Juyoung Kang

Rule identification from web pages by the XRML approach

In the world of Web pages, there are oceans of documents in natural language texts and tables. To extract rules from Web pages and maintain consistency between them, we have developed the framework of XRML (eXtensible Rule Markup Language). XRML allows the identification of rules on Web pages and generates the identified rules automatically. For this purpose, we have designed the Rule Identification Markup Language (RIML), which is similar to the formal Rule Structure Markup Language (RSML), both as parts of XRML. RIML 2.0 is designed to identify rules not only from texts, but also from tables on Web pages, and to transform to the formal rules in RSML syntax automatically. While designing RIML 2.0, we considered the features of sharing variables and values, omitted terms, and synonyms. We have conducted an experiment to evaluate the potential benefit of the XRML approach with real world Web pages of Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Powells.com. We found that 100.0% of the rules and 99.7% of the rule components could be identified and automatically generated if we do not count the statements for linkages, which generically do not exist on the Web pages. Since the linkage components occupy 11.2% of all components in the rule base, the overall limitation of automatic rule generation is 88.8%. In this setting, 88.5% of the overall rule components could be generated from the identified rules from the Web pages. The result provides solid proof that XRML can facilitate the extraction and maintenance of rules from Web pages while building expert systems in the Semantic Web environment.

Factors affecting e-commerce adoption among SMEs in Ghana

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is widening the concept of business from a simple transactional approach to a broader and more complex concept of inter-firm co-operation. Amidst market globalization, growing interpenetration of national economies and the increased interdependence of national economies, e-commerce adoption remains a vital yet complex and elusive phenomenon, with very little known about its determinants. This study identifies the major determining factors in Ghanaian small and medium sized enterprises’ (SMEs) e-commerce adoption, offers practical implications, and indicates the actions required. This research integrates technological, organizational, and environmental determinisms with social constructivism to build a practical framework for understanding e-commerce adoption among SMEs in Ghana. Structural equation modeling was employed for data analysis. The results indicate that government support has the greatest direct impact on intentions to use e-commerce. Managerial support and the influence of enabling and regulatory conditions also play a vital role in stimulating SME e-commerce adoption in Ghana. The results also show that Ghanaian SMEs tend to imitate successful first-movers to avoid the risks that attend e-commerce technology.

Using Rule Ontology in Repeated Rule Acquisition from Similar Web Sites

Inferential rules are as essential to the Semantic Web applications as ontology. Therefore, rule acquisition is also an important issue, and the Web that implies inferential rules can be a major source of rule acquisition. We expect that it will be easier to acquire rules from a site by using similar rules of other sites in the same domain rather than starting from scratch. We proposed an automatic rule acquisition procedure using a rule ontology RuleToOnto, which represents information about the rule components and their structures. The rule acquisition procedure consists of the rule component identification step and the rule composition step. We developed A* algorithm for the rule composition and we performed experiments demonstrating that our ontology-based rule acquisition approach works in a real-world application.

A framework for ontology based rule acquisition from web documents

Rule based systems and agents are important applications of the Semantic Web constructs such as RDF, OWL, and SWRL. While there are plenty of utilities that support ontology generation and utilization, rule acquisition is still a bottleneck as an obstacle to wide propagation of rule based systems. To automatically acquire rules from unstructured texts, we develop a rule acquisition framework that uses a rule ontology. The ontology can be acquired from the rule base of a similar site, and then is used for rule acquisition in the other sites of the same domain. The procedure of ontology-based rule acquisition consists of rule component identification and rule composition. The former uses stemming and semantic similarity to extract variables and values from the Web page and the latter uses the best-first search method in composing the variables and values into rules.

Demand forecasting models for medicines through wireless sensor networks data and topic trend analysis

Demand forecasting in the biomedical area is becoming more important because of radical changes in the macroeconomic environment and consumption trends. Moreover, the need for big data analysis on data from wireless sensor networks and social media is increasing because it shows not only the rapidly changing environmental data such as fine dust concentration but also the responses of potential customers that are expected to affect the demand for a medicine. Therefore, demand forecasting models based on data analysis in wireless sensor networks and topic modeling of buzzwords in blog documents were suggested in this study. First, we analyzed topics of documents from blogs that describe the symptoms of certain diseases related to selected medicines. Thereafter, we extracted topic trends for a selected period and constructed demand forecasting models that consist of topic trends, environmental data from wireless sensor networks, and time-series sales data. The experiment results show that topic trends about medicines significantly affect the performance of demand forecasting for these medicines.

