Life is an Adventure! An agent-based reconciliation of narrative and scientific worldviews\ud

The scientific worldview is based on laws, which are supposed to be certain, objective, and independent of time and context. The narrative worldview found in literature, myth and religion, is based on stories, which relate the events experienced by a subject in a particular context with an uncertain outcome. This paper argues that the concept of “agent”, supported by the theories of evolution, cybernetics and complex adaptive systems, allows us to reconcile scientific and narrative perspectives. An agent follows a course of action through its environment with the aim of maximizing its fitness. Navigation along that course combines the strategies of regulation, exploitation and exploration, but needs to cope with often-unforeseen diversions. These can be positive (affordances, opportunities), negative (disturbances, dangers) or neutral (surprises). The resulting sequence of encounters and actions can be conceptualized as an adventure. Thus, the agent appears to play the role of the hero in a tale of challenge and mystery that is very similar to the "monomyth", the basic storyline that underlies all myths and fairy tales according to Campbell [1949]. This narrative dynamics is driven forward in particular by the alternation between prospect (the ability to foresee diversions) and mystery (the possibility of achieving an as yet absent prospect), two aspects of the environment that are particularly attractive to agents. This dynamics generalizes the scientific notion of a deterministic trajectory by introducing a variable “horizon of knowability”: the agent is never fully certain of its further course, but can anticipate depending on its degree of prospect

Qualified Affordance-based Design

Function-based approaches are taught by the engineering design community and implemented in practice. The most significant advantage of these approaches is that they can guide the designers to abstract the essential problems from the design requirements, build the function-based models, and consequently provide the direction of the solution. However, due to the lack of a consistent scientific definition on the meaning of the function, these approaches may be contradictory when representing human-centered aspects, features, and non-physical purposes. To address this issue, design researchers have pursued two general directions: (1) broadening the meaning of function and (2) introducing an alternative scientific concept such as \u27affordance\u27 or \u27wirk\u27 to compensate for the weaknesses of the functional descriptions. Research on affordance is the focus in this thesis. Although the term affordance has been introduced in design methodology, some significant details like representation, categorization, and application into mechanical design still need to be further studied. Therefore, this thesis starts by analyzing the ambiguity of function in design to support the necessity of involving affordances, and then reviews and compares the usages of affordance in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), design, psychology, and philosophy. The research opportunities are identified from the review and the comparison of the various approaches. One of the opportunities is to qualify the affordance-based design. Therefore, a new categorization of affordances applicable for product design is proposed, including doing and happening Artifact-Artifact Affordances (dAAA and hAAA), doing and happening Artifact-Environment Affordances (dAEA and hAEA), and doing and happening Artifact-User Affordances (dAUA and hAUA)

The cognitive representation of action: modulation effects between action and perception as mediated by the event cosing

