Toward a Unified Theory of Customer Continuance Model for Financial Technology Chatbots

With the popularity of financial technology (fintech) chatbots equipped with artificial intelligence, understanding the user’s response mechanism can help bankers formulate precise marketing strategies, which is a crucial issue in the social science field. Nevertheless, the user’s response mechanism towards financial technology chatbots has been relatively under-investigated. To fill these literature gaps, latent growth curve modeling was adopted by the present research to survey Taiwanese users of fintech chatbots. The present study proposed a customer continuance model to predict continuance intention for fintech chatbots and that cognitive and emotional dimensions positively influence the growth in a user’s attitude toward fintech chatbots, which in turn, positively influences continuance intention over time. In total, 401 customers of fintech chatbots were surveyed through three time points to examine the relationship between these variables over six months. The results support the theoretical model of this research and can advance the literature of fintech chatbots and the information technology adoption model.

The foundation and development of International Relations in Brazil

This article aims to contribute to the critical understanding of how International Relations (IR) was built as a social science field within Brazil's modern project. I argue that the foundation and the development of IR in Brazil in the twentieth century is closely associated with foreign policy, on the one hand, and with the national geopolitical thinking, particularly in the aftermath of the Second World War, on the other. In its trajectory, Brazil's IR has been influenced, among others, by the analysis of domestic and systemic determinants of foreign policy, historical interpretations, the study of the components of state power, studies of diplomacy and its contribution to the country's development, the analysis of decision-making processes and to a lesser extent, cognitive approaches. This article is organised around three sections. First, I present a brief history of the geopolitical tradition in Brazil's IR. Second, I discuss IR development in Brazil, stressing the role of diplomats, the key contribution of intellectuals coming from social and human sciences, and finally the emergence of the first generations of IR scholars in the eighties. Third, I analyse the institutionalisation of the field, its quantitative and qualitative growth, presenting some data on its organisation in recent times.

Ethics in field experimentation: A call to establish new standards to protect the public from unwanted manipulation and real harms

In 1966, Henry Beecher published his foundational paper “Ethics and Clinical Research,” bringing to light unethical experiments that were routinely being conducted by leading universities and government agencies. A common theme was the lack of voluntary consent. Research regulations surrounding laboratory experiments flourished after his work. More than half a century later, we seek to follow in his footsteps and identify a new domain of risk to the public: certain types of field experiments. The nature of experimental research has changed greatly since the Belmont Report. Due in part to technological advances including social media, experimenters now target and affect whole societies, releasing interventions into a living public, often without sufficient review or controls. A large number of social science field experiments do not reflect compliance with current ethical and legal requirements that govern research with human participants. Real-world interventions are being conducted without consent or notice to the public they affect. Follow-ups and debriefing are routinely not being undertaken with the populations that experimenters injure. Importantly, even when ethical research guidelines are followed, researchers are following principles developed for experiments in controlled settings, with little assessment or protection for the wider societies within which individuals are embedded. We strive to improve the ethics of future work by advocating the creation of new norms, illustrating classes of field experiments where scholars do not appear to have recognized the ways such research circumvents ethical standards by putting people, including those outside the manipulated group, into harm’s way.

Problems Faced by Post-Graduate Students During the Research Process

In order to graduate and obtain a master's degree or doctorate, a post-graduate student must conduct research process. The post-graduate research process has challenged many students and some students leave the course for a certain period while others failed to complete their research. This study was conducted to explore the major problems faced by post-graduate students in Malaysia to conduct a research. The researchers used qualitative research design using a semi-structured interview method. The instrument of this study is the interview protocol. Interview participants were selected using the purposive sampling method. The participants in this study were 31 people consist of twelve Master Degree and ten PhD students who failed to complete their studies in the social science field in public universities in Malaysia. In addition, the participants also consist of supervisors who have had experience in supervising post-graduate students for over 10 years ie nine Professors. Data from participants were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Based on the results of the qualitative study, it has been found that there are six common factors related to the problems faced by post-graduate students in Malaysia during the research processes such as knowledge, personal problems, personality, management, thinking and reading. Besides, this study found that the effects of the problems faced by post-graduate students during the research process that is of no interest, no focus, stress, running out of ideas, do not achieve the desired targets, ongoing concerns, loss of commitment, slow in complete the research and failed to complete the study.

Delphi method

The paper presents the Delphi method and tests its usefulness when searching for a consensus on definitions, especially in a particular social science field. Based on an overview of the characteristics and uses of the Delphi method, a special Delphi design for searching for minimal common definitions of globalisation, Europeanisation and internationalisation in higher education and their mutual relationships is presented in detail. While the method proved valuable, its strengths and weaknesses are also discussed. Finally, ideas for adjusting the Delphi method are proposed.

Conflict Analysis and Resolution as a Field: Core Concepts and Issues

Core concepts of the interdisciplinary social science field of conflict analysis and resolution (CAR) are discussed. Work in the field is based on numerous generally accepted ideas about the nature of conflict and constructive approaches to conflict. These ideas include ways of waging conflicts constructively, tracing the interconnectedness of conflicts, and assessing the multiplicity of actors. Other important core concepts relate to stages of conflicts: emergence, escalation, de-escalation and settlement, and sustaining peace. Finally, current and future issues regarding CAR conceptualizations and their applications are examined.