To share or not to share? Self-perception and knowledge-sharing intent

The paper explores the intent of knowledge sharing in complex organizational contexts. Findings from semi-structured interviewing with 54 subjects in two large organizations in Saudi Arabia indicate that self-perception and contextual interpretation create tensions that affect the way knowledge is managed and shared. The dichotomy between self-centeredness and self-doubt was found to affect trust and openness necessary for genuine knowledge sharing. Mutual trust, developed through timely self-disclosure, was found to offer psychological safety for employees to share knowledge more openly. Inner tensions become the stimuli for maximizing the social aspect of interaction to negotiate meanings, strategize knowledge sharing, and redefine role identity. The interplay of cognitive and behavioural participation challenges one’s knowing and becoming, increasing the complexity and dynamics of knowledge sharing. Knowledge-sharing intent determines the learning of individuals and learning in organizations. A conceptual framework is introduced and implications for practice are discussed.     

Promoting users’ intention to share online health articles on social media: The role of confirmation bias

Nowadays, it is a common practice for healthcare professionals to spread medical knowledge by posting health articles on social media. However, promoting users’ intention to share such articles is challenging because the extent of sharing intention varies in their eHealth literacy (high or low) and the content valence of the article that they are exposed to (positive or negative). This study investigates boundary conditions under which eHealth literacy and content valence help to increase users’ intention to share by introducing a moderating role of confirmation bias—a tendency to prefer information that conforms to their initial beliefs. A 2 (eHealth literacy: high vs. low) × 2 (content valence: positive vs. negative) between-subjects experiment was conducted in a sample of 80 participants. Levels of confirmation bias ranging from extreme negative bias to extreme positive bias among the participants were assessed during the experiment. Results suggested that: (1) users with a high level of eHealth literacy were more likely to share positive health articles when they had extreme confirmation bias; (2) users with a high level of eHealth literacy were more likely to share negative health articles when they had moderate confirmation bias or no confirmation bias; (3) users with a low level of eHealth literacy were more likely to share health articles regardless of positive or negative content valence when they had moderate positive confirmation bias. This study sheds new light on the role of confirmation bias in users’ health information sharing. Also, it offers implications for health information providers who want to increase the visibility of their online health articles: they need to consider readers’ eHealth literacy and confirmation bias when deciding the content valence of the articles.     

Quantitative analysis of RFID’ publications from 2006 to 2016

This paper aims to verify the trends in the scientific research about Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) published in journal papers from 2006 to 2016. RFID is a well-known information technology, which is used in different sectors to track and identify goods and to control and preserve the quality of products and their data. Because many researchers have studied RFID, practitioners are investing their time in developing low-cost and longer-life RFID systems using artificial intelligence, decision-aid tools, and the inclusion of a variety of sensors, questions emerge about its publications. Some different multidisciplinary database (Scopus and Web of Science), mainly based on peer-reviewed journals, were accessed. Therefore, to examine these papers, a sequence of statistical analyses was also studied. We found 17,190 papers, most of which were concentrated in SciVerse Scopus, and the increase paper tax (RGR(i)) decreased between 2006 and 2015, and started increasing between 2015 and 2016. Even though some journals are very famous for publishing information technology subjects, a journal on mechanical and materials concentrated most papers.     

A willingness to be vulnerable: norm psychology and human–robot relationships

Ethics and Information Technology - Should we welcome social robots into interpersonal relationships? In this paper I show that an adequate answer to this question must take three factors into...     

China to share expertise with other developing countries

China will pass on its technical knowledge to developing nations. CAS President LU Yongxiang said the country is now in a position to provide     

Using Aristotle’s theory of friendship to classify online friendships: a critical counterview

In a special issue of “Ethics and Information Technology” (September 2012), various philosophers have discussed the notion of online friendship. The preferred framework of analysis was Aristotle’s theory of friendship: it was argued that online friendships face many obstacles that hinder them from ever reaching the highest form of Aristotelian friendship. In this article I aim to offer a different perspective by critically analyzing the arguments these philosophers use against online friendship. I begin by isolating the most common arguments these philosophers use against online friendship and proceed to debunk them one by one by pointing out inconsistencies and fallacies in their arguments and, where needed, offering empirical findings from media and communication studies that offer a more nuanced view on online friendships. I conclude my analysis by questioning the correctness of the application of the Aristotelian theory of friendship by the critics of online friendship: in my view, the critics are applying the Aristotelian theory to online friendships in a rather narrow and limited way. Finally, I conclude my thesis by proposing that in the rapidly changing online landscape, a one-size-fits-all application of the Aristotelian theory on friendship is not sufficient to accurately judge the multitude of relationships that can exist online and that the various positive and valuable elements of online friendships should also be acknowledged and analyzed.     

