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BACKGROUND: The rapid development of information technology has changed the interactive behaviors in people’s daily lives. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to investigate as to whether the characteristics of the social network service (SNS) can increase the motivation (antecedent) of the SNS users; and in turn, increase their affection and cognitive (beliefs) towards the SNS; and then increase their purchase behavior (consequence). METHODS: This study uses the antecedent belief consequence (ABC) theory, and collects data from the SNS users in Taiwan, with a total of 188 valid surveys were completed for model testing. RESULTS: The findings show that: (1) The SNS characteristics (information and service qualities), indeed, have influenced the affection and cognitive of the SNS users, but the system quality can only influence the affection of the SNS users. (2) The purchase behavior of the SNS users have been influenced by the cognitive of the SNS users only, but not by the affection. CONCLUSIONS: The result demonstrates that the beliefs of the SNS users should be considered when the researchers investigate the purchase behavior of the SNS users. This paper also discusses the contribution to the research and the SNS management practice.

BACKGROUND: While everything around us, especially the future of our youth generation, seems to be going wrong, there is always a 'silver-lining' that need to be discovered Life has taught us always that with every major negative event, we have lots of positive opportunities that need to be discovered OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to explore the new normal post-COVID-19 pandemic generation perspectives METHODS: In this paper, the outcome of a global study of youth perception about their future in the post-COVID-19 pandemic is carried out and discussed in details RESULTS: The results of the study help to foresight the type of the coming youth generation in the new normal and address their challenges and requirements in the new normal The paper results lead to understanding what ways COVID-19 have affected and changed their life as a youth The results show what shape the vision of youth toward CONCLUSION: The outcome of this international youth-focused study opens lots of insights for youth leaders, youth-focused government planners, education experts to see what type of programs, schemes, strategies, the curriculum need to be established in their communities based on the areas of strength and the areas of weakness that need to be addressed More studies are advised in this line to complement the generalisation of this work The main implication of this paper is that it brings new perspectives on how youth see hope in the new normal, and this might help to establish Inter-generational Dialogue that mitigates the state of uncertainty The other implication of this research is that set direction for governments towards youth needs in the new normal © 2020 - IOS Press and the authors All rights reserved

The purpose of this paper is to understand cloud computing adoption. Specifically, this paper aims to compare two theoretical models and an integrated model to identify which theoretical models best predicts cloud computing adoption. An empirical study was conducted through an survey from 280 companies in IT, manufacturing and finance sectors in India. The data was analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Further, structural equation modeling using AMOS 20.0 was used to test the proposed model. Results show that the integrated mediating TAM-TOE and Direct TAM- TOE model have greater explanatory power of cloud computing adoption intention than the technology acceptance model (TAM) and technological organisational environmental framework (TOE). Mediating TAM-TOE provides more complete understanding of adoption intention and Direct TAM-TOE provides the generic cognition of understanding adoption intention and determinants of managerial decision making. Thus, the Mediating TAM-TOE is a preferable model. Security concern and Third party control are salient factors influencing cloud computing adoption intention through perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PU).This study is one of the first studies to examine of influence change of variables and compare the relative ability of two competing theories, TAM and TOE, and an integrated model in explaining cloud computing adoption intention.

The paper illustrates adoption of innovation, Competitive Intelligence and Business Intelligence in unit of organizational structure. In practice, occurs a problem of administration, such as position allocation, assignment to positions, as well as arises a question: which of researched organizational structure unit is responsible for adaptation of decision making in cross-cultural environment. In the period of 2012–2014 the authors had been researching problems and experience of organization structure in Russian industrial enterprises based in China. The paper helps to understand, which of the positions (in this article we are talking about positions, related to innovation decision making, BI and CI) in international corporations are optimal for Canadian applicants, and which position are more suitable for Chinese employees. For more detailed review, it was decided to compare Canadian and Russian industrial enterprises, carrying on economical and business activity in China.

Feng-Shui has greatly impacted Chinese society andoften influences business decisions. This paper develops a decision making framework for Chinese businesses that follows the principles of Feng-Shui. This paper contributes to the academic literature by introducing a conceptual decision making model that includes a worldview, a strategy for risk avoidance and considering the environment impact, and a way to enhance the understanding of the impacts of Feng-Shui theory on Chinese business operations.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the technology innovation and economic development of most countries all over the world. This paper develops a marketing strategy model for MEs under resources and capabilities point of view. The contribution of this paper is to introduce conceptual of marketing strategy including cost-leadership, focus cost-leadership, cost-leadership and differentiation, differentiation, and focus differentiation can help the MEs' owners/managers to reach business goals. Recommendations are offered regarding the relevance of this research for MEs managements and suggestions are provided for future research in this area.

