Journal of Systems and Information Technology

Kalamatianos, Georgios; Symeonidis, Symeon; Mallis, Dimitrios; Arampatzis, Avi

2018 Journal of Systems and Information Technology

doi: 10.1108/JSIT-06-2017-0040

PurposeThe rapid growth of social media has rendered opinion and sentiment mining an important area of research with a wide range of applications. This paper aims to focus on the Greek language and the microblogging platform Twitter, investigating methods for extracting emotion of individual tweets as well as population emotion for different subjects (hashtags).Design/methodology/approachThe authors propose and investigate the use of emotion lexicon-based methods as a mean of extracting emotion/sentiment information from social media. The authors compare several approaches for measuring the intensity of six emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. To evaluate the effectiveness of the methods, the authors develop a benchmark dataset of tweets, manually rated by two humans.FindingsDevelopment of a new sentiment lexicon for use in Web applications. The authors then assess the performance of the methods with the new lexicon and find improved results.Research limitations/implicationsAutomated emotion results of research seem promising and correlate to real user emotion. At this point, the authors make some interesting observations about the lexicon-based approach which lead to the need for a new, better, emotion lexicon.Practical implicationsThe authors examine the variation of emotion intensity over time for selected hashtags and associate it with real-world events.Originality/valueThe originality in this research is the development of a training set of tweets, manually annotated by two independent raters. The authors “transfer” the sentiment information of these annotated tweets, in a meaningful way, to the set of words that appear in them.

Hashim, Kamarul Faizal; Tan, Felix B.

2018 Journal of Systems and Information Technology

doi: 10.1108/JSIT-11-2016-0068

PurposeThis study aims to examine the determinant factors of perceived online community usefulness from a motivational point of view. The researchers have combined the use of the expectancy value model and the information system continuous-use model to predict continuous knowledge-sharing behaviour between online community members. This research provides an additional view of current literature focusing on technology-related factors.Design/methodology/approachThis research has adopted a quantitative research method, with data being collected through a Web survey technique. The members of online business communities were invited to participate in the survey. A total of 220 respondents participated in the online survey. These data were then analysed using structural equation modelling.FindingsThe research findings revealed that motivation-related factors have a moderate ability to predict members’ perception of online community usefulness. The research findings have shown that attainment and utility values are two significant motivational factors, which can positively influence perceived online community usefulness. By promoting these values, continuous knowledge-sharing intentions can be encouraged through perceived online community usefulness.Research limitations/implicationsHaving members from communities other than online business communities might deliver different results, given that they have different needs and values. Also, this study only received responses from active contributors within selected online business communities. The responses from non-active contributors were not included in this study.Practical implicationsThis study provides practical suggestions on how the administrators and designers of an online community can promote positive values within their community platform, using motivation-related mechanisms.Originality/valueThe existing literature that examines the determinants of perceived online community usefulness have mainly directed attention towards technology-related factors. This study fills the gap by examining the determinant factors of this construct from a motivation perspective.

Sanakulov, Nodir; Kalliomaa, Sami; Karjaluoto, Heikki

2018 Journal of Systems and Information Technology

doi: 10.1108/JSIT-09-2017-0073

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine salespersons’ adoption and usage of mobile sales configuration tools (MSCT) and to identify areas for further development in this realm. Another objective is to offer a conceptualization of MSCT adoption.Design/methodology/approachFor this purpose, a qualitative case study approach was selected as the research method to better understand acceptance of a mobile configuration tool used by business-to-business (B2B) salespersons. Primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews, which included a series of open-ended questions to gain more detailed and contextual data.FindingsThe results obtained from the interviews indicated several important determinants of adoption of sales configuration tools, and three different personal innovativeness types were identified.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study has certain limitations that should be considered in future studies. First, the results of this study cannot be generalized in other contexts because of small number of participants (nine salespersons) included. Second, social desirability might have affected the results in a way that caused the salespersons to have been tempted to talk positively about MSCT.Practical implicationsBased on the findings several suggestions for managers and software developers are made such as further technical development of MSCT, development of common sales routine for all salespersons, mentoring new salespersons and establishing social media channels for salesperson to interact with each, share experience/knowledge.Originality/valueCurrent paper can serve as pathway toward understanding of MSCT adoption and usage as it opens new avenues as a source of hypotheses for a quantitative analysis of certain phenomena such as the correlation between MSCT usage and sales performance.

