Mahak Sharma, Ruchita Gupta and Padmanav Acharya
This paper aims to examine the dynamism of causal relationships among cloud computing (CC) adoption factors in the Indian context, considering the perspectives of both the cloud…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the dynamism of causal relationships among cloud computing (CC) adoption factors in the Indian context, considering the perspectives of both the cloud adopter and cloud provider.
Design/methodology/approach
The case-study method has been used to understand the dynamics among the factors. Using data from specific cases in India, causal loop diagrams (CLDs) have been developed. System dynamic modeling (SDM) and simulation are used to study the relationships and their effect on the adoption rate.
Findings
The results revealed that adoption of CC depends on various factors such as persuasion (time-saving, cost-saving and word of mouth) and constraint factors (security and financial loss). However, it is seen that the adoption rate is very sensitive to changes in adoption per contact and word of mouth. Further, the adopter firm has a quicker time to market, which gives an added advantage to the firm. Also, with CC services, a firm can fulfill its projects or clients' requirements with little to no upfront investment in information technology (IT) services.
Practical implications
Lack of security, standardization and undefined service-level agreements are a few pressing issues that make it difficult for firms to evaluate the performance and reliability of services. Hence, immediate attention is needed to make transparent policies on CC and its services, thereby building trust.
Originality/value
This is the first and only work that has tried to explore and empirically test the dynamics of critical factors while making an adoption decision, considering both the adopter and provider perspectives. This study shows the journey of a firm, starting from being a prospective adopter to an adopter and continuous user. The work also empirically tested how adopters of technology benefit from the technology.
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Ruby Roy Dholakia and Miao Zhao
The purpose of this paper is to identify website characteristics that affect customer evaluations and satisfaction with online stores at two interaction points – when the order is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify website characteristics that affect customer evaluations and satisfaction with online stores at two interaction points – when the order is placed and after the order has been fulfilled.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data collected by bizrate.com, data collected from customers of thousands of online stores, the analysis focuses on the changes in the relationships between website characteristics and customer ratings. Data for two‐time periods, 15 months apart, are used to determine the stability in the observed relationships.
Findings
Order fulfillment variables, particularly on‐time delivery, dominate the effects on overall customer evaluations and satisfaction. The statistical significance of other online store attributes, however, changes as differences are observed between 2003 and 2004.
Research limitations/implications
The online environment is dynamic and the paper captures some of the changes in the relationships between website attributes and customer satisfaction. This requires continuous monitoring of the online environment. Since the paper relies on secondary data collected by bizrate.com, the research is limited by specific website attributes and measures of customer satisfaction adopted by a commercial enterprise.
Practical implications
Online retailers must be strategic about fulfillment variables. When online stores compete with each other, it is easier to copy certain attributes like “shipping options” than other attributes such as “on‐time delivery.” This suggests that the most creative, interactive, and vivid online site will not compensate for weak fulfillment and customer support capabilities.
Originality/value
No other paper has looked at these data, collected from real customers making purchases at actual merchant sites, over two time periods. The results provide insights regarding stability of findings.
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Brandon Randolph-Seng, John Humphreys, Milorad Novicevic, Kendra Ingram and Foster Roberts
Scholars have begun calling for broader conceptualisations of moral disengagement processes that reflect the interaction of dispositional and situational antecedents to a…
Abstract
Scholars have begun calling for broader conceptualisations of moral disengagement processes that reflect the interaction of dispositional and situational antecedents to a predilection to morally disengage. The authors argue that collective leadership may be one such contingent antecedent. While researching leaders from the Gilded Age of American business history, the authors encountered a compelling historical case that facilitates theory elaboration within these intersecting domains. Interpreting evidence from the embittered leader dyad of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, the authors show how leader egoism can permeate moral identity to promote symbolic moral self-regard and moral licensing, which augment a propensity to morally disengage. The authors use insights developed from our analysis to illustrate a process conceptualisation that reflects a dispositional and situational interaction as a precursor to moral disengagement and explains how collective leadership can function as a moral disengagement trigger/tool to reduce cognitive dissonance and support the cognitive, behavioural, and rhetorical processes utilised to justify unethical behaviour.
