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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the creation of a holistic picture of information behavior by examining the connections between information seeking and sharing.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the creation of a holistic picture of information behavior by examining the connections between information seeking and sharing.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual analysis is used to focus on the ways in which the researchers have modeled the interplay of information seeking and sharing. The study draws on conceptual analysis of 27 key studies examining the above issue, with a focus on the scrutiny of six major models for information behavior.
Findings
Researchers have employed three main approaches to model the relationships between information seeking and sharing. The indirect approach conceptualizes information seeking and sharing as discrete activities connected by an intermediating factor, for example, information need. The sequential approach assumes that information seeking precedes information sharing. From the viewpoint of the interactive approach, information seeking and sharing appear as mutually related activities shaping each other iteratively or in a cyclical manner. The interactive approach provides the most sophisticated research perspective on the relationships of information seeking and sharing and contributes to holistic understanding of human information behavior.
Research limitations/implications
As the study focuses on information seeking and sharing, no attention is devoted to other activities constitutive of information behavior, for example, information use.
Originality/value
The study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis of the connections of information seeking and information sharing.
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Keywords
Antonio Ghezzi, Angelo Cavallo, Silvia Sanasi and Andrea Rangone
This study aims at exploring how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can implement a more open and co-creational business model by actively collaborating with startups.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims at exploring how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can implement a more open and co-creational business model by actively collaborating with startups.
Design/methodology/approach
Because of the novelty of the SME–startup collaboration phenomenon and to the depth of the investigation required to grasp the mechanisms and logic of an open and co-creational business model, a single-case study has been performed related to investigating a collaboration between an SME and a startup.
Findings
The authors provide detailed empirical evidence on how SMEs may structure a “systematic” approach to design and execute an open business model enabled by startup collaboration. Moreover, this study suggests that the business model innovation process represents a necessary forerunner of an open business model. Finally, the authors contend that research on open business models should entail a broader perspective beyond the innovation process, to include business model validation through testing approaches like the lean startup.
Originality/value
This study takes as the locus of investigation the original perspective of the external partner of a focal firm willing to innovate. This study offers a unique contribution because, to date, few studies adopted such view within a relevant and under-remarked empirical setting linking SMEs and innovative startups.
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Erose Sthapit, Peter Björk and Senthilkumaran Piramanayagam
This study aims to explore non-Muslim tourists’ general halal food preferences, motivations for tasting halal food during their recent trips, positive and negative emotions and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore non-Muslim tourists’ general halal food preferences, motivations for tasting halal food during their recent trips, positive and negative emotions and memorable dimensions associated with their recent halal food experiences after returning from holiday.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using the authors’ personal networks and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) using a questionnaire. An email containing a link to the questionnaire was sent to the authors’ personal networks and posted on MTurk in January 2021.
Findings
Of the 311 non-Muslim respondents, more than half considered themselves as food neophiliacs and considered halal food experiences as imperative whilst travelling. However, tasting halal food was not a major travel motivation. Novelty and taste were the two main motivations for tasting halal food whilst at a tourism destination. Emotions elicited by halal food experiences focussed on “joy” and “love”. The proposed conceptual framework for memorable halal food experiences comprises several dimensions: taste, spending time with family and friends, novelty, quality and safety, hospitality, ambience (setting/servicescape) and experiencing others’ culture through food.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to explore non-Muslim tourists’ motives, emotions and memorable dimensions of halal food experiences.
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Keywords
The main objective of this study is to investigate an impact of organizational culture on supply chain risk and strategic sourcing. It also examines the relationship between…
Abstract
The main objective of this study is to investigate an impact of organizational culture on supply chain risk and strategic sourcing. It also examines the relationship between organizational culture and strategic sourcing. By collecting 159 survey responses from supply, executives and managers of U.S. manufacturing firms, it provides empirical evidence that organizational culture and strategic sourcing mitigate supply chain risks. Organizational culture also makes a positive impact on the implementation of strategic sourcing. This study emphasizes the importance of cultural impacts to supply executives and managers in supply chain risk management.
