Information Systems Research and Relevance

This article highlights important issues about IS/IT relevance and its impact on academic publication impact. The author presents his strong opinion about the lack of an identity within IS and harps on the requirement to focus more on core strengths that IS can leverage. Throughout the article, the author also stresses on the fact that today there is even more need to work closely with industry to better understand and solve critical commercial problems

AdBo: A mobile application to boost adherence of physical exercises for elderly suffering from cognitive decline

According to the UN, the number of elderly people over the age of 60 will reach 2 billion by 2050. Aging is accompanied with functional and cognitive decline that impact elderly independence and quality of life. This often results in issues such as forgetting, fall, and depression. Physical exercises can help. However, only 16% of elderly above the age 65 years do enough exercise to meet HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) physical activity guidelines for Americans. Several barriers impact the elderly's adherence to physical exercises. In this paper, we discuss the barriers and proven strategies that can be used to overcome them. Then, we discuss the development of the AdBo smartphone application, which aims to increase the elderly adherence to physical exercises. The application will guide the elderly though appropriate exercises, measure cognition ability before and after the exercises regimen, and track cognitive improvement over time

Network Convergence: Where is the Value?

The entire telecommunications industry is going through very difficult times. Rapidly changing technology, lack of good business models, and lack of visibility in the near-term for renewed growth all create an uncertain environment. Yet, the global Internet is becoming a multi-service network infrastructure that can potentially replace existing disparate voice and data networks. Although it is widely believed in the telecommunications industry that network convergence of voice, data, video, and images is an industry driver, not much attention has yet been paid to a key proposition: what value does network convergence bring to business and residential customers? This paper explains how different industries are converging; the technological, economic and regulatory forces that are at play and how the various customer segments can benefit from network convergence. While technological advancement is transforming industry and business models rapidly, one question keeps coming back to haunt managers: Where is the business value? We illustrate the value proposition of convergence (for various players) by first explaining the paradigm shifts happening across industries and then highlighting the high velocity spiral of knowledge dissemination theory that is fueled by convergence

Work Goals of Asian Managers: Contrasting Evidence to the Meaning of Working Study

Following the seminal study by George England and his Meaning of Working (MOW) research team (MOW, 1987), which assessed managerial perceptions of the relative importance of a set of 11 work goals, a stream of follow-up research has been undertaken over the past twenty years. With the recent forces of convergence of managerial work goals unleashed by the logic of globalization, it has become relevant to extend these investigations to social contexts where managerial values and assumptions have been different from the contexts of the MOW study. The macro-level economic reform and progress in Asian societies are mostly mediated by the values and goals of managers at the micro-level setting, and, therefore, the replication of the MOW study in these societies has considerable relevance. This paper documents the relative importance of a set of 11 work goals for a sample of 2057 managers in eight Asian nations. The study reveals that as the Asian national environments move forward with divergent reform agenda, there is a convergence emerging in the work goal priorities. These converging findings contrast sharply with the previous MOW findings. The paper provides an analysis and discussion on this outcome

Utilizing Persuasive Technology Package to Elevate Dietary Awareness

A recent study in Saudi Arabia uncovered certain prevalent health-risk behaviors in the adolescent population. One of the most prevalent behaviors identified by this study is health-risk dietary behavior. In general, adolescents in Saudi Arabia reported poor dietary behaviors. Adolescents in Saudi Arabia have received minimal attention over the past decades. This study aims to examine the efficacy of using a persuasive technology package to elevate the level of awareness about the importance of dieting during adolescence. Since adolescence is viewed as an opportune time to alter health-risk behaviors that are known to cause chronic diseases, this study targets parents and providers of adolescents. The study employs an awareness video and a text messaging campaign. The preliminary results of this study indicate promising potential for promoting healthy diet choices in adolescents

Broadband Residential Multimedia Systems as a Training and Learning Tool

This research proposes the use of emerging interactive multimedia residential networks as a training and learning delivery tool. Such a system is currently being built to create a national information infrastructure. However there are many technical and social problems that need to be addressed before this becomes a reality. We specifically show that using such a network can be effective, convenient and cut costs tremendously over other traditional methods of training delivery

DIL - A Conversational Agent for Heart Failure Patients

There is an exceptionally high rate of readmissions and rehospitalizations for patients suffering from Heart Failure. Best efforts to address this alarming problem from the Caregiver community have fallen short due to a shortage of trained clinical staff, failure to perform necessary self-management, and money. Using a Design Science Research framework, this work designed and evaluated DIL” (Sanskrit word for Heart), a Conversational Agent that complements the work of clinicians in achieving the desired behavioral and clinical outcomes. The aim is to provide the hospital with an information system that could bridge the current gap in care that occurs when the patient transitions from the hospital to the home environment. In a pilot study, we show that DIL was able to demonstrate the efficacy and utility as a tool to assist patients with heart failure in improving their self-care

The Challenge of Global Mindset Development for Managers: Towards a New Framework for Empirical Tool Building

The forces of market, government, cost and competition are impacting organisations to rethink their managerial 'mindset' orientations. Understanding and reformulating the global economic and managerial rules have become one of the most relevant managerial responsibilities in organisations today. Globalisation requires managers not only to consider strategic and organisational issues, but also to reorient their values, goals and belief systems. The ideology of economic reform associated with globalisation, can only be of learning value if the alignment of the national, organisational and individual mind frames is ensured.This paper provides a generic framework of the logic of globalisation driving the alignment of the national, organisation and individual level mind frames. A conceptual model explaining the symbiotic macro (national), meso (organisational) and micro (individual) level inter-relationships is presented and supported by the underpinnings of various postulated hypotheses. The theoretical model integrates the key variables of a global managerial mindset and establishes a framework for empirical testing across diverse cultures and contexts