Πλοήγηση ανά Συγγραφέα "Vrana, Vasiliki"
Τώρα δείχνει 1 - 20 από 25
- Αποτελέσματα ανά σελίδα
- Επιλογές ταξινόμησης
Τεκμήριο Assessing the Adoption of e-Government Services by Teachers in Greece(2012) Zafiropoulos, Kostas; Karavasilis, Ioannis; Vrana, VasilikiTechnological developments and governments’ understanding of what citizens need usually determine the design of public online services. For successful implementation of e-Government services, governments have to place the user in the center of future developments, understand what citizens need and measure what increases citizens’ willingness to adopt e-government services. The paper uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the extended TAM, the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory and the important determinants of user acceptance perceived risk and trust, in order to describe teachers’ behavioral intensions to adopt e-Government services. A model containing trust and risk, along with cognitive, social and intrinsic factors is used to study the intentions of e-Government use by Greek primary and secondary education teachers. Two hundred and thirty teachers responded to an online survey. Findings reveal that cognitive and intrinsic factors have significant effects on intentions to use e-Government websites.Τεκμήριο Associating E-Government and E-Participation Indexes With Governmental Twitter Accounts Performance, In EU Countries(2014-05) Antoniadis, Konstantinos; Vrana, Vasiliki; Zafiropoulos, KostasThe paper records government and ministries Twitter accounts for 24 EU countries. It records four indexes of Twitter performance: number of followers and following, number of tweets and number of tweets per day, and two indexes describing potential reach to citizens regarding the information tweeted by the accounts, to describe the specific accounts’ performance and influence. Two summary indexes are constructed using PCA: network characteristics and activity characteristics of the accounts. Correlations are calculated for all performance indexes with e-Government and e-Participation indexes of the 24 countries. Tweeting frequency and retweeting mentioning represent the accounts’ activity and the community activity, respectively. Only activity indexes are strongly correlated with e-Government and e-Participation, while number of followers and following seems not to be associated with them. Performance of the Twitter accounts is not only a matter of Twitter appearance and networking of the accounts; it is mainly a matter of citizens’ active participation.Τεκμήριο Associations between USPs and design characteristics of mediterranean countries' websites(2011-09-20) Vrana, Vasiliki; Zafiropoulos, KostasToday's process of globalization has urged countries to brand themselves like corporations. The Internet is a valuable tool in this process. Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) are a part of a company's strategy and contribute to their sales. This article attempts to investigate whether efficient selling propositions' usage is associated with efficient websites' structure and design. It analyzes branding elements and explores possible associations among design characteristics and USP delivery. The research focuses on websites of Mediterranean countries. Results show that most websites do not effectively deliver a USP. On the contrary, brand-building components of the websites orchestrate effectively clear targeting and are delivering messages to target markets.Τεκμήριο Authority Groups among Popular Wine Blogs(2013-05-03) Vrana, Vasiliki; Zafiropoulos, Kostas; Vagianos, DimitriosBlogging in the wine industry has become widespread. This article explores linkage patterns of the Top 100 Wine Blogs. The analysis aims at finding the central wine-blog groups among them. Central blog groups are located using blog inter-linkages through blogrolls. Because of the methodology used, they may be considered to be authority blogs, in terms of search engine optimization. They serve as focal points where interesting conversation and exchange of information takes place. The article describes the features of these blogs in an attempt to explore the characteristics that distinguish these blogs and make them appreciated and worth visiting.Τεκμήριο Bloggers’ Community Characteristics and Influence within Greek Political Blogosphere(2012) Zafiropoulos, Kostas; Vrana, Vasiliki; Vagianos, DimitriosThis paper investigates the properties of central or core political blogs. They can be located as clusters of blogs whose members have many incoming links. Other blogs form clouds around them in the sense that they link the core blogs. A case study records Greek political blogs and their incoming links reported through their blogrolls. The adjacency matrix from the blogs’ social network is analyzed and clusters are located. Three of them, those with the larger numbers of incoming links, may be considered to be central. Next, four measures of influence are used to test the influence of the central blogs. The findings suggest that there are many kinds of central blogs, influential and non-influential, and high influence does not always involve high hyperlinking.