Smartphone Medical App Use: A survey among Medical Students at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Smartphones evolve in a potential learning companion among students. The specific needs of medical education have brought in light, apps dedicated to medical school. Therefore, the impact that arises in academia attracted the focus of scientific world for further research. The aim of this paper is to identify the usage of medical apps among medical students, exploring their usage patterns in order to enhance their educational activities. For that purpose, 381 students were asked to fulfill a 16-item questionnaire. The respondents (300 students) constitute a 78.7% response rate, with a Cronbach’s α = 0.95. According to the survey, 93.6% (n: 281/300) of medical students own smartphones, 64.8% (n: 182/281) of them use Android devices and 17.1% (n: 48/281) iOS devices. The majority of students, that is 57.7% (n: 173/300) have downloaded 1 to 5 medical apps, whereas the number of students with more than 10 apps is significant lower. There is noteworthy to mention that a meaningful segment uses rarely or never the installed medical apps (59.3% and 36.7% respectively). The future development and use of medical apps to support both education and clinical practice, seems to at- tract the majority of the respondents

Online Shopping: Perceptions Of Greek Consumers

The sharp increase of Internet usage has transformed the way goods are bought and sold. Widely available online information about products and pricing has transferred many consumers from traditional to online stores. The scope of this paper is to examine the perceptions of Greek adopters and non-adopters of online shopping in terms of demographic profile, consumers’ expectations of online stores, advantages and problems related to online purchases. Additionally, the reasons for using or avoiding online shopping, as well as, the types of preferred products were studied. The findings of this paper are useful in explaining consumers’ online buying behaviour. The empirical results provide important managerial implications and set the basis for further research on this field

Integrating supply chain operations in the Internet era

The internet's potential impact on supply chain operations is often approached in the literature in a quite generic way due to the complex nature of supply chains and the different levels of operations' integration. Drawing on existing research, this paper proposes an overall framework of supply chain integration and then attempts to provide a categorisation of the internet's role in the supply chain activities, providing insights from various sectors. The purpose of this paper is to describe and present the alternative ways that the internet impacts on the integration of supply chain operations, by comparing four different sectors: the automotive, the computer, the food and the grocery sector. The paper concludes that in the food, grocery and computer sector, internet's impact on supply chain operations has been quite poor, particularly forward integration, while it has been significant, in the backward integration of the automotive sector

Data Migration Between Web Content Management Systems

Web Content Management Systems (WCMS) have become necessary tools for today’s web oriented business world. The data migration between Web Content Management Systems, consequently, is an issue that more and more companies and organizations have to deal with while changing from an older WCMS to a newer one. This article examines the migration options and makes some useful suggestions to help with the choice of the appropriate migration method of the content from one Web Content Management System to another. The research is supported by a survey conducted with a number of large companies and organizations. The conclusions can be taken into consideration in order to evaluate the different data migration approaches

Modeling Facebook users' behavior towards the use of pages related to healthy diet and sport activities

Purpose: In this article we aim to model social media users’ behavior in relation with the use of specified Facebook pages and groups, related to eHealth, specifically to healthy diet and sport activities. The study represents to the best of our knowledge the first region-focused on a specific geographical area research. Methods: The users’ personality is measured through the well-known Big Five model and the behavior is predicted with the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Structural Equation Modeling is used in order to statistically control the associations among the diverse observed and latent variables. Results: The results suggest an extended theory of planned behavior in combination with personality traits, on eHealth field. Openness and Extraversion do not seem to have positive effect on Attitude. Users’ attitude can be affected positively from Agreeableness and Subjective Norms, guiding to finally positive affection of users’ actual behavior. Agreeableness cannot influence behavior, directly, nor through SN, since the hypothesis path A-SN is not verified, but it can through Attitude. Neuroticism was negatively correlated to PBC but this hypothesis was not, also, confirmed in the proposed model. Implications: While literature confirms all of our hypotheses, in our study only 8 in 12 are finally confirmed. The difference between the present model and literature findings can be located on the different cultural dimensions among the different studies. The present survey is focused on the Greek region with all the participants to be Greeks. This location-based limitation could be surpassed by conducting the same research on different geographical regions and then confront the outcomes

