of the manner in which Portugal interacts with the outside world and the impact of this connection upon the evolution of society at the national level. At the heart of the present study are two national dichotomies, the relationship between the vision of foreign policy and the reality of the Portuguese diplomatic network and the degree of conflict or harmony which exist between Portugal's foreign policy and its actual international relations. In the 20th century, Portugal's evolution was similar to that of other southern and western European countries in many ways but has maintained strong traces of originality. A key component to understanding this originality is the influence of external factors and especially the way in which the internal and the external marry in the Portuguese case, creating a “dysfunction” in the international system. In this study we will analyse five periods of transition in terms of international relations and foreign policy in Portugal during the 20th century: 1908-11; 1935-1939; 1949-1953, 1969-1976 and 1986-1992. From government speeches and other official documents we can identify the main principles of official foreign policy and the way in which these relate to the Government's objectives for the evolution of Portuguese society. Secondly, we will compare this official policy with the practical experience of the Portuguese diplomatic network created to execute foreign policy. Thirdly, we focus our analysis on two other important fields of international relations: emigration and international commerce. From our analysis of the data obtained from these three fields of study, we will draw conclusions about the level of concurrence between the establishment's vision of the international system and the national reality and how the influence of the international system impacts on the originality of Portugal.