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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1996

COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES OF INFORMATION RETRIEVAL INTERACTION: ELEMENTS OF A COGNITIVE IR THEORY

PETER INGWERSEN

The objective of the paper is to amalgamate theories of text retrieval from various research traditions into a cognitive theory for information retrieval interaction. Set…

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Abstract

The objective of the paper is to amalgamate theories of text retrieval from various research traditions into a cognitive theory for information retrieval interaction. Set in a cognitive framework, the paper outlines the concept of polyrepresentation applied to both the user's cognitive space and the information space of IR systems. The concept seeks to represent the current user's information need, problem state, and domain work task or interest in a structure of causality. Further, it implies that we should apply different methods of representation and a variety of IR techniques of different cognitive and functional origin simultaneously to each semantic full‐text entity in the information space. The cognitive differences imply that by applying cognitive overlaps of information objects, originating from different interpretations of such objects through time and by type, the degree of uncertainty inherent in IR is decreased. Polyrepresentation and the use of cognitive overlaps are associated with, but not identical to, data fusion in IR. By explicitly incorporating all the cognitive structures participating in the interactive communication processes during IR, the cognitive theory provides a comprehensive view of these processes. It encompasses the ad hoc theories of text retrieval and IR techniques hitherto developed in mainstream retrieval research. It has elements in common with van Rijsbergen and Lalmas' logical uncertainty theory and may be regarded as compatible with that conception of IR. Epistemologically speaking, the theory views IR interaction as processes of cognition, potentially occurring in all the information processing components of IR, that may be applied, in particular, to the user in a situational context. The theory draws upon basic empirical results from information seeking investigations in the operational online environment, and from mainstream IR research on partial matching techniques and relevance feedback. By viewing users, source systems, intermediary mechanisms and information in a global context, the cognitive perspective attempts a comprehensive understanding of essential IR phenomena and concepts, such as the nature of information needs, cognitive inconsistency and retrieval overlaps, logical uncertainty, the concept of ‘document’, relevance measures and experimental settings. An inescapable consequence of this approach is to rely more on sociological and psychological investigative methods when evaluating systems and to view relevance in IR as situational, relative, partial, differentiated and non‐linear. The lack of consistency among authors, indexers, evaluators or users is of an identical cognitive nature. It is unavoidable, and indeed favourable to IR. In particular, for full‐text retrieval, alternative semantic entities, including Salton et al.'s ‘passage retrieval’, are proposed to replace the traditional document record as the basic retrieval entity. These empirically observed phenomena of inconsistency and of semantic entities and values associated with data interpretation support strongly a cognitive approach to IR and the logical use of polyrepresentation, cognitive overlaps, and both data fusion and data diffusion.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 52 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026960
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 26 August 2014

Wand and Weber's good decomposition conditions for BPMN : An interpretation and differences to Event-Driven Process Chains

Florian Johannsen, Susanne Leist and Reinhold Tausch

The purpose of this paper is to specify the decomposition conditions of Wand and Weber for the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). Therefore, an interpretation of…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to specify the decomposition conditions of Wand and Weber for the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). Therefore, an interpretation of the conditions for BPMN is derived and compared to a specification of the conditions for enhanced Event-Driven Process Chains (eEPCs). Based on these results, guidelines for a conformance check of BPMN and eEPC models with the decomposition conditions are shown. Further, guidelines for decomposition are formulated for BPMN models. The usability of the decomposition guidelines is tested with modelling experts.

Design/methodology/approach

An approach building on a representational mapping is used for specifying the decomposition conditions. Therefore, ontological constructs of the Bunge-Wand-Weber ontology are mapped to corresponding modelling constructs and an interpretation of the decomposition conditions for BPMN is derived. Guidelines for a conformance check are then defined. Based on these results, decomposition guidelines are formulated. Their usability is tested in interviews.

Findings

The research shows that the decomposition conditions stemming from the information systems discipline can be transferred to business process modelling. However, the interpretation of the decomposition conditions depends on specific characteristics of a modelling language. Based on a thorough specification of the conditions, it is possible to derive guidelines for a conformance check of process models with the conditions. In addition, guidelines for decomposition are developed and tested. In the study, these are perceived as understandable and helpful by experts.

Research limitations/implications

Research approaches based on representational mappings are subjected to subjectivity. However, by having three researchers performing the approach independently, subjectivity can be mitigated. Further, only ten experts participated in the usability test, which is therefore to be considered as a first step in a more comprising evaluation.

