Social change,institutional pressures and knowledge creation: A bibliometric analysis

Contemporary academic environment can be characterized by an overwhelming trend toward enhancing research productivity and knowledge creation. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of radical social change and subsequent institutional pressures on internationally relevant knowledge creation. The setting examined is business and economics science in Eastern Europe. Using a case study of Slovenian business schools and deploying a bibliometric analysis we find that research productivity is increasing significantly. We note however dilemmas pertaining to the content and quality of knowledge created. Further, we find that international research cooperation has positive quality effects. From a theoretical perspective, we argue that radical social change was not mirrored by such change in normative institutions, whereas recent changes in regulatory institutions seem to have a substantial positive effect on research performance.     

Competing pressures of risk and absorptive capacity potential on commitment and information sharing in global supply chains

Organizations’ competitiveness and success are no longer dependent solely on their own performance, but rather are dependent on the competitiveness of the supply chains in which they participate. Increasingly, these supply chains are globally distributed introducing the possibility of greater benefits, as well as greater risk. This study examines the countervailing impact of a global supply chain partner's business-to-business e-commerce business risk and absorptive capacity on an organization's willingness to commit to and share information with that supply chain partner. We survey 207 organizations on their perceptions of specific offshore outsourcing and supply chain partners across dimensions of risk, absorptive capacity, commitment, and information sharing. The results support the theorized relationships indicating that a supply chain partner's increased levels of perceived risk has a strong negative effect on an organization's commitment and information sharing; conjointly, increases in a supply chain partner's absorptive capacity has a strong positive effect on commitment and information sharing. For both risk and absorptive capacity, commitment partially mediates the relationship with information sharing. Testing for systemic effects from geographical/cultural location on the relationship factors provides no evidence of a regional effect on measured items.     

Perceived absorptive capacity of individual users in performance of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) usage: The case for Korean firms

We examined the effect of absorptive capacity of users on their use of ERP in a Korean context. The three components considered were understanding, assimilating, and applying ERP knowledge. We found that the capacities of users to assimilate and apply the knowledge had both direct and indirect effects on its value. The users’ ability to understand ERP knowledge was found to influence its performance by their assimilating and applying the knowledge. We also found that organizational support moderated the relationship between their absorptive capacity and performance.     

Investigating the roles of sentiment in machine translation

Machine Translation - Parallel corpora are central to translation studies and contrastive linguistics. However, training machine translation (MT) systems by barely using the semantic aspects of a...     

Developing relationship-specific memory and absorptive capacity in interorganizational relationships

Drawing on the studies of relationship-specific memory and absorptive capacity, this study examines whether physical and human IT resources deployed in interorganizational relationships influence the development of a firm’s IT-enabled capabilities, namely relationship-specific memory and absorptive capacity. In addition, the study explores whether these capabilities increase firm performance and also examines the relationship between relationship-specific memory and absorptive capacity. To test the hypotheses, we conducted a partial least squares analysis using data collected from 115 firms. The results demonstrate that firms enhanced their relationship-specific memory and absorptive capacity by leveraging their physical and human IT resources invested in interorganizational relationships and that these two capabilities increased their performance. Moreover, our results indicate that relationship-specific memory served as a knowledge base for the development of absorptive capacity. The results offer empirical evidence on how firms could improve their performance by internally managing the relational knowledge obtained through their interorganizational relationships.     

Selectivity of SPR fiber sensors in absorptive media: An experimental evaluation

Conventional surface plasmon resonance (SPR) fiber sensors show selective behavior when resonance wavelengths are tuned to absorption peaks of the surrounding medium, as it is experimentally shown and evaluated in this paper by using a doubly-deposited uniform-waist tapered optical fiber (DLUWT) and a dye as a test material. This behavior is clearly distinguishable from the usual response to nonabsorbing media and can be used to develop a new concept of SPR transducers. At the same time, the obtained results, which are in accordance with the theoretical predictions permit to increase the basic knowledge on surface plasma waves excitation in optical fibers.     

Exploring ideation and implementation openness in open innovation projects: IT-enabled absorptive capacity perspective

Advancements in information technology (IT) have made organizational boundaries so porous, thereby resulting in a trend toward leveraging external knowledge for innovation. However, firms experience significant obstacles in drawing external knowledge. This study aims to disentangle the role of IT-enabled absorptive capacity in new product development performance. The research model was tested with survey data of open innovation projects from 152 firms. Our findings indicate that IT-enabled absorptive capability improves open innovation project performance in terms of new product innovativeness and product speed to market, but we do not detect a significant direct influence of openness on performance. Our findings also show that the interaction of IT-enabled absorptive capacity and ideation openness significantly amplifies new product innovativeness while the interaction of IT-enabled absorptive capacity and implementation openness accelerates the product speed to market. This study theoretically contributes by building an IT-enabled absorptive capacity theory in the open innovation context and uncovering the effects of two dimensions of openness. In practice, it offers managers strategies to successfully conduct open innovation projects in deploying effective ITs and leveraging various types of openness during the two phases.     

