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The purpose of the current study is to examine a social network site (SNS) users' overall satisfaction with SNS use in conjunction with their fan page visiting activities. We examined overall satisfaction with SNS usage from the lens of people's perceptions acquired from the use of sub-components of SNS.

The current study employed uncertainty reduction theory (URT) and general systems theory (GST) to examine antecedents affecting overall satisfaction with SNS use. Five constructs were adopted: interactive and passive uncertainty reduction strategies, perceived usefulness and continuance visiting behavior, satisfaction, and perceived functional benefits. Using a web-based survey, we analyzed 200 SNS users who follow at least one company's fan page, utilizing seemingly unrelated regression models to test hypotheses empirically.

Research findings reveal that uncertainty reduction strategies supported by URT are significantly associated with the perceived usefulness of a company's fan page. In turn, we found that perceived usefulness becomes a strong motivator to continuance visits to the fan page. The frequency of return visiting behaviors eventually accounts for overall satisfaction with SNS. Perceived functional benefits moderates the relationship between perceived usefulness and visiting behaviors significantly.

The current study contributes to information systems (IS), electronic communication, and their adjacent academic disciplines in providing evidence, including (1) the impact of uncertainty reduction strategies on continuance visiting behaviors in the SNS context, (2) SNS functionalities influencing the relationship between people's belief and behavior, and (3) theoretical significant perceptional link between a sub-component and a whole.

Although the use of instant messaging (IM) at work has been studied in the IS field, its effective use and impact on performance have not been adequately addressed. The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents and consequences of the effective use of IM at work by adapting Burton-Jones and Grange’s theory of effective use.

The authors introduce “Comprehensive IM policy” as a facilitator of adaptation and learning actions to improve the effective use of IM, which will improve communication quality and productivity. The impact of IM competence on effective use is also discussed. Based on a survey of 215 managers, this study applies the partial least square technique to test the research model.

The results indicate that comprehensive IM policy encourages adaptation and learning actions, which improve the effective use of IM and thereafter improve communication quality and productivity. Meanwhile, IM competence has a substitutive interaction effect with IM reconfiguration and self-learning on effective use.

The results refine the general theory of effective use and provide managers with an approach to leverage IM use at work for performance gains.

Firms invest much money in information technology (IT) since IT support has been recognized as a critical enabler of employee outcomes. However, the value obtained by organizations and their employees is not always as much as they anticipated because of, at least partly, a poor relationship between IT staff and users. The purpose of this paper is to apply the social capital theory to examine relationship management between IT and business and explores mechanisms through which social capital between IT staff and users affect users’ employee outcomes, including job satisfaction and job performance.

Based on social capital theory and past literature, the researchers propose a research model and explore the effect of social capital on knowledge sharing, IT users’ perceived service quality, job satisfaction and ultimately job performance. Based on a survey of 289 respondents, this study applies the partial least square technique to test the research model.

Mediation test was performed to explore the effect mechanisms of social capital on employee outcomes, and the results indicate that three dimensions of social capital affect IT users’ job satisfaction and job performance in different approaches.

This study uses social capital theory to direct how to improve the poor relationship between IT staff and users and provides a useful insight into the mechanisms through which three dimensions of social capital improve users’ job satisfaction and job performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers women identify to their promotion in international schools and also the ways in which women can overcome these barriers.

The field of enquiry is international schools, with the study drawing on qualitative research. The researchers interviewed 11 women from a leading international school in Seoul, South Korea.

The women interviewed provided rich qualitative data and identified a number of barriers relating to culture, including gender stereotyping and self-confidence issues, and organisational behaviour, including the lack of a work-life balance and the patriarchal and hierarchical structures in place. The suggested ways in which women could overcome the barriers included building self-confidence and seeking mentoring.

The women also developed a list of factors that any woman would need to contemplate if she is thinking about applying to be a senior manager, including qualifications, communication skills and acknowledging, tolerating and overcoming gender unfairness, in that men do not need to think about the same issues when seeking leadership positions.

This paper examines an area of gendered leadership that has received little critical academic scrutiny, international schools and is particularly valuable to women working in these schools. However, its scope extends to all international school leaders who seek to improve the effectiveness of their organisations by employing and promoting the best leaders available.

Today's supply chains face increasing vulnerabilities; effective management of disruptions is critical to an organization's ability to weather disruptive events and remain competitive. Contingency planning is a method of risk management that promotes effective crisis management. This research tests proposed antecedents of contingency planning effectiveness in a supply chain setting.

A survey method was used to gather data from 103 participants who are involved in their respective organization's contingency planning and implementation processes. The data were analyzed using partial least squares to examine relationships between contingency planning effectiveness, inter‐organizational information technology (IT) use, cooperative attitude, and inter‐organizational collaboration.

The proposed model explains 87 percent of the variance in contingency planning effectiveness. The findings suggest that inter‐organizational collaboration, inter‐organizational IT use, and cooperative attitude directly impact contingency planning effectiveness. Inter‐organizational collaboration mediates the relationships between the other antecedents and contingency planning effectiveness.

Although effective contingency planning has been shown to influence positive outcomes, the relationship between contingency planning effectiveness and its antecedents is not well understood in extant literature. This study identifies and investigates key antecedents to contingency planning effectiveness and provides a foundation for continued investigation.

