A framework on information behaviour of SME managers for decision-making on emerging ICTs

The aim of this study is to explore the perceived information needs and information behaviours of manager of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As technology advancement and innovation are changing rapidly affecting organisations in different ways, organization executives are introducing new technologies for their operations and business environment becomes more complex and dynamic, government introducing different policies to guide the use of these emerging ICTs. As a result, information becomes significant during adoption decision-making process for SME managers to make an inform decision. To achieve this aim, a framework is developed based on existing literature, using the technology organization environmental (TOE) model as the theoretical underpinning for empirical investigation on information behaviour of SME managers in this study. This study is qualitative in nature, and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with twenty SME managers in the UK service sector. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Following Myers and Newman’s (2007) guidelines for qualitative interview and triangulation method were used to validate the conceptual framework and established the research rigour and quality. The research findings explained information behaviours of SME managers in the contexts of technology organisation environment as information behaviour triggered and perceived information needs during the adoption decision in SMEs. These findings provide further insight into ICT adoption in SMEs through information behaviours and highlighted the significant of sources of information and pre-information needed during the decision-making process. The research also contributes to theory in the information systems field by using relevant literature from information science field to explore information behaviours of SME managers. Future research can be done in other sectors of the economy to show more holistic behaviours of SME managers

Intelligent student engagement management : applying business intelligence in higher education

Advances in emerging ICT have enabled organisations to develop innovative ways to intelligently collect data that may not be possible before. However, this leads to the explosion of data and unprecedented challenges in making strategic and effective use of available data. This research-in-progress paper presents an action research focusing on applying business intelligence (BI) in a UK higher education institution that has developed a student engagement tracking system (SES) for student engagement management. The current system serves merely as a data collection and processing system, which needs significant enhancement for better decision support. This action research aims to enhance the current SETS with BI solutions and explore its strategic use. The research attempts to follow socio-technical approach in its effort to make the BI application a success. Progress and experience so far has revealed interesting findings on advancing our understanding and research in organisation-wide BI for better decision-making

Big data in higher education: an action research on managing student engagement with business intelligence

This research aims to explore the value of Big Data in student engagement management. It presents an action research on applying BI in a UK higher education institution that has developed and implemented a student engagement tracking system (SES) for better student engagement management. The SES collects data from various sources, including RFID tracking devices across many locations in the campus and student online activities. This public funded research project has enhanced the current SES with BI solutions and raised awareness on the value of the Big Data in improving student experience. The action research concerns with the organizational wide development and deployment of Intelligent Student Engagement System involving a diverse range of stakeholders. The activities undertaken to date have revealed interesting findings and implications for advancing our understanding and research in leveraging the benefit of the Big Data in Higher Education from a socio-technical perspective

Intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence of project manager

Intellectual and emotional intelligences are two important competences of project managers for the success or failure of a construction project. This study aims to investigate how often project managers utilize these two intelligences in running their project. It will also take a look the intelligence that construction personnel expect more from their project manager. The research was conducted by distributing questionnaires to construction personnel that were working on ongoing projects. The results show that the project managers use both intellectual and emotional intelligences, with mean values of 4.20 and 4.12 respectively. Meanwhile, results from analytical hierarchy process analyses portray that the project team members expect the project managers to exhibit emotional intelligence more than intellectual intelligence with weight of 66.40% and 33.60% respectively. The study also conducts several analyses by using respondents’ and project managers’ general information

When Disinformation Studies Meets Production Studies: Social Identities and Moral Justifications in the Political Trolling Industry

The field of disinformation studies remains relatively silent about questions of identity, motivation, labor, and morality. Drawing from a one-year ethnographic study of disinformation producers employed in digital black ops campaigns in the Philippines, this article proposes that approaches from production studies can address gaps in disinformation research. We argue that approaching disinformation as a culture of production opens inquiry into the social conditions that entice people to this work and the creative industry practices that normalize fake news as a side gig. This article critically reflects on the methodological risks and opportunities of ethnographic research that subverts expectations of the exceptionally villainous troll and instead uses narratives of creative workers’ complicity and collusion to advance holistic social critique and local-level disinformation interventions

Architects of Networked Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines

No technology has been weaponized at such an unprecedented global scale as social media. Diverse research approaches now attempt to decipher how laptop screens and smartphones around the world are used to manipulate public debate, hijack mainstream media agenda, and influence political agendas. In this report, we: Narrate deep stories of individual workers positioned at different levels of the hierarchy, not to vilify them but to understand their motivations and social backgrounds. Discuss the labor arrangements that underpin networked disinformation in order to reveal the vulnerabilities of professional industries and institutions to political deception work. Discuss the persuasive techniques that architects of networked disinformation deploy in mobilizing populist sentiment to further clients\u27 elite agendas and for their own economic and political gain. List preliminary recommendations aimed at every level of fake news production\u27s hierarchical structure

