Search results

1 – 10 of 12
Article
Publication date: 1 March 1996

SØREN BRIER

This article is a contribution to the development of a comprehensive interdisciplinary theory of LIS in the hope of giving a more precise evaluation of its current problems. The…

426

Abstract

This article is a contribution to the development of a comprehensive interdisciplinary theory of LIS in the hope of giving a more precise evaluation of its current problems. The article describes an interdisciplinary framework for lis, especially information retrieval (IR), in a way that goes beyond the cognitivist ‘information processing paradigm’. The main problem of this paradigm is that its concept of information and language does not deal in a systematic way with how social and cultural dynamics set the contexts that determine the meaning of those signs and words that are the basic tools for the organisation and retrieving of documents in LIS. The paradigm does not distinguish clearly enough between how the computer manipulates signs and how librarians work with meaning in practice when they design and run document mediating systems. The ‘cognitive viewpoint’ of Ingwersen and Belkin makes clear that information is not objective, but rather only potential, until it is interpreted by an individual mind with its own internal mental world view and purposes. It facilitates further study of the social pragmatic conditions for the interpretation of concepts. This approach is not yet fully developed. The domain analytic paradigm of Hjørland and Albrechtsen is a conceptual realisation of an important aspect of this area. In the present paper we make a further development of a non‐reductionistic and interdisciplinary view of information and human social communication by texts in the light of second‐order cybernetics, where information is seen as ‘a difference which makes a difference’ for a living autopoietic (self‐organised, self‐creating) system. Other key ideas are from the semiotics of Peirce and also Warner. This is the understanding of signs as a triadic relation between an object, a representation and an interpretant. Information is the interpretation of signs by living, feeling, self‐organising, biological, psychological and social systems. Signification is created and con‐trolled in a cybernetic way within social systems and is communicated through what Luhmann calls generalised media, such as science and art. The modern socio‐linguistic concept ‘discourse communities’ and Wittgenstein's ‘language game’ concept give a further pragmatic description of the self‐organising system's dynamic that determines the meaning of words in a social context. As Blair and Liebenau and Backhouse point out in their work it is these semantic fields of signification that are the true pragmatic tools of knowledge organ‐isation and document retrieval. Methodologically they are the first systems to be analysed when designing document mediating systems as they set the context for the meaning of concepts. Several practical and analytical methods from linguistics and the sociology of knowledge can be used in combination with standard methodology to reveal the significant language games behind document mediation.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 52 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2021

Daniel Bailey, Ashleigh Southam and Jamie Costley

This study aims to increase language learning (L2) output by incorporating a digital storytelling chatbot system (known as a “storybot”) that focused interactions on a narrative…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to increase language learning (L2) output by incorporating a digital storytelling chatbot system (known as a “storybot”) that focused interactions on a narrative. This study also sought to investigate student perceptions of these storybot interactions and improve on poor perception rates from previous studies.

Design/methodology/approach

This one-sample exploratory study was of student-storybot participation rates and student perceptions towards a storybot activity designed to increase L2 output. A combination of storybot participation analytics and survey analysis of student perception was carried out.

Findings

The use of storybots in the L2 class resulted in mixed participation rates. Students read nine times more than they wrote, indicating a high degree of reading comprehension necessary for storybot interaction. Survey results revealed that students believed storybots helped them meet their L2 goals, were relevant to their L2 and were easy to navigate.

Research limitations/implications

Interactions were through text messaging so no impact on speech or pronunciation could be observed. Further, the context was within a single university class in South Korea, restricting the generalization of findings to outside regions or with younger learners. Finally, while storybots proved to be valuable reading comprehension activities, the next step in this line of chatbot research should incorporate more writing prompts.

Practical implications

Storybots revealed explicit benefits to reading comprehension, as measured by cohesion between storybot delivered comprehension questions and student responses. Moreover, storybots can be used as examples for students in their own story creation, classroom forms to collect relevant student information regarding learning objectives and platforms for class quizzes.