Τεκμήριο Communication and Customers Management in Tourism Businesses - Customer Service(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας, 2018) Papadopoulou, Konstantini; Παπαδοπούλου, Κωνσταντινή; Paschaloudis, Dimitrios; Πασχαλούδης, Δημήτριος; Vrana, Vasiliki; Βράνα, Βασιλική; Σχολή Διοίκησης και Οικονομίας, Τμήμα Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων; MBA in Hospitality & TourismCustomer service and management can be considered as a very important phase of service or product sale. The customers interact with employees and through this interaction they receive the service or product they wish to buy. As a result, the better the service by the employees, the higher the satisfaction of the customers. Moreover, this interaction can lead to additional positive or negative results for the organization. Therefore, it is obvious that the role of employees is very important and their management by the organization should be a high priority matter. Furthermore, organizational communication nowadays is not only more complicated but at the same time very important for an organizational success and functioning. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how communication and customer management may affect tourism businesses performance. Additionally, customer service and organizational culture will be assessed since there are factors that can affect business performance and are related with communication and customer management. For this reason, a quantitative research was conducted with the use of a questionnaire and the findings among others show that there is a positive correlation between organizational culture, communication and customer service with the performance of tourism organizations and specifically the performance of hotels.Τεκμήριο Discussion of eParticipation topics in greek political blogs(2011-05) Zafiropoulos, Kostas; Vagianos, Dimitrios; Vrana, VasilikiBlogs are an effective way to participate in politics and have the potential to support eParticipation. Political discourse is formed through hypertext links, blogrolls, posts and opinionated commentary, calls to political action, and requests for feedback. The paper applies a methodology to locate focal conversational points within the blogosphere. These take shape as central clusters of blogs having many incoming links. Next, the paper investigates the communication patterns among these focal points and associates the findings to the content of blogs participating in these focal points. Through statistical analysis and content analysis it is shown that linkage patterns among focal point blogs are reproduced to content similarities.Τεκμήριο Exploring e-governance acceptance by primary and secondary education teachers in Greece(2014) Zafiropoulos, Kostas; Karavasilis, Ioannis; Vrana, VasilikiThe transition from conventional governances to e-governance is becoming an international trend. It is important for governments to understand variables that influence citizens’ adoption of e-governance in order to take them into account when delivering services online. However, Greece falls back in adoption of e-governance with regards to other EU countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing e-governance acceptance in education sector. It uses the technology acceptance model (TAM) and integrates the trust construct in it. Primary and secondary education teachers responded to an online survey resulting to 230 questionnaires. An SEM validation of the proposed model reveals that along with the traditional TAM constructs, trust to e-governance websites is an important factor affecting attitudes and intentions to use. Policy makers should make an effort to enhance familiarisation of teachers with the internet to promote e-government use along with building useful and easy to use e-governance websites.Τεκμήριο A Framework for the Evaluation of Hotel Websites: The Case of Greece(2006) Zafiropoulos, Costas; Vrana, VasilikiIt is essential for hotel companies to evaluate and improve website performance in order to keep and increase their online presence and competitiveness in the marketplace. This article proposes an evaluation framework for hotel websites, which categorizes web information services into six information dimensions and also uses managers' and users' views. Based on the relative literature, the model proposes some improvements, taking into account certain aspects of the evaluation procedure. An application compares the performance of the top 25 hotel brand websites with the Greek hotel websites. Top hotels lead in Facilities, Guest contact, Reservation/prices, and Surrounding area information provision, while Greek hotel websites fall back especially in providing online reservation and prices information.