Adaptive Virtual Reality Shopping Malls

2011 ◽  
pp. 346-353
Author(s):  
George Lepouras ◽  
Costas Vassilakis

Firms and organizations are increasingly exploiting electronic channels to reach their customers and create new business opportunities. To this end, electronic shops have been developed, either offering products from a single firm or encompassing multiple individual electronic stores, comprising thus electronic shopping malls. Besides development activities, electronic shopping has attracted the attention of researchers, who have studied various perspectives, including user attitude, critical success factors, security, technical aspects, and so forth (e.g., Fang & Salvendy, 2003; Wang, Makaroff, & Edwards, 2003). Two main concerns for e-commerce are personalization and enhancement of user experience. Personalization addresses the ability to offer content tailored to the preferences of each user (Anupam, Hull, & Kumar, 2001) or user group (Wang et al., 2003). Preferences may be explicitly declared by the user, or derived by the system through inspecting user interaction; if the system dynamically reacts to changes of visitor behavior, it is termed as adaptive. Personalization allows customers to focus on the items they are interested in, and enables electronic shops to make targeted suggestions and send promotions to customers (Lekakos & Giaglis, 2005). Enhancement of user experience is another major issue in e-commerce, given that 2D images and texts on the screen are not sufficient to provide information on product aspects such as physical dimensions, textures, and manipulation feedback (Park & Woohun, 2004). Major e-commerce categories that could benefit from giving a more accurate and/or complete view of the products include real estate brokers who could present detailed models of properties, furniture stores that could allow their customers to view how certain pieces would fit in the target place (Hughes, Brusilovsky, & Lewis, 2002), and clothing shops that could provide a virtual fitting room with customizable avatars (Compucloz Corporation, 2003). Multimedia presentations can also be used as a means for “information acceleration” for promoting “really new” products (Urban et al., 1997). Enhancement of user experience may finally compensate for the loss of the pleasure associated with a visit to a shopping mall (Laskaridis, Vassilakis, Lepouras, & Rouvas, 2001). Nowadays, the technological potential of Internet systems provides adequate means for building online multimedia applications that can help e-commerce sites attract e-shoppers. Applications can be built to adapt to the user’s profile and provide the user with a suitable set of information in the most efficient way. Virtual reality (VR) technologies are also now mature enough to be used for the wide public, offering vivid and highly interactive environments, allowing users to view synthetic worlds within which they can visualize and manipulate artifacts. This article aims to specify a system that exploits capabilities offered by adaptation and VR technologies to offer e-shoppers personalized and enhanced experiences, while addressing challenges related to the cost, complexity, and effort of building and maintaining such a system.

2008 ◽  
pp. 1551-1559
Author(s):  
George Lepouras ◽  
Costas Vassilakis

Firms and organizations are increasingly exploiting electronic channels to reach their customers and create new business opportunities. To this end, electronic shops have been developed, either offering products from a single firm or encompassing multiple individual electronic stores, comprising thus electronic shopping malls. Besides development activities, electronic shopping has attracted the attention of researchers, who have studied various perspectives, including user attitude, critical success factors, security, technical aspects, and so forth (e.g., Fang & Salvendy, 2003; Wang, Makaroff, & Edwards, 2003). Two main concerns for e-commerce are personalization and enhancement of user experience. Personalization addresses the ability to offer content tailored to the preferences of each user (Anupam, Hull, & Kumar, 2001) or user group (Wang et al., 2003). Preferences may be explicitly declared by the user, or derived by the system through inspecting user interaction; if the system dynamically reacts to changes of visitor behavior, it is termed as adaptive. Personalization allows customers to focus on the items they are interested in, and enables electronic shops to make targeted suggestions and send promotions to customers (Lekakos & Giaglis, 2005). Enhancement of user experience is another major issue in e-commerce, given that 2D images and texts on the screen are not sufficient to provide information on product aspects such as physical dimensions, textures, and manipulation feedback (Park & Woohun, 2004). Major e-commerce categories that could benefit from giving a more accurate and/or complete view of the products include real estate brokers who could present detailed models of properties, furniture stores that could allow their customers to view how certain pieces would fit in the target place (Hughes, Brusilovsky, & Lewis, 2002), and clothing shops that could provide a virtual fitting room with customizable avatars (Compucloz Corporation, 2003). Multimedia presentations can also be used as a means for “information acceleration” for promoting “really new” products (Urban et al., 1997). Enhancement of user experience may finally compensate for the loss of the pleasure associated with a visit to a shopping mall (Laskaridis, Vassilakis, Lepouras, & Rouvas, 2001). Nowadays, the technological potential of Internet systems provides adequate means for building online multimedia applications that can help e-commerce sites attract e-shoppers. Applications can be built to adapt to the user’s profile and provide the user with a suitable set of information in the most efficient way. Virtual reality (VR) technologies are also now mature enough to be used for the wide public, offering vivid and highly interactive environments, allowing users to view synthetic worlds within which they can visualize and manipulate artifacts. This article aims to specify a system that exploits capabilities offered by adaptation and VR technologies to offer e-shoppers personalized and enhanced experiences, while addressing challenges related to the cost, complexity, and effort of building and maintaining such a system.


