Chee Wei Phang

A framework of ICT exploitation for e-participation initiatives

Governments around the world are tapping on the potential of information and communication technologies (ICt) to transform the public sector, a phenomenon broadly known as e-government. deployment of ICt in government is expected to improve internal efficiency and provide citizens with better information and services. the increasing interest in e-government is evident in the rising public expenditure on ICt. as an indicator, IdC estimates that e-government spending in the asia-Pacific region will exceed u.s.

Senior Citizens' Adoption of E-Government: In Quest of the Antecedents of Perceived Usefulness

31 billion by the end of 2010. 6 as e-government efforts mature, the exploitation of ICt is being extended to the realm of democracy such as, in enhancing citizen participation in policy-making.

Investigating organizational learning in eGovernment projects: A multi-theoretic approach

E-Government, as a vehicle to deliver enhanced services to citizens, is now extending its reach to the elderly population through provision of targeted services. In doing so, the ideals of ubiquitous e-Government may be better achieved. However, there is a lack of studies on e-Government adoption among senior citizens, especially considering that this age group is growing in size and may be averse to new IT applications. This study aims to address this gap by investigating an innovative e- Government service specifically tailored for senior citizens, called CPF e-Withdrawal. Technology adoption model (TAM) is employed as the theoretical foundation, in which perceived usefulness is recognized as the most significant predictor of adoption intention. This study attempts to identify the antecedents of perceived usefulness by drawing from the innovation diffusion literature as well as age-related studies. Our findings agree with TAM and indicate that internet safety perception and perceived ease of use are significant predictors of perceived usefulness.

The influence of user interaction and participation in social media on the consumption intention of niche products

Organizational learning is essential during eGovernment implementation to leverage the benefits of such efforts. However, there is a lack of holistic understanding of organizational learning in IT-related change in public organizations. Motivated by such concerns, we construct a structurational framework that inter-relates elements pertinent to IT-related change from four theoretical perspectives: organizational politics, organizational culture, institutional theory, and organizational learning itself. Inter-relationships between elements of these perspectives are explicated through the notions of structures, modalities, and actions from structuration theory. Guided by the framework, we conducted a case study to examine the organizational learning occurring during a successful eGovernment project. The analysis indicates the inextricable interactions between elements from the different perspectives during the project implementation. The proposed framework offers both theoretical and practical benefits for understanding and facilitating organizational learning in eGovernment projects.

Customers’ preference of online store visit strategies: an investigation of demographic variables

Social media may be particularly adept at promoting niche products because of the tendency of consumers to participate in generating reviews and discussing such products, thereby raising interest in them. In this study, we investigate how patterns of user interaction in discussing a niche cultural product may influence participation levels, which in turn enhance consumption intentions. We show that higher levels of participation can indeed enhance consumption intention. Furthermore, interaction patterns with high inclusiveness and betweenness centralization may enhance participation levels, whereas out-degree centralization and core-periphery have a detrimental influence. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Leveraging O2O Commerce for Product Promotion: An Empirical Investigation in Mainland China

There is significant interest among marketers and academics to understand how to segment online consumers to better fulfill their needs. Previous literature on brick-and-mortar shopping has advocated demographic variables as simple yet valuable indicators to understand consumers and segment them accordingly. However, research in the online shopping context has produced mixed findings about the effects of demographics, which limit their utility to online merchants. As an attempt to address the ambiguity, the study proposes a more comprehensive approach to investigate the effects of demographic variables in the online shopping context. This is done by considering the demographic variables in combinations and using clickstream data to more accurately derive online shoppers’ surfing behaviour for segmentation purposes. Following this approach, our study investigates the effects of the demographic variables of gender, age, income, and education, based on the theories of media naturalness and consumer trait and involvement. The results reveal various effects of age, income, and education on online consumers’ needs being reflected in their store visit strategies. Implications are suggested for e-commerce research and practice.

Visiting Mobile Application Development: What, How and Where

This research investigates how retail businesses may promote their products online to induce offline sales via social media-enabled online-to-offline (O2O) commerce. We focus on a country context where such an emerging e-commerce model is particularly prevalent, i.e., China. Key to leveraging this model is to attract consumer attention and stimulate their actions both online and offline, which may be achieved through information technology (IT)-enabled promotional approaches, such as administering banner adverts and digital coupons. The former focuses on communicating product attribute information, whereas the latter focuses on communicating incentives. Building on a collectivism cultural perspective, word-of-mouth (WOM) communication motives framework, and digital advertising literature, we hypothesize their different effects online (generating produce review) and offline (inducing sales). We first conducted a survey comparing consumers in China with their U.S. counterparts, and show that a cultural perspective is pertinent and valuable. We then collaborated with Chinas largest O2O social media website for restaurant reviews, and conducted a field investigation of consumer responses to the two promotional approaches. Our findings afford important insights for retail businesses seeking to leverage O2O commerce, and provide research implications to the areas of e-commerce and digital advertising.

The Role of Marketer- and User-Generated Content in Sustaining the Growth of a Social Media Brand Community

The recent development in mobile technologies has increased the demand for sophisticated software applications for mobile devices. This technological-driven market evolution poses new opportunities and challenges for developers to create applications which will fully exploit mobile’s new and expanding capabilities. In this article, we investigate the mobile application development by providing possible answers to three questions: what available applications exist in the market, how they are developed, and which are their potential future directions. Through addressing these questions, the main purpose is to highlight any important aspects of mobile application development which should be considered by developers and investors in unleashing the great potential of mobile technologies.

Drivers of Quantity and Quality of Participation in Online Policy Deliberation Forums

While recent research has increasingly indicated social media brand communities can bring about desired benefits for firms, the trade press has cautioned the unsustainable growth issue of such communities. Given that the realization of their benefits is contingent on sustained growth, this study investigates the role of two types of content central to sustaining these communities i.e., marketer-generated content (MGC) and user-generated content (UGC). Furthermore, we delineate between content of product-related (for product promotion) and social-related (for relationship building) nature. Our findings show that both social- and product-related UGC can promote growth over time, but only social-related MGC is effective in this regard. However, MGC regardless of their nature may stimulate UGC. Overall our findings suggest that sustaining the growth of a brand community requires a symphony of both marketer effort and consumer response, thus providing a more comprehensive and balanced view of their role.

Dr. Jekyll vis-à-vis Mr. Hyde: Personality variation between virtual and real worlds

Abstract Online policy deliberation forums (OPDFs) have been increasingly initiated by governments to allow citizens to provide their input and discuss policy issues. Yet, failure to garner participation, in terms of both quantity and quality, prevents the realization of their benefits. In this regard, prior research has suggested different antecedents for the quantity and quality of participation in online forums, but without systematically considering their differences. To address this research gap, in this study we develop a theoretical model to explain the antecedents of quantity and quality of OPDF participation and test the model using a survey and content analysis of forum logs. The results indicate that quantity of participation is enhanced by the information-technology-enabled resource factor of communality but negatively influenced by collective incentives. In contrast, the antecedents of the quality of participation include both motivational and resource factors. Furthermore, communality accentuates the perceived collective incentives and persuasion benefit of participation. This study contributes to the research by proposing and testing a theoretical model that explains the different antecedents of the quantity and quality of participation in OPDFs. More broadly, the findings inform research and practice on how outcomes of web-enabled cocreation, such as those generated through OPDF participation, can be evaluated and enhanced in these online communities.