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The purpose of this paper is to present an exploratory analysis of how key actors in three New Zealand regional tourism organizations interpret various local and general contextual conditions in accounting for website development, and how such sense‐making is likely to have shaped the configuration of generic web technology in each organization.

Narrative analysis of accounts provided by key actors involved in website development planning and decision‐making in three small tourism organizations is used. Where possible, the narrative analysis was supplemented by document review and interviews with other organizational stakeholders.

Despite their ostensibly similar roles, the three organizations developed websites that exhibited significant variation in scope, functionality and sophistication. The analysis suggests that much of this local variation in website form and function was the result of how the general managers (GMs) in these organizations, acting as “configurational intrapreneurs” in website development, interpreted contextual “conditions of possibility” in which their organizations were situated.

As analysis occurred after website development, recourse is made to development narratives authored in an interview setting by the GMs of the three organizations studied. It is argued that the sense‐making occurring in these situated narratives reflects the sense‐giving performed by these key actors during the website development process.

The study suggests that how specific conditions of possibility are perceived and mobilized by influential actors plays an important role in shaping the technological outcome of website development, particularly in small organizations. It demonstrates the utility of analysing the sense‐making processes inherent in narratives of information systems development as a way of understanding the strategic development and use of such systems.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the major factors of client satisfaction (CS) that are critical for web development projects in freelance marketplaces. This quantitative study is done from the point of view of the web development services clients. Five major dimensions were proposed as determinants of CS from the literature review: ease of use, user interface, information, security and privacy.

A web-based survey methodology is used as the main data collection instrument. Statistical techniques such as confirmatory factor analysis and multiple linear regressions are used to analyze 162 responses of questionnaires.

The findings suggest that all factors do influence CS. In terms of strength, security had the highest level of impact on CS, so it is the strongest determinant among all factors. After security, ease of use and information are considered as strong determinants. So, this study concludes that the five major determinates do affect CS in web development projects from freelance marketplaces.

This research is limited only to the top freelance marketplaces, such as Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, Guru, Envato Studio, etc. The sample size is relatively small and this study is focused on web development projects only. Moreover, this research is focused only on the characteristics or attributes of the projects final outcome, i.e. website.

This study attempts to identify the important factors that have a relation with CS, thus giving freelancers an indication of what to look for when working on any web development project posted by any client in a freelance marketplace. Understanding the determinants of CS will also help Pakistani information technology freelancers involved in web development projects and services to increase their project performance, improve their CS rate and increment client following.

This presents the first study on the determinants of CS in web development projects from freelance marketplaces.

This paper aims to explore the emerging trends of e-government in Pakistan with an empirical investigation of the e-government websites and the services they provide to the citizens of Pakistan. It also investigates the level of development of these e-government websites in the Punjab Web portal. The governments in Asian countries, including Pakistan, have been struggling to switch their services from traditional on-spot services to online services. Focal points of the study are development level of e-government websites, available e-services and quality.

The e-government Web portal of Punjab province with 38 websites is center of attention in present study. Website’s content analysis method is used to study e-government websites (N = 38) from the Punjab Web portal. It used the “Four-Stage Development Model” for the four stages, namely, “publishing”, “interacting”, “transacting” and “transforming”, to study the phenomena.

The findings showed that most of the websites on the Web portal were at the first (publishing) and second (interacting) stage of development. For the provision of effective online services, websites need to be on the third (transacting) and fourth (transforming) stage. Only a few websites in the Punjab Web portal were the on transacting and transforming stages providing a mature level of services. In total, 40 different types of services are identified in 38 websites of Punjab e-government Web portal.

E-government, Web portals are developed to give citizens a single, easy access point to several departments’ websites and their services. This baseline study recommends to update e-government websites periodically and put more focus on technological and contextual features to enhance the accessibility and usability of the websites.

This is first empirical study of e-government websites to explore their services and examine existing level of website development in this region.

The functions or tasks of the typical webmaster appear to be extremely diverse in nature. These can vary from basic web page design to gathering website statistics or even to establishing the web‐based information needs of the employees of a specific organisation. Although a number of mainly electronic documents were written on the functions of the webmaster, not many studies were undertaken to empirically verify these. This article discusses the results from an international survey in which the webmasters or managers of web teams were involved from 100 of the Global 500 list of organisations. An analysis of the information provided by the respondents indicated that one person (the traditional webmaster) can no longer be responsible for all the responsibilities of developing and/or maintaining the information flow within an organisation‘s website. The diversity of tasks that were identified by the respondents were analysed and the results brought together in a number of figures and tables.

This study aims to expand previous work on website stage models by proposing a new model including a dimension encompassing digital integration and the context of mobile, digital marketing and new technologies. Also, this study aims to classify Brazilian wineries using the stage model proposed and verify if the designated stages influence the wineries’ presence in digital and mobile media.

Observational research and quantitative content analysis were adopted to examine a sample of winery websites (N = 150) located in different states and regions of Brazil and create a new website stage model. After the new model’s development, the authors conducted a statistic analysis by running a one-factor analysis of variance to assess the influence of the company’s stage in the use of digital media and mobile strategies, as well as its impacts on market development.

