4.99 See Answer

Question: The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a

The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms. Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project: 1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users. 2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq: “What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?” Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.
The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?

Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions Information quality
The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?


The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?


The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?

System quality
The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?


The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?


The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?

Interactivity
The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?


The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?


The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?

System design quality
The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?


The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?


The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?

Satisfaction with the Website:
The Standard Asian Merchant Bank is a Malaysian merchant bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The bank provides financial services in asset management, corporate finance, and securities broking. Clients of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank are among others institutional investors, foundations, (semi) public institutions, companies, and high net-worth individual clients. Segments in which The Standard Asian Merchant Bank operates are small and medium-sized listed companies, real estate, and biotech firms.
Syafiq Aimi is a Business student from the National University of Malaysia which is located in Bangi, Selangor - about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Syafiq is currently undertaking a research project for the Structured Products (SP) desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s securities department. The SP desk is responsible for developing and selling structured products: investments that consist of a portfolio of securities and derivatives. Structured products are investment instruments that are created to meet specific needs that cannot be met from standardised financial instruments. The products of the SP desk are tailor-made and they are developed based on the Standard Asian Merchant Bank’s niche specialisations which are Asian listed real estate companies, life sciences companies, and shares. 
The SP desk of The Standard Asian Merchant Bank has its own website that is primarily used to provide information to the users of the website. The website contains information about the products offered (e.g., brochures, legal documents, and bid-ask spreads), publications, and contact information. The website can be classified as a services-oriented relationship-building website. There are two main groups of website users; financial advisors and institutional clients of the SP desk. They use the website to examine product features, prices of the products offered by the SP desk, and legal information. 
For the SP desk, there are several reasons why they have asked Syafiq to undertake a research project:

1. Satisfaction with the website has never been measured. As a result, the SP desk does not know how the users experience the website. The current content and layout of the website are based on assumptions of what users are looking for on the website. For this reason, the website may contain elements deemed unnecessary by the users and it might lack features that are important to the users.
2. Users of the website only spend a small amount of time on the website. In 2011, more than 70% (75.4%) of the visitors spent less than 30 seconds on the website of the SP desk (AWStats, 2011). The products offered at the website are quite complex and clients often have a lack of knowledge concerning Structured Products. Therefore it is desirable to encourage website users to spend more time on the website. 
3. The website is not self-explanatory. Consequently, people contact employees of the SP desk to ask for explanation and clarification. This is a time consuming process that is relatively expensive for a small desk. 
Based on preliminary research, the following problem statement was created by Syafiq:
“What elements are of importance in driving Satisfaction with the Website in the Asian investment banking industry, to what extent do these variables influence Satisfaction with the Website, and how can the results of this study be used to create a website for the SP desk that is self-explanatory, that people use as their main information source and that website users spend more time on?”
Several research methods are used by Syafiq to answer the problem statement. In order to determine the variables relevant to his study Syafiq has carried out a literature review and face-to-face interviews. Based on the literature review and a rigorous analysis of the interviews Syafiq has developed the following conceptual model.


Syafiq now wants to collect quantitative data to be able to test this model with multivariate regression analysis. In order to collect these quantitative data, Syafiq is currently busy with designing a survey which he wants to post online. He has developed the following table that should help him to operationalize the constructs in his conceptual model. 
Table 1: Overview of the Constructs/variables in my Model, “Subconstructs”, and Survey Questions
Information quality




System quality




Interactivity




System design quality




Satisfaction with the Website:


Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list.
REFERENCE LIST
Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05.
Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26.
Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74.
Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58.
Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3.
Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71.
Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71.
McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315.
Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60.
Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67.
Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16.
Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24.
Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21.
Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6.
Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33.

QUESTIONS:

1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study.
2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that?
3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. 
a. What is operationalization? 
b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables.
4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past?
5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why?
6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions:
a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?”
b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?”
c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue.
Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 
7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?

