Cooperation support through the use of group decision systems

This article considers the development of the group decision support system (GDSS) field both from organizational and technological perspectives. The growing importance of teamwork, lateral coordination, and activities integration inside modern business organizations is emphasized. Technological and knowledge specialization, quick transformation of business environments, reduction of response time, and so on, are some of the reasons that can explain the renewed relevance of teamwork. Also, the development of information technology (IT) is analyzed in relation to the role it is assuming in supporting group activities. Research in the GDSS field is then introduced. A proposal concerning the identification of three different phases in GDSS studies is developed, ranging from decision rooms to distributed systems. Each phase shows distinctive research topics and application fields, together with different organizational goals. Results of these developments are the growth of potential application areas of GDSS tools. These theoretical considerations, together with empirical experiences coming from the study of a real manufacturing environment (an IBM plant where group cooperation plays a fundamental role for production efficiency), constitute the basis for a research GDSS prototype (GROUPS). Prototype features are designed to support executives in facing production‐planning problems through an improvement in communications and in knowledge representation.     

Evolution of group performance over time: A repeated measures study of GDSS effects

Many studies in the group decision support system (GDSS) literature have reported on the behavior and performance of ad hoc groups meeting for the first, and, in fact, the only time. Such one‐time studies of groups may not represent their longer term behavior and performance accurately. Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) conceives of technology use as a social practice that emerges over time. AST suggests that meeting outcomes reflect the extent to which structures offered by the technology (such as GDSS tool sequences, meeting agenda, etc.) are faithfully appropriated by the group. Such faithful appropriation, however, takes time. This article explicitly recognizes the relevance of this appropriation process and reports on a lab study that examined the impact of computer support on group performance over time. In general, results showed that the performance of computer‐supported groups improved over time, whereas the performance of non‐computer‐supported groups stayed the same or declined. The number of alternatives generated by computer‐supported groups increased considerably as they became more proficient in incorporating the technology into group processes. However, the quality of decisions made by computer‐supported groups began to increase slightly, only during the last session. Both these findings suggest that AST is, in fact, a viable theory for studying group behavior and performance over time. Results from this study also point out the need for conducting more longitudinal studies of group processes in the future.     

Collaborative computing for decision support in cardiovascular consulting

Vascular medicine is a newly developing discipline heavily based on geographically distributed consulting, and there is thus a strong need for computerized decision support in doctor‐to‐doctor collaboration for the management of vascular patients. The latest achievements in collaborative and multimedia computing for group decision support are incorporated into cardiovascular consulting. Feasibility analysis of the two basic components is addressed: (a) the communication system of collaborative computing as identified subject to the specifics of data flow and networking in geographically distributed cardiovascular consulting; and (b) the structure and representations for intelligent software agents that enable transfer of individual expert cardiovascular knowledge, support group brainstorming, and maintain the ongoing learning of group experience and analysis of patients cases.     

Commercial B2B Web Site Attributes Within the Perishable Sector

ABSTRACT

This study examines the factors determining the quality of a business-to-business web site using data from the perishable industry. Data from two time periods are used to identify the persistent trends in web features that support customer interaction. A binomial probit model is used to assess the contribution that various features have on the probability of a web site being included in the Forbes listing of prominent web sites. The results indicate that features such as customer support, promotion, proprietary software availability, and the duration of web site operation play an important role in determining the probability of a website being listed in the Forbes list.     

The role of business support organisations in the process of retailer internationalisation

In the field of international retail research, there has been little attention paid to the role of business support organisations in the process of internationalisation. Given the barriers to foreign market expansion, the focus of this study is to investigate the importance of facilitating factors, in the form of business support organisations, which can assist retailers in the process of international expansion. A qualitative research methodology was employed and the findings provide evidence relating to three important areas: firstly, the types of business support programmes available to retailers seeking to internationalise from the UK, secondly, the barriers encountered by retail companies expanding overseas, and thirdly, how government and private organisations can assist in helping retailers overcome these hurdles.     

Moderating Effect of Perceived Organizational Support on Human Resource Development Practices and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

This study examined the moderating effect of perceived organizational support on the relationship between human resource development practices and organizational citizenship behavior of hotels in Thailand. The results from a survey of 733 frontline employees revealed that the relationship between human resource development practices and organizational citizenship behavior was stronger for employees with the high level of perceived organizational support, compared to employees with the low level of perceived organizational support. Therefore, this finding contributes to a significant understanding of moderating effect of perceived organizational support in service organizations. Discussion and implications are also provided.     

What makes a good citizen in service settings?

As service firms face intense pressure to improve service quality, contact employees have been asked to do more with less. It is important that managers understand the concept of organisational citizenship behaviours and attempt to motivate employees to exhibit such behaviours. This study developed and tested a model of how employees' perception of organisational support affects affective commitment (AC), which contributes to their citizenship behaviours in service settings. Questionnaire data from matched pairs of 318 contact employees and their supervisors demonstrated that both perceived organisational support (POS) and AC play strong, central roles in determining contact employees' exhibition of citizenship behaviours. In addition, AC was found to be an effective mediator linking contact employees' perception of organisational support to their citizenship behaviours.     

A re-examination of the antecedents and impact of customer participation in service

Customer participation has been argued to be a critical influence on customer satisfaction with the service received, but empirical studies are relatively lacking. This study proposes a theoretical model of the antecedents and impact of customer participation in service and re-examines the relationships among organizational support, socialization, customer participation, and customer satisfaction. Findings of a questionnaire completed by tourists of a Taiwanese theme park indicated that: (1) customer perceptions of support and socialization significantly and positively influence customer participation; (2) perceived support and socialization have a significant and positive influence on customer satisfaction; (3) the directly positive relationship between customer participation and satisfaction is not supported in this study.     

基于投影寻踪的商务酒店微观选址研究

商务酒店微观选址属于多指标综合评价问题,各指标在性质和重要性方面均存在明显差异。本文用投影寻踪(Projection Pursuit Clustering,PPC)技术建立商务酒店微观选址综合评价模型,该模型通过优化投影向量系数,将影响酒店微观选址的多维指标转化为综合反映各指标信息的一维综合投影值,并依据该投影值的大小对酒店位置的优劣进行客观评价和排序;同时,根据各评价指标投影向量系数的大小和是否大于0,可以判定评价指标的性质、重要性及其进行排序。实例研究表明,PPC建模过程简单,对样本数量的要求不高,可避免人为因素的干扰,模型的稳健性好,为商务酒店微观选址的非线性决策问题提供了一种新的研究方法。     

Distance education in the future: Exploring the application of distributed group support systems

Distributed Group Support Systems (DGSS) provide a means for several individuals to interact with one another from different geographic locations using telecommunications and Group Support Systems (GSS) technologies. As this technology emerges, new applications will be sought to utilize the tremendous capabilities for long distance interaction and communication. One potential application of DGSS is its use in the delivery of Distance Education. Distance Education (DE) involves the delivery of education (or training) from one site to one (or more) geographically dispersed sites. The capability of DGSS to add an additional communications channel, one by which all students could interact with one another at the same time, provides an exciting array of opportunities for the application of DGSS. This article explores ways in which DGSS could be utilized to improve the delivery of education and training to dispersed locations. Background information of GSS and DE are provided Results of a case, study in which a fiber optic cable network was used for delivering a DE class on Information Systems are briefly highlighted, along with suggestions for future research in this area.A previous version of this article appears in the Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences, Volume IV, pp. 142–148.