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The purpose of this chapter is to provide researchers a summary of some of the latest developments in item response theory (IRT), and to help these groups realize that psychometric tools can now be used for theory testing in addition to the traditional role of improving construct measurement. The author first reviews some of the fundamental tenets of classical test theory to contrast with IRT. He then describes recent advances in goodness-of-fit tests that have helped turn IRT into a model-testing tool. Finally, the author reviews several new test models that provide new flexibilities, summarizing summarize several examples of research that has used these new models in organizational research. At the end of this review, the author provides suggestions to help researchers better use these new IRT tools. Although there have been significant advances in IRT in the past decade, there has not been a systematic review of these developments. This review places those developments in context to provide readers a real appreciation of these breakthroughs.

The purpose of this study is to examine consumer attitude toward a new type of co-branded products, which encompass attributes of high-technology and luxury. The authors named these kinds of co-branded products as “high-tech luxury co-branded products” (HLCPs). Current theoretical approaches used to study co-branding strategies cannot completely explain consumer attitude toward HLCPs. In this study, the authors apply the ABC (affect-behavior-cognition) model of attitudes (as opposed to attitude as a whole) to explore how affect and cognition drive consumer behavior toward HLCPs.

Questionnaires were used and the respondents totaled 483 in period 1 and 331 in period 2. Respondents were collected using convenience sampling technique in one university in Spain and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The authors finding revealed that consumers use both affect and cognition simultaneously when forming an attitude toward HLCPs. Also, consumers’ perception of product fit represents a more relevant driver of consumer behavior with respect to brand fit. Appropriate theoretical and managerial implications are derived from these results.

This study contributes to the understanding of consumers’ preferences toward high-tech luxury co-branded products.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the utility of information systems (IS) success models in mandatory e-government services, as opposed to the volitional ones that have been the focus of previous studies. The models include the technology acceptance model (TAM) (1989) and Seddon’s model (1997), which involve three (ease of use, usefulness and citizens satisfaction) and four variables (system quality, information quality, usefulness and citizen satisfaction).

The models were compared based on a survey conducted on 780 foundation year students of government universities in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Government has launched a mandatory e-government service geared to assist high school graduates in the university academic admission process. The goodness-of-fit and parsimony of fit indices and the explanatory power were used to compare the two models.

The structural equation modeling techniques revealed that overall, the two models both exhibited reasonable fit with the collected data, whereas TAM showed the best fit to the sample data and yielded superior goodness-of-fit indices over Seddon’s model. In terms of explanatory power, Seddon’s model predicted 28% (R² = 0.28) of the variance explained for citizen satisfaction, whereas TAM predicted 21% (R² = 0.21). All the parsimony of fit indices favored TAM over Seddon’s model.

This study examined the validity of TAM and Seddon’s model, using citizen satisfaction as the dependent variable to compare them. TAM and Seddon’s model were modified to better fit the current research context of mandatory e-government services; thus, the findings may not hold for their original or other voluntary settings. In addition, the focus on a single survey for a certain time in a certain territory of mandatory e-government service may have limited the generalizability of the results to other mandatory contexts. Future research should make use of large, cross-sectional samples in different mandatory contexts to enhance result generalization.

This study’s findings can provide e-government practitioners with deeper perceptions of how to address citizen satisfaction with mandatory e-government services. The results exposed usefulness as the common and major construct, having the strongest influence on citizen satisfaction in both TAM and Seddon’s model; thus, maximizing the benefits of e-government services for citizens is crucial to their success. The causal relationship between information quality and citizen satisfaction was not supported. This supports the perspective that e-government services are currently evolving quickly, becoming more integrated and easier-to-use, generally requiring only a few clicks and less information.

This study has extended the assessment of the validity of IS success models to a mandatory IS usage setting. The comparison study of different IS success models is crucial as it acts as a guide for researchers to determine the trade-off between the models used to conduct research on a particular context. The study concludes that TAM is the most parsimonious and universal model for the study of user satisfaction in mandatory contexts. The findings will provide e-government practitioners with insights into IS success measures suited to enhance the effectiveness of newly and future mandated e-government services.

