Have you ever felt that the very title, Progress in Optics, conjured an image in your mind? Don’t you see a row of handsomely printed books, bearing the editorial stamp of one of the most brilliant members of the optics community, and chronicling the field of optics since the invention of the laser? If so, you are certain to move the bookend to make room for Volume 16, the latest of this series. It contains seven chapters on widely diverging topics, written by well-known authorities in their fields. These are: 1) Laser Selective Photophysics and Photochemistry by V. S. Letokhov, 2) Recent Advances in Phase Profiles (sic) Generation by J. J. Clair and C. I. Abitbol, 3 ) Computer-Generated Holograms: Techniques and Applications by W.-H. Lee, 4) Speckle Interferometry by A. E. Ennos, 5 ) Deformation  Invariant, Space-Variant Optical  Pattern Recognition by D. Casasent and D. Psaltis, 6) Light Emission from High-Current Surface-Spark Discharges by R. E. Beverly, and 7) Semiclassical Radiation  Theory within a  QuantumMechanical Framework by I. R. Senitzkt. The  breadth of topic  matter  spanned  by  these  chapters makes it impossible, for this reviewer at least, to pass judgement on the comprehensiveness, relevance, and completeness of every chapter. With an editorial board as prominent as that of Progress in Optics, however, it seems hardly likely that such comments should be necessary. It should certainly be possible to take the authority of each author as credible. The only remaining judgment to be  made on these chapters is their readability. In short, what are they like to read? The first sentence of the first chapter greets the eye with an obvious typographical error: “The creation of coherent laser light source, that have tunable radiation, opened the . . . .” Two pages later we find: “When two types of atoms or molecules of different isotopic composition ( A and B ) have even one spectral line that does not overlap with others, it is pos-

Progress in optics

Service quality is increasingly recognized as an important aspect of electronic commerce (e-commerce).Because the online comparison of the technical features of products is essentially costless, feasible and easier than comparisons of
products through traditional channels, service quality is the key determinant for successful e-commerce.The purpose of this study is to explore consumers’ perceptions of Internet retail service quality.A number of dimensions have been described in the literatures, however six dimensions that are important to consumers in their assessment of the quality of Internet retailers were identified.These are reliability (how well an online retailer does in terms of meeting expectations regarding order fulfilment), access (Internet retailer’s ability to provide communication access and a variety of products from anywhere in the world), security (relating to perceptions of trust in the online retailer’s integrity regarding financial and privacy issues), efficiency (refers to the speed of search and downloading and prompt reply to enquiries), ease of use (how easy the Internet retailer’s website is for consumers to conduct, search and navigate) and information (quantity and credibility of information provider by the online retailer).Other objective is to highlight how online retailers can use the information from this study to enhance their service quality.Findings from the study could be used as the basis for the development of e-service quality for Internet retailing.

Consumer perceptions of internet retail service quality

http://www.synchromedia.ca/system/files/SurveyRisk.pdf

Taxonomy of information security risk assessment (ISRA)

Evolving internet technology has brought about changes in consumer lifestyle and increased online shopping. Grounded in the theory of technology readiness (TR), this study aims to examine the effect of factors such as optimism, innovativeness, insecurity, and discomfort that may motivate consumers’ adoption intentions towards online food delivery ordering (OFDO) services. Additionally, this study intends to investigate the moderating role of situational influences (COVID-19) in affecting such an online behavior. By using survey methods, a total of 439 usable responses were gathered through an online survey. Data were analyzed by using Partial least square (PLS) and multigroup analysis (MGA) techniques. The results revealed that optimism and innovativeness have positive influences on adoption intentions while insecurity and discomfort have negative influences on adoption intentions in the use of OFDO services. The results also supported the moderating role of situational influences such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the PLS-MGA results indicate that the effects of optimism and innovativeness are stronger in demographic variables, i.e., young, male, high income, high education, etc. On the contrary, the effects of insecurity and discomfort are stronger for the opposite, i.e., elder, female, low income, low education, etc. Finally, this paper depicts remarkable insights for researchers, practitioners, service providers, and marketers.

Consumer Adoption of Online Food Delivery Ordering (OFDO) Services in Pakistan: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic Situation

(1) On 29 June 2012, the Euro Area Heads of State or Government called on the Commission to present proposals to provide for a single supervisory mechanism involving the European Central Bank (ECB). In its conclusions of 29 June 2012, the European Council invited its President to develop, in close collab­ oration with the President of the Commission, the President of the Eurogroup and the President of the ECB, a specific and time-bound road map for the achievement of a genuine economic and monetary union, which includes concrete proposals on preserving the unity and integrity of the internal market in financial services.

REGULATION (EU) No 1022/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

The purpose of this article is to define the level of significance of the different indicators that influence the benefits expected by the customers when deciding on a bank card. The most important indicators that affect the expectations when using the bank card were considered: The level of the credit limit, the existence of rewards programs, the costs associated with the card, the existence of associated services of type e-banking/m-banking, the image and the social status, the possibility to perform ATM cash operations, customer service, ease of use and volume of information on the card. The research was carried out on a sample of 148 bank cardholders in Romania from the Millennials and Generation Z. The values of the indicators for different categories of users of bank cards and different age categories can be determined based on the obtained results and the tests performed. The determined values of the indicators represent the basic elements for building a regression model that will help bank managers to optimize their personalized offers in relation to customer expectations.