Factors influencing pro-social consumer behavior through non-profit organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the major factors in the intention to adopt pro-social behavior through the internet by dividing them into personal factors and internet factors. Design/methodology/approach – This research uses an empirical model to determine which personal and internet features are significant to consumers’ pro-social concerns. Internet factors may also affect pro-social behavior in addition to personal factors that many psychological studies have found to be influential. Through internet survey of 150 responses, the research model was analyzed with the partial least squares method. Findings – The findings indicate that social influence (SI) and specific internet characteristics generate perceived reciprocity and perceived ease of use of the internet in customers that encourages pro-social behavior. Practical implications – The findings provide non-profits with a theoretical foundation for their marketing. Many agencies and media reports have pointed out the importance o...

The barriers that hinder the adoption of e-commerce by small businesses Unique hindrance in Palestine

Palestine is one of the developing countries that have recently realized the benefits of e-commerce (EC), but several barriers are impeding its adoption there. This study highlights the major barriers to EC adoption in Palestine using a TOE framework, the model of innovation resistance, and other related theories such as diffusion of innovation (DOI). An online survey collected data from 161 business owners in Palestine, and the model has tested through structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the survey respondents. The study has found that the occupation restrictions and the political factors are the major barriers that prevent the adoption of ecommerce in Palestine, while it has found that some barriers have weakly affected the adoption or had no influence, such as perceived financial losses. It is expected that this research will benefit many parties in Palestine, by being the first of its kind to tackle the occupation’s impact on EC in Palestine, and that by avoiding such barriers investment in EC will increase in Palestine in the future.

Cultural influences on B2B service quality-satisfaction-loyalty

ABSTRACT The link between service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty has drawn the attention of both academic researchers and practitioners. They are also focusing on the effect of cultural differences on customer attitudes and behaviour in the global service industry. This paper examines the relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty as well as the moderating effect of cultural differences on the above relationships in the industrial business-to-business (B2B) service sector. The paper presents an empirical study using datasets collected from 7652 industrial customers across 55 countries and uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses. The application of Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a customer loyalty metric based on customer experience management (CEM) is studied in relation to customer satisfaction. The study results demonstrate the positive relationship of service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty. In terms of the effect of cultural differences, the study finds that cultural dimensions of uncertainty avoidance negatively moderate the relationship between service quality and satisfaction, while individualism positively moderates the relationship between service quality and satisfaction. However, cultural differences do not impact on the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty.

A qualitative study on adoption of biometrics technologies: Canadian banking industry

This study examines the adoption of biometrics technology in the Canadian banking industry. By comparing Canadian banks with the financial institutions in other countries in terms of their adoption to biometrics, it explores current status of adoption to biometrics technology by Canadian banks and the potential future consequences as a result of their delayed adoption. Through literature review, this study first provides various aspects of biometrics technologies; technical specifications, performance metrics, types, current applications, and some issues and concerns with this technology. Second, it discusses current and future potential applications of biometrics in the banking industry. Then, the study provides a context with which to analyze the extent of the popularity and practicality of the technology in Canadian banks. Finally, based on qualitative interviews with biometric researchers and professionals in Canada, this study reports the research findings with regards to the following four topics: 1) Integration and accessibility to biometrics, 2) Public opinion and concern, 3) Transition of technologies, and 4) Current accommodations for biometrics, followed by discussion of the contributions of this study.

The Promotion Strategy of the Convergence Industry by using IT Utilization

The economic growth that depended on IT industry is reaching to a limit. In order to overcome the limit, the convergence industry that makes new market and products is essential. However, companies preparing a jump into the convergence industry must understand the exact visions and characteristics of convergence. Therefore, we investigated the structural changes of industries caused by convergence and importance characteristics of convergence. Also, we demonstrated the current status of the convergence industry and analyzed economical, social/cultural, and technological environments that the companies are facing, and elaborated the opportunities of convergence. At last, we suggested basic requirements and strategies for companies starting a convergence business and IT utilization methods to accelerate the convergence business activation.