Fr. Theodore Paraskevopoulos encourages us to resist the fear of revealing our weaknesses in order to find healing in Christ.

How talking about anything — including violence and sexuality — can lead to consequences in others’ lives, intentionally and unintentionally. Read the transcript HERE.

Sermon on the Sunday of the Blind Man (John 9:1-38)

The saying goes, "actions speak louder than words." Christ Himself condemned the Jewish religious leaders for saying one thing but doing another. Fr Thomas teaches us that, as Orthodox Christians, our actions are important because they have to align with what we claim about God and ourselves. In fact, our eternal judgment is at stake.

Focusing on a text by St. Hilary of Poitiers, Fr. Irenei explores the Saint’s conviction that the multitude of heresies and errors surrounding us in the world are not to be feared or to become a cause for despair, for through their very error the Truth of Christ is revealed all the more in the Church.

Vestments are more than decorations: they reveal something important about our relationship with God and the role of our clergy.

The Search Engine Experiment gives you the results from Yahoo, MSN, and Google without saying which is which. Currently, 41% of those who have taken the test picked Google (33% Yahoo, 26% MSN).

Former Leeds Rhinos and Great Britain centre Garry Schofield reveals he has been diagnosed with brain damage.

Headliners Green Day, Sleep Token and Korn will be joined on the bill by Weezer and McFly.

Phew.

All 10 Formula 1 teams will participate in a new "season launch event" in February next year to reveal their liveries together.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to identify the main factors influencing consumers’ adoption of social commerce (s-commerce). Based on the socio-technical theory, the study suggests a research model that investigates the key social and technical factors driving consumers’ decision to purchase from social commerce websites. In addition, the research model explores the interactive relationship among these factors. Background: The phenomenon of social commerce (s-commerce) has emerged due to the increased penetration of social media and the rapid development of Web 2.0 technologies. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) companies have made significant efforts to shift their operations to s-commerce. Therefore, to facilitate their efforts to transform, various research has been conducted to investigate the main factor influencing the adoption of s-commerce. Most of these studies have emphasised the social aspects related to s-commerce design features to understand how the use of advanced web technologies influence how customers interact with each other in s-commerce environments. However, s-commerce is viewed as a socio-technical system that requires the investigation of both social and technical factors to help in the design of effective s-commerce platforms. Methodology: To validate the proposed research model, 418 paper-based and online questionnaires were collected from online shoppers in Jordan. The Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) approach was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Contribution: This study offers a research model that serves as a theoretical framework for investigating customers’ behaviour in s-commerce environment. It represents a strong context-specific model that includes both the technical and social facilitators of s-commerce. The research model participates in gaining an improved understanding of how customers’ intention, actual purchase and post-purchase experience are formed in the s-commerce environment. Findings: The results of Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) reveal that s-commerce constructs, familiarity and user experience have a positive influence on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of s-commerce. In addition, perceptions of its usefulness and ease of use have a positive influence on trust, which in turn influences the purchase intention and the actual purchase. Finally, the post-purchase experience significantly influences both trust and purchase intention. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study shows that social commerce constructs strengthen customers’ perceptions of usefulness. S-commerce service providers are required to provide their customers with various channels to seek social support. Both familiarity and user experience are key enablers of customers’ perceived ease of use. S-commerce service providers consider the variation in customers’ familiarity and experience with s-commerce websites because this has a significant influence on purchase intentions and behaviour. Consequently, system designers should offer useful and sufficient information and tutorials that effectively guide customers in their searching, decision-making and purchasing activities throughout the shopping process. S-commerce service providers should understand the importance of providing secure payment systems and make their privacy policies clear to customers. Post-purchase experience has an influential role in reinforcing customers’ trust and purchase intention. The findings confirm the important role of post-purchase experience in retaining customers by improving their trust and repurchase intention. Therefore, making a customer’s post-purchase experience pleasant should be a key priority for s-commerce service providers because it has a significant influence on customers’ trust and repurchase intentions. Recommendation for Researchers: This study offers a unidimensional conceptualisation of the design features of s-commerce. These features include three main forms: recommendations and referrals, communities and forums, and reviews and ratings. Such conceptualisation provides additional insights and an understanding of the activities of information sharing in s-commerce. The significance of the technical side of s-commerce is highlighted and empirical proof is provided that social interactions guided by social technologies enhance customers’ perceived usefulness of an s-commerce website, thus increasing their trust and intention to purchase which leads to an actual purchase. This offers insights into the various types of s-commerce characteristics that contribute to facilitating customers’ purchase behaviour on s-commerce websites. Impact on Society: The findings offer insights which have important implications for research and practice to help facilitate the adoption of s-commerce. Future Research: This study considered the s-commerce websites as a homogenous online environment. Additional research could collect data from diverse online communities, such as professional groups, to provide a comprehensive understanding of how a wider variety of user behaviour is affected. Second, this was a quantitative study based on data collected in a questionnaire. Further studies may consider using qualitative or mixed methodologies (i.e. focus groups and interviews) to explore other technical and social factors that influence the use of s-commerce.

Megan wrote on Instagram, “NEVA PLAY WITH RM OUT FRIDAY HOTTIES X ARMY #MEGJOON.”

The popular host said she did not intend to break any confidential news, explaining her side.

The Pakistani drama star expressed her disbelief at being asked to attend a late-night audition in revealing attire.

Casey Wasserman, LA28 President and Chair, discloses amount Cruise charged for his 15-minute performance

The fragment - black and shiny on the outside with a light grey, concrete-like interior - weighs less than 90 grams

A representational image shows three babies together. — Pexels

In a significant shift since 1998, the rate of triplet births and births of a higher order, like quadruplets and sextuplets, plummeted by 62% in the United States in 2023, according to a recent report from the Centres...

Amanda Seyfried reveals reason behind leaving Hollywood

Amanda Seyfried is in pure bliss living around her cattle and pets on an East Coast farm.

The Mean Girls star, 38, gave an overview to Forbes recently of her quiet life since leaving Hollywood for New York City during the peak...

'Euphoria' season three big update revealed

After a long wait, HBO has confirmed that season three of Euphoria will air in January 2025.

Casey Bloys, the network's head, shared the update after rumours of delays dogged the series.

"We are shooting 'Euphoria,'" the head honcho...

LEGO has revealed three Chinese Traditional Festival (CTF) sets and two Monkie Kid models at the 2024 China International Import Expo, which is currently taking place in Shanghai.

The subject matter may not mean much to some of us here in the west, but the CTF sets once again look to be exceptional, although not as packed with minifigs as they usually are. They will probably be good value, too.

View photos after the break, and keep up to date with everything that's been officially revealed for next year in our 2025 set listing.

Continue reading »

© 2024 Brickset.com. Republication prohibited without prior permission.