Temporal Social Coordination Through Social Networks

Temporal communication is mainly associated with the concept of time. The social network derived from temporal environment is constantly changing; a communication link can be connected and disconnected highly frequently. Further with the communication technology such as cell phone, time itself has shifted from an absolute time to a relative time. Mobile communication is closely related with temporal communication, due to its micro coordination property and also the constant establishment of links and breakage of links from time to time. To study the network in the temporal domain, we are constrained by the relative time concept. As communication behaviour is highly dynamic, we expect formation of new ties and breakages of existing ties over time. This is especially different when comparing to social network studies conducted through self report surveys as the network through self report survey remains relatively static for the duration of the survey. In our study, we are interested in how a person would be expanding its network only. Thus we use an accumulated network structure to study the total links a person acquires over time and how such influences the network position

Catching a Viral Video

The sharing and re-sharing of videos on social sites, blogs e-mail, and other means has given rise to the phenomenon of viral videos - videos that become popular through internet sharing. In this paper we seek to better understand viral videos on YouTube by analyzing sharing and its relationship to video popularity using millions of YouTube videos. The socialness of a video is quantified by classifying the referrer sources for video views as social (e.g. an emailed link, Facebook referral) or non-social (e.g. a link from related videos). We find that viewership patterns of highly social videos are very different from less social videos. For example, the highly social videos rise to, and fall from, their peak popularity more quickly than less social videos. We also find that not all highly social videos become popular, and not all popular videos are highly social. By using our insights on viral videos we are able develop a method for ranking blogs and websites on their ability to spread viral videos

The moderating role of prior experience in technological acceptance models for ubiquitous computing services in urban environments

Ubiquitous computing services constitute a new information technology that can be used in thousands of potential applications and environments. Ubiquitous computing is also changing the classic paradigm of information technology as it is forcing social and cultural changes. Determining factors affecting the use of ubiquitous services is essential to correctly define the characteristics of new value added services. However, this study investigates not only these factors, but also the moderating effect of previous experience. Due to the technological nature of ubiquitous services, previous experience alters the way in which potential users face these services. Findings suggest that previous experience changes the way in which antecedent relates to basic TAM constructs. The derived research models and empirical results also provide valuable indicators for future research and managerial guidelines for the successful adoption of ubiquitous computing servicesJunta de Andalucia. Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo P12-SEJ-32

O papel da orientação para o mercado no desempenho das empresas sociais

Market orientation has been presented as an important predictor of business performance. However, it is presumed to contribute to long-term success, both in commercial and nonprofit enterprises. Similarly, entrepreneurship orientation is a concept that has been widely applied to business firms but has not been empirically tested in social enterprises. Moreover, the literature does not present a widely accepted and tested conceptual model relating entrepreneurship orientation, market orientation and performance, in the realm of social enterprises. In order to fill this gap, this research assesses how these strategic orientations affect social and economic performance in the setting of social enterprises. Structural equation modelling was used as a means to analyze the hypothesized relationships. After testing the model on a sample of 805 Portuguese social enterprises, the findings show that both social entrepreneurship and market orientations significantly impact social performance. The results also indicate that market orientation mediates the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of social enterprises.A Orientação para o Mercado é um preditor importante do desempenho das empresas. No entanto, presume-se que contribua para o sucesso a longo prazo, tanto das empresas comerciais como das sem fins lucrativos. Igualmente, a orientação para o empreendedorismo é um conceito que tem sido amplamente aplicado às empresas, mas não tem sido empiricamente testado em empresas sociais. Mais a mais, a literatura não apresenta um modelo conceptual amplamente aceite e testado relacionando a orientação para o empreendedorismo, a orientação para o mercado e a performance, na realidade das empresas sociais. A fim de preencher esta lacuna, esta investigação avalia como essas orientações estratégicas afetam o desempenho social e económico no contexto das empresas sociais. A modelagem de equações estruturais foi utilizada como meio de analisar as relações que servem de base às hipóteses propostas. Depois de testar o modelo numa amostra de 805 empresas sociais portuguesas, os resultados mostram que ambas, a orientação para o empreendedorismo e para o mercado, afetam significativamente o desempenho das empresas sociais. Os resultados também indicam que a orientação para o mercado medeia o efeito da orientação empreendedora no desempenho das empresas sociais.Programa Doutoral em Marketing e Estratégi

Social cognition in the age of human–robot interaction

Artificial intelligence advances have led to robots endowed with increasingly sophisticated social abilities. These machines speak to our innate desire to perceive social cues in the environment, as well as the promise of robots enhancing our daily lives. However, a strong mismatch still exists between our expectations and the reality of social robots. We argue that careful delineation of the neurocognitive mechanisms supporting human–robot interaction will enable us to gather insights critical for optimising social encounters between humans and robots. To achieve this, the field must incorporate human neuroscience tools including mobile neuroimaging to explore long-term, embodied human–robot interaction in situ. New analytical neuroimaging approaches will enable characterisation of social cognition representations on a finer scale using sensitive and appropriate categorical comparisons (human, animal, tool, or object). The future of social robotics is undeniably exciting, and insights from human neuroscience research will bring us closer to interacting and collaborating with socially sophisticated robots