BACKGROUND: Aircraft maintenance and repair are critical tasks in the aviation industry for improved aircraft service and safety. Many articles and reports describe personnel factor and skill issues contribute to many aircraft incidents. Aircraft maintenance personnel needs to level up their skill set to match with task requirements in the setting of Industry Revolution 4.0. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to investigate document set that describe human errors and skill mismatch as a human factor in aircraft incidents and problems. It also discusses on the findings and management of the aircraft maintenance skill issues. METHODS: The study uses a document analytics tool to assess a set of online articles that discuss aircraft maintenance incidents and skill mismatch issues. The experiment is divided into four (4) modules: (i) collection of online articles and reports, (ii) document pre-processing, (iii) text analytics, and (iv) visualisation. RESULTS: The experiment’s results show that the majority of documents discuss aircraft maintenance, skill mismatch, and training gaps. CONCLUSION: We can conclude that the document dataset primarily discusses aircraft maintenance and skill set issues using the document analytics. Consequently, the management of aircraft maintenance workforce skill set issues by having initiatives for upskilling and reskilling. Furthermore, firms should foster a culture of continuous learning and develop a mindset among their employees that allows them to adapt to new technologies and information in aircraft maintenance.

This paper attempts to compare human resource management (HRM) in China and Vietnam. The main thrust of the paper is broadly interpretative, as well as analytical. First, it sets out seven dimensions relating to the evolution of people-management there, namely, historical, cultural, political, legal, economic, demographic and management. Next, it deals with a number of contemporary issues relating to the implementation of HRM in the two countries. Last, it presents a set of conclusions regarding the national differentiation of HRM models and the implications for management in Asia.

BACKGROUND: Given the importance and issues about the hospitality industry, commitment has remained a significant concern for human resource managers and researchers. This paper aims to develop the insights by assessing perceptions of training and work engagement as predictors of commitment among hospitality employees in Pakistan. OBJECTIVE: Following social exchange theory, this study investigated the relationship between five training perceptions: perceived access to training (PAT), motivation to learn (MLT), perceived benefits (PBT), perceived supervisory support (PSST), and coworker support (PCST) and the affective commitment via work engagement. METHOD: Employing survey-based data, this study analyzed 239 responses from the front-line employees in Pakistan’s hospitality industry. RESULTS: Smart-PLS results reveal that only PAT and PCST significantly predicted affective commitment out of five training perceptions. Similarly, work engagement was found to mediate the relationship between training perception and affective commitment except for MLT. The study also found that work engagement had the most substantial mediating effect between PSST and affective commitment. CONCLUSION: Organizations invest a lot of money in training and developing their employees to derive desired organizational outcomes. Therefore, it is important to consider perceptions of training while designing and delivering training. For organizational commitment, it is important that employees feel motivated to contribute to the organization and reciprocate with engagement and commitment with the organization.

BACKGROUND: Technology has recently become a major component of the educational field and learning process for it provides students with opportunities to learn more effectively and to operate efficiently in this age of technological advances. As academics, the use of technology in universities is transforming our work, and more specifically the way we support students in the classroom. As higher education institutions bring more technology into their classrooms, academics will in turn strive to put more technology in their students’ hands. That is, if they are prepared to do so. More importantly, ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic becomes a central and integral focus globally regardless one is associated with college or university. OBJECTIVE: This paper therefore attempts to examine the internal factors that should be taken into consideration when using technology for teaching and learning purposes in higher education in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: The study develops a number of hypotheses and a theoretical framework based on a questionnaire conducted among the faculty staff in Hail university to test the study hypotheses. RESULTS: All the study six hypotheses have been supported. The relationship among these hypotheses are clear and significant. Data analysis of this study have shown that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, computer self-efficacy, attitudes and computer anxiety have direct and substantial effect on the university teaching staff’s intention to use technology. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study will for sure assist in overcoming the problems and difficulties facing the use of ICT in higher education in Saudi Arabia, particularly those challenges which have arisen amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Despite the fact that there is a rising number of publications on TM, research on implementing such practices in SMEs and on the impact of contextual factors on TM is scarce. This article focuses on the impact of contextual factors on talent management (TM) practices in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). OBJECTIVE: The main aim of the research was to evaluate the impact of contextual factors on TM practices in SMEs. This paper presents the results of the analyses verifying whether there is a dependence between contextual factors (be they internal or external) and scope of TM practices introduced in SMEs. METHODS: The data was gathered from 200 randomly selected SMEs. The respondents were questioned about the characteristics of TM practices they run and asked about factors impacting upon their approach to TM. RESULTS: The results prove that there are some statistically significant dependences between the context and TM, but due to the heterogeneity of such enterprises, the complexity of contextual factors and the manager/owner attitude to HRM, no coherent patterns could be found. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that the short-term perspective and reactive actions dominate in the group of investigated companies. However, almost all respondents claimed to pay high attention to employees’ expectations towards such practices, which can be portrayed as a way of building sustainability on the basis of human capital.