Τεκμήριο Information Services offered through the Hotel Web sites. A Comparative study between Cyprous and Greece(2005) Zafiropoulos, Costas; Vrana, VasilikiInformation provided through the hotels web sites can serve as a means for improving marketing and eCommerce for tourism companies. The article uses a conceptual framework which categorizes a wide range of offered information services into seven categories: Facilities information, Customer contact information, Reservation-price information, Surrounding area information, Management of the website, Company information and Communication. Also the property of interactivity is taken into account for the study of each category. A case study of hotels in Cyprus and Greece reveals differences in types of information services provided through the hotel web sites between these countries. Greek hotels mainly provide general and contact information while Cypriot hotels lead in providing reservation and area information services. Hotel class and chain membership have an effect on the volume of offered information in both countries but to different degrees.Τεκμήριο The internet practices of hotel companies: an analysis from Greece(2006) Zafiropoulos, Costas; Vrana, Vasiliki; Paschaloudis, DimitriosPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the practices hoteliers use to design their hotel web sites. It argues that hoteliers provide groups of relative information services, they provide them in different degrees of occurrence, and some of them being significant are not provided to meet the customers' demands, while others are provided regardless of their low perceived significance. Design/methodology/approach – This work distinguishes groups of information services according to their occurrence and significance. The content of 798 Greek hotel web sites is recorded using the frequencies of 66 information features. Also a sample of 17 users provides the significance ratings of the information features. Findings – Greek hotel web sites are primarily designed to serve as electronic brochures and, while they generally satisfy most of the users' needs, they partly serve as online transactions media, a function considered significant. Practical implications – Identifies and rates the rendered groups of related information services at hotel web sites. Originality/value – Enables hoteliers and web designers to evaluate significant web sites' characteristics.Τεκμήριο Investigating customer satisfaction and service quality in academic libraries: the case of Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia(2013) Dimitriadis, Sotirios G.; Vrana, Vasiliki; Dimitriou, Stylianos; Kalaitzis, Vasileios; Drogalas, GeorgeCustomer satisfaction and service quality policies have been established in recent years in academic libraries’ management. However, setting regulations and imposing procedures requires reliable methods to evaluate actions. The Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Central Macedonia is a university institute committed to provide excellent services to its stakeholders, by developing ongoing dialogue. In order to investigate the library users’ habits and assess their satisfaction on provided services, a survey has been conducted. An online questionnaire was developed based on MOPAB’s (Total Quality Management Unit of Greek Academic Libraries) guidelines for data collection and was then distributed to library users. Such questionnaires can be a valuable instrument for monitoring user satisfaction on a systemic manner and improving service quality in libraries. Moreover, the questionnaire could be used, after adjustments, as a benchmarking tool for Greek academic libraries. The analysis revealed that even though users do not fully utilise all services, they manifest a high level of satisfaction.Τεκμήριο Investigating winter tourism in Greece: challenges and suggestions(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας, 2019) Dimitriou, Martha - Maria; Δημητρίου, Μάρθα - Μαρία; Vrana, Vasiliki; Βράνα, Βασιλική; Σχολή Διοίκησης και Οικονομίας, Τμήμα Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων; MBA in Hospitality & TourismTourism is an activity that holds since antiquity and brings significant benefits to the region where it is applied. The influence of tourism becomes significant both at a collective and an individual level since tourism contributes to the increase in states’ revenue and to the boost of the economy but also individually as it achieves the contact and the communication of people with different cultures and habits. Thus, each region develops the form of tourism that fits in its own profile and is shaped according to the climate of its time and its infrastructures. Due to climate and geographic location, Greece has set up a heliocentric tourism model and has been supporting the development of summer tourism for many decades. Unlike summer tourism, in recent years, our country has started developing more alternative and special forms of tourism, one of which is winter tourism that is becoming more and more popular and is attracting a significant number of tourists. For a country like Greece, winter tourism contrasts with the massive tourist model of Greece “sun-sea-sand” and its development could help to improve the general image of today's tourism but also reduce many of the consequences created by the mass tourism. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the phenomenon of winter tourism in Greece and prospects for its development through specific promotional proposals. In order to achieve the aim of this diploma, a survey was carried out using the method of questionnaires. The results show that winter tourism in Greece is not as developed as other neighboring countries and there is room for improvement.