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1 – 10 of over 1000Dirk Ifenthaler and Muhittin ŞAHİN
This study aims to focus on providing a computerized classification testing (CCT) system that can easily be embedded as a self-assessment feature into the existing legacy…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to focus on providing a computerized classification testing (CCT) system that can easily be embedded as a self-assessment feature into the existing legacy environment of a higher education institution, empowering students with self-assessments to monitor their learning progress and following strict data protection regulations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of two different versions (without dashboard vs with dashboard) of the CCT system during the course of a semester; to examine changes in the intended use and perceived usefulness of two different versions (without dashboard vs with dashboard) of the CCT system; and to compare the self-reported confidence levels of two different versions (without dashboard vs with dashboard) of the CCT system.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of N = 194 students from a higher education institution in the area of economic and business education participated in the study. The participants were provided access to the CCT system as an opportunity to self-assess their domain knowledge in five areas throughout the semester. An algorithm was implemented to classify learners into master and nonmaster. A total of nine metrics were implemented for classifying the performance of learners. Instruments for collecting co-variates included the study interest questionnaire (Cronbach’s a = 0. 90), the achievement motivation inventory (Cronbach’s a = 0. 94), measures focusing on perceived usefulness and demographic data.
Findings
The findings indicate that the students used the CCT system intensively throughout the semester. Students in a cohort with a dashboard available interacted more with the CCT system than students in a cohort without a dashboard. Further, findings showed that students with a dashboard available reported significantly higher confidence levels in the CCT system than participants without a dashboard.
Originality/value
The design of digitally supported learning environments requires valid formative (self-)assessment data to better support the current needs of the learner. While the findings of the current study are limited concerning one study cohort and a limited number of self-assessment areas, the CCT system is being further developed for seamless integration of self-assessment and related feedback to further reveal unforeseen opportunities for future student cohorts.
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Luka Tomat, Peter Trkman and Anton Manfreda
The importance of information systems (IS) professions is increasing. As personality–job fit theory claims, employees must have suitable personality traits for particular IS…
Abstract
Purpose
The importance of information systems (IS) professions is increasing. As personality–job fit theory claims, employees must have suitable personality traits for particular IS professions. However, candidates can try to fake-good on personality tests towards the desired personality type. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify archetypal IS professions, their associated personality types and examine the reliability of the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test in IS recruitment decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors reviewed academic literature related to IS professions to identify job archetypes and personality traits for IS professions. Then, the authors conducted an experiment with 452 participants to investigate whether candidates can fake-good on personality tests when being tested for a particular IS profession.
Findings
The identified job archetypes were IS project manager, IS marketing specialist, IS consultant, IS security specialist, data scientist and business process analyst. The experimental results show that the participants were not able to fake-good considerably regarding their personality traits for a particular archetype.
Research limitations/implications
The taxonomy of IS professions should be validated further. The experiment was executed in an educational organisation and not in a real-life environment. Actual work performance was not measured.
Practical implications
This study enables a better identification of suitable candidates for a particular IS profession. Personality tests are good indicators of the candidate's true personality type but must be properly interpreted.
Originality/value
This study enhances the existing body of knowledge on IS professions' archetypes, proposes suitable MBTI personality types for each profession and provides experimental support for the appropriateness of using personality tests to identify potentially suitable candidates.
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Mateusz Tomasz Kot and Grzegorz Leszczyński
Interactions are fundamental for successful relationships and stable cooperation in a business-to-business market. The main assumption in research on interactions, so obvious that…
Abstract
Purpose
Interactions are fundamental for successful relationships and stable cooperation in a business-to-business market. The main assumption in research on interactions, so obvious that usually not stated by researchers, is that they are set between humans. The development of artificial intelligence forces the re-examination of this assumption. This paper aims to conceptualize business virtual assistants (BVAs), a type of intelligent agent, as either a boundary object or an actor within business interactions.
Design/methodology/approach
Reference is made to the literature on business interactions, boundary objects and identity attribution to problematize the process of interpretation through which BVA obtains an identity. The ARA model and the model of interaction process is used to create a theoretical framework.
Findings
This paper contributes to the literature on business interactions, and to the core of the IMP discussion, in three aspects. The first provides a framework to understand the phenomenon of an artificial entity as an interlocutor in business interactions. While doing that a new type of entity, BVA, is introduced. The second contribution is the exploration and augmentation of the concept of a business actor. The third calls attention to BVA as a boundary object. These issues are seen as essential to move forward the discussion about the meaning of business interaction in the near future.
Originality/value
This paper conceptualizes the presence of a new entity – BVA – in the business landscape.
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Deirdre Hogan and Joanne O'Flaherty
Goal 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly frames education as an enabler of change and a means to achieve all SDGs. This study aims to explore the nature and…
Abstract
Purpose
Goal 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly frames education as an enabler of change and a means to achieve all SDGs. This study aims to explore the nature and culture of science as an academic discipline and its capacity for the integration of education for sustainable development (ESD).