BACKGROUND: This study builds on the little guidance in the existing literature to analyze the relationship between employee-oriented CSR actions and employee retention in a business context, while using Freeman’s stakeholders model as a theoretical research framework. This research also aims to shed light on significant behavioral factors facilitating the relationship between CSR endeavors and turnover rate. OBJECTIVE: This paper builds on the existing research gap in the literature and suggests that behavioral factors, including job satisfaction, organizational identification, and motivation facilitate the relationship between employee-oriented CSR actions and employee retention, which contributes to laying the foundations of a theoretical framework that has the potential to advance both research and practitioner debates and disentangle the complexity of such a relationship, while offering strategically-focused development venues in the CSR and HRM fields. METHODS: This research uses a single case study design to ensure an in-depth and detailed analysis of the phenomenon under scrutiny, while relying on a triangulation methodology for data collection, including a questionnaire used as exploratory approach, interviews to generate explanatory data, and archival data to bring confirmatory insights. Data analysis followed the procedures of a deductive approach. RESULTS: The research results show a positive relationship between employee-oriented CSR actions and employee retention, while demonstrating the facilitating role of job satisfaction, organizational identification, and motivation in moderating such a relationship. The findings also stress the importance of framing CSR interventions within the organization’s strategy and goals, while ensuring employee participation in such decision making processes to maximize the effect of CSR interventions on employee commitment and reduce turnover. CONCLUSIONS: This research has the potential to better clarify the nature of the relationship involving CSR interventions, from an employee perspective, retention, and turnover, while laying the foundations of a theoretical framework linking such constructs and other behavioral factors that underpin and support such a relationship. Building on the study’s findings and assumptions, future research is needed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how HR-related CSR actions affect behavioral performance dimensions, resulting in employee commitment and retention. Future research should also consider multiple case study, multicultural, and ethnographic approaches for the sake of generalizability and theory building.

BACKGROUND: Compared with traditional e-commerce, a significant feature of social commerce is the more complex network of social relations built by the user through frequent online interaction and communication. This relationship network strengthens the impact of social interaction on its purchase behavior and highlights the necessity to study social interaction in social commerce. OBJECTIVE: This research aims to study the mechanism of social interaction on the purchase behavior of social commerce consumers based on the SOR theory. METHODS: This research uses SEM to perform hypothesis testing. The survey data of 622 consumers are used to conduct empirical tests on the hypothesis proposed in the research. RESULTS: The research results show that user-website interaction, user-seller interaction, user-user interaction, user-online friend interaction can significantly enhance users’ physical presence; user-seller interaction, user-user interaction, and user-online friend interaction can significantly enhance users’ social presence; other variables can significantly enhance users’ flow experience except for the user-seller interaction; the physical presence and social presence significantly affect users’ impulsive purchasing intention, but have no significant effect on repeat purchasing intention; the flow experience significantly affects users’ impulsive purchasing willingness and repeat purchasing willingness. CONCLUSION: By connecting social interaction theory, presence theory, flow experience theory with consumer purchase behavior, the research group provides a new lens for how social interaction influence consumers’ purchase behavior in social business platform. The social business platform can learn from the research results of this paper and formulate corresponding measures to promote its own development.

BACKGROUND: Due to the continuous shift being experienced in the higher education landscape, the quality of teaching had become an issue to be discussed from different perspectives by the concerned stakeholders. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the research on the quality of teaching and identify the characteristics and best practices on supporting, developing, and improving Kosovo’s higher educational system’s effectiveness by improving the quality of teaching. METHODS: The paper used qualitative paradigms in research. The study targeted professors at Kosovo universities from two public universities and two private Colleges where focus group interviews, individual interviews, and documentation content analysis were obtained. RESULTS: According to professors’ opinions, the research results show that the quality of teaching is related to the research of professors, and it depends on the experience of the teacher, knowledge transfer, technology use, and degree of professor qualification. Other key factors determining the teaching quality are communication, motivation, pedagogy, cooperation, and adequate implementation of planned activities. CONCLUSIONS: Kosovo should establish appropriate mechanisms and policies for evaluating professors’ performance and make their selection and re-election based on these performance indicators and not only based on formal documents.

BACKGROUND: The question of the accumulation of the quality of human capital and its relationship with growth is very rarely addressed by the literature. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to investigate the impact of quality of human capital accumulation on economic growth for BRICS, Southeast Asian and MENA countries. METHODS: Thus, we utilize endogenous growth model of Lucas [5] that is the most appropriate for the human capital-growth question. We use yearly data for each group employed in this paper during the period of study from 1990 to 2015. RESULTS: The empirical results show that for BRICS and South East Asia countries, the nexus between quality of human capital and economic growth is positive, while for MENA countries the relationship has not been identified. Also, we show that positive link between quality of human capital and economic growth depends on the level of accumulation and effectiveness of higher education graduates and their employment rate in high value-added sectors. CONCLUSION: The relationship among human capital and economic growth does not only depend on the employment rate of university graduates and labor market matching mechanisms, but it also depends on the nature of the job and the efficiency and productivity of human capital.

Electronic ordering (e-ordering) systems are currently being implemented in both private and public organizations. The advantages of these systems are widely acknowledged: increased compliance with use of fewer suppliers and improved efficiency. However, realizing these benefits is difficult due to end-user resistance to adopting and using such systems. The present paper proposes a framework inspired by adaptive structuration theory (AST) that functions as an analytical framework that helps to understand what structures and factors influence adoption and use of an e-ordering system. To the adapted AST framework is added factors of influence found in previous purchasing research, resulting in a framework that helps to understand adoption and use of an e-ordering system over time. The framework is tested using empirical data from a 4-year longitudinal case study. The paper embeds purchasing theory within the structuration framework of AST.