Note. The “survey questions” in the last column are questions from various studies on website quality. I have tried to find as many questions as I could. Every single survey question is taken out of (one of) the papers presented in the reference list. REFERENCE LIST Awamleh Raed and Cedwyn Fernandes (2005), “Internet banking: an empirical investigation into the extent of adoption by banks and the determinants of customer satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates,” Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 10 (1), 0509-05. Chen, Kuanchin and David C. Yen (2004), “Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity,” Information & Management, 42, 217-26. Chen, P.S. and L.M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Business,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-74. Cheung, Christy M.K. and Matthew K.O. Lee (2005), “The Asymmetric Effect of Website Attribute Performance on Satisfaction: An Empirical Study,” in proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10. Evans, J. R., and V.E. King (1999), “Business-to-business marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, managing and accessing websites,” Industrial Marketing Management, 28 (4), 343–58. Greer, T.H. and M.M. Murtaza (2003), “Web Personalization: The Impact of Perceived Innovation Characteristics on the Intention to Use Personalization,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 50-3. Hernandez, Bianca, Julio Jimenez and Jose M. Martin (2009), “Key website factors in e-business strategy,” International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), 362-71. Loiacono, Eleanor T., Richard T. Watson and Dale L. Goodhue (2002), “WebQual: A measure of website quality,” in Marketing Theory and Applications, Vol. 13, ed. K.K. Evans and L.K. Scheer: Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1-71. McKinney, Vicki, Kanghyun Yoon and Fatemeh M. Zahedi (2002), “The Measurement of Web-Customer Satisfaction: An Expectation and Disconfirmation Approach,” Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 296-315. Muylle, Steve, Rudy Moenaert and Marc Despontin (2004), “The conceptualization and empirical validation of web site user satisfaction,” Information & Management, 41, 543-60. Palmer, Jonathan W. (2002), “Website usability, design and performance metrics,” Information Systems Research, 13 (2), 151–67. Schmidt, Serje, Antoni S. Cantallops and Cristiane Pizutti dos Santos (2008), “The characteristics of hotel websites and their implications for website effectiveness,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27 (4), 504-16. Tarafdar, Monideepa and Jie Zhang (2005), “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-Category Study of Successful Websites,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46 (2), 14-24. Wan, Hakman A. (2000), “Opportunities to enhance a commercial website,” Information & Management, 38 (1), 15–21. Wolfinbarger, M., and M. C. Gilly (2000), “Consumer motivations for online shop- ping,” in proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Long Beach, CA: Association for Information Systems, 1362– 6. Zhang, Ping and Gisela M. von Dran (2002), “User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains,” International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6 (2), 9-33. QUESTIONS: 1. Measurement is the assignment of numbers to characteristics (or attributes) of objects according to a pre-specified set of rules. Describe the object and characteristics of Syafiq’s study. 2. The measurement of more abstract and subjective characteristics (or attributes - such for instance the attributes in Syafiq’s study) is more difficult than the measurement of other, more tangible attributes such as weight, length, gender, age, and marital status. Why is that? 3. One way of tapping more abstract and subjective attributes is operationalizing these attributes. a. What is operationalization? b. Describe the process of operationalizing variables. 4. Based on a review of the literature Syafiq has developed a table (Table 1) that should help him to operationalize the variables of his conceptual model. Use this table to discuss the attribute ‘Information Quality’ in terms of dimensions and elements. In other words, which dimensions of ‘Information Quality’ has Syafiq found in the literature and how have these dimensions further been broken into elements by researchers who have investigated this issue in the past? 5. Syafiq could decide to use the survey questions he has found in the literature as a basis for his questionnaire. Is it, in general, a good or a bad idea to use existing scales? Why? 6. Syafiq discusses the table and some ideas about measuring the variables of his conceptual model with his supervisor. Syafiq has prepared the following questions: a. Is it really necessary to use more than one question per construct to measure the constructs of my model? In other words, why can’t I for instance just ask “How do you judge the system quality of our website?” b. If I cannot ask just one question per construct, would it be a good idea to combine survey questions from the studies I have found? That is, can I take the best question or questions from each study and develop my own measure for the constructs in my model in order to combine the strengths of all the existing measures I have found?” c. Should I still measure “Satisfaction with the Website” bearing in mind that I will measure information quality, system quality, interactivity, and system design quality in order to be able to assess the effect of these constructs on satisfaction? Or are these constructs dimensions of ‘Satisfaction with the Website’ and is it therefore unnecessary to measure Satisfaction? After all, I expect that these constructs correlate with satisfaction. I am very confused about this issue. Provide an answer to Syafiq’s questions. 7. Do you like the survey questions in Table 1 for “Satisfaction with the Website” in the light of Syafiqs definition of this construct?





