A Qualitative Approach to Examine Technology Acceptance

The research field of technology acceptance and software acceptance is a fertile field in the discipline of MIS. Acceptance research is mainly affected by the technology acceptance model (TAM). The TAM is counted as the major guideline for acceptance research. But recently more researchers discover the deficits of former acceptance research. The main cause of the criticism is the focus on quantitative research methods. We will show this with the help of former meta-studies and a literature review. Quantitative approaches are basically appropriate for the testing of theories. The development of new theories or constructs is followed to a lesser intent. In the article we will show how a qualitative approach can be used for theory-construction. We will introduce a qualitative research design and show how this approach can be used to develop new constructs of acceptance while some existing constructs taken from TAM and related theories cannot be confirmed

Preliminary investigations on high energy electron beam tomography

In computed tomography (CT) cross-sectional images of the attenuation distribution within a slice are created by scanning radiographic projections of an object with a rotating X-ray source detector compound and subsequent reconstruction of the images from these projection data on a computer. CT can be made very fast by employing a scanned electron beam instead of a mechanically moving X-ray source. Now this principle was extended towards high-energy electron beam tomography with an electrostatic accelerator. Therefore a dedicated experimental campaign was planned and carried out at the Budker Insitute of Nuclear Physics (BINP), Novosibirsk. There we investigated the capabilities of BINP’s accelerators as an electron beam generating and scanning unit of a potential high-energy electron beam tomography device. The setup based on a 1 MeV ELV-6 (BINP) electron accelerator and a single detector. Besides tomographic measurements with different phantoms, further experiments were carried out concerning the focal spot size and repeat accuracy of the electron beam as well as the detector’s response time and signal to noise ratio

Towards the User: Extending the Job Characteristics Model to Measure Job Satisfaction for ERP Based Workplaces – A Qualitative Approach

Over the past years the widely spread use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems has significantly changed the way of working. The close correlation between task fulfillment and ERP use has an essential effect on the software users and their job satisfaction. To understand job satisfaction is an important success factor for all firms because it impacts the behavior of the employees. The job characteristics model (JCM) derived by Hackman and Oldham explains job satisfaction by looking at the characteristics of the tasks. Because of the significant impact of technologies, such as ERP systems, we argue that the model has to be extended towards a user-centered view and found technology characteristics explaining job satisfaction, too. We use a qualitative approach to define these unknown constructs and derived an extended model which has to be tested and verified by further research

A Taxonomy of Barriers to Digital Transformation

Companies expect significant long-term gains in efficiency and productivity through digital transformation (DT). New ways of combining products, processes, and data-driven services, as well as new business models emerge. However, the rapid development of the DT leads to constraints regarding its realization. Barriers hinder companies to realize possible advantages out of DT. If firms promptly recognize potential barriers, they can reflect upon these challenges and can take well-coordinated countermeasures. Social, technical and socio-technical problems address different stakeholder and ask for specific solutions. Therefore, our study aims at developing a taxonomy for barriers to DT to enable researchers and practitioners to identify and classify existing barriers. For deriving the dimensions and characteristics, we collected data by conducting46 semi-structured interviews with experts and enriched these by looking at the literature on DT barriers

German Universities as Actors in Organizational Design – A Qualitative Study

[EN] After the latest reforms in higher education according to the NPM (New Public Management), the autonomy of universities and the organizational perspective have been strengthened. According to predominantly used neo-institutional research in higher education, organizations adapt their structure by the pressure of legitimacy from outside. So the research question arises, if universities are actors and if so, what are the influencing factors on organizational structure. The goal is to point out the reasons for organizational design and if they act on their own or only adapt changes by pressure from outside. For this, interviews with 16 experts in faculty management are conducted and interpreted using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring and Grounded Theory. The results show that it is possible for faculties to change and design their organizational structures. There is staff responsible for this task. They work in the faculty between management and administration. Reasons to change the organizational structure are not caused by legitimacy. Much more, the new tasks cause a real need for new positions. This argumentation is not in line with neo-institutionalism. So the results strengthen the thesis that neo-institutionalism is not sufficient anymore to explain the organizational change of universities.Hagerer, I.; Hoppe, U. (2019). German Universities as Actors in Organizational Design – A Qualitative Study. En HEAD'19. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 395-404. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD19.2019.9333OCS39540

Resilience and adaptive mechanisms of Arctic phytoplankton under heatwaves: Acclimation, microevolution and community resilience