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Ruby Roy Dholakia and Miao Zhao
Since web sites are collection of several features, this paper examines web site interactivity – objective and subjective – at the feature level in terms of three underlying…
Abstract
Purpose
Since web sites are collection of several features, this paper examines web site interactivity – objective and subjective – at the feature level in terms of three underlying dimensions. The purpose of this paper is to understand the distinction between objective and subjective interactivity and to investigate their effects on customer satisfaction, behavioral intention, and telepresence.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental approach is used to study online shopping behavior from two retail web sites created to represent high and low interactivity. Student subjects, recruited from US universities, are given a task to purchase a product/gift certificate within a given budget. Analysis of variance and Lisrel are used to analyze the effects of interactivity.
Findings
Empirical results support objective and subjective interactivity as distinct constructs and while both positively impact online shoppers' satisfaction and behavioral intentions, only subjective interactivity influences telepresence. The Lisrel analysis also indicates that telepresence directly affects behavioral intentions and satisfaction does not fully mediate its impact.
Research limitations/implications
The direct relationships between objective and subjective interactivity is not examined in this paper and this relationship is likely to be more complex in the external world than can be included in an experimental setting. However, by being able to design each web site feature along the three dimensions of interactivity, it is possible to more effectively demonstrate the impact of objective and subjective interactivity as well as the merits of feature‐level interactivity.
Practical implications
If interactivity is viewed only at the overall level, then it is difficult to decide how to build an interactive web site. By employing the underlying theoretical dimensions of interactivity at the feature level, this paper addresses challenges faced in the design of web sites, particularly issues regarding whether and how to make a feature interactive.
Originality/value
Despite the growing attention to interactivity, there is limited understanding of its influences and impacts. The distinction between objective and subjective interactivity is able to shed deeper insights into the relationship between interactivity and satisfaction. This is one of the first such studies to investigate the effects of interactivity on telepresence, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions, key outcome measures in online retailing.
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Aspasia Simillidou, Demetris Vrontis and Michael Christofi
Service employees engage in Emotional Labor (EL), either through surface acting (SA) or deep acting (DA), when they interact with aggressive customers, so that they are able to…
Abstract
Service employees engage in Emotional Labor (EL), either through surface acting (SA) or deep acting (DA), when they interact with aggressive customers, so that they are able to abide to the organizational rules. Current studies have shown that employees engage only in SA when they interact with aggressive customers due to a number of reasons. Based on this, the authors undertake an exhaustive review and analysis of existing literature on EL, in order to enhance our understanding of the DA concept. Consequent to this analysis, tha authors interrelate and present the various research findings into a unified comprehensive framework for engaging in DA during a service encounter. Conclusively, the authors discuss the implications of the developed framework for the scholar community and management practice in the hospitality industry, and the authors propose various avenues for further research.
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Small businesses are dominant in most economies and their owners likely experience high levels of distress. However, we have not fully explored how these common businesses…
Abstract
Small businesses are dominant in most economies and their owners likely experience high levels of distress. However, we have not fully explored how these common businesses meaningfully differ with respect to the stress process. Understanding the meaningful variations or subgroups (i.e., heterogeneity) in the small business population will advance occupational health psychology, both in research and practice (e.g., Schonfeld, 2017; Stephan, 2018). To systematize these efforts, the author identifies five commonly appearing “heterogeneity factors” from the literature as modifiers of stressors or the stress process among small business owners. These five heterogeneity factors include: owner centrality, individual differences, gender differences, business/ownership type, and time. After synthesizing the research corresponding to each of these five factors, the author offers specific suggestions for identifying and incorporating relevant heterogeneity factors in future investigations of small business owners’ stress. The author closes by discussing implications for advancing occupational health theories.
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Miao Zhao and Ruby Roy Dholakia
The purpose of this paper is to address the following questions in the context of a transactional web site. How do web site attributes influence customer satisfaction? Will an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the following questions in the context of a transactional web site. How do web site attributes influence customer satisfaction? Will an increase in the performance of a specific attribute lead to increased satisfaction?
Design/methodology/approach
Since interactivity is considered a distinguishing characteristic of the new media and a web site is composed of multiple attributes, the paper empirically examines the interactivity‐satisfaction relationship at the individual attribute level using the Kano methodology. Changes in the interactivity‐satisfaction relationships over time and with user experience are also analyzed.
Findings
The paper identifies several relationships between interactive web site attributes and customer satisfaction. At this stage of web development, no attribute emerges as a “must‐be” attribute; one‐dimensional or linear attributes are common but not the only category of interactive attributes. In addition, mixed and attractive attributes were also found. Moreover, the paper confirms that Kano categories shift over time and with usage experience.
