Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
consumer has to bear when the transaction does not produce the result as expected. Consumers are
usually proceeding with the transaction if the potential gain is greater than the potential lost and will
be indifferent if both values are equal. Thus one has either to maximise the gain
G
b
or minimise the
risk
P
b
. The risk can be minimised by providing all the information required by the customer on the
vendor's website. Based on this model, we assume that if a large amount of information is available on
a vendor's website and if this information is valid then the vendor can be trusted. However, the impor-
tance of these factors can differ from one user to another. To validate our rules we conducted a survey
through the use of an online questionnaire.
SYSTeM eVALuATIon
To evaluate the fuzzy model developed in this paper, we have chosen four random websites selling dif-
ferent items as case studies. The first case study is the Denimjunkies site (http://denimjunkies.com/),
a vintage clothing shop selling used collectable items such as jeans jackets and shirts; the second case
study is the Mesh Computers website (http://www.meshcomputers.com), a company selling PCs and
peripherals; the third case study (CS3) is the Mexicana Silver Jewellery (http://www.mexicana.co.uk), a
website specialised in selling silver jewelleries made in Mexico; the forth case study is simply gardening
website (http://www.simplygardeningtools.co.uk), a website selling gardening tools. For each factor, a
set of three variables is considered giving a total of 13 variables (including the output of the affiliation
module which is used as an input to the existence module). Thus combining all variables yield to a
total of 12,288 possible combinations for each Website. We use two membership functions for all the
inputs, except the output from the affiliation module, which has three membership functions. Given the
complexity of the problem, it becomes apparent why we grouped our variables into four factors which
Table 1.The extracted information for the case studies
Case Study 3
Case Study 4
Variables
Case Study 1
Case Study 2
P/F/A
P/F/A
Physical Existence
P/A
P/F/A
yes
no
People Existence
yes
yes
no
yes
Registration
yes
yes
yes
no
Endorsement
no
yes
no
no
Membership
yes
yes
yes
yes
Portal
no
yes
yes
yes
Customer Satisfaction
yes
yes
yes
yes
Privacy Statement
yes
no
30 days
30 days
Warranty Policy
no
2 years
immediately
immediately
Delivery
immediately
delayed
Credit C/Debit C/
Cheque
Credit C/Debit C/
Cheque
Credit C/
Debit C
Credit C/
Debit C
Payment
no
yes
Community Comments
no
no
Search WWH ::
Custom Search