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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of political party websites for e-electioneering and their impact on the outcome of the elections. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data for the study were collected from the websites of 11 major political parties of Pakistan using modified version of the coding scheme used by Gibson, Rommele and Ward for the evaluation of functionality and delivery of websites. Data were analysed using web content analysis method to achieve the objectives of this study. The study also ranked the party websites based on points scored for functionalities and delivery. Findings – The study found that although Pakistani political parties have started using their websites for communication with their voters during the general elections but they have not utilized the full potential of the website functionalities for e-electioneering. Research limitations/implications – The study focused on content analysis of political party websites of Pakistan only. However, comparisons were made to other studies where possible to contextualize the results of this study in international perspective. It is suggested to replicate this study after ten years to study the changing behaviour of political parties. Practical implications – Political parties might like to improve their websites in the light of findings of this study to spread their message more effectively to larger voter base. Social implications – Findings of the study will help in improving the readiness of political parties for e-electioneering and improved websites will help voters in making an informed decision during election. It will overall improve the electoral process in the country where democratic system is not very strong. Originality/value – With the advent of internet, political parties are using their websites during elections for various purposes. This study, first ever in Pakistan on the topic, provides empirical evidence on the use of political party websites during May 2013 general election in Pakistan and presents its impact on the outcome of the election. The study will be valuable for political science researchers especially those focusing on Asia and Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a research model that examines the effect of information overload and information disorganisation upon customers' perceived risk and purchase intention online in a single integrative model. In addition the paper investigates whether internet experience moderates these relationships. Design/methodology/approach - To achieve the paper's objectives an experiment that involved visiting the ten most visited e-commerce web sites in Spain was conducted. Hypotheses were tested by using structural equation modelling on a data set of 1,396 online shopping customers. Findings - The results suggest a positive relationship between information overload and customer purchase intention and that internet experience reinforces this positive effect. Moreover the results confirm that the relationship between information disorganisation and customer purchase intention is not significant and that internet experience does not moderate the relationship. The findings also indicate that perceived risk mediates the relationship between information overload and information disorganisation on customer purchase intention. Originality/value - This work contributes to the literature by exploring the phenomenon of information overload and information disorganisation upon customers' perceived risk and purchase intention in the e-commerce environment as well as the moderating effect of internet experience on these relationships in a single integrative model. The main conclusions of this investigation can be valuable to organisations that implement or intend to implement e-commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Blogs provide opportunities for bloggers to create. This creativity can attract audiences and generate commercial success for blog service providers (BSPs). Thus to obtain competitive advantage, such providers should stimulate their bloggers to produce creative content. The purpose of this paper is to adopt social embeddedness and creativity theory to explore factors influencing blogger creativity. Design/methodology/approach – An online questionnaire and an online embeddedness system are used to collect data from 353 bloggers, including data on their motivation, integration ability, structural and relational embeddedness and creativity. Hierarchical regression is applied for statistical analysis. Findings – Analytical results show that structural embeddedness and relational embeddedness affect blogger creativity. Additionally motivation negatively moderates the relationship between structural embeddedness and creativity, and integration ability negatively moderates the relationship between relational embeddedness and creativity. Research limitations/implications – This study applies social embeddedness to elucidate the relationships among quantity and quality of professional knowledge and creativity. This study also discusses the moderating effect of motivation and integration ability on the relationship between social embeddedness and creativity. Practical implications – Creative articles by bloggers can popularise a blog platform, as they can retain bloggers and attract new bloggers. Therefore, for BSPs enhancing the creative performance of bloggers is one way to obtain competitive advantage. Originality/value – The study contributes to knowledge of social embeddedness and creativity on blog web sites, and importantly, this study develops a model that explains how antecedents influence blogger creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether cultural backgrounds of nations are expressed through the web design of their companies. Actually, it investigates whether, in countries characterized by the same cultural matrix and language but by different national backgrounds, the cultural specificities of a country are a critical success factor for web design and enablers of business excellence. Design/methodology/approach – Starting from a deep literature review, four research hypotheses on the relationship between cultural