Search results
1 – 10 of 185Louise Maguire and Susi Geiger
– This study aims to examine how the temporal aspect of service consumption impacts the emotions that are created within consumers during service encounters.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how the temporal aspect of service consumption impacts the emotions that are created within consumers during service encounters.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopted mobile phone or ‘SMS’ diaries to capture the emotions that participants experienced at the very moment they were being felt or ‘in-vivo’. The study included thirteen different services including both ‘brief’ and ‘extended service transactions’.
Findings
The study suggests that the temporal perspective is a dominant cause of consumption emotions in services, influencing consumers’ emotions from before the service encounter commences to its conclusion and, in some cases, beyond the conclusion of the service event. Other antecedents of consumption emotions such as interactions with staff and the servicescape are influenced by and interwoven with this temporal aspect. By capturing emotions as they were experienced, recall difficulties that might have been encountered had the emotions been measured retrospectively were eliminated, allowing the researchers to construct a comprehensive account of the chronology and contiguity of the emotions created within consumers during service encounters.
Originality/value
Although certain aspects of time such as the consequences of queuing and waiting have been addressed in the services marketing literature, a detailed understanding of how time impacts consumption emotions in services from the start to the conclusion of service encounters has not been undertaken to date. This research addresses that gap by examining how the temporal perspective influences not only consumption emotions in customers per se but how it also influences other causes of consumption emotions that customers encounter during service transactions.
Details
Keywords
Caroline Marchant and Stephanie O’Donohoe
Young people’s attachment to their smartphones is well-documented, with smartphones often described as prostheses. While prior studies typically assume a clear human/machine…
Abstract
Purpose
Young people’s attachment to their smartphones is well-documented, with smartphones often described as prostheses. While prior studies typically assume a clear human/machine divide, this paper aims to build on posthuman perspectives, exploring intercorporeality, the blurring of human/technology boundaries, between emerging adults and their smartphones. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on assemblage theory, this interpretive study uses smartphone diaries and friendship pair/small group discussions with 27 British emerging adults.
Findings
Participants in this study are characterized as homo prostheticus, living with and through their phones, treating them as extensions of their mind and part of their selves as they navigated between their online and offline, private and social lives. Homo prostheticus was part of a broader assemblage or amalgamation of human and non-human components. As these components interacted with each other, the assemblage could be strengthened or weakened by various technological, personal and social factors.
Research limitations/implications
These qualitative findings are based on a particular sample at a particular point in time, within a particular culture. Further research could explore intercorporeality in human–smartphone relationships among other groups, in other cultures.
Originality/value
Although other studies have used prosthetic metaphors, this paper contributes to understanding of smartphones as a prostheses in the lives of emerging adults, highlighting intercorporeality as a key feature of homo prostheticus. It also uses assemblage theory to contextualize homo prostheticus and explores factors strengthening or weakening the broader human–smartphone assemblage.
Details
Keywords
The long-term development of a mobile gaming application (app) depends on its continued use by its users. The expectation–confirmation model of IS continuance was used as the…
Abstract
Purpose
The long-term development of a mobile gaming application (app) depends on its continued use by its users. The expectation–confirmation model of IS continuance was used as the basic framework, to which bi-dimensional consumption emotions were added to help better explain satisfaction judgment and continuance intention in the context of mobile gaming app use. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were analyzed using structural equation models. The effects of positive consumption emotions and negative consumption emotions were examined, respectively, in Models 1 and 2. Competing models (Models 3 and 4) were also examined in order to compare the proposed model.
Findings
Both PE and NE have an effect on the satisfaction of mobile gaming app users and their continued usage intention, a finding that represents an important contribution to the extension of technology continuance theory. Comparison with the IS continuance model shows that the new model can explain significantly more variance in continuance intention.
Practical implications
Mobile gaming firms should pay attention to users’ consumption emotions, especially negative emotions. Some specific emotions involved in mobile gaming app use were identified, which could guide firms’ understanding of users’ emotions.
Originality/value
This study offers insight into the role of consumption emotions in forming continuance intentions toward mobile gaming app use in China, a topic that has not previously been investigated.