What drives employees to share their tacit knowledge in practice?

Tacit knowledge is internal to an individual in the form of know-how, experience or expertise. To create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage, many companies have made substantial efforts to promote employees’ sharing of their tacit knowledge. In practice, however, tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) between employees is rare. This study empirically analyses the impacts of individual motivations and social capital on employees’ TKS in order to deepen and widen the understanding about the antecedents to employees’ TKS. Data collected from 713 employees in multiple industries were empirically tested by using structural equation modelling analysis through partial least squares. The analysis results show that anticipated intrinsic rewards and social capital positively influence employees’ TKS whereas anticipated extrinsic rewards have a negative effect on it. Furthermore, they show that employees’ attitudes, intentions and subjective norms of TKS play significant roles in linking the effects of individual motivations and social capital to employees’ TKS through a combination of expectancy theory and social capital theory based on the theory of planned behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications are presented on the basis of the major findings from this study.     

Revealing the complexity of users’ intention to adopt healthcare chatbots: A mixed-method analysis of antecedent condition configurations

Healthcare chatbots provide a professional, immediate, and low-cost tool for advising people on health information. Unlike previous studies on chatbot adoption that focus on the one-way net effect of components, this study reveals the complex antecedent configurations behind online healthcare chatbot adoption through an asymmetric approach. This study attempts to explain the causal configuration of user adoption in terms of three dimensions: functional, social, and user motivation features. A sequential mixed-method approach was chosen and a two-stage study, fuzzy set comparison analysis (fsQCA), and semi-structured interviews were conducted to deepen users' understanding, perceptions, and attitudes toward online healthcare chatbots, expressing more fine-grained insights into variable relationships. Five configurations were found to explain the high willingness of users to adopt healthcare chatbots. Perceived social presence was a core condition for each configuration. However, the social features of chatbots can only lead to high levels of trust and satisfaction when combined with functionality. The findings of this paper's mixed-method design and complexity study contribute to the adoption and theoretical literature on intelligent health services and chatbots. It guides tailoring chatbot functionality to individual user needs and provides practical guidance for the development of chatbots for health services through diverse combinations of machine chatbot features and user-motivated features.     

Sequential analysis and clustering to investigate users’ online shopping behaviors based on need-states

With the fast growth of e-commerce and the emerging new retail trend—online and offline integration—it is important to recognize the target market and satisfy customers with different needs by analyzing their online search behaviors. Accordingly, we propose sequential search pattern analysis and clustering to analyze consumers’ search behavior throughout the entire shopping process from the perspective of consumer need-states. We seek to understand how recommendation functions (RFs) or popular non-RF web features help consumers to shop online from a need-state perspective. We adopt maximal repeat patterns (MRPs) and lag sequential analysis (LSA) to analyze the sequence of search paths and identify significant repeated search patterns. Furthermore, to investigate the behaviors of customers with different types of need-states, we analyze webpages related to RFs and non-RF features using clustering to connect the evaluation results of search patterns with page traversal behaviors. This yields four groups of consumers who browse for information, adopt recommendations, consult reviews, and conduct searches with different levels of goal-oriented or exploratory-based need-states. The results show that consumers with strong goal-oriented need-states have the simplest search paths compared to other groups, whereas exploratory-based consumers have the most complicated search paths. Furthermore, consumers with higher need-states tend to search directly, consult reviews carefully, and have stored sequential search patterns, whereas consumers with exploratory-based need-states tend to explore the categories of products and adopt product classification hierarchy as a pivot to explore web features and then adopt specific types of RFs. Interestingly, consumers in the review-consulting group all belong to the goal-oriented need-states type with strong knowledge-building behaviors compared to others. The results reveal that each group employs its own particular web features to facilitate the shopping process and we can identify consumer types based on shopping behavior in the early stage of shopping. This suggests that e-store sellers can refine web features and deploy marketing strategies tailored to the search patterns for different levels of need-states.     

Novel delay-partitioning approaches to stability analysis for uncertain Lur’e systems with time-varying delays

This work deals with the problem of absolute stability analysis for a class of uncertain Lur’e systems with time-varying delays. Novel delay-partitioning approaches are presented, which are dividing the variation interval of the delay into three subintervals. Some new augment Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals (LKFs) are defined on each of the obtained subintervals which can efficiently make use of the information of the delay and relate to the reciprocally convex combination technique and the Wirtinger-based integral inequality method. Several improved delay-dependent criteria are derived in terms of the linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The merit of the proposed criteria lies in their less conservativeness and lower numerical complexity than relative literature. Two numerical examples are included to illustrate the effectiveness and the improvement of the proposed method.     

