Adoption and Use of Electronic Meeting Systems in Large Australian and New Zealand Organizations

As globalization increases and competition grows, firms are becoming increasingly dependent upon group work and collaboration. The recent surge of reengineering efforts to reinforce a process view of organizational work and the emergence of virtual corporations spanning the globe indicate that firms are relying more on group work today than ever before. Information technology (IT) may have the capability to greatly enhance the quality of collaboration in accomplishing group tasks. This paper focuses on electronic meeting systems (EMS), which are mostly aimed at supporting group work in a face-to-face setting, and empirically assesses their adoption and use in supporting task-oriented collaborative work in Australian and New Zealand organizations. Results from survey data collected from 147 organizations indicate that EMS adoption has been somewhat limited. Most organizations had not adopted EMS to support group work. Further, both the level of adoption and level of use of EMS within the organizations was very low. Barriers to adoption were identified along with implications for future research. Organizational barriers, including compatibility with cognitive styles, lack of incentives and resistance to change, were the most important adoption obstacles. Technological and costs issues were somewhat less significant. Overall, the findings are fairly similar to the US study on which the survey instrument was based, though some adoption differences occurred which may be related to the structure and ownership of the organizations.     

A Cross-Regional Exploration of Barriers to the Adoption and Use of Electronic Meeting Systems

Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS) are intended to support group collaboration in completing tasks. While there have been many case studies and laboratory experiments on how EMS can support group tasks, large scale macro investigations exploring EMS adoption and use have been practically non-existent. Furthermore, while several barriers to EMS adoption and use have been suggested, their validation across organizations remains unexplored. We undertook a global initiative to explore information technology support for task-oriented collaboration in the US, Australia, Hong Kong, and Norway. In this paper, we focus specifically on assessing the adoption and use of EMS, and barriers to their adoption and use in organizations across the four regions. Our results suggest that EMS currently have limited adoption and are used infrequently across all the four regions. A further investigation into barriers to EMS adoption and use suggests that significant numbers of respondents do agree with a list of fourteen suggested barriers. However, while there is significant agreement between two countries (US & Australia) over how these barriers are ranked, there is no significant agreement between the remaining pairs of countries. Implications of our findings are discussed for practitioners and researchers.     

Drivers of Customers’ Adoption and Adoption Timing of a New Loyalty Card in the Grocery Retail Market

The authors study consumers’ process of adoption of a new loyalty card in a grocery retail context. More specifically, the authors simultaneously investigate the impact of attitudinal, behavioral, and socio-demographic variables on the likelihood of adoption and the time to adoption. They show that these variables differently affect the adoption likelihood and timing and demonstrate the importance of attitudinal measures of customer loyalty such as commitment to the store. This research confirms the so-called self-selection bias and extends it to the attitudinal dimension of loyalty. Some guidelines are proposed to increase the effectiveness of loyalty card program launches.     

Exploring Continued and Discontinued Use of IT: A Case Study of OptionFinder, a Group Support System

This study explores how perceptions, experience, attitudes, communication behavior and environment affect continued and discontinued use of a group support system (GSS) as an organizational innovation. The case study method was used to investigate the largely unexplored process of GSS adoption and diffusion in terms of human factors, internal organizational context, external organizational environment and GSS management activities. Analysis of data collected in 25 in-depth interviews with informants who had voluntarily adopted GSS for use in one or more meetings they initiated, suggests GSS diffusion is a complex process. The author concluded the most significant determinants of initial adoption was support of a champion, while the presence of an intra-departmental champion and a well-rounded GSS infrastructure strongly influenced continued use. Lack of task-technology fit and perception of GSS as a large group tool strongly influenced discontinued use. The surprising finding that intentions to use GSS were the same for continued and discontinued users, led to the conclusion that some discontinued users are in reality stalled users who should not be classified as rejecters of the technology.These research findings have important implications for devising strategies for the effective introduction and assimilation of GSS and other information system technologies, and point to the need for continued support throughout the different stages of the diffusion process.     

