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    Customer experience in immersive virtual reality retail : exploring behaviors, emotions, and touchpoints across the shopping journey : a thesis with publications presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Technology, School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2025-08-01) Erensoy, Aysu
    Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) is transforming the retail landscape by merging sensory engagement with the personalization and convenience of digital platforms. As part of the rapidly evolving metaverse, iVR has the potential to redefine customer experience (CX) and create immersive, multisensory shopping environments. However, understanding how iVR shapes customer behaviors, emotions, and interactions across the shopping journey remains limited. These gaps hinder businesses from fully optimizing CX in this emerging domain. This research aims to address these challenges by exploring the influence of iVR retail touchpoints on CX and developing frameworks to advance theoretical and practical knowledge in iVR retail. This study employed a human-centered design methodology, integrating systematic literature reviews, semi-structured interviews with VR design experts, and iVR experiments with end-users. The literature review established a theoretical foundation, identifying challenges and opportunities in iVR retail. Semi-structured interviews with experts explored critical touchpoints, emotions, behaviors, and the design processes underlying iVR environments. Complementing these, VR experiments, card-sorting activities, and end-user interviews captured the behaviors and emotions of participants across the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase stages of the shopping journey. This study offers significant theoretical advancements by extending the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model to better capture the complexities of CX in immersive virtual environments. It provides a nuanced understanding of how sensory stimuli influence emotional responses and consumer behaviors, particularly within iVR retail contexts. This extension enables a more comprehensive analysis of the relationships between touchpoints, emotions, and shopping processes. Additionally, the study adapts the Double Diamond framework, tailoring it to meet the unique demands of iVR design. This refined framework supports designers in addressing the iterative nature of immersive retail experiences across discovery, definition, development, and delivery phases. Additionally, the key outcome of this research is developing a CX framework that detailed the iVR customer journey, illustrating how user interactions, emotional responses, and behaviors evolve across the pre-purchase, purchase, and post purchase stages. These findings not only highlight the underlying mechanics of creating positive CX in iVR environments but also identify the drivers of emotional connection and satisfaction, laying the groundwork for further exploration and application in this transformative retail medium. This research contributes to both theoretical and practical understanding of iVR retail environments. Theoretically, it advances models such as the S-O-R model and refines the Double Diamond framework, aligning them with the complexities of immersive technologies and offering tools for analyzing how iVR reshapes CX. Practically, the study provides actionable design guidelines to address key challenges in iVR retail, including improving usability with intuitive interfaces, enhancing accessibility through features like voice navigation, and fostering emotional engagement via sensory-rich experiences. These guidelines support the creation of inclusive, engaging, and effective iVR shopping environments that serve as a roadmap for future studies for exploring and validating emergent technological innovations in iVR retail.
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    Improving the robustness and privacy of HTTP cookie-based tracking systems within an affiliate marketing context : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Amarasekara, Bede Ravindra
    E-commerce activities provide a global reach for enterprises large and small. Third parties generate visitor traffic for a fee; through affiliate marketing, search engine marketing, keyword bidding and through organic search, amongst others. Therefore, improving the robustness of the underlying tracking and state management techniques is a vital requirement for the growth and stability of e-commerce. In an inherently stateless ecosystem such as the Internet, HTTP cookies have been the de-facto tracking vector for decades. In a previous study, the thesis author exposed circumstances under which cookie-based tracking system can fail, some due to technical glitches, others due to manipulations made for monetary gain by some fraudulent actors. Following a design science research paradigm, this research explores alternative tracking vectors discussed in previous research studies within a cross-domain tracking environment. It evaluates their efficacy within current context and demonstrates how to use them to improve the robustness of existing tracking techniques. Research outputs include methods, instantiations and a privacy model artefact based on information seeking behaviour of different categories of tracking software, and their resulting privacy intrusion levels. This privacy model provides clarity and is useful for practitioners and regulators to create regulatory frameworks that do not hinder technological advancement, rather they curtail privacy-intrusive tracking practices on the Internet. The method artefacts are instantiated as functional prototypes, available publicly on Internet, to demonstrate the efficacy and utility of the methods through live tests. The research contributes to the theoretical knowledge base through generalisation of empirical findings and to the industry by problem solving design artefacts.
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    A resource co-evolutionary model for the internationalization of internet intermediary firms : evidence from New Zealand based internet payment intermediary firms : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Business Management at Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Wu, Mian
    Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to explore the internationalization process of Internet Intermediary Firms (IIFs) and explain the unfolding of this process using a resource co-evolutionary lens of organizational knowledge and network resources. The leading research question of this study is thus “through a resource co-evolutionary lens, how and why is the internationalization of IIFs driven by the joint development of knowledge and network resources?” Methodology/approach/design – To answer the leading research question, this thesis applies a process-based research approach to seven qualitative case studies of the internationalization of New Zealand based Internet Payment Intermediaries (IPIs). Findings - This thesis identifies six internationalization episode patterns of IIFs, which are inception, siloing, bundling, multiplying, international replicating, and international withdrawal. The overall internationalization process of IIFs are non-linear but structurally predictable. Changes across these patterns take place at five human and non-human layers of IIF-centric digital platform-based ecosystem architecture – users, platforms, IIFs, usage scenarios, and sellers. Moreover, this thesis finds that IIFs’ product logic, user logic, buyer users, seller users, and cloud-based platform providers are their critical organizational knowledge and network resources, respectively. These knowledge and network resources co-evolve during internationalization, enabling the unfolding of the internationalization of IIFs. The “motor” of change derives from the IIFs’ choice of network externalities, internalization and externalization business approach. Through a resource co-evolutionary lens, this thesis finally provides a three-tier operational process model to describe and explain the internationalization process of IIFs. Practical implications - The message to IIF practitioners is that international development needs to be understood from a processual and structural view. The associated architectural resource properties of IIF-centric platform-based ecosystem and their joint actions are the keys to understanding their intricate global evolution processes. This study also signals international sellers a shift from adapting to the fluid and unruly digital ecosystems to governing the ecosystem through collaborating with IIFs. Originality/value - This is the first study of IIF internationalization. This thesis identifies the non-linear but structurally predictable internationalization process patterns of IIFs which is new to the literature. Moreover, this thesis also reveals the new types of organizational knowledge and network resources, explicitly enabling the internationalization of IIFs. This study constructively extends the traditional resource-based view towards a resource co-evolutionary view to explain the research phenomenon. The operational process model proposed in this study for the first sheds light on how to govern the business ecosystem, which is of both practical and theoretical importance.