Practical implications

This paper provides the process modeller with guidelines enabling a conformance check of BPMN and eEPC process models with the decomposition conditions. Further, guidelines for decomposing BPMN models are introduced.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to specify Wand and Weber's decomposition conditions for process modelling with BPMN. A comparison to eEPCs shows, that the ontological expressiveness influences the interpretation of the conditions. Further, guidelines for decomposing BPMN models as well as for checking their adherence to the decomposition conditions are presented.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 20 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-03-2013-0031
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

  • Process modelling
  • Decomposition
  • Process management
  • BPMN
  • Event-driven process chain

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 2000

The digitisation of heritage material: arguing for an interpretative approach based on the experience of the Powys Digital History Project

Gordon Reid

In the past, librarians, museum curators and archivists have responded to ICT developments by adapting them to traditional working practices such as cataloguing. Recent…

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Abstract

In the past, librarians, museum curators and archivists have responded to ICT developments by adapting them to traditional working practices such as cataloguing. Recent developments are creating new pressures, however, and the expectations on information professionals are changing. The most radical innovation is that of the Internet, and it may no longer be appropriate to think in traditional terms to exploit this new medium to the full. The Internet offers remote access and digitisation programmes are being designed to make use of that. So far, these programmes have concentrated on the digitisation of finding aids or of selected primary source materials, but there is also a need for other programmes (“digital exhibitions”) to be developed with a greater emphasis on collaboration and interpretation, aimed at the non‐academic, or casual user. In this way librarians, museum curators and archivists can demonstrate their readiness to embrace the visions of such programmes as the People’s Network and the National Grid for Learning and at the same time reach a whole new audience.

Details

Program, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000006930
ISSN: 0033-0337

Keywords

  • Cataloguing
  • Collection management
  • Information technology

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Article
Publication date: 11 May 2015

Re-enactment and its information practices; tensions between the individual and the collective

Jessica Robinson and Hilary Yerbury

The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices used by Australian re-enactors to achieve authenticity, a communally agreed measure of acceptability in the creation…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices used by Australian re-enactors to achieve authenticity, a communally agreed measure of acceptability in the creation of an impression, the dress, behaviours and accoutrements of the period, through the concepts of serious leisure and information practices.

Design/methodology/approach

Re-enactment is a practical, information-based performative activity. In this paper, the research styles and decision-making processes developed and employed by its enthusiasts to create authentic impressions are examined through an ethnographic case study.

Findings

The re-enactors are identified as “makers and tinkerers”, in Stebbins’s categorisation of serious leisure. Research, documentation and the sharing of information, knowledge and skills are common practices among re-enactors and acknowledged as integral to the processes of creating an impression to a collectively agreed standard of authenticity. Re-enactors’ “making” includes not only the creation of the impression but also the documentation of their process of creating it. They prize individual knowledge and expertise and through this, seek to stand out from the collective.

Originality/value

Although communities of re-enactors are often studied from a historical perspective, this may be the first time a study has been undertaken from an information studies perspective. The tension between the collective, social norms and standards that support the functioning of the group in understanding authenticity, and the expert amateur; the individual with specialist skills and talents, encourages a fuller investigation of the relationships between the individual and the collective in the context of information practices.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 71 no. 3
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2014-0051
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

  • Behaviour
  • Communities
  • Authenticity
  • Leisure activities

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Article
Publication date: 1 May 1987

Practical Financial Management

1.1 What Are Accounts For? Overview The purpose of accounts is to reveal performance in the conduct of a business or other activity concerned with use of economic…

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Abstract

1.1 What Are Accounts For? Overview The purpose of accounts is to reveal performance in the conduct of a business or other activity concerned with use of economic resources (e.g. a club). It is thus a matter of stewardship. Although, like economics, it is necessary in accounting to use money as a measure of performance, it is concerned with the individual organisation rather than with economic phenomena as a whole.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 25 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb001465
ISSN: 0025-1747

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 2009

Capturing and (re)interpreting complexity in multi‐firm disruptive product innovations

Hugh M. Pattinson and Arch G. Woodside

This case study research report aims to include collecting additional field interviews with the original and additional executives participating in the original case study…

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Abstract

Purpose

This case study research report aims to include collecting additional field interviews with the original and additional executives participating in the original case study (on the Zaplet software applications firm) to enhance the interpretations by the original case study investigators as well as add‐in downstream events occurring after the original report. The focus of the study is to increase descriptive knowledge and understanding of innovation and diffusion processes in developing high‐tech disruptive software technologies.