Exploring chain, network and cluster collaborative practices:implications for SMEs

Collaboration among enterprises has been rendered as one of the most important issues in the business agenda, either as a result of the globalisation and deregulation of markets or as a result of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution. Both factors have created a business reality where success in the collaboration practices followed, may result in improvements in the competitive position of enterprises. This paper starts from the basic business activity of the individual enterprise, looks into the chain, network and cluster collaborative practices and analyses their characteristics and the implications for Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In addition, it provides insights regarding the opportunities, benefits, requirements and risks related to each collaborative practice. This paper finally argues that different collaboration practices are required, as enterprises and the industrial sectors where they operate, present distinctive characteristics

Associating Facebook Measurable Activities with Personality Traits: A Fuzzy Sets Approach

In this study we identify potential associations between people’s personality (utilizing the popular Big Five personality model) and measurable Facebook activities such as number of likes received, number of posts, number of comments on posts. Extant literature suggests that personality can be manifested through different features of the Facebook profiles but under an implicit assumption that those users may belong in a single psychographic group. However, it has been shown that people may share characteristics, common acts and behaviors of more than one psychographic group. In this study we aim to address limitations of previous studies, by adopting a fuzzy set approach which is capable to handle users’ membership in multiple psychographic groups. Furthermore, fsQCA offers equifinality, which means that research can end up to the same outcome, beginning from different initial combinations of data. The work presented here provides empirical evidence concerning the association between Facebook activities and users' personalities in a novel way indicating the significance of this relationship and providing alternative combinations that lead to the same output. Furthermore, it paves the ground towards predicting social platforms' measurements, other than Facebook, relying on users' personalities, using the same technique but on different fields of study and social media platforms

DEVELOPING AN UNDERSTANDING OF DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE AS A PREREQUISITE OF DIGITAL COMPETENCE

Although the interest of academics and practitioners is focused on concepts, such as digital competence, literacy, and skills, digital intelligence has its own distinct importance. Whilst the former concepts are related to knowledge and learning outcomes, digital intelligence is about the new way of thinking (particularly visible to young people) that is developing in the continuously expanding digital environment. Understanding and further investigating digital intelligence will help to establish better and more appropriate, for the demands of the digital era, frameworks of digital competence. This study proposes that measuring digital intelligence should comprise computational thinking tests, as well as tests that could be used to assess digital use and behaviour. In the context of that, a number of students at senior high schools of the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, Greece, were tested regarding their computational thinking and their digital use and behaviour. The most interesting results are: (i) the average score of students increases as the level of education of their parents increases, and (ii) there is a statistically significant positive relationship of the students’ aggregate performance between computational thinking and digital use & behaviour, implying that they are correctly considered components of the construct of digital intelligence

Understanding the factors affecting e-business adoption and impact on logistics processes

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize e-business adoption and to generate understanding of the range of factors affecting the adoption process. The paper also aims at exploring the perceived impact of e-business adoption on logistics-related processes. Design/methodology/approach: Case study research, by conducting in-depth interviews in eight companies. Findings: E-business adoption is not exclusively a matter of resources. Increased e-business adoption and impact are caused by increased operational compatibility, as well as increased levels of collaboration. In terms of e-business impact this mainly refers to cycle time reductions and quality improvements, rather than direct cost reductions as reported by other authors. Research limitations/implications: The intrinsic weakness of the research method and the way concepts are operationalized limits the ability to generalize findings. Practical implications: Managers should emphasize developing their relationships with theirsuppliers/customers, in an effort to do common e-business investments, and should aim to increase their partners' commitment to the use of these applications. Originality/value: This paper provides empirical evidence from a sector where limited research efforts have taken place. Explanations can be helpful to other researchers involved in the understanding of the adoption of e-business and its impact