Practical implications
Different web site design strategies should be used depending on users' online experience and the various relationships between interactive web site attributes and customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
No previous research has yet examined interactivity at the attribute level. Web site designers and managers have to make decisions regarding each attribute. Adopting the Kano methodology, widely used in other areas of research, this paper examines the relationships between attribute‐level interactivity and customer satisfaction with a retail web site.
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This review aims to summarize previous research on work–family relationships in the tourism and hospitality contexts. It then integrates the various approaches into a holistic…
Abstract
Purpose
This review aims to summarize previous research on work–family relationships in the tourism and hospitality contexts. It then integrates the various approaches into a holistic model and identifies important areas for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
Over 150 research papers from the past 20 years were retrieved from Elsevier Science Direct, SAGE, Emerald, Taylor & Francis and EBSCOHost. In total, 77 papers reporting empirical research were analyzed in terms of concepts, theories, antecedents, consequences and methods.
Findings
The major findings on work and family issues in the tourism and hospitality contexts were synthesized. Critical topics for future research were identified. A holistic model of the factors that affect work and family was developed to improve the consistency of future research.
Research limitations/implications
An overview of work–family studies will provide a solid research background to tourism and hospitality faculty members and graduate students who are considering research in this area. This paper is a general review of previous research, and the review focus is relatively global.
Originality/value
This paper is the first comprehensive summary and narrative review of work and family studies in tourism and hospitality.
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Fuzhao Chen, Zhilei Chen, Qian Chen, Tianyang Gao, Mingyan Dai, Xiang Zhang and Lin Sun
The electromechanical brake system is leading the latest development trend in railway braking technology. The tolerance stack-up generated during the assembly and production…
Abstract
Purpose
The electromechanical brake system is leading the latest development trend in railway braking technology. The tolerance stack-up generated during the assembly and production process catalyzes the slight geometric dimensioning and tolerancing between the motor stator and rotor inside the electromechanical cylinder. The tolerance leads to imprecise brake control, so it is necessary to diagnose the fault of the motor in the fully assembled electromechanical brake system. This paper aims to present improved variational mode decomposition (VMD) algorithm, which endeavors to elucidate and push the boundaries of mechanical synchronicity problems within the realm of the electromechanical brake system.
Design/methodology/approach
The VMD algorithm plays a pivotal role in the preliminary phase, employing mode decomposition techniques to decompose the motor speed signals. Afterward, the error energy algorithm precision is utilized to extract abnormal features, leveraging the practical intrinsic mode functions, eliminating extraneous noise and enhancing the signal’s fidelity. This refined signal then becomes the basis for fault analysis. In the analytical step, the cepstrum is employed to calculate the formant and envelope of the reconstructed signal. By scrutinizing the formant and envelope, the fault point within the electromechanical brake system is precisely identified, contributing to a sophisticated and accurate fault diagnosis.
Findings
This paper innovatively uses the VMD algorithm for the modal decomposition of electromechanical brake (EMB) motor speed signals and combines it with the error energy algorithm to achieve abnormal feature extraction. The signal is reconstructed according to the effective intrinsic mode functions (IMFS) component of removing noise, and the formant and envelope are calculated by cepstrum to locate the fault point. Experiments show that the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) algorithm can effectively decompose the original speed signal. After feature extraction, signal enhancement and fault identification, the motor mechanical fault point can be accurately located. This fault diagnosis method is an effective fault diagnosis algorithm suitable for EMB systems.
Originality/value
By using this improved VMD algorithm, the electromechanical brake system can precisely identify the rotational anomaly of the motor. This method can offer an online diagnosis analysis function during operation and contribute to an automated factory inspection strategy while parts are assembled. Compared with the conventional motor diagnosis method, this improved VMD algorithm can eliminate the need for additional acceleration sensors and save hardware costs. Moreover, the accumulation of online detection functions helps improve the reliability of train electromechanical braking systems.
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Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm that draws academia and industry attention in the past few years. The purpose of this paper is to review the current research on…
Abstract
Purpose
Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm that draws academia and industry attention in the past few years. The purpose of this paper is to review the current research on IoT in library operation, and report the future trends and research challenges as well.
Design/methodology/approach
To conduct this research, the literature on IoT and its application in libraries was retrieved from major databases such as Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, Scopus and Inspec for the period between 2010 and 2018.
Findings
This study identifies IoT potential impact on libraries, and excavates some valuable literature on IoT and its application in libraries from managerial perspective, especially focuses on library service innovation in IoT era.
Originality/value
The IoT application in libraries is a new subject. This study provides an overview of IoT application in libraries. The findings of this study contribute to the research on IoT and its role in library management.