Nehemia-Maletzky, Monica; Iyamu, Tiko; Shaanika, Irja

2018 Journal of Systems and Information Technology

doi: 10.1108/JSIT-10-2017-0098

PurposeThis study aims to examine how both activity theory (AT) and actor network theory (ANT) can be complementarily applied in information system (IS) studies.Design/methodology/approachThe interpretivist approach was followed, within which the qualitative methods were used. Existing literature was gathered as data. The analysis was done by following the interpretive approach.FindingsBased on the analysis and discussion, a guide for complementary use of both AT and ANT in IS studies was developed. The guide is divided into two parts, which helps to achieve the objectives of the study: complimentary use of AT and ANT in an IS study and order-of-use of both theories in a study, as depicted in the framework.Originality/valueThis study is original in that it has not previously been published in part or full. The results of the study is intended to be of value to both IS postgraduate students and researchers.

Alrabiah, Abdulrahman; Drew, Steve

2018 Journal of Systems and Information Technology

doi: 10.1108/JSIT-08-2017-0069

PurposeThis paper first aims to examine how business process change decisions (BPCDs) were implemented in a government organisation bound by tightly coupled temporal constraints (TTCs). Second, it focuses on how to achieve optimal and efficient BPCDs that require tight compliance with regulators’ temporal constraints. Finally, it formulates a rigorous framework that can facilitate the execution of optimal BPCDs with maximum efficiency and minimal effort, time and cost.Design/methodology/approachDecision-making biases by individuals or groups in organisations can impede optimal BPC implementation; to demonstrate this, a case study is investigated and the formulated framework is applied to tackle these failings.FindingsThe case study analysis shows 76 per cent of the BPCDs implemented were inefficient, mostly because of poor decisions, and these resulted in negative ripple effects. In response, the newly developed hierarchical change management structure (HCMS) framework was used to empower organisations to execute high-velocity BPCDs, enabling them to handle any temporal constraints imposed by regulators or other exogenous factors. The HCMS framework was found to be highly effective, scoring an average improvement of more than 100 per cent when measured using decision quality dimensions. This paper would be of value for business executives and strategic decision makers engaging with BPC.Research limitations/implicationsThe HCMS framework has been applied in a single case study as a proof of concept. Future research could extend its application to broader domains that have multi-attribute structures and environments. The evaluation processes of the proposed framework are based on subjective metrics. Causal links from the framework to business process metrics will provide a more complete performance picture.Practical implicationsThe outcome of this research assists in formulating a systematic BPCD framework that is otherwise unavailable. The practical use of the proposed framework would potentially impact on quality outcomes for organisations. The model is derived from decision trees and analytical hierarchical processes and is tailored to address this problematic area. The proposed HCMS framework would help organisations to execute efficient BPCDs with minimal time, effort and cost. The HCMS framework contributes to the academic literature on BPCD that leverages diverse stakeholders to engage in BPC initiatives.Originality/valueThe research presents a novel framework –HCMS – that provides a platform for organisations to easily determine and solve hierarchical decision structure problems, thereby allowing them to efficiently automate and institutionalise optimal BPCDs.

George, Joey F.; Scheibe, Kevin; Townsend, Anthony M.; Mennecke, Brian

2018 Journal of Systems and Information Technology

doi: 10.1108/JSIT-11-2017-0118

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the extent to which newly agile organizations followed 2001’s Agile Manifesto, especially in terms of the 12 principles of the agile approach, as included in the Manifesto.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted in-depth case studies of groups in three large business organizations that had recently adopted agile. Two researchers spent one day at each site, attending daily standups and conducting interviews with managers, developers and customers.FindingsAcross the three organizations, developers were faithful to two agile principles: the primacy of delivering valuable software continually and regular reflections on the process with an eye toward improvement. The developers were uniformly unfaithful to the principle that requires face-to-face communication. Each organization varied in their adherence to the remaining nine principles. Obstacles to faithful adoption included the experience of the organization with agile, the extent to which the industry was regulated and the extent to which developers and customers were physically dispersed.Originality/valueWhile past research on agile development is extensive, this paper examines perspectives on the method and its adoption through the lens of the original Agile Manifesto and its 12 principles. The principles were grouped into three broader categories – software delivery, people and process – to provide additional insights and to sharpen the analysis.