Atitude e intenção de uso em sistemas hedônicos: três estudos sobre motivação intrínseca com jogos digitais

Até recentemente, pesquisas sobre a relação do usuário com o uso de tecnologia focaram sistemas utilitários. Com a popularização dos PCs para uso doméstico e o surgimento da Internet, a interação dos usuários com tecnologia deixou de ser vista apenas de forma utilitária, e passou a ser orientada também ao atendimento de necessidades hedônicas, fazendo com que as pesquisas em Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação (SI) extrapolassem os limites da empresa. As pesquisas no campo tem dado atenção cada vez maior ao uso de sistemas hedônicos, cujo objetivo é satisfazer necessidades como entretenimento e diversão, ao invés de um valor instrumental. Entre os sistemas hedônicos, um em particular recebe cada vez mais destaque, os videogames. Jogos digitais estão presentes por toda a sociedade, existindo uma crescente adoção, institucionalização e ubiquidade dos videogames na vida diária. A nova geração foi criada com jogos interativos e espera o mesmo tipo de interação nos demais SI. Por serem divertidos e envolventes, organizações de diversos setores estão tentando integrar características dos jogos digitais em sistemas organizacionais, com a expectativa de melhorar a motivação e desempenho dos funcionários e engajar consumidores online. Para analisar a relação do usuário com jogos digitais foram desenvolvidas três pesquisas. A primeira aborda os motivos pelos quais o indivíduo se engaja com o jogo, definindo Engajamento com base em desafio, imersão e curiosidade. Já as motivações dos indivíduos são analisadas pelo divertimento e a competição. A partir do momento em que o indivíduo está engajado, é necessário medir a experiência holística que ele experimenta desta interação. Para tanto, a segunda pesquisa analisa os dois construtos mais utilizados no campo para mensurar tal experiência, Flow e Absorção Cognitiva. A última pesquisa se utiliza dos conceitos explorados nas duas anteriores para desenvolver uma rede nomológica para a predição da intenção comportamental do indivíduo para o uso de jogos digitais. Como resultados temos um esclarecimento sobre os fatores que levam a um comportamento engajado dos jogadores, com maior importância do desafio de dominar o jogo e divertimento em relação a competição com outros jogadores. Outra contribuição é a conclusão que Flow e Absorção Cognitiva, dois dos principais construtos utilizados em SI para medir a experiência hedônica do usuário, não são adequados para mensurar tal experiência para videogames. Por fim existe a proposta de uma rede nomológica em um contexto de utilização de um sistema hedônico interativo, permitindo que novos trabalhos possam se beneficiar.

Judicial system performance and economic development

The role of judicial systems in determining economic perfonnance has gained increasingly attention in recent years. Nonetheless, the literature lacks a clearly articulated framework to examine how judicial systems influence the investment and production decisions of economic agents. This paper tries to till in this gap. It examines what constitutes a well-functioning judiciary, analyzes how dysfunctional judicial systems compromise economic growth, and reviews the relevant empirical literature. It concludes with some remarks about why, despite the widespread perception that well-functioning legal and judicial systems are key to the success of market-oriented reforms in developing and transition countries, judicial refonn has lagged so much behind other reforms.

An evaluation of the Business Model Canvas by technology-oriented startups in Brazil : a qualitative study about the usage of the tool by Brazilian entrepreneurs

The following paper was conducted with the support of several entrepreneurs and startups from Brazil. The aim of the research was to find out which impact the Business Model Canvas, further abbreviated as BMC, has on technology-oriented startups in Brazil. The first step of the study was identify some general concepts of entrepreneurship, as well as the conditions and environment of the country. Afterwards, it was focused on defining and comparing different business model tools and concepts to the BMC. After the literature review and meeting with several professionals in the area of entrepreneurship and startups, a questionnaire was formulated in order to conduct the qualitative study and identify the main impact of the tool. The questionnaire was answered by ten startups. In order to check the validity and credibility of the research outcomes, theory and investigator triangulation was used. As a result, the usage of the BMC could be evaluated by obtaining the outcomes and the theory, which showed that Brazilian tech startups are using Osterwalder’s model for the reason of idea creation and testing, validating and pivoting their business model. Interestingly, the research revealed that the entrepreneurs are using the tool often not in the traditional way of printing it, but rather applying it as a thinking approach. Besides, the entrepreneurs are focusing mostly on developing a strong Value Proposition, Customer Segment and sustainable Revenue Streams, while afterwards the remaining building blocks are built. Moreover, the research showed that the startups are using also other concepts, such as the Customer Development Process or Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop. These methodologies are often applied together with the BMC and helps to identify the most sustainable components of the business idea. Keywords: Business

The impact of content marketing on attitudes and purchase intentions of online shoppers : the case videos & tutorials and user-generated content

This thesis was written as part of a Double-Degree Masters program in Management, with focus in Marketing. Aligned with the nature of the degree, this study aims to be a useful tool for managers and marketers, which conduct business online. This thesis is a study of Content Marketing in the content of online commercial product pages. Its aim is to understand how to use content marketing to drive conversion, by understanding consumer attitudes and purchase intention towards content. A in-depth study of existing theories and exploratory primary research was developed in other to attain these objectives. Business-to-consumer electronic commerce (B2C e-commerce) has provided consumers and online retailers with a more effective medium to perform online transactions through commercial websites. Although consumers have realized that the benefits of online shopping; such as time saving, minimizing effort, convenience, broader selection, and wider access to information, they are still greatly unwilling to shop online. Consumers shop essentially for two motives, to meet experiential (fun) or goal-oriented (efficiency) needs (Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2001). The information provided by content marketing seeks to focus on consumers need for information and entertainment, instead of focusing on the brand. Thus, it is expected that the type of content format will have different effects on the attitudes and purchase intention on the online shopper, depending on the online shopping purpose. Concretely, a goal-oriented shopper should find user generated content (UGC) to be more valuable content formats, since they decrease the amount of search effort. While on the other hand, videos & tutorials (VT) might be perceived as more valuable for a consumer looking to spend time and being entertained through online shopping. The exploratory research was characterized by a survey experiment with online consumers. Participants were exposed to stimuli of content marketing tested according to their attitudes and purchase intention. The focus was to understand the impact of two different content marketing tactics—User-generated content and Videos & Tutorials—on attitudes and purchase intentions and how they interact with content complexity. The results indicate that content marketing in commercial product pages is relevant in driving consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. Consumers are not motivated by a specific content marketing tactic, unless that content has a certain level of complexity. In that case, Ur-Generated Content becomes a relevant tactic in product pages, however VT is not.

Economic stagnation and alternative development strategies

The focus of my paper is the presentation of some thoughts on overcoming economic stagnation, with reference to the case of Mexico. In Section 2, I will describe the reasons why the policies of financial opening based on the Washington Consensus create endogenous tendencies toward economic stagnation and overvaluation of currencies. Section 3 offers a concise outline of a possible alternative development project for Mexico. Section 4 presents some proposals regarding monetary, foreign exchange, and fiscal policy oriented toward reviving economic growth. Finally, in Section 5, I present some conclusions.