Developing high quality software tools for specialized domains is difficult. One problem is the cost of developing feature-rich and usable tool interfaces. Another problem is the task of providing a sound basis for trustworthiness of the tool and the overall method which it supports. In this dissertation we present and evaluate an approach which addresses these key difficulties. The approach is based on two concepts: using specialized and tightly integrated mass-market applications to provide the bulk of the tool’s functionality, and the use of formal methods for the precise specification of the tool’s domain-dependent modeling language. We have evaluated our component-based work in part by developing a tool using the technique, deploying it to NASA, and having engineers from across the organization use and evaluate it. In the area of formal methods, we have developed and validated, both informally and formally, a mathematically precise specification of the language em-ployed by an innovative modeling and analysis method for the reliability of fault tolerant systems. We have also developed a prototype tool that shows in concrete terms that our combined approach can work. The chief contribution of this work is a new approach to developing software tools having formal foundations for trustworthiness and sophisticated user interfaces. Constituent contributions

In recent years, several organizations have implemented non-mandatory information and communication systems that escape the conventional behavioral logic of understanding acceptance and usage from a normative perspective of compliance with the beliefs of others. Because voluntary systems require users' volitional behavior, researchers have traced recent implementation failures to a lack of user commitment. However, gaps in our understanding of volitional usage behavior and user commitment have made it difficult to advance theory, research, and practice on this issue. To validate a proposed research model, cross-sectional, between-subjects, and within-subjects field data were collected from 714 users at the time of initial adoption and after six months of extended use. The model explained between 44.1% and 58.5% of the variance in adoption and usage behavior based upon direct effects of user commitment. Findings suggest that user commitment plays a critical role in the volitional acceptance and usage of such systems. Affective commitment, i.e., internalization and identification based upon personal norms, exhibits a sustained positive influence on usage behavior. In contrast, continuance commitment, i.e., compliance based upon social norms, shows a sustained negative influence from initial adoption to extended use. Theory development based upon Kelman's social influence framework offers new empirical insights about system users' commitment and how it affects volitional usage behavior.

We examined the responses of 58,288 college students to 8 scales involving 53 items from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to gauge whether individuals respond differently to surveys administered via the Web and paper. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that mode effects were generally small. However, students who completed the Web-based survey responded more favorably than paper on all 8 scales. These patterns generally held for both women and men, and younger and older students. Interestingly, the largest effect was found for a scale of items involving computing and information technology. KEY WORDS: survey mode; student engagement; Web survey; NSSE.

This paper reports the findings of a Web-based survey of 700 New Zealand Internet users. The survey was designed to explore the importance of perceived consumer risk and the Internet shopping experience in the online purchasing behaviour of Internet users. Both perceived consumer risk and loss of social interaction in Internet shopping were found to be negatively associated with the amount of online purchases made. The results of the study suggest that electronic retailing Web sites could usefully include features that reduce perceived consumer risk and enhance online customer service.

ABSTRACT: Customer relationship management is an integral component of business strategy for on-line service providers. This paper investigates the aspects of on-line transactions in electronic retailing that are most likely to satisfy or dissatisfy customers, thereby increasing or decreasing the likelihood of building and maintaining relationships with them. For this study, 513 respondents reported behaviors, perceptions, beliefs, events, features, characteristics, attributes, and situations that expressed their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with electronic service encounters. Content analysis of these encounters yielded three meta-categories, six categories, and 33 subcategories of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with on-line service providers. The findings suggested that three major categories are robust even in the electronic context of the Internet. The antecedents identified were relevant both to product-related services (e.g., books, apparel) and to pure services (e.g., on-line banking, on-line stock trading). The study found that the characteristics and behaviors of customer-contact employees play an important role in on-line service encounters. It also revealed a percentage decrease in satisfactory incidents, a percentage increase in unsatisfactory incidents, and a percentage increase in unsatisfactory

This paper reports the methods and results of an on-line survey addressing the issues surrounding lethality and autonomous systems that was conducted as part of a research project for the U.S. Army Research Office. The robotics researcher demographic, one of several targeted in this survey that includes policymakers, the military, and the general public, provides the data for this report. The design and administration of this survey and an analysis and discussion of the survey results are provided. 1.

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contribute to understanding product involvement and brand commitment. We demonstrate that prominent political-cultural discourses, cultural intermediaries, social influences, and life themes and projects collectively prompt product involvement. We introduce the concept of involvement with branded products and examine its origins within a sociohistorical context. We consider the origins of brand commitment and illustrate that consumers with little interest in either the product category or the idea of branded products may be committed to particular brands. Further, we contribute to understanding the relationships among product involvement,brand commitment, and brand experimentation. Despite the central importance of product involvement and brand commitment to consumer research, relatively little is known about the activation of and relationship between these constructs (Beatty, Kahle, and Homer 1988; Fournier 1998; Fournier and Yao 1997; Kozinets 2001). Our research venue and methodology provide a unique perspective for examining the origins of and relationships between product involvement and brand commitment. Specifically, we investigate the underpinnings of Central European women’s involvement with and brand commitment to cosmetics products as these countries make their way from socialism to capitalism. This transformation has affected economics and politics, social infrastructure, and the development and activities of cultural intermediaries, including manufacturers, retailers, advertisers, and media (Batra *Robin A. Coulter is an associate professor of marketing at the School

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This report describes how an innovative curriculum promoted the civic development of high school students along with parents by stimulating news media attention and discussion in families. Evidence is based on a three-year evaluation of Kids Voting USA, an interactive, election-based curriculum. Political communication in the home increased the probability of voting for students when they reached voting age during the 2004 election. Thus, the interplay of influences from school and family magnified curriculum effects in the short term and sustained them in the long term. This bridging of the classroom with the living room suggests how Kids Voting offers a model for reforming civic education in the United States. Data are derived from a series of natural field experiments, beginning with interviews of 491 student-parent pairs in 2002. We evaluate the curriculum as it was taught in the fall of that year in El Paso County, CO, with Colorado Springs as the largest city; Maricopa, County, AZ, which includes the Phoenix region; and Broward/Palm Beach counties, FL, the epicenter for the ballot-recount saga of 2000. Students who were juniors or seniors in 2002 were interviewed in the fall/winter of 2002, 2003, and 2004. They were all of voting age by the fall of 2004, allowing us to determine whether participation in the curriculum in 2002 affected turnout in the presidential election two years later. We also interviewed one parent from each family each year. We examined the voting records in the four counties to provide