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Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey and Anthea Garman
In this study, the authors aim to probe the relationship between listening and lurking and discuss types of lurking that occur on social media sites based on the motivations…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the authors aim to probe the relationship between listening and lurking and discuss types of lurking that occur on social media sites based on the motivations driving them. Although listening is a significant practice of online attention, intimacy, connection, obligation and participation as much as voice is, it is yet to receive the kind of attention voice is given in the context of social media. In the rather limited studies on online attention, the concept that has gained consideration is “lurking”, and this practice has often been treated as a derogatory non-activity or as passivity. The interest to study lurking is based on the premise that lurking is a significant ground on which listening occurs in social media and through which voice can be given attention.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a phenomenological approach to understand motivations for lurking in online spaces. Phenomenological research involves data gathering through inductive, qualitative methods with the aim of explaining specific phenomena from the perspective of research participants. In this research, the lived experience studied was lurking and what drives lurking. A total of 12 members of the Licence to Talk project, a research project based at the School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa, took part in the study. They shared their personal experiences of online lurking through a critical reflective writing. Based on the experiences shared, the authors identified and categorised the various types of lurking based on the varied motivations driving them.
Findings
Through the phenomenological approach, the study has theorised a more useful understanding of lurking as a form of online listening by identifying and categorising seven lurking behaviours that are nested within the lurking activity. This study, thus, provides a tentative framework for studying online lurking by bringing to bear listening theory and by reasoning that lurking is a needs-based activity that has purpose imbedded within it.
Research limitations/implications
The authors recognise that this study is limited by its small number of participants. Nevertheless, as researchers with a strong grounding in listening theory, the authors thought it valuable to interrogate their own practices on social media and to develop a more useful understanding of what lurking might entail and, on the lurking-listening relationship. A larger study would provide stronger evidence to test the hypothesis about lurking as a very interesting form of listening with a relationship to complex behaviours and needs.
Originality/value
It is expected that by conceptualising the various forms of lurking based on the motivations that drive online lurking (listening), it will provide an empirical and theoretical/conceptual basis for further investigations into this pervasive mode of online attention.
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Gopal Shruthi and Murugan Suvinthra
The purpose of this paper is to study large deviations for the solution processes of a stochastic equation incorporated with the effects of nonlocal condition.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study large deviations for the solution processes of a stochastic equation incorporated with the effects of nonlocal condition.
Design/methodology/approach
A weak convergence approach is adopted to establish the Laplace principle, which is same as the large deviation principle in a Polish space. The sufficient condition for any family of solutions to satisfy the Laplace principle formulated by Budhiraja and Dupuis is used in this work.
Findings
Freidlin–Wentzell type large deviation principle holds good for the solution processes of the stochastic functional integral equation with nonlocal condition.
Originality/value
The asymptotic exponential decay rate of the solution processes of the considered equation towards its deterministic counterpart can be estimated using the established results.
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Mrinal Mukherjee and Chanchal Maity
The COVID-19 pandemic compelled the education system to switch over to emergency learning-teaching that is organised remotely. The present study investigated the experience of…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic compelled the education system to switch over to emergency learning-teaching that is organised remotely. The present study investigated the experience of emergency remote learning (ERL) provided to higher-education learners. The study explores learners' perceived experience regarding the quality of learning resources, the effectiveness of teaching in a virtual climate and the scope of interaction in ERL.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilising a snowball sampling method, data were obtained from 470 Indian students of higher education through a cross-sectional online survey using a questionnaire through social media platforms. Data were analysed with relevant statistics.
Findings
The majority of students agreed that they had benefited from ERL. The overall impression of the ERL is positive; nevertheless, the students are perplexed and lack confidence in many aspects of the ERL. The Quality of ERL Resources, Teaching Effectiveness, Peer Interaction and Workloads were found to be significant factors in determining the quality of ERL.
Originality/value
Learning from the crisis of a pandemic is paramount for the education system. The education system could not go back to what was considered normal before the pandemic; rather it is time to assess and finalise strategies from the experience during this pandemic that could be taken by the higher-education institutions to make the ecosystem better equipped to create 21st-century learning climate. Accommodating the components of remote learning-teaching and engaging technology towards hybridisation are the needs of the time. Hence, assessing the quality of ERL from the learner's perspective might contribute to redesigning future remote learning.
