Information and Communication Technology Spanish Gazelles: A Competitiveness Analysis

Due to the difficult economic situation, which has led to dramatic job losses in Spain, the companies with high growth potential are seen as a promising alternative to resume economic growth. A sample of companies in the information and communications technology sector sets up the basis of this comparative analysis of the characteristics of gazelles versus the standard firms. Also this study shows, by means of a cluster analysis, the determinants of gazelles along the different stages of their development. This will lead to a better understanding of gazelle businesses, from which to develop incentives to increase the number of them

Comportamiento colaborativo: Medida y caracterización a través de la utilización de blogs en entorno empresarial

In order to improve collaboration within working teams, several collaborative tools are being deployed in most of the modern organizations; for this improvement to occur, employees also have to perform an appropriate collaborative behavior. The objective of this exploratory study is to measure and characterize this collaborative behavior taking into account several factors. In order to assess predictive ability for the research model, we have developed a theoretical model, which has been validated with data from 86 employees from the department of Information Systems of a large industrial company based in Spain. Findings from the results show that altruism, common objectives and mutual trust positively predict collaborative behavior, while the sense of belonging to a community, reputation and reciprocity do not

Predicting academic performance with learning analytics in virtual learning environments: A comparative study of three interaction classifications

Learning analytics is the analysis of static and dynamic data extracted from virtual learning environments, in order to understand and optimize the learning process. Generally, this dynamic data is generated by the interactions which take place in the virtual learning environment. At the present time, many implementations for grouping of data have been proposed, but there is no consensus yet on which interactions and groups must be measured and analyzed. There is also no agreement on what is the influence of these interactions, if any, on learning outcomes, academic performance or student success. This study presents three different extant interaction typologies in e-learning and analyzes the relation of their components with students? academic performance. The three different classifications are based on the agents involved in the learning process, the frequency of use and the participation mode, respectively. The main findings from the research are: a) that agent-based classifications offer a better explanation of student academic performance; b) that at least one component in each typology predicts academic performance; and c) that student-teacher and student-student, evaluating students, and active interactions, respectively, have a significant impact on academic performance, while the other interaction types are not significantly related to academic performance

Learning Analytics and Interactions in Virtual Learning Environments. A Comparative Study of Typologies and their Relationship with Academic Performance

Analysis of learning data (learning analytics) is a new research field with high growth potential. The main objective of Learning analytics is the analysis of data (interactions being the basic data unit) generated in virtual learning environments, in order to maximize the outcomes of the learning process; however, a consensus has not been reached yet on which interactions must be measured and what is their influence on learning outcomes. This research is grounded on the study of e-learning interaction typologies and their relationship with students? academic performance, by means of a comparative study between different interaction typologies (based on the agents involved, frequency of use and participation mode). The main conclusions are a) that classifications based on agents offer a better explanation of academic performance; and b) that each of the three typologies are able to explain academic performance in terms of some of their components (student-teacher and student-student interactions, evaluating students interactions and active interactions, respectively), with the other components being nonrelevant

An Analysis of the Influence of Students´ Technological Culture on Their Technology

decade has raised the interest among the research community on the acceptance and use of these systems by both teachers and students. At first, the implementation of LMS was based on their technical design and the adaptation of the learning processes to the virtual environment, neglecting students’ characteristics when the systems were deployed, which led to expensive and failing implementations. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) proposes a framework which allows the study of the acceptance and use of technology that takes into consideration the students’ characteristics and how they affect the acceptance and the degree of use of educational technology. This study questions the role of the user’s attitude towards use of LMS and uses the UTAUT to examine the moderating effect of technological culture in the adoption of LMS in Spain. The results from the comparison and analysis of three different models confirm the relevance of attitude towards use as an antecedent of intention to use the system, as well as the important moderating effect of gender and technological culture. The discussion of results suggests the need for a more in-depth analysis and interrelations of cultural dimensions in the adoption of educational technologies and learning management system

Value, quality, purchasing habits and repurchase intention in B2C: differences between frequent and occasional purchasers

