University libraries as a model for the determination of the need for information specialists in knowledge industries? An exploratory analysis of the information sector in Austria

In our paper we present an experimental study which investigated the possibility to project the need for information specialists serving knowledge workers in knowledge industries on the basis of an average university library serving their counterparts at a university. Information management functions, i.e. functions and processes related to information evaluation, acquisition, metadata creation, etc., performed in an average university library are the starting point of this investigation. The fundamental assumption is that these functions do not only occur in libraries but also in other contexts like, for instance, in knowledge industries. As a consequence, we try to estimate the need for information professionals in knowledge industries by means of quantitative methods from library and information science (Library Planning Model) and economics (input output analysis, occupational analysis). Our study confirms the validity of our assumption. Accordingly, the number of information specialists projected on the basis of university libraries is consistent with their actual number reported in national statistics. However, in order to attain a close fit, we had to revise the original research model by dismissing the split-up of information specialists into reader services and technical services staff.     

Do your friends make you smarter?: An analysis of social strategies in online information seeking

Prior research in the social search space has focused on the informational benefits of collaborating with others during web and workplace information seeking. However, social interactions, especially during complex tasks, can have cognitive benefits as well. Our goal in this paper is to document the methods and outcomes of using social resources to help with exploratory search tasks. We used a talk-aloud protocol and video capture to explore the actions of eight subjects as they completed two “Google-hard” search tasks. Task questions were alternated between a Social and Non-Social Condition. The Social Condition restricted participants to use only social resources—search engines were not allowed. The Non-Social Condition permitted normal web-based information sources, but restricted the use of social tools.     

Mobile users’ information privacy concerns and the role of app permission requests

Recent privacy-related incidents of mobile services have shown that app stores and providers face the challenge of mobile users’ information privacy concerns, which can prevent users from installing mobile apps or induce them to uninstall an app. In this paper, we investigate the role of app permission requests and compare the impact on privacy concerns with other antecedents of information privacy concerns, i.e., prior privacy experience, computer anxiety, and perceived control. To test these effects empirically, we conducted an online survey with 775 participants. Results of our structural equation modeling show that prior privacy experience, computer anxiety, and perceived control have significant effects on privacy concerns. However, concerns for app permission requests have approximately twice as much predictive value than the other factors put together to explain mobile users’ overall information privacy concerns. We expect that our findings can provide a theoretical contribution for future mobile privacy research as well as practical implications for app stores and providers.     

Rewriting and the Original Work——An analysis of the adapted version of Outlaws of the Marsh

One of the best known and best loved of the ancientChinese novels to have come down through the ages, ShiNai’an’s Outlaws of the Marsh is based on a peasant up-rising which took place in the reign of Hui Zong, a SongDynasty emperor who ruled from 1101 t…     

Market for technology 2.0? Reassessing the role of complementary assets on licensing decisions

The ability to access specialized complementary assets has been key to explaining how firms benefit from their technological innovations. When firms lack complementary assets the more likely they have to rely on markets for technology to profit from their R&D investments. We extend this view documenting the emergence of a new type of industry intermediary, Contract Development & Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs), which provide access to complementary assets on a per-use basis. CDMOs allow firms to contract for complementary assets at variable costs without the need to invest in such assets internally. This opens up new product development paths, in which firms do not out-license their products to firms with complementary assets but sustain their development in-house using CDMOs. We highlight that the expansion of services offered by CDMOs changes the nature of the industry's source of competitive advantage and provide empirical evidence that the expansion of CDMOs is associated with a decline in the number of out-licensing deals among US biopharmaceutical firms. In so doing, the study explains how innovation intermediaries like CDMOs can have a profound effect on an industry's specialized complementary assets and the market for technology.     

What is it about strategic implications of using financial models in the process of technology management?

This paper analyses strategic implications of using the financial models in evaluating research and development (R&D) technology investments. It also discusses the challenges of applying the financial models in valuing intellectual property (IP). This paper reveals how conventional financial models fail to recognise the importance of strategic positioning since there are limits in terms of using the quantified approaches to measure R&D performance. From the technology management perspective, it is argued that financial models need to be reconciled with technology strategies since today's investments have linkages with firms' competitiveness in the long run.     

