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This article explores how to help people who organize crowdsourcing events (called “seekers”) choose the best ideas from those submitted by participants (called “solvers'). To this end, we created a method using techniques like topic modeling and text analysis to sort and group ideas. Then, we tested this method on data from crowdsourcing contests in Italy in 2021. In particular, considering the literature on intermediaries, we focus on intermediation in crowdsourcing to improve the decision-making processes in those initiatives where searching activities are intermediated by digital platforms, besides other human intermediaries. This method makes it easier for seekers to handle multiple ideas, and it also helps them find better-quality ideas. Moreover, from a theoretical point of view, our method could lead to better results in crowdsourcing challenges because it groups ideas based on their content without being influenced by the organizers' pre-existing knowledge or biases. This means that seekers might discover new and unexpected topics or solutions they hadn't thought of before. From a practical standpoint, for managers organizing crowdsourcing events, this method is valuable because it not only saves time and effort but also potentially uncovers innovative and diverse ideas. Additionally, the method includes a feature that shows how much participants interact and share knowledge, thus implementing the concept of “transactivity”, which, to the best of our knowledge, hasn't been used in crowdsourcing studies before. This can help crowdsourcing organizers better understand which contests are more effective at encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing among participants.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease, characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons, which leads to a reduction in strength and exercise capacity. Although the concept of "Exercise is Medicine" is accepted for many diseases, the role of exercise in individuals with ALS is still debated. The aim of this study was to propose a tailored exercise training program that was both safe and effective for individuals with ALS, and to evaluate the effects of this combined, moderate-intensity, aerobic and strength training program on aerobic capacities, strength, and physical function. Sixteen individuals with ALS were randomly assigned to either a training (three times a week for 12 weeks; TRAIN, n = 8) or usual care (continued their usual standard of care and served as control; UC, n = 8) group. Peak power, peak oxygen uptake, as well as the gas exchange threshold (GET) during a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) on a cycle ergometer, and the maximal strength (1RM) of the knee extensor muscles, were evaluated before and after 12 weeks. Participants also performed the "Timed Up and Go" (TUG) and the "6-min walking" (6MWT) tests. The ALS Functional Rating Scale revisited (ALSFRS-R), the ALS Severity Scale (ALS-SS), and the McGill quality of life (QoL) questionnaire were also measured. The GET increased from 0.94 ± 0.08 to 1.06 ± 0.10 L min-1 in TRAIN (p = 0.009) and decreased from 0.79 ± 0.17 to 0.72 ± 0.17 L min-1 in UC (p = 0.001). There was a significant difference between groups for changes in TUG (9.1 ± 5.5% improvement in TRAIN and 56.8 ± 18.5% worsening in UC, p = 0.002), ALSFRS-R (4.7 ± 2.6% decrease in TRAIN and 23.0 ± 5.6% decrease in UC, p = 0.007), and for the ALS-SS (2.2 ± 2.1% decrease in TRAIN and 12.4 ± 4.4% decrease in UC, p = 0.04). Even if the 1RM of the knee-extensor muscles showed a tendency to increase in TRAIN (70.1 ± 30.0%, p = 0.07), there was not a statistically significant difference (p = 0.57) with respect to

This study aimed to evaluate muscle oxidative function during exercise in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients (pALS) with non-invasive methods in order to assess if determinants of reduced exercise tolerance might match ALS clinical heterogeneity. 17 pALS, who were followed for 4 months, were compared with 13 healthy controls (CTRL). Exercise tolerance was assessed by an incremental exercise test on cycle ergometer measuring peak O2 uptake (VO2peak), vastus lateralis oxidative function by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and breathing pattern (VEpeak). pALS displayed: (1) 44% lower VO2peak vs. CTRL (p < 0.0001), paralleled by a 43% decreased peak skeletal muscle oxidative function (p < 0.01), with a linear regression between these two variables (r2 = 0.64, p < 0.0001); (2) 46% reduced VEpeak vs. CTRL (p < 0.0001), achieved by using an inefficient breathing pattern (increasing respiratory frequency) from the onset until the end of exercise. Inefficient skeletal muscle O2 function, when flanking the impaired motor units recruitment, is a major determinant of pALS clinical heterogeneity and working capacity exercise tolerance. CPET and NIRS are useful tools for detecting early stages of oxidative deficiency in skeletal muscles, disclosing individual impairments in the O2 transport and utilization chain.

