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1 – 10 of over 197000This paper aims to explore the relationship between the characteristics of social media health information and its adoption. The purpose is to identify information characteristics…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the relationship between the characteristics of social media health information and its adoption. The purpose is to identify information characteristics that can be used to estimate the level of health information adoption in advance.
Design/methodology/approach
According to the Information Adoption Model (IAM), the study extracted ten information characteristics from the aspects of information quality and information source credibility. The sample data was collected from the top ten influential health accounts based on the Impact List of Sina Weibo to test the effectiveness of these characteristics in distinguishing information at different levels of adoption. The forecasting of information adoption level is regarded as a binary classification question in the study and support vector machine (SVM) is used to do the research.
Findings
The results indicate that ten information characteristics chosen in this study are related to information adoption. Based on these information characteristics, it is feasible to estimate the level of health information adoption, and the estimation accuracy is relatively high.
Originality/value
A lot of work has been done in previous researches to reveal the factors that influence information adoption. The theoretical contribution of this work is to further discuss how to use the influencing factors to do some predictive work for information adoption. In practice, it will help health information publishers to disseminate high-quality health information more effectively as well as promote the adoption of health information.
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Sirirat Somapa, Martine Cools and Wout Dullaert
The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review that aims to provide insight into the characteristics and effectiveness of supply chain visibility (SCV), as well as to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review that aims to provide insight into the characteristics and effectiveness of supply chain visibility (SCV), as well as to identify metrics that capture these aspects in business processes.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of the supply chain literature is conducted to identify the characteristics and the effectiveness of SCV. The synthesis of SCV effectiveness and its metrics are based on the process-oriented approach which relates the effectiveness of SCV to improved business performance.
Findings
This study reveals that the characteristics of SCV can be captured in terms of the accessibility, quality, and usefulness of information. The benefits of SCV are found to extend beyond improvements to operational efficiency of business processes or to the strategic competencies of an organization.
Practical implications
This study underlines that clear agreements between all players involved in the SC can help to solve problems caused by information completeness (type and amount of information), and unlock the full potential of SCV projects.
Originality/value
By using a process-oriented approach, this review provides a comprehensive explanation of the functions of SCV, as well as its first-order effects, in terms of automational, informational, and transformational characteristics.
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Silvia Ratna, Endang Siti Astuti, Hamidah Nayati Utami, Kusdi Rahardjo and Zainul Arifin
This study aims to examine the effect of task and technology characteristics on the compatibility of technology and tasks, as well as examine the reciprocal effect between the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of task and technology characteristics on the compatibility of technology and tasks, as well as examine the reciprocal effect between the task-technology fit and the use of information systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The study took place in 36 star hotels from one-star to four-star hotels in some cities and districts in South Kalimantan Province. There were 24 hotels in Banjarmasin, 7 hotels in Banjarbaru and 1 hotel in each area of Banjar, Tanah Bumbu, Tabalong, Hulu Sungai Utara and Barito Kuala. The hotels chosen were those implemented the information and communication technology as supporting administrative activities to serve hotel customers. The population was the front office staff in the existing hotels as the users of the information technology. The sampling technique used in this research was the questionnaire distribution in accordance with the number of population. Data were collected from the filled questionnaires. From the 239distributed questionnaires, 164 (68.62 per cent) were returned and used as the research data.
Findings
Task characteristics and technology characteristics have a significant and positive effect on task-technology fit, in which the higher the task characteristics and technology characteristics, the higher the task-technology fit. The task-technology fit and the use of information systems are positive and reciprocal. This means that the higher the task-technology fit, the higher the use of information systems.
Originality/value
The originality of this study is reciprocal relationship between the variables of use with the task-technology fit. Some researchers have found the compatibility of technological tasks affecting the use of information systems, namely, Lin and Huang (2008), Norzaidi and Salwani (2009), Larsen et al. (2009), McGill and Klobas (2009), D’Ambra and Wilson (2013), Im (2014) and Chang et al. (2015). On the other hand, in task-technology fit theory, Goodhue and Thompson (1995) state that use affects the task-technology fit.