How do men and women differ in research collaborations? An analysis of the collaborative motives and strategies of academic researchers

Do men and women academic faculty vary in their research collaboration patterns and strategies? This straightforward question does not lend itself to a straightforward answer. A great many sex-correlated variables could possibly mitigate the relationship of sex and collaboration. If one finds sex-correlated differences in the number of collaborators, can one infer that there is something intrinsic to men's and women's work strategies and preferences? Or would such differences owe instead to women's and men's different positions in work structures and hierarchies? The focus here is on two sets of research collaboration variables, numbers of collaborators and the collaboration strategies employed. The study uses questionnaire data from the U.S. National Survey of Academic Scientists (n = 1714) and tests several hypotheses about collaboration numbers and strategies. Regression results indicate, counter to the core hypotheses and almost all published literature, that in a properly specified model, one taking into account such factors as tenure, discipline, family status and doctoral cohort, women actually have somewhat more collaborators on average than do men. For both men and women, those with more industrial interactions and those affiliated with university research centers have more collaborators. Men and women differ in their collaborator choice strategies. Men are more likely to be oriented to “instrumental,” and “experience” strategies, while both men and women are motivated by “mentoring” strategies. Regression analyses show that for both men and women, having a coherent collaborator choice strategy predicts the number of collaborators.     

What makes bloggers share knowledge? An investigation on the role of trust

As a Web 2.0 technology, blogs are gaining attention as useful knowledge sharing platforms for knowledge management in a collaborative work environment. This study investigates the relationship between trust and bloggers’ knowledge sharing practices. Based on an analysis of results from the 485 survey respondents, the research found that there is the positive relationship between bloggers’ trust and their knowledge sharing practices. This study explores trust in multiple dimensions including economy-based trust, trust in bloggers, and trust in the Internet and trust in blog providers. The detailed research findings are presented.     

Improving information security management: An analysis of ID–password usage and a new login vulnerability measure

Statistics show that the number of identity theft victims in the US increased by 12% in 2009, to 11.1 million adults, while the total annual fraud amount increased by 12.5%, to $54 billion. As the e-commerce volume is increasing and various online services are becoming more popular, the number of sites to which an average Internet user subscribes is increasing rapidly. Given the limited memory capacity of human beings, an Internet user's login credentials (in the form of a combination of a user ID and a password) are usually reused over multiple accounts, which can cause significant security problems. In this study, we address the vulnerability of login credentials. First, based on a unique Internet user data set, we analyze the behavioral characteristics of login credentials usage. We find that the same login credentials are used for many more accounts and reused much more often than previously expected. Furthermore, usage patterns are found to be quite skewed. Second, building on a network perspective of login credentials usage, we suggest a vulnerability measure of an individual's login credentials and analyze the vulnerability of current Internet users. The resulting information is valuable not only to the research community but also to managers and policy makers striving to reduce security vulnerability.     

Do online information sources really make tourists visit more diverse places?: Based on the social networking analysis

This study investigated whether or not online tourism information prompted the international tourists who visited South Korea in 2015 to visit a wide range of tourism destinations, in particular those in non-capital regions, by comparing the tourist site networks of online and offline information seeker groups. It was hypothesized that the data would confirm how well the smart tourism ecosystem has been built and contributed to South Korea's tourism industry by showing that online tourism information leads tourists to visit more geographically diverse sites. Using network analysis with big data, the results showed that the offline information seeker group had geographically wider movement patterns than the online information seekers. In other words, the offline information seeker group showed movements in various directions and frequent visits to non-capital regions as opposed to the online information seeker group, which was highly dependent on the capital region. Thus, this study suggested that current online tourism information about South Korea did not provide appropriate tourism information to fulfill the needs of international tourists. This, consequently, might interrupt the implementation of smart tourism ecosystem efforts. Based on these results, this study had highlighted the importance of delivering both regionally and contextually diverse tourism information via online information sources.     

An empirical investigation of the utilitarian,social benefits in LBS information disclosure—The moderating effect of the gender based social role theory

The prior studies on information disclosure in location-based services (LBS) suggested that the perceived benefits of information disclosure in LBS were manifested by three benefits, namely, locatability, personalization, and social benefits. The three benefits might affect information disclosure intention differently. As an extension, individual factors, such as gender, may affect the relationship. However, according to literature, little research has investigated on the combined influence of the three benefits on the information disclosure intention in LBS with the gender as a moderator. Based upon the self-determination and social role theories, this study intends to bridge the gap empirically. The hypotheses are largely supported by 215 respondents. Unexpectedly, the research findings show that for females, locatability and personalization are more important in predicting their information disclosure intention, whereas for males, the social benefit has more of an impact on information disclosure intention, which is opposite to the hypotheses and convention. Furthermore, the research findings indicate that the behaviors of males and females may conform to the roles distributed within a society of this information age rather than to the personalities of the individuals. Finally, the implications are presented.     