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon interviews with academics working in a Life Sciences Department (n = 11), focus groups with students (n = 21) and observations from lectures, laboratory sessions and field trips, the study advances a number of recommendations for the integration of ESD in Science Education programs.
Findings
Findings point to the nature and structure of scientific knowledge and the culture of science as articulated by study participants. The study provides a number of recommendations for the integration of ESD in Science Education programs including a greater emphasis on inquiry-based learning, enhancing ESD themes in science-related modules to teach for sustainability and adopting a department wide strategy that promotes ESD.
Originality/value
This study argues that ESD practitioners need to be cognizant of the nature and culture of the discipline area – as a particular discipline propagates a specific culture – encapsulating ways of being, thinking, acting and communicating, which can have implications for the integration of ESD.
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Cuong Le-Van and Nguyen To-The
Total factor productivity (TFP), for a country and for a firm as well, is a crucial element for economic growth by inducing high output. Actually, workers' effort is among the…
Abstract
Purpose
Total factor productivity (TFP), for a country and for a firm as well, is a crucial element for economic growth by inducing high output. Actually, workers' effort is among the important factors that positively influence the TFP.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors assume that the wage bonus enhances the worker's effort. Wage bonus is an incentive mechanism and plays a role in the TFP as is shown in a recent paper by Le Van and Pham (2021). The firm will maximize its profits. The supplies of capital and workers are exogenous. At equilibrium, the authors obtain that wage bonus has positive effects on output, labor productivity and price of the output.
Findings
The wage bonus system can make the optimal sequence of outputs grow without bounds. And if the optimal sequence converges to a steady state, this one can be characterized by higher output per capita than that in the steady state without the bonus.
Originality/value
In particular, the result show if, thanks to the wage bonus externality effect, the production may become of increasing returns and if the incentive mechanism is very strong, any optimal path of physical capitals will converge to infinity.
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Riccardo Mussari, Denita Cepiku and Daniela Sorrentino
Acknowledging fiscal crises as critical junctures for policy makers, this paper investigates how the recent fiscal crisis has affected the paradigmatic approach to the design of an…
Abstract
Purpose
Acknowledging fiscal crises as critical junctures for policy makers, this paper investigates how the recent fiscal crisis has affected the paradigmatic approach to the design of an ongoing governmental accounting (GA) reform.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyses the Italian GA harmonization as a peculiar instance of an ongoing GA reform at the crisis outbreak. A longitudinal narrative analysis of official documents is complemented with semi-structured interviews with key policy makers and participant observations.
Findings
The fiscal crisis is found to play an indirect role in the Italian GA reform, which, promoting centralization of competencies in the fields of GA, determines the intensification of the approach adopted before the crisis outbreak.
Research limitations/implications
This paper extends the knowledge on the nature of post-crisis reforms by highlighting how fiscal crises can work as catalysts for paradigmatic approaches to ongoing GA reforms. This paper analyses the designing of a GA reform, whereas the long-term adaptations and outcomes of the reform are not taken into consideration.
Practical implications
The tight link between GA and financial management issues featuring the current paradigmatic approaches to reforms suggests the need to design GA reforms consistently with fiscal and financial management policies.
Originality/value
Whereas the extant literature on the nature of post-crisis reforms analyses the latter as responses to the former, this paper enlarges the knowledge on the topic by focusing on a peculiar instance of a GA reform that was ongoing at the crisis outbreak.
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This paper aims to investigate the use of crowdsourcing in the enhancement of an ontology of taxonomic knowledge. The paper proposes a conceptual architecture for the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the use of crowdsourcing in the enhancement of an ontology of taxonomic knowledge. The paper proposes a conceptual architecture for the incorporation of crowdsourcing into the creation of ontologies.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adopted the design science research approach characterised by cycles of “build” and “evaluate” until a refined artefact was established.
Findings
Data from a case of a fruit fly platform demonstrates that online crowds can contribute to ontology enhancement if engaged in a structured manner that feeds into a defined ontology model.
Research limitations/implications
The research contributes an architecture to the crowdsourcing body knowledge. The research also makes a methodological contribution for the development of ontologies using crowdsourcing.
Practical implications
Creating ontologies is a demanding task and most ontologies are not exhaustive on the targeted domain knowledge. The proposed architecture provides a guiding structure for the engagement of online crowds in the creation and enhancement of domain ontologies. The research uses a case of taxonomic knowledge ontology.
Originality/value
Crowdsourcing for creation and enhancement of ontologies by non-experts is novel and presents opportunity to build and refine ontologies for different domains by engaging online crowds. The process of ontology creation is also prone to errors and engaging crowds presents opportunity for corrections and enhancements.
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