Transcribed Image Text:

Information quality System quality Satisfaction with the Website Interactivity System design quality Survey questions The range of information is high. the information provided The information is applicable to the website's activities (zie relevance). (Hernandez et al. 2009) The information is detailed (zie accuracy). Variable Definition Refers to the content of Information content by the website The main goal of the information on the website is clear. The website provides in-depth information. The information on the website is informative to your usage. The information on the website is valuable to your usage. The information on the website is of the Refers to the degree to which the information meets the needs of the website user (Muylle et al. 2004). appropriate detail. The content on the website supports its intended purpose. The website provides information that exactly fits your needs. The information is applicable to the website's activities. Relevance The information in the website is relevant. The information in the website is to the point. The information in the website does not help me at all. Refers to the currency of Information is always updated in the site. the information on the Up-to-date The website provides up-to-date information. website (McKinney et al. The information is current. 2002). You get the information you need in time. The content of the website is easy to understand. Understandability Refers to the clearness and goodness of the information (Cheung and The meaning of the information is clear. Lee 2005, 2008). The information in the website is clear to me. The information in the website is presented clearly. The information is clear in meaning. The information is easy to comprehend. In general, information on the website is understandable for you to use. The website provides comprehensive information. Refers to the completeness of the information on the Completeness website (Muylle et al. | 2004) The website provides sufficient information. The information in the website is complete. The information in the website is sufficiently detailed. The website provides information that you Refers to the degree of consistency and dependability of the information on the website (Cheung and Lee 2005, 2008; McKinney et al. 2002). Refers to the degree to which the information on The website provides precise information. the website is perceived The information on the website is detailed. | to be precise (Muylle et al. 2004; Zhang and von The information on the website is not Dran 2002). Reliability trust. The information on the website is trustworthy. The information on the website is credible. In general, information on the website is reliable for you to use. The website provides accurate information. Accuracy The information on the website is accurate. precise. I can rely on the information in the website. The information in the website is sufficiently detailed. Refers to the degree to which the user believes Usefulness The information on the website is useful. The information on the website is informative to your usage. that the information on the website will enhance The information on the website is valuable to their decision (Cheung and Lee 2005, 2008; McKinney et al. 2002) your usage. In general, information on blackboard is useful for you to use. Variable Navigability Definition Refers to the ease with Survey questions I find the site easy to navigate. which users can find the The navigation links are stated in every page. It is easy to find the information I need from this website. The organization of the contents of this site makes it easy for me to know where l am when navigating it. You obtain desired information quickly. It is easy to locate the information. The website is being easy to go back and forth between pages. The website is providing a few clicks to locate information. needed information on the website (Schmidt et al. 2007; Evans and King 1999*). In general, the website is easy to navigate. Refers to the availability The website is responsive to your request. In general, the website provides good access. The website is available at all times. Access of the website at all times (Cheung and Lee 2005; 2008) Refers to the ease with which the website can be used (Tarafdar and Zhang 2006). The website can be accessed using different browsers (OS). I find the site easy to operate. The website is easy to understand. This website is simple to use, even when using it for the first time. Ease of use The website is easy to use. The website is user-friendly. It is difficult to operate the website. In general, the website is user friendly. The website is well organized. I find the website easy to use. I find the site download time acceptable. Refers to the degree to which the website users The speed of display between pages is high. perceive the website to be fast or slow (Muylle et al. 2004). Speed There is very little time between my request for pages and having the pages displayed on my computer. The rate at which information is displayed is fast. The site doesn't waste my time. The website is time consuming. It does not take much time to get from one place in the website to another. The website is fast. The website is quickly loading all the text and graphics. When I use the website there is very little waiting time between my actions and the website's response. The website loads quickly. The website takes long too load. You feel the website is secure. The website has provisions for user authentication. Security Refers to the users perceptions' of the website's reliability and safety (Awamleh and Fernandes 2005). The website has an information policy. The website has adequate security features. I feel like my privacy is protected at this website. Privacy Refers to the elements that provide website users a sense of privacy (Schmidt et al. 2008). Refers to the accuracy The system is accurate. Are you satisfied with the accuracy of the system? System accuracy of the website in providing information to its users. Refers to the reliability of You get the information that you requested on the website in providing information to its users. System reliability the website. Survey questions I can send my feedback about the site. Think of all the possible ways that you can Variable Definition Customer Refers to the facilities and communication channels that a company contact our bank when you need to. Based offers to establish direct support on this information and on your own preferences, how easy do you think it is to contact us? You are satisfied with the customer support provided by the website. You are satisfied with the after-sales support contact with users in order to help them with questions or problems (Chen and Yen 2004; Hernandez et al. 2009; Wan 2000; Wolfinbarger provided by the website. and Gilly 2003**). The website understands your problems and requests. The website responds to your requests fast enough. The website provides the personalized customer support you need. The website responds to your problems and requests promptly. The company is willing and ready to respond to customer needs. When you have a problem, the website shows a sincere interest in solving it. Inquiries are answered promptly. The website provides information that exactly fits your needs. Refers to the ability of websites to present customized information to The website can understand what you need fulfill the individual needs via interactive communication. Customisation The website has personalization characteristics. of users (Tarafdar and Zhang 2006; Chen and Hitt 2002***; Greer and Murtaza 2003****) The website offers customized information. The level of personalization is about right, not too much or too little. The website provides the precise information you need. The website provides reports that seem to be just about exactly what you need. The website allows me to interact with it to receive tailored information. I can interact with the website in order to get information tailored to my specific needs. Control Refers to the features on The site provides value added features. the website that influence When I am using this website, I feel that I am the users' sense of control (Wolfinbarger and The user controls the order or sequence of Gilly 2000)*****. in control of what I can do. information access. The user controls how fast to go through the website. The user controls opportunities for interaction. Users control the difficulty level of the information accessed. The website has features, which help me accomplish my task. Survey questions The site has an attractive appearance. Variable Definition Visual appeal Refers to the aesthetics of the website (Loiacono The website has an attractive layout. et al. 2002). I like the layout of the website. The layout of the website is visually comforting. The layout of the website is annoying. The website is visually attractive. The website has an attractive screen layout. The website is visually pleasing. The website displays visually pleasing design. The website is visually appealing. The design is appropriate to the type of the Innovativeness Refers to the uniqueness and creativity of the website (Loiacono et al. 2002). site. The website is innovative. Refers to the ease of reading of the information on the website (Palmer 2002). The layout of the information is easy to The website design is innovative. The website is creative. The site presents the information in an appropriate format. The output format is easy to read. Legibility understand. The website is well organized. The website has a simple layout for its content. The website has a clear design. The information on the website is easy to read. The text on the website is easy to read. Consistent image Refers to the The design is appropriate to the type of consistency of the image website. projected by the website I find the site has consistent page layout. with the image of the firm (Loiacono et al. 2002). You are satisfied with the image of the website. The company to which the website belongs has a well-known brand. The website projects an image consistent with the company's image. The website fits with my image of the company. The website's image matches that of the company. Satisfaction Definition Survey questions with the website The discrepancy In general terms, I am satisfied with the way that this website has carried out my actions. In general, I am satisfied with the service that I received from the website. Please think of your overall experience with the website. On a scale of 1-7, overall, how satisfied are you with the website? You are satisfied with the website. between a customer's expectations and perceptions of performance