background and web design are formulated. By employing both the content analysis and the cross-tabulation methodology, these hypotheses are tested. Findings – Brazilian, Portuguese, Angolan and Macanese web sites show that companies operating in these countries are aware that cultural background is a necessary success factor to consider for improving cross-cultural management of computer-mediated communication. Indeed, the findings confirm that the internet is not a culturally neutral communication medium. By providing evidences of web site cultural adaptation, this study supports the use of a targeted approach to web site design and provides managerial guidelines for improving business excellence of companies’ online environment. Originality/value – The paper offers insights into the topic of a culturally adapted computer-mediated communication for improving consumer experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study aims to map the information landscape as it unfolds to users when they search for health topics on general search engines. Website sponsorship, platform type and linking patterns were analysed in order to advance the understanding of the provision of health information online. Design/methodology/approach – The landscape was sampled by ten very different search queries and crawled with VOSON software. Drawing on Roger's framework of information politics on the web, the landscape is described on two levels. The front-end is examined qualitatively by assessing website sponsorship and platform type. On the back-end, linking patterns are analysed using hyperlink network analysis. Findings – A vast majority of the websites have commercial and organisational sponsorship. The analysis of the platform type shows that health information is provided mainly on static homepages, informational portals and general news sites. A comparison of ten different health domains revealed substantial differences in their landscapes, related to domain-specific characteristics. Research limitations/implications – The size and properties of the web crawl were shaped by using third party software, and the generalisability of the results is limited by the selected search queries. Further research exploring how specific characteristics of different health domains shape provision of information online is suggested. Practical implications – The demonstrated method can be used by organisations to discern the characteristics of the online information landscape in which they operate and to inform their business strategies. Originality/value – The study examines health information landscapes on a large scale and makes an original contribution by comparing them across ten different health domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this research was to examine the number and type of sources cited by featured articles from the Slovene Wikipedia with the purpose of assessing their quality. A sample of random articles was also procured in order to give a clearer picture of the content of the Slovene Wikipedia. Design/methodology/approach – A research was conducted on 122 featured articles from the Slovene Wikipedia from 2009, 2010 and 2011. The following aspects of the articles were analyzed: topic and originality of the article and number, language and type of sources cited. Findings – The results have shown that most of the featured articles are adapted from the English Wikipedia, the most common topics being science, sports and history. Based on these results the authors have concluded that despite some deficiencies the featured articles on the Slovene Wikipedia are of much higher quality compared to random articles. Research limitations/implications – The biggest research limitation is the ever changing nature of Wikipedia and its articles, which hinders the process of analyzing results and relying on these results to be relevant in the future. Originality/value – This is the first such research of the Slovene Wikipedia that deals specifically with citation analysis of featured articles. Results of this research offer valuable information to both editors of featured articles and users, as they point out certain deficiencies, which can be eliminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study aims to explore the link creating behaviour of European highly cited scientists based upon their online lists of publications and their institutional personal websites. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 1,525 highly cited scientists working at European institutions were first identified. Outlinks from their online lists of publications and their personal websites pointing to a pre-defined collection of popular academic websites and file types were then gathered by a personal web crawler. Findings – Perhaps surprisingly, a larger proportion of social scientists provided at least one outlink compared to the other disciplines investigated. By far the most linked-to file type was PDF and the most linked-to type of target website was scholarly databases, especially the Digital Object Identifier website. Health science and life science researchers mainly linked to scholarly databases, while scientists from engineering, hard sciences and social sciences linked to a wider range of target websites. Both book sites and social network sites were rarely linked to, especially the former. Hence, whilst successful researchers frequently use the Web to point to online copies of their articles, there are major disciplinary and other differences in how they do this. Originality/value – This is the first study to analyse the outlinking patterns of highly cited researchers' institutional web presences in order to identify which web resources they use to provide access to their publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Indian newspaper web sites using Alexa databank. Design/methodology/approach – The list compiled by Audit Bureau of Circulations of top newspapers in India by daily circulation was used for selecting newspapers. The list included 28 newspapers in various languages. Out of these 26 were available online. These 26 newspapers are taken for evaluation in the present study. Each newspaper web site was searched in Alexa databank and relevant data including