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1 – 10 of over 19000Tom A.E. Aben, Wendy van der Valk, Jens K. Roehrich and Kostas Selviaridis
Inter-organisational governance is an important enabler for information processing, particularly in relationships undergoing digital transformation (DT) where partners depend on…
Abstract
Purpose
Inter-organisational governance is an important enabler for information processing, particularly in relationships undergoing digital transformation (DT) where partners depend on each other for information in decision-making. Based on information processing theory (IPT), the authors theoretically and empirically investigate how governance mechanisms address information asymmetry (uncertainty and equivocality) arising in capturing, sharing and interpreting information generated by digital technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
IPT is applied to four cases of public–private relationships in the Dutch infrastructure sector that aim to enhance the quantity and quality of information-based decision-making by implementing digital technologies. The investigated relationships are characterised by differing degrees and types of information uncertainty and equivocality. The authors build on rich data sets including archival data, observations, contract documents and interviews.
Findings
Addressing information uncertainty requires invoking contractual control and coordination. Contract clauses should be precise and incentive schemes functional in terms of information requirements. Information equivocality is best addressed by using relational governance. Identifying information requirements and reducing information uncertainty are a prerequisite for the transformation activities that organisations perform to reduce information equivocality.
Practical implications
The study offers insights into the roles of both governance mechanisms in managing information asymmetry in public–private relationships. The study uncovers key activities for gathering, sharing and transforming information when using digital technologies.
Originality/value
This study draws on IPT to study public–private relationships undergoing DT. The study links contractual control and coordination as well as relational governance mechanisms to information-processing activities that organisations deploy to reduce information uncertainty and equivocality.
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Elina Late and Sanna Kumpulainen
The paper examines academic historians' information interactions with material from digital historical-newspaper collections as the research process unfolds.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper examines academic historians' information interactions with material from digital historical-newspaper collections as the research process unfolds.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed qualitative analysis from in-depth interviews with Finnish history scholars who use digitised historical newspapers as primary sources for their research. A model for task-based information interaction guided the collection and analysis of data.
Findings
The study revealed numerous information interactions within activities related to task-planning, the search process, selecting and working with the items and synthesis and reporting. The information interactions differ with the activities involved, which call for system support mechanisms specific to each activity type. Various activities feature information search, which is an essential research method for those using digital collections in the compilation and analysis of data. Furthermore, application of quantitative methods and multidisciplinary collaboration may be shaping culture in history research toward convergence with the research culture of the natural sciences.
Originality/value
For sustainable digital humanities infrastructure and digital collections, it is of great importance that system designers understand how the collections are accessed, why and their use in the real-world context. The study enriches understanding of the collections' utilisation and advances a theoretical framework for explicating task-based information interaction.
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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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Po-Lin Lai, Dong-Taur Su, Hui-Huang Tai and Ching-Chiao Yang
The increasing demand for high-quality logistics services has forced container shipping firms to decrease logistics service failure to retain the customers. This study thus aims…
Abstract
Purpose
The increasing demand for high-quality logistics services has forced container shipping firms to decrease logistics service failure to retain the customers. This study thus aims to apply organizational information processing theory (OIPT) to construct a maritime supply chain collaborative decision-making model and examine its impact on logistics service performance.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 142 usable questionnaires were collected from questionnaire survey. A two-step structural equation modeling approach including confirmatory factor analysis was subsequently performed to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that internal information integration positively impacts external information integration, that external information integration positively impacts collaborative decision-making, and that collaborative decision-making positively impacts logistics service performance for container shipping firms. However, a relationship between internal information integration and collaborative decision-making was not found in this study.
Research limitations/implications
This study primarily examines collaborative decision-making from the view of container shipping firms. Future research including other supply chain members is needed to generalize the results and could also incorporate other factors such as relationship quality and culture, into the model to address this issue.
Practical implications
To decrease the occurrence of logistics failures and improve service quality in the maritime logistics process, it is suggested that container shipping firms apply information technology for acquiring and assimilating logistics information internally and externally across the supply chain to facilitate decision-making.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the knowledge about the antecedents and impacts of collaborative decision-making for container shipping firms in Taiwan. Particularly, in line with OITP, the findings indicate that container shipping firms can facilitate logistics decision-making and strategy formulation through information integration, which in turn enhances logistics service performance.
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This study aims to identify problems connected to information classification in theory and to put those problems into the context of experiences from practice.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify problems connected to information classification in theory and to put those problems into the context of experiences from practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Five themes describing problems are discussed in an empirical study, having informants represented from both a public and a private sector organization.
Findings
The reasons for problems to occur in information classification are exemplified by the informants’ experiences. The study concludes with directions for future research.
Originality/value
Information classification sustains the basics of security measures. The human–organizational challenges are evident in the activities but have received little attention in research.
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Rafael Carlos, Daniel C. Amaral and Mauro Caetano
Roadmapping has been used as an approach to support market, product and technology-integrated planning, resulting in a document commonly known as a roadmap. Despite the gains made…
Abstract
Purpose
Roadmapping has been used as an approach to support market, product and technology-integrated planning, resulting in a document commonly known as a roadmap. Despite the gains made in relation to the technique, recent studies indicate that most users leave or have difficulties in sustaining the process (i.e. maintaining the updated roadmaps). This paper aims to present a framework for continuous roadmap updating that incorporates principles from agile management fields.
Design/methodology/approach
The framework was developed through action research in a manufacturing firm in the construction industry.
Findings
The results demonstrate a positive impact on the degree of continuous information monitoring, roadmap credibility and use of the roadmap during innovation strategy decisions.
Originality/value
The key contribution of this framework is the demonstration of a new strategy for carrying out the maps in which information is internalized by the organization itself, using agile teams, without commissioned specialists and as part of the work standards.
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Isto Huvila, Olle Sköld and Lisa Börjesson
Sharing information about work processes has proven to be difficult. This applies especially to information shared from those who participate in a process to those who remain…
Abstract
Purpose
Sharing information about work processes has proven to be difficult. This applies especially to information shared from those who participate in a process to those who remain outsiders. The purpose of this article is to increase understanding of how professionals document their work practices with a focus on information making by analysing how archaeologists document their information work in archaeological reports.
Design/methodology/approach
In total 47 Swedish archaeological reports published in 2018 were analysed using close reading and constant comparative categorisation.
Findings
Even if explicit narratives of methods and work process have particular significance as documentation of information making, the evidence of information making is spread out all over the report document in (1) procedural narratives, (2) descriptions of methods and tools, (3) actors and actants, (4) photographs, (5) information sources, (6) diagrams and drawings and (7) outcomes. The usability of reports as conveyors of information on information making depends more on how a forthcoming reader can live with it as a whole rather than how to learn of the details it recites.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on a limited number of documents representing one country and one scholarly and professional field.
Practical implications
Increased focus on the internal coherence of documentation and the complementarity of different types of descriptions could improve information sharing. Further, descriptions of concepts that refer to work activities and the situation when information came into being could similarly improve their usability.
Originality/value
There is little earlier research on how professionals and academics document and describe their information activities.
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