Optimization of vehicular networks in smart cities: from agile optimization to learnheuristics and simheuristics

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are a fundamental component of intelligent transportation systems in smart cities. With the support of open and real-time data, these networks of inter-connected vehicles constitute an ‘Internet of vehicles’ with the potential to significantly enhance citizens’ mobility and last-mile delivery in urban, peri-urban, and metropolitan areas. However, the proper coordination and logistics of VANETs raise a number of optimization challenges that need to be solved. After reviewing the state of the art on the concepts of VANET optimization and open data in smart cities, this paper discusses some of the most relevant optimization challenges in this area. Since most of the optimization problems are related to the need for real-time solutions or to the consideration of uncertainty and dynamic environments, the paper also discusses how some VANET challenges can be addressed with the use of agile optimization algorithms and the combination of metaheuristics with simulation and machine learning methods. The paper also offers a numerical analysis that measures the impact of using these optimization techniques in some related problems. Our numerical analysis, based on real data from Open Data Barcelona, demonstrates that the constructive heuristic outperforms the random scenario in the CDP combined with vehicular networks, resulting in maximizing the minimum distance between facilities while meeting capacity requirements with the fewest facilities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Socialness in online promotion and how it affects customer trust in B2B context - the mediation effect of brand perception

The recent unexpected appearance and effects of the pandemic have pushed many companies to focus more on their online capabilities. This has been necessary for many due to the lack of physical interaction with their customers and has created a need to understand customer interactions in the online environment more thoroughly. However, one of the harder things to build in online environments compared to offline ones is trust. This poses numerous problems as trust is one of the important catalysts for partnering up in B2B markets. One traditionally neglected side of B2B marketing is the emotions and social cues as it has widely been regarded as a very rational environment. Brand perceptions are integral in building trust, but the ways they are managed and influenced are still more limited than they need to be, due to the focus on rationality in these markets. This study uses warmth and competence (as defined by BIAF) as dimensions of brand perception. The purpose of this research is to find out if social cues in B2B online promotion have a meaningful impact as a trust building method. This research focuses on the relationship between socialness and trust and how it is affected by perceptions of warmth and competence generated by the interactions with the brand. The research was set up to capture this relationship by running a scenario-based experiment comparing multiple different webinar setups in B2B webinars. The webinar manipulations included adding a webcam and multiple speakers to the webinars to add more social cues and capture the effects those manipulations have on the customers. The results were gathered using a survey that was designed to capture the different constructs suspected to be responsible for building trust in this context. The results of the study indicate that socialness indeed is effective as a trust building method in online promotion, even in B2B markets. However, the effect is not complete in the sense that socialness seems to only be effective in influencing the warmth dimension of brand perception. The results inform companies of the possibilities and limitations of using social cues in their online promotion when functioning in a B2B context.Viimeaikainen yllättäen iskenyt pandemia ja sen vaikutukset ovat pakottaneet monet yritykset keskittymään enemmän verkkokyvykkyyteensä. Fyysisen vuorovaikutuksen puutteen vuoksi tämä on ollut monelle yritykselle välttämätöntä ja on luonut tarpeen ymmärtää asiakkaiden vuorovaikutusta perusteellisemmin tässäkin ympäristössä. Kun vertaa perinteisiin fyysisiin ympäristöihin, verkossa luottamuksen rakentaminen on kuitenkin yksi suurimmista kompastuskivistä. Tästä aiheutuu lukuisia ongelmia, sillä luottamus on yksi tärkeimmistä edesauttavista tekijöistä kumppanuuden luomisessa yritysmarkkinoilla. Yksi perinteisesti laiminlyöty puoli hyvin rationaalisena ympäristönä pidetyssä yritysmarkkinoinnissa ovat tunteet ja sosiaaliset ärsykkeet. Brändikäsitykset ovat olennainen osa luottamuksen rakentamista, mutta tapoja, joilla niitä hallitaan ja niihin vaikutetaan käytetään edelleen vähemmän kuin pitäisi, sillä yritysmarkkinoiden oletetaan usein fokusoituvan rationaalisuuteen. Tämä tutkimus käyttää lämpöä ja osaamista (BIAF:n määritelmän mukaan) brändikäsityksen ulottuvuuksina. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää, onko sosiaalisilla ärsykkeillä merkityksellistä vaikutusta luottamuksen rakentamiseen yritysmainonnassa verkossa. Tämä tutkimus keskittyy sosiaalisuuden ja luottamuksen väliseen suhteeseen, ja siihen, miten vuorovaikutuksessa yrityksen kanssa syntyvät brändikäsitykset vaikuttavat siihen. Tämän yhteyden selvittämiseksi järjestettiin tutkimusasetelma, jossa useita eri webinaarityyppejä verrattiin toisiinsa. Webinaarimanipulaatioihin sisältyi verkkokameran ja useampien puhujien sisällyttäminen sosiaalisten ärsykkeiden lisäämiseksi. Näin pyrittiin saamaan selville manipulaatioiden vaikutukset asiakkaisiin. Tulokset kerättiin kyselyllä, joka oli suunniteltu selvittämään näkemyksiä erilaisista konsepteista, joiden epäillään olevan vastuussa luottamuksen rakentamisesta tässä ympäristössä. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että myös yritysmarkkinoilla sosiaalisuus todella on tehokas luottamuksen rakentamisen menetelmä verkkopromootiossa. Vaikutus ei kuitenkaan ole täydellinen siinä mielessä, että sosiaalisuus näyttää vaikuttavan merkittävästi vain brändikäsityksen lämpö-ulottuvuuteen. Tulokset kertovat yrityksille sosiaalisten ärsykkeiden käytön mahdollisuuksista ja rajoituksista verkkopromootiossa, kun toimitaan yritysmarkkinoinnin ympäristössä