Guanxi has been well studied in Chinese management as a vital factor associated with business strategy and HRM in Chinese communities. However, Guanxi may not be crucial anymore, because Chinese MNCs are rapidly becoming global players since they have started to merge with and acquire Western MNCs, but not through the guanxi related to international strategy. Recently, “a Chinese company bought IBM Personal Computers lock, stock and barrel. Chinese corporations have bought Thomson and RCA televisions, Dirt Devil etc.” (James Dyson, 2005). This paper investigates Taiwanese MNCs pursuing an internationalisation strategy, and discusses implications for the way third world MNCs manages their international employees. Interview data from twenty four Taiwanese-owned companies are used to identify how the Chinese cultural value of guanxi, underpins their management style in the British context. The paper finds that there are sectoral differences between the IT and financial service industries in terms of the way guanxi affects recruitment and company location decisions. It is concluded that national culture is still an important factor to influence the international strategy and HRM practice in MNCs of third world origin.

Security management has become a critical topic that supply systems have to handle on a daily basis. An integrated view is not in place yet, despite that related studies have existed in disparate pieces and keep on emerging. This paper seeks an essential paradigm shift to design/management for security (DMfSec) within the context of supply chain management. The first part is devoted to defining a new discipline of security centric supply chain management (SecSCM). We identify its fundamental tasks and requirements aided by a metaphor borrowed from information security. The second part is a discussion of a potential technical roadmap. Vital and integral to this initiative, we firstly propose the referential taxonomy that systematically accounts for security constraints, requirements, instruments and management, and investigate its relationship to underlying supply chain constructs. Secondly, with the taxonomy in hand, we present modeling issues based on dependency representation and probabilistic analysis, which are suitable for security management. Lastly we consider key tasks in DMfSec and SecSCM. With an emphasis on elaboration of challenges and requirements and employing a process and system oriented perspective, this paper intends to start rather than conclude an adventure into this vast interdisciplinary field.

This paper articulates a network approach to knowledge processes and information systems in organizations. It proposes that cross-business-unit knowledge processes and the learning role of information systems are embedded within a network of relationships that link business units. Exploratory evidence from a large telecommunications firm shows that relationships have strategic learning option value. Learning processes are often informal and emergent thus information systems should provide a flexible infrastructure enabling the evolution of learning processes. The paper identifies important feedback loops that can be leveraged by knowledge managers, who should be seen as cultivators of knowledge processes, rather than omnipotent planners and designers.

This paper presents a qualitative study of mechanisms enabling social network formation in the R&D unit of a large technology-based organization. Drawing on interviews with 37 high-level technical and administrative unit members, a number of social network enablers could be discerned, which related to the need for effective location mechanisms, special “enrolment spaces”, and mechanisms for forging contacts. It was also possible to identify a number of higher-order factors for facilitation of network formation, namely hierarchical enablers and communicative and assimilative factors. Based on these results, the paper makes suggestions as to the theoretical and practical significance of social network enabling mechanisms in R&D organizations.

This paper examines internationalization processes in the context of the Internet economy and presents some exploratory insights; it is based on case studies, supplemented by a preliminary quantitative study from a developing economy context, concerning the role of the Internet in enhancing the internationalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Three main points are made in this paper. First, the Internet holds great promise in facilitating the internationalization of SMEs – especially as a marketing tool, and the communications. And the degree of internationalization (DOI) is positively correlated with the degree of electronic commerce (DOEC). Second, Internet technology has little influence on the SMEs' choice of entry mode. Third, stage-based theories do not reflect company experience in Internet economy; a preliminary study suggests that this notion is worthy of further study on a larger scale. These findings have implications for future research, practice and policy-making in terms of taking a holistic view of the use of Internet technology.

BACKGROUND: Human resource development in sustainability is a prerequisite of enhancing the success of any organization. Education for sustainable development has been recognized as a key process to support employees’ skills development to positively reoriented their behavior to the sustainable development values and principles. In the article context, based on a synthetic literature review for charting the sustainability taxonomy, there has been created a first general inventory of topics needed to be considered for designing a training program in the field. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present paper is to identify the general Qualification Matrix defining the training program for sustainability management (based on a training needs assessment study). Furthermore, the research will demonstrate how the training program could be tailor for the case of “management position” research variable. METHODS: First method applied in the study include a synthetic literature review for charting the sustainability taxonomy (creation of comprehensive inventory of topics needed to be considered for designing a training program for sustainability management). Second, based on the sustainability taxonomy, a questionnaire was designed and used in a survey for the training needs assessment. The research sample consisted of 207 respondents, potential trainees that are employees of different companies (from Austria, France, Romania and Slovenia), with a balanced structure of management position and distribution of age. Predictive Analytics Software (PASW, developed by IBM, formerly known as SPSS) for statistical processing has been used for statistical data analyses. RESULTS: The study results have indicated that the most appropriate training methods to be used in the sustainability management training program consists in a combination of: “Theoretical knowledge + examples of good practices + exercises + individual projects”. The process of tailoring the sustainability management training program has been demonstrated for the case of “management position” research variable (with three sub-categories of respondents: top managers, middle and low managers and professionals with no management position) and was based on the defined Qualification Matrix (consists of 5 training units and 19 training elements). CONCLUSIONS: The research have valuable contribution in the field of human resources development, particularly by offering a concrete solution in designing and tailoring a training program for sustainability managers started with the training needs assessment and the Qualification Matrix definition.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge remains a competitive, intangible resource in today’s contemporary organizations. Most knowledge management initiatives aimed at leveraging knowledge for sustainable corporate performance. Knowledge sharing is fundamental to growing intellectual capital. Security on knowledge resources is a prerequisite to quality knowledge content. To increase trust in both knowledge content and security, a knowledge-sharing platform specialist (KsPS) plays a significant role in the overall management and authentication of corporate intellectual capital. OBJECTIVE: This paper analyzes the contributive role of the KsPS and investigates whether or not KsPS matters in strengthening knowledge quality and security in organizations. METHODS: We conducted a broader review of relevant literature on issues relating to knowledge management, knowledge security, KsPS, and sharing platforms to have a better understanding of roles played by the KsPS. Besides, 18 KsPS from 15 organizations were interviewed through telephone or Skype regarding their role expectations in knowledge sharing, quality, and security in the knowledge management system (KMS). Thematic analysis was done to obtain the relevant themes for the study. RESULTS: The study established that the KsPS provides quality facilitative roles in knowledge-sharing processes for secured KMS. Thus, the KsPS significantly contributes to knowledge codification and internalization. CONCLUSIONS: With very little recognition of the KsPS in the existing KMS literature, this study draws attention to the management of organizations about the need to invest in a KsPS for quality knowledge support services and increased knowledge security.

