NIMS - Dissertações de Mestrado em Gestão da Informação (Information Management)
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- Understanding Malware-as-a-Service: The Role of Cloud Computing and Technology Opportunism in Cyber Threat EvolutionPublication . Serrado, André Filipe Virtuoso; Helaly, Yasser Mohamed Megahed Youssef AlCloud computing has transformed the delivery of malicious tools through the rise of Malware as a Service, a subscription-based cybercrime model that automates attacks and reduces the technical expertise required to conduct them. While prior research has examined cloud security and the technical evolution of MaaS, little is known about why individuals perceive cloud infrastructures as actionable opportunities for misuse and how these perceptions translate into malicious intentions. This study addresses this gap by integrating Cloud Computing Technological Opportunism with Cybersecurity Routine Activity Theory to explain how offenders evaluate cloud-based environments, form motivation, and develop intentions to misuse MaaS tools. Using survey data from 377 participants and analysing the structural model with SmartPLS, the results show that technological opportunism shapes offender cognition across all three C-RAT mechanisms: it increases offender motivation and perceived target suitability while reducing perceived guardianship capability. These three mechanisms fully mediate the effect of cloud opportunism on malicious intention, indicating that cloud affordances influence behavior only when filtered through offenders’ cognitive assessments of opportunity and control. The analysis further demonstrates that these pathways are conditioned by individual predispositions, including self-control, moral beliefs, hacking efficacy, usability perceptions, and perceived deterrence, identifying boundary conditions that explain when cloud-enabled opportunities become criminogenic. Theoretically, the study reframes cyber offending in cloud environments as a socio-technical process in which distributed technological affordances and heterogeneous psychological filters jointly shape malicious intent. Practically, the findings highlight the need for cloud governance and security interventions that alter perceptual opportunity structures, strengthen visible guardianship, reduce usability of attack interfaces, and increase friction in MaaS-enabled workflows.
- Background Music Effects on Idea Generation and Evaluation Apprehension in Group Brainstorming: A Pilot Experimental Study with NOVA IMS StudentsPublication . Gameiro, Tomás da Costa; Victorino, Guilherme Hidalgo Barata MartinsThis thesis examines the influence of background music on the creativity of group brainstorming sessions and tests whether evaluation apprehension mediates this relationship among students at NOVA Information Management School. Utilizing a between-subjects experimental design, groups were randomly assigned to brainstorm either with instrumental background music or in silence. The key outcome measure was the number of ideas generated, and evaluation apprehension was assessed using a validated self-report scale. The findings revealed that groups exposed to background music generated significantly 118% more ideas (large effect size), thereby confirming the positive impact of music on group creativity. However, mediation analysis indicated that evaluation apprehension did not significantly mediate this effect, suggesting that the beneficial impact of background music on idea generation occurs independently of changes in evaluation apprehension, likely through mood enhancement or arousal regulation. Although the evaluation apprehension scale demonstrated acceptable reliability after refinement, the findings highlight the need to explore alternative psychological mechanisms underlying this relationship. This pilot study offers practical implications for educators and facilitators seeking to enhance creative collaboration through environmental factors and contributes to the literature on environmental psychology and social dynamics in learning contexts. Overall, the study provides evidence supporting the use of background music as a simple and effective tool to foster group creativity in academic settings.
- To fork or not to fork, that’s the GitHub question: What do successful forks have in common?Publication . Bernardino, Pedro Gil Baptista; Pinheiro, Flávio Luís PortasGitHub is a source code hosting website where users can host their code in repositories. Other users can then fork a repository which creates a copy of the original repository. Most forks are just made out of curiosity for a project, but others are developed way beyond the original repository and achieve renowned success. However, these are rather exception than rule which raises the question, what do successful forks have in common? Is it just context specific reasons unique to each project development, or are there common characteristics that can be identified from their metadata? We collected metadata from the 1000 most popular forks in GitHub and structured the forks chronological data into trees for all of them. These fork trees allowed us to analyze general statistics from the forks, as well as extract statistics from their evolution since their project inception. We were able to identify the forks from which fork tree structures were more likely to succeed, and obtained insights on some other factors that may or may not influence as much the success of a fork as initially expected.
