Media Appropriateness: Effects of Experience on Communication Media Choice

Organizations are faced with a myriad of emerging advanced information technologies. Management may be anxious about the numerous choices while simultaneously yearning for instant realization of benefits promised by the adopted technologies. Management should also be aware that the eventual institutional use of these technologies is dependent upon the learning and training opportunities presented to individuals. Individual approval or established perceptions toward technology appropriateness are mostly idiosyncratic and contingent upon numerous factors such as task goals or prior technology experience. This paper examines the effect of learning experiences with nine communication media, based on perception changes of media appropriateness. Two hundred and ninety-five MBA students participated in a longitudinal quasi-experimental study. Results indicate that traditionally rich media such as face-to-face, group meetings, and telephone were consistently perceived to be more appropriate than emerging new media over time. However, an individual's specific experience with communication media affects perceptions of media appropriateness, and this is particularly evident in computer-based communications. In addition, changes in perception of media appropriateness were directly related to the participants' learning experience and were particularly salient with new media. Furthermore, increased use of some media was found to be associated with decreased use of other media. This study demonstrates that deliberate technology-use mediation can be an effective management mechanism to facilitate an individual's ability to gain experience in the use of new technologies. This paper also suggests that an individual's media experiences and temporal factors are two important but underemphasized factors in understanding and studying technology choice and use.     

A Framework for Examining the Interface between Operations and Information Systems: Implications for Research in the New Millennium*

Even though much research has been published in operations and information systems, both functional areas find their roots in other disciplines. While operations management evolved from operations research in the 1960s, the field of information systems is of more recent vintage and traces its original roots to computer science. Both disciplines now naturally have come closer together as information and process-technology-based changes force manufacturing firms to become more efficient and customer focused. Market and technology-driven e-commerce initiatives that are likely to dominate business strategies in the future cannot be successfully achieved without a successful integration of operations and information systems. In this paper, we present a unifying framework that can be used to better understand the management of the functional interface between operations and information systems. We also categorize and highlight the contributions of the articles that appear in this special research focus issue. Finally, research directions that emerge from our understanding of this interface are outlined in an effort to stimulate further thinking and research that can advance our knowledge of this interface area.     

社会变迁抑或非理性选择:自谋职业移民的困境

非自愿移民牺牲更多的个人利益而换取了工程项目的顺利完成,但他们在搬迁安置后存在着陷入生活困顿的现象。以＂农转非＂进城的自谋职业移民为研究对象,深入展示移民的生活现状,理清诱发移民困顿的因素。     

How Do We Understand Partnership Working? Experiences from a Telecare Project

Implementing telecare requires experience and knowledge from different disciplines and sectors; business, technology and care. The uptake of telecare has been slow, which is assumed to be caused by difficulties in co‐operation within telecare partnerships. This article presents a new approach to improve understanding of telecare partnerships. The approach builds on theories of trust and partnership working and is informed by rational choice theory. Within this article the approach is applied to recent experiences from a telecare project in Norway, to demonstrate how different ways of interpreting the complex social interactions in telecare partnerships yield new insight and understanding. Examples from the Norwegian project illustrate how different understandings of actions and choices affected trust and caused either improved or deteriorated co‐operation in the partnership. The partners that were able to develop trust through a common evaluation of the problems co‐operated better. However, when partners lacked or had insufficient knowledge, either of each other or of the situation, this led to disparate understandings that threatened trust and affected further co‐operation. The new approach presented here is helpful in analyzing and understanding the actions of different partners within a telecare partnership and identifying why things worked well or went wrong. The approach may have wider relevance for other partnerships.     

论英文写作中的词汇选用

词汇是语言的基本材料。在一篇英文写作中,词汇的选择是否恰到好处,将直接影响到句子、段落的优劣乃至全篇文章的质量。因此,构建写作大厦第一加工厂的写作材料,就是选用准确达意、言简意赅、形象生动的词汇。     

农村公共服务的自主供给困境及其治理路径

作为最原始的供给模式,农村公共服务的自主供给是指村社居民承担成本、主动参与到公共物品或服务生产提供的过程,表现为家庭自我供给、村民团队供给和村庄集体供给等。虽然其对政府、市场和志愿供给的补充有效缓解了农村公共服务供给匮乏的困局,但理性选择框架下的利益博弈和村社道德缺失、政府角色缺位等限制了自主供给作用的进一步发挥,存在资源浪费、供给不足、合作失败等困境。重塑乡村社会资本、完善服务供给机制、重新定位政府角色等成为可能的路径依赖。     

全球化背景中跨国公司的语言策略研究

全球化打破了传统地域对社会文化结构的限制,使人们对现实生活中的物象产生了新的认识,无疑也让人们对跨国公司及国际商务英语产生了新的深刻的认识。跨国公司有怎样的语言认识、选择怎样的语言对其经营文化起着重要作用,进而会影响到其商业的成果,所以跨国公司的语言策略对跨国公司的发展同样是一个不可忽视的问题。     

米尔顿·弗里德曼论教育自由选择思想述评

教育可以产业化和事业化。弗里德曼反对政府对教育市场的干预,主张消费者对教育的自由选择。针对美国教育事业的弊端,他提出了一些具有借鉴意义的办法。但仅从经济自由主义的视角单一地追求经济效率并不一定能从根本上解决教育问题。     

英语“选择比较”的结构、语义及用法

文章用较为充分的语言实例,对英语的一种特殊比较形式——＂选择比较＂的结构、语义及用法进行分析和归纳;同时,对英语中的＂选择＂、＂比较＂、＂选择比较＂为读者提供了较为清楚的概念和认识。     

价格促销对消费者品牌选择的影响研究

本文通过实验方法探索性地研究了价格促销对消费者品牌选择的非对称影响。研究表明:消费者对不同产品的价格敏感性有所不同;较贵重的笔记本电脑、手机等耐用消费品行业中的低端品牌在与高端品牌的短期价格竞争中会获得更多市场份额,而对较廉价的洗发水等非耐用消费品来说,高端品牌将会在降价促销时获益更多。本文研究结论与国外同类研究结论有所不同,对企业的定价决策有重要的理论指导意义。