traffic rank, pages viewed, speed, links, bounce percentage, time on site, search percentage, and Indian/foreign users were collected. The data collected were analysed and tabulated to reveal findings in accordance with the desired objectives. Findings – The results of this study show that Dainik Bhaskar has the highest traffic rank. Punjab Kesari has the highest number of average pages viewed per day and estimated daily time spent on site by the visitors. The fastest downloading speed is for Economic Times. Hindustan Times has the highest number of links. Decan Herald has the highest reach amongst the global internet users, where as Udayavani has the lowest bounce percentage. The highest percentage of visits that came from search engines is for Dainik Jagran. The highest number of foreign users is for Ananda Bazar Patrika. Most of the foreign users to Indian newspapers come from the USA. Originality/value – Besides administrators of Indian newspapers, the results of this study will be useful for web site managers in any field including those in charge of library web sites. The study will also help librarians and anyone interested to increase usage of a web site by analysing the use of web site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the perception and use of social networking sites among university students in the state of Kuwait and study their positive and negative impacts. Design/methodology/approach – The research method is descriptive in nature. A questionnaire with five major sections was designed, validated and distributed among the sample of students. Findings – The results showed a heavy use of Twitter and Facebook among university students who were viewing their sites more frequently than posting. The most positive impacts were better relation with family, relatives, and friends and more involvement in social, political and cultural activities. Neglecting study/work and the time consumed are the two major drawbacks. Research limitations/implications – The stratified sample of students was based on availability of students at the time of distributing the questionnaire. Originality/value – The paper aims to understand the practice, implication and importance of social networking in a Muslim country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Through a literature review, we found four potential research topics that are rarely studied in the extant literature, i.e. the missing link between web site quality and flow, an integrative relationships between web site quality, flow, customer satisfaction, and relationship intention even though part of the integrative relationships have been investigated in the previous studies, those flow-related consumer behaviors in C2C e-marketplaces, and cross-national studies on the flow-related consumer behaviors in the East-Asian domain. Thus, we attempted to explore the relationships between web site quality, flow, customer satisfaction, and relationship intention in Chinese and Korean C2C e-marketplaces as well as their cross-national similarities and differences. Design/methodology/approach – In all, 212 Chinese and 219 Korean online shoppers were surveyed to conduct the above research agenda by structural equation modeling. Findings – Web site quality had some effect on flow and satisfaction in both countries, but different results between the countries were found for the dimensions of web site quality. Flow has a positive impact on satisfaction, but the effect in China was greater than that in Korea. Both flow and satisfaction had a positive effect on relationship intention in the two countries. Originality/value – There has been little research that addressed the above four research topics respectively or in combination. This study investigates the integrative model between web site quality and flow-related consumer behaviors in C2C e-marketplaces. The paper provides empirical evidence of online consumer behaviors in China and Korea, which will help global e-commerce managers/practitioners in their development of strategies and tactics for the East-Asian markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Issues related to accessibility of web based resources are more important than ever. In part this is being driven by demands for more consistent treatment of various accessibility issues on websites. However, recent complaints by students and consumers on commercial sites highlight the fact that issues related to accessibility remain to be resolved. This article aims to review current practice. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology and approach in the article is based on a review of current literature and practice in the area. Findings – Responsive design as well as several techniques and free tools can be used to address many of the most common issues related to accessibility. Originality/value – This article adds to the existing literature in this area by providing a comprehensive overview and guide to the topic area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that the pursuit of a high search engine relevance ranking for a webpage is not necessarily incompatible with the pursuit of web accessibility. Design/methodology/approach – The research described arose from an investigation into the observed phenomenon that pages from accessible websites regularly appear near the top of search engine (such as Google) results, without any deliberate effort having been made through the application of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to achieve this. The reasons for this phenomenon appear to be found in the numerous similarities and overlapping characteristics between SEO factors and web accessibility guidelines. Context is provided through a review of sources including accessibility standards and relevant SEO studies and the relationship between SEO and web accessibility is described. The particular overlapping factors between the two are identified and the precise nature of the overlaps is explained in greater detail. Findings – The available literature provides firm evidence that the overlapping factors not only serve to ensure the accessibility of a website for all users, but are also useful for the optimization of the website's search engine ranking. The research demonstrates