An Object-oriented Workflow Modeling Schema Using Dataflow Analysis for Collaborative E-governance Platform

In the initial stage of transforming from government to governance for developing countries, collaborative e-governance platforms should be urgently established in different contexts. Though some platforms have been previously applied to various fields, researches on common basic functions analysis and across-organization business process modeling based on a suitable workflow modeling method for the platforms design and development are insufficient. Based on an explorative analysis of platform functions and their patterns, we propose a schema for e-governance platforms modeling according to an extended method of object-oriented workflow modeling using dataflow analysis. It covers a two-step process of top-level platform workflow modeling and function objection workflow modeling. In addition, a citizen appeal processing platform is taken as an example to illustrate the utility of the schema. The schema facilitates the contextualized collaborative e-governance platforms development with an operable method and reusable function workflow models

Understanding Continuous Citizen Participation on a Green Commuting Platform: The Roles of Public Value and Private Value

Citizen participation in IT-enabled social activity is an exchange between creating public value for others and gaining private value offered by public sectors in the perspective of social exchange theory. Prior literatures mostly focused on offline social activities and examined only the effects of participation antecedents on final participation outcomes, not investigating the potential participation mechanism in particular of the roles of public and private values. Thus, this study develops a theoretical model based on theories and incentives of citizen participation to examine what and how antecedents affect continuous citizen participation through public value creation and private value acquisition. With analyzing the survey data in the case of a Green Commuting platform, we identify the effective antecedents and find that private value acquisition has much greater effect on participation than public value creation and two values significantly mediate the effects of antecedents on participation

The Role of Integrative Leadership in the Transformation Process of Public Services Delivery: From the Perspective of IS Strategy Triangle Theory

In the era of Government 2.0, the government should transform into a citizen-centric and service-oriented government. In the terms of public services delivery, more innovative IT-based methods are pursued. However, on the perspective of organizational management, leadership plays a major role in using IT to make public services delivery efficient. Therefore, this paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding how integrative leadership influence the transformation of IT-based public services delivery. From the perspective of IS strategy triangle theory, we define integrative leadership as bringing diverse leaderships—strategy leadership, organization leadership and IT leadership—in an organization together with a close-coupled association to accomplish the complex and public issue and archive the united strategic goal. The framework is illustrated with a case of a local government, Pingfang District of Harbin in China, a pilot unit of Smart City providing more convenient and effective public services under the guidance of the District Mayor, the Organization Department Minister and the Informatization Office Director that are responsible for the coordination of strategy formulation, organization restructuration and information construction respectively. The framework is, to our best knowledge, the first of their kind in the new research field of key component elements of intra-organizational integrative leadership and provides significant insights for future exploration

Balancing Exploitation and Exploration for Strategic Flexibility in IT-enabled Business Model Transformation of Traditional Enterprises: An Ambidextrous Perspective

There is growing recognition that information technology (IT)-enabled business model transformation is a distinctive source of sustainable competitive success for traditional enterprises. In this context, strategic flexibility is an important catalyst for IT-enabled business model transformation. During the process of strategic flexibility, a key challenge for traditional enterprises is to balance exploitation of current resources and exploration of future resources. In this article, we examine this balance through an ambidextrous perspective in order to understand how it is achieved in the development of strategic flexibility. A case study is conducted on a large-scale well-known clothing manufacturing company in China attaining success in IT-enabled business model transformation. In our study, a process model is proposed to depict an incremental and iterative development to achieve exploitative and explorative balance, which contains four stages based on business model life cycle. The study’s theoretical and practical contributions and future research directions are discussed

Impact of Governance Structure Characteristics of Public-private Partnerships on Smart City Project Success: Evidence from a Multi-case Study in China

Due to the technological and financial complexity and difficulties of smart city initiatives, the local governments usually adopt a public-private partnership model to govern such projects. This study explores the opportunities and challenges of building smart cities through the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Using an exploratory case study methodology, we interviewed participants in building smart city initiatives across China to develop a theoretical model that captures the essence of such a partnership. Case interview data from three major cities in China were utilized. We analyzed the data of 28 interviews with officials and personnel from public, private, and hybrid organizations involved in smart city projects. Finally, we identified and theoretically validated the following research findings: (1) two key components of the success of smart city initiatives; (2) four key governance structure characteristics of the PPP model that enables the smart city success; (3) two key considerations for establishing the governance structure of a PPP model. The theoretical framework we propose herein can be used to understand the current status and provide guidance for future smart city initiatives

