Chuan-Hoo Tan

Innovative usage of information technology in Singapore organizations: do CIO characteristics make a difference?

Based on the upper echelon theory, this paper studies the relationship between the individual characteristics of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and organizational innovative usage of information technology (IT) by examining both the CIOs demographic characteristics and personality traits. Survey results from 89 CIOs strongly support our proposition. A CIOs personality traits of openness and extraversion and CIOs demographic characteristics of educational level have strong impact on the organizational innovative usage of IT even after controlling for organizational variables such as the organizations business strategy, outsourcing of IT operations, IT department age, and IT budget relative to revenue. This paper contributes to the age-old debate on whether managers matter in deciding an organizations strategy.

Assessing Screening and Evaluation Decision Support Systems: A Resource-Matching Approach

This research explores how consumers use online decision aids with screening and evaluation support functionalities under varying product attribute-load conditions. Drawing on resource-matching theory, we conducted a 3 × 2 factorial experiment to test the interaction between decision aid features (i.e., low versus high-screening support, and aids with weight assignment and computation decision tools) and attribute load (i.e., large versus small number of product attributes) on decision performance. The findings reveal that: (1) where the decision aids render cognitive resources that match those demanded for the task environment, consumers will process more information and decision performance will be enhanced; (2) where the decision aids render cognitive resources that exceed those demanded for the task environment, consumers will engage in less task-related elaboration of decision-making issues to the detriment of decision performance; and (3) where the decision aids render cognitive resources that fall short of those demanded for the task environment, consumers will use simplistic heuristic decision strategies to the detriment of decision performance or invest additional effort in information processing to attain a better decision performance if they perceive the additional investments in effort to be manageable.

Thermal stability performance of anisotropic conductive film at different bonding temperatures

In this work the effect of different bonding temperatures on the thermal stability of anisotropic conductive films (ACFs) was investigated. A thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) was utilized to determine the thermal decomposition temperature of ACF. The experimental results showed that the temperature for maximum decomposition rate of ACF, Tm decreased with increasing bonding temperature. The results obtained from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), which was used to examine the curing degree and also chemical changes in the ACF, showed some networks scissoring happened on C–N bond during the bonding process. This was the main reason why the ACF bonded at high temperature 225.0 C, gave relatively low thermal stability. Four point probe was used to measure the contact resistance performance before and after thermal aging at 260 and 300 C. The contact resistance results suggested that ACF bonded with 10 s at 205.0 C, yielding a curing degree of 85.0% was the best bonding parameter to obtain a low contact resistance after thermal aging. FTIR results showed there was a significant increase in the absorbance peak of carbonyl group after thermal aging. Thermal oxidation reactions which were taken place at high bonding and aging temperature had broken the polymer networks in the ACF and caused electrical failure. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Behaviour of anisotropic conductive joints under mechanical loading

Abstract Anisotropic conductive films (ACFs) received a great deal of attention in recent years for interconnection applications in electronic packaging. This paper reports the behaviour of ACF joints under various mechanical loading, i.e., die shear and cyclic fatigue in shear. The mechanical behaviour of ACF joints that have been exposed to environmental effects, i.e., high moisture and elevated temperature (autoclave test conditions) has been examined using die shear test. The maximum shear force prior to fracture was determined as 465.0 N, at which the contact resistance is found extremely high and can be considered as open circuits. Epoxy based ACF exhibits insignificant plastic deformation, especially for samples that have undergone autoclave test. Reduction trend was observed in the shear moduli over autoclave test time for ACF joints. Fracture surface of ACF that failed in shear test shows spalling and less plastic deformation after exposed to autoclave test. For cyclic fatigue test, the endurance limit is determined at about 143.5 N and the corresponding calculated endurance ratio is around 32.0%.

Effect of autoclave test on anisotropic conductive joints

This paper reports that the stress-corrosion cracking induced by autoclave test condition reduces the mechanical strength of anisotropic conductive joints and also increases the contact resistance by allowing more moisture to reach the aluminium metallization. The use of anisotropic conductive joints with bumpless chips allows a reduction in the costs of the flip chip bonding process. The epoxy-based anisotropic conductive adhesive film (ACF) absorbs moisture and experiences hygroscopic swelling, hence degrading adhesion strength and elasticity in hazardous environments, e.g. if moisture at high vapour pressure, and test temperature near to its glassy temperature (Tg) are applied. Contact resistances also show an increasing trend that is similar to that typical of a corrosion process. It is most probably due to the formation of an oxidation layer on top of the aluminium metallization and to the hygroscopic swelling of the ACF. The elastic properties of ACF joints reduce by about 50% after 384 h test time. In this study, 336 h of autoclave test is the critical test duration to affect the electrical and mechanical properties of an ACF joint. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comprehension and Assessment of Product Reviews: A Review-Product Congruity Proposition

This work anchors on the theories of cognitive fit and schema congruity to advance a review-product congruity proposition. The proposition states that the effects of product review content (either attribute or experience based) on the product review comprehension (reflected by perceived cognitive effort and review comprehension time) and assessment (manifested by perceived review helpfulness) of a consumer are contingent on the assessed product type (either search or experience product). The results of our first experiment support the proposition by revealing that the two matching conditions, (1) attribute-based reviews describing a search product and (2) experience-based reviews describing an experience product, could lead consumers to perceive higher review helpfulness and lower cognitive effort (subjective measure) to comprehend the reviews. However, the subjective evaluation of cognitive effort is not reinforced by the resulting review comprehension time (an objective assessment of comprehension effort), which suggests that consumers spend significantly more time processing reviews in the presence of the two matching conditions. A second experiment was conducted using the think-aloud method to gain further insights into the effects. We found that under the review-product matching conditions, consumers engage in deeper-level comprehension and expend more time in comprehension without realizing it, compared to consumers under the mismatching conditions. This research extends our current understanding of how review content and product reviews jointly influence the comprehension and assessment behavior of the consumer, and provides guidelines on the identification and the presentation of reviews to facilitate the judgment and decision making of potential consumers.

Training future software developers to acquire agile development skills

Giving students experience developing and delivering large-scale systems under time constraints and shifting deadlines.

Enhancing user-game engagement through software gaming elements

User-game engagement is vital for building and retaining a customer base for software games. However, few studies have investigated such engagement during gameplay and the impact of gaming elements on engagement. Drawing on the theoretical foundation of engagement, we meticulously deduced two cognitive-related gaming elements of a software game, namely, game complexity and game familiarity, and argued that these elements have individual and joint effects on user-game engagement. This research adopted multimethod empirical investigations to validate our conceptions. The first investigation used electroencephalography and a self-report survey to study quantitatively the cognitive activities of user-game engagement. The second investigation adopted the qualitative interview method to triangulate the findings from the quantitative data. This research contributes to theory in two ways, namely, conceptualizing and empirically examining user-game engagement as well as theorizing and demonstrating how the two gaming elements affect user-game engagement. This work contributes to the gaming practice by providing a set of design principles for gaming elements.

Consumer-based decision aid that explains which to buy

Providing explanation to justify product recommendations is critical in the online purchase decision process. Bulk of the extant literature has focused on the provision of decