Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of process improvement team member perceptions regarding the effectiveness of asynchronous e‐collaboration.

A field‐based, two‐phase canonical action research study was conducted at two different sites. Data were obtained from observations and interviews of all team members. Media synchronicity theory was utilized to hypothesize the interplay of media capabilities, task communication processes, and team functions.

Eight primarily virtual teams solved complex problems and provided feedback on the effectiveness of various communications media. The results support media synchronicity theory.

Media synchronicity theory provides an alternative explanation for studies both supporting and contradicting media richness theory. The teams in this study were newly formed. Further investigation of established teams and other contexts is warranted.

For complex problem‐solving tasks performed by newly formed teams, communications media with low synchronicity (e.g. listserv, e‐mail, bulletin board) may be appropriate for conveyance of information; whereas media with high synchronicity (e.g. face‐to‐face, telephone) may be more desirable for convergence on shared meaning.

As geographic, temporal, and cost constraints move organizations toward virtual team work for increasingly complex tasks, research is warranted on effective utilization of available communication technology for solving business problems without face‐to‐face communication. This research paper examines the issue through an emerging theoretical lens, media synchronicity theory, and suggests a new proposition.

E‐Teaching as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education is of growing importance for educational theory and practice. Many universities and other higher education institutions use ICT to support teaching. However, there are contradicting opinions about the value and outcome of e‐teaching. This paper starts with a review of the literature on e‐teaching and uses this as a basis for distilling success factors for e‐teaching. It then discusses the case study of an e‐voting system used for giving student feedback and marking student presentations. The case study is critically discussed in the light of the success factors developed earlier. The conclusion is that e‐teaching, in order to be successful, should be embedded in the organisational and individual teaching philosophy.

Interruptions are prevalent in knowledge work, and their negative consequences have driven research to find ways for interruption management. However, these means almost always leave the responsibility and burden of interruptions with individual knowledge workers. System-level approaches for interruption management, on the other hand, have the potential to reduce the burden on employees. This paper’s objective is to pave way for system-level interruption management by showing that data about factual characteristics of work can be used to identify interrupting situations.

The authors provide a demonstration of using trace data from information and communications technology (ICT)-systems and machine learning to identify interrupting situations. They conduct a “simulation” of automated data collection by asking employees of two companies to provide information concerning situations and interruptions through weekly reports. They obtain information regarding four organizational elements: task, people, technology and structure, and employ classification trees to show that this data can be used to identify situations across which the level of interruptions differs.

The authors show that it is possible to identifying interrupting situations from trace data. During the eight-week observation period in Company A they identified seven and in Company B four different situations each having a different probability of occurrence of interruptions.

The authors extend employee-level interruption management to the system-level by using “task” as a bridging concept. Task is a core concept in both traditional interruption research and Leavitt's 1965 socio-technical model which allows us to connect other organizational elements (people, structure and technology) to interruptions.

Although the martial arts industry is rapidly evolving into a mature and highly competitive marketplace, only a few studies have been conducted to understand why people participate in martial arts. The purpose of this study is to examine motivation factors that influence an individual's participation in martial arts to provide leaders of the industry with meaningful managerial implications. The researchers collected data from the 2004 Battle of Columbus Martial Arts World Games IV, one of the most popular martial arts events in the US. The results of a series of MANOVA tests revealed that these martial arts participants (N = 307) are highly motivated by growth-related motivation (e.g. value development and actualisation). In addition, the findings indicate that motivation of martial arts practitioners varies across types of martial arts disciplines, competition orientation and past experiences. Given these results, implications for future research and practice are discussed

This article presents the first stage of a design‐based research project to introduce case‐based learning using existing interactive technologies in a major Australian university. The paper initially outlines the relationship between casebased learning, student interaction and the study of interactions ‐ and includes a review of research into technologies supporting varying types of interaction. We then introduce design‐based research (DBR) as a way of improving student interaction within an undergraduate e‐business course while simultaneously adding practical and theoretical insights to the literature in the field. Applying DBR, we present the learning environment used and analyse the interactions observed. The paper concludes with a summary of our findings concerning instructional means to make online interactions more meaningful and a discussion of future research activities within the project using design‐based research.

This paper aims to identify and discuss selected reasons for social media disengagement (SMD). Drawing upon two-factor theory, it is argued that the determinants of consumer disengagement may be different from those that enable consumer engagement. Accordingly, extrinsic factors of social media experiences (SMEs), subjective norms (SN), perceived anonymity (PA) and perceived credibility (PC) trigger previously engaged consumers to terminate their interactions with the brand on social media.

A quantitative survey targeting young members from one of the largest social media communities in Vietnam was used in 2018. A total of 387 completed questionnaires were used for data analysis using covariance-based structural equation modeling.

Results reveal that PC is the main driver of SMD. Moreover, PA, SME and SN are indirectly related to SMD via PC.

The study provides some strategic recommendations for brand managers to re-design user interaction with social media brand pages to improve consumer retention and minimize consumer disengagement.

While consumer engagement with social media has received much attention from practitioners and academics, a research gap exists around the “dark side” of consumer engagement in which consumers can disengage from their relationship with brand on social media. This disengagement can lead ultimately to the termination of the relationship between the consumer and the brand. This research contributes to marketing literature by providing empirical evidence for relevant constructs driving consumer disengagement from the brand’s social media pages.