Senior Managers’ Information Behavior in Current Emerging Ubiquitous and Intelligent Computing Environment

Emerging ubiquitous and intelligent information systems, such as the Internet, social computing technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), have facilitated the increasing complexity and dynamism of operational and strategic information in a highly distributed environment. As a result, organizations have been busy seeking approaches and tools to support senior managers in coping with this challenge, from organizational learning to knowledge management, from competitive intelligence to business intelligence, and from management information systems to strategic (executive) information systems. Before embarking on formulating and developing these approaches and tools, senior managers’ informational roles and information behavior should be understood. This paper explores factors influencing and shaping existing senior managers’ information behavior in order to shed light on value-added approaches or technological solutions for supporting and improving informational roles of senior managers. The findings show that information behavior of senior managers is influenced and shaped by a number of factors, mainly the organizational actors and organizational situations, followed by their affective responses and the use of technological tools

Revitalising executive information systems for supporting executive intelligence activities

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Univeristy of BedfordshireWith the increasing amount, complexity and dynamism of operational and strategic information in electronic and distributed environment, executives are seeking assistance for continuous, self-reactive and self-adaptive activities or approaches of acquiring, synthesising and interpreting information for intelligence with a view to determining the course of action - executive intelligence activities. Executives Information Systems (EIS) were originally emerged as a computer-based tool to help senior executives to manage the search and process of information. EIS was popularised in 1990's but EIS study have not advanced to a great extent in either research or practice since its prevalence in the mid and late 1990's. Conventional EIS studies have established some views and guidelines for EIS design and development, but the guidelines underpinned by preceding research have failed to develop robust yet rational EIS for handling the current executive's information environment. The most common deficiency of traditional EIS is the static and inflexible function with predetermined information needs and processes designed for static performance monitoring and control. The current emergence of the intelligent software agent, as a concept and a technology, with applications, provides prospects and advanced solutions for supporting executive's information processing activities in a more integrated and distributed environment of the Internet. Although software agents offer the prospective to support information processing activities intelligently, executive's desires and perception of agent-based support must be elucidated in order to develop a system that is considered valuable for executives. This research attempts to identify executive criteria of an agent-based EIS for supporting executive intelligence activities. Firstly, four focus groups were conducted to explore and reveal the current state of executive's information environment and information processing behaviour in the light of Internet era, from which to examine the validity of the conventional views of EIS purpose, functions and design guidelines. Initial executive criteria for agent-based EIS design were also identified in the focus group study. Secondly, 25 senior managers were interviewed for deeper insights on value-added attributes and processes of executive criteria for building agent-based EIS. The findings suggest a "usability-adaptability-intelligence" trichotomy of agent-based EIS design model that comprises executive criteria of value-added attributes and processes for building a usable, adaptable and intelligent EIS

The Effect of Oxidation and Support on TiO2(110)-Supported Pdn (n=1-7) Clusters

First principles theoretical studies based on a gradient-corrected density functional approach have been carried out on the atomic and electronic properties and oxidation of Pdn (n=1-7) clusters supported on the TiO2(110) surface. The studies are aimed to address some of the fundamental issues related to the properties of supported Pdn clusters used as catalysts in oxidation reactions. Of those issues are the following: What are the atomic structures of Pdn clusters on the TiO2 surface? Upon oxidation, do O atoms from a dissociated O2 molecule spill over onto the underlying TiO2 sup- port? How strongly does spillover oxygen bind? What is the microscopic mechanism for the experimentally observed strong metal support interaction (SMSI) state where the Pd catalyst becomes encapsulated by the surface? Is this related to spillover oxygen? How do the properties of the Pdn clusters change when the TiO2 surface is marked with oxygen vacancies? As will be shown, the ground state geometries of supported Pdn clusters are driven by competing effects including intra-cluster interactions favoring compact structures and cluster support interactions favoring geometries that flatten out in the TiO2(110) surface channel. When exposed to O2, a single Pd atom only activates the O-O bond while all other clusters energetically favor a broken O-O bond. For PdnO2 (n=2-7), while one O is adsorbed on the Pdn cluster, the second O spills over to a lattice Ti site binding at the Pd-Ti interface. The binding strength of these spillover atoms is calculated to be surprisingly high, which is identified to be a result of long-range ionic interactions between Pd and spilled over oxygen. When oxygen spills onto lattice Ti sites, composite TiO motifs are formed that can exchange sites with Pd atoms with a minimal energy, opening the pathway for Ti migration and strong metal support interactions. For the TiO2 surface with oxygen vacancies, clusters bound at the vacancy site possess atomic and electronic properties that resemble bulk palladium. The theoretical findings are compared with recent experiments and are believed to provide insight toward developing a fundamental understanding of supported Pdn clusters as oxidation catalysts