User knowledge utilization in innovation of complex products and systems: An absorptive capacity perspective

Firms tap into user knowledge to learn about the users’ needs. While users have been recognized as a valuable source of knowledge for innovation, few studies have investigated how their knowledge is integrated into innovation processes in the context of complex products and systems (CoPS). The purpose of this study is to reveal the practices of CoPS manufacturers to facilitate user knowledge utilization for innovation. We investigate two case companies, a medical device manufacturer and an aircraft manufacturer, and report on seven managerial practices for utilizing user knowledge. We adopt the absorptive capacity model in structuring our findings and elaborate three of the model's sub‐capabilities (recognition of the value of user knowledge, acquisition of user knowledge, and assimilation/transformation of user knowledge) by proposing that each is associated with a distinct managerial goal and related practices: (1) Sensitizing the organization to the innovation potential of user knowledge, (2) identifying and gaining access to suitable user knowledge, and (3) analyzing and interpreting user knowledge and integrating it into product development. Our study contributes to the innovation management literature by analyzing the capabilities required to utilize user knowledge throughout the CoPS innovation process.     

Investigating the buying process for the introduction of data processing in small and medium-sized firms

Analysing the buying process and the post-purchase experiences may be of interest to both the supplier and potential buyers. The buying behaviour during the introduction of data processing and computer-assisted information processing in 69 small and medium-sized firms were investigated using a standardized questionnaire. For all firms, the decision to buy involved a decision to obtain a system, with unity of hardware, system software, and application software — thus software support had the major influence on the decision. The assumption that in producer markets buyers decide more rationally and with greater market transparency only holds true for so called “intensive decision-makers”. This subset is the result of a cluster analysis that groups the firms according to their decision-making behaviour. A comparison of the “intensive decision-makers” with all others on their post-purchase development of computer-assisted information processing presents the following finding: Over an equal time span, the “intensive decision-makers” achieved a higher level of information processing (as measured by the number of DP-applications installed, the possibility of on-line operation of the firms' departments, and the creation of integrated solutions) than the rest of the sample.     

Social fMRI: Investigating and shaping social mechanisms in the real world

We introduce the Friends and Family study, a longitudinal living laboratory in a residential community. In this study, we employ a ubiquitous computing approach, Social Functional Mechanism-design and Relationship Imaging, or Social fMRI, that combines extremely rich data collection with the ability to conduct targeted experimental interventions with study populations. We present our mobile-phone-based social and behavioral sensing system, deployed in the wild for over 15 months. Finally, we present three investigations performed during the study, looking into the connection between individuals’ social behavior and their financial status, network effects in decision making, and a novel intervention aimed at increasing physical activity in the subject population. Results demonstrate the value of social factors for choice, motivation, and adherence, and enable quantifying the contribution of different incentive mechanisms.     

Social media at work: The roles of job satisfaction,employment status,and Facebook use with co-workers

Limited research has studied workplace satisfaction in a computer-mediated context, particularly with the use of social media. Based on an analysis of an online survey of working adults (N = 512) in various companies and organizations in a metropolitan area in Southern California, we tested the relationships among time spent on Facebook interacting with co-workers, employment status, and job satisfaction. Results show that an employee's satisfaction at work is positively associated with the amount of time they spend on Facebook interacting with co-workers. Contrary to our initial predictions, results to the second and third hypotheses revealed that part time employees reported having spent the highest amount of time on Facebook with their co-workers, and contract employees reported the highest degree of job satisfaction at work. Results have implications for Facebook as a strategic platform for promoting employee satisfaction at work, and Facebook a social network/ing platform for part time employees seeking further social integration and professional connection.     

Investigating information sharing behavior: the mediating roles of the desire to share information in virtual communities

Social networking sites are built and designed to provide online services and a platform for people to social interacts and exchange information. This study used the social capital theory as a foundation to explore the social interaction factors and individual factors such as shared value, community identification, and information privacy concerns, and examine the mediating role of the desire to give information between trust on websites/members and information sharing behaviour in the proposed model. This research sample consists of seven hundred and twenty-seven members who have used the Facebook fan page for at least 6 months. This study adopted structural equation modeling to test the research hypotheses. The results of this study show that shared value, community identification, and information privacy concern directly influence trust on websites and members. Trust on websites and members directly influenced the desire to get/give information. Desire to give information directly influences information sharing behaviour. The desire to give information plays important mediating roles between trust on websites/members and information sharing behaviour. Finally, we provide conclusions and managerial implications of the findings.     

