Learners’ continuance participation intention of collaborative group project in virtual learning environment: an extended TAM perspective

The aim of this study is to explore learners’ intention to return to the electronic environment through the use of wikipages. The survey is based on students’ participation in a collaborative group project over a one semester course on business information systems. A research model based on the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been proposed to investigate what factors will influence learners’ continuance participation in the electronic learning environment. 75% of students returned the questionnaire and the data analysis results based on the extended TAM Shows that the learners’ intention to return to the electronic learning environment was highly associated with their attitude towards the electronic learning tool and the affection associated with the tool

Assessing Organizational Culture Difference between E-Commerce Companies and the Traditional Ones: A Measurement Invariance Perspective

Organizational culture is an important factor in organization development process. This paper explores the culture issue in the new technology age. Adopting Ruppel’s new culture framework developed from traditional perspective on culture the paper tested the culture difference between organization with intranet and without intranet. Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis method with Lisrel the paper explored the research area on culture and extended the usage of Lisrel into MIS area. The result showed that organizational culture in the traditional and E-commerce Company is different in the ethical value. The research result showed that the culture is changing in the process of adopting new technology in organization, which may raise the attention of changing the management methods due to differences in culture

3D avatar seller's effect on online consumer's purchasing behavior: a trust transference perspective

The emerging 3D virtual worlds attract more and more people to participate in the virtual environment, creating a new market for business to sell their products. In 3D virtual worlds, members mainly interact with each other through avatars. The selling process is fulfilled through the shop avatars. How businesses sell their products successfully to the potential customers and eventually persuade the customer to purchase the product is an essential question. Trust played a key role in the selling process. In the general selling process, trust was established through the sales person. In the virtual world environment, could the trust be established between the sales avatars and customer avatars This paper aims at answering this question by examining the trust transference process in the 3D virtual world environment. An experiment was conducted to categorize the avatars into attractive and expert ones. The research result first suggest that trust formed in a 3D avatar seller could be transferred to a selling company and a product but for an expert 3D avatar seller, trust transferred to the company and product results in intent to purchase. Trust in a 3D avatar seller is transferred to trust in a product and a company and furthermore, an expert avatar can affect a consumer's intent to purchase. In the case of an attractive 3D avatar, although trust is transferred, it is only to the point of intent to purchase

The rising of livestream business model: Insights fromthe case study of TikTok in the UK

Consumer purchasing behaviours have experienced a revolution from offline shopping malls to social media Livestream during the last decade (Sorescu et al., 2011). This study adopts the case-study approach and an online focus group with the managers of TikTok trading business in the UK to examine how TikTok\u27s retailing path can help brands or sellers build a close tie with consumers. This paper concludes with how the TikTok Livestream commercialization pathway impacts the conventional business model. Three conclusions are drawn from this study. Firstly, a video creator who holds the Intellectual Property of a TikTok account plays an essential role as the Livestream video influencer. They have created value for their followers and drive consumers\u27 intention of purchasing behaviour. The livestream of video creators provides opportunities for consumers to interact with the video creator and other consumers. Secondly, Livestream video shopping breaks the limitations of offline physical space and attracts consumers efficiently. Thirdly, social e-commerce empowered by artificial intelligence technologies including image analysis and text analysis plays an essential role in targeting consumers and sustaining the operation of the Livestream shopping platform

Catalpol represses the migration, proliferation and epithelial mesenchymal transition of TGF β2 stimulated lens epithelial cells via TGF β/Smad and Notch1 signaling pathways