BACKGROUND: This paper examines the effects of a board’s diversity on firm financial performance using a sample of 76 companies listed on FTSE100 over the period 2010–2015. This period reflects the years following the financial crisis of 2008 when mounting criticism emerged that weak corporate governance partly explained The Financial Crisis. It is suggested that the Board of Directors’ composition may have played a pivotal role in the Crisis and that Boards that better reflect society perform better. OBJECTIVE: This research examines the impact of gender, age, nationality, and presence of independent directors on firm performance. METHODS: Data on board characteristics were collected from Hemscott, as well as information from the companies’ annual reports and financial database FAME. Using the Generalized Method of Moments, the data were assessed to examine board diversity and firm financial performance. RESULTS: This study consists of 456 observations from 76 listed FTSE 100 companies during the period 2010–2015. Twenty-four companies were excluded due to missing data that related to directors’ attributes after controlling for firm characteristics, board structure, and potential endogeneity issues, the findings support the business case for gender and nationality board diversity. However, no significant associations were found between firm financial performance and board age diversity or board independence. CONCLUSION: This study, although British based, joins a growing global body of evidence that more diverse boards improve firm performance. It is incumbent on practitioners, decision-makers, and politicians to educate and persuade firms’ directors of the merits of more diverse boards.

The acceleration of change, global economy and the business challenges has made organizations to think and integrate diverse competitive strategies in to the system. There has been an increasing emphasis on buyer-supplier relationships in the academic community and in the international business to improve competitiveness and profitability of organizations by proposing different strategies, organizational structure, system, tools and techniques for how to select the right partner, establish the proper relationship and adapt adequately to the internal and external changes. Moreover, the system has witnessed a transformation in which suppliers and customers are inextricably linked throughout the entire sequence of supply chain. This paper aims to develop the buyer-supplier typology for strategic archetypes of contractual relationships. The typology reflects a buyer perspective ranging from arm's length relationship to strategic partnerships and represents a supplier segmentation tool which helps identify what types of competence and capability relate to each individual sourcing practice. The paper includes the comprehensive study of current state of the art of the survey based empirical research on sourcing practices and supplier selection, as they play a vital role in managing supply chain.

Job sites are emerging as a successful way of job finding and filling. Job seekers are using job sites to find appropriate jobs. Recruiters are using job sites to find appropriate employees. This paper provides a Job Site Evaluation Framework (JSEF) both from the job seeker and the recruiter point of view. This framework may be useful for job seekers, recruiters and job site designers. Furthermore, the paper evaluates the state of Greek job sites in comparison to foreigner ones. Guidelines and proposals for job sites improvement are given.

With the explosion in information technology, deploying desktop Internet access for corporations is becoming common place. Corporate managers are dealing with issues of protecting their corporations from legal exposure, especially in relation to downloading of pornographic or racist material, and from unwanted content. While the reasons offered by employers for doing computer-based monitoring may appear ethical and legal, employers who aggressively monitor must stay current on the laws because they may be liable for multiple violations of federal and state laws. This paper reviews surveillance technologies and discusses different arguments of computer-based monitoring. This is followed by the discussion of related federal and state laws and judicial decisions. The paper concludes with guidelines for developing computer-based monitoring policies.

In the debate between marginal decision-making and full absorbance that has been going on since the nineteenth century, activity-based costing/management (ABC/M) appeared as a promising decision support tool which answers the criticism leveled against traditional cost accounting. This paper describes the strengths and weaknesses of ABC/M from a global value creation perspective, in an effort to explain why it failed to live up to its promise and why not too many companies retained it beyond a short pilot period. The paper suggests the global decision-making methodology (GDM), as an effective alternative to costing methods, which improves the quality of decisions and enhances organization value. The paper illustrates its implementation by presenting a case study of a large international financial services organization that abandoned the ABC/M system it had been using for seven years in favor of GDM. The ABC/M system was transformed to a throughput focused “light ABC” system that supports GDM. The article describes the circumstances that led the organization to adopt GDM, and provides general guidelines for its implementation.

