Autopilot? A reflexive review of the piloting process in qualitative e-research

Purpose: This paper examines an oft-neglected aspect of qualitative research practice – conducting a pilot – using the innovative approach of ‘e-research’ to generate both practical and methodological insights. Approach: Using the authors’ ‘e-research’ pilot as a reflexive case study, key methodological issues are critically reviewed. This review is set in a broader context of the qualitative methods literature in which piloting appears largely as an implicit practice. Using a new and emerging approach (‘e-research’) provides a prompt to review our ‘autopilot’ tendencies and offers a new lens for analysing research practice. Findings: We find that despite an initial focus on ‘practical’ aspects of data collection within our ‘e-research’, the pilot opened up a range of areas for further consideration. We review research ethics, collaborative research practices and data management issues specifically for e-research but also reflect more broadly on potential implications for piloting within other research designs. Practical implications: We aim to offer both practical and methodological insights for qualitative researchers, whatever their methodological orientation, so that they might develop approaches for piloting that are appropriate to their own research endeavours. More specifically, we offer tentative guidance to those venturing into the emerging area of ‘e-research’. Value: This paper offers insight into an oft-ignored aspect of qualitative research, whilst also engaging in emerging area of methodological interest

Some philosophical enquiries on E-learning: preparing the tomorrow business school

Emerging digital technologies and increasing interest in the computerized delivery of higher education have led to e-learning through electronic mail, the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW), and multimedia. The major objective of this research outlet is to examine the e-learning evolution in business schools. Our research intentions are to investigate: 1. if universities understand the market dynamics (regarding to segmentation and crossing the chasm); 2. mapping the s-curve to student needs and 3. how business schools will change the value map. From the analysis of existing empirical evidence and our research results from 140 business students of the University of Ioannina (Greece) and 50 business students of the University of Winchester (UK), we can summarize that: a. value is created when new technology is matched to student need; b. but student needs change: as the technology evolves existing students develop new needs and in addition the technology may appeal to new kinds of students, with new kinds of needs and c. understanding the structure of student needs may be particularly important at times of potential discontinuity, when existing students may reject new technologies (for excellent reasons!).  The authors suggest that business schools interested in being productive should invest in implementing performance tools for all educational methods in order to accomplish the educational objectives. Further research in this crucial field of the evolution of e-learning in business schools is the examination of anticipated benefits and the experiences by early e-learning adopters, return on investment and expectations for the future

The e-waste management behaviours of household consumers in Whangarei, New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Management at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Appendix X contains Figures and Tables copyright permissionsE-waste is known to have detrimental environmental, social and economic impacts, and its volume is growing up to three times faster than any other waste stream. Despite this growing problem, and the concurrent increase in detrimental impacts, New Zealand relies on voluntary schemes to manage the estimated 98,000 tonnes of e-waste generated in the country annually. While New Zealand could apply mandatory product stewardship of e-waste under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008, a recent report argued that there was insufficient data available to meet the requirements to enforce the labelling of e-waste as a priority product. This research aimed to generate first-time data on Whangarei household e-waste options, knowledge and behaviours, to inform e-waste management policy, resources and services which could be specifically designed for the district, with the intention that it would work towards providing sufficient data to allow for the mandatory product stewardship of e-waste. Research was conducted by way of online survey which asked Whangarei District residents questions specifically relating to how their households managed e-waste, and what influenced these management decisions. The survey was informed by international literature on the subject, as well as a review local and central government policies, and of the e-waste management resources services available both in the Whangarei District and in New Zealand as a whole. The research found that in the Whangarei District, cost and lack of knowledge of the services available are barriers to engagement in e-waste recycling, similar to international findings. However, contrary to international literature, general recycling behaviours and sociodemographic factors did not significantly influence e-waste behaviours in the district. The research also found that only 1.8% of the estimated e-waste generated in the Whangarei District each year was being recycled through the municipal services available. This figure could be improved via mandatory product stewardship at best, or e-waste recycling goals being set by the district council enable steps towards better services, resources and infrastructure at the very least. Whangarei and New Zealand as a whole are a long way from the appropriate management of e-waste. It is hoped this research, coupled with other information already available in the field, will allow the planning stage to begin toward adaptation to appropriate e-waste management, encompassing the waste hierarchy principles, if not nationally, then at least in the Whangarei District

e-Consumer Behaviour

Purpose – The primary purpose of this article is to bring together apparently disparate and yet interconnected strands of research and present an integrated model of e-consumer behaviour. It has a secondary objective of stimulating more research in areas identified as still being underexplored. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is discursive, based on analysis and synthesis of econsumer literature. Findings – Despite a broad spectrum of disciplines that investigate e-consumer behaviour and despite this special issue in the area of marketing, there are still areas open for research into econsumer behaviour in marketing, for example the role of image, trust and e-interactivity. The paper develops a model to explain e-consumer behaviour. Research limitations/implications – As a conceptual paper, this study is limited to literature and prior empirical research. It offers the benefit of new research directions for e-retailers in understanding and satisfying e-consumers. The paper provides researchers with a proposed integrated model of e-consumer behaviour. Originality/value – The value of the paper lies in linking a significant body of literature within a unifying theoretical framework and the identification of under-researched areas of e-consumer behaviour in a marketing context