Although the importance of establishing sound metrics is often noted in the logistics literature, few research efforts have examined appropriate metrics for reverse logistics (RL) processes. Through the lens of goal-setting theory, the paper identifies and align salient RL goals and metrics, and uncover some of the most common challenges to RL professionals. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The paper used open-ended questions to gather qualitative data from 84 RL professionals from the defense industry. A content analysis method was employed to extract and categorize the goals, challenges, and metrics for RL processes.

The paper identifies specific categories of goals, challenges and metrics. Several themes emerged from the study, to include customer service, disposition, costs, and process efficiencies. Using these themes, the paper matched goals to metrics and found a lack of uniformity and noted that metrics and goals often were not matched or were misaligned.

This research is limited by the defense industry sample and the research method. Caution should be used when generalizing the results, and further research is required to empirically test the validity of the findings. Nonetheless, in the context of goal-setting theory, the study contributes to the performance metrics literature by aligning RL metrics with goals and addressing challenges faced by RL practitioners. By investigating the topic from multiple perspectives, the study provides more detailed findings and demonstrates the differences between the inbound and outbound RL processes.

This study provides insight into the metrics used to monitor and control RL processes. The findings may help firms to identify shortcomings and choose metrics that they can employ to align RL processes with firm goals.

The study contributes to the performance metrics literature by aligning RL metrics with goals and addressing challenges faced by RL practitioners. By investigating the topic from both an inbound and outbound perspective, the study provides more detailed findings and demonstrates the differences between the inbound and outbound RL processes.

The purpose of this paper is to provide future researchers with a framework for conducting research in the unique field of humanitarian logistics.

The authors categorized humanitarian logistics research articles. Borrowing from the theory of constraints and management information systems literature, the authors developed a framework for research.

The review of humanitarian logistics literature indicates that researchers have begun to lay the foundation for a core body of knowledge. While there is a growing body of research in humanitarian logistics, it is predominately focused on the area of planning.

This effort categorizes past research using elements of logistics, develops a framework for research in humanitarian logistics, and recommends areas for further research.

Information systems (IS) play a substantial role in managing reverse logistics (RL) processes. However, the RL literature rarely takes a holistic approach to examining the “success” of IS employment. Drawing on the rich literature base from the IS field, the authors explore IS Success theory in the context of RL. Considering Diffusion of Innovation theory, the authors also examine the effect of motivation on IS utilization. In doing so, the authors provide scholars and practitioners with insight into the factors affecting the success of a RL IS. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Based upon DeLone and McLean's IS Success theory, the authors develop the model to consider information quality, IS utilization, and RL cost effectiveness (as a proxy for net benefits). The authors disaggregate RL into two processes and thus consider the model from two perspectives: the process of receiving returns from customers (inbound) and the process of returning products to suppliers (outbound). The authors survey 136 RL professionals and employ partial least squares modeling for data analysis.

For both inbound and outbound path models, information quality is significantly and positively related to IS utilization; in turn, IS utilization is a significant predictor of net benefits. For inbound, RL goals provide significant motivation to drive IS utilization. For outbound, RL challenges provide significant motivation for IS utilization.

The authors bring IS Success theory into the context of RL. Additionally, by investigating the topic from both inbound and outbound perspectives, the findings suggest differences between inbound and outbound RL processes.

Information technology is a key enabler of logistics performance. Unfortunately, most logistics information systems are implemented with forward logistics processes in mind, with little, if any, consideration for the reverse channel. Informed by task‐technology fit theory, the authors aim to explore how use of complementary information technologies to support reverse logistics processes can lead to enhanced process performance.

The authors use a survey method to gather data from logistics professionals who are positioned within various reverse logistics functions. Using reverse logistics processing effectiveness and reverse logistics cost effectiveness as dependent variables, the authors use multiple regression to examine the relationships between indicators of task‐technology fit and reverse logistics performance.

The authors’ models explain 49 percent and 30 percent of the variance in reverse logistics cost effectiveness and processing effectiveness, respectively. Information technology use and reverse logistics technology innovativeness are shown to enhance levels of reverse logistics cost effectiveness; information system compatibility and reverse logistics technology innovativeness are shown to enhance levels of reverse logistics processing effectiveness.

Although limited by the sample frame, the authors’ findings remain consistent with task‐technology fit theory and suggest that employing information technologies that are designed to complement reverse logistics processes can lead to increased reverse logistics process performance.

This study supports the notion that more attention should be given to reverse logistics processes. In order to achieve maximum return on investment, managers should consider allocating resources toward information technologies and systems that directly support reverse logistics.

This research employs a theory that has seen little attention in the logistics literature to provide insight into how use of complementary information technology can enhance reverse logistics processes.

The purpose of this study is to identify the critical components of the reverse logistics (RL) disposition decision‐making process and suggest a decision framework that may guide future investigation and practice.

The authors utilized a problem‐driven content analysis methodology. RL literature from 2000 through 2010 was content analyzed to determine which components may impact a firm's RL disposition decision.

The authors extrapolated seven RL disposition decision components from a compilation of 60 variables identified in the literature. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are offered, and a RL disposition decision‐making framework is presented.

Although methodological techniques were carefully followed, the nature of a content analysis may be subject to author bias. Future investigation and use of the framework presented will verify the findings presented here.

This study identifies seven components that should be considered when deciding which RL disposition alternative should be adopted and integrates these components into a decision‐making framework. Supply chain professionals who refer to this framework during the decision process will benefit from a more comprehensive analysis of potential RL disposition alternatives.

Congruent with recent assertions suggesting that RL research is evolving from an operational‐level focus to a holistic business process approach for maximizing value recovery, this study synthesizes operational‐level research to develop a practical framework for RL disposition decision‐making.