A DSS for Cooperative Multiple Criteria Group Decision Making

Many decisions in organizations are made, or at least prepared, by multiple cooperating decision makers. A distributed DSS architecture is presented that connects multiple individual DSS to a groupDSS. The group decision making process is supported by content oriented methods based on extensions of multiple criteria decision making methods, as well as by process-oriented techniques using a computerized conferencing system A prototype of the system is operational on a personal computer configuration

Online Convergence Behavior, Social Media Communications and Crisis Response: An Empirical Study of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake Police Twitter Project

Emergency response organizations such as the police are using social media as an additional channel to communicate with the general public in times of crisis. However, the utilization of social media with a free-style communication protocol by emergency response authorities for crisis response is still insufficiently understood. Who are the people they communicate with? What types of crisis-related information are shared with them? How do people react to these messages? How does the general public react to a social media run by a police organization? This paper uses the typology of convergence behaviors in emergency response as an attempt to categorize the public interaction with social media platforms. Furthermore, it uses the Situation Crisis Communication theory (SCCT) to analyze the crisis communication practices by a law enforcement agency. A content analysis of Nepal Police Tweets from the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal earthquake was conducted. It sought to understand (i) whether people who Tweet exhibit the same convergence behaviors as reported in the literature, (ii) how online participants communicate among and between the different crisis convergence behaviors, and (iii) what would be the best communication practices to assist crisis response efforts. Data show that convergence behaviors differed from intensity of appearances and communications and Tweets helped reconcile the differences in perceived emergency response needs between netizens and the authorities

Communications Design for Co-Op: A Group Decision Support System

Decision Support Systems (DSSs), computer-based systems intended to assist managers in preparing and analyzing decisions, have been single-user systems for most of the past decade. Only recently has DSS research begun to study the implications of the fact that most complex managerial decisions involve multiple decision makers and analysts. A number of tools for facilitating group decisions have been proposed under the label Group Decision Support Systems (GDSSs). One of the most important functions of a GDSS is to provide problem-oriented services for communication among decision makers. On the basis of an analysis of the communication requirements in various group decision settings, this paper presents an architecture for defining and enforcing dynamic application-level protocols that organize decision group interaction. The architecture has been implemented on a network of personal computers in Co-oP, a GDSS for cooperative group decision making based on interactive, multiple-criteria decision methods

Groping in the dark? Exploring customer perception of hidden actions in smart service ecosystems through the lens of agency theory

DDue to new technologies, providers of digital goods and services collect an ever-increasing amount of personal data. Although the GDPR mandates that providers must inform their customers about the handling of their data, past privacy scandals have shown that customers lack information. In this study, we adopt a qualitative-exploratory approach to develop a rich understanding of the practices about which customers are not fully informed. We rely on agency theory to understand hidden actions as an informational advantage of providers. By conducting focus groups, we identify perceptions of three key hidden actions of smart product customers in B2C service ecosystems. Building on the hidden actions, we understand the relationship between customer and provider in smart service ecosystems characterized by information asymmetries. With our research, we provide the first steps towards understanding the nature and role of hidden actions in the context of smart service ecosystems. For practitioners, we provide guidance on how to effectively reduce information asymmetries