Exploring the effects of outdoor activities and connectedness with nature on cognitive styles and creativity : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Listed in 2017 Dean's List of Exceptional ThesesThe natural environment’s potential to improve education, work, and lifestyles is receiving increasing attention by policy makers and practitioners. Psychological research has demonstrated that stress reduction, attention restoration, and increased creativity can result from exposure to nature. Such evidence notwithstanding, the precise psychological mechanisms explaining these effects remain unclear. This thesis provides a systematic examination of how contact with nature might affect humans. Four studies were conducted. Study 1 reports two meta-analyses (N = 10701, k = 100) involving: (i) 66 studies using preand post-test designs, and (ii) 32 experimental studies that include a control group. Although outdoor activities have been found overall to affect personal and social outcomes positively, there has been limited research into the effects on cognitive variables of exposure to outdoor environments. To address this gap in the literature, I aim to investigate whether contact with nature (in two dimensions–the psychological attachment to nature and the physical exposure to it) is associated with processes related to creativity (i.e., cognitive styles and divergent thinking creativity). Study 2 (N = 138) tests the relationship between connectedness with nature and cognitive styles and reports a significant positive association between connectedness with nature and both innovative and holistic thinking styles. Building on this finding, Study 3 (N = 185) not only replicates the results of Study 2 by controlling for wellbeing processes, but includes a new creativity test to examine the link between connectedness with nature and creative processes (connectedness with nature is found to be positively linked with divergent-thinking creativity). As these three studies employ cross-sectional data where causality cannot be inferred, the last study involves an experimental design. Study 4 (N = 93) manipulates active versus passive engagement with nature and examines the mediating impact of connectedness with nature on the link between outdoor activities and divergentthinking creativity. Some theoretical explanations as to how nature might affect our creativity are proposed. Potential limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. The findings are intended to provide supporting evidence for the relationship between nature and creativity, and hopefully inform educational pedagogy and lifestyle choices likely to enhance creativity

Rapid Intrapreneurship with a Human Touch

The pace of change in digital organisations necessitates the adoption of rapid innovation practices. While rapid innovation is typically reactive to external uncertainties and shocks, firms that are capable of generating internal disruptions and innovating quickly can gain a competitive edge. This research investigates the role of intrapreneurship in promoting rapid innovation within an organisation\u27s proprietary framework, employing an employee-led, human-centric approach. To explore this concept, the qualitative case study approach will be utilised, with MoMo, Vietnam\u27s leading E-Wallet, serving as a prime example of an organisation that has successfully implemented such practices. Through an analysis of MoMo\u27s internal processes and culture, this research aims to uncover the factors that contribute to the success of intrapreneurial endeavours and rapid innovation within digital organisations

Rapid Intrapreneurship with a Human Touch

The pace of change in digital organisations necessitates the adoption of rapid innovation practices. While rapid innovation is typically reactive to external uncertainties and shocks, firms that are capable of generating internal disruptions and innovating quickly can gain a competitive edge. This research investigates the role of intrapreneurship in promoting rapid innovation within an organisation's proprietary framework, employing an employee-led, human-centric approach. To explore this concept, the qualitative case study approach will be utilised, with MoMo, Vietnam's leading E-Wallet, serving as a prime example of an organisation that has successfully implemented such practices. Through an analysis of MoMo's internal processes and culture, this research aims to uncover the factors that contribute to the success of intrapreneurial endeavours and rapid innovation within digital organisations

What is fair enough? Reconciling complementors’ needs for fairness management on digital platforms

Digital platforms (DPs) provide individuals with alternative opportunities for earning incomes, attracting skyrocketing individuals to work as DP complementors. This gives rise to the superior power of DP owners by which complementors can be treated unfairly while they are vulnerable to seeking redress as they are legally autonomous from the underlying DPs. Unfair DP treatment can threaten complementors’ survival and be detrimental to the DP’s long-term development. Yet, there is a lack of a holistic understanding of the fairness perceived by DP complementors and their fairness needs can be addressed by DP owners. To address these gaps, we conducted a case study of complementors on content platforms (i.e., content creators) by accounting for their perceptions of DP fairness. Our study contributes to the DP fairness literature by 1) generating a holistic understanding of the DP fairness perceived by complementors, and 2) developing fairness-addressing actions that can be adopted by DPs

Coordination in a Digital Platform Organization

A digital platform (DP) generates value by facilitating direct interactions between two or multiple platform sides. While previous studies have expounded upon how platform sides can be coordinated at a collective level (i.e., by pricing strategy and modular architecture), digital platform owners must not neglect the dynamics within the platform sides and their interactions. Through an in-depth case study of one of the largest e-commerce platforms worldwide, we develop a process model that explains digital platform coordination in terms of the mechanisms that describe the emergence of coordination issues as a result of the enactment of the platform sides’ agency and how these issues can be circumvented. This study makes two contributions. First, this study challenges the existing DP literature concerning the assumption of exogenous platform sides, highlighting the agency of the sides as a source of misalignment that must be managed. Second, the model complements the platform coordination literature focusing on enabling/constraining the actions of sides by conceptualizing a digital orienting mechanism. By adopting a meta-organizational view of digital platforms, this empirical work is among the few studies that report from the inside of a digital platform organization and adopt a processual account