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    The impact of internet on business : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2002) Wallace, Catherine May
    The purpose of this thesis is to critically examine the impact of Internet on business with a particular emphasis on the New Zealand business situation. The focus is on the human elements rather than the technical aspects affecting organisations. The literature review establishes the context for the study with an overview of the development and progress of the Internet as a key component of the business environment. The information gathered from early stages of the research provided a cross-sectional analysis of Internet use in New Zealand industry sectors. Information gained served as a basis for selecting businesses for a more in-depth analysis for face-to-face interviews. A range of interviews were held with participants from organisations that were in the high, moderate and low Internet adoption sectors as identified by the questionnaire responses. Questionnaires were sent to businesses representing the full range of industry sectors via traditional paper channels. An industry- wide, New Zealand- wide sample was sought to give baseline data on New Zealand organisations to gain an understanding of current and future uses. To assess the issues involved in the future application of modern computer communications, issues such as cost-benefit analysis, privacy, security, access to information services and databases, competitive advantage, information management, public relations, marketing and electronic commerce will be explored. A range of issues identified from both the online and offline literature that seemed indicative of emerging and future trends formed the basis of the questions. Once the paper questionnaires had been returned, a comparable sample of respondents was sought, again indicative of all seventeen industry sectors. All respondents in this sample were from organisations that at least had email, even if they did not yet have a presence on the Internet. These customers of Internet Service Providers were sent a largely identical questionnaire by email. The aim was to gather data about organisations already online to identify any early-adopter characteristics and to gather more specific detailed information applicable to this group as existing Internet users. The final research phase was a longitudinal study using a case study methodology. Selected organisations were followed through a three-part process of planning for technology, acquisition and implementation of technology and the final stage of evaluation and audit. Trends from the literature and the questionnaires were examined in the context of New Zealand organisations. Structured interviews were conducted with these organisations. The results of the investigation form the success factors with discussion on the necessary planning, implementation and evaluation for businesses wishing to embrace the medium. As 94% of New Zealand business are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the majority of findings are relevant to that context in particular although a number can be extrapolated to Internet-connected organisations in general. Three objectives run through the various research phases. The research objectives are: - to identify the nature and extent of Internet based business activities by organisations in New Zealand - to examine the motives and impacts of these initiatives - to determine factors that contribute to the success of these endeavours The first research phase focusses on the planning issues including perceived and actual information needs of organisations using the Internet. The process of selecting appropriate technology and Internet providers is considered and study made of the competitive advantage offered by the Internet. Implications for organisations such as knowledge gaps, changing power structures with new technology and issues of privacy and controls are also considered. Implications for individuals including workload, communication patterns, training, reskilling and deskilling are pursued. The second research phase focusses on the acquisition and implementation of the Internet by organisations. Comparisons are made between organisations and their strategies for getting online and managing the process of changeover and transition to an Internet-based business environment. The third research phase compares expected and actual outcomes from Internet implementation in organisations. A review is carried out with participating organisations by examining the role of the Internet on business effectiveness. The area of Internet use in organisations needs investigation as the majority are faced with devising an Internet strategy, yet most companies have barely considered the online world till relatively recently. This research considers the implications of this for successful Internet use and presents success factors for organisations. The recent downturn in dot.coms has increased interest in the factors determining success although the cases included in this thesis are not dot.coms as such but ordinary businesses that want to use the Internet.
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    Critical factors in community informatics : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Production Engineering at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2003) Mason, David Douglas Miller
    Community Informatics is a new field of research that studies how information and communications technologies can be used to improve the quality of life of communities. The use and acceptance of technology is unpredictable. Early Community Informatics research found that deploying information technology with the aim of improving communities was seldom successful. Research has been done to identify the factors that might have a bearing on the outcome, but no definitive answer has emerged, and little work has been done on evaluating the effect of the methodology on the outcome. This research set out to establish what the critical factors were, and to determine whether a specific community informatics methodology could be designed. The objective of this research was to design a Community Informatics methodology, a way of introducing ICT into communities, that would ensure a successful economic outcome. The strategy was to use tourism as the catalyst for economic growth. The outcome sought was a self sustaining, locally owned and scalable tourism product which would provide jobs initially and in the longer term would bring money into the local economy and lead to a revitalisation of the community. The research was in two parts. The first part consisted of prototyping ecommerce Internet sites of increasing scope and complexity using a participative methodology within the socio-economic computer systems design paradigm. The work involved four organisations: the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace, the Spa Association of New Zealand and two large hotels. The outcome was a generic ecommerce model and a participative methodology for implementing that model. The second part of the research involved applying the prototype methodology to communities in isolated parts of New Zealand. The communities involved were located in North Hokianga, Mahia and East Cape. The final outcome was a community owned and maintained ecommerce Internet site that could form the basis for a tourism led economy. This research has shown that by using the right methodology it is possible to create a viable community based ecommerce application, and that there are four critical factors in Community Informatics: leadership, motivation, consensus and the methodology used.