that any SEO project undertaken should include, as a prerequisite, the proper design of accessible web content, inasmuch as search engines will interpret the web accessibility achieved as an indicator of quality and will be able to better access and index the resulting web content. Originality/value – The present study indicates how developing websites with high visibility in search engine results also makes their content more accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the possible influence of congruity on the way ad banners are watched and remembered in online newspapers. Design/methodology/approach – The effects of the thematic connection between banner subject and article content are examined at the level of gaze behaviour using eye tracking technology, while questionnaires are exploited to assess both free and helped recall. Two "kinds of reading" are also considered, namely "imposed" (where the tester has to read a specific article) and "free" (where the tester can choose the article's topic from a set). Findings – Results indicate that congruity matters for the way banners are looked at, although it seems to have a limited influence on memory. Moreover, the kind of reading is significant in a few cases. Practical implications – The design of ad banners for web content is very critical, due to the so-called "banner blindness" phenomenon. At the same time, ad banners are crucial for online newspapers, which rely on them as the main source of revenues. Understanding the potential of congruity is therefore an essential point. Originality/value – Results to date obtained from previous research about congruity between online content and ad banners are contrasting, and further investigations are thus necessary. Moreover, in the context of online newspapers, congruity has been considered in extremely few cases and, to the best of the authors' knowledge, without using eye tracking technology. The outcomes of this study can be exploited to drive further research in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – It is increasingly difficult to ignore the importance of anonymity on the internet. Tor has been proposed as a reliable way to keep our identity secret from governments and organizations. This research evaluates its ability to protect our activity on the Web. Design/methodology/approach – Using traffic analysis over ACK packets among others, fingerprints of websites can be created and later on used to recognise Tor traffic. Findings – Tor does not add enough entropy to HTTP traffic, which allows us to recognise the access to static websites without breaking Tor's cryptography. Research limitations/implications – This work shows that the method presented behaves well with a limited set of fingerprints. Further research should be performed on its reliability with larger sets. Social implications – Tor has been used by political dissidents and citizens in countries without freedom of speech to access banned websites such as Twitter or Facebook. This paper shows that it might be possible for their countries to know what they have done. Originality/value – This paper shows that while Tor does a good work keeping the content of our communication, it is weak protecting the identity of the website being accessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This longitudinal study aims to analyze the use of websites by a sample of 78 corporations and non-profits five years apart. In particular, it studies organizational use of interactive and social media features and use of web sites for building relationships with six stakeholder publics. Design/methodology/approach – The authors studied the websites of 78 for-profit and not-for-profit organization seeking to learn how they used this new medium as a communication tool to build and maintain relationships with six key stakeholders: the mass media, consumers, investor/donors, employees, the government, and the community in 2004 and in 2009. They also explored for differences in the way for-profit corporations and non-profits used their web sites for relationship building given their different missions and cultures. Findings – First, there was a marked difference in how corporations and non-profit organizations used their websites. Second, a significant number of organizations used social media applications such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube through their websites in 2009. Third, aside from increased use of social media, in 2009 more organizations used feedback mechanisms such as e-surveys and e-polls embedded in their websites, enhancing interactions with a variety of stakeholders. Both corporations and non-profit organizations generally utilized their websites as information-dissemination tools, where the information flow is one-way, although the percentage of both corporations and non profits that used interactive features offered by new media has increased slightly between 2004 and 2009. Originality/value – This study is among the few that compare web page use by corporations vs non-profits. A second unique feature of this study is that it is longitudinal in nature, studying web site use five years apart by the same organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this research project was to determine how the three biggest search engines interpret keyword stuffing as a negative design element. Design/methodology/approach – This research was based on triangulation between scholar reporting, search engine claims, SEO practitioners and empirical evidence on the interpretation of keyword stuffing. Five websites with varying keyword densities were designed and submitted to Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Two phases of the experiment were done and the response of the search engines was recorded. Findings – Scholars have indicated different views in respect of spamdexing, characterised by different keyword density measurements in the body text of a webpage. During both phases, almost all the test webpages, including the one with a 97.3 per cent keyword density, were indexed. Research limitations/implications – Only the three biggest search engines were considered, and monitoring was done for a set time only. The claims that high keyword densities will lead to