Why Should I Do It Myself? Hedonic and Utilitarian Motivations of Customers\u27 Intention to Use Self-service Technologies

Customer self-service technologies (SST) have been gaining increasing economic importance given their proliferation in the customer service industry. Self-service kiosks have gradually been replacing traditional service employees and their progress is expected to continue. The growing relevance of SST results in the need for companies to understand why customers are willing to use SST and which motivations drive SST adoption. Two central constructs determine a customer’s willingness to use SST, namely utilitarian and hedonic value. Thus, the aim of this paper is twofold: first, we explore the multidimensional nature of utilitarian and especially hedonic value. Second, we examine their relative importance in determining repeat use intention, depending on a customer’s prior experience with SST. We develop a research model based on means-end chain (MEC) theory. The results underline that both values positively influence repeat use intention of SST. While hedonic value is prevalent for customers with little experience, utilitarian value weights stronger for customers with more experience

Two Sides of the Same Coin? - The Effects of Hierarchy Inside and Outside Enterprise Social Networks

With more companies using Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) for employee communication and collaboration, the influence of ESN on organizational hierarchies has been subject of discussions in science and practice. Conversely, the question if formal hierarchies affect interaction inside ESN and outside (i.e., personal interaction or interaction via traditional media) in the same way has not yet been addressed. The aim of our research is to analyse those hierarchical effects. By contrasting a rich dataset comprising two years of communication and collaboration inside an ESN with data from an online survey, we found significant differences between the hierarchical effects inside and outside the ESN and their impact on communication and collaboration. Although our findings indicate significant impact of formal hierarchy, we found it to be weaker inside the ESN. We conclude that interaction inside ESN is more inclusive and balanced across hierarchical levels

Customer Lifetime Network Value

Today, people are increasingly connected and extensively interact with each other using technology-enabled media. Hence, customers are more frequently exposed to social influence of other customers when making purchase decisions. However, established approaches for customer valuation most widely neglect network effects based on social influence leading to a misallocation of resources. Therefore, following a design-oriented approach, this paper develops a model for customer valuation referred to as the customer lifetime network value (CLNV) incorporating an integrated network perspective. By considering the net network contribution of customers, the CLNV reallocates values between customers based on social influence without changing the overall network value, that is, a firm’s customer equity. Using a real-world dataset of a European online social network, we demonstrate and evaluate the applicability of the CLNV. We show that the CLNV enables a sound determination of both individual customers’ value and firm’s customer equity and supports thorough customer segmentation

Can Social Media Help to Alleviate Skilled Worker Shortage? First Insights from the German Federal Employment Agency

Due to a growing skilled worker shortage ever more companies are looking for new and innovative ways of recruiting talent. While first companies have started using social media for recruiting, there is still a lack of research on this topic, in particular on the use of social media for active sourcing. Therefore, this paper investigates, based on a case study at the German Federal Employment Agency, how active sourcing via social media can help to alleviate skilled worker shortage. Our findings indicate that social media are a suitable means to staff open job positions for which the traditional recruiting process failed, in particular for job positions requiring a high-quality matching and applicants with an academic background. The creation of a modern brand and the strengthening of networking activities of employees are a positive by-product

A Review of Information Systems Research on Online Social Networks

Over the last decade, online social networks have evolved into a global mainstream medium with increasing social, organizational, and economic impact. This paper provides a structured overview of Information Systems research on this outstanding techno-social phenomenon of the 21st century via a structured literature review. Based on our search in information systems journals and conference proceedings that resulted in 510 papers, we carve out and assess the knowledge and the research fields that have been predominantly addressed and impacted by the information systems research community so far. Moreover, we identify research gaps that future research should address. We analyze how the academic discussion on online social networks developed in the information systems literature over time, which publication outlets are most receptive to research on online social networks, which research areas have already been covered by information systems research on online social networks, and what potential future research areas exist that have not been covered by information systems research yet. We hope that our results will stimulate and guide future research in this field

WHO IS KEY...? - CHARACTERIZING VALUE ADDING USERS IN ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Whereas the use of Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) is a pervasive topic in research and practice, both parties are still struggling to come to a better understanding of the role and impact of ESN in and on knowledge-intensive corporate work. As a part of this phenomenon, employees who communicate their knowledge in ESN helping other users to do their daily work play a decisive role. We need to come to a better understanding of the role and behaviour of such valu adding users. This is a prerequisite, for example, for understanding knowledge support hubs or for enabling more effective internal information and knowledge sharing. Against this background, we investigate the structural characteristics of valu adding users in ESN using qualitative text analysis and Social Network Analysis. Based on a large scale dataset of a global consulting company using the ESN Yammer.com we analyse the social relationships of valu adding users. We confirm their significant position and draw conclusions for research and practice

The Impact of Formal Hierarchies on Enterprise Social Networking Behavior

With more and more companies using enterprise social networks (ESN) for employee communication and collaboration, the influence of ESN on organizational hierarchies has been subject of countless discussions in practice-oriented media and first academic studies. Conversely, the question whether and how formal organizational hierarchies influence ESN usage behavior has not yet been addressed. Drawing on a rich data set comprising 2.5 years of relationship building via direct messages, confirmed contact requests, and group messages, we are able to show that formal hierarchies have an important impact on social networking behavior. By applying means of social network analysis and supported by statements from interviews, we illustrate how deeply formal hierarchy impacts the three examined types of relationships. Our results motivate academics to further study the interrelation between hierarchy und ESN and hierarchy’s effects regarding the sociotechnical design and implementation of related systems

Leveraging the Power of Peer Groups for Refugee Integration

Refugee integration, one long-term solution to the large number of people fleeing their home countries, constitutes a challenge for both refugees and host societies. ICT and especially online peer groups seem promising to support this process. Building on literature demonstrating the societal benefits of peer groups, this paper proposes a novel peer-group-based approach to address refugee integration and introduces both an online and offline realization. A randomized field experiment in cooperation with public (refugee) services and a non-governmental organization makes it possible to expand existing research by quantitatively demonstrating societal benefits of online peer groups and ICT for refugee integration. Further, this paper is the first to assess the effectiveness of online and offline peer groups in one experimental setup comparatively. Results show that peer groups provide substantial value with respect to the integration domains social bridges, social bonds, rights and citizenship as well as safety and stability. While the outcome of the various integration domains differs for online and offline peer groups, participants’ adoption rates were higher for online peer groups

Just Digital or Multi-Channel? The Preferences of E-Government Service Adoption by Citizens and Business Users

The digital world has entered governments and public sector institutions. In that context, public e-services have been gaining increasing importance in recent years. However, will everything end up being digital in the future? This article investigates the preferences of citizens and business users to adopt different public services electronically and via further offline channels. Data of 500 citizens and 500 companies were collected together with the German Federal Employment Agency. Our findings indicate that citizens as well as business users ask for a multi-channel offering. They prefer to deliberately choose subjective suitable channels for different services. We furthermore observed a difference between companies from different industries as well as between small and medium-to-large companies, such as the latter ones having a stronger preference for online channels than small companies