Key Factors Determining the Expected Benefit of Customers When Using Bank Cards: An Analysis on Millennials and Generation Z in Romania

The purpose of this research is to define the level of significance for various indicators that influence the degree of consumer satisfaction regarding the use of FinTech technologies and services. The most important factors that influence the level of satisfaction when using FinTech services were considered: comfort and ease of use, legal regulations, ease of account opening, mobile payments features, crowdfunding options, international money transfers features, reduced costs associated with transactions, peer-to-peer lending, insurances options, online brokerage, cryptocoins options and exchange options. The study was conducted on a sample of 162 respondents, persons belonging to the Millennials and Generation Z generations. The values of the indicators for different categories of users of FinTech services and different categories of generations can be determined based on the statistical tests performed and the results obtained from the regression analysis. The values of the indicators are the basic elements for determining the regression model that will help the FinTech service vendors to make personalized decisions for each category of users so that the level of customer satisfaction is maximized. The study carried out within the present article is the first of its kind for Romania, because up to this moment in the specialized literature there are no such studies for Eastern Europe. The research we conducted aims to fill the gap existing in the literature and responds to the expectations and needs of stakeholders in the FinTechs’ business area. The results of the article are relevant to both stakeholders and the scientific community that is concerned about the impact of FinTech technologies.

/pdf/fintech-services-and-factors-determining-the-expected-1o2i97caka.pdf

Fintech services and factors determining the expected benefits of users: evidence in Romania for millennials and generation Z

The purpose of this article is to highlight the relevance of the factors that influence the satisfaction of e-commerce consumers in Romania and Moldova. The study aims to clearly define the main influence factors, so that the marketing managers of the online stores can adopt scientific well-founded decisions.,The paper opted for a study including a large sample of 399 respondents from two countries. For the analysis of the factors influencing the e-commerce satisfaction, multiple linear regression analysis was implemented, and their differentiation within the two countries was highlighted by multivariate analysis of variance.,The research conducted and the results obtained show that there is a differentiation of the factors that influence the level of satisfaction of e-commerce users in Romania and Moldova.,The research is still limited in terms of population studied to only two countries: Romania and Moldova. Although the study is intended to be exhaustive by analyzing no less than 11 factors influencing the satisfaction generated by e-commerce, it is still limited to this group of representative factors. Another limitation has to do with the limited number of demographic variables the authors have included.,Based on the results, the managerial implications for e-commerce companies that want to uniquely address consumers in Romania and Moldova are related to the decisions of marketing and sales managers who must allocate budgets and resources to improve the eight aspects highlighted in the paper. Also, the e-commerce companies should not allocate resources for the implementation of functionalities such as in-app after sales services, the possibility to cancel an order or the live consultant support feature, because these aspects do not influence the satisfaction of e-commerce consumers in Romania and Moldova.,This paper is the first in the scientific literature that implements a comparative study on the influence factors regarding the e-commerce satisfaction in Romania and Moldova. Also, it is important to mention that the present study is an exhaustive one because it includes many influence factors that were analyzed separately in the previous research papers from literature review.

Determinants of e-commerce satisfaction: a comparative study between Romania and Moldova

Mobile ERP is not per se something new or even special. It is an issue growing to become more and more important and enabling mobility due to the technological revolution and more so due to the mobile users. Mobility is about how businesses can provide a better infrastructure through mobile applications and services. While ERP was an important step taken by many firms, provision of services through mobile technologies is now inevitable. Together with other trends that are changing the enterprise applications landscape, ERP systems have to support the mobile behavior of their users. The paper explores the mobile applications landscape and proposes an architecture model for the mobile services starting from the necessary functionalities for a portal of mobile services. Besides the general architecture of the portal, a set of minimal functionalities for implementation is proposed in order to ensure the promotion and use of services.

Mobile Enterprise Resource Planning: New Te chnology Horizons

This paper analyses the potential enhancement of e-commerce websites with Semantic web technologies from the consumers’ informational perceived satisfaction point of view. Information quality is a central preoccupation in the field of business information systems’ discipline and it relates to the semantic interoperability field of research. The purpose of our study is to investigate the relationship between the enhancement of product text descriptions with semantic annotations and the perceived consumers’ satisfaction. We conducted and analyzed a survey questionnaire addressed to e-commerce consumers who bought online products. We found that consumers are interested in finding products with synonym names or that belong to different categories, not necessarily from the same category of products. In addition, consumers are interested about additional text descriptions on different product characteristics and on information about the importance of product characteristics. The main conclusion is that the perceived satisfaction of the online consumers is influenced by an enhanced user experience that relates to specific Semantic web technologies.

Octavian Dospinescu

Papers

Key Factors Determining the Expected Benefit of Customers When Using Bank Cards: An Analysis on Millennials and Generation Z in Romania

Fintech services and factors determining the expected benefits of users: evidence in Romania for millennials and generation Z

Determinants of e-commerce satisfaction: a comparative study between Romania and Moldova

Mobile Enterprise Resource Planning: New Te chnology Horizons

Enhancement of E-Commerce Websites with Semantic Web Technologies