Search results
1 – 10 of over 16000Fanbo Meng, Yixuan Liu, Xiaofei Zhang and Libo Liu
Effectively engaging patients is critical for the sustainable development of online health communities (OHCs). Although physicians’ general knowledge-sharing, which is free to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Effectively engaging patients is critical for the sustainable development of online health communities (OHCs). Although physicians’ general knowledge-sharing, which is free to the public, represents essential resources of OHCs that have been shown to promote patient engagement, little is known about whether such knowledge-sharing can backfire when superfluous knowledge-sharing is perceived as overwhelming and anxiety-provoking. Thus, this study aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of general knowledge-sharing in OHCs by exploring the spillover effects of the depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing on patient engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The research model is established based on a knowledge-based view and the literature on knowledge-sharing in OHCs. Then the authors test the research model and associated hypotheses with objective data from a leading OHC.
Findings
Although counterintuitive, the findings revealed an inverted U-shape relationship between general knowledge-sharing (depth and breadth of knowledge-sharing) and patient engagement that is positively associated with physicians’ number of patients. Specifically, the positive effects of depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing increase and then decrease as the quantity of general knowledge-sharing grows. In addition, physicians’ offline and online professional status negatively moderated these curvilinear relationships.
Originality/value
This study further enriches the literature on knowledge-sharing and the operations of OHCs from a novel perspective while also offering significant specific implications for OHCs practitioners.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the dynamics and considerations of professionals regarding the sharing of tacit, personal knowledge in their practice.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the dynamics and considerations of professionals regarding the sharing of tacit, personal knowledge in their practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a social-constructivist ontology, the qualitative design deploys semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Data were coded, and analysed through interrelating and reasoning.
Findings
Personal knowledge is difficult to share precisely, but can be shared to some extent using reflection and stories. Knowledge also provides a position and professional agency, emphasising boundaries and impacting the decisions on interaction and sharing. As such, professional commitment is vulnerable and contextual and, by extension, material becomes part of this interplay of professional practice and collaborative development.
Research limitations/implications
Findings imply that exchange and use of knowledge and material present in organisations are impacted by individual professionals’ autonomy and decisions, which consequently impact on employees’ practice. This calls for research that focuses on individual factors such as autonomy, professionalism and attitudes in addition to organisational and facilitative matters.
Practical implications
Stimulating professional commitment and interpersonal learning is a matter of valuing personal knowledge and practice to avoid protectionism, boundaries and segregated agency. Management and professionals should consider how and why individuals exchange their personal knowledge, paying attention to social structures and individuals’ voices and objectives in forming communities.
Originality/value
This study combines the concept of tacit knowledge with the younger field of practice theory. By connecting personal knowledge to practice, it extends agency to the material world and offers a more individual perspective to knowledge sharing in and between entities.
Details
Keywords
Tiago Gonçalves, Lucía Muñoz-Pascual and Carla Curado
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the joint impact of competitive culture and knowledge behaviors (sharing, hoarding and hiding) on workplace happiness among healthcare…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the joint impact of competitive culture and knowledge behaviors (sharing, hoarding and hiding) on workplace happiness among healthcare professionals. It addresses a literature gap that critiques the development of happiness programs in healthcare that overlook organizational, social and economic dynamics. The study is based on the Social Exchange Theory, the Conservation of Resources Theory and the principles of Positive Psychology.
Design/methodology/approach
The study analyzes a linear relationship between variables using a structural equation model and a partial least squares approach. The data are sourced from a survey of 253 healthcare professionals from Portuguese healthcare organizations.
Findings
The data obtained from the model illustrate a positive correlation between competitive culture and knowledge hoarding as well as knowledge hiding. Interestingly, a competitive culture also fosters workplace happiness among healthcare professionals. The complex relationship between knowledge behaviors becomes evident since both knowledge hoarding and sharing positively affected these professionals’ workplace happiness. However, no direct impact was found between knowledge hiding and workplace happiness, suggesting that it negatively mediates other variables.
Originality/value
This research addresses a previously identified threefold gap. First, it delves into the pressing need to comprehend behaviors that enhance healthcare professionals’ workplace satisfaction. Second, it advances studies by empirically examining the varied impacts of knowledge hiding, hoarding and sharing. Finally, it sheds light on the repercussions of knowledge behaviors within an under-explored context – healthcare organizations.
Details
Keywords
Joseph Marmol Yap, Ágnes Barátné Hajdu and Péter Kiszl
The library and information science profession finds itself grappling with substantial difficulties and hurdles when addressing the trustworthiness and accuracy of information…
Abstract
Purpose
The library and information science profession finds itself grappling with substantial difficulties and hurdles when addressing the trustworthiness and accuracy of information disseminated through social media platforms. This study aims to highlight the educational authority of librarians and propose a framework for librarians to establish their identity, understand the meaning behind their practice and integrate their expertise through knowledge practices, ensuring their relevance and effectiveness in the social media environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This study delves into a conceptual framework rooted in philosophical inquiry, seeking to establish a harmonious connection between interrelated concepts of civic roles, professional identity and knowledge practices. It draws upon both original research findings and a review of existing literature in the field.