Managing the Innovation Adoption of Supply Chain Finance—Empirical Evidence From Six European Case Studies

Logistics’ contribution to corporate performance has increased over recent years, particularly due to supply chain innovations. Opposed to common innovations focusing on the improvement of product or information flow, supply chain finance (SCF) targets the financial flow and allows buying firms and their suppliers to improve working capital and reduce costs. However, the adoption process of SCF is complex and rather unexplored in academia. This article provides an early step in building knowledge about SCF and in particular how firms adopt SCF, why they adopt differently, and what role suppliers play in the adoption process. The objective was therefore to close the gap between our knowledge on product and information flow oriented innovations and financial flow innovations along the supply chain, namely SCF. For this explorative research, we opted for an inductive multiple case study approach with six European firms. Based on our findings, four sets of propositions are posited and an extended SCF adoption framework is proposed revolving around the interrelated adoption processes of buying firms and their corresponding supplier bases.     

外包对中国能源利用效率影响的实证研究

本文基于我国33个工业行业1992-2006年的面板数据,采用PCSE稳健估计方法发现外包显著提高了我国的能源利用效率,同时技术进步、产权结构、要素禀赋结构和产业结构等也对能源利用效率产生不同的影响。本文的分析对于理解我国的经济发展、能源安全和产业升级具有启发意义。     

Adoption of Biometric Authentication Systems: Implications for Research and Practice in the Deployment of End-User Security Systems

Recent security lapses have demonstrated the importance of augmenting authentication protocols in sensitive areas of the economy, such as financial services and banking. In addition, new legislative requirements for secondary authentication mechanisms have highlighted the use of biometric technology as a reliable, but not required, means of authentication. The focus of this study examines the factors that influence the adoption of biometric authentication in organizations. The research model measures the relative contribution that variables in three categories (External Pressure, Readiness, and Perceived Benefits) have in the intent to adopt biometric authentication in financial services institutions. Managers of these institutions were surveyed, and the resulting model indicates that, as expected, the intent to adopt is driven by competitive factors, an organization's financial resources, and the perceived benefits associated with the technology. An important unanticipated finding from this research is that managerial support was not shown to be significantly related to adoption intent, which may be attributed to the context of biometric systems adoption. This research advances our understanding of the adoption literature by demonstrating how structural factors can influence the decisions made by organizational actors and by applying theories of adoption to a new technology—biometrics.     

Employee Protection and Corporate Innovation: Empirical Evidence from China

Through an analysis of survey data gathered from private firms in China, this study examines the impact of employee protection on corporate innovation ability. The results indicate that firms with more advanced employee protection have stronger innovation ability. Furthermore, the positive relationship between employee protection and corporate innovation ability is more pronounced in those enterprises with labor unions. Finally, a firm’s political connections strengthen the influence of employee protection on corporate innovation. These empirical findings highlight the positive consolidating effects of labor unions and political connections and will be of value to policy makers in emerging markets in gauging the important drivers of corporate innovation ability.     

Government Programs and Diffusion of Innovations in Taiwan: An Empirical Study of Household Technology Adoption Rates

ABSTRACT

This research mirrors Olshavsky's (1980) groundbreaking study by using penetration data for household technologies in Taiwan. Results support conventional wisdom that adoption rates are increasing over time. Moreover, rates were negatively associated with price. This research goes beyond Olshavsky by examining whether adoption rates differ across geographical regions types (i.e., rural, townships, and metropolitan). Adoption rates for nine household technologies at the three geographical types are not significantly different. Support is lent to the proposition that government rural development policies promoting education and physical infrastructures have fostered relatively equal diffusion patterns of household technologies in Taiwan.     

Drivers of Environmental Disclosure and Stakeholder Expectation: Evidence from Taiwan

This article investigates stakeholder expectations associated with corporate environmental disclosure. Several articles have studied the effect that stakeholder pressure has on environmental disclosing strategies. In this article, we extend previous research to an examination of the influence of external, internal, and intermediary stakeholder groups or constituencies in turn to clarify the demands of multiple stakeholders as to firms’ disclosure of sufficient and adequate environmental information. The sample comprised Taiwanese firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Our results show that the level of environmental disclosure is significantly affected by stakeholder groups’ demands. External stakeholder groups, such as the government, debtors, and consumers, exert a strong influence over management intentions regarding the extent of environmental disclosure. Internal stakeholder groups, such as shareholders and employees, impose additional pressures on firms to disclose environmental information. As for intermediate stakeholder groups, environmental protection organizations, and accounting firms, these can greatly influence managerial choices regarding their environmental disclosure strategies.     