Social implications

Storybots scaffold students through conversations, which abide by socio-pragmatic norms, providing models for L2 learners to incorporate in real-world text-based communication. Additionally, a wide range of idiomatic expressions is contextualized in comprehensible interactions that students can learn from the storybot then practice with friends.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the growing research on the use of chatbots for second L2 and offers specific insight into the use of narrative storybots as a means to increase L2 output and potentially benefit L2 reading comprehension.

Details

Interactive Technology and Smart Education, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-5659

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 June 2016

Andrew Thomas, Casey Piquette and David McMaster

Whilst English remains the language of global commerce, the role and outcomes of English language provision in English-medium higher education institutions in the Arab Gulf…

4081

Abstract

Whilst English remains the language of global commerce, the role and outcomes of English language provision in English-medium higher education institutions in the Arab Gulf countries remains central to any discussion on graduate profile and the employability of graduates in the global marketplace. This paper describes the findings of research into English workplace communication skills amongst a sample of Bahrain employers and students at Bahrain Polytechnic. Using a mixed methods approach, data was gathered through telephone interviews, student workplace simulations and employer focus groups. Findings show that generic employability skills, channelled through English as a second or additional language, are highly valued by Bahrain’s employers. In particular, students need to market themselves as confident, knowledgeable individuals during the recruitment process and after recruitment, continuing to operate successfully in the sociolinguistic culture of their company. Consequently, it is concluded that English language training in higher education programmes needs to move from purely linguistic and degree-related content areas to a broader remit of English for communication purposes that covers both specialised discourse fields and broader generic employability skills and competencies.

Details

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2077-5504

Article
Publication date: 10 June 2014

Pedro Hípola, José A. Senso, Amed Leiva-Mederos and Sandor Domínguez-Velasco

The purpose of this paper is to look into the latest advances in ontology-based text summarization systems, with emphasis on the methodologies of a socio-cognitive approach, the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to look into the latest advances in ontology-based text summarization systems, with emphasis on the methodologies of a socio-cognitive approach, the structural discourse models and the ontology-based text summarization systems.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyzes the main literature in this field and presents the structure and features of Texminer, a software that facilitates summarization of texts on Port and Coastal Engineering. Texminer entails a combination of several techniques, including: socio-cognitive user models, Natural Language Processing, disambiguation and ontologies. After processing a corpus, the system was evaluated using as a reference various clustering evaluation experiments conducted by Arco (2008) and Hennig et al. (2008). The results were checked with a support vector machine, Rouge metrics, the F-measure and calculation of precision and recall.

Findings

The experiment illustrates the superiority of abstracts obtained through the assistance of ontology-based techniques.

Originality/value

The authors were able to corroborate that the summaries obtained using Texminer are more efficient than those derived through other systems whose summarization models do not use ontologies to summarize texts. Thanks to ontologies, main sentences can be selected with a broad rhetorical structure, especially for a specific knowledge domain.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 32 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 November 2008

Göran Goldkuhl and Mikael Lind

The purpose of this paper is to contrast two views, a transformative and a coordinative view, on business process management (BPM) in order to propose an integrated view.

3340

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contrast two views, a transformative and a coordinative view, on business process management (BPM) in order to propose an integrated view.

Design/methodology/approach

The investigation has been made with the purpose of developing a synthesis of these two views working as thesis and antithesis. The core of such dialectic approach is to create a synthesis that transcends contradictions of the thesis and antithesis. Pros and cons in the two perspectives have been identified and an integrated process view has been proposed, as well as operationalised into modelling methods. The integrated process view comprises a number of definitions of different process types (business process, assignment process, transformation process and provision process).

Findings

The paper derives characteristics of the transformative as well as the coordinative view. These are used as the basis for pinpointing important characteristics of an integrative view. These characteristics put forward coordination in relation to transformation as well as assignment processes in relation to other types of processes (such as transformation processes and provision processes)

Practical implications

The proposed integrated view has practical implications in the work of modelling, analysing and designing business processes.

