Modernist expert to postmodernist innovative cultural hermaneutist : a journey in adult education : a thesis submitted to Massey University (Wellington) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Adult Education)

The repercussions of the turbulent years of the greater part of the twentieth century have been responsible for the demise of both the Enlightenment project and the modern period which was its bearer. This modern period was characterised by legitimising grand metanarratives (récits) that were built on the foundations of rationality, optimism and progress in which reality was represented, understood and lived. Human emancipation was expected to be the ultimate goal. An impressive modernist representative of these metanarratives in the field of my own academic expertise, theology, is the German philosophical theologian, Paul Tillich (1886-1965). His "theology of culture" was a significant theological adult educational project in which he had attempted to represent and convey reality (and meaning) to a generation of adults in the postwar era of the 20 th century. Postmodernism has come to be characteristic of our experience of the world and our present worldview. It questions the legitimacy of the modernist project and along with it the modernist approach to education. In the context of discussing self-directed learning and its application in my own role as an educator, in this thesis I use Paul Tillich's "theology of culture" as an example of a collapsed modern metanarrative to examine how the educator as an "innovative cultural hermeneutist" would better reposition his/her role as an adult educator in the present

Is the Privacy Paradox a Matter of Psychological Distance? An Exploratory Study of the Privacy Paradox from a Construal Level Theory Perspective

Institutional operators in the digital marketplace have delighted consumers with precise, highly personalized and customized products and services through the collection and mining of customers’ personally identifiable data. However, the ethical conduct of online businesses continues to be a debatable issue, due to the increasing concerns over information privacy. Despite such controversies, scrutiny of consumer behavior has shown that consumers’ concerns for privacy do not transfer into protective behaviors or abstinence during online activity. The aim of this study is to illuminate the disparity known as the -˜privacy paradox’ through the directions of the construal level theory. Based on semi-structured interviews with 21 online shopping consumers, we explain that, due to spatial, temporal, social, and hypothetical distance of privacy values, privacy is construed as an abstract phenomenon influencing the formation of distant-future attitudes and intentions rather than actual behavior

How organisational transformation factors influence on market orientation and the effect of organisation culture? A study on Sri Lankan telecommunication sector

The telecommunication industry has become a key driving force of the Sri Lankan economy. The telecommunication as a service sector is highly competitive in the Sri Lankan market, which plays a vital role in the new digital era. The study has focused on Sri Lankan telecommunication industry by considering its frequently changing business environment. The concept of organisational transformation has been a major initiative for many organisations to survive in rapidly changing and competitive business environment. Telecom operators in Sri Lanka have taken many transformational initiatives within last ten to fifteen years based on different factors to face the competitive business environment. During transformational initiatives, telco operators have followed the success stories of international telecom operators or few transformational factors to achieve success. It is questionable whether they achieve expected targets. Tremendous efforts taken through various studies to identify the success factors of organisation transformation, but the failure factors were not highlighted to a considerable level. Most of the studies have considered few transformational factors at a time while analysing the market orientation components and this study address the research gap. The study has chosen positivism as the research philosophy and followed the deductive approach in justifying variables towards building the conceptual framework. The study measure the relationship between different variables and factors i.e. organisation leadership, resources, tructure, systems and innovation as independent variables, organisational culture as the mediating variable and market orientation as the dependent variable. The internal consistency and reliability of variables have been verified over a pilot study. The study has used a sample of 330,which represents different levels of executives in three major telecom operators in Sri Lanka. The different executive grade members were selected using stratified cluster sampling to receive responses using quantitative technique. The hypotheses were tested using Smart–PLS software and Bootstrapping option was used to examine the mediating effect. Results verified that organisational transformation significantly influence market orientation whilst the impact of transformation on organizational culture was also proven. The relationship between organizational culture and market orientation also proved and found a significant mediation effect of organizational culture on the relationship between organisational transformation and market orientation. The final chapter presents the overall summery with the recommendations for managerial implications

Unleashing the power of artificial intelligence for climate action in industrial markets