IOT-enabled Quality Management Process Innovation and Analytics in China’s Dairy Industry: A Data Flow Modeling Perspective

Since the melamine incident was reported in China, China’s dairy industry attracts more and more attention, leading some scholars to conduct research on quality management and safety monitoring issues of China’s dairy industry. The technology of the Internet of Things (IOT) is viewed as one of the best ways to solve the safety problems of China’s dairy industry by supporting the development of dairy traceability systems. This paper firstly analyses the current situation of China’s dairy industry supply chain to get at the root of the problem. We then propose an IOT-enabled quality management framework which is an innovation mode of quality management in China’s dairy industry supply chain. To further highlight the important role of IOT technology, we employ a business process modeling approach based on data flow perspective to describe this innovation management mode. The artifacts we design, especially the matrix of dairy products and process information, can help the practitioners to efficiently monitor the quality information of dairy products

Designing an O2O Citizen Participation Ecosystem for the Sustainable Governance of Societies

Citizen participation makes an increasingly important effect on co-creating public value required by the sustainable governance of societies. The offline action participation authentically brings government policies into force but could not be automatically quantified, while online opinion participation could implement diverse incentives by recording participation process but make limited contribution to the governance of societies. The isolation deters them from complementing with each other. Therefore, according to the social exchange theory we propose an O2O (Offline-to-online) citizen participation ecosystem for the sustainable governance of societies. It includes three key participants (citizen, government organization, and O2O platform manager) and five components (motivations, contextualized governance policies and strategies, offline action participation, online rewards collection, and retainment & recommendation). The ecosystem is validated and improved by a case study on the O2O green commuting governance in China. This study enhances the effective combination of online and offline citizen participation through a closed-loop process

Understanding Consumers\u27 Reactance of Personalized Online Advertising Services: from a Perspective of Negative Effects

Despite the increasing popularity of IT-enabled personalization, the online consumers’ attitude of reactance appears to be a major inhibiting result in their acceptance of the online personalized advertising. The objective of this study is to study consumers’ reactance of online personalized advertising from the perspective of negative effects. Especially, we identify the rational choice factors rooted in the rational choice theory in the context of reactance and test their impacts on reactance, with consideration of individual feeling factors in a specific situation of personalization paradox. We also identify the contingent effects of consumers’ goals. By analyzing the survey data from 281 respondents, our results indicate that the curiosity and vulnerability significantly impact on the rational choice factors, and the influences of the rational choice factors on consumers’ reactance vary in the context of consumers’ different goals (searching and browsing). Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed

A novel cell culture system modeling the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes the global pandemic of COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 is classified as a biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) agent, impeding the basic research into its biology and the development of effective antivirals. Here, we developed a biosafety level-2 (BSL-2) cell culture system for production of transcription and replication-competent SARS-CoV-2 virus-like-particles (trVLP). This trVLP expresses a reporter gene (GFP) replacing viral nucleocapsid gene (N), which is required for viral genome packaging and virion assembly (SARS-CoV-2 GFP/ΔN trVLP). The complete viral life cycle can be achieved and exclusively confined in the cells ectopically expressing SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2 N proteins, but not MERS-CoV N. Genetic recombination of N supplied in trans into viral genome was not detected, as evidenced by sequence analysis after one-month serial passages in the N-expressing cells. Moreover, intein-mediated protein trans-splicing approach was utilized to split the viral N gene into two independent vectors, and the ligated viral N protein could function in trans to recapitulate entire viral life cycle, further securing the biosafety of this cell culture model. Based on this BSL-2 SARS-CoV-2 cell culture model, we developed a 96-well format high throughput screening for antivirals discovery. We identified salinomycin, tubeimoside I, monensin sodium, lycorine chloride and nigericin sodium as potent antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Collectively, we developed a convenient and efficient SARS-CoV-2 reverse genetics tool to dissect the virus life cycle under a BSL-2 condition. This powerful tool should accelerate our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 biology and its antiviral development