- Shaping the Modern Gamer: How the Gaming industry’s evolution and monetization techniques have created new player archetypesPublication . Gonçalves, Diogo Filipe Abelho; Henriques, Roberto André PereiraThe video game industry has become a dominant force in the global economy and a central pillar of contemporary culture. This evolution includes a shift from traditional one-time purchases and subscription models to Free-to-Play (F2P) games, microtransactions, and the professionalization of gaming through eSports. While research exists on the industry’s history and the impact of monetization on players’ experiences, such as spending behaviors, revenue concentration among a small subset of players, and perceptions of fairness, less is known about how these industry transformations have shaped modern player profiles and their spending patterns. This thesis investigates the question: How have shifts in the video game industry influenced the emergence of modern gamer archetypes and their associated spending behaviors? A mixed-methods approach was used, combining a narrative literature review of industry evolution and monetization strategies, an expert interview with an eSports player, and quantitative data from an online survey. The survey measured gamer motivations and purchasing habits, and the responses were analyzed using the K-means clustering algorithm to identify distinct player segments. The analysis revealed three gamer archetypes influenced by industry trends: (1) Casual Mobile Players, characterized by low engagement and minimal spending, often playing F2P games on mobile devices, highlighting how the early adoption of the F2P model by mobile games contributed to increasing the accessibility for mass audiences across different contexts; (2) Competitive PC Players, highly engaged individuals motivated by competition and eSports culture, showing a willingness to spend for in-game advantages, even in pay-to-win systems; and (3) Dedicated Multi-Platform Gamers, active across PC and console platforms, primarily playing premium titles while also spending on microtransactions to enhance gameplay and personalize experiences, reflecting the importance of conventional monetization models on today’s gaming population. These findings provide empirical evidence that modern player profiles are shaped by technological and economic developments in the industry. This study provides videogame developers, marketers, and publishers with evidence that the gaming industry’s economic models have contributed to the creation of these distinct gamer profiles. In this regard, sustainable growth relies not on a “one-size-fits-all” approach, but on aligning game design and monetization techniques to the specific characteristics and motivations of the “Casual Mobile”, “Competitive PC”, and “Dedicated Multi-Platform” gamer profiles to foster long-term engagement.
- Blockchain for Know Your Customer Process in Anti-money Laundering for Banks: Consent-Driven, Integrity-Centered, Multi-Organisation KYC for AMLPublication . Pereira, Jose Lino Semedo; Ashofteh, Afshin; Scott, Ian JamesMoney laundering remains a persistent threat, placing pressure on financial institutions to strengthen Anti-Money Laundering (AML) controls. The Know Your Customer (KYC) process is at the core of these frameworks, but sometimes, traditional KYC methods expose inefficiencies that impede compliance efforts. This thesis examines how blockchain, specifically smart contracts, can enable consent-gated reuse of verified KYC data while preserving privacy and auditability. Using the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM), requirements were gathered with experts, and artifacts were built to ensure sensitive customer data is stored securely off-chain. The ledger only records non-Personal Identifiable Information (PII) metadata and cryptographic references, accessible solely to authorised parties via cryptographic methods. Cross-institution endorsement policies control data writes, providing a tamper-evident, auditable history without exposing customer information on-chain. Utilizing a Hyperledger Fabric based consortium blockchain, the solution achieves seconds-level, consent-gated reuse of verified KYC data with zero manual touch between the creation request and the status verification response process, complete consent enforcement, ledger-anchored integrity, and decentralised governance. The research demonstrates how operational efficiencies are achieved through reduced redundancies and accelerated onboarding procedures, with consent reuse of verified KYC data. Findings show that blockchain-based smart contracts not only reinforce compliance with AML regulations but also foster trust among participants by providing a transparent audit trail. Finally, this thesis supports the strategic adoption of blockchain technology in KYC processes, suggesting that it can significantly enhance operational efficiency while preserving rigorous compliance with AML standards, thus contributing to a more secure financial ecosystem.
- E-banking Security Features and their Impact on Customer Adoption of E-Banking Services: An empirical study using the UTAUT 2 model.Publication . Silva, João Paulo Nunes da; Tam Chuem Vai, CarlosThis study investigates the impact of digital banking security features on customer adoption of e-banking services. Using an extended UTAUT2 model, perceived security was included as a predictor of behavioral intention, and awareness of security features as a moderator between intention and actual use. A cross-sectional online survey of 209 Portuguese users was analyzed using partial least squares path modelling. The findings reveal that perceived security is a strong predictor of behavioral intention, while awareness moderates the intention–use relationship, showing that more aware users are less dependent on intention to transition to actual use.
- The Sound of Dining: Creating Value Through Music to Enhance the Restaurant ExperiencePublication . Sá, Sílvia Ribamar da Silva Paulo de; Costa, Maria Manuela Simões Aparício daThis study investigates how Music Enjoyment, as customers’ subjective response to background music, contributes to the creation of experiential and economic value in restaurant environments. In digitally mediated hospitality environments, background music is increasingly shaped by platform-based curation, data-driven personalization, and algorithmic recommendations. Building on this context, a theoretical model was adapted and extended from existing frameworks, guided by the Stimulus–Organism– Response (S–O–R) paradigm, where background music acts as the environmental stimulus (S), Music Enjoyment functions as the internal affective state (O), and behaviour outcomes such as satisfaction and willingness to pay represent the response (R). The model empirically assesses how Music Enjoyment influences Perceived Value, Customer Satisfaction, Behaviour Intention, and Willingness to Pay. Data was collected from 205 respondents, through an online survey focused on recent dining experiences, and the proposed model was tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results confirm that Music Enjoyment significantly enhances perceived value and is positively associated with Willingness to Pay through this evaluative pathway, demonstrating that emotional enjoyment can be transformed into economic appraisal. Perceived Value emerged as the strongest mediator between Music Enjoyment and both Satisfaction and Willingness to Pay, while the direct effect of satisfaction was weaker, suggesting that customers evaluate the benefits of music as part of the overall value of their experience. These findings extend the theoretical application of the S–O–R model to hospitality contexts while integrating perspectives from value perception and consumer behaviour theories. The study offers practical insights for restaurant managers, background music providers, and the music industry, particularly for rightsholders who benefit from fair and sustainable value remuneration generated through licensed public performance of music. It highlights the potential of background music as a strategic element of customer experience management and can serve as a foundation for deeper exploration of AI-driven personalization tools aimed at enhancing emotional engagement and creating shared cultural and economic value.
- Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Business ModelsPublication . Menor, Ricardo Alexandre Dias; Santos, Vítor Manuel Pereira Duarte dosThe rapid advancement of Generative Artificial Intelligence, driven by Large Language Models such as ChatGPT, has received significant attention and generated extensive debate. Despite this growing interest, many organizations remain unprepared to adopt and scale AI technologies effectively. A lack of expertise and organizational capabilities often limits AI initiatives to conceptual discussions, preventing their integration into strategic business processes. This research adopts the Design Science Research methodology to address this challenge through three main stages: a systematic literature review, the development of a framework for integrating GenAI into business models, and validation through expert interviews. The findings reveal that existing research predominantly focuses on AI’s impact on internal processes and value creation, emphasizing automation, decision support, and enhanced engagement with customers and employees. However, less attention has been paid to AI's potential to enable entirely new products, services, and value propositions. To bridge this gap, this thesis introduces the AI-Enhanced Business Model Canvas, a framework that systematically embeds GenAI capabilities into the components of business models. This framework supports organizations in strategically leveraging AI to foster creativity, innovation, and sustainable value creation. The study contributes to the emerging body of knowledge at the intersection of GenAI and business models, providing both theoretical insights and practical guidance for organizations aiming to harness AI’s transformative potential.
- Os Impactos da Inteligência Artificial no Modelo de Negócio e no Ambiente Regulatório da Indústria Musical: Um estudo no mercado portuguêsPublication . Matias, Fernando da Fonseca; Rodrigues, Jorge Manuel CarrolaEsta dissertação analisa o impacto da Inteligência Artificial Generativa (IAG) na indústria musical, com foco na perceção de profissionais do setor relativamente à sua adoção e à eventual necessidade de regulamentação. O estudo questiona em que medida a regulação poderá mitigar riscos como a desvalorização simbólica e económica da música e a concorrência desleal, assegurando simultaneamente a sustentabilidade dos modelos de negócio. A investigação adota uma abordagem qualitativa, com base em entrevistas semiestruturadas a artistas, produtores e representantes de entidades de gestão coletiva. Os dados foram tratados através da análise de conteúdo (Bardin, 2011), complementada pela utilização de escalas de intensidade, segundo a proposta de (Mayring, 2014). Os resultados revelam que a IA é percecionada como ferramenta complementar, sobretudo no domínio técnico, mas não como substituta da criatividade humana. Identificam-se, contudo, fortes preocupações quanto à desvalorização económica e cultural da música e um consenso generalizado sobre a necessidade urgente de regulação. Este trabalho contribui para o debate académico sobre a relação entre tecnologia, cultura e economia, evidenciando que a regulação poderá assumir um papel central na preservação da arte humana e na sustentabilidade da indústria fonográfica.
- A BI Framework for Traffic Alerts: Improving the Understanding of Traffic Alerts and its relationship with Air QualityPublication . Leitão, Margarida Claro Pires; Jardim, João Bruno Morais de Sousa; Rodrigues, Duarte Nuno Antunes Caracol BarrosRising pressure on urban mobility due to limited availability and inefficiency of public transport systems, has led to an increase in private vehicle circulation and, consequently, increasing traffic congestion and alerts. This also leads to elevated levels of air pollution. Existing literature explores machine learning models and analytical tools for traffic prediction and monitoring; however, these approaches remain fragmented, focusing either on prediction or on the visualisation of metrics. As a result, there is the need of a solution that ensures the integrated processing of traffic alerts data, enables consistent generation of insights, and supports thorough analytical exploration. This gap reinforces that there remains a lack of a systematic, end-to-end data analysis framework that describes a scalable and replicable Business Intelligence (BI) solution across cities. This study addresses these gaps by proposing a framework that supports comprehensive traffic alerts monitoring, with Lisboa and Porto, in Portugal, as case studies. This solution follows the Kimbal Lifecycle methodology, implemented in Microsoft Fabric, using a centralised Data Warehouse (DW) and automated extract, transform, load (ETL) processes. Waze traffic alerts data, as well as air quality data obtained from Lisboa Aberta and Porto Digital, were leveraged to develop a semantic model and derive key indicators, enabling temporal and spatial analysis of traffic alerts and air quality. The outcomes of this study include the centralised DW, the underlying data architecture, and The Waze Dashboard – an interactive and narrative-driven analytical tool designed to support in depth exploration of traffic alerts behaviour, jam analysis and its relationship with air quality. The analytical tool can be replicated across cities, ensuring durability and applicability through time, aiding optimal and data driven decision-making for stakeholders, promoting sustainable development.