Details
Keywords
Explains the importance of texting in order to market to youth using the highly popular SMS channel. Outlines the guidelines that Flytxt has produced for clients designing a…
Abstract
Explains the importance of texting in order to market to youth using the highly popular SMS channel. Outlines the guidelines that Flytxt has produced for clients designing a campaign, in order that youngsters are protected from inappropriate content or direct marketing and do not incur excessive costs through premium rate SMS. Shows how SMS can help companies rejuvenate their brands and find new markets. Illustrates this by the Princess Diary Club book series from Macmillan Children’s Books, the Smash Hits text club campaign, Barclays Bank’s youth accounts and its exclusive SMS game, Warner Village Cinemas’ Harry Potter SMS campaign, Kiss 100’s “HeySexy” campaign, the “Sneak” teen gossip magazine, and Comic Relief’s Sports Relief campaign ‐ the first time a UK charity has used SMS for its fundraising.
Details
Keywords
Steve Baron, Anthony Patterson and Kim Harris
To critically examine the current definitions of key constructs of the technology acceptance model (TAM) in a consumer technology‐based service.
Abstract
Purpose
To critically examine the current definitions of key constructs of the technology acceptance model (TAM) in a consumer technology‐based service.
Design/methodology/approach
Two qualitative research studies were undertaken that encouraged consumers to reflect upon their text message (short message service – SMS) behaviour.
Findings
The research highlights the inadequacy of a concentration on simple acceptance of technology where technology is embedded in a consumer community of practice. The existence of counter‐intuitive behaviours, technology paradoxes and intense social and emotional elements in actual text message usage all point to the need for a review of the definition of the key TAM constructs.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need to re‐examine the construct of use behaviour in the context of the practice of technology‐based services that owe much to consumer creativity. Theory development of the constructs of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived enjoyment should not be constrained by adherence to the existing (well developed) quantitative models of technology acceptance. There is a methodological potential of employing consumers as practical authors.
Practical implications
Where there is evidence of counter‐intuitive consumer behaviour in the marketplace for technology‐based products or services, a study of practice, with a view to the subsequent derivation of adapted theory constitutes worthwhile research. This may be of special importance to cell phone operators promoting SMS to US consumers.
Originality/value
The approach offers a method of complementing the dominant quantitative modelling research on technology acceptance. The findings are relevant to an era where consumer co‐creation of value is of increasing interest.
Details
Keywords
Mrunal Chavda, Harsh Patel and Hetav Bhatt
This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)-based English textbooks and question papers in developing second-language…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)-based English textbooks and question papers in developing second-language higher-order thinking skills (HOTS).
Design/methodology/approach
Descriptive analysis establishes a causal relationship between learning objectives and second language (L2) writing proficiency. Content analysis is used to compare and analyze tabulated data for textbooks and question papers for the English language by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and CBSE. This method categorizes the materials and their assessments under HOTS and lower-order thinking skills to ascertain the relationship between learning objectives and L2 writing proficiency.
Findings
The study highlights teaching material and assessment shortcomings and their alignment with learning outcomes to enhance students' writing skills. It underscores the need for HOTS-focused materials, discussing their impact on writing skills. The study also explores how textbook–question paper mismatch hampers Bloom's taxonomy-based cognitive skills.
Practical implications
This research illuminates the efficacy of teaching and learning English as a second language (ESL) writing skills to improve the quality of education, which has real-world implications. The study highlights flaws in the educational system in India and suggests curricular and pedagogical changes.
Originality/value
The research examines NCERT and CBSE ESL textbooks and question papers to align teaching and assessment methods. The results aim to improve education through ESL writers' HOTS.
Details
Keywords
Zbigniew Smoreda, Ana-Maria Olteanu-Raimond and Thomas Couronné
Purpose — In this chapter, we will review several alternative methods of collecting data from mobile phones for human mobility analysis. We propose considering cellular network…
Abstract
Purpose — In this chapter, we will review several alternative methods of collecting data from mobile phones for human mobility analysis. We propose considering cellular network location data as a useful complementary source for human mobility research and provide case studies to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
Methodology/approach — We briefly describe cellular phone network architecture and the location data it can provide, and discuss two types of data collection: active and passive localization. Active localization is something like a personal travel diary. It provides a tool for recording positioning data on a survey sample over a long period of time. Passive localization, on the other hand, is based on phone network data that are automatically recorded for technical or billing purposes. It offers the advantage of access to very large user populations for mobility flow analysis of a broad area.