Evaluating Pricing Strategy Using e-Commerce Data: Evidence and Estimation Challenges

As Internet-based commerce becomes increasingly widespread, large data sets about the demand for and pricing of a wide variety of products become available. These present exciting new opportunities for empirical economic and business research, but also raise new statistical issues and challenges. In this article, we summarize research that aims to assess the optimality of price discrimination in the software industry using a large e-commerce panel data set gathered from Amazon.com. We describe the key parameters that relate to demand and cost that must be reliably estimated to accomplish this research successfully, and we outline our approach to estimating these parameters. This includes a method for ``reverse engineering'' actual demand levels from the sales ranks reported by Amazon, and approaches to estimating demand elasticity, variable costs and the optimality of pricing choices directly from publicly available e-commerce data. Our analysis raises many new challenges to the reliable statistical analysis of e-commerce data and we conclude with a brief summary of some salient ones.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000187 in the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Non-business e-commerce in Malaysia: An investigation of key adoption

Problem statement: Non-business EC is a relatively new research niche in the general e-commerce stream. Application of e-commerce by profit oriented organization already become bread and butter but still limited applied in non-business sectors such as academic institutions (as in the present study), non-profit organizations, religious organizations and government agencies. Nowadays e-commerce becomes crucially essential in reducing their expenses and improving their operations.Therefore, application of this new innovation should enhance to no non-business sectors to be livelier.Understanding the key factors of facilitating and adopting the e-commerce in non-business are still need to enrich in particularly within Malaysian context. A field survey was conducted to determine key factors that facilitate the adoption of non-business EC in Malaysian Universities. Approach: One main focus of IT implementation research has been to determine why people accept or reject new technology. The current research will explore why Non-business institutions will accept or reject e- commerce. Since e-commerce adoption decision is a strategic one, a comprehensive list of potential facilitators and non-facilitators for the strategic use of information technology was derived from past research. Thus factors used as the basis for collecting data from 65 schools, centers and units from 5 public universities in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur. These data were factor-analyzed to determine the key underlying dimensions of facilitators. On the basis of the resulting 5 dimensions namely, relative advantage, network orientation, information efficiency, innovativeness and competitiveness, regression analysis was done to determine the impact of the 5 dimensions on adoption. Results: They suggest that relative advantage, network orientation and information efficiency are the most important facilitators to the used of e-commerce in non-business sectors. Inhibitors were not estimated eventually, as there were no non-users among the respondents. Conclusion: The results implies the non-business sectors should look into advantages, network orientation and information efficiency as a strategic based for implementing e-commerce in more effective manner to achieve their goals

Constructing experimental indicators for Open Access documents

The ongoing paradigm change in the scholarly publication system ('science is turning to e-science') makes it necessary to construct alternative evaluation criteria/metrics which appropriately take into account the unique characteristics of electronic publications and other research output in digital formats. Today, major parts of scholarly Open Access (OA) publications and the self-archiving area are not well covered in the traditional citation and indexing databases. The growing share and importance of freely accessible research output demands new approaches/metrics for measuring and for evaluating of these new types of scientific publications. In this paper we propose a simple quantitative method which establishes indicators by measuring the access/download pattern of OA documents and other web entities of a single web server. The experimental indicators (search engine, backlink and direct access indicator) are constructed based on standard local web usage data. This new type of web-based indicator is developed to model the specific demand for better study/evaluation of the accessibility, visibility and interlinking of open accessible documents. We conclude that e-science will need new stable e-indicators.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

The promise and practice of e-learning within complex tertiary environments

In advance of a change in learning management systems at a tertiary institution in New Zealand, the authors undertook a research study, the purpose of which was to provide a ‘snap-shot’ of existing online instructional practice within their School. They sought to identify existing pedagogical and technical issues and staff attitudes and preparedness for the new software. Although they found considerable staff good will toward e-learning, a number of problems were identified in the study. Findings from research have been organized and are discussed within five categories, including vision, skills, incentives, resources, and action plan. Conclusions describe plans for reorganizing how and in what manner e-learning can be supported within complex social environments, such as universities, when resources are limited

Exploring the challenges of implementing e-health: a protocol for an update of a systematic review of reviews.

There is great potential for e-health to deliver cost-effective, quality healthcare and spending on e-health systems by governments and healthcare systems is increasing worldwide. However, the literature often describes problematic and unsuccessful attempts to implement these new technologies into routine clinical practice. To understand and address the challenges of implementing e-health, a systematic review was conducted in 2009, which identified several conceptual barriers and facilitators to implementation. As technology is rapidly changing and new e-health solutions are constantly evolving to meet the needs of current practice, an update of this review is deemed necessary to understand current challenges to the implementation of e-health. This research aims to identify, summarise and synthesise currently available evidence, by undertaking a systematic review of reviews to explore the barriers and facilitators to implementing e-health across a range of healthcare settings