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This paper reports on a pilot project that enabled end‐user patrons to submit their own interloan requests. Promoted to Lincoln University's end‐users as D‐I‐Y Interloans (Do‐it‐Yourself Interloans), Lincoln University and the National Library of New Zealand undertook this joint project between October 2002 and January 2003. This paper describes the pilot project, its drivers and its guiding principles. The authors address a number of issues relating to the constraints of end‐user mediated interloans within a utility environment, trends that emerged and what end‐users thought of the process. Finally, the authors address the issue of the future for end‐user initiated requests in the New Zealand context.

This survey research explores the key variables of top management involvement for an effective end‐user training program. Out of the seven variables: top management belief, a discussion of operating functions, a discussion of the development of the training program, funding commitment, the setting of priorities, a written plan, and progress monitoring, only three (funding commitment, a written plan, and progress monitoring) were statistically significant. The research results provide guidelines for top management of organizations with end‐user training programs and recommendations for further study in top management involvement in end‐user training programs.

Despite increasing evidence for the effectiveness of off-the-shelf and rehabilitation-specific active video games (AVGs) and virtual reality (VR) systems for rehabilitation, clinical uptake remains poor. A better match between VR/AVG system capabilities and client/therapist needs, through improved end-user involvement (UI) in VR/AVG implementation research, may increase uptake of this technology. The purpose of this paper is to review four case examples from the authors’ collective experience of including end users in VR/AVG research to identify common benefits, challenges and lessons learned.

The authors apply knowledge and lessons learned from the four cases to make recommendations for subsequent user-engaged research design and methods, including evaluation of the impact of end UI.

A better match between VR/AVG system capabilities and client/therapist needs leads to improved end UI in all stages of VR/AVG implementation research. There are common benefits of increasing buy-in and soliciting early on the knowledge and skills of therapists as well as input from the ultimate end users: people participating in rehabilitation. Most settings have the challenges of balancing the technology requirements with the needs and goals of the practice setting and of the end users.

Increasing end UI in VR/AVG implementation research may address issues related to poor clinical uptake. In the VR/AVG context, end users can be therapists, clients or technology developers/engineers. This paper presented four case scenarios describing the implementation of different VR/AVG systems and involving a variety of populations, end users and settings.

The set of recommendations for subsequent user-engaged research design and methods span the process of development, research and implementation. The authors hope that these recommendations will foster collaborations across disciplines, encourage researchers and therapists to adopt VR/AVGs more readily, and lead to efficacious and effective treatment approaches for rehabilitation clients.

Inscrutable machine learning (ML) models are part of increasingly many information systems. Understanding how these models behave, and what their output is based on, is a challenge for developers let alone non-technical end users.

The authors investigate how AI systems and their decisions ought to be explained for end users through a systematic literature review.

The authors’ synthesis of the literature suggests that AI system communication for end users has five high-level goals: (1) understandability, (2) trustworthiness, (3) transparency, (4) controllability and (5) fairness. The authors identified several design recommendations, such as offering personalized and on-demand explanations and focusing on the explainability of key functionalities instead of aiming to explain the whole system. There exists multiple trade-offs in AI system explanations, and there is no single best solution that fits all cases.

Based on the synthesis, the authors provide a design framework for explaining AI systems to end users. The study contributes to the work on AI governance by suggesting guidelines on how to make AI systems more understandable, fair, trustworthy, controllable and transparent.

This literature review brings together the literature on AI system communication and explainable AI (XAI) for end users. Building on previous academic literature on the topic, it provides synthesized insights, design recommendations and future research agenda.

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of shared services by end-users and why this may conflict with the use as intended by the shared service center (SSC) management.

By applying structuration theory, this empirical study draws on qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews with managers and end-users of an SSC. This SSC is part of a Dutch subsidiary of a multinational corporation that produces professional electronics for the defense and security market.

We find two main types of shared services usage by end-users which were not intended by the SSC management: avoidance and window-dressing. These forms of unintended usage were the result of contradictions in social structures related to the centralization and decentralization models as appropriated by end-users and management.

Our findings show that the benefits of shared services depends on how well contradictions in managers’ and end-users’ interpretive schemes, resources, and norms associated with centralization and decentralization models are resolved.

A popular argument in existing studies is that the benefit of shared services follows from the design of the SSC’s organizational structure. These studies overlook the fact that shared services are not always used as their designers intended and, therefore, that success depends on how the SSC’s organizational structure is appropriated by end-users. As such, the originality of this study is our focus on the way shared services are used by their end-users in order to explain why SSCs succeed or fail in reaping their promised benefits.

The arrival of CD‐ROM (compact disc read only memory) databases provides the opportunity for libraries to gain valuable experience in teaching end users how to search for bibliographic information. This paper considers some of the issues, by describing the experiences of one small medical school library (Charing Cross and Westminster), which has introduced the Medline database on CD‐ROM. Such issues include the assessment of training needs, the type of teaching sessions and the documentation. Details are given of the one‐to‐one approach adopted at Charing Cross and Westminster for training end users to search Medline on CD‐ROM. Fourteen references guide the reader to further papers on end user searching and CD‐ROM developments.

This is the second in Richard Poynder's series of articles about different host services' efforts to reach fresh users. The first, on FT PROFILE, appeared in Online Review Vol. 16 No. 3. This article now looks at DATA‐STAR.

The characteristics of small and medium firms relevant to end‐user computing (EUC) are examined, including organisational structure and managerial style, information systems (IS) functions, computer applications, and end users. It recommends an EUC implementation strategy based on these characteristics and presents an organisational change orientation. Because of the greater role of EUC in those firms, this strategy may expedite the technology transfer process and enable a firm to reach a more mature stage of computer use. A case study of successful EUC implementation using this strategy is discussed. The case study includes the firm′s computing history, the EUC implementation process, successes and the reasons. Since the environments of many small‐to‐medium firms are comparable to the firm in this case study, a similar approach to EUC implementation may be adopted by those firms.

Discusses the failure of end user computing (EUC) to achieve its objectives. Bases discussion on people, application and skill. Relates the problems to those of prototyping. Suggests some difficulties can be overcome by education. Presents an educational method consisting of five steps: interviews and observations, group discussions, lectures, simulation, and personal guidance.

End users are often involved in organizational buying, but very little is known about the role that they play and how they influence purchasing decisions. This study aims to explore the factors behind end users’ attempts to influence purchasing and the strategies they use.

The research draws on the concept of purchasing task involvement, which describes the feelings of personal relevance that a buying center member has for a specific organizational purchasing decision. This concept is used to gain a deeper understanding of users’ influence in organizational purchasing and link it to sources of power and the corresponding influence strategies. The study is based on 90 in-depth interviews with buyers, drivers and sellers of heavy trucks.

End users’ purchasing task involvement is only marginally determined by the product’s performance or technical features. Purchasing task involvement leads to influence when there are specific power relationships between the buyer and the user and under specific circumstances.

This is the first study that links end users’ purchasing task involvement, power and influence strategies in organizational buying.