Drivers of importer trust and commitment: Evidence from a developing country

This study investigates the interrelationships between antecedents of importers' trust and commitment to their foreign suppliers in an Asian country. This area has been under-researched in comparison to exporters' behavioral perspectives as well as in comparison to developed countries. A theoretical model is developed based on theories of transaction cost (TC) and the internationalization process (IP), and studies examined regarding the context of relationship trust and commitment. The model is tested using SEM on a sample of 238 importers in Bangladesh. The findings suggest that importer trust leads to commitment but that foreign supplier's opportunistic inclination affects both their trust and commitment. Overall, the findings indicate that cultural similarity, effective communication, knowledge and experience, opportunism and environmental uncertainty are vital antecedents of trust and commitment. The findings have important implications for academics and practitioners.     

外部性、市场潜能与旅游业发展——来自中国的经验证据

旅游产业集聚作为旅游产业结构动态调整的空间组织形态,其对旅游业发展具有复杂的影响机制.近年来,此领域逐渐引起理论界的关注.传统的产业外部性理论主要适用于产业间的空间作用关系对于产业发展的重要性,但却鲜有研究深入到单一产业内部来探究细分行业间的外部性作用.鉴于此,本文基于一般性的产业外部性分析方法,在旅游产业内部,探究外部性对于旅游业发展的影响.研究结果表明,在全国样本范围内,多样化的旅游业发展环境显著促进旅游业发展,支持了Jacobs外部性,但拒绝了MAR外部性与Porter外部性假设;旅游专业化与旅游业发展之间存在一种非线性关系;在与旅游多样化和旅游市场潜能等因素相互配合作用下,旅游专业化对旅游业发展的影响转变为正向促进效应存在一定滞后性;此外,在新经济地理学框架内,构建了旅游市场潜能变量,研究发现,其可以强化旅游专业化与旅游多样化对旅游业发展的正向促进效应.     

价格规制与企业资本结构的选择——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

受规制企业的资本结构与政府价格规制密切相关。本文建立了一个两阶段动态博弈模型并提出了相关的理论假设,以检验受规制企业资本结构决策与政府价格规制强度之间的关系。理论分析表明,资本结构选择作为企业的战略工具,能提高企业的谈判地位,迫使规制机构提高产品价格。因而企业面临的价格规制越严厉,越有动力提高负债水平。本文利用沪、深两地的受规制上市公司为样本进行的实证研究有效地支持了本文上述的假设。     

The Drivers of Climate Change Innovations: Evidence from the Australian Wine Industry

This study examined the drivers of climate change innovations and the effects of these innovations on firm outcomes in a sample of 203 firms in the South Australian wine cluster. The results of structural equation modeling analysis suggest that absorptive capacity has a direct effect on climate change innovations, and stimulates knowledge exchanges (KEs) between firms in the cluster. KEs between firms in the cluster in turn directly affect the climate change innovations. The findings suggest a perhaps counterintuitive interrelationship between firm- and cluster-level impacts, in which KEs between firms in the cluster play a partial mediating role in the innovation process. The study further finds that climate change innovations are related to firm performance (FP) and reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs): mitigative innovations lead to greater GHG reductions while adaptive innovations impact on FP. Contributions of the findings are discussed, as are future research directions.     

New Technology Adoption,Business Strategy and Government Involvement: The Case of Mobile Commerce

SUMMARY

This research focuses on understanding how business organizations are likely to adopt mobile commerce (m-commerce) technology. Mobile commerce adoption represents a complex process that draws in variables external to the firm such as the environment in which the business operates and the government involvement, as well as variables internal to the company such as its business strategy and its organizational culture. A model is formulated and several research propositions are offered. They will help understand the mobile commerce applications adoption process. Implications of this model and further research avenues are discussed.     