Trait adjustments of phytoplankton communities to changing environmental conditions can take place through responses on several fundamental ecological levels. These include physiological acclimation of single genotypes, evolution through sorting among genotypes of the same species, and selection within the entire multi-species community. Which of these different levels responds to environmental change can have large ecological and biogeochemical implications, but especially in protists, these levels are extremely difficult to disentangle. Arctic phytoplankton at base of the foodweb in one of the most rapidly warming regions on the planet, are faced with especially large changes, but often show high resilience. Among these changes are more frequent and intense heatwaves, which expose organisms to vast temperature fluctuations. In dedicated experimental setups of different ecological complexity, we investigated how phytoplankton responds and adjusts to heatwaves, and on which of the mentioned levels shifts can be observed. We resolved not only physiological features and productivity, but also composition on the species as well as the intraspecific level, using a novel molecular approach to efficiently examine the composition of protist populations in diverse contexts. This setup provides a comprehensive approach to investigate how phytoplankton communities respond to stable and fluctuating temperature scenarios, physiologically and ecologically

The hidden flows within species: Phytoplankton population dynamics in Arctic assemblages

Progressing climate change and concurrent alterations of environmental conditions pose challenges of adaptation on organisms and ecosystems, especially in rapidly changing places like the Arctic. While more diverse systems are usually considered to be more resilient, biodiversity does not only describe the number of species, but can also consist of diverse individuals within a species. Especially in protists, with large census sizes and fast proliferation, intraspecific lineage sorting can be an important mechanism of plasticity and trait adjustment. For phytoplankton communities at the base of the foodweb, physiological acclimation and species shifts are frequently described, but intraspecific composition and diversity are methodologically still difficult to resolve, especially in diverse natural contexts and at temporal resolution. Therefore, our knowledge on the functioning and importance of intraspecific selection dynamics in phytoplankton is still limited. In recent years, we have developed and applied a new, high throughput methodology for phytoplankton population composition, which can make temporal and spatial population dynamics visible that were before extremely difficult to resolve. Next to experiments with natural phytoplankton communities and artificial populations under controlled settings, a time-series of Arctic spring blooms has been investigated towards the year-to year composition of species but also of intraspecific populations of a dominant diatom. Datasets emerging now thanks to such novel technologies can offer new, more comprehensive perspectives on our understanding of the mechanisms and results of microevolution and local adaptation, and can reveal formerly hidden patterns of species’ strategies of persistence and development

TOWARDS A FRAMEWORK FOR DIGITAL TRANSFOR-MATION SUCCESS IN MANUFACTURING

Digital Transformation (DT) affects whole enterprises and is expected to drive a disruptive change in the way people work. Digital technologies leverage changes from simple tasks to the enterprise-wide strategy. Enterprises expect major benefits from investments in DT. However, digital transformation is a complex process and hence difficult to understand. Many different use scenarios exist so that decisions about the adoption of technologies are challenging. Therefore, it is critical to understand which benefits might be achieved with DT. With our research, we contribute to the understanding of digital transformation success. We develop and evaluate a framework that covers the main dimensions of digital transformation success. Literature from IS success and DT research is used to identify these dimensions. To evaluate this framework, we use data gained in a qualitative approach. We combine findings from a literature research with qualitative results to offer deeper insights into peoples\u27 understanding of what shapes the success. The framework is useful to classify benefits achieved by DT and to point out new possibilities of gaining success with DT

A Prediction of Young\u27s Modulus for Tin Containing Phosphate Glasses using Quantitative Structural Information

A Rigid Unit Packing Fraction (RUPF) Model Was Used to Better Understand the Influence of Local Structural Units on the Young\u27s Elastic Modulus (E) of Binary and Ternary Tin Phosphate Glasses. Quantitative Analyses of the Units that Constitute the Glass Structure, Obtained from X-Ray/neutron Diffraction and 31P MAS-NMR Spectroscopy, Were Used to Calculate Polyhedral Packing Fractions that, with Tabulated Bond Dissociation Energies, Were Used to Predict E based on a Modification of the Makashima-Mackenzie Relationship, Which Uses Ion Sizes to Calculate Packing Fractions. Predictions based on the RUPF Model Are Better Than Those based on Ion Sizes, and Extending the RUPF Model to All Cation-Polyhedra Accounts for the Compositional Dependence of the Sn-Coordination Number