Gaspare Galati, Teresa Scalisi, Pierluigi Zoccolott

Understanding electronic word-of-mouth in tourism in the social media era

In recent decades, social media has fundamentally changed how communication takes place in business. It has contributed to the evolution of the Internet from a broadcasting medium to a participatory and interactive platform which allows users to generate and share information and become part of the media. For instance, social media has enabled the creation and exchange of electronic word-ofmouth (eWOM). We have witnessed the popularity of eWOM in travel and tourism industry. EWOM behaviour among individuals and the impact of eWOM on organizations have become important research focuses in eWOM research. However, the extant research has ignored the important function of social media platforms as both hedonic and social-oriented information systems (IS) for users, and few researchers have tried to explain eWOM use from the social, hedonic, and technology perspectives. eWOM application from the organizational perspective has also attracted the attention of researchers. Most prior studies in this field have focused primarily on the impact of eWOM on business performance and organizations’ eWOM strategy. However, the understanding of how social media platforms can be used to co-create value with customers and how eWOM can help organizations to engage customers is still fragmented. What is more, the understanding of the interplay between an organization’s activity and social media technology remains obscure. The objective of this study is threefold: 1) to explore eWOM use and generation behaviours among individuals by taking eWOM content, as well as the social media platform—that is, the channel of eWOM generation and use—into consideration; 2) to explore the value creation of social media and eWOM in organizations; and 3) to examine how social media and eWOM connect individuals and organizations and uncover the myth of how eWOM benefits both individuals and travel organizations. A combination of quantitative survey research and qualitative case study is used in this study. In particular, quantitative survey research method was used to explore the eWOM use among individual user’s to solve the research questions regarding the determinants of travellers’ eWOM use and generation behaviours. Qualitative case study method was used to solve the questions regarding how can tourism organizations use social media to co-create value with customers and to engage with customers via eWOM communication. This research includes empirical data collected from individual tourists in China and tourism organizations from both China and Finland. This study contributes to the understanding of eWOM in tourism context. Specifically, it contributes to the understanding of customers’ eWOM behavior by taking the social and hedonic functions into consideration, and sheds light on the understanding of eWOM application in organizations. This study also integrates eWOM research from both individual and organization perspectives and helps to explain the eWOM interplay between them. From practical view, the results of this study have important implications for tourism e-service practitioners in their understanding of customers’ decision making process, and the strategy to facilitate customers’ propensity of eWOM generation behavior. It also helps eWOM website designers to make successful eWOM websites. The findings also shed lights on e-service providers on how to co-create value with customers via social media