Este estudio propone un modelo integrador de la recompra en comercio electrónico (B2C), basado en la teoría de la confirmación de expectativas, tomando como partida el modelo de Bhattacherjee extendido con el modelo de satisfacción Cronin. El modelo de investigación se ha probado con 536 compradores españoles, usando análisis multigrupo. El modelo fue capaz de explicar más del setenta por ciento de la varianza de la intención de recompra. Como resultados, la relación entre la calidad y la satisfacción es no significativa para todos los tipos de consumidores y la relación entre la utilidad y la recompra es no significativa sólo para los compradores más frecuentes. Algunas ideas para llevar a la práctica son presentadas a modo de discusión

An analysis of the moderating effects of age in the acceptance of learning management systems

El presente estudio analiza las intenciones de los usuarios acerca del uso de sistemas de tele-enseñanza LMS (Learning Management Systems, basándose en un modelo que integra el Modelo de Aceptación Tecnológica (TAM, Technology Acceptance Model, la Teoría del Comportamiento Percibido (TPB, Theory of Planned Behavior) y la Teoría Unificada de la Aceptación y Uso de la Tecnología (UTAUT, Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology), tomando la edad como variable moderadora. Así, este artículo estudia la influencia de la intención conductual, la actitud hacia el uso, la facilidad de uso percibida, la utilidad percibida, la norma subjetiva y la influencia social en la intención de utilizar sistemas e-learning LMS. Como antecedentes de estos factores de influencia se plantean las características del sistema y del usuario. El resultado de la revisión teórica es un modelo unificado que ha sido validado con datos recogidos de 94 estudiantes a través de un cuestionario en línea. Estos datos han sido analizados utilizando la técnica de mínimos cuadrados parciales, y los principales resultados confirman la relevancia predictiva del modelo para usuarios de entre 26 y 35 años y de entre 36 y 45 años

Omnichannel retailing: a tale of three sectors

Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the long-anticipated digital transformation of traditional retail has become the new reality. Retailers are responding to changes in consumers’ shopping behaviours and their demand for new interaction channels and touchpoints to shop at their convenience, regardless of time and location. Consequently, retailers are experiencing a change from single-channel models to multi-channel and omnichannel models. Omnichannel retailing demands integrated channel management and operation to improve customers’ shopping experiences. This study uses measures of channel integration levels from previous research to analyse channel integration among leading vendors in three top retailing sectors (clothing and apparel, home furniture and grocery) and expands the analysis by including indicators of digital transformation. The model includes 27 indicators related to channel integration and 9 indicators of digital transformation, and compares the results across sectors. By so doing, the study also aims to help establish values that may be used as target or reference values of channel integration and digitalization of retailers across sectors, irrespective of their size. The research methodology uses the ’mystery shopper’ technique and includes the collection of data about the 165 leading companies in these sectors in Spain

Fenómeno de internacionalización temprana en empresas creadas en entornos universitarios

Hasta finales del siglo XX ha sido incuestionable la vigencia del modelo de internacionalización de empresas conocido como ?Modelo Gradual? o ?Modelo de Uppsala? (Johanson y Vahlne, 1977). Este modelo se caracteriza fundamentalmente por considerar que las empresas comienzan asentándose en sus mercados de origen, en donde van adquiriendo experiencia y conocimiento y van adueñándose de recursos que les permitan internacionalizarse gradualmente en el futuro, comenzando por países cercanos y con similitudes al país de origen. Estas similitudes se miden fundamentalmente en factores demográficos, sociológicos y culturales (Johanson y Vahlne, 1977). Según este modelo, las empresas intentan minimizar al máximo la probabilidad de fracaso de su proceso de internacionalización (Autio y Sapienza, 2000)

Social Media Diffusion by Spanish Public Research Institutions

Public Research Institutions form, together with Universities, the core of scientific research in Spain. These organizations often publish their research in paper format or in their websites, but are generally falling behind in their adaptation to social media, and thus failing to reach wider audiences –especially Millennials. This study offers the preliminary results of an ongoing project aiming to identify best practices in the diffusion of scientific research by Spanish Public Institutions in social media, and more specifically in the three most popular social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. To do so, the study proposes a set of metrics to assess the impact and reach of content published by the different research centers belonging to Spanish Public Research Institutions in those social media platforms, presents the tools used for data extraction, collection and visualization, and identifies the research centers that are most successful in disseminating their scientific activity in social media. Following this study, a set of interviews with community managers and directors of communication of these centers will offer complementary information that shall be helpful in providing guidelines to deploy an effective scientific diffusion strategy in social media to all Spanish Public Research Institutions