The role of information technologies (ITs) in firms’ resource orchestration process: A case analysis of China’s “Huangshan 168”

This case analysis considers how digital disruption is reaching beyond technology to engulf traditionally considered low-tech industries and influence conventionally viewed non-digital businesses. For incumbent firms in these low-tech industries, the disruption brings not only plenty of opportunities but also numerous threats. Firms that quickly embrace the digital era by profoundly changing their incumbent strategies, systems, operational habits, and business models have great chances to outperform their competitors and succeed within this dynamic environment. One digital strategy that might be adopted by incumbent firms in the low-tech industries to seize the opportunities brought by digital disruption is to integrate their resource orchestration actions with advanced information technologies (ITs). Given the strong connection between firms’ resource orchestration actions and their competitive advantages, as well as the increasingly vital role of ITs in contemporary business operations, it is an imperative to investigate the impacts of ITs on the resource orchestration processes of modern enterprises. Additionally, for incumbent firms operating in the low-tech industries, integrating their resource management with modern ITs might help them effectively identify and accumulate unique resources, develop their capabilities, and create value through continuous reconfiguration of resources. Therefore, low-tech firms that strive to adopt modern information technologies in their resource orchestration process are more likely to achieve improved organizational performance and competitive advantages than their competitors.     

Innovation and firm value: An investigation of the changing role of patents, 1985–2007

This paper examines how the relationship between firm value and patent-based indicators of inventive activity has changed over time. We use data from more than 33,000 mergers and acquisitions deals between 1985 and 2007, and distinguish between American (USPTO) and European (EPO) patents. Our results indicate that over time EPO patents have become the dominant indicator of innovative activity, while USPTO patents have no effect on firm value near the end of the sample period. The results are robust to controlling for citations and are especially strong for small firms, for firms operating in the drug and chemical industries, and when target and acquiring firms operate in different industries or countries.     

Same but different? Research and technology organizations,universities and the innovation activities of firms

Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) and universities are important elements of countries’ innovation systems. As they are both halfway between science and industry, they are often considered to be the same thing. However, recent studies have stressed the differences between the two. In this paper, we analyze the innovative characteristics (impacts and types of innovation and internal R&D investments) of firms that collaborate with RTOs versus universities. Our study is based on statistical analysis of Community Innovation Survey micro-data (CIS 2012). Our results suggest that firms that see RTOs as more important sources of knowledge than universities have a higher probability of developing service innovation, invest less in internal R&D but are less likely to introduce new, groundbreaking innovations into the market. These results have significant policy and management implications, especially regarding the different but complementary contributions offered respectively by RTOs and universities.     

At the Intersection of the Digital Divide and the Knowledge Gap: Do Knowledge Domains and Measures Matter?

This study reports on knowledge gain, examined through three separate measures (free recall, comprehension and recognition) among high- and low-education groups who used two types of news media (newspaper vs. online) to consume two kinds of news (public affairs vs. entertainment). Results (n = 123) confirm the knowledge gap and validate concerns about the digital divide. Yet three different knowledge acquisition measures generated dissimilar findings: strong education effects for free recall, strong media format effects for recognition, and strong interaction effects between education and media format for comprehension. The implications of these inconsistencies are considered for measuring knowledge gaps in future research.     

Who are the researchers that are collaborating with industry? An analysis of the wine sectors in Chile, South Africa and Italy

Research on University-industry (U-I) linkages and their determinants has increased significantly in the past few years. However, there is still controversy on the key factors explaining the formation of U-I linkages, and especially related to individual researcher characteristics. This paper provides new empirical evidence and, in particular, looks at the importance of researchers’ individual characteristics and their institutional environments in explaining the propensity to engage in different types of U-I linkages. Based on an original dataset, we present new evidence on three wine producing areas - Piedmont, a region of Italy, Chile and South Africa - that have successfully responded to recent structural changes in the industry worldwide. Empirical findings reveal that researchers’ individual characteristics, such as centrality in the academic system, age and sex, matter more than publishing records or formal degrees. Institutional specificities at country level also play a role in shaping the propensity of researchers to engage with industry.     

A case of conflicting norms? Mobilizing and accountability information in newspaper coverage of the autism-vaccine controversy

When reporting health risks, the news media are often criticized for omitting "mobilizing" information that allows readers to act on existing attitudes. Using American and British newspaper coverage of the autism-vaccine controversy as a case study, this article takes a "behind the scenes" look at normative pressures that may influence whether such information appears in coverage. In particular, can holding health officials accountable for their actions potentially "crowd out" mobilizing information? A content analysis suggests that mobilizing information (at least one of four examples) was present in only 16% of articles, compared to 38% that mentioned accountability messages (at least one of two examples). US newspapers were significantly more likely to mention at least one mobilization example. Finally, although only 11% discussed both, articles were more likely to discuss certain mobilizing and accountability examples together. Implications for journalism ethics and vaccine risk communication are discussed.