AFFORDANCE THEORY IN SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS OF THE LITERATURE

Social media technologies continue transforming various dimensions of social and organisational life through possibilities they present for goal-oriented actions of diverse users/ user groups. The notion of affordances that explains these possibilities has witnessed popularity among IS scholars to study these technologies. However, since the concept itself has been under ongoing development, its use in studying social media technologies has been focused on identifying technical affordances, perception and actualisations of these affordances, or the social and organisational implications of such affordances. In this research-in-progress paper, we present our attempt to systematically review and synthesise the literature to examine the effects of social media affordances. In addition, we aim to systematically review the existing literature to explore how the concept of affordance has been employed in social media research, to uncover the effects of social media affordances and present a comprehensive framework of these affordances effects and identify areas for future research

Opening the Blackbox of ‘Fitness for Use’: The Role of IT Implementation in Perceiving Information Quality

This article explains the role of adoption and adaptation of information technology in shaping and constructing the perception of information quality by information consumers. A qualitative and interpretive study has been conducted among Iranian organizations that faced problems in implementing Western developed software applications in Iran’s institutional context. We have been exploring how the lack of institutional linkage between the technology developers and technology users which already made implementation process a challenging one for the users may affect their perception of information quality. Drawing on Social Studies of Technology and the theory of social learning, we have provided more insight into the mentioned dynamics. We conceptualize the impact of implementation of information technology on the dynamics of shaping perception of information quality by suggesting the following mechanisms: adapting and domesticating a generic type of information technology from other institutional contexts, experiencing context-specific information quality issues by using the appropriated information technology, and affecting the perception of information and its fitness to the context of use

ADOPTING A ‘SEARCH’ LENS IN EXPLORATION OF HOW ORGANISATIONS TRANSFORM DIGITALLY

As new forms of digital technologies continue to proliferate, Information Systems (IS) scholars argue that we are witnessing a paradigmatic shift in the nature of technologies and their potential in profoundly changing organisations and ways of working. Such technological shifts have also given rise to consumerisation of IT and thus creating more endowed consumers with changing expectations and practices. The black-boxed nature of digital platforms and their algorithms have imposed challenges for scholars to understand these changes. In this paper, we draw on the notion of ‘search’ and its use in the organisation and management literature to propose a new analytical approach in studying digital transformations. Unlike the existing use of search in enhancing organisational performance or introducing new products, we use search as an approach that organisations renew their offerings, processes and practices in redefining their value proposition. Through different reconfigurations of material enactments, search becomes the underlying logic of organising and the centralised control shifts to a de-centralised autonomy, which facilitates the ongoing adaptations of practices as organisations transform digitally

Information quality frames: an information product perspective and a socio-cognitive approach to perceiving quality of information in organisations

There has been much advancement in the field of data and information quality (DIQ) since two decades ago. However, despite a large number of the theoretical and empirical studies in this field, there is a lack of understanding about the mechanisms and dynamics of forming, adjusting and changing organisational users’ (information consumers) assumptions and expectations based on which they perceive the quality of information required for making decision in order to perform a task within an organisational environment. Although it is already known that information consumers perceive the quality of information according to the requirements of the organisational task and the context of use, how the task requirements affect information consumers’ expectations of information quality has been a black-box in the body of literature. The main objective of this research is to contribute to the literature of DIQ by exploring the role of the setting of a task within an organisational context in the formation, development and change of information consumers’ underlying expectations of information quality. Information consumers’ assumptions and expectations are called information quality (IQ) frames by this research. Moreover, this research examines the role of IT artefacts, which are used to support performing the task, in these dynamics. As an organisational task is usually performed by a group, the role of the task group of which information consumers are members is investigated by this research. Having adopted a multi-case study design, this thesis has targeted seven different task groups in seven different organisations from multiple industries. This in-depth qualitative research also employs interviews as the main source of data and documents as the secondary source of data. The collected data and empirical evidence is analysed using the thematic analysis and pattern coding. This study’s theoretical contributions to the body of literature are as follows. Firstly, the findings indicate that information consumers should not be simply categorised into domain-specific experts or novices for understanding the mechanisms that affect their IQ frames. Regarding the domain of the task, an information consumer might have domain-related experience that differentiates him from both an expert and a novice. Moreover, this study found that the organisational-specific experience plays a significant role in these dynamics. Secondly, four different settings of a task within an organisational context have been recognised and the insights have been provided into the likely impact of each setting on IQ frames. The findings show that the setting of a task that affects IQ frames is enforced by the interplay between the degree of situatedness of the task and the degree of its explicitness. Thirdly, this research contends that the role of other members of a task group contributes directly to the setting of a task rather than directly influencing their colleague’s IQ frames. Fourthly, this thesis confirms that the organisational resource limitations and the time pressure, which were already mentioned in the literature, affect how information consumers perceive the quality of information but the empirical evidence reveals that other types of pressure such as the pressure of a competitive market has a similar role, therefore, it is argued that in general the organisational pressure impacts the way information consumers perceive information quality. However, this thesis argues that this influence is mediated by the setting of a task. In other words, the organisational pressure can increase the degree of situatedness of a task within an organisational context. Finally, the findings of this study indicate that information consumers’ interpretation of how an IT artefact enables a task within an organisational context is the key mechanism through which the IT artefact can participate in forming, adjusting or changing their IQ frames. The interpreted type of an IT artefact, its interpreted capabilities, the organisational intervention and the IT support by IT technicians of an organisations are the main four factors that govern the influence of the IT artefact on information consumers’ IQ frames. In addition, the computing environment in which the IT artefact operates in, information consumers’ level of IT knowledge and prior experience of using the IT artefact can be involved indirectly in these dynamics. The theoretical contributions of this research have led to the development of a framework for IQ frames and the underlying dynamics have been explained in detail. In addition to the theoretical contributions, this study has a number of practical implications for organisations and management regarding the importance of the organisational settings in how information quality is judged by organisational users (information consumers)

Comparison of Serum LP-PLA2 Level and some Nutritional Factors between Well-Controlled and Poorly-Controlled Diabetic Patients

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is produced by inflammatory cells, bound to LDL and other lipoproteins, and hydrolyzes oxidized phospholipids in LDL. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes some investigations show the association of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 mass and activity with the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in populations with high prevalences of insulin resistance and diabetes. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive and analytic study on 80 individuals with diabetes referring to the Tehran Diabetes Association. Patients divided into two groups (well-controlled and poorly controlled) based on their HbA1C. Personal information, anthropometric assessments (including height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference) and semi-quantitative 147 items FFQ was used and vein blood samples were taken. After plasma separation, blood sample used for FBS, HbA1c and LP-PLA2 measurement. The independent sample T test was used for comparing means. Data analyses showed a significant difference between weight and WHR (waist to hip ratio) means in two studied groups, also there was a statistically significant difference in food intake (Energy, carbohydrate, protein, micronutrients percent and some of the micronutrients). FBS, HbA1C and LP-PLA2 means showed statistically significant difference (P<0/001) between two groups. This study showed LP-PLA2 is elevated in poorly-controlled patients compared to well-controlled diabetic patients, which may suggest some nutritional factors contributing to the regulation of this enzyme