服务中小企业信息技术采纳推荐系统的研究

本文针对目前我国中小企业信息技术采纳遇到的诸多问题,分析了中小企业的自身特点并提出通过推荐系统消除在信息技术采纳过程中产生的信息不对称现象,从而有效地帮助企业进行合理的信息技术采纳,降低信息化建设投资的风险,使中小企业在信息化建设中实现效益最大化。     

A Micromodel of New Product Adoption with Heterogeneous and Forward-Looking Consumers: Application to the Digital Camera Category

We develop an empirical model for the adoption process of a new durable product that accounts for consumer heterogeneity as well as consumers forward-looking behavior. Accounting for heterogeneity is important for two reasons. As the mix of consumers with different preferences and price sensitivities could change over time, firms need to update their marketing strategies. Further, it allows for a variety of shapes for the aggregate adoption process over time. As prices for durable and technology products fall over time with firms continually introducing enhanced products, consumers may anticipate these prices and improvements and delay their purchases in the product category. Forward-looking consumers optimize purchase timing by trading off their utilities from buying the product and their expectations on future prices, quality levels, and brand availability. Such forward-looking behavior will result in price dynamics in the marketplace as price changes today influence future purchases. And it results in different shapes of the new product sales pattern over time by influencing the time to take-off. We show how the parameters of our model can be estimated using aggregate data on the sales, prices, and attributes of brands in a product category. We apply our model to market data from the digital camera category. Our data are consistent with the presence of both heterogeneity and forward looking behavior among consumers. At the product category level, we are able to decompose the effects of the entry of Sony into primary demand expansion and switching from other brands. At the brand level, we find that there exist several segments in the market with different preferences for the brands and different price sensitivities leading to differences in adoption timing and brand choice across segments. For a given brand, we show how the changing customer mix over time has implications for that brands pricing strategies. We characterize how price effects vary across brands and over time and how price changes in a given time period influence sales in subsequent periods. Model comparison and validation results are also provided.     

Decision-Making Process of Internal Whistleblowing Behavior in China: Empirical Evidence and Implications

In response to the lack of empirical studies examining the internal disclosure behavior in the Chinese context, this study tested a whistleblowing-decision-making process among employees in the Chinese banking industry. For would-be whistleblowers, positive affect and organizational ethical culture were hypothesized to enhance the expected efficacy of their whistleblowing intention, by providing collective norms concerning legitimate, management-sanctioned behavior. Questionnaire surveys were collected from 364 employees in 10 banks in the Hangzhou City, China. By and large, the findings supported the hypotheses. Issues of whistleblowing in the Chinese context and implications were discussed.     

企业生命周期、债务融资与企业绩效——来自我国制造业上市公司的经验证据

基于企业生命周期视角,利用我国制造业上市公司2007年至2012年的数据,分别研究债务总体水平、债务期限结构和债务来源结构在企业生命周期的不同阶段对企业绩效的影响。研究结果表明:债务总体水平、短期借款与长期负债对企业绩效的影响在整个生命周期都呈现负相关关系,但影响程度在不同的阶段存在差异。在企业整个生命周期内,短期借款对企业绩效的负效应都强于长期负债。另外在企业生命周期的各个阶段,银行借款均对企业绩效产生负效应,商业信用仅在衰退期对企业绩效产生了正效应,在其他两个阶段均为负效应。     

外国直接投资与中国人力资本成长的实证分析——以“长三角”为例

文章从人力资本存量水平和人力资本效率水平两个角度,以“长三角”地区为案例,集中探讨了外商直接投资对我国人力资本成长的影响。研究资料显示,“长三角”地区外国直接投资每增加1%,该地区平均实际工资水平将增加0.31%。另一方面,从“长三角”地区近年来有外国直接投资支撑的制造业的劳动生产率的变化来看,同其它较少外国直接投资或者无外国直接投资支撑的行业相比,其人力资本效率水平一直保持在相对较高的水平上。“长三角”地区人力资本成长的政策含义是,今后外国直接投资的引进应当在遵循比较优势和要素自由流动的原则基础上,尽可能地与我国产业结构乃至就业结构的调整方向保持一致,而盲目追求外国直接投资的数量规模则是有害的。