Ana Rosa Del Aguila-Obra

Organizational factors affecting Internet technology adoption

Purpose – To explore the factors that affect the implementation of Internet technologies and to what extent the size of the company, as an organizational factor, influences that process.Design/methodology/approach – According to the innovation adoption theory, it was found that Internet adoption in firms is a process with different stages where a company is in one of a number of development stages depending on some variables related to organizational factors, such as the availability of technology resources, organizational structure, and managerial capabilities. The paper identified empirically different stages in the Internet adoption process and linked them with those factors. It analyzed questionnaire‐based data from 280 companies, applying factor and clustering analysis.Findings – Four main groups of companies were found according to their stage in the adoption of Internet technologies. The paper established that, contrary to the literature suggestions, the size of the company does not have any effect...

Perceived playfulness, gender differences and technology acceptance model in a blended learning scenario

The importance of technology for education is increasing year-by-year at all educational levels and particularly for Universities. This paper reexamines one important determinant of technology acceptance and use, such as perceived playfulness in the context of a blended learning setting and reveals existing gender differences. After a literature review on the mentioned topics, some statistical analysis, such as difference between means and structural equation modeling, were run with a sample of 484 students. The main contribution of this study is to provide evidence that there exist gender differences in the effect of playfulness in the student attitude toward a technology and the intention to use it. In females, playfulness has a direct influence on attitude toward using the system. In males, this influence is mediated by perceived usefulness. Some implications and conclusions are included.

Factors affecting e-collaboration technology use among management students

This paper describes an exploratory study of 225 management students in a medium-sized university in southern Spain. The influences of gender and previous experience as determinants of technology use were analysed. Furthermore, a modified Technology Acceptance Model, using SEM, was applied to explain the influence of perceived computer self-efficacy on the intention to use Internet-based e-collaboration technologies in the learning-teaching process. This was completed with qualitative data from unstructured interviews with ten students. Our results suggest that the management student cannot be considered an advanced user of the Internet. Computer self-efficacy has a positive influence on intention to use the system. This intention is also influenced by attitude towards the system, but not directly by perceived usefulness. These and other contradictory findings are analysed in the paper.

Web and social media usage by museums: Online value creation

Abstract This paper contributes to the understanding of online strategies in the context of museums as examples of cultural organisations, an underrepresented sector in the information management literature. It presents a theoretical framework for understanding the online strategies of museums’ use of Web and social media, their sources of online value (efficiency, novelty, lock-in, complementarities) and some measurements of Internet performance, such as the Alexa Internet ranking and the number of followers of museums in social media. This type of analysis has not been conducted before and the findings will help museum curators and managers of other cultural institutions to appreciate the impact of these technologies and to make better informed decisions regarding online strategies and resource allocation. In addition, the results of this research are applicable to similar organisations, such as archives and cultural exhibitions, as well as to other service organisations related to information, education and entertainment activities.

Shifting sands: Regional perspectives on the role of social capital in supporting open innovation through knowledge transfer and exchange with small and medium-sized enterprises

This article explores the role of social capital in enabling knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) between higher education institutions (HEIs) and spin-off (academic and non-academic) small and medium-sized enterprises in the context of open innovation, in order to convert knowledge into innovation within regional innovation systems. It presents the findings from 18 in-depth interviews with related stakeholders, and social network analysis of relationships in an exemplar technology park in Andalucía, southern Spain. The main findings suggest that there are many challenges to achieving successful KTE in regional innovation systems: recognition, intellectual property contracts and timescales. Similarly, there are opportunities related to intermediaries, joint teams and market impact. Significantly, the study highlights the importance of both formal and informal relationships as enablers of successful KTE involving HEIs and spin-off small and medium-sized enterprises in the context of open innovation.

The influence of entrepreneur characteristics on the success of pure dot.com firms

The growing popularity of the Internet, accompanied by falling access costs, is provoking an increase in the number of users and buyers on the net, and the appearance of new organisations that commercialise their products and services exclusively on the net. At present, this type of firms, known as dot.coms or cyber-traders, is playing an increasingly significant role on the internet, although the majority have not yet achieved much success. Despite this, there have been few studies focusing on the factors that affect the success of these companies. This current work attempts to determine if the characteristics of the entrepreneur may constitute a success factor for such firms, and if so, to what extent. With this in mind, 23 cases of Spanish dot.coms were analysed and a model to explain the influence of the entrepreneur characteristics on the success of pure dot.com firms was proposed.

The Information Overload Paradox: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis of Data from New Zealand, Spain, and the USA

The information overload phenomenon has been studied for many years, and has proven to be more complex than researchers believed it to be. The study presented here aims at shedding some light on the complexity of information overload, by examining the relationship between perceived information overload intensity and three traditional and one nontraditional information overload predictors. The nontraditional predictor was power distance, which was manipulated through the collection of data from 184 local managers and professionals in New Zealand, Spain and the USA. The data analyses employed partial least squares-based structural equation modeling, and led to one surprising conclusion: perceived information overload intensity seems to be more strongly related to power distance than to the volume of written information or number of information transactions processed by an individual. This conclusion is referred to here as the information overload paradox.

The influence of electronic service quality on loyalty in postal services: the mediating role of satisfaction

This paper analyses the role of online satisfaction as a mediator in the relationship between electronic service quality (e-SQ) and online loyalty (integrating behavioural and attitudinal elements) in the context of postal services. In an increasingly competitive environment, postal operators need to identify the determinants of the success of their online distribution channels in terms of service quality and their influence on satisfaction and loyalty. Based on previous research, hypotheses are proposed regarding the main factors of e-SQ and their relation to satisfaction and behavioural and attitudinal loyalty. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were performed to test the proposed hypotheses, using a sample of 359 website users of the main postal services company in Spain (correos.es). The relational, informational, and transactional dimensions were found to be the main explanatory factors for e-SQ. Satisfaction was found to mediate the relationship between e-SQ and behavioural and attitudinal loyalty.

All in the mind: understanding the social economy enterprise innovation in Spain

Purpose – Several studies have investigated the factors affecting innovation in medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at different levels. However, research into the characteristics of the entrepreneur (individual level) in social economy enterprises (SEE), and the relationship to innovation is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to build upon previous innovation literature to analyse SEE innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach – This paper empirically analyses data from 193 face-to-face interviews with the founder/owner/managing director of small (zero to nine employees) SEE in Andalucia, Spain. A semi-structured questionnaire was produced using the literature review. To ensure the reliability of the data collection and the consistency of the results, several researchers reviewed the codification and analysis of the answers. Quantitative analyses were performed on the data, including descriptive statistical analysis and multivariate analysis (factorial for innovativeness construct validation, multiple reg...