Virtual Social Identity Development for Customer Electronic Word-of-Mouth Participation

Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) plays a persuasive role in influencing consumers’ attitudes and purchase decision. There are many efforts to identify the effect of eWOM on the customers’ purchase decision. However, few studies on the intrinsic motivation of eWOM participation in online shopping malls have been published to date. The main goal of this study is to identify the factors that motivate customers to participate in eWOM and to suggest relevant strategies for leading customers’ eWOM participations. To accomplish this goal, we propose a structural model mainly based on social identity theory. In addition, customer citizenship behavior (CCB) which has been extended from organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is considered. And the effect of perceived extrinsic incentives such as; e-money or e-point on eWOM participation in the online shopping mall is contrasted with the effect of intrinsic motivation

An effect of IoT based Electronic Sow Feeder (ESF) on productivity of swine farms

This study aimed to investigate the effect of an electronic sow feeder (ESF) on the productivity of swine farms. The ESF is a specific component of the Internet of Things (IoT)-based swine production management systems, which are prevalently used by swine farms. Though the effect of weight sorter adoption, another component of swine production management systems, have been clarified, the effect of ESF adoption has not yet been understood. To accomplish the aim of study, data from 19 swine farms were collected in Korea and a t-test was conducted. This study found that the ESF has a positive effect on decreasing the number of farrowing accidents, the mean days to re-service, and increasing the average number of farrowing accidents. Though the findings of this study are limited to the selected farms in Korea, the method of this study can be generally applied to other swine farms that use IoT-based swine production management systems. Future research will extend these results while considering productivity data and environmental data simultaneously. Examining the effects of other components of IoT-based production management systems is another possible direction to extend this study.</jats:p

Interaction of IT investment mandates and mobile savvy affecting mobile office performance in corporates: Focusing on the moderating effects of IT savvy

This study investigates the effect of IT investment portfolios on the performance of mobile business services, as well as the moderating role of IT savvy. This study pulls the concept of IT investment mandates into the conceptual research framework of mobile investment. A survey for the IT specialists working at 123 enterprise-level companies was conducted and hierarchical regression analysis was adopted. Our results show that IT investment and organizational IT capabilities influence the performance of the mobile office and that IT savvy plays as a moderator in the relationship between investment mandates and mobile office performance. This research also may indicate that transactional assets are most helpful factors for a change by the adoption of mobile technology. This study is a rare research paper to explain the impact of IT investment portfolios on the mobile office performance in an academic methodology

The Role of Government to Bridge Digital Gap between Urban and Rural Area in Korea

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) in Korea has made an abundant effort to develop agricultural/rural informatization since the 1990’s. Initially, it focused on the development of three different types of infrastructure to bridge the gap between rural and urban areas: household personal computer (PC) penetration, Internet use, and broadband Internet connection accessibility. The 81% of broadband accessibility in 2002 increased to 100% in rural areas in 2007. In addition, from 1998 to 2002, a total of 241,356 farmers took diverse education programs provided by MIFAFF. As a big effort from MIFAFF, Food and Agro-product e-commerce of Farmers has also increased continuously; as of 2009, its transaction is estimated as 1.89 billion USD. Many projects on u-Farm have been launched for future intelligent farming. However, MIFAFF are now facing new challenges

Intellectual Capital and Firm Performance: An Empirical Study of Software Firms in West Africa

This study investigates factors instrumental to the success of software industries of the 3I Nations (India, Ireland and Israel), examines the relationship between its elements, and studies the performance of software firms in West Africa. The study draws on concepts from multiple theoretical perspectives to develop a model for assessing the relationship between intellectual capital of software firms and their performance. The developed model was experimentally validated through a field survey of 83 software companies in West Africa using the Partial Least Square method. The survey results show significant relationship between the elements of intellectual capital and competitive capabilities of firms and between competitive capabilities and firm performance. Mixed results were found on the moderating effects of management commitment and transformational leadership. The findings provide important implications to researchers, policy makers, software developers and other market players while contributing to knowledge on strategic management and the strategic importance of intellectual capital