Author(s):  
George Lepouras ◽  
Costas Vassilakis

Firms and organizations are increasingly exploiting electronic channels to reach their customers and create new business opportunities. To this end, electronic shops have been developed, either offering products from a single firm or encompassing multiple individual electronic stores, comprising thus electronic shopping malls. Besides development activities, electronic shopping has attracted the attention of researchers, who have studied various perspectives, including user attitude, critical success factors, security, technical aspects, and so forth (e.g., Fang & Salvendy, 2003; Wang, Makaroff, & Edwards, 2003). Two main concerns for e-commerce are personalization and enhancement of user experience. Personalization addresses the ability to offer content tailored to the preferences of each user (Anupam, Hull, & Kumar, 2001) or user group (Wang et al., 2003). Preferences may be explicitly declared by the user, or derived by the system through inspecting user interaction; if the system dynamically reacts to changes of visitor behavior, it is termed as adaptive. Personalization allows customers to focus on the items they are interested in, and enables electronic shops to make targeted suggestions and send promotions to customers (Lekakos & Giaglis, 2005). Enhancement of user experience is another major issue in e-commerce, given that 2D images and texts on the screen are not sufficient to provide information on product aspects such as physical dimensions, textures, and manipulation feedback (Park & Woohun, 2004). Major e-commerce categories that could benefit from giving a more accurate and/or complete view of the products include real estate brokers who could present detailed models of properties, furniture stores that could allow their customers to view how certain pieces would fit in the target place (Hughes, Brusilovsky, & Lewis, 2002), and clothing shops that could provide a virtual fitting room with customizable avatars (Compucloz Corporation, 2003). Multimedia presentations can also be used as a means for “information acceleration” for promoting “really new” products (Urban et al., 1997). Enhancement of user experience may finally compensate for the loss of the pleasure associated with a visit to a shopping mall (Laskaridis, Vassilakis, Lepouras, & Rouvas, 2001). Nowadays, the technological potential of Internet systems provides adequate means for building online multimedia applications that can help e-commerce sites attract e-shoppers. Applications can be built to adapt to the user’s profile and provide the user with a suitable set of information in the most efficient way. Virtual reality (VR) technologies are also now mature enough to be used for the wide public, offering vivid and highly interactive environments, allowing users to view synthetic worlds within which they can visualize and manipulate artifacts. This article aims to specify a system that exploits capabilities offered by adaptation and VR technologies to offer e-shoppers personalized and enhanced experiences, while addressing challenges related to the cost, complexity, and effort of building and maintaining such a system.


Author(s):  
Sudhanshu Joshi

Considering the impact of using social media, both internal and external implications for company operations are required to be explored. The chapter explores how social media is used to enable innovation practices in company internal operations as well as external stakeholders. In addition, the objective of the study is to evaluate the need and scope of Web 2.0 behind the restructuring of the business model, with major emphasis on implementing a user-centric business model. The research questions include: (a) What are the Critical Success Factors (CSF) responsible for attracting and engaging users in Web 2.0-oriented business processes and practices?; (b) Identifying the scope of effective Web 2.0-based strategies to overcome internal resistance at operational as well firm level during deployment of new business model. The chapter also discusses the influence of Web 2.0 concepts in the Web-strategy formulation for organizations with differing requirements, characteristics, and objectives. Considering four types of Web-based business models (Wirtz, 2010), namely (a) content-oriented business model, (b) commerce-oriented business model, (c) context-oriented business model, and (d) connection-oriented business model. The chapter defines the implementation of Web 2.0-based technological strategies in evolving the business model of the firm.


Author(s):  
Thiago D'Angelo ◽  
Saul Emanuel Delabrida Silva ◽  
Ricardo A. R. Oliveira ◽  
Antonio A. F. Loureiro

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) have been emerging in the last years. These technologies sound like the new hot topic for the next years. Head-Mounted Displays have been developed for many different purposes. Users have the opportunity to enjoy these technologies for entertainment, work tasks, and many other daily activities. Despite the recent release of many AR and VR HMDs, two major problems are hindering the AR HMDs from reaching the mainstream market: the extremely high costs and the user experience issues. In order to minimize these problems, we have developed an AR HMD prototype based on a smartphone and on other low-cost materials. The prototype is capable of running Eye Tracking algorithms, which can be used to improve user interaction and user experience. To assess our AR HMD prototype, we choose a state-of-the-art method for eye center location found in the literature and evaluate its real-time performance in different development boards.