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The military of today depends on the availability and readiness of high-technology weapon systems. As the military often has to focus on core tasks (the usage of systems)…
Abstract
Purpose
The military of today depends on the availability and readiness of high-technology weapon systems. As the military often has to focus on core tasks (the usage of systems), logistics and support tasks are outsourced to industry, which means that industrial suppliers gain importance for making weapon systems available and mission ready. However, companies are profit-maximizing and invest their best resources in the most promising business areas, which might be clients other than the (domestic) military customer. This raises the question of how the military can ensure that the defense industry provides the best performance: preferential treatment for the military. The purpose of this study is to investigate preferential treatment in the specific context of defense.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports on the examination of factors influencing preferential treatment for the military. The analysis uses structural equation modeling and data from a sample of German defense suppliers.
Findings
The results show that the perceived customer attractiveness has a strong effect on preferential customer treatment. Attractiveness is influenced by trust, commitment and a comparison with other customers.
Research limitations/implications
There are several implications for defense theory and practice, including the need for further consideration of relational in contrast to transactional practices in military–industrial supply collaboration, as these seem highly relevant for getting the best resources for producing and maintaining weapon systems. In addition, increasing customer attractiveness, in particular if the military lacks a domestic defense industry base, is proposed.
Originality/value
The findings are based on a focus sample of only defense suppliers. This paper transfers the industrial discussion about the buyer–supplier relationships and preferential customer treatment to the defense logistics research context.
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Smita Gupta and Kanika T. Bhal
In the scope of the immense growth of corporate frauds and scandals, reporting unethical practices could be considered as an important mechanism to control them and ultimately…
Abstract
Purpose
In the scope of the immense growth of corporate frauds and scandals, reporting unethical practices could be considered as an important mechanism to control them and ultimately improve organizational quality. To this end, this study proposes the conceptual framework comprising the enablers impacting employees' tendencies and behaviors to reporting misdemeanor in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
Systematic review of literature has been carried out. To understand the complexities among various enablers and to analyze their driving power and contingencies, a modified total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) approach has been adopted.
Findings
The findings indicate that enablers such as moral identity (MI) and job satisfaction (JS) having higher driving power (come at the bottom of the hierarchy) are relatively more important. Furthermore, perceived personal cost (PC), moral courage (MC), self-efficacy (SE) and anger have high dependent power of factors. Finally, the paper provides two paths that can lead to whistleblower's ethical decision.
Research limitations/implications
A conceptual framework delivered in this paper requires to test against the field data. However, the conceptual understanding of driving enablers paves the way to top management in recruiting and hiring people in the workplace.
Originality/value
This study represents the first attempt to apply TISM for whistleblowing phenomenon. It provides a comprehensive conceptual framework in order to address the relative importance of various individual enablers in developing reporting tendencies against misdemeanors.
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Patrick Dallasega, Manuel Woschank, Joseph Sarkis and Korrakot Yaibuathet Tippayawong
This study aims to provide a measurement model, and the underlying constructs and items, for Logistics 4.0 in manufacturing companies. Industry 4.0 technology for logistics…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a measurement model, and the underlying constructs and items, for Logistics 4.0 in manufacturing companies. Industry 4.0 technology for logistics processes has been termed Logistics 4.0. Logistics 4.0 and its elements have seen varied conceptualizations in the literature. The literature has mainly focused on conceptual and theoretical studies, which supports the notion that Logistics 4.0 is a relatively young area of research. Refinement of constructs and building consensus perspectives and definitions is necessary for practical and theoretical advances in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a detailed literature review and practitioner focus group interviews, items of Logistics 4.0 for manufacturing enterprises were further validated by using a large-scale survey with practicing experts from organizations located in Central Europe, the Northeastern United States of America and Northern Thailand. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to define a measurement model for Logistics 4.0.
Findings
Based on 239 responses the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in nine items and three factors for the final Logistics 4.0 measurement model. It combines “the leveraging of increased organizational capabilities” (factor 1) with “the rise of interconnection and material flow transparency” (factor 2) and “the setting up of autonomization in logistics processes” (factor 3).
Practical implications
Practitioners can use the proposed measurement model to assess their current level of maturity regarding the implementation of Logistics 4.0 practices. They can map the current state and derive appropriate implementation plans as well as benchmark against best practices across or between industries based on these metrics.
Originality/value
Logistics 4.0 is a relatively young research area, which necessitates greater development through empirical validation. To the best of the authors knowledge, an empirically validated multidimensional construct to measure Logistics 4.0 in manufacturing companies does not exist.
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