Purpose: To investigate the role of catalpol in posterior capsule opacification (PCO). Methods: Human lens epithelial cells (SRA01/04) were treated with TGF-β2 or co-treated with TGF-β2 and different concentrations of catalpol. Cell migration and viability were assessed via wound healing and CCK8, respectively. Epithelial- esenchymal transition and the underlying mechanism of action were evaluated using western blot. Results: Treatment with TGF-β2 significantly increased cell viability and promoted the migration of SRA01/04 (p < 0.001). However, catalpol significantly reduced cell viability and repressed the migration of TGF-β2-stimulated SRA01/04 (p < 0.001). Moreover, TGF-β2-stimulated increases in fibronectin, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), snail and vimentin. Decreases of E-cadherin and connexin-43 in SRA01/04 were reversed by catalpol. Moreover, TGF-β2-stimulated the up-regulation of p-smad2/3, while SRA01/04 was down-regulated by catalpol, but attenuated TGF-β2-stimulated increases in Notch1 and Jagged1 in SRA01/04. Conclusion: Catalpol inhibits TGF-β2-stimulated migration, proliferation and epithelial- esenchymal transition of SRA01/04 through the inactivation of TGF-β/Smad and Notch1 signaling. Catalpol might be a novel preventive agent for PCO. However, the effect of catalpol on animal models of PCO should be investigated further

Constructing National Identity Education through Online Platform: A Case Study of Discovery Education for Primary Schools in UK

Through content analysis of Discovery Education, we found that the content of national identity is abundantly embodied in the curriculum of primary schools in UK. As a widely used online platform in primary schools of UK, Discovery Education integrates the content of national identity education into the curriculum. The presentation meets the needs of primary school students for its psychological and behavioral characteristics and provides personalized learning opportunities through a variety of links. Such practice displays advantages of online education. Recommendations are offered to developing virtual learning community, data analysis of online teaching process and the construction of expression system of online national identity education

The Design of an Online Roommate Finding System for Property Management Portals—the Virtual Community Perspective

With the evolution and diffusion of the internet at the society level, various business sectors have been transformed and redesigned with the new technologies such as enterprise systems, social media, virtual communities, social commerce, and business intelligence. For example, most fortune 500 companies have installed ERP system by 1998 (Magal & Word, 2012), resulting in major manufacturing and traditional businesses to re-design their business processes. The travel industry has been disrupted by the online booking system such as booking.com and TripAdvisor.com (Mellinas, Martínez María-Dolores, & Bernal García, 2015). Many bookshops have been closed because of the operations of online booking stores such as Amazon (Pitt, Berthon, & Berthon, 1999). The emerging smart city research also implies that the transformation by the digital technology is at the national and city level into all sectors including transportation, energy, water etc (Paroutis, Bennett, & Heracleous, 2014). In the property management sector, various property management portals have been established to facilitate the estate agencies to manage properties and the customers to find suitable properties. The typical examples are zoopla.com and rightmove.com, both of which are specialized in one-stop property renting and selling in the United Kingdom. At the same time, there are also many small property management agencies who operate the independent property management platforms. The traditional property management portal normally consists of three key functions, property listing and management for agencies; property browsing and appointment booking for customers; and the property information integration including neighbourhood, billing, local tax etc. While the traditional property management system has satisfied the great needs for estate agencies and focus heavily on the information of the properties themselves, the customer experience has mainly ignored from the traditional design of the website. Practically, there is a need to bring the most recent knowledge of improving online shopping experience into the property management system design. This paper proposed a new business model for property management portals by designing an online roommate finding system with the virtual community theory. Specifically, the virtual community concept is used to design the online roommate system from the interpersonal relationship perspective. The proposed online roommate finding system is designed based on the interpersonal relationship framework (Li & Lee, 2013) and borrowed the concept and algorithm of the online recommendation system (Jiang, Shang, & Liu, 2010). Specifically, the following functions are implemented for the online roommate finding system so that a renting community emerges from the rental portal, the profile information of each tenant, the desired roommate features including personality, age, country, native language, etc, and the inside communication channels. The proposed online roommate finding system is going to be integrated into the existing online property management portal in UK. The action research method will be used to test the effectiveness of the online roommate finding system from 3 stages for 3 years, stage one is for the system testing, stage 2 is for community member recruitment, stage 3 is for operations of the system for profit generation. The current project is in the early phase of stage 1 and the requirements analysis is finished