> Under which circumstances would you prefer observation as a method to collect data over other methods of data collection such as interviews and questionnaires?

> How is the interval scale more sophisticated than the nominal and ordinal scales?

> Describe the four types of scales

> Field notes are often regarded as being simultaneously data and data analysis. Why?

> What is rapport and how is rapport established in participant observation?

> Although participant observation combines the processes of participation and observation it should be distinguished from both pure observation and pure participation. Explain.

> Operationalize the following: a. customer loyalty b. price consciousness c. career success.

> Why is it important to establish the “goodness” of measures and how is this done?

> What aspects of a class research project would be stressed by you in the written report and in the oral presentation?

> Why is it necessary to specify the limitations of the study in the research report?

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> Discuss the purpose and contents of the Executive Summary.

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> A tax consultant wonders whether he should be more selective about the class of clients he serves so as to maximize his income. He usually deals with four categories of clients: the very rich, rich, upper middle class, and middle class. He has informatio

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> How would you deal with missing data?

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> Because there seems to be a tradeoff between accuracy and confidence for any given sample size, accuracy should be always considered more important than precision. Explain with reasons, why you would or would not agree with this statement.

> Nonprobability sampling designs ought to be preferred to probability-sampling designs in some cases. Explain with an example.

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> The use of a convenience sample in organizational research is correct because all members share the same organizational stimuli and go through almost the same kinds of experiences in their organizational life. Comment.