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a game-changing capability in industrial markets that can accelerate humanity's race against climate change. Positioned in a resource-hungry and pollution-intensive industry, this study explores AI-powered climate service innovation capabilities and their overall effects. The study develops and validates an AI model, identifying three primary dimensions and nine subdimensions. Based on a dataset in the fast fashion industry, the findings show that the AI-powered climate service innovation capabilities significantly influence both environmental and market performance, in which environmental performance acts as a partial mediator. Specifically, the results identify the key elements of an AI-informed framework for climate action and show how this can be used to develop a range of mitigation, adaptation and resilience initiatives in response to climate change

Cement and Clay Bricks Reinforced with Coconut Fiber and Fiber Dust

For generations, Sri Lankans use cement bricks and clay bricks as common building materials in the construction field. This study investigates the feasibility of improving the strength while lowering the mass and thermal conductivity of bricks by adding coconut fiber or coconut fiber dust as a reinforcing material. Each reinforcing material is used in both clay and cement bricks. The mixtures are prepared according to varying volume ratios of the raw materials used. Coconut fibers are combed and cut into 4-5 cm pieces and dry coconut fiber dust is sieved using a 4 mm sieving mesh.  The mixture is prepared by hand mixing and the traditional processes are replicated in making the bricks. Tests are carried out to understand the variation of mass, compressive strength, thermal conductivity, and water absorption of the reinforced bricks in comparison to bricks with no reinforced material. The cement brick reinforced with coconut fiber achieves the expected results in the compressive strength test and thermal conductivity test but underperformed when comparing masses and water absorption. Clay bricks reinforced with coconut fiber dust show impressive results in compressive tests and with the addition of dust, the appearance seems to have changed. It is observed that reinforcing cement bricks with coconut fiber could double the compressive strength along with a 5% reduction in mass. Reinforcing clay bricks with coconut fiber dust increases its compressive strength by over 70% while decreasing the mass by over 30 %. The study proves that it is feasible to use reinforced coconut fiber or coconut fiber dust to improve the properties of both clay and cement bricks, while clay bricks reinforced with coconut fiber are an exception

Analytics-based decision-making for service systems: A qualitative study and agenda for future research

While the use of big data tends to add value for business throughout the entire value chain, the integration of big data analytics (BDA) to the decision-making process remains a challenge. This study, based on a systematic literature review, thematic analysis and qualitative interview findings, proposes a set of six-steps to establish both rigor and relevance in the process of analytics-driven decision-making. Our findings illuminate the key steps in this decision process including problem definition, review of past findings, model development, data collection, data analysis as well as actions on insights in the context of service systems. Although findings have been discussed in a sequence of steps, the study identifies them as interdependent and iterative. The proposed six-step analytics-driven decision-making process, practical evidence from service systems, and future research agenda, provide altogether the foundation for future scholarly research and can serve as a step-wise guide for industry practitioners

The ethics of online privacy in the data-driven marketplace: A power-responsibility equilibrium and construal level theory perspective