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN AUGMENTATIVE AND ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS – A LITERATURE-BASED ASSESSMENT AND IMPLICATIONS OF DIFFERENT CONVERSATION PHASES AND CONTEXTS

Even though AAC systems and corresponding AI approaches have been investigated within the extant research, they still show remarkable drawbacks, resulting in a low prevalence among speech-impaired individuals. As the suggestions and adaptions proposed by AI within AAC systems may show insufficiencies in certain situations (e.g., unreliable suggestions, low conversational rates, unauthentic adaptions towards users), we take an up-close look, especially at the conversation phases and contexts in which the supporting AI is applied. Therefore, we have conducted a systematic literature review as well as a literature analysis. Thereby, we could reveal that there are indeed several gaps within the extant research on AI regarding the coverage of the conversational context “informativeness” and the conversation phases “beginning” and “closing”. To dismantle the existing communication barriers that speech-impaired individuals suffer from, several implications for investigating AI in the context of AAC systems are derived and proposed for future (IS) research

Learning with Knowledge Sharing in Social Networks

Working in the digitally networked world has become more complex and dynamic. We need new ways of learning in order to adapt information and knowledge surrounding us. Our information seeking and media habits are relying heavily on web-supported services. Informal and networked work has become as important as the formal work. Social media has become the center of communities where projects, learning, collaboration, information sharing and training are created. Social media engages employees to capture and share knowledge in ways that has not been possible before with formal learning. Web has also become a learning environment where understanding is socially shared. The place where learning is shared also creates usually new knowledge. Knowledge creation in organization can be seen as a continuous and dynamic process, where tacit knowledge is the most valuable competitive asset of an organization. Social web enables new ways of learning and knowledge creation for the entire organization and future employee generations. The main goal of this research is to research how quality criteria of learning in social network is achieved and potentially adapted to organizations. Learning in a company has shifted more towards situated learning were communication cannot be necessary done physically between employees. The benefits of using online learning are for example increased access, more learner centralized processes, better decision-making and cost-effectiveness. New technologies and the need for globalization are quickly making distributed communities of practice a standard practice of a learning organization. Online communities have become global and the physical distance between community learners is not that crucial anymore. The focus of this research is to find out how an organization uses social media in their internal learning purposes like keeping up to date with industry, organizational networking, team collaboration and social training. Online communities with social networking can be seen as modern day communities of practice. Social networking provides multiple ways of collaborating in synchronous and asynchronous processes. It supports keeping information current, creates systems that support updates and sharing of collective perspectives. Emerging web technologies in communities allow us to create dialogues inside and outside the community. Google+ social networking service is one of the few social networking services that support versatile communications and potentially variety different learning ways. Google has been the most dominant player of the most popular Internet services. Google+ is a new social networking service, which provides a variety of tools for collaboration, good usability, and different connections methods with a social environment. It also builds a network where knowledge sharing is easily encouraged between users and groups of people. The amount of information is overwhelming for individual learners to adopt and process. For information seeking, problem solving and understanding complexity we need collaborative tools to support our ways of learning. Lack of recognizing the change in learning and learning environments can lead to bad decisions and inefficient processes. Online learning can enable and make information spread effectively by recommendations, automatic preferences, community tools and information filters. All of the above help learners to focus on the most crucial and specified information needed for succeeding in every day work. Social networking for learning purposes and its internal organizational use has been used and researched limitedly. This research seeks to apply a conceptual framework of learning organization concept. After describing the concept I will qualitatively test Google + social network’s suitability for supporting learning in organizational setting and draw an assessment based on these results. This thesis work is an interdisciplinary research representing theories and practices from pedagogy, psychology, sociology, economics and technology