Empirical analysis of StratSoy use: Changes in uses and users over time using statistics from the Web site.

摘要

This dissertation analyzes the uses and users of the Strategic Soybean Information System (StratSoy) over time using information obtained from server log files. Uses came from eight content-based areas, while users were grouped into four categories: academia, countries, households, and businesses. The analysis accounted for changes in consumer behavior over time, freshness in the sense of new files, spillovers across areas, and marketing and promotion activities of site handlers.; Despite some differences across uses and users, a number of patterns emerge. Freshness of information is an important determinant of use for all user groups. The addition of new information in one area “crowds out”, or “spills over” hits in other areas for certain uses and users. Another result is that hits over time have slowed for all areas and all users. Marketing and promotion activities and publications concerning the site increased hits for several uses and users.; As expected, enrollment, location in a soybean producing state, and status as a land grant institution increased the odds of hits to the StratSoy site by academic users. Population, GDP per capita, and trade in soybeans increased the odds of hits to the site by foreign users. The percentage of arable land, a proxy for a country's potential for soybean production, decreased the odds of hits to the site by foreign users. Contrary to expectation, smaller firms are more likely to use the site than big firms. Majority of these small firms are prepackaged software companies located in the state of California. However, the results are different for agricultural firms; bigger agricultural firms used the site more and majority of these firms are located in soybeans producing areas of the US.; The logistic diffusion pattern consistent with an S-shaped curve was observed for most top-level domains' use of the StratSoy site. Academic users are the early adopters for most uses of the site. In addition to documenting the adoption of a web site, the dissertation demonstrated the use of a new type of data, server logs, in investigating the adoption and diffusion of the Internet.