Findings
Civic responsibilities reflect the professional identities of librarians. Evidence of knowledge practices collected from scientific literature emerged to be the important characterization of how librarians uphold their image as educational authorities. It describes the meaning of civic roles and professional practice.
Practical implications
The study sheds light on how librarians maintain their reputation as educators and the knowledge practices that underpin their civic responsibilities amidst the pervasiveness of information disorders.
Originality/value
The framework presented in the study offers a timely and relevant contribution to the complex realm of social media information disorders, a challenge that librarians grapple with regularly. It highlights the emerging role of librarians in society to assert their identity and recognize their civic responsibility in addressing this pressing issue that society faces.
Details
Keywords
Jiaoyang Li, Xixi Li and Cheng Zhang
While spontaneous and voluntary knowledge contribution in online communities promotes value co-creation, dysfunctional knowledge behaviors hamper the effectiveness and development…
Abstract
Purpose
While spontaneous and voluntary knowledge contribution in online communities promotes value co-creation, dysfunctional knowledge behaviors hamper the effectiveness and development of such communities. The study conceptualizes physicians' proactive knowledge sharing and knowledge withholding behaviors in physician-driven online health communities (OHCs) and integrates the theories of role identity as well as communal and exchange relationships to understand the root causes and motivations behind these two types of knowledge behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected survey data from 166 users from one of the largest physician-driven OHCs in China and applied the covariance-based structural equation modeling approach to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The findings suggest that (1) physicians' professional role identity had a positive indirect effect on proactive knowledge sharing behaviors through communal motivation, and work pressure weakened this indirect effect; and (2) professional role identity had a negative indirect impact on knowledge withholding behaviors through exchange motivation.
Originality/value
This study extends proactive knowledge sharing and knowledge withholding behaviors from the organizational management domain to the online environment, exploring the underlying causes and motivations behind both behaviors in the unique context of physician-driven OHCs. The findings offer practical suggestions for the effective management of OHC platforms, as well as policy implications that respond to the workforce shortage of healthcare providers, a crisis that is unfolding globally.
Details
Keywords
Md Arif Iqbal and Jin Su
This study aims to examine the effects of the characteristics of apparel professionals on their attitude toward sustainability-related technology in the context of a developing…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of the characteristics of apparel professionals on their attitude toward sustainability-related technology in the context of a developing country, Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach was used to investigate the apparel professionals’ perception of sustainability-related technology. A survey was conducted, and 204 valid responses were used in data analysis. The structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that apparel professionals’ personal innovativeness positively impacts their knowledge of apparel technology. Knowledge of apparel technology and environmental issues in apparel manufacturing both significantly and positively impact their level of awareness of sustainability-related technology in apparel manufacturing. The findings also suggest that managers’ level of awareness of sustainability-related technology has a significant positive impact on their attitude toward sustainability-related technology.
Originality/value
Fishbein’s attitude theory was applied to examine how the various characteristics of apparel professionals (i.e. personal innovativeness in technology, knowledge of apparel technology, knowledge of environmental issues of apparel manufacturing) affect their awareness of and attitude toward sustainability-related technology. This study expands our understanding of the causal flow among cognitive variables of apparel professionals, including their innovativeness, knowledge, awareness and attitudes. The findings of the study can be helpful to the apparel industry to improve apparel professionals’ adoption of sustainable technology.
Details
Keywords
Peng Ouyang, Jiaming Liu and Xiaofei Zhang
Free knowledge sharing in the online health community has been widely documented. However, whether free knowledge sharing can help physicians accumulate popularity and further the…
Abstract
Purpose
Free knowledge sharing in the online health community has been widely documented. However, whether free knowledge sharing can help physicians accumulate popularity and further the accumulated popularity can help physicians attract patients remain unclear. To unveil these gaps, this study aims to examine how physicians' popularity are affected by their free knowledge sharing, how the relationship between free knowledge sharing and popularity is moderated by professional capital, and how the popularity finally impacts patients' attraction.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collect a panel dataset from Hepatitis B within an online health community platform with 10,888 observations from April 2020 to August 2020. The authors develop a model that integrates free knowledge sharing, popularity, professional capital, and patients' attraction. The hierarchical regression model is used to for examining the impact of free knowledge sharing on physicians' popularity and further investigating the impact of popularity on patients' attraction.
Findings
The authors find that the quantity of articles acted as the heuristic cue and the quality of articles acted as the systematic cue have positive effect on physicians' popularity, and this effect is strengthened by physicians' professional capital. Furthermore, physicians' popularity positively influences their patients' attraction.