What motivates physicians to share free health information on online health platforms?

Online platforms enable physicians to share health and medical information with the public; however, little research has been conducted to explore why physicians share free health education information. Drawing on motivation theory, this study develops a theoretical model to explore the influences of material and professional motivation on free information sharing and the contingent roles of professional expertise and online expertise. The model is tested using a six-month panel data set of 61,326 physicians’ sharing experiences. The results indicate that in addition to material motivation, professional motivation also plays a primary role in inducing physicians to share free information. However, when a physician's professional and online expertise is at a high level, the effect of material motivation is weakened and professional motivation plays a more important role. This study contributes to the literature on knowledge sharing, online health behavior, and motivation theory, and provides implications for practice.     

Beyond knowledge management – understanding how to share knowledge through logic and practice

The aim of this paper is to develop our understanding of how knowledge is shared within a professional service firm. Insights from a 1-year ethnographic study suggest that it is important to go beyond the ‘theoretical limitations’ of knowledge management in order to understand how to manage knowledge within a firm. From the analysis of how knowledge is shared in practice, three logics emerge that help us understand not only how, but also why knowledge is shared among professionals within a professional service firm. A conceptual framework regarding how to better understand sharing, handling and developing knowledge within an organization is discussed, and implications for managers and future research are outlined.     

What’s mine is mine; what’s yours is mine: private ownership of ICTs as a threat to transparency

In the face of ubiquitous information communication technology, the presence of blogs, personal websites, and public message boards give the illusion of uncensored criticism and discussion of the ethical implications of business activities. However, little attention has been paid to the limitations on free speech posed by the control of access to the Internet by private entities, enabling them to censor content that is deemed critical of corporate or public policy. The premise of this research is that transparency alone will not achieve the desired results if ICT is used in a one way system, controlled by the provider of information. Stakeholders must have an avenue using the same technology to respond to and interact with the information. We propose a model that imposes on corporations a public trust, requiring these gatekeepers of communication technology to preserve individual rights to criticism and review.     

Preface:catalysis——key to a sustainable future

<正>Catalysis is a key and enabling technology and plays a critical role in the ields of energy conversion,materials synthesis,environmental protection and human health care.he gradual depletion of oil resources——the basis of modern energy and chemical industries——coupled with growing public demand for increased ecological and environmental protection,     

Students’ Reaction to Errors

L2 learners often develop grammatical competence in the absence of concomitant pragmatic competence. In an attempt to better understand how this developmental stage arises, this study explores the extent to which L2 learners of English are aware of differences in learners' and target-language production in grammar and pragmatics.     

Joint science academies’ statement: Global response to climate change

Climate change is real There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate. However there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring1. The evidence comes from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures and from phenomena such as increases in average global sea levels, retreating glaciers, and changes to many physical and biological systems. It is likely that most of the warming in r…     

Mapping firms’ locations in technological space: A topological analysis of patent statistics

Where do firms innovate? Mapping their locations and directions in technological space is challenging due to its high dimensionality. We propose a new method to characterize firms’ inventive activities via topological data analysis (TDA) that represents high-dimensional data in a shape graph. Applying this method to 333 major firms’ patents in 1976–2005 reveals hitherto undocumented industry dynamics: some firms remain undifferentiated; others develop unique portfolios. Firms with unique trajectories, which we define and measure graph-theoretically as “flares” in the Mapper graph, tend to perform better. This association is statistically and economically significant, and continues to hold after we control for portfolio size, firm survivorship, and industry classification.     

Innovation as a vehicle for improving socially vulnerable groups’ access to basic provisions: A research note on the development of a questionnaire module

Reducing inequality and social exclusion is a challenging task that will require a joint effort by all societal stakeholders, including not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. In order to develop and evaluate policy actions in this area, monitoring the contribution of these for-profit and not-for-profit organizations to a more inclusive society becomes crucial. This research note describes the development, cognitive pretesting, and large-scale empirical testing of a module that can be included in (inter)national innovation surveys. The module measures whether not-for-profits’ and for-profits’ innovation activities improve vulnerable groups’ access to basic provisions. It also provides insights in the main drivers for improving beneficiaries’ access to basic provisions through innovation and in the types and numbers of beneficiaries reached. The module was tested in the context of the Community Innovation Survey in Flanders, Belgium.