Advancing knowledge regarding online privacy protection has never been so critically necessary as in this age of big data. The emergence of data capitalism, along with disruptive technological changes, has induced mass collection and commoditisation of data, giving rise to restricted freedoms, exploitation of consumer data, and threats to privacy. Firms have a vested interest in consumer data, due to the unprecedented value it can generate for business success. However, they must effectively manage their data practices to avoid consumer backlash from burgeoning ethical, legal, and rights-related concerns. It is now imperative to maintain a balance between utilising consumer data for commercial purposes and preserving consumer privacy. The primary objective of this study is to explore why consumers are increasingly worried about their privacy and why they behave in manners that can be detrimental to the consumer-vendor relationship. By exploring this issue, the study aims to understand how to manage privacy issues effectively in the e-commerce context. To reach this objective, the study employs the power-responsibility equilibrium theory, which advocates a balance between social power and social responsibility. As a secondary objective, this study uses construal level theory to explore the impact of the psychological distance of privacy construct on consumer privacy-related attitudes and behaviour. Integrating these two objectives, the study presents a privacy model in business-to-consumer e-commerce. The proposed model was validated using a quantitative-positivist research design with a cross-sectional survey method. A qualitative-interview study was also conducted prior to the survey with 30 online shopping consumers to develop and validate the research constructs and survey measurements. The respondents for the main survey were recruited via an online research panel. The sample included 363 online shopping consumers in Australia. The data was analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling. The study found that lack of corporate privacy responsibility and regulatory protection can deprive consumers of privacy empowerment, damage consumer trust, and thus trigger privacy concerns and subsequent defensive responses. Consistent with the power-responsibility equilibrium theory, this finding indicates that consumers’ defensive actions or ‘power-balancing operations’ are driven by perceived power imbalances or unfulfilled obligations, wherein power holders fail to ensure protection of privacy. This highlights the importance of firms balancing power and responsibility evenly for maintaining a healthy information exchange environment. The results suggest establishing trust and privacy empowerment through responsible organisational and regulatory mechanisms as key strategies to manage privacy issues and consumer backlash. The study also found that psychological distance of privacy negatively impacts privacy behaviour, and negatively influences the relationship between privacy concerns and privacy behaviour. Psychological distance of privacy did not have any interaction with trust or privacy empowerment. This study has several contributions for theory and practice. For theory, a key contribution of the study emanates from empirically establishing a theory-based ethical and social responsibility approach to understanding contemporary consumer privacy issues. By ascertaining the impact of power holders (i.e., corporations and governments) on consumer privacy and their resultant behaviour, this study formulates consumer-business and citizengovernment privacy relationships within the same framework. This study makes a vital contribution to privacy and business ethics literature by introducing the concept of perceived corporate privacy responsibility. The study also examines the impact of both trust and privacy empowerment on consumer privacy concerns and defensive privacy behaviour, which to date has received little attention in the privacy literature. This is one of the few studies to apply the construal level theory in the privacy context. It is also the first study to introduce and examine the concept psychological distance of privacy. For practice, the findings provide numerous insights into developing privacy-preserving e-commerce systems and policies for effective management of consumer privacy and wellbeing. Online firms should consider the protection of privacy as a competitive advantage. The study also informs regulators about their role in establishing an environment of trust, and empowering consumers to reduce privacy issues in the online context. For consumers, the findings suggest that they should be aware of the adverse effects of psychological distance of privacy. Consumer behaviour which reflects less consideration for protecting privacy can end up in further exploitation of consumer data and enactment of relaxed privacy protection mechanisms. Individuals, knowingly or unknowingly contribute to a larger data ecosystem of which a few online giants get to reap unprecedented profits to the detriment of the masses. The societal stakeholders should be more mindful about the ripple effects of their online activities and should demand stringent regulations and responsible corporate practices. Overall, the study highlights that ensuring consumer privacy protection can be beneficial for consumers, companies, and to the e-commerce industry

Managing consumer privacy concerns and defensive behaviours in the digital marketplace

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine privacy issues in the e-commerce context from a power-responsibility equilibrium theory (PRE) perspective. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data was collected using an online survey (n=335) from online shopping consumers. This study employed partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) techniques to empirically examine the proposed relationships. Findings: Lack of corporate privacy responsibility and regulatory protection can deprive consumers of privacy empowerment and damage consumer trust to trigger privacy concerns and subsequent defensive responses. Also, the fsQCA revealed five causal configurations to explain high consumer defensive behaviours. Research limitations/implications: This study identifies the importance of PRE theory in the privacy context. Consumer privacy concerns, privacy empowerment, and trust are established as strong mediators between corporate/regulatory privacy protection efforts and consumer backlash. The application of fsQCA verified that consumer privacy behaviour can be better explained by different configurations of the same causal antecedents. Practical implications: The findings highlight the importance of increasing trust and privacy empowerment as mechanisms to manage privacy concerns and consumer backlash through responsible organisational and regulatory privacy protections. The importance of balancing power and responsibility dynamics for maintaining a healthy information exchange environment is identified. Originality/value: This study extends the PRE framework of privacy to include corporate privacy responsibility, privacy empowerment, and trust. This is one of the first studies to explore both antecedents and outcomes of privacy empowerment. Also, the application of complexity theory and fsQCA to explain consumers\u27 defensive responses is novel to the literature