Browsing by Subject "Consumers"
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Item Consumers, editors, and power editors at work: diversity of users in Online peer production communities(2014-09) Panciera, Katherine AnneMany people rely on open collaboration projects to run their computer (Linux), browse the web (Mozilla Firefox), and get information (Wikipedia). Open content web sites are peer production communities which depend on users to produce content. In this thesis, we analyze three types of users in peer production communities: consumers, contributors, and core contributors. Consumers don't edit or add content while contributors add some content. Core contributors edit or contribute much more content than others on the site. The three types of users each serve a different role in the community, receive different benefits from the community, and are important to the survival of a community.We look at users in two communities: Wikipedia and Cyclopath. Wikipedia is the largest and most well-known peer production community. The majority of the work in this dissertation is from Cyclopath, a geowiki for bicyclists developed by GroupLens. Since we built Cyclopath, we have access to data that allowed us to delve much deeper into the divide between the three types of users. First, we wanted to understand what the quantitative differences between core contributors and contributors were. On Wikipedia and Cyclopath, core contributors start editing more intensely from their first day on the site. On Cyclopath we were able to look at pre-registration activity and found equivocal evidence for "educational lurking". Building on this quantitative analysis, we turned to qualitative questions. By surveying and interviewing Cyclopath users, we learned what motivates them to participate and what benefits they derive from participating. While consumers and contributors both benefited by receiving routes, contributors were more likely to say they registered to edit. (Registration was not required to edit.) We also found that the Cyclopath core contributors aren't the most dedicated bicyclists, but they are committed to the values of open content. By providing a holistic view of users on Cyclopath and by looking at Wikipedia editors quantitatively, we discovered opportunities for new forms of participation, such as an outlet for subjective comments and annotations, as well a key to motivating people to contributing objective information, highlighting flaws and easy fixes in the system.Item Fair trade apparel business in Minneapolis and Saint Paul: a case study(2010-12) Jones, Angelina R.There has been a backlash by concerned consumers in the global north against free trade policies, also known as trade liberalization, in the last two decades. The fair trade system has been established as an alternative to the free trade system. The following study examines the fair trade practices and marketing strategies of three apparel businesses based in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. This case study resulted in three findings related to fair trade practices. First, the businesses were all established as fair trade, which demonstrates that fair trade is an integral part of the mission of the companies. Second, the wholesalers in this study considered some fair trade practices to be more important than others. Finally, in order to ensure that their companies are utilizing fair trade practices, the business owners in this study preferred to maintain short supply chains by working closely with their producers and suppliers. In the marketing of fair trade apparel, the businesses in this study relied heavily on their websites and points-of-purchase signage to inform consumers about their products. The lack of a standardized logo for labels on fair trade apparel has meant that the businesses have had to find creative ways to communicate their fair trade practices to consumers.Item Why retailers cluster: an agent model of location choice on supply chains(2010-02) Huang, Arthur YanThis research investigates the emergence of retail clusters on supply chains comprised of suppliers, retailers, and consumers. An agent-based model is employed to study retail location choice in a market of homogeneous goods and a market of complementary goods. On a circle comprised of discrete locales, retailers play a non-cooperative game by choosing locales to maximize profits which are impacted by their distance to consumers and to suppliers. The findings disclose that in a market of homogeneous products symmetric distributions of retail clusters rise out of competition between individual retailers; average cluster density and cluster size change dynamically as retailers enter the market. In a market of two complementary goods, multiple equilibria of retail distributions are found to be common; a single cluster of retailers has the highest probability to emerge. Overall, my results demonstrate that retail clusters emerge from the balance between retailers' proximity to their customers, their competitors, their complements, and their suppliers.