DIGITALLY ENABLED GRASSROOTS ENTERPRENEURSHIP FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

ICT has been promoted as a way out of deprivation for rural residents who continue to suffer from a limited access to social-economic developments. However, less is understood about how a marginalized community can drive its own development. Simultaneously, the focus on ICT in developing context has eclipsed the study of ICT for development in existing literature. These observations underscore the need for this study that explores the use of ICT for grassroots entrepreneurship through the phenomenal rise of China Taobao E-commerce Village. Through an in-depth case study, we propose the concept of digitally enabled grassroots entrepreneurship that (1) contributes to the existing ICT4D literature by explicating the roles of ICT (e-commerce) in driving the grassroots entrepreneurship through the emergence of an entrepreneurial ecosystem for a self-driven development, and (2) delineates the process of digitally enabled development beyond the provision of the Internet and infrastructure by presenting the development stages of digitally enabled grassroots entrepreneurship through the opportunity exploitation and opportunity exploration of business, knowledge, and institutional entrepreneurship. The findings also provide a reference point for practitioners to reconsider the external intervention-based development approach

CONTEMPORARY CLINICAL DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS: A PRELIMINARY REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA

Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) improve healthcare delivery by providing data-driven opinions to care providers throughout the entire care process. The Information Systems (IS) community has produced many works on the subject in the last decade, and it is necessary to comprehensively examine the current state of research to determine the most promising themes to explore in future research. In this short paper, we conducted a literature review of the past five years to synthesise research efforts. By reviewing a preliminary sample of papers, we found that three major areas may be of interest to the IS Community: \u27Positive\u27 and \u27negative\u27 CDSS discontinuance, patient-centric value creation of CDSSs and the role of policy-makers in mitigating harmful social effects of CDSS policies. This research-in-progress will hopefully lead to the creation of a research agenda for CDSSs

Digital Enablement: Social Media in Empowering the Grassroot Environmental Movement of Malaysia

This study examines the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in mobilizing grassroot environmental movements. In recent years, the rise of social media has allowed the community to assume the role of driver without relying on central and formal leadership in people movements. Yet how this new form of technology enables grassroot organizing has remained theoretically obscure. This study provides an in-depth interpretive case study into an environmental movement in Malaysia, where people have rallied against a rare earth refinery plant that is feared would have posed environmental and health risks. By adopting empowerment as a theoretical lens, this paper focuses on understanding how social media empowers the community for grassroot mobilization from different dimensions, thus allowing a grassroot-driven environmental movement. The findings contribute to the literature of ICT-enabled sustainability and digitally empowered grassroot organizing

Digital Platform-Enabled Community Development: A Case Study of a Private-Public Partnership Sustainability Initiative

The significant human impact on the environment has prompted many governments to invest in sustainability initiatives across cities and communities. Moreover, although it has been suggested that information technology can aid in the development of these sustainability initiatives, there is a dearth of empirical field studies in this area. In this research-in-progress paper, we present preliminary findings from a case study of a private-public partnership (PPP) community-based sustainability initiative that is enabled by a digital platform. Preliminary analysis sheds light on the mechanisms underlying the formation of the PPP, the development of the PPP’s business model, the development of the digital platform, and ultimately the emergence of a community for sustainability. A framework for digital platform-enabled community development is posited based on the case analysis. Implications to both research and practice, as well as future research work are then discussed in concluding this paper

ICT-Enabled Community Empowerment in Crisis Response: Social Media in Thailand Flooding 2011

In this paper, we examine the emerging use of ICT in social phenomena such as natural disasters. Researchers have acknowledged that a community possesses the capacity to manage the challenges in crisis response on its own. However, extant IS studies focus predominantly on IS use from the crisis response agency’s perspective, which undermines communities’ role. By adopting an empowerment perspective, we focus on understanding how social media empowers communities during crisis response. As such, we present a qualitative case study of the 2011 Thailand flooding. Using an interpretive approach, we show how social media can empower the community from three dimensions of empowerment process (structural, psychological, and resource empowerment) to achieve collective participation, shared identification, and collaborative control in the community. We make two contributions: 1) we explore an emerging social consequence of ICT by illustrating the roles of social media in empowering communities when responding to crises, and 2) we address the literature gap in empowerment by elucidating the actualization process of empowerment that social media as a mediating structure enables