Τεκμήριο Investigation of the factors that affect the selection of a restaurant in Greece(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας, 2018-03) Ekmetsoglou, Theodora; Εκμετζόγλου, Θεοδώρα; Vrana, Vasiliki; Βράνα, Βασιλική; Karavasilis, Georgios; Καραβασίλης, Γεώργιος; Σχολή Διοίκησης και Οικονομίας, Τμήμα Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων; MBA in Hospitality & TourismThe purpose of this diploma thesis is through the analysis of the questionnaire to arrive at some conclusions regarding the factors that influence the choice of restaurant in our country. Initially, I created the questionnaire that filled 231 people of different ages, gender and income via social media. After the collection of the responses, I made the statistical analysis of them through the SPSS software program and then the evaluation and commentary of the results. I used the information I found in similar thesis and research papers abroad to come up with some conclusions about the factors that influence the choice of restaurant in each country. In addition to the information I have included on consumer habits in other countries, I have considered to refer to consumer behavior in general, its development over the years and the changes that were caused by the economic and social situation in the each country. More specifically I studied some aspects of their behavior when they are going to use food and beverage services so as to include them in the evaluation of the results that the questionnaire gave me. Then I relied on the theory of reliability and the validity as well as on the Cronbach alpha to evaluate the results and to choose the most statistically significant ones to quote them in my thesis. In addition, I used the correlation theory to assess and describe the correlation between the variables and the t-test that I used to compare the mean of some variables grouped by gender and I gave the most valid results based on p-value. Finally, I listed the questionnaire in Greek just as I created it through Google forms and I share it via social media.Τεκμήριο Local customer satisfaction in tourism destination: the case of tourism offer in Serres prefecture(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας, 2019-04) Mantzaridis, Paschalis; Μαντζαρίδης, Πασχάλης; Vrana, Vasiliki; Βράνα, Βασιλική; Σχολή Διοίκησης και Οικονομίας, Τμήμα Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων; MBA in Hospitality & TourismThis study aims at exploring level of satisfaction of people residing into prefecture of Serres towards touristic locations and sights located in the area. The importance of this topic lies in the fact that tourists’ positive experiences of touristic service provided by tourism destinations can produce further customer retention as well as positive word-of-mouth. Analysis focuses on the main elements that can influence customer satisfaction from the services. In order to conduct and complete this study, 183 web and printed questionnaires were filled and analyzed amongst permanent and temporary residents of prefecture of Serres. Satisfaction from natural attractions, sport attractions and cultural/historical sights is investigated. Findings show that the majority of the sample is moderately satisfied with touristic services provided in the targeted area, even though many of the participants tend to make this kind of internal vacation for only a couple of days and maximum twice per year.Τεκμήριο Locating central travelers' groups in travel blogs' social networks(2010) Vrana, Vasiliki; Zafiropoulos, KostasPurpose – Using Travelpod.com, this paper aims to provide a methodology to locate central groups of travelers and to describe pattern characteristics of central travelers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses snowball sampling to locate travelers and analyze their hyperlink interconnections to identify central travelers’ groups. Analysis of the adjacency matrix of the social network of travelers using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis to identify core travelers’ groups follows. Findings – In total, 7 percent of travelers are considered central travelers. They form core groups containing the most active and information providing travelers. Group membership is correlated with common travelers’ characteristics. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to a specific network of travelers, to a specific time interval, and to a specific sampling method. Repetition of the study in other travelers’ networks in several time instances using a full list of member travelers would help to generalize the findings. Also, graph theoretical approaches other than the statistical analysis used could reveal more properties. Practical implications – Travelers in core groups are more likely to be reached by others who navigate through a series of incoming links that lead to them and it is probable that these travelers have the potential to address many visitors and therefore to have a significant impact on the provision of information. Originality/value – The originality of the paper lies in the use of multivariate statistics on the network adjacency matrix to locate core travelers groups and on finding groups of the most influential travelers.