This paper presents a resources-based theory perspective of managing a SAP project team in order to realize a sustainable competitive advantage. Resource-based theory suggests that resources which are durable, not easily replicable, and imperfectly mobile can be effectively leveraged by the firm in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage over its competitors. The analysis which is presented in this paper suggests that the effective implementation of the SAP system by a firm requires not only an acquisition of a high level of technical expertise, but a change in organizational culture from one which rewards individual brilliance to one which encourages project teams. This will create an environment in which the success of any individual in his job is critically dependent on the skills possessed by the other team members. This will render the human component of the SAP resource imperfectly mobile and increase the capability of the firm to leverage this resource in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Inherent to the dynamics of social networks is a paradoxical trade-off between closed networks that promote cooperation and efficiency and diverse networks that are flexible to new resources and ideas. Since actors cannot simultaneously maximize both facets of a network, this has created a sharp debate on the social capital performance of closed and diverse network relationships. Research on this social capital debate has often focused on these described network affects without explaining the origins and dynamics of network performance. This paper advances a cognitive diversity approach that is based upon the subjective and alert behaviors of Austrian entrepreneurs. These are key causal drivers to this paper's theoretical model of social dynamics and performance of closed and diverse networks. Such network behavior is subsequently modeled as a Complex Adaptive system. Using agent-based simulation, an agent-based model of entrepreneurship and social network dynamics is constructed to test the relationships described by the proposed theoretical model. The simulation results support the described hypothesized relationships. These findings also suggest the benefits of closed and diverse networks are logically distinct and, thus, should not be viewed as an either-or phenomenon. Agent-based simulation results show entrepreneurs can construct a balanced network of closed and diverse networks to optimize the benefits of both networks.

In this paper we describe a new approach and support tool for the modelling and analysis of socio-technical system configurations. This novel approach has been developed for use on systems composed of a wide variety of different components including social and organisational elements, in addition to the more traditional software and hardware aspects. Configuration models of such systems are lightweight and quick to construct and can help to promote understanding by the various stakeholders involved in system development, operation and evolution. These models also provide the data required for performing various useful forms of automated analysis. The results of such analysis can allow managers, administrators, developers and end users to investigate various efficiency, productivity and dependability attributes of the current configuration of a system. This can help support decisions about the evolution of a system by allowing the assessment of proposed changes such as the addition or removal of components, processes and structures. In this paper we utilise a real world case study in order to demonstrate and evaluate the utility of the described approach.

With the extensive growth of the Internet and electronic commerce, the issue of how users behave when confronted with long download times is important. This paper investigates Web switching behavior. The paper describes experiments where users were subjected to artificially delayed Web page download times to study the impact of Web site wait times on switching behavior. Two hypotheses were tested. First, that longer wait times will result in increased switching behavior. The implication being that users become frustrated with long waiting times and choose to go elsewhere. Second, that users who switch will benefit, in terms of decreased download times, from their decision to switch.

BACKGROUND: Considerable evidence suggests that social media usage has become an indispensible part of international expatriates’ daily lives. Studies have identified social media usage serves both as a positive and a negative channel to influence international expatriate’s personal development. Nevertheless, there is paucity of literature examining the effects and underlying mechanism through which social media usage impinges on international expatriates’ creativity, especially in cross-cultural settings. OBJECTIVE: To address the gaps, the current research is designed to investigate whether and how social media usage accounts for variance phenomena in international expatriates’ creativity with intervention role of cultural intelligence. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted at three Chinese public universities with assistance of officials in charge of international education. 248 informative responses were used for testing hypothesis. RESULTS: Research findings suggest that social media usage contributes to international expatriates’ creativity partially through the conduit of peer relationship. Additionally cultural intelligence positively moderates the relationship between social media usage and peer relationship. CONCLUSIONS: As the elite group who make quick responses and efficacious solutions to manage the complexities in such an interconnected world, international expatriates deserve more scholarly attention for their creativity development. The current research examines the mediating role of peer relationship and the role of cultural intelligence moderating the relationship between social media usage and peer relationship. And this paper serves to arouse more scholarly attention to apply interdisciplinary analytics approaches to investigate how to develop international expatriate’s creativity in complicated cross-cultural settings.

BACKGROUND: The social network services (SNSs), such as Facebook, Twitter, Yammer and Slack etc., allow users to post short messages on topics ranging from personal hobbies and interests to working messages and knowledge. However, the answers to how use context and participation behavior pattern influence individual’s engagement in social network services still remain vague. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to find out the adoption mechanism in two contexts – Enterprise social network services (ESNs) and Public social network services (PSNs). METHODS: This paper adopts the methods of literature research, questionnaire survey and statistical analysis. The research model was established by structural equation and analyzed by AMOS software. RESULTS: Our empirical results show that the use of social network platforms is to a certain extent embedded both in the use context (public or enterprise) and in different kinds of participation modes (original participation or secondary participation). For both ESNs and PSNs, perceived playfulness is the most important adoption factor in both participations, while perceived usefulness just works for the original participation. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with ESNs that are weighted in favor of the utilitarian-oriented perspective, PSNs are inclined to be more hedonic-oriented. The findings offer us novel insights on understanding and applying social network services.

