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This paper seeks to understand the strategic behaviour of researchers when producing knowledge in two scientific fields – nanotechnology and social sciences.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to understand the strategic behaviour of researchers when producing knowledge in two scientific fields – nanotechnology and social sciences.
Design/methodology/approach
The author conducted semi-structured interviews with 43 researchers to analyse the needs for strategic interdependence (resource-sharing) and for organisational autonomy (decision-making) in knowledge production. When aligned, these two concepts form three modes of behaviour: mode1, mode2 and mode3.
Findings
The empirical study results show that, besides well-studied differences in various publications, there are large behaviour differences between social science and nanotechnology researchers. While nanotechnology researchers’ behaviours are mostly in mode3 (sharing resources; highly autonomous), social science researchers’ behaviours tend to be in mode1 (highly autonomous; no need to share resources).
Practical implications
This study delivers an understanding of the differences in the strategic behaviours of researchers in different scientific fields. The author proposes managerial interventions for research managers – university and research group leaders.
Originality/value
While most studies that compare scientific fields look at knowledge production outcomes, the author analyses conditions that differentiate these outcomes. To this end, the author compares individual researchers’ behaviours in different fields by analysing the need for collaboration and the need for autonomy.
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Independent travelers are those vacationers who have booked only a minimum of their transportation and accommodation arrangements prior to departure on the vacation. Independent…
Abstract
Independent travelers are those vacationers who have booked only a minimum of their transportation and accommodation arrangements prior to departure on the vacation. Independent travel is an important and growing sector of worldwide tourism. Choice of vacation itinerary for the independent vacation represents a complex series of decisions regarding purchase of multiple leisure and tourism services. This chapter builds and tests a model of independent traveler decision-making for choice of vacation itinerary. The research undertaken employs a two-phase, inductive–deductive case study design. In the deductive phase, the researcher interviewed 20 travel parties vacationing in New Zealand for the first time. The researcher interviewed respondents at both the beginning and the end of their New Zealand vacations. The study compares pre-vacation research and plans, and actual vacation behaviors, on a case-by-case basis. The study examines case study narratives and quantitative measures of crucial variables. The study tests two competing models of independent traveler decision-making, using a pattern-matching procedure. This embedded research design results in high multi-source, multi-method validity for the supported model. The model of the Independent Vacation as Evolving Itinerary suggests that much of the vacation itinerary experienced in independent travel is indeed unplanned, and that a desire to experience the unplanned is a key hedonic motive for independent travel. Rather than following a fixed itinerary, the itinerary of an independent vacation evolves as the vacation proceeds. The independent traveler takes advantage of serendipitous opportunities to experience a number of locations, attractions and activities that they had neither actively researched nor planned.
Youngseek Kim and Seungahn Nah
The purpose of this paper is to examine how data reuse experience, attitudinal beliefs, social norms, and resource factors influence internet researchers to share data with other…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how data reuse experience, attitudinal beliefs, social norms, and resource factors influence internet researchers to share data with other researchers outside their teams.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted to examine the extent to which data reuse experience, attitudinal beliefs, social norms, and resource factors predicted internet researchers’ data sharing intentions and behaviors. The theorized model was tested using a structural equation modeling technique to analyze a total of 201 survey responses from the Association of Internet Researchers mailing list.
Findings
Results show that data reuse experience significantly influenced participants’ perception of benefit from data sharing and participants’ norm of data sharing. Belief structures regarding data sharing, including perceived career benefit and risk, and perceived effort, had significant associations with attitude toward data sharing, leading internet researchers to have greater data sharing intentions and behavior. The results also reveal that researchers’ norms for data sharing had a direct effect on data sharing intention. Furthermore, the results indicate that, while the perceived availability of data repository did not yield a positive impact on data sharing intention, it has a significant, direct, positive impact on researchers’ data sharing behaviors.
Research limitations/implications
This study validated its novel theorized model based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The study showed a holistic picture of how different data sharing factors, including data reuse experience, attitudinal beliefs, social norms, and data repositories, influence internet researchers’ data sharing intentions and behaviors.
Practical implications
Data reuse experience, attitude toward and norm of data sharing, and the availability of data repository had either direct or indirect influence on internet researchers’ data sharing behaviors. Thus, professional associations, funding agencies, and academic institutions alike should promote academic cultures that value data sharing in order to create a virtuous cycle of reciprocity and encourage researchers to have positive attitudes toward/norms of data sharing; these cultures should be strengthened by the strong support of data repositories.
Originality/value
In line with prior scholarship concerning scientific data sharing, this study of internet researchers offers a map of scientific data sharing intentions and behaviors by examining the impacts of data reuse experience, attitudinal beliefs, social norms, and data repositories together.
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Wenzhi Zheng, Yenchun Jim Wu and Yue Lv
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between researchers’ social media (SM) behavior and their academic performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between researchers’ social media (SM) behavior and their academic performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 362 researchers was recruited from the colleges of management of 52 Chinese universities. A factor analysis of eight indices retrieved from the 362 data items was conducted. A total of 24 Chinese researchers were interviewed and given a robust test.