The results suggested a quite mature market regarding website stage position, even though there is still room for growth and technological innovation. Also, the research findings show that there is a positive association between the company’s stage in the use of digital and mobile media strategies. In other words, the more advanced the winery stage, the greater its digital media and mobile presence.

While previous studies attempted to identify wineries’ stages through models, this study presents a new approach by updating the past studies’ stages as well as providing and testing a digital media and mobile dimension. This research contributes to consolidating the Brazilian wine industry position regarding its presence in digital and mobile media, bringing reflections to organizations, society and theory development.

This chapter focuses on the ethnographic research approach that I employed in a service marketing study. The first part briefly describes ethnography’s key characteristics, that is, emergent research logic, prolonged fieldwork, and multiple modes of data collection, where the main method is observation. The second part discusses the data collection methods: participant observation, informal discussion, interview, and document analysis. This section describes in detail how these techniques were used in practice and highlights the key challenges I faced, especially related to the observations, and how I managed these challenges. The third part describes the case, field setting, informants, and field relationships. The development project that I studied concerned a bank’s website and project members from the bank and different consultant agencies represent the study’s informants. The fieldwork lasted for about one year and covered the entire development process from the initial stages to the launch, and some time after. The chapter ends with a thorough discussion about the research criteria of validity, reliability, and generality, and the coping tactics that I used in this study to enhance these. Prolonged fieldwork, multiple modes of data collection, reflexivity, and specification of the research are among those important tactics that this last section discusses in detail.

Despite the much publicised advantages of a website for SME exporters, the level of website sophistication, as well as the factors which inhibit or stimulate exporting SMEs to develop their website beyond a basic level of sophistication, are still unknown. The literature is prone to discuss website establishment and development simultaneously, splitting firms into adopters and non-adopters, yet websites may be established and then neglected, or be continually developed. This paper introduces an instrument for measuring website sophistication within an export marketing context, and proposes and empirically tests a model that depicts factors impacting on perceived advantages of a website and website sophistication levels. The results identify export diversity and environmental pressure as key determinants of perceived advantage of a website which in turn is a good predictor of website sophistication. The firm internal resources, i.e. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) knowledge and time, in conjunction with entrepreneurship orientation also determine an SME exporter's website sophistication level.

Disabled people are often disadvantaged groups with varying special needs. Therefore, acquiring knowledge, improving information literacy, and participating in social activities becomes a survival and development problem for many disabled people. As an information dissemination centre, libraries should assume the responsibilities and obligations of providing knowledge aids for the disabled. This paper aims to introduce the China Digital Library for Visual Impairment website, which provides knowledge services for people with visual impairment, and to describe and discuss its background, its construction, initial achievements, and future prospects.

The paper adopts a case study analysis method, which takes the website of China Digital Library for Visual Impairment (CDLVI) as an example, introducing its resources development, service manners, developing mechanism.

Based on the experiences of China Digital Library for Visual Impairment (CDLVI), the NLC will construct a perfect reading service system and knowledge network for the disabled, which provides personalized and convenient services, and creates good learning conditions for the whole special group of people with disabilities.

The paper provides an introduction to the CDLVI website, which provides services for people with visual impairment.

The development of Library Websites has been rapid over the last few years. However much of this has been haphazard, responding to technical developments and the availability of Web‐based services. This paper proposes a new approach, whereby the Website is considered an integral part of library services and is subjected to the same strategic planning as other library services. In this way, it can be used as a new and innovative method of delivering library services.

The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the use of a library mobile website at a university library. This paper aims to present the approach adopted to investigate users’ reactions to the new mobile platform. A usability test was also conducted to examine its effectiveness.

Mobile websites for academic libraries were first reviewed prior to identifying the functions and elements to be included. To assess the intended design purpose, the usability of the design was examined through a comparison of the mobile website and the full PC website used by 50 students to accomplish a set of search tasks. A questionnaire survey was used to assess 336 students’ responses regarding various criteria including learnability, control, presentation and efficiency.

The usability test that was conducted before the mobile Web was formally released indicated that the students using it finished more search tasks (p < 0.001), and were more efficient in completing search tasks than they were using the PC website (p < 0.001). Data from 336 questionnaire responses also indicated the students’ positive reactions to the developed mobile system in four defined facets (mean >= 4.0).

The difficulty of recruiting volunteers and the small number of subjects who participated was also a major limitation experienced in this study. Replications or use of different measurements might be needed in future research to confirm the result.

In this study, a library mobile website was developed, tested and evaluated by users. Currently, the library mobile website is being implemented in the university. On-going revisions will continue to improve its effectiveness and efficiency for information retrieval.

It is expected that through the library mobile services, a ubiquitous learning environment can be provided to students to fulfil their academic and leisure needs.

Summative evaluation of the mobile system revealed the students’ positive reactions to a set of predetermined criteria in various dimensions, including: learnability, control, presentation and efficiency.