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Chunnian Liu, Qi Tian and Xiaogang Zhu
This study aimed to analyze existing problems in the dissemination and management of emergency information on social media platforms, improve social media users' experience…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to analyze existing problems in the dissemination and management of emergency information on social media platforms, improve social media users' experience regarding such information, increase the efficiency of emergency information dissemination and curb the spread of misinformation.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the emergency information quality on social media platforms was examined. Based on the evaluation principles of the quality of mature information, social media information characteristics and the rules of emergency information dissemination, combined with relevant academic research results, an index to evaluate the quality of emergency information on social media was constructed. In addition, the authors have introduced cloud theory as an information quality evaluation method and used social media users' emotional characteristics to assess information quality evaluation results. A comprehensive system for evaluating emergency information quality, including indexes, methods and detection strategies was established. Based on a comprehensive system, a case study was conducted on the forest fires in Sichuan Province and the African swine fever events as reported on the Zhihu platform. In accordance with the results of the case study, the authors expanded the research and introduced the emotional characteristics of social media users as an independent evaluation dimension to evaluate the quality of emergency information on social media.
Findings
The comprehensive system's effectiveness was verified through the case study. Further, it was found that users' emotional characteristics (reflected in their information behavior) are inconsistent with their evaluation of websites' information quality regarding major emergencies. Integrating users' emotional characteristics into the information evaluation system can enhance its effectiveness following major emergencies.
Originality/value
First, an evaluation index system of emergency information quality on social media about major emergencies was offered. Unlike the commonly available index system for information quality evaluation, this proposed evaluation index system not only accounted for the characteristics of social media, such as massive disordered information, multiple information sources and rapid dissemination, but also for the characteristics of emergency events, such as variability and the absence of precursors. This proposed evaluation index system enhances the pertinence of the information quality evaluation and compensates for the shortcoming that the current research only focuses on evaluating social media information quality in a broad context, but pays insufficient attention to major emergencies. Second, cloud theory was introduced as a method to evaluate the emergency information quality found on social media. Existing research has primarily included the use of traditional statistical methods, which cannot transform numerical values into qualitative concepts effectively. Various indeterminate factors inevitably affect the quality of emergency information on social media platforms, and the traditional methods cannot eliminate this uncertainty in the evaluation process. The method to assess emergency information quality based on cloud theory can effectively compensate for the gaps in the research and improve the accuracy of information quality assessment. Third, the inspection and the dynamic adjustment of assessment results are absent in the research on information quality assessment, and the research has relied principally on the information users' evaluation and has paid insufficient attention to their attitudes and behaviors toward information. Therefore, the authors incorporated users' emotional characteristics into the evaluation of emergency information quality on social media and used them to test the evaluation results so that the results of the information quality assessment not only include the users' explicit attitudes but also their implicit attitudes. This enhances the effectiveness of the information quality assessment system. Finally, through this case study, it was found that an inconsistency exists between user evaluation and user emotional characteristics after major emergencies. The reasons for this phenomenon were explained, and the necessity of integrating user emotional characteristics into information quality assessment was demonstrated. Based on this, the users' emotional characteristics were used as a separate evaluation dimension for assessing the quality of emergency information on social media. Compared with assessing the quality of general information, integrating the user's emotional characteristics into the evaluation index system can lead the evaluation results to include not only the users' cognitive evaluation but also their emotional experience, further enhancing their adaptability.
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Lu (Monroe) Meng, Tongmao Li, Xin Huang and Shaobo (Kevin) Li
This paper aims to investigate the impacts of rumors' information characteristics on people's believing and spreading of rumors online.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the impacts of rumors' information characteristics on people's believing and spreading of rumors online.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed a mixed-methods approach by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. In study 1, the authors explored different types of rumors and their information source characteristics through qualitative research. In study 2, the authors utilized the findings from study 1 to develop an empirical model to verify the impact of these characteristics on the public's behaviors of believing and spreading rumors by content analysis and quantitative research.
