Consumer adaptation and infusion of wearable devices for healthcare

In the UK, millions are now online and many are prepared to use the Internet to make and influence purchasing decisions. Businesses should, therefore, consider whether the Internet could provide them with a new marketing opportunity. Although increasing numbers of businesses now have a website, there seems to be a quality problem that is leading to missed opportunities, particularly for smaller enterprises. This belief is backed up by an automated survey of 3,802 predominantly small UK business sites, believed to be by far the largest of its kind to date. Analysis of the results reveals widespread problems in relation to search engines. Most Internet users find new sites through search engines, yet over half of the sites checked were not registered in the largest one, Yahoo!, and could therefore be missing a sizeable percentage of potential customers. The underlying problem with business sites is the lack of maturity of the medium as evidenced by the focus on technological issues amongst designers and the inevitable lack of Web‐business experience of managers. Designers need to take seriously the usability of the site, its design and its ability to meet the business goals of the client. These issues are perhaps being taken up less than in the related discipline of software engineering, probably owing to the relative ease of website creation. Managers need to dictate the objectives of their site, but also, in the current climate, cannot rely even on professional website design companies and must be capable of evaluating the quality of their site themselves. Finally, educators need to ensure that these issues are emphasised to the next generation of designers and managers in order that the full potential of the Internet for business can be realised.

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Effective websites for small and medium‐sized enterprises

The use of mobile phones in order to effectuate banking transactions is bound to increase in a significant way in the near future. This growth in mobile financial services not only depends on technological advances, but also on consumer confidence in the provided services. Mobile financial services can be divided into mobile banking and mobile payment; therefore, legal certainty must be established as to what supervisory regime applies to the various activities involving banks and non-banks. Mobile banking activities fall within the scope of the banking business, and oversight is provided by the competent financial market authority for prudential supervision, if the definition of banking activities encompasses all relevant mobile banking activities. Furthermore, legal aspects also play a role in the evolution of mobile banking as far as the need to enhance customer trust in the offered services is concerned. Major issues arise in relation to data security and consumer protection. Moreover, the outsourcing of certain key activities to mobile operators deserves further attention, as mobile operators can, under specific circumstances, become deeply involved in mobile banking.

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Legal issues in mobile banking

An increasing number of people are using the Internet, in many instances unaware of the information being collected about them. In contrast, other people concerned about the privacy and security issues are limiting their use of the Internet, abstaining from purchasing products online. Businesses should be aware that consumers are looking for privacy protection and a privacy statement can help to ease consumers' concerns. New Zealand based Web sites are expected to have privacy statements on their Web sites under the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993. The incidence of the information gathered from New Zealand Web sites and their use of privacy statements is examined. In particular, Web sites utilizing cookies and statements about them are scanned. Global consistency on Internet privacy protection is important to boost the growth of electronic commerce. To protect consumers in a globally consistent manner, legislation, self-regulation, technical solutions and combination solutions are different techniques that can be implemented.

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Privacy issues on the Internet

Purpose




This paper aims to survey the credit scoring literature in the past 41 years (1976-2017) and presents a research agenda that addresses the challenges and opportunities Big Data bring to credit scoring.




Design/methodology/approach




Content analysis methodology is used to analyze 258 peer-reviewed academic papers from 147 journals from two comprehensive academic research databases to identify their research themes and detect trends and changes in the credit scoring literature according to content characteristics.




Findings




The authors find that credit scoring is going through a quantitative transformation, where data-centric underwriting approaches, usage of non-traditional data sources in credit scoring and their regulatory aspects are the up-coming avenues for further research.




Practical implications




The paper’s findings highlight the perils and benefits of using Big Data in credit scoring algorithms for corporates, governments and non-profit actors who develop and use new technologies in credit scoring.




Originality/value




This paper presents greater insight on how Big Data challenges traditional credit scoring models and addresses the need to develop new credit models that identify new and secure data sources and convert them to useful insights that are in compliance with regulations.

Jay Forder

Papers

Electronic Commerce and the Law

Data analytics and consumer profiling: Finding appropriate privacy principles for discovered data

The inadequate legislative response to e-signatures

Email policies considered

Electronic commerce & the law