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> Provide a logical explanation for the negative moderating effect of laptop possession.

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> Use the data of the Excelsior Enterprises case to estimate the effect of work shift on job satisfaction.

> Provide the equation for workers in the second shift.

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> What are the main steps in qualitative data analysis?

> What is qualitative data? How do qualitative data differ from quantitative data?

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> Why is analytic induction inductive (rather than deductive) in nature?

> Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of personal and telephone interviews.

> One of the main advantages of observation is its directness.” Discuss.

> How does participant observation differ from structured observation?

> Define measurement.

> Discuss four dimensions that distinguish various approaches to observation.

> Describe the key purpose of observation.

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> Consider the following reliability analysis for the variable customer differentiation. What could you conclude from it? Reliability analysis-scale (alpha) Item-total statistics Scale Scale Corrected Alpha if item deleted Mean if item Variance if it

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> A valid instrument is always reliable, but a reliable instrument is not always valid”. Comment on this statement.

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> What activities are involved in getting the data ready for analysis?

> A disadvantage of observation is observer bias. Discuss at least two ways of minimizing observer bias.

> What is reactivity?

> What is meant by operational definition, when is it necessary, and why is it necessary?

> How does a simple checklist differ from a sequence record on time-scale?

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> Why is it wrong to use correlates of a concept to measure that concept?

> Since we cannot directly observe achievement motivation, job satisfaction, and service quality, these are not appropriate topics for a scientific study.” Discuss this statement.

> Explain why it is impossible to measure an object.

> Is it useful to draw on existing measures to measure abstract and subjective constructs such as for instance customer loyalty? Why (not)?

> Xavier Gonzalez Garcia is a Business Administration student at a big, reputable university in England. Xavier loves to play soccer and tennis, he very much enjoys listening to music (he is a big fan of Muse), and he is fond of watching movies. He is a st

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> Update the DETAILRENTAL table to set the values in DETAIL_RETURNDATE to include a time component. Make each entry match the values shown in the following table. RENT_NUM VID_NUM DETAIL_RETURNDATE  1001 34342 02-MAR-16 10:00am  1001 61353 03-MA

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> Write a query to display the checkout number, check out date, and due date for every book that has been checked out (See Figure P7.67). (68 rows) FIGURE P7. 67 All Checkouts CHECK NUM CHECK OUT DATE CHECK DUE DATE 91001 3/31/2015 4/14/2015 91002 3/3

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> Write a query that displays the first and last name of every patron (See Figure P7.66). (50 rows) FIGURE P7. 66 All Patron Names PAT FNAME PAT LNAME robert Kelsey Cedric carter Коch Baldwin Vera Alvarado Alan Martin Cory Peggy Tony Betsy Barry Marsh

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> The following tables provide a very small portion of the data that will be kept in the database. This data needs to be inserted into the database for testing purposes. Write the INSERT commands necessary to place the following data in the tables that w

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> Write a query to display the author ID and the number of books written by that author. Sort the results in descending order by number of books, then in ascending order by author ID (See Figure P7.94). FIGURE P7. 94 Number of Books per Author AU ID

> Write a query to display the subject and the number of books in each subject. Sort the results by the number of books in descending order, then by subject name in ascending order (See Figure P7.93). FIGURE P7. 93 Number of Books per Subject BOOK SU

> Write a query to display the number of different patrons who have ever checked out a book (See Figure P7.92). FIGURE P7. 92 Different Patrons to Checkout a Book DIFFERENT PATRONS 33

> Write a query to display the lowest book cost in the system (See Figure P7.91). FIGURE P7. 91 Least Expensive Book Price Least Expensive 49.95

> Write a query to display the highest book cost in the system (See Figure P7.90). FIGURE P7. 90 Most Expensive Book Price Most Expensive 129.95

> What basic database design strategies exist, and how are such strategies executed?

> Write a query that displays the book title, cost and year of publication for every book in the system. FIGURE P7. 65 The Ch07_FACT ERD CHECKOUT PATRON PK Check Num PK Pat ID FK1 Book_Num FK2 Pat_ID Check_Out_Date Check_Due_Date Check_In_Date ---H- P

> Write a query to display the number of books that are available (not currently checked out) (See Figure P7.89). FIGURE P7. 89 Number of Books not Currently Checked Out Available Books 14

4.99

See Answer