Commercial property is regarded by many as functioning in a relatively inefficient market, so that opportunities exist to earn abnormal gains through the exploitation of information which is not reflected in prices. Property portfolio managers therefore rely to some extent on predictions or forecasts of future commercial property market performance as a tool to aid investment decisions. This paper seeks to conduct an ex post comparative evaluation exercise for “consensus” office rent models in the UK, common explanatory variables being derived from a literature review and from a survey of practitioners’ operational models. Three alternative valuation based rent indices are used as the dependent variables. Models are selected and ranked according to historic fit and used to predict five years ahead given perfect foresight. The paper finds that the best fitting models are not the best predicting models. Generally there is no relationship between the predictive rank of a model and the fit rank of a model

The purpose of this paper is to explore accountancy students’ pre‐employment decisions as regards pursuing a career after completing an internship. The paper aims to analyse the mediating effect of aspects of students’ training experience in firms as direct/indirect factors which influence their career decisions.

The data were collected from a class after the students had completed internships and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The aim was to establish a model after nesting the second‐order confirmatory analysis of the data. The final stage was to analyse multiple mediating factors, such as the type of company (TOC) and the students’ opinion of the company.

The interns perceived opportunities for promotion in accounting firms as a long‐term advantage over salary and benefits and as a key criterion for pursuing a career in accountancy. The results indicate that person‐job (P‐J) fit affects students’ career choice more than person‐organisation (P‐O) fit, and that students’ negative opinion of the company environment mediates their intention to pursue a career in the firm after graduation.

The sample size of 121 students was limited by the number of student intake per year and the study was conducted based on per intake. This may limit the generalisability of the results.

The internship coordinators should provide sufficient information to students about the expectations of accounting firms before embarking on them and encourage an open feedback loop when they return from training to improve the internship programmes. Accounting firms, in turn, should prepare comprehensive work schedules that balance out routine administrative work with challenging auditing or tax tasks. These would improve the students’ judgement and lead them to better decisions to pursue the career and reduce turnover.

This study highlights the importance of the transitional career decisions of graduating students as regards pursuing a career in accountancy, and therefore adds to the second cycle of early employment among college graduates in the vocational literature. It also confirms the mediating factors which indirectly affect students’ career decisions and therefore how firms can improve these circumstances for future recruitment.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a research model examining users’ perceived needs-technology fit of mobile communication software through motivational needs and technological characteristics. The study investigated the effects of perceived needs-technology fit on user satisfaction and intention to continue using mobile communication software.

This study proposes a research model based on task-technology fit theory and uses and gratification theory, incorporating key determinants of users’ continuance intention toward mobile communication software. An online survey instrument was developed to collect data, and 403 questionnaires were used to test the relationships in the proposed model.

The causal model was validated using AMOS 21.0, and all nine study hypotheses were supported. The results indicated that users’ perceived needs-technology fit and satisfaction were crucial antecedents of their intention to continue using mobile communication software and that they mediated the influence of users’ needs as well as technological characteristics.

Mobile communication software practitioners should focus on enhancing users’ perceived needs-technology fit through motivational needs (utilitarian, hedonic, and social needs) and technological characteristics (mobile convenience, service compatibility, and user control) to further boost user satisfaction and intention to continue using mobile communication software services.

This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of factors explaining users’ continuance intention toward mobile communication software.

Drawing on the concept of fit, this paper aims to propose a knowledge management (KM) fit model within which KM strategy, IT strategy, and HRM strategy are coaligned and to empirically test this model with empirical data.

Data for hypotheses testing are collected from top‐ranked companies in Taiwan; yielding 161 valid samples. Performance implications of fit are examined using multiple perspectives with covariation and matching approaches.

The findings show that the holistic perspective of fit as covariation supports the fit relationships on business performance. In addition, with the reductionistic perspective of fit as matching, the findings also show their bivariate relationships have significant impacts on business performance.