Originality/value

The value of the paper is that it presents a complementary view on business processes derived from two existing views. In the paper, coordination aspects are seen as superior to transformation.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 14 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 September 2020

Kumaran Rajandran

Financial communication produces various texts, among which are earnings videos. The videos employ language and image in multimodal discourses to convey specific social meanings…

Abstract

Purpose

Financial communication produces various texts, among which are earnings videos. The videos employ language and image in multimodal discourses to convey specific social meanings about corporate performance. The purpose of this paper is to select earnings videos and study their incorporated genres, styles and discourses.

Design/methodology/approach

Interdiscursivity permits hybridity because it mixes the choice of genres, styles or discourses. An interdiscursive analysis is conducted on earnings videos in English, French and Spanish from corporations in the global finance industry. It involved three sequential stages: (1) to detect the discourses, (2) to name the discourses and (3) to consider the function of the discourses.

Findings

Earnings videos are hybrid because interview and presentation genres, formal and casual styles and the discourses of financial accounting, strategic management and public relations are encountered. The genres, styles and discourses are interwoven to create an interdiscursive mix, which constructs earnings through a (pseudo)personal social relation and easified discourses. The multimodal discourses convey robust corporate performance in an interim, and their use is symptomatic of marketization. Corporations may “market” their performance to seem like a worthwhile investment to persuade (potential) investors.

Originality/value

The paper enriches existing research in financial communication because it studies how multimodal discourses in earnings videos are tailored for marketization. The videos have not been analyzed, and their analysis complements earlier studies on other financial communication texts. The analysis examines discourses through language and image features, whose co-deployment conveys meaning about corporations.

Details

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-3289

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 March 2013

Muhammad Nazrul Islam

The underlying objective of this literature review was to investigate what kinds of semiotics researches have been employed in user interfaces design and usability evaluation, and…

1448

Abstract

Purpose

The underlying objective of this literature review was to investigate what kinds of semiotics researches have been employed in user interfaces design and usability evaluation, and how were they employed.

Design/methodology/approach

This research follows a systematic literature review process that consists of three key stages: planning the review, conducting the review, and reporting the review. Starting with an initial set of about 1,000 research articles, 65 were selected for this review, using an inclusion and exclusion criteria. Qualitative and quantitative data were extracted from the selected literatures following a data extraction strategy in six themes of data extraction. The extracted data were synthesized to formulate the stated research questions to obtain the review goals.

Findings

This systematic review identified research strengths, gaps, and challenges. Apart from this, further research possibilities were also explored in this review. For research, the review showed clear needs for more researches to increase both the number and the quality of studies that can be focused on the research gaps identified by this systematic review related to: outcome validation; cultural issues consideration; user interfaces of mobile applications and websites; semiotics perception in usability evaluation; and further improve the value and applicability of research ideas. For practice, the review showed the significance of semeiotics in user interface design and usability evaluation to develop users' intuitive interfaces for boosting the system's usability.

Originality/value

Based on a systematic literature review, the paper not only depicts the current status of semiotics research in user interface design and evaluation, but also provides a number of implications for research and practice. Thus, the review contributes to the scientific community of user interface design and evaluation, as well as suggesting the actual advances in the state of the practice in semiotics research on user interface.

Article
Publication date: 2 November 2012

Martin H. Ofner, Boris Otto and Hubert Österle

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize data quality (DQ) in the context of business process management and to propose a DQ oriented approach for business process modeling…

2769

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize data quality (DQ) in the context of business process management and to propose a DQ oriented approach for business process modeling. The approach is based on key concepts and metrics from the data quality management domain and supports decision‐making in process re‐design projects on the basis of process models.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper applies a design oriented research approach, in the course of which a modeling method is developed as a design artifact. To do so, method engineering is used as a design technique. The artifact is theoretically founded and incorporates DQ considerations into process re‐design. Furthermore, the paper uses a case study to evaluate the suggested approach.

Findings

The paper shows that the DQ oriented process modeling approach facilitates and improves managerial decision‐making in the context of process re‐design. Data quality is considered as a success factor for business processes and is conceptualized using a rule‐based approach.