The availability of proper human capital represents a key-factor in order to support the current fast pace of diffusion of Internet-based applications. The careful assessment of the skills and competencies required to manage and develop Internet technologies in different application domains represents a necessary step to solve the emerging skill shortage and skill gap problems. While most existing analyses of skill needs in information and communication technologies deal with broad professional categories, the paper focuses the attention on a specific professional figure, the Web designer. By resorting to an on-line questionnaire administered to a sample of Italian Web designers, the paper shows that jobholders recognise greater usefulness to organisational rather than technical knowledge domains. However, perceived skill gaps are larger in the case of technical skills and competencies. Moreover, specialisation paths are emerging.

Online recruiting is becoming one of the major trends in Human Resource Management. Managers are capable of finding quickly and efficiently qualified candidates to fill variety of professional positions within United States and overseas. Varieties of websites were created online to store resumes for the employer’s search in the form of database warehouses and datamarts. Datamarts target specific segments of the employment opportunities. Managers run queries to search and analyze data abstracted from these large databases. Major issues for managers in using online recruitment present accuracy, verifiability, anded from these large databases. Major issues for managers in using online recruitment present accuracy, verifiability, and accountability of the data selected. An obstacle for potential employees using online employment services is the privacy of the data submitted by them from current employers and other websites collecting their personal data without consent for marketing purposes. Another issue in online employment databases remains inefficiencies in the ways the data is be retrieved, stored and analyzed. The lack of personal touch during online employment limits communicational flow between potential employees and the employer, leading to the frustrations of the job candidates and missed opportunities on the behalf of the employers. A follow-up service from the site can serve as a communicational link in the process. Binshan Lin is Professor of Operations and Information Management at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. He received his PhD from the Louisiana State University in 1988. He is a five-time recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award at LSUS. Dr. Lin also received Best Paper Award in the American Marketing Association (AMA) 1994 Summer Conference, Distinguished Paper Award in the Small Business Institute Directors Association (SBIDA) 1990 National Conference, Outstanding Paper Award in the IBSCA 1993 National Conference, the Best Paper Award in the 2000 Association for Chinese Management Educators (ACME) International Conference, the Alpha Iota Delta Paper Award Winner in Southwest Decision Science Institute 2001 Conference, and Best Paper Award in the Southwestern Marketing Association 1995 Annual Conference. Professor Lin has published over 90 articles in refereed journals and over 80 articles in conference proceedings since 1988. He serves as Editor-In-Chief of Industrial Management & Data Systems, Associate Editor of Journal of International Technology and Information Management, Editor of Special Issue on Knowledge Management in e-Commerce, Journal of Computer Information Systems (2002), Editor of Special Issue on Mobile Commerce, Journal of Internet Commerce (2002), Editor of Special Issue on eCommerce, Human Systems Management (2000), and Editor of Special Issue on e-Healthcare, International Journal of Healthcare Technology Management (2001). Dr. Lin also serves on Editorial Boards in seven academic journals. His research interests and past publications have addressed e-Commerce, Information Technology Management, Quality Management, and Healthcare Management. *Corresponding author. E-mail: blin@pilot.lsus.edu. Dr. Lin is an active member of Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), International Association for Computer Information Systems (IACIS), International Information Management Association (IIMA), Production/ Operations Management Society (POMS), International Chinese Information Systems Association (ICISA), and Association for Chinese Management Educators (ACME). He serves as Program Chair of IIMA 2002, and Vice President and Proceedings Editor of ACME 2002. Dr. Lin also served as President of ICISA 2000, POM cluster (1996) for INFORMS National Conference, ERP Track Chair for POMS 2001 National Conference, E-Commerce Track Chair (2000, 2001) for ACME International Conference, and POM Track Chair (2000), Marketing Track Chair (2002), and Innovative Education & Web-Based Learning Track Chair (2001) for Southwest DSI Conferences. Victoria S. Stasinskaya is from Minsk, Belarus. She graduated with a BS degree in Accounting and a minor in Economics from Centenary College in Shreveport, LA. Victoria S. Stasinskaya was a member of Church Careers and Centenary Choir at Centenary College. She was awarded an academic scholarship at Centenary College for scholastic achievement. Victoria S. Stasinskaya obtained her MBA degree from Louisiana State University in Shreveport in May of 2001 with 4.0 GPA. Victoria S. Stasinskaya is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma and Iota Sigma Epsilon Honorary Societies. She has recently accepted a position at the Providence House as the Director of Finance and is also teaching part-time at the American School of Business in Shreveport, Louisiana. 0167-2533/02/$8.00  2002 – IOS Press. All rights reserved 2 B. Lin and V.S. Stasinskaya / Data warehousing management issues in online recruiting

One of the fundamentals of good health care management that is rarely discussed in the literature is the ‘complete kit’ concept, which suggests that operations, medical procedures and processes should not start until all the items required for completion of the job are available. These items (the kit) include medical documents, medical tools, information etc. Starting a medical procedure with an incomplete kit means more medical time to finish the procedure, longer lead time, more ‘work in process’, reduction of throughput, poor quality and impairment of due date performance. This paper analyzes the various facets of the complete kit concept in the health care system and suggests how to implement the complete kit concept in a medical process. The paper also incorporates the complete kit concept into the context of well-established managerial philosophies such as TOC and TQM.