Findings
The results indicate that Chinese general social media (GSM) is insufficient to support academic research and it is difficult for scholars to enhance the visibility of their academic performance using GSM platforms, which can actually induce addiction. University resources, management systems, and working environment affect how scholars apply SM.
Research limitations/implications
The authors examined the researchers’ SM behavior by giving them a questionnaire and interview; however, this approach proved inadequate. The academic performance of researchers is affected by numerous factors, but the authors only considered SM behavior.
Practical implications
It is suggested that universities apply academic social media (ASM) indicators to measure researchers’ contributions so that they self-regulate their SM usage attitudes. Also, universities should also promote ASM platforms.
Originality/value
This study analyzed scholars’ GSM usage and academic performance, and the moderating effect of university level on the relationship between need for competence and relatedness and need for autonomy. This comprehensive analysis contributes to the scholarly SM usage literature.
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The purpose of this paper is to address participants’ humorous provocations as a part of informal interactions between participants and researcher that can be treated just like…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address participants’ humorous provocations as a part of informal interactions between participants and researcher that can be treated just like the research data. By means of autoethnographic analysis, the author explores the expectations of the researcher and participants that humour research entails and discusses how different expectations are revealed in participants’ provocations.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses an autoethnographic approach to discuss the informal interactions between participants and the researcher gathered during research into staffroom humour. The informal interactions in general and humour specifically were recorded, analysed, coded, interpreted and theorised just like the data on humour between participants. The theoretical framework used in the study combines Goffman’s (1959) version of symbolic interactionism and Solomon et al. (2006) idea of hybrid spaces.
Findings
The study shows the need for reconsideration of expectations entangled in humour research and proposes to be prepared for unexpected. Expecting unexpected can help stay open minded in the field and in interactions with participants and apply healthy distance towards own research and own expectations. The study shows that whenever certain behaviour was expected and different behaviour was delivered, there was a chance for certain behaviour being interpreted as provocations. Participants’ provocations can result from their own expectations about the research or what they think is expected from them by the researcher and thus they remain subject to different interpretations.
Research limitations/implications
Further research could investigate and discuss the role of humour in participant-researcher interactions in different research contexts and across different methodologies. Combining and analysing experiences of use of humour from both participants and researchers could allow for creating the guidelines in the use of humour in different research situations. Ethical challenges posed by informal interactions between researcher and participants could be explored further and suggestions as to how to protect the researcher, research and participants in such interactions could be developed.
Originality/value
This paper aims to be a starting point for a discussion about the understudied relationship between expectations humour research is entangled with and participants’ provocations. The study shows innovative approach to informal interactions between participants’ and researcher which are treated as research data and are theorised using original combination of symbolic interactionism and hybrid spaces. The study contributes to the qualitative research methodology by discussing the ethics of both using humour with participants and recording and analysing informal humorous interactions between participants and the researcher.
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Yeon Kyoung Joo and Youngseek Kim
The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that influence engineering researchers’ data reuse behaviours.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that influence engineering researchers’ data reuse behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach
The data reuse behaviour model of engineering researchers was investigated by using a survey method. A national survey was distributed to engineering researchers in the USA, and a total of 193 researchers responded.
Findings
The results showed that perceived usefulness, perceived concerns and norms of data reuse have significant relationships with attitudes toward data reuse. Also, attitudes toward data reuse and the availability of data repositories were found to have significant influences on engineering researchers’ intention to reuse data.
Research limitations/implications
This research used a combined theoretical framework by integrating the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the technology acceptance model (TAM). The combination of the TPB and the TAM effectively explained engineering researchers’ data reuse behaviours by addressing individual motivations, norms and resource factors.
Practical implications
This research has practical implications for promoting more reliable and beneficial data reuse in the engineering community, including encouraging positive motivations toward data reuse, building community norms of data reuse and setting up more data repositories.
Originality value
As prior research on data reuse mainly used interviews, this research used a quantitative approach based on a combined theoretical framework and included diverse research constructs which were not tested in the previous research models. As one of the initial studies investigating data reuse behaviours in the engineering community, the current research provided a better understanding of data reuse behaviours and suggested possible ways to facilitate engineering researchers’ data reuse behaviours.
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In this viewpoint article, the author proposes “experiential research” as a comprehensive and integrative methodological framework researchers can apply for data collection and…
Abstract
Purpose
In this viewpoint article, the author proposes “experiential research” as a comprehensive and integrative methodological framework researchers can apply for data collection and analysis in a hybrid setting: “phygital,” combining physical places and digital spaces. This thought piece aims to advance existing research methodology frameworks by proposing a comprehensive methodological framework that allows marketing researchers to examine consumer behaviors in phygital settings.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiential research methodology framework is proposed by reviewing existing methodologies, along with considering the phygital as a new consumption context. The proposed framework can help marketing researchers use multiple data collection processes to create rich insights and develop an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviors in hybrid settings, such as the phygital.