platform and how to engage customer via eWOM communication.Sosiaalinen media on ratkaisevasti muuttanut tapaa jolla liikeviestintää hoidetaan nykyvuosikymmenellä. Se on muuttanut Internetin yksisuuntaisesta julkaisukanavasta yhteisölliseksi ja interaktiiviseksi alustaksi joka mahdollistaa käyttäjien informaation tuottamisen ja jakamisen, heidän tulemisensa osaksi mediaa. Esimerkiksi, sosiaalinen media on mahdollistanut eWOM-ilmiön, jolla tarkoitetaan asiakkaiden ja käyttäjien jostain kohteesta tekemien arvioiden antamista ja jakamista sähköisillä alustoilla. eWOM on osoittautunut erittäin suosituksi matkailun ja turismin alalla viime vuosina. eWOM-yksilökäyttäytyminen sekä se miten eWOM vaikuttaa organisaatioihin ovat tulleet tärkeiksi tutkimuskohteiksi eWOM-tutkimuksessa. Kuitenkin nykyinen tutkimus on jättänyt ottamatta huomioon sen että sosiaalisen median alustat toimivat myös mielihyvää tuottavina ja sosiaalisesti orientoituneina tietojärjestelminä käyttäjille, ja vain vähäinen tutkimus on yrittänyt selvittää eWOMkäyttöä sosiaalisesta, hedonisesta ja teknologisesta näkökulmasta. eWOM tutkimus organisatorisesta näkökulmasta keskittyy pääosin siihen miten eWOM vaikuttaa liiketoimintaan ja organisaation eWOM-strategiaan. Kuitenkin sen ymmärtäminen miten sosiaalisen median alustoja voidaan käyttää arvon yhteiseen tuottamiseen ja kuinka eWOM voi auttaa organisaatioita sitouttamaan asiakkaan on yhä sirpaleista. Lisäksi, organisaation toiminnan ja sosiaalisen median teknologian vuorovaikutuksen ymmärtäminen on yhä häilyvää. Tällä tutkimuksella on kolme tavoitetta: 1) tutkia eWOM-käyttöä ja tiedon tuottamista yksilötasolla ottamalla eWOM-sisältö samoin kuin sosiaalisen median alusta – kanava eWOMin tuottamiseen ja jakamiseen – huomioon; 2) tutkia eWOMin sosiaalisen median arvontuottoa organisaatiossa; 3) tutkia miten sosiaalinen media ja eWOM yhdistävät yksilöitä ja organisaatioita, jotta voitaisiin selvittää myytti siitä miten eWOM hyödyntää sekä yksilöitä että organisaatioita. Tässä tutkimuksessa käytettiin kvantitatiivisen kyselytutkimuksen ja kvalitatiivisen tapaustutkimuksen yhdistelmää. Erityisesti, kvantitatiivista kyselytutkimusta käytettiin tutkimusmenetelmänä tutkittaessa yksilöiden eWOM-käyttöä, jotta voitiin vastata tutkimuskysymykseen koskien matkustajien eWOMgeneroinnin ja –käytön keskeisiä suureita. Laadullista tapaustutkimusta käytettiin tutkimusmenetelmänä selvitettäessä sitä miten organisaatiot käyttävät sosiaalista mediaa tuottaakseen lisäarvoa asiakkaiden kanssa ja miten ne sitouttavat asiakkaat eWOM-viestinnän keinoin. Tämä tutkimus sisältää empiiristä dataa jota on kerätty sekä yksittäisiltä matkustajilta Kiinassa sekä matkailualan yrityksiltä sekä Kiinassa että Suomessa. Tämä tutkimus lisää ymmärrystä eWOM-ilmiöstä matkailussa. Erityisesti se tuottaa tietoa asiakkaiden eWOM-käyttäytymisestä ottamalla eWOMin sosiaaliset ja hedoniset aspektit huomioon, ja tuottaa tietoa eWOMin käytön ymmärtämiseksi organisaatioissa. Tämä tutkimus integroi eWOM-tutkimuksen sekä yksilön että organisaation näkökulmasta ja auttaa ymmärtämään näkökulmien yhteydet. Käytännön näkökulmasta tämän tutkimuksen tuloksilla on tärkeitä viestejä sähköisen palvelutuotannon toteuttajille kun he pyrkivät ymmärtämään asiakkaan päätöksentekoa. Se myös auttaa eWOM-suunnittelijoita tekemään onnistuneita eWOM-verkkopalveluita. Tutkimustulokset myös kertovat verkkopalveluiden tuottajille miten tuottaa lisäarvoa yhdessä asiakkaiden kanssa sosiaalisessa mediassa ja miten sitouttaa asiakkaat eWOM-kommunikaation avulla