This paper aims to explore the disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by megacities. Three dimensions were considered. First, what communication channels are used by world megacities to disclose their emissions reduction target (ERT) and emissions reduction actions (ERA)? Second, the consistency of disclosed ERT and ERA across different channels. Third, the quality of the disclosed ERA in different channels.

Ten megacities selected for review were in Australia, Europe, the USA, the UK and South Africa. First, ERT and ERA information was searched in different disclosure media to identify the common communication channels used by the megacities. Second, the documentary analysis was undertaken to assess the consistency of reported ERT and ERA information across the identified channels. Third, a scoring system was developed and applied to evaluate the quality of the disclosed ERA information, based on the extent to which megacities provided descriptions of emission reduction actions and reported the impact of the actions and the cost to implement them.

Megacities primarily used third-party channels and their channels to disclose ERT- and ERA-related information. Social media use to provide climate change information is also growing. The study also finds that ERT information is consistent between third-party channels and megacities’ channels. However, around half of the disclosed ERA between third-party and megacities’ channels are not consistent. Quality assessment for the disclosed ERA in different channels shows that megacities have provided limited information regarding the impacts and the cost of their ERA, which raises a question about the usefulness of disclosure.

The findings are important for policymakers and city officials designing cities’ GHG reporting standards and developing policies for programs to reduce emissions. Also, for stakeholders’ understanding of cities’ commitment and actions to reduce emissions, as well as the impact of their actions, and for managers responsible for measuring, reporting and mitigating emissions from current and future actions.

Prior studies primarily focused on corporate greenhouse emissions disclosure to the carbon disclosure project, whereas this paper examines emissions disclosure at the geographic level. Moreover, prior studies of the public sector focused on the scope of climate change disclosure but did not evaluate the consistency and quality of the disclosure. However, this study explores three different disclosure channels and assesses consistency and quality. A further novel aspect of the study is its focus on the disclosure of emissions reduction targets and actions.

Hype about information and communication technology (ICT) emphasizes potential positive outcomes; while enabling factors are under‐emphasized and potential negative outcomes are excluded. The purpose of this paper is to broaden the framing of ICT to include enabling factors and potential negative outcomes.

The paper takes the form of a critical realist study. Critical realist research seeks to improve understanding of causal mechanisms and causal contexts.

Comprehensive enablers for decision making include balanced unambiguous information; specific trustworthy communication; quiet sufficient decision spaces; and independent engaged decision makers. The introduction of a new ICT can make a contribution to, and/or detract from, realization of these principal enabling factors.

In this paper ICT is positioned within a preliminary comprehensive framing of enabling factors for decision making. ICT is used for other purposes. Nonetheless, the positioning of ICT in a preliminary comprehensive framing for decision making support reveals how hype about ICT can be mediated by consideration of enabling factors and potential negative outcomes.

The broader framing of enabling factors can provide a starting point for managers to undertake comprehensive improvement of information, communication, and contexts for decision making.

The originality of this paper is that it applies critical realism to mediate hype about ICTs that could be used to support decision making. The value of this paper is that it provides a detailed description of inter‐related factors that need to be managed in decision making support.

Studies on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tracing apps have mostly focused on how to optimize adoption and continuous use, but did not consider potential long-term effects of their introduction. This study aims to analyse whether the characteristics of the recent introduction of tracing apps may negatively impact individuals' attitudes and intentions to adopt future tracking technology.

In an online experiment across three countries (Australia, Germany, UK), the authors measured how perceived benefits of COVID-19 tracing apps as well as specific government and campaign-related factors affect privacy concerns, attitude towards future tracking apps and intention to adopt. The authors manipulated the type of provider (governmental vs private) and the type of beneficiaries of the future tracking technology app (the individual alone or also the public) as determinants of adoption.

The authors find that privacy concerns towards the COVID-19 tracing apps negatively impact attitude and intention to adopt future tracking apps. Future adoption is more likely if the app is provided by the government, whereas additional benefits to the public do not positively stimulate adoption. Second, the study analyzed different factors, including perceptions on governments and the app introduction, as well as perceived benefits.

Taking the introduction of COVID-19 apps in different countries as a basis, the authors link both perceived benefits and contextual factors to privacy concerns, attitudes towards and intention to adopt the related technology in the future. The authors hereby clarify the responsibility of governmental actors who conduct large-scale technology introductions for the future diffusion of related technologies.

This study aims to investigate how media content consumed through immersive technology may evoke changes in human rights attitudes. It has been proposed that our inability to empathize with others could be overcome by stepping into another's shoes. “Immersive journalism” has been postulated as being able to place us into the shoes of those whose feelings and experiences are distant to us. While virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree news videos have become widely available, it remains unclear how the consumption of content through immersive journalism affects users' attitudes.

Utilizing a between-subject laboratory-controlled experiment (N = 87) this study examined participant scores on the Human Rights Questionnaire before and after consuming 360-degree video immersive journalism content via VR (n = 31), 2D (n = 29), and Article (n = 27) formats. Collected data were analysed using statistical inference.

Results indicate that immersive journalism can elicit a positive attitudinal change in users, unlike an Article, with mobile VR having a more prominent effect than a 2D screen. Furthermore, this change is more strongly affected by users' higher Involvement in the content.

These findings are relevant for grasping the distinct effects novel and recently popularized technologies and media have on attitudinal change, as well as inform the current debate on the value of VR as “empathy machines”.