In bot we trust: A new methodology of chatbot performance measures

Chatbots are used frequently in business to facilitate various processes, particularly those related to customer service and personalization. In this article, we propose novel methods of tracking human-chatbot interactions and measuring chatbot performance that take into consideration ethical concerns, particularly trust. Our proposed methodology links neuroscientific methods, text mining, and machine learning. We argue that trust is the focal point of successful human-chatbot interaction and assess how trust as a relevant category is being redefined with the advent of deep learning supported chatbots. We propose a novel method of analyzing the content of messages produced in human-chatbot interactions, using the Condor Tribefinder system we developed for text mining that is based on a machine learning classification engine. Our results will help build better social bots for interaction in business or commercial environments.     

新兴技术牵引下的联合情报装备体系建设

联合情报是联合作战能力的重要组成部分,科技力量是牵引联合情报装备体系发展的重要动力。近年来以人工智能和大数据为代表的新兴技术的日益成熟,为联合情报装备体系建设提供了重大机遇。以美军联合情报体系发展为研究范例,指出科技进步对情报体系发展的重要推动作用,结合美军对大数据、人工智能在情报领域应用技术的研究,分析了新技术的出现为联合情报装备体系的加速发展带来的支撑条件;结合情报体系建设实际问题,给出有关联合情报装备体系建设的若干思考。     

Employee encouragement of self-disclosure in the service encounter and its impact on customer satisfaction

In the service encounter, the employee must often encourage customer self-disclosure (i.e., revealing of personal information) to be able to match the customer's needs with what the firm has to offer. This study uses an experimental approach to manipulate employee encouragement of self-disclosure (low vs. high) to explore its impact on the customer. It was found that encouraging self-disclosure enhanced customer perceptions of customization, employee effort, own effort, privacy concerns, and employee humanness, and that these responses influenced customer satisfaction. In addition, because many firms are beginning to replace human employees with various forms of virtual agents (and it has been argued that we humans may find it less threatening to self-disclose to such agents), the identity of the employee (virtual agent vs. human employee) was manipulated, too. The identity factor, however, did not influence customers' responses.     

Cultural values,emotional intelligence,and conflict handling styles: A global study

While previous research has identified cultural values and emotional intelligence as central determinants of conflict handling styles, little is known about the mechanism through which cultural values impact individuals’ preferences for specific conflict handling styles. Based on a multinational dataset including 1527 individuals from ten different cultural clusters, the current study aims to integrate these two literature streams by examining the influence of cultural values on conflict handling styles through emotional intelligence. The results of structural equation modeling and mediation analysis show that in particular uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation influence preferences for the conflict handling styles of compromising, obliging, and integrating through emotional intelligence. Furthermore, we find that collectivism has a direct negative effect on the preference for a dominating style and that power distance has a direct positive effect on the preference for an avoiding and a dominating style. Our study contributes to a more comprehensive and more integrative understanding of earlier research on the role of culture and emotional intelligence in conflict handling.     

Leveraging employee emotional intelligence in casino profitability

Drawing on the link between service quality and casino profitability, this paper describes the roles of frontline employees in delivering casino service quality and analyses how management can nurture employee emotional intelligence's (EEI) contribution to casino revenue growth. This study is conceptual in nature. The analysis builds from identifying the emotional contents embracing service encounter involving casino frontline employees and customers. The identification area approaches from emotional work performed by employees, referred to as emotional labor, the emotional service delivered by casinos, customer attributed emotions and emotional contagion. The study comprehensively analyses how EEI can manage and regulate emotionally charged service encounters which subsequently affect customers’ perception of employee behaviours and service performance over service encounters. These encounter performance forms customers’ perception of casino service quality which leads to customer loyalty and ultimately casino profitability. This theory-focused study presents an additional venue with great potential for casinos to enhance business performance and financial growth, as well as providing new insights into the role of EEI in organizations for researchers in the relevant field.     

The role of person and organizational variables in the three component model of occupational commitment

We add to the small number of studies that have used the Meyer, Allen, and Smith (1993) three component model to better understand occupational commitment. A series of demographic (age, education), dispositional (emotional intelligence), and organizational variables (human resources practices and perceived organizational support) were examined for their relationship to occupational commitment. Our relatively small set of variables, from 431 debt‐collection employees and their supervisors at 34 banks in Taiwan, accounted for substantial variance in each of the commitment facets. In the context of the entire set of variables, perceived organizational support was the strongest predictor across all three forms of occupational commitment. Other variables (e.g., age, emotional intelligence) were of predictive value for a subset of the components only. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotional intelligence and caring behaviour in nursing

The research reported in this paper relates six dimensions of nurses' emotional intelligence (EI) with two dimensions of their caring behaviours. One hundred and twenty nurses self-reported their EI, and three patients of each one described their caring behaviours. The main findings are: (a) nurses' EI explains a significant but low unique variance of caring behaviours; (b) self-encouragement and self-control against criticisms are the best predictors; (c) high empathy can have positive or negative impact on caring behaviours depending on the way it combines with other EI dimensions.     

Middle managers' perception of subordinates' customer orientation in the banking sector

This study examined personal and contextual factors at work that influence middle-level managers' perception of their immediate subordinate's customer orientation (SCO). Data were based on 120 managers from seven organizations from the Cyprus banking sector. Results of structural equation modelling indicate that managers' trait of emotional intelligence has a significant indirect effect on their perceptions of their SCO via positive affect at work. Recommendations for further research are discussed.     

Developing Cultural Intelligence for Global Leadership Through Mindfulness

Understanding how businesses function in relation to cultural and societal influences is critical for today’s business leader who wants to interact competently across borders. However, developing and evaluating such competence is a challenge. One concept that provides a holistic conceptualization of intercultural competence is the notion of “mindfulness” or the ability to use reflection as a connection between knowledge and action. To facilitate the intercultural learning of a group of MBA students studying global leadership during a cross-cultural immersion experience in China, a model of cultural competence was introduced during their predeparture sessions. In order to demonstrate their understanding of intercultural competence, student papers were analyzed using a coding scheme for reflection. Data show that, overall, students increased their level of “mindfulness” and became more reflective, and in our hopes, more culturally sensitive as a result of this cross-cultural immersion program. Implications of this study can be used for teaching international business and improving study abroad assignments through reflection.     

Impact on Intercultural Competence When Studying Abroad and the Moderating Role of Personality

The purpose of this study is to assess how studying abroad impacts the development of intercultural competence and the moderating role of student’s personality. This research uses a pre-post design with a sample of 264 undergraduate students from four Colombian universities; it includes a group of students who participated in a one semester study-abroad program and a control group who did not travel. The average level of increase in intercultural competence for the students who went abroad was 0.511 standard deviations above the average of those who had not studied abroad. The results from hierarchical linear regression did not yield any evidence that supports the moderating effects of the personality factors on the relation between study abroad and intercultural competence.