Online communities are becoming an important way to support firms towards an open innovation approach. However, knowledge shared in an online community represents only a potential for firm’s innovation aims. The effectiveness of exploration and exploitation of this knowledge depends on firm’s absorptive capacity. In this work the authors focus on the time an idea, shared within an online community, takes to be transformed from a ‘potential’ into a ‘realized’ innovation by a firm. In particular, conceiving knowledge as a trajectory across pole of attraction rather than a linear process, the authors develop a model inspired by the solar system metaphor. Preliminary results from a case study are presented. They suggest firms may improve the effectiveness of absorptive capacity exploiting the mediation role of a software tool.

Evidences collected from smartphones users show a growing desire of personalization offered by services for mobile devices. However, the need to accurately identify users' contexts has important implications for user's privacy and it increases the amount of trust, which users are requested to have in the service providers. In this paper, we introduce a model that describes the role of personalization and control in users' assessment of cost and benefits associated to the disclosure of private information. We present an instantiation of such model, a context-aware application for smartphones based on the Android operating system, in which users' private information are protected. Focus group interviews were conducted to examine users' privacy concerns before and after having used our application. Obtained results confirm the utility of our artifact and provide support to our theoretical model, which extends previous literature on privacy calculus and user's acceptance of context-aware technology.

Online communities are becoming an important way to support innovation through an open approach. Knowledge shared in online communities can be explored and exploited through adequate absorptive capacities. The paper explores which factors allow an assessment of a firm’s absorptive capacity to exploit an online community as a source of innovation.

This article envisions the use of context-awareness to improve single sign-on solutions (SSO) for mobile users. The attribute-based SSO is expected to increase users' perceived ease of use of the system and service providers' authentication security of the application. From these two features we derive two value propositions for a new business model for mobile platforms. The business model can be considered as an instantiation of the privacy-friendly business model pattern presented in our previous work, reinforcing our claim that privacy-friendly value propositions are possible and can be used to obtain a competitive advantage.

Previous researches in pedagogy and project management have already underlined the positive contribution of serious games on project management courses. However, the empirical outcome of their studies has not been translated yet into functional and technical specifications for "serious games" designers. Our study aims at obtaining a set of technical and functional design guidelines for serious game scenario editors to be used in large classes of project management students. We have conceived a framework to assess the influence of different serious games components over student's perceived acquired competency. Such frameworks will allow us to develop a software module for reflective learning, which is meant to extend theory of serious games design.

This study obtains a set of guidelines with which IS designers can achieve regulatory compliance with data retention requirements. Previous work has explored how to assess compliance threats and to visualize the outcome of policies enforcement but has failed to address how regulatory compliance involves multiple agents seeking to optimize their individual payoffs. We propose a typology that acknowledges in the enterprise business model the return on investment of agents affected by the new controls. Such agents are assumed to be co-opeting, i.e. they gain by cooperating, even if they have different goals. Grounded in control theory and the technology acceptance model, our conceptual design and its implementation represent an economically viable way to align business, legal and IT requirements concerning regulatory compliance with data retention requirements.

Platforms like E-bay allow product seekers and providers to meet and exchange goods. On the same way in open innovation, as defined by Chesbrough, an enterprise can collect ideas from outside the company. But on E-bay, the seeker can return the product if it does not correspond to the expectations, since E-bay is the third-party actor in charge of assuring that the agreement between seekers and providers will be respected. So who does provide the same service for what concerns open innovation, where specifications might not fully defined? In this paper we shall describe the business model of an organizational structure to support the elicitation and respect of agreements between actors, who have conflicting interests but that gain from cooperating together. The concepts of the model will be illustrated to derive a set of propositions and a simple example will illustrate one of its possible instantiations. The description of our first evaluation phase shall find place at the end.

This article aims at improving the information systems management support to Risk and Compliance Management process, i.e. the management of all compliance imperatives that impact an organization, including both legal and stra- tegically self-imposed imperatives. We propose a process to achieve such regula- tory compliance by aligning the Governance activities with the Risk Management ones, and we suggest Compliance should be considered as a requirement for the Risk Management platform. We will propose a framework to align law and IT compliance requirements and we will use it to underline possible directions of investigation resumed in our discussion section. This work is based on an exten- sive review of the existing literature and on the results of a four-month internship done within the IT compliance team of a major financial institution in Switzer- land, which has legal entities situated in different countries.