Originality/value
This study reveals the aggregation of physicians' popularity and patients' attraction within online health communities and provides practical implications for managers in online health communities.
Details
Keywords
Jonatas Dutra Sallaberry, Lauren Dal Bem Venturini, Isabel Martínez-Conesa and Leonardo Flach
This study aims to analyze the relationship between the personal responsibility, the intrinsic knowledge of the norms and the knowledge of signs of money laundering of accountants.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the relationship between the personal responsibility, the intrinsic knowledge of the norms and the knowledge of signs of money laundering of accountants.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was developed with responses from 381 Brazilian accounting professionals through a survey, statistically analyzed using structural equations.
Findings
The results indicate that personal responsibility directly affects the levels of intrinsic knowledge and knowledge about signs of money laundering; however, the different dimensions of knowledge were not related to each other.
Practical implications
From these results, organizations can clarify the individual about their responsibility, optimizing the use of training and mitigating costs, with greater sustainability and security for the organization, employees and business partners.
Social implications
The results contribute to the construction and modeling of latent constructs on money laundering knowledge, with validity, reliability and statistical significance.
Originality/value
This research discusses and empirically explores the knowledge about money laundering of the accountants’, one of the main explanatory factors of whistleblowing in business.
Details
Keywords
Yuanyuan Dang, Shanshan Guo, Haochen Song and Yi Li
Prior studies on the impact of incentives on physicians’ online participation mainly focused on different incentives while ignoring the difficulty of setting monetary incentives…
Abstract
Purpose
Prior studies on the impact of incentives on physicians’ online participation mainly focused on different incentives while ignoring the difficulty of setting monetary incentives efficiently. Based on goal-setting theory, the current research examines the relationship between incentives with goals of varying difficulty and professional health knowledge sharing (PHKS) in online health knowledge-sharing platforms (OHKSPs).
Design/methodology/approach
Four field experiments with different monetary incentives were conducted by one of China’s largest OHKSPs, with whom the researchers cooperated in data collection. Monthly panel data on 10,584 physicians were collected from September 2018 to December 2019. There were 9,376 physicians in the treatment group and 1,208 in the control group. The authors used a difference-in-difference (DID) model to explore the research question based on the same control group and the Chow test with seemingly unrelated estimation (sureg) to compare regression coefficients between four groups. Several robustness checks were performed to validate the main results, including a relative time model, multiple falsification tests and a DID estimation using the propensity score matching method.
Findings
The results show that the monetary incentive significantly positively affected the volume of physicians’ PHKS directly with negative spillover to the duration of physicians’ PHKS. Moreover, the positive effect of incentives with higher difficulty on the volume of physicians’ PHKS was significantly smaller than that of incentives with low difficulty. Finally, professional title had a positive moderating effect on the volume of goal difficulty setting and did not significantly moderate the effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS.
Research limitations/implications
Some limitations of this study are: firstly, because the field experiments were enterprise benefit oriented, the treatment and control groups were not balanced. Secondly, the experiments for different incentive measures were relatively similar, making it challenging to validate a causal effect. Finally, more consideration should be given to the strategy for setting hierarchical incentives in future research.
Originality/value
The research indicates that monetary incentives have a bilateral effect on PHKS, i.e. a positive direct effect on the volume of physicians’ contributions and a negative spillover effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS. The professional titles of physicians also moderate such bilateral switches of PHKS. Furthermore, when a physician’s energy is limited, the goal difficulty setting of the incentive mechanism tends to be low. The more difficult the incentives are, the more inefficient the effects on physicians’ PHKS will be.
Details
Keywords
Birgitta Schwartz and Karina Tilling
Research and experience show that evidence-based practice (EBP), i.e. using the best available knowledge in daily professional work, is difficult to achieve in social services…
Abstract
Purpose
Research and experience show that evidence-based practice (EBP), i.e. using the best available knowledge in daily professional work, is difficult to achieve in social services. The purpose of this study is to understand the development of organizational EBP learning processes in daily work through workplace education for staff and managers of supported homes for people with cognitive disabilities. The authors examine how the EBP model and new knowledge are understood and made actionable in the workplace, applying theories of organizational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used empirical material collected from an EBP workplace education pilot in Sweden, as well as documents on national EBP implementation in Swedish social services. Before the pilot, a focus group interview was conducted with regional senior managers. Participating managers and staff were individually interviewed two to three years after the pilot.
Findings
The study illustrates how knowledge-based action emerged from education where EBP was interpreted, understood, reflected on, and tested, supported by codified EBP tools in the work context. The participants, when supervised, and when observing and questioning their own behaviors in practice, contributed to double-loop learning (DLL) processes. Codification of EBP knowledge into useful tools and socialization processes during education and workplace meetings was crucial in developing individual and group DLL and knowledge-based actions.
Originality/value
The bottom-up approach to EBP development and the adaptive contextual learning at the workplace gave new insights into organizational learning in social service workplaces.
Details