Findings
The experiential research framework emphasizes the shift in methodological thinking by considering four main types of methods – i.e. experiential screening, experiential interaction, experiential immersion and experiential reflexivity – marketing researchers can use to examine consumer behaviors in phygital settings.
Originality/value
By embracing experiential research as a more flexible and adaptable methodological framework to examine phygital settings, marketing and consumer behavior scholars can develop deep knowledge of the examined phenomenon while shifting from online to offline fields, and inversely.
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This research investigates how the availabilities of both metadata standards and data repositories influence researchers' data reuse intentions either directly or indirectly as…
Abstract
Purpose
This research investigates how the availabilities of both metadata standards and data repositories influence researchers' data reuse intentions either directly or indirectly as mediated by the norms of data reuse and their attitudes toward data reuse.
Design/methodology/approach
The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was employed to develop the research model of researchers' data reuse intentions, focusing on the roles of metadata standards, data repositories and norms of data reuse. The proposed research model was evaluated using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method based on the survey responses received from 811 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) researchers in the United States.
Findings
This research found that the availabilities of both metadata standards and data repositories significantly affect STEM researchers' norm of data reuse, which influences their data reuse intentions as mediated by their attitudes toward data reuse. This research also found that both the availability of data repositories and the norm of data reuse have a direct influence on data reuse intentions and that norm of data reuse significantly increases the effect of attitude toward data reuse on data reuse intention as a moderator.
Research limitations/implications
The modified model of TPB provides a new perspective in apprehending the roles of resource facilitating conditions such as the availabilities of metadata standards and data repositories in an individual's attitude, norm and their behavioral intention to conduct a certain behavior.
Practical implications
This study suggests that scientific communities need to develop more supportive metadata standards and data repositories by considering their roles in enhancing the community norm of data reuse, which eventually lead to data reuse behaviors.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on the mechanism of metadata standard and data repository in researchers' data reuse behaviors through their community norm of data reuse; this can help scientific communities and academic institutions to better support researchers in their data sharing and reuse behaviors.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2020-0431
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Sanam Ebrahimzadeh, Saeed Rezaei Sharifabadi, Masoumeh Karbala Aghaie Kamran and Kimiz Dalkir
The purpose of this paper is to identify the triggers, strategies and outcomes of collaborative information-seeking behaviours of researchers on the ResearchGate social networking…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the triggers, strategies and outcomes of collaborative information-seeking behaviours of researchers on the ResearchGate social networking site.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from the population of researchers who use ResearchGate. The sample was limited to the Ph.D. students and assistant professors in the library and information science domain. Qualitative interviews were used for data collection.
Findings
Based on the findings of the study, informal communications and complex information needs lead to a decision to use collaborative information-seeking behaviour. Also, easy access to sources of information and finding relevant information were the major positive factors contributing to collaborative information-seeking behaviour of the ResearchGate users. Users moved from collaborative Q&A strategies to sharing information, synthesising information and networking strategies based on their needs. Analysis of information-seeking behaviour showed that ResearchGate users bridged the information gap by internalizing new knowledge, making collaborative decisions and increasing their work's visibility.
Originality/value
As one of the initial studies on the collaborative information-seeking behaviour of ResearchGate users, this study provides a holistic picture of different triggers that affect researchers' information-seeking on ResearchGate.
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This study examined how the qualities of both data and documents of existing datasets can contribute to researchers' satisfaction of data reuse, and how it affects their data…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examined how the qualities of both data and documents of existing datasets can contribute to researchers' satisfaction of data reuse, and how it affects their data reuse intentions mediated by attitudinal and normative beliefs of data reuse.
Design/methodology/approach
A combined theoretical framework integrating IS (Information Systems) Success Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was utilized to develop the research model of researchers' data reuse, which was evaluated using structural equation modeling based on 820 survey responses from STEM disciplines in the US.
Findings
This study found that both data and document qualities significantly contribute to researchers' satisfaction of data reuse. Then, their satisfaction significantly increases perceived usefulness and subjective norm of data reuse, and it decreases perceived risk associated with data reuse. Finally, both perceived usefulness and subjective norm significantly increases their data reuse intentions.
Research limitations/implications
The combined theoretical framework integrating IS success model and TPB provides a new theoretical lens in understanding researchers' data reuse behaviors affected by the qualities of both data and documents.
Practical implications
The findings of this study provided several practical implications in promoting and facilitating researchers' data reuse behaviors by improving data and document qualities of existing datasets.
Originality/value
This is one of the initial studies focusing on the roles of data and document qualities in researchers' data reuse, and it provides a systematic view of how data and document qualities influence researchers' data reuse mediated by their satisfaction of data reuse and attitudinal and normative beliefs.
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