Research Perspectives: The Anatomy of a Design Principle

This essay derives a schema for specifying design principles for information technology-based artifacts in sociotechnical systems. Design principles are used to specify design knowledge in an accessible form, but there is wide variation and lack of precision across views regarding their formulation. This variation is a sign of important issues that should be addressed, including a lack of attention to human actors and levels of complexity as well as differing views on causality, on the nature of the mechanisms used to achieve goals, and on the need for justificatory knowledge. The new schema includes the well-recognized elements of design principles, including goals in a specific context and the mechanisms to achieve the goal. In addition, the schema allows: (1) consideration of the varying roles of the human actors involved and the utility of design principles, (2) attending to the complexity of IT-based artifacts through decomposition, (3) distinction of the types of causation (i.e., deterministic versus probabilistic), (4) a variety of mechanisms in achieving aims, and (5) the optional definition of justificatory knowledge underlying the design principles. We illustrate the utility of the proposed schema by applying it to examples of published research

Developing entrepreneurial ecosystems - Characteristics and challenges for entrepreneurship policy

Entrepreneurship is generally recognized as a source of economic growth. Recently entrepreneurship research has shifted its focus from entrepreneurs and firms, towards the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE). This emerging concept merits growing attention from academics and policymakers to the point of representing a leading drift in entrepreneurship policy and development strategies of numerous countries and regions. As well as capturing the attention of a growing number of scholars, from which emerges an appealing and fast-growing body of literature. However, the study of EE is recent, undertheorized, and fragmented. Gaps in this body of literature suggest there is a need to extend EE research and develop solid and coherent theoretical frameworks, particularly in what concerns to the effects of entrepreneurship policies. Policy and entrepreneurship are symbiotically interconnected, where research plays an important role in providing policymakers valuable insights. Without adequate theoretical foundations to guide its formulation, policies risk being ineffective and even hinder the development of EEs. This research is motivated by calls for the development of policy related research, regarding the development of EEs, and aims to provide a clearer view of the characteristics, formulation options and implementation process of these policies. This research followed a multi-method approach. Beginning with an analysis of six EE qualitative studies from different countries, to extract the characteristics of effective EE policies (EEP). The second part of the research departs from extant literature to identify the parameters for EEP formulation and provide a conceptual framework to guide its formulation. The third part addresses the process of EEP formulation and implementation, extending the use of effectuation theory to provide an improved model supported by empirical illustrations of policies evidencing effectual characteristics. The fourth part includes the analysis of the impact of digital technology in the development of EEs by using the concept of affordances; DESENVOLVIMENTO DE ECOSSISTEMAS DE EMPREENDEDORISMO – CARACTERÍSTICAS E DESAFIOS PARA AS POLÍTICAS DE EMPREENDEDORISMO Resumo: O empreendedorismo é globalmente reconhecido como uma fonte de crescimento económico. Recentemente, a investigação na área do empreendedorismo transferiu o seu foco dos empreendedores e empresas para o desenvolvimento de ecossistemas empreendedores (EE). Este conceito emergente desperta uma atenção crescente de académicos e policymakers, representando uma tendência dominante na política de empreendedorismo e nas estratégias de desenvolvimento de vários países e regiões. Simultaneamente tem captado a atenção de um número crescente de académicos, gerando uma literatura cativante e em rápido crescimento. No entanto, o estudo dos EE é recente, pouco teorizado e fragmentado. As lacunas nesta literatura sugerem a necessidade de alargar a investigação e desenvolver fundamentos teóricos sólidos e coerentes, especialmente quanto aos efeitos das políticas de empreendedorismo. Política e empreendedorismo estão simbioticamente interligados, promover mais investigação é fundamental para desenvolver conhecimento relevante para os policymakers. Sem fundamentos teóricos adequados para orientar a formulação de políticas, estas arriscam ser ineficazes e até prejudicar o desenvolvimento dos EEs. A investigação produzida nesta tese é motivada por sucessivos apelos ao desenvolvimento de pesquisa relacionada com políticas de desenvolvimento de EEs (EEP) e visa fornecer uma visão mais clara das suas características, opções de formulação e processo de implementação. Esta investigação seguiu uma abordagem multi-método. Começando com uma análise de seis estudos qualitativos de diferentes países, a qual permitiu extrair características de EEPs eficazes. A segunda parte partiu da literatura existente, identificando parâmetros para a formulação das EEP e desenvolver uma estrutura conceptual para a sua formulação. A terceira parte, aborda o processo de formulação e implementação de políticas, recorrendo à teoria da effectuation desenvolvendo um modelo melhorado para as EEP, apoiado por ilustrações empíricas de EEP com características effectual. Por fim, na quarta parte é analisado o impacto da tecnologia digital no desenvolvimento de EEs, utilizando o conceito de affordances

Learning through techno-human entwinement: Implications for the adoption of technologies drawn from agricultural and ICT interventions in the Philippines