Research limitations/implications

The paper presents design research and a case study. More research is needed to triangulate the findings and to allow generalizability of the results.

Practical implications

The paper supports decision‐makers in enterprises in taking a DQ perspective in business process re‐design initiatives.

Originality/value

The paper reports on integrating DQ considerations into business process management in general and into process modeling in particular, in order to provide more comprehensive decision‐making support in process re‐design projects. The paper represents one of the first contributions to literature regarding a contemporary phenomenon of high practical and scientific relevance.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 18 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 May 2016

Ulf Melin and Karin Axelsson

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the concept of action by addressing actions and roles in the practice of action research, illustrated by dilemmas in an action…

1425

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the concept of action by addressing actions and roles in the practice of action research, illustrated by dilemmas in an action research project on information systems development in public sector. The main ambition with action research is being able to solve organisational problems through intervention and to contribute to scientific knowledge. The main emphasis has so far been on the “research part”. Here the authors focus on the “action part” of action research to generate rigorous research, to solve local problems and to deal with evident dilemmas in action research.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a qualitative case study. The empirical illustrations of this paper originate from an action research project that focused the two e-service development initiatives analysed below. The analysis is structured using key aspects and phases proposed by Avison et al. (2001). As a result of the analysis, the concept of action is elaborated. The action elements action, actor, motive, space and time are analysed together with different roles. This goes beyond the existing action research literature.

Findings

The conclusions show that there is a need to understand actions and roles within action research projects – not separating action from research. Research is also seen as action. The practice of action research is also discussed as context-bounded interactive social action: action research as a recurrent, interactive and dynamic activity. It is also identified that the understanding of roles, actions and interaction can help handle dilemmas in action research.

Research Limitations/implications

The authors contribute to the body of knowledge concerning action research in the information systems research field and in general by exploring the need to study the concept of action (e.g. situations and elements), to be explicit concerning the different phases, roles and responsibilities and management of different dilemmas in action research. A limitation of this study is that the inter-organisational development character in this study adds an extra dimension into the practice of actions research only partially highlighted. Another limitation is focus on public agencies. However, this is not critical for the results on action elements and the action research dilemmas that are studied.

Practical Implications

The understanding of roles, actions and interaction can solve the dilemmas and challenges linked to the practice of action research in the information systems field, but such understanding can help discover and handle dilemmas in action research.

Originality/value

The originality in this research is an illustration of and a perspective of action research as a context-bounded interactive social action: action research as a recurrent, interactive and dynamic activity. The value is that this knowledge can help handle dilemmas in action research.

Details

Journal of Systems and Information Technology, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1328-7265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 April 2010

Jan vom Brocke, Jan Recker and Jan Mendling

Financial information about costs and return on investments are of key importance to strategic decision making but also in the context of process improvement or business…

3794

Abstract

Purpose

Financial information about costs and return on investments are of key importance to strategic decision making but also in the context of process improvement or business engineering. The purpose of this paper is to propose a value‐oriented approach to business process modeling based on key concepts and metrics from operations and financial management, to aid decision making in process re‐design projects on the basis of process models.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper suggests a theoretically founded extension to current process modeling approaches, and delineates a framework as well as methodical support to incorporate financial information into process re‐design. The paper uses two case studies to evaluate the suggested approach.

Findings

Based on two case studies, the paper shows that the value‐oriented process modeling approach facilitates and improves managerial decision making in the context of process re‐design.

Research limitations/implications

The paper presents design work and two case studies. More research is needed to more thoroughly evaluate the presented approach in a variety of real‐life process modeling settings.

Practical implications

The paper shows how the approach enables decision makers to make investment decisions in process re‐design projects, and also how other decisions, for instance in the context of enterprise architecture design, can be facilitated.

Originality/value

This paper reports on an attempt to integrate financial considerations into the act of process modeling, in order to provide more comprehensive decision‐making support in process re‐design projects.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Access

Year

Content type

Article (12)
1 – 10 of 12