The Wireless Readiness Innovation Index: Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Public Sector in New Service Introduction

National and regional public authorities need to align their planned introduction of mobile/wireless innovation with the maturity levels of both their workforce (who will manage and maintain the new applications) and their citizens (who will use them). We draw on the experience of working with local authorities in three Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy and Spain) to develop a method towards the effective introduction and adoption of innovative mobile services by public organizations. Specifically, we discuss the development and pilot implementation of a) the Wireless Readiness Innovation Index , a tool that aims at measuring the local authority’s and end users’ readiness towards providing and using innovative wireless services and b) the Wireless Innovation Operational Toolkit , a tool that aims at matching users’ and local authority’s readiness levels with candidate services so as to maximize the likelihood of successful introduction and sustained use

EXPLORING THE ADOPTION OF UBIQUITOUS INFORMATION SYSTEMS WITHIN THE MUSEUM CONTEXT

Wireless and mobile technologies are gradually enabling the provision of innovative information services within almost all environments. This study explores the adoption of ubiquitous museum information systems that can significantly enhance and enrich the museum visit. We draw on traditional IS adoption theories and theories from Museum Studies to develop our theoretical model which is empirically tested through a survey addressed to museum visitors (n=118). Model hypotheses are tested through Partial Least Squares modelling. The results show that Performance Expectancy and Personal Innovativeness still represent the core predictors toward the adoption of museum information systems. However, we also report on the predictive strength of two context-related factors, Invisibility and Interaction, which appear to play a particular role toward the formulation of favourable user perceptions. The paper concludes with implications on the design of museum information systems and specific suggestions for future research

Flying to Quality: Cultural Influences on Online Reviews

Customers increasingly consult opinions expressed online before making their final decisions. However, inherent factors such as culture may moderate the criteria and the weights individuals use to form their expectations and evaluations. Therefore, not all opinions expressed online match customers’ personal preferences, neither can firms use this information to deduce general conclusions. Our study explores this issue in the context of airline services using Hofstede’s framework as a theoretical anchor. We gauge the effect of each dimension as well as that of cultural distance between the passenger and the airline on the overall satisfaction with the flight as well as specific service factors. Using topic modeling, we also capture the effect of culture on review text and identify factors that are not captured by conventional rating scales. Our results provide significant insights for airline managers about service factors that affect more passengers from specific cultures leading to higher satisfaction/dissatisfaction