Τεκμήριο Measuring content and usability of rural tourism lodgings websites’(2006) Zafiropoulos, Costas; Vrana, Vasiliki; Drogalas, GeorgiosRural tourism is a significant source of income to rural economies but as a growth tool has to adapt to current market mechanisms, which are becoming competitive, and are dominated by communication and promotion techniques. The Internet and the WWW could help small business, like rural tourism businesses to set up their own websites for direct sales and to enter niche markets. The objective of the study is to analyse the websites of rural tourism lodgings in terms of content and usability, because they are important in the context of efforts to raise the attractiveness of a corporate website. Content is the key factor driving visitors to web sites, and is very important, when customers purchase product and services. Usability’s goal is to make a website more efficient and enjoyable for users to experience and is about making sure that the average person can use the site as intended. The paper measures and evaluates content and usability characteristics of the top rural tourism lodgings. The top-100 (March 2005) rural lodgings that have a website, according to allrural.com a portal for rural tourism bed and breakfast and ecotourism worldwide, were selected for analysis. It uses two frameworks supported by literature and adjusts them for the needs of the study. It distinguishes information characteristics on the Web and evaluates them using the views of potential customers and users. Although, top rural lodgings have made a substantial effort and managed to keep usability hazards low, they do not take full advantage of the opportunities that the global market space offers.Τεκμήριο A model for investigating e-governance adoption using TAM and DOI(2010) Karavasilis, Ioannis; Zafiropoulos, Kostas; Vrana, VasilikiAs governments around the world move toward e-governance, a need exists to examine citizens’ willingness to adopt e-governance services. In this paper, the authors identify the success factors of e-governance adoption by teachers in Greece, using the Technology Acceptance Model, the Diffusion of Innovation model and constructs of trust, risk and personal innovativeness. Two hundred thirty primary and secondary education teachers responded to an online survey. LISREL then analyzed the data. Model estimation used the maximum likelihood approach, with the item covariance matrix as input. A SEM validation of the proposed model reveals that personal innovativeness, compatibility and relative advantage are stronger predictors of intention to use, compared to trust, and perceived risk. Findings may enhance policymakers’ capacities by presenting them with an understanding of citizens’ attitudes.Τεκμήριο A Network Analysis of Greek Tech Blogs: A lonely road(2014-01) Kydros, Dimitrios; Vrana, Vasiliki; Theocharidis, Anastasios-IoannisTechnology ranks second among the top topics on blogging. However, little research effort has been devoted to investigating “tech” blogs while it is interesting to provide insights on their network, as they may have strong influence in the way that readers act and make decisions. In this vein, the paper records Greek “tech” blogs and their incoming links reported through their blogrolls. A directed network was created where blogs are noted as nodes and linked as directed arrows—arcs. The resulting network is analyzed using centrality and topological measurements and results are discussed in the social network analysis context. The network is a small world, with sparse density for a real-life social network and is low in-degree that shows off a kind of immaturity. Bloggers prefer to link to nodes with smaller degrees perhaps due to the fact that they are afraid of the growing competition thus they have reservations.Τεκμήριο The operational features of Greek spa hotels compared to hotel spa model(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας, 2019) Kalogiannidou, Christina; Καλογιαννίδου, Χριστίνα; Vrana, Vasiliki; Βράνα, Βασιλική; Σχολή Διοίκησης και Οικονομίας, Τμήμα Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων; MBA in Hospitality & TourismSpas are traditionally visited to obtain medical benefits and have a long tradition worldwide. Nowadays one of the population's top priorities is living a healthy and better lifestyle and thus spas have grown in popularity. This has led to a significant increase in the opening of hotel and resort spas. However, little is known about the performance of hotel spa establishments especially in Greece. The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the spa hotel sector. Spa hotels in Greece compared with Hotels in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and America according their facilities and the services that they offer. Hotel spa amenities body and facial treatments, beauty services, body and soul harmonization, sport facilities and the kinds of massages are evaluated. Greek spa hotels offer a wide variety of treatments and massages; however they lag behind other counties. It would benefit the Greek spa hotels to have more understanding of what other spa hotels offer and make strategic movements to improve the spa experience they offer.