Influences on academics' approaches to development: voices from below

The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to explore faculty-based academics’ views on what influences their behaviours and attitudes towards their development. Informed by critical realist ontology, the data collection was carried out through narrative interviews with academics in two contrasting English Universities. Findings, or areas for reflection, have emerged about the constraints and enablements academics perceive in respect of their professional development. In particular, themes such as the significance of professional status; misaligned initiatives and priorities; the influence of supportive networks; and emergent personal, individual concerns have surfaced. The conclusion is drawn that the significance of agency raises the importance of responding to the ‘voices from below’

Ethics and social networking sites: A disclosive analysis of Facebook

Paper has been accepted for publication in Information, Technology and People.Purpose: This paper provides insights into the moral values embodied by a popular social networking site (SNS), Facebook. We adopt the position that technology as well as humans has a moral character in order to disclose ethical concerns that are not transparent to users of the site. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based upon qualitative field work, involving participant observation, conducted over a two year period. Findings: Much research on the ethics of information systems has focused on the way that people deploy particular technologies, and the consequences arising, with a view to making policy recommendations and ethical interventions. By focusing on technology as a moral actor with reach across and beyond the Internet, we reveal the complex and diffuse nature of ethical responsibility in our case and the consequent implications for governance of SNS. Research limitations/implications: We situate our research in a body of work known as disclosive ethics and argue for an ongoing process of evaluating SNS to reveal their moral importance. Along with other authors in the genre, our work is largely descriptive, but we engage with prior research by Brey and Introna to highlight the scope for theory development. Practical implications: Governance measures that require the developers of social networking sites to revise their designs fail to address the diffuse nature of ethical responsibility in this case. Such technologies need to be opened up to scrutiny on a regular basis to increase public awareness of the issues and thereby disclose concerns to a wider audience. We suggest that there is value in studying the development and use of these technologies in their infancy, or if established, in the experiences of novice users. Furthermore, flash points in technological trajectories can prove useful sites of investigation. Originality/value: Existing research on social networking sites either fails to address ethical concerns head on or adopts a tool view of the technologies so that the focus is on the ethical behaviour of users. We focus upon the agency, and hence the moral character, of technology to show both the possibilities for, and limitations of, ethical interventions in such cases

SOCIAL NETWORKS IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY: AN INVESTIGATION OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

Over the past decades, increasing attention has been given to the networking in the tourism industry (Lynch, 2000; Pavlovich, 2003). The existing literature mainly focuses on the interrelationships among tourism stakeholders at sector level and the structure of the interorganizational networks in tourism industry. However, little research has been done to examine the possible antecedents and outcomes of the tourism networks and the interrelationships between the network structures at different subject level (i.e., interpersonal and interorganizational) and in different social contexts (i.e., online and offline). The purpose of this study is to address these research gaps by empirically examining the networks in a tourism destination. Choosing Charleston, South Carolina as the study area, this study included three phases of data collection and analysis. A series of in-depth interviews with the Charleston Area Convention and Visitor Bureau (CACVB) staff were first conducted for the development of the survey instrument. An online self-administrated survey was then conducted with 337 investors of the CACVB Travel Council to examine the scope and strength of the relationships between tourism professionals and tourism organizations. In addition, the Web sites of 745 tourism-related organizations located in Charleston were collected for generating an inter-hyperlink network in the tourism industry. Using network analysis techniques, the relational characteristics of the identified Web sites were measured, and their possible relationships with the organizations\u27 offline characteristics were also examined. The results confirmed the proposed influences of personality in individual\u27s social network structures in tourism business environment, and indicated that different personality traits contributed to different aspects of individual\u27s social networks characteristics (i.e. social network diversity and social network tie strength). At the organizational level, the study suggested that the interorganizational networks between tourism organizations were socially embedded in their boundary-spanning personnel\u27s social networks. In addition, market turbulence was found negatively related to tourism organization\u27s network diversity that had significant influence on their market performance. For the interorganizational network in cyberspace, the study revealed that tourism organization\u27s sector played an important role in their online network structures which were found correlated to tourism organization\u27s offline network structure as well as market performance

SOCIAL NETWORKS, INDIVIDUAL ORIENTATIONS, AND EMPLOYEE INNOVATION OUTCOMES: A MULTI-THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

I examine individual innovation in organizations from a social network perspective. I employ two theoretical lenses to examine innovation outcomes in three separate empirical studies. First, I use a sociopolitical framework to examine how political skill and social network structure interact to predict successful innovation initiation and, ultimately, career success. I find that innovation initiation mediates the relationship between political skill and career success. Moreover, structural holes in employees’ social networks moderate the mediated relationship between political skill and career success such that the relationship is stronger for employees with many structural holes in their social network. Second, I use social resources theory to examine how the characteristics of employees’ social network contacts affect individual innovation behavior. Results suggest that there is a positive relationship between the average amount of professional experience of one’s social network contacts and individual innovation behavior. Similarly, there is a positive relationship between the average creativity level of one’s social network contacts and individual innovation behavior. Each of these relationships is moderated by social structure such that the relationships are stronger for those with fewer structural holes in their social networks. Third, I develop and validate a scale to assess employee behavioral orientations toward brokering disconnected social network contacts. The scale is found to demonstrate convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity based on data from two field sites and one student sample. Results indicate that the scale is positively related to innovation support behavior

