New Workshop

January 15, 2019

I'm glad to announce that I will be organizing a workshop at this year's International Conference on Persuasive Technology holding in Cyprus. The workshop is titled "Persive Technology in Online Collaborative Systems" and the link to the website can be found here

Tools for the trade

January 25, 2018

I get asked a lot what tools I use for data analysis. I expriment a lot with tools, that's of course apart from R and Python that I always use. What I'm trying to achieve determines what tool I use. I like SmartPLS. I've used it over the years for PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling). It is easy to use and there are lloads of resources out there. It is not free, however there is a 30 day free trial period. They also offer a student discount. I think it's a great tool to have for PLS-SEM. I also like SPSS.

SPSS was acquired by IBM in 2009. I like SPSS for bivariate statistics, especially for ANOVA (Analysis of Variance). With SPSS, I can carry out several forms of ANOVA including one repeated measure ANOVA. There are several resources out there; the best I think is Laerd. They walk you step by step through the process of selecting the statistical test required based on your data set and how to interpret your results too. It is however not a free tool. Kindly note that this is my personal opinion, I do not endorse any of these tools. I expect that you'll identify and decide on what works best for you. What tools do you use for statistical analysis?

New Week, New Beginnings

January 22, 2018

New week, new beginnings. Truth be told, you don't have to wait for a new day, week, month or year to start something new. Is it a healthy life style, learning a new language, working on that project or preparing for that exam; you can start right now! As we start this new week, I pray we all achieve our dreams and start that project we have been putting off. Later today, I will highlight what I hope to achieve today. I believe making it public will make me accountable.

International Conference on Persuasive Technology 2018

January 21, 2018

I'm excited that my paper titled "Consumers' Need for Uniqueness and The Influence of Persuasive Strategies in E- commerce" was accepted at this year's PT conference. In this paper, we explore the use of persuasion and need for uniqueness in the continuance intention of e-commerce shoppers. In particular, we examine if Cialdini's six influence strategies have an effect on the three dimensions of need for uniqueness and if need for uniqueness further influences continuance intention of e-commerce shoppers.

To achieve this, we carried out a study of 183 e-commerce shoppers. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), we developed a hypothetical path model using the data from the study. Our results show that the three dimensions of need for uniqueness explain about 22% of the variance in continuance intention of e- commerce shoppers. In addition, scarcity had the highest influence on the three dimensions of need for uniqueness. We further carried out a multi group analysis based on gender. Our results suggest that scarcity influences the decision of females to buy products that are not only unique, but also socially acceptable, while commitment influences males to buy unique and socially acceptable products. These findings suggest possible design guidelines in developing personalized e-commerce shopping experience for consumers using persuasive strategies and the consumer's need for uniqueness.