This paper discusses the concept of a regional network as well as the empirical emergence of it in the Finnish pharmaceutical industry. A regional network is characterised by relatively stable relations between legally independent firms, which co-operate in spatial proximity. Financial, educational and research institutions are closely tied into these networks as are government agencies, trade associations, chambers of commerce and trade unions. The paper concludes that the new pharmaceutical industry in Finland has succeeded in building a growing regional network where actors work together in order to increase the value of the network. At the same time the network fosters industrial and economic development in the region.

BACKGROUND: Although CSR has been studied extensively based on developed countries, very few studies has been done on developing economies. Likewise, the field of CSR is still uncovered ground, at an early stage of development in the Maldives. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to examine the impact of overall CSR ranking, and individual CSR dimensions on the financial performance of the listed companies in the Maldives. METHODOLOGY: Secondary data related to CSR, financial variables have been collected from the Maldives Stock Exchange, and through content analysis, a CSR index was developed. RESULTS: Findings demonstrated a significant relationship between overall CSR ranking and financial. However, among the dimensions of CSR, only the community and governance have a significant positive association with financial measures, where else the dimensions of employees and environment do not have any significance with financial performance. CONCLUSION: The paper includes implications to control the effect of CSR on company performance strategically and to revise their business philosophies to a socially responsible approach. It also contributes to helping the decision-makers to come up with concepts to initiate and provide a social performance rating for the Maldives listed companies.

BACKGROUND: Achieving a satisfactory level of engagement was a prerequisite for the implementation of a new strategy in organizations, which entailed a complex and costly investment program. OBJECTIVE: This paper presents an approach to managing employee engagement in a natural gas company. METHODS: The study involved in particular direct observation due to the fact that one of the authors of the article, during the implementation of the project, was a member of the company’s management board and the project team. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the implemented changes was verified with a survey by an external consulting company which was conducted annually over a period of 8 years on a group of about 1000 employees. RESULTS: By virtue of the conducted survey and practical consideration given to its results, it has become possible to radically increase employee engagement rates and, consequently, to implement a breakthrough strategy in the company. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of research results leads to a clear conclusion that the execution of innovative projects - in the presented case, the company’s strategy - would not have been possible without a significant increase in employee engagement in the organization.

The electronic commerce (e-commerce) revolution is changing the business processes dramatically. It permits new kinds of interactions among business firms, their customers and suppliers, as well as internally within the firms. E-commerce is shaking the foundations of many industries and is leading to new types of e-business models. The vast potential of this exciting way of doing business has led many universities to offer courses, options, majors, and even degrees in e-commerce. The objectives of this paper are to describe some of the legal issues that impact e-commerce activities and to explore their implications for the accounting profession. While both business-to-business e-commerce and business-to-consumer e-commerce are expanding at a brisk pace, laws dealing with e-commerce are lagging behind. This paper provides a brief overview of several legal issues that have emerged in the arena of e-commerce including the following: jurisdictional issues, web linking practices, intellectual property and copyrights, libel laws, sales and use tax issues, encryption regulation, privacy rights, domain name disputes, electronic agreements, and digital signatures. Implications of e-commerce related legal issues for the accounting profession and accounting students are also discussed.

Developing Information Systems is a process fraught with danger and often resulting in failure. Failure rates now run at 80% and there is no sign of decline [16,17,18,20,21,30,31,35,36,40]. If Information Systems (IS) projects are high risk even in industrialised societies, then projects in developing countries and newly emerging economies are even more prone to failure. Putting IS projects together with the developing economies would appear to be a recipe for disaster but this paper describes an IS project developed between the UK and China which has got to beta testing stage and shows early signs of success. The paper describes the process whereby the project was developed, the methodology applied and the problems and difficulties encountered. Taking as its point of reference the autumn 1999 review mission, the paper describes the situation for the Feasibility and Appraisal Information System (FAIS) at that time and draws out some policy and methodology learning issues relevant to others planning IS in similar contexts.

The major purpose of this paper is to address some online procurement implementation issues and provide managerial implications on leveraging enterprise resource planning (ERP) investment by extending the functionality into the supply chain. In this paper we discuss issues related to the benefits gained and caveats of effective online procurement, implementation process, managerial implications, and the impact of online procurement on supply chain management. These issues are explored in the paper using a case study.

The paper is intended to provide an overview of advanced robotic technologies within the context of Postal Automation services. The main functional requirements of the application are briefly referred, as well as the state of the art and new emerging solutions. Image Processing and Pattern Recognition have always played a fundamental role in Address Interpretation and Mail sorting and the new challenging objective is now off-line handwritten cursive recognition, in order to be able to handle all kind of addresses in a uniform way. On the other hand, advanced electromechanical and robotic solutions are extremely important to solve the problems of mail storage, transportation and distribution, as well as for material handling and logistics. Finally a short description of new services of Postal Automation is referred, by considering new emerging services of hybrid mail and paper to electronic conversion.