blacklisting have been refuted. Originality/value – Websites should be designed with high quality, well-written content. Even though keyword stuffing is unlikely to lead to search engine penalties, it could deter human visitors and reduce website value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodological usability evaluation approach for e-commerce websites in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach – A multi-faceted usability evaluation of three Jordanian e-commerce websites was used, where three usability methods (user testing, heuristic evaluation and web analytics) were applied to the sites. Findings – A four-step approach was developed to facilitate the evaluation of e-commerce sites, mindful of the advantages and disadvantages of the methods used in identifying specific usability problems. Research limitations/implications – The approach was developed and tested using Jordanian users, experts and e-commerce sites. The study compared the ability of the methods to detect problems that were present, however, usability issues not present on any of the sites could not be considered when creating the approach. Practical implications – The approach helps e-commerce retailers evaluate the usability of their websites and understand which usability method(s) best matches their need. Originality/value – This research proposes a new approach for evaluating the usability of e-commerce sites. A novel aspect is the use of web analytics (Google Analytics software) as a component in the usability evaluation in conjunction with heuristics and user testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study aims to explore the journal bibliometric characteristics of the Journal of Documentation(JOD) and the subject relationship with other disciplines by citation analysis. Design/methodology/approach – The citation data were drawn from references of each article of JOD during 1998 and 2008. Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, Library of Congress Subject Heading, retrieved from the WorldCat and LISA database were used to identify the main class, subclass and subject of cited journals and books. Findings – The results of this study revealed that journal articles are the most cited document, followed by books and book chapters, electronic resources, and conference proceedings, respectively. The three main classes of cited journals in JOD papers are library science, science, and social sciences. The three subclasses of non-LIS journals that were highly cited in JOD papers are Science, "Mathematics. Computer science", and "Industries. Land use. Labor". The three highly cited subjects of library and information science journals encompass searching, information work, and online information retrieval. The most cited main class of books in JOD papers is library and information science, followed by social sciences, science, "Philosophy. Psychology. Religion." The three highly cited subclasses of books in JOD papers are "Books (General). Writing. Paleography. Book industries and trade. Libraries. Bibliography," "Philology and linguistics," and Science, and the most cited subject of books is information storage and retrieval systems. Originality/value – Results for the present research found that information science, as represented by JOD, is a developing discipline with an expanding literature relating to multiple subject areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — This study sets out to investigate the perceptions of e-buyers and e-lookers in Hainan, China on usability performance of China-based travel web sites, an emerging sector of the tourism industry in China. Design/methodology/approach — Data collection was conducted in Hainan, a province in Southern China, in December 2007. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the views of users on different usability dimensions and attributes on China-based travel web sites. Findings — Empirical findings indicated that respondents who only viewed China-based travel web sites had an average usability performance. More importantly, there was no significant difference between e-buyers and e-lookers. Research limitations/implications — The major limitations of the study are the non-random selection of respondents and that the respondents were from one province in China. Originality/value — With the views of 489 respondents, research findings should provide an overview for tourism practitioners to allocate their limited resources on e-business development appropriately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the presentation medium of corporate social and environmental web site disclosure has an impact on user trust in such disclosure, and to examine the effect of media richness on user perception about corporate social and environmental responsibility. Design/methodology/approach - The paper's methodology is a three-by-two between-subjects design experiment, manipulating presentation medium and industry type. Participants viewed social and environmental web site disclosures and completed and communicated their perceptions of trust and the experimental companies' corporate social responsibility. Findings - The presentation medium richness of social and environmental web site disclosures is positively associated with: trusting intentions, but not trusting beliefs, of web site users; and user perception of corporate social and environmental responsibility. Research limitations/implications - As with all controlled experiments, the research design focused on internal validity to maintain control over the task design, manipulation, and measurement of variables. While this required trade-offs with external validity, the task was designed based on real-world scenarios to maintain high levels of external validity within the experimental setting. Practical implications - The paper provides evidence that corporations could use enhanced web-based technology to potentially mislead users regarding their performance in the social domain. Originality/value - The paper extends the visual disclosure literature by examining the richness of the image/visual media, and investigates whether user perceptions are impacted by the variations in its richness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]