1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 59-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Lumpkin ◽  
R. Duane Ireland

New firms are an important mechanism through which new jobs are created. However, the new venture failure rate is greater than the rate of creation. Business incubators have been organized to bring new businesses together to increase the probability of success. Incubators do not guarantee success; however, evaluating potential clients on Critical Success Factors can minimize failures once the firm joins an incubator. This research investigates the screening practices of incubators and identifies unique groups of incubators. The screening practices were found to relate to sponsorship but not to physical characteristics or objectives.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Anabela Mesquita ◽  
Paula Peres

Distance learning has evolved a lot since the moment students received materials by mail and as regular correspondence. At that time, students worked already at their own pace and concluded training according to their professional work and agenda. Today, although courses by correspondence still exist, they are being quickly replaced by distance learning. And the success of this format of education are at the basis of the emergence of different offers and new business models. The success of adoption of technology depends on several factors related with the organization where it is implemented and with the individuals involved. In this paper, the authors will present a case, the evolution of the solutions offered concerning distance learning in the school under study, the actual offers and the concerns for the future. The authors will identify the factors that enabled or constrained this evolution. They will also raise some questions that are still unanswered and will point out some clues for future research.


Author(s):  
Arunasalam Sambhanthan ◽  
Alice Good

This research presents the development of a critical success factor matrix for increasing positive user experience of hotel websites based upon user ratings. Firstly, a number of critical success factors for web usability have been identified through the initial literature review. Secondly, hotel websites were surveyed in terms of critical success factors identified through the literature review. Thirdly, Herzberg's motivation theory has been applied to the user rating and the critical success factors were categorized into two areas. Finally, the critical success factor matrix has been developed using the two main sets of data.


Author(s):  
Chieh-Heng Ko

This chapter evaluates the operational performance of International Tourist Hotels in Taiwan, and explores the critical success factors that contribute to good performance. This research initially adopted data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure the relative operational efficiency of 57 international tourist hotels in Taiwan. However, the DEA approach can only determine relative operational efficiency but does not identify the factors that give rise to inefficiency or lead to efficiency. Furthermore, DEA only calls attention to those hotels in which efficiency and inefficiency exist, but cannot provide suggestions on how to improve operational efficiency. A qualitative approach is a good way to address this limitation of DEA. Thus, after using DEA to evaluate hotel’s operational efficiency, this research used a qualitative approach to further explore the critical success factors that contribute to hotels having good performance in Taiwan. Through determination of these factors, this research provides hotel managers with a list of advice and recommendations to develop effective strategies to meet a highly competitive environment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 302 ◽  
pp. 635-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuo Wei Su ◽  
Hao Yi Wang ◽  
Yi Ying Wu ◽  
Nai Hsin Kuo

Virtual reality is an innovative technology, which allows users to immerse in an imagined situation. Therefore, promoting virtual reality technology can provide more natural and specific interaction mode. The purpose of this study is to investigate interactive virtual reality navigation system by testing 15 participants to evaluate the system and analyze the results with Delphi method and Heuristic Evaluation. Besides, we used Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction (QUIS), Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX) questionnaires and interviews to understand user experience. The results show the new system is better than the old one. The interactive VR navigation system design principles (easy to use, consistency, richness, feedback, simple prompt and documentation) obtained from this study can be used to enhance the satisfaction of the users when designing the interactive VR navigation system in the future.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 705-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayat Saleh ◽  
Richard Watson

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how companies can achieve business excellence in a highly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. Within the literature about business excellence, there is a lack of understanding of the impact of today’s high VUCA on achieving business excellence. A new business concept, business excellence in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment (BEVUCA), will be illustrated so as to bridge this gap by considering the overall VUCA influence and the influences of each specific term individually. Design/methodology/approach The research incorporated a systematic literature review for three knowledge areas, namely: VUCA, business excellence and the management integration of quality and risk. The later knowledge area was reviewed because such diverse management thinking can help to achieve BEVUCA. Findings The research provided a definition for a new business concept and the systematic literature review identified 18 critical success factors so as to manage and excel under a high VUCA business environment. Finally a conceptual framework was developed for integrating quality management and risk management thinking so as to achieve BEVUCA. Originality/value BEVUCA can be used to close the current gap in the body of literature by providing a link between VUCA and business excellence, and hence advancing the discussion in these areas. Additionally, the BEVUCA conceptual framework can be used as guidance in integrating quality management and risk management to achieve the identified critical success factors.


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