Design/methodology/approach

The study includes an application of the long‐interview method and reinterpretation of original case data along with preparing and interpreting decision system analysis and chronological maps.

Findings

The reinterpretation and expansion of the original case study illustrate dramatic revisions in plans and implementing new applications following positive and negative responses by third‐parties and lead‐user customers to alpha and beta designs. Concrete field trials occur frequently in shaping where and how the firm goes about changing its direction. Third‐parties play critical roles in multiple time periods in shaping the firm's new product development direction.

Research limitations/implications

The case study reanalysis and expansion are generalizable to innovation and diffusion theory and not to a specific population of firms.

Practical implications

The paper illustrates the wisdom of Tom Peter's dictum, “Put it to tin quickly” and Dwight Eisenhower's focus on improvising, “The plan is nothing, planning is everything.”

Originality/value

Formal sensemaking of what happened helps to destroy the myth that executives must have the resources before innovating. Resources follow vision and action (implementing) is the hidden and great lesson of this paper – what Tom Peters means when he writes about the value in creating a “skunk works” – using “borrowed” time, material, places, and creative juices to make things happen.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/08858620910923711
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

  • Software engineering
  • Innovation
  • Diffusion
  • Complexity theory

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Article
Publication date: 1 December 2005

Advancing hermeneutic research for interpreting interfirm new product development

Arch G. Woodside, Hugh M. Pattinson and Kenneth E. Miller

The principal objective here is to describe conceptual and research tools for achieving deeper sense‐making of what happened and why it happened –including how…

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Abstract

Purpose

The principal objective here is to describe conceptual and research tools for achieving deeper sense‐making of what happened and why it happened –including how participants interpret outcomes of what happened and the dynamics of emic (executive) and etic (researcher) sense‐making.

Design/methodology/approach

This article uses a mixed research design including decision systems analysis, cognitive mapping, computer software‐based text analysis, and the long interview method for mapping the mental models of the participants in specific decision‐making processes as well as mapping the immediate, feedback, and downstream influences of decisions‐actions‐outcomes.

Findings

The findings in the empirical study support the view that decision processes are prospective, introspective, and retrospective, sporadically rational, ultimately affective, and altogether imaginatively unbounded.

Research limitations/implications

Not using outside auditors to evaluate post‐etic interpretations is recognized as a method limitation to the extended case study; such outside auditor reports represent an etic‐4 level of interpretation. Incorporating such etic‐4 interpretation is one suggestion for further research.

Practical implications

Asking executives for in‐depth stories about what happened and why helps them reflect and uncover very subtle nuances of what went right and what went wrong.

Originality/value

A series advanced hermeneutic B2B research reports of a specific issue (e.g., new product innovation processes) provides an advance for developing a grounded theory of what happened and why it happened. Such a large‐scale research effort enables more rigorous, accurate and useful generalizations of decision making on a specific issue than is found in literature reviews of models of complex systems.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 20 no. 7
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/08858620510628605
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

  • Product development
  • Decision making

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Article
Publication date: 1 May 1983

Management: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, Volume II

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This…

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Abstract

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb002684
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

  • Management Literature

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1977

Managerial Law

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of…

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Abstract

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb022385
ISSN: 0309-0558

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 1997

Handbook of organizational measurement

James L. Price

Addresses the standardization of the measurements and the labels for concepts commonly used in the study of work organizations. As a reference handbook and research tool…

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Addresses the standardization of the measurements and the labels for concepts commonly used in the study of work organizations. As a reference handbook and research tool, seeks to improve measurement in the study of work organizations and to facilitate the teaching of introductory courses in this subject. Focuses solely on work organizations, that is, social systems in which members work for money. Defines measurement and distinguishes four levels: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Selects specific measures on the basis of quality, diversity, simplicity and availability and evaluates each measure for its validity and reliability. Employs a set of 38 concepts ‐ ranging from “absenteeism” to “turnover” as the handbook’s frame of reference. Concludes by reviewing organizational measurement over the past 30 years and recommending future measurement reseach.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 18 no. 4/5/6
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/01437729710182260
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

  • Labelling
  • Measurement
  • Research
  • Work organization

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