Social media in conflicts and crises

ABSTRACT

The growing importance of social media in conflicts and crises is accompanied by an ever-increasing research interest in the crisis informatics field in order to identify potential benefits and develop measures against the technology’s abuse. This special issue sets out to give an overview of current research on the use of social media in conflicts and crises. In doing so, it focuses on both good and malicious aspects of social media and includes a variety of papers of conceptual, theoretical and empirical nature. In six sections, the special issue presents an overview of the field, analytical methods, technical challenges, current advancements and the accepted papers before concluding. Specific topics range from cyber deception over information trustworthiness to mining and near-real-time processing of social media data.     

Disruptive information technology innovations and the cost of equity capital: The moderating effect of CEO incentives and institutional pressures

Disruptive information technology (IT) innovations not only present opportunities, but also cause uncertain impacts on firm risk that affects the equity financing cost of a firm. This paper used longitudinal data from 146 U.S. listed firms that adopted radio frequency identification (RFID), a disruptive technology that enables supply chain process innovation. Results show that firms that adopted RFID significantly reduced their cost of equity capital, and the reduction was stronger for firms with greater CEO incentive-based compensation and coercive pressure. The findings help managers make strategies that maximize the benefits of disruptive IT innovations.     

Social media and the introductory statistics course

The popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube begs the question of how such sites might be used for educational purposes within classroom settings. This paper presents a review of some of the educational uses of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube within college classrooms. Because of the lack of published reports on the use of social media within statistics classrooms, the authors share their own examples of how social media can be used within the introductory statistics classroom, and they outline recommendations and considerations for other instructors who might want to explore the use of social media in their own courses.     

Social media and our misconceptions of the realities

This article will review the current laws of the expectations of privacy under the two-pronged Katz test, and more specifically other cases that the courts have tried to interpret the test as applicable to social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and email. Since there seems to be ‘no light at the end of the tunnel’ with any uniform decision within the courts on the Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure when there is a reasonable expectation of privacy with social media. This reasonable expectation standard is developed by the users themselves who will allow their rights to be infringed upon for the approval to access sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.     

Generational differences in content generation in social media: The roles of the gratifications sought and of narcissism

This study examines the roles of the gratifications sought and of narcissism in content generation in social media and explores the generational differences in motivations and in narcissistic personalities when predicting the usage of Facebook, blogs, and forums. Data were gathered from a probability sample of 596 social media users through a telephone survey in 2010. Factor analysis results showed that content generation using social media was satisfying five socio-psychological needs: showing affection, venting negative feelings, gaining recognition, getting entertainment, and fulfilling cognitive needs. In particular, people who used social media to meet their social needs and their need for affection tended to use Facebook and blogs. In contrast, when users wanted to air out discontent, they often turned to forums. Results also showed that exhibitionists seemed to use social media to show affection, express their negative feelings, and achieve recognition. The study found no generational differences in using Facebook and blogs as a means to satisfy social needs or the need for affection. However, differences in patterns of social media usage were found among Baby Boomers with different narcissistic personalities. The paper includes a discussion of the study’s limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Social media and crisis research: Data collection and directions

Social media platforms may be advantageous to those conducting research on communicative responses to crises and disasters, as they allow for the examination of public responses as cataclysmic events unfold. These technologies are also useful for reaching those affected by disasters in a manner not feasible with traditional methods of empirical inquiry. The current essay discusses recent advances in the use of social media for recruiting participants, collecting data, and evaluating audience needs and expectations. This literature is discussed in the context of its implications for scholars, social media managers, and emergency practitioners.     

The impact of absorptive capacity,exploration, and exploitation on individual creativity: Moderating effect of subjective well-being

This study proposes a new individual creativity model divided into seven main constructs: creative self-efficacy, individual knowledge, IT support, individual absorptive capacity, exploration, exploitation, and individual creativity. We assumed that creative self-efficacy, individual knowledge, and IT support positively affect individual creativity through the mediating effect of individual absorptive capacity, exploration, and exploitation. Additionally, we examined the moderating effects of subjective well-being by dividing the sample into a high subjective well-being group and a low subjective well-being group. After collecting 706 valid questionnaires from IT companies in South Korea, we applied a structural equation modeling technique to analyze the data. Empirical results reveal the following: (1) creative self-efficacy, individual knowledge, and IT support influence individual creativity through individual absorptive capacity, exploration, exploitation; and (2) subjective well-being moderates the relationship between the two constructs of the research model.     

Exploring the absorptive capacity to innovation/productivity link for individual engineers engaged in IT enabled work

The hypothesis that absorptive capacity leads to greater innovation/productivity has been supported at the country, inter-organizational, organizational, and group levels. We adapted the absorptive capacity concept to individuals engaged in IT enabled engineering work, which is a situated and emergent phenomenon that requires individuals to posses or develop ability to acquire new task and computer knowledge; use or develop analytical and intuitive problem solving skills to assimilate and integrate these two types of knowledge; and apply them to their work.