A successful KM project must take various attributes into account, to ensure a positive outcome. In such a context, organization, process, human resources, and IT are thought to be the key elements and enablers for best KM practices. Thus, cogitating and integrating various factors related to the KM area are considered by researchers to be the most important tasks. However, fit mechanism is a dynamic process. The authors suggest that future research should adopt a longitudinal view to deal with the dynamic changes that may occur in fit operations.

There has been little attempt to explore KM issues by using multiple perspectives to examine the performance implications of fit on business performance. Thus, the authors posit that performance measuring in growth and profitability are affected by fit among these three KM‐related strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the customer’s perception of customer-firm, customer-employee, and employee-firm fit and to assess how these fits impact the service experience.

The paper looks at the impact of fit on the service experience and focusses on three specific types of dyadic fit: customer-employee; customer-firm; and employee-firm. A conceptual model is presented, accompanied by a detailed development of the hypotheses. A sample of 447 consumers is used to empirically test the proposed model.

The analysis reveals the importance of fit and suggest a triadic relationship perspective is essential when designing for the service experience. Specifically, employee-firm fit is key to enhancing fit within the other dyads and providing a superior service experience.

The main implication is that this paper expands the investigation of fit by examining the interplay of multiple fits while also exploring how they affect the customer experience. The limitations are based primarily on methodology where the use of a survey to collect data rules out potential generalizations of true cause and effect while also potentially being subject to a common method effect.

Managers should consider adopting a triadic relationship perspective when designing for the service experience. A number of managerial implications are proposed and discussed.

Prior research has not explored the impact of fit among the customer-employee, customer-firm, and employee-firm dyads in one model on an important outcome such as the service experience. In addition, to show that customer-employee, customer-firm, and employee-firm dyadic fits are predictors of the service experience is novel.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of an office move (and associated changes in settings, protocols and autonomy) on changes in privacy fit, privacy-related coping appraisal as well as changes in satisfaction and fatigue. The study builds on Altman’s (1975) privacy regulation model and the cognitive appraisal theory as a transactional model of stress.

Data was collected over two points of measurement from 61 office workers who moved from a standard open-plan office to an office that is activity based. The first questionnaire was distributed six weeks prior to the office move and the follow-up questionnaire approximately eight months after. With its longitudinal design, this study extends past research by demonstrating the changing nature of privacy fit and revealing predictors of change in privacy fit and coping appraisal.

Cross-lagged autoregression analysis of change confirmed suggested predictors such as increase in variety of settings and in adherence of others to protocols that positively influenced post-move privacy fit. Further, change in coping appraisal post move was predicted by an increase in perceived environmental and behavioural flexibility. Changes in privacy fit and appraisal were associated with increases in job and workplace satisfaction and decreases in emotional and mental work fatigue post move.

Results could inform physical workplace design as well as cultural interventions in organisations. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study investigating the psychological process of privacy experience by using a transactional model of stress.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between age and adaptation to changes in the workplace (perceived demand‐ability fit, task performance before and after change). It also seeks to explore two mediators of the potential age‐adaptation relationships: adaptive self‐efficacy and job experience.

A sample of 117 employees from three multinational organizations completed two questionnaires one month before and three months after changes in their workplaces.

Hierarchical linear modelling revealed that age was not related to fit and performance before but was negatively related to fit and performance after organizational change. These relationships were mediated by job experience. Job experience made it more difficult for employees – whether young or old – to adapt to workplace changes. Adaptive self‐efficacy did not mediate the negative age‐adaptation association.

In the sample, only a few employees were older than 56 years which might limit the generalizability of the results. Future research should also attempt to include objective performance data.

Managerial interventions regarding learning, development, and job rotation might counteract negative effects of job tenure.

There is little empirical research addressing issues related to age and adaptation in the workplace. The longitudinal field study presented in the paper contributes to the literature on individual adaptation to changes in the workplace by empirically examining the relationship between age and indicators of adaptation, and its mediating factors.