Control Challenges Parents Experience When Monitoring Adolescents\u27 Internet and Social Media Use

Abstract The ubiquitous nature of social media/internet use among adolescents in the United States has become a concern for parents due to risks to safety (e.g., sexual predators), emotional and psychological wellbeing (e.g., cyberbullying), academic achievement (e.g., poor grades), and physical health (e.g., sedentary lifestyle/obesity) faced by unsupervised youth with unlimited access to digital media. Parents readily acknowledge the importance of monitoring their adolescents’ social media/internet use; however, studies have documented their failure to do so. For various reasons, parents encounter challenges in their attempts to keep children safe such as adolescents’ desire for independence, lack of parental digital skills, and the secretive nature of social media and digital world writ large. This qualitative study explored parents’ perceptions of challenges experienced while monitoring their adolescent’s social media/internet use. Guided by the parental mediation theory for the digital age, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of adolescents who used social media/internet. Data were analyzed through coding and themes. Participants shared their experiences monitoring their adolescents’ social media/internet use, revealing concerns about lack of parental interest, early monitoring, communicating with adolescents, building trust, and app use and parental controls. These findings have implications for positive social change, as the findings can inform training programs developed by school administrators to assist parents’ efforts to keep children safe while enhancing academic performance

a framework and meta-analysis

Santini, F. D. O., Ladeira, W. J., Pinto, D. C., Herter, M. M., Sampaio, C. H., & Babin, B. J. (2020). Customer engagement in social media: a framework and meta-analysis. Journal Of The Academy Of Marketing Science. [Advanced online publication on 27 May 2020]. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-020-00731-5This research examines customer engagement in social media (CESM) using a meta-analytic model of 814 effect sizes across 97 studies involving 161,059 respondents. Findings reveal that customer engagement is driven by satisfaction, positive emotions, and trust, but not by commitment. Satisfaction is a stronger predictor of customer engagement in high (vs. low) convenience, B2B (vs. B2C), and Twitter (vs. Facebook and Blogs). Twitter appears twice as likely as other social media platforms to improve customer engagement via satisfaction and positive emotions. Customer engagement is also found to have substantial value for companies, directly impacting firm performance, behavioral intention, and word-of-mouth. Moreover, hedonic consumption yields nearly three times stronger customer engagement to firm performance effects vis-à-vis utilitarian consumption. However, contrary to conventional managerial wisdom, word-of-mouth does not improve firm performance nor does it mediate customer engagement effects on firm performance. Contributions to customer engagement theory, including an embellishment of the customer engagement mechanics definition, and practical implications for managers are discussed.authorsversionpublishe

Using technology acceptance model to measure the use of social media for collaborative learning in Ghana

In this Digital era, thousands of teens in the universities use social network sites; it has become a way of life. Social Media Usage has recently received numerous debates in its impact on academics, with its advent, communities have become link to each other, but the lecture room still remains quite isolated, from other teachers, students, and a host of others who could potentially enhance learning. This study aimed at investigating the impact of social media usage on students’ academic performance through collaborative learning among university students in Ghana. Based Davis, Bagozzi & Warshaw (1989), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a conceptual framework was adopted for the study. To achieve the objectives, a quantitative data analysis method was employed. A total of 200 students were randomly surveyed for the study. Regression analysis revealed that, Interaction with peers, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness had a significant positive relationship with collaborative learning. Furthermore, results suggested that there exist a significant mediation effects on the relationship between social media usage dimensions and academic performance. TAM does not take into account environment or economic factors that may influence a person’s intention to perform a behavior. The study recommends a clear mobile learning methodologies, rules and policies for integrating student activities on social media into their final gradesPeer Reviewe

The Perception of Female Leadership: Impact of Gender and Leader\u27s Qualification on Leader\u27s Effectiveness

This study examined how gender and years of working with a female leader influence the gendered perception of female leadership effectiveness in Saudi Arabian higher education institutions. This study compared male and female leaders’ perception of female leadership effectiveness as well as highlighted the relationship between leader’s gender, experience working with a female leader and perceived female leadership effectiveness. To answer the research questions, four hypothesized models were proposed (simple direct model, mediation model, moderation model, and mediation moderation model). Data was collected from administrated leaders, who hold a position in five public universes located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with approximately 554 male and female leaders. T. test and path analysis were conducted to test the hypothesized models. The results of path analysis indicated that the mediation model was the best fit model of the four hypothesized models. One significant path was identified between gender and perceived female leadership effectiveness in mediation moderation model, the worst model of the four hypothesized models. Also, a discussion of the key findings, the study limitations, and the suggested future areas of research were discussed

Project Quality of Offshore Virtual Teams Engaged in Software Requirements Analysis: An Exploratory Comparative Study

The off-shore software development companies in countries such as India use a global delivery model in which initial requirement analysis phase of software projects get executed at client locations to leverage frequent and deep interaction between user and developer teams. Subsequent phases such as design, coding and testing are completed at off-shore locations. Emerging trends indicate an increasing interest in off-shoring even requirements analysis phase using computer mediated communication. We conducted an exploratory research study involving students from Management Development Institute (MDI), India and Marquette University (MU), USA to determine quality of such off-shored requirements analysis projects. Our findings suggest that project quality of teams engaged in pure off-shore mode is comparable to that of teams engaged in collocated mode. However, the effect of controls such as user project monitoring on the quality of off-shored projects needs to be studied further