In developing countries, such as the Philippines, there is great concern among educational, government and non-government organizations regarding the implementation of agricultural technologies delivered through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), at both regional and national levels. While these types of introduced technologies are discussed in the literature of organizational practice, they are largely absent in studies of management and informal education. This study seeks to address this paucity by investigating the entwinement (i.e. process of interweaving) of humans and this type of introduced technologies through the theoretical perspectives of sociomateriality (i.e. interweaving of human and technologies) and sensemaking (i.e. giving meaning to experience). More specifically, it examines how farmers learn through a process of interweaving with one specific intervention – use of ICT to learn agricultural technologies. Using the theoretical perspective of sociomateriality (Orlikowski, 2008; Leonardi, 2012) to examine farmers’ views on the affordances of interventions, this study illustrates how their learning is bound up in an ever-deepening entwinement with the technology through which it is delivered. In addition, this study investigates the processes, which lead to its adoption, through the perspective of sensemaking (Weick, 2005). Conducted as an ethnographic case study, this research draws on observations of farmers’ practices for over four months in two Farmers Information and Technology Services (FITS) centres in Region XI, in the Philippines. These centres aimed to deliver agricultural technologies through ICT. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis. Participants included 32 farmers, two FITS managers, an instructional designer, five FITS/village staff members, a farmer scientist, and three community and farmer group leaders. As to the findings related to the possibility of an action to an object, it indicates that participant’s perspectives can be grouped in three distinct ways namely: as a bundle of technical features inherent in the properties of technological tools (e.g., sending email, viewing diseases), as design features of the services provided and as relations between these features. These perspectives appear to build on one another, resulting in ongoing improvement and the emergence of new technologies, routines, affordances, and the altered perception of new constraints. This expansion of perception results in a shift from individual to group affordances. Through the perspective of sensemaking (Weick, 2005), this study identifies two types of sensemakers among the farmers: minimal sensemakers and reflective sensemakers. It also reveals two new influences, previously unrecognized in the literature which resulted to limited sensemaking: a) external affordances (e.g., subsidies) and b) the emergence of a cultural trait, “gaya-gaya” (i.e. imitation). Moreover, these results further illustrate how the sensemaking process is made visible when viewed from a sociomaterial perspective. Using the assumptions of the sociomaterial perspective that learning is made visible in practice, this study found that participants progressed through three stages, namely: figuring, configuring and reconfiguring. Findings indicate that during ‘figuring’, the farmers engaged in various learning processes by observing others and engaging in verbal exchanges (e.g., linking new abstract ideas with material objects, organizing ideas, and verbal referencing). In ‘configuring’, farmers learned by experimentation, storytelling, group learning and the integration of sociomaterial objects in farming routines. During ‘reconfiguring’, farmers engaged in experimentation that focused on the creation of new knowledge and understanding, and the manipulation of new artefacts. The findings of this study are vital for understanding how an individual’s perspectives, sensemaking and ways of learning lead to adoption. It contributes to the literature new insights into the process of entwinement between individuals and interventions using the perspectives of sociomateriality and sensemaking in the context of informal education in a developing country

The construction of 'innocence': comparing responses to criminal accusations across legal and non-legal settings

This thesis explores the discursive construction of innocence in responses to criminal accusations across different interactional settings. Constructing innocence here refers to the achievement of interactional tasks, such as deflecting or avoiding blame, across both admissions and denials. With the birth of the television and the internet, accountability for a criminal act does not stop and start within legal settings. Suspects may construct innocence publicly, and regardless of any legal decision made. It is important to examine this in order to demonstrate the discursive resources accessible to suspects responding to criminal accusations in their specific interactional setting compared to suspects responding to criminal accusations in others. The data acquired for this study therefore comprises police interviews, television journalist interviews, and internet vlogs. The pre-existing and naturally occurring interactions collected each contain an individual s response to a criminal accusation. These interactions are analysed using discursive psychology (DP) to examine how psychological matters are discursively negotiated as part of suspects minimisation of blame. The analysis also explores the role of context, and if and how suspects discursive exonerative practices orient to affordances of the interactional setting within which they are performed. The three analytic chapters of this thesis respectively demonstrate how suspects responses to criminal accusations: 1) claim epistemic primacy about their level of involvement in the alleged offence; 2) detach the alleged crime from a criminal category, and themselves from incumbency in that category; and 3) claim incumbency in the category victim . Overall, the findings reveal that suspects utilise the conversational tools of everyday talk available to them, as well as orientations to, or subversions of, the conventions of their setting. The findings in this thesis also demonstrate that the categories of criminal / non-criminal , perpetrator / victim , and guilty / innocent are not so bifurcated when it comes to their construction in interaction. The thesis extends our understanding of the interactional manifestation of innocence , particularly the under-researched area of how affordances of different interactional settings (ways in which speakers are enabled or restricted to discursively do something) may be made relevant by the suspects. It significantly examines different ways suspects can respond to criminal accusations in the era of the internet, comparing public, non-legal settings with the police interview setting, and how these can happen because of what is discursively and technologically available to the suspects here. This thesis addresses these matters for the first time, thus contributing to the field of DP by demonstrating how psychological business and categorisation is discursively built in suspects interactions across both legal and non-legal settings