Findings — We review several alternative methods of collecting data from mobile phone for human mobility analysis to show that cellular network data, although limited in terms of location precision and recording frequency, offer two major advantages for studying human mobility. First, very large user samples – covering broad geographical areas – can be followed over a long period of time. Second, this type of data allows researchers to choose a specific data collection methodology (active or passive), depending on the objectives of their study. The big mobile phone localization datasets have provided a new impulse for the interdisciplinary research in human mobility.
Originality/value of chapter — We propose considering cellular network location data as a useful complementary source for transportation research and provide case studies to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of each proposed method. Mobile phones have become a kind of “personal sensor” offering an ever-increasing amount of location data on mobile phone users over long time periods. These data can thus provide a framework for a comprehensive and longitudinal study of temporal dynamics, and can be used to capture ephemeral events and fluctuations in day-to-day mobility behavior offering powerful tools to transportation research, urban planning, or even real-time city monitoring.
Details
Keywords
Religious and secular pilgrimages present rich opportunities for investigating information activities in an original and intriguing context. While the Information Science…
Abstract
Purpose
Religious and secular pilgrimages present rich opportunities for investigating information activities in an original and intriguing context. While the Information Science community has previously shown interest in digital expressions of religion and spirituality, discussion on pilgrimage is at a nascent stage. The purpose of this study is to conduct an in situ investigation of how pilgrims record, curate, and share their experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
A field ethnography was conducted while walking with, observing and interviewing pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago, a popular European pilgrimage and UNESCO World Heritage route. Data collected from 25 semi-structured interviews and participant observations were thematically analysed within a theoretical framework combining Stebbins' contemplation and Nature Challenge Activity in serious leisure and Hektor's model of information behaviour.
Findings
This study expands the interpretation of pilgrimage by introducing new insights into pilgrims, different types of mobilities, spaces and objects, and social interactions. By using field ethnography and close-up observations of praxis, pilgrimage is analysed as a socio-technical process and discussed literature within and beyond Information Science. The work presents new understandings of the interplay between spirituality, embodied information practices, physical and online social interactions, analogue and digital media before, during and after these journeys and legacy aspirations.
Originality/value
The study is original in its combination of theoretical models and their ethnographic in situ application. It contributes to a more in-depth, in-the-field understanding of how pilgrims document their experiences via a rich palette of old and new media, the dynamics of using digital technologies during such physical and inner journeys and pilgrims' sharing practices. Implications for serious leisure and information practices are discussed, from theoretical to practical challenges and opportunities offered by pilgrimage experiences.
Details
Keywords
Harpreet Sanghara, Eugenia Kravariti, Hanne Jakobsen and Chike Okocha
On average, the National Health Service (NHS) loses annually £360 million in opportunity costs due to non‐attendance of outpatient appointments (Stone et al, 1999). In addition to…
Abstract
On average, the National Health Service (NHS) loses annually £360 million in opportunity costs due to non‐attendance of outpatient appointments (Stone et al, 1999). In addition to draining healthcare resources, failure to attend clinical appointments incurs personal costs. Mobile phone technology has been applied successfully to reducing appointment non‐attendance and improving clinical outcomes for patients with physical illnesses. However, it is unclear whether these applications can be extended to patients with severe and enduring mental disorders. We conducted a trust‐wide survey of 141 psychiatric inpatients of the Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust (82% of the Trust's total inpatient population) to establish how many respondents owned a mobile phone (62%), could use text‐messaging services (62%) and were willing to use the latter as a means of communication with the Trust (80%). Compared to patients with psychotic illnesses, those with non‐psychotic illnesses reported higher rates of mobile phone ownership (78% versus 55%, p=0.01), ability to use text messaging (76% versus 56%, p=0.03) and willingness to receive text messages from the Trust (90% versus 76%, p=0.05). The results of the survey were used to inform the planning of a pilot study aimed at reducing non‐attendance rates of outpatient appointments in Oxleas.
Details