Findings
The results show that five information source characteristics – credibility, professionalism, attractiveness, mystery and concreteness – influence the spreading effect of different types of rumors.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to rumor spreading research by deepening the theory of information source characteristics and adding to the emerging literature on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Practical implications
Insights from this research offer important practical implications for policymakers and online-platform operators by highlighting how to suppress the spread of rumors, particularly those associated with COVID-19.
Originality/value
This research introduces the theory of information source characteristics into the field of rumor spreading and adopts a mixed-methods approach, taking COVID-19 rumors as a typical case, which provides a unique perspective for a deeper understanding of rumor spreading's antecedences.
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Nicholas J. Ashill and David Jobber
At the very core of Marketing Information Systems (MkIS) design is the identification of the marketing information needs of decision‐makers. Information needs can be defined as…
Abstract
At the very core of Marketing Information Systems (MkIS) design is the identification of the marketing information needs of decision‐makers. Information needs can be defined as the user specifications of information characteristics involved in information seeking, and refer to those qualities of information perceived by managers to be “useful” to facilitate their decision making. Drawing on empirical results from three sets of literature and from studies of information systems design (particularly management and accounting information systems design), the authors review a framework for exploring the design of an MkIS. A qualitative study examining the information needs of senior marketing executives is also reported and discussed. The results, based on interviews with 20 senior marketing executives, indicate that marketing information needs can be defined using six information characteristics.
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Sophie Rutter, Elaine G. Toms and Paul David Clough
To design effective task-responsive search systems, sufficient understanding of users’ tasks must be gained and their characteristics described. Although existing…
Abstract
Purpose
To design effective task-responsive search systems, sufficient understanding of users’ tasks must be gained and their characteristics described. Although existing multi-dimensional task schemes can be used to describe users’ search and work tasks, they do not take into account the information use environment (IUE) that contextualises the task. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
With a focus on English primary schools, in four stages a multi-dimensional task scheme was developed that distinguishes between task characteristics generic to all environments, and those that are specific to schools. In Stage 1, a provisional scheme was developed based upon the existing literature. In the next two stages, through interviews with teachers and observations of school children, the provisional scheme was populated and revised. In Stage 4, whether search tasks with the same information use can be distinguished by their characteristics was examined.
Findings
Ten generic characteristics were identified (nature of work task, search task originator, search task flexibility, search task doer, search task necessity, task output, search goal, stage in work task, resources and information use) and four characteristics specific to primary schools (curricular area, use in curricular area, planning and location). For the different information uses, some characteristics are more typical than others.
Practical implications
The resulting scheme, based on children’s real-life information seeking, should be used in the design and evaluation of search systems and digital libraries that support school children. More generally, the scheme can also be used in other environments.
Originality/value
This is the first study to develop a multi-dimensional task scheme that considers encompasses the IUE.
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Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior…
Abstract
Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.
Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.
TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.
The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.
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Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and…
Abstract
Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).
The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.
This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.
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This systematic literature review aims to elaborate on the research progress and features of information source preferences to help other researchers attain a more comprehensive…
Abstract
Purpose
This systematic literature review aims to elaborate on the research progress and features of information source preferences to help other researchers attain a more comprehensive understanding of the field.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a systematic review protocol, 139 research articles from 11 academic databases were analyzed.
Findings
Overall, five separate results were obtained: first, information source horizon theory is the main theoretical foundation of information source preferences research, while other theories have been applied less. Second, information source preference research has strong context sensitivity and involves health, work, consumption, learning, survival and development and emergencies. Third, preference criteria can be summarized into three categories: information characteristics, user characteristics, needs characteristics and corresponding specific criteria. Fourth, information source preferences are influenced by both internal and external factors, including five specific aspects, namely demographics, the user's cognition, the user's affection, capital and contextual factors. Fifth, this field is dominated by quantitative methods and an information horizon mapping method could be applied more.
Originality/value
This study is the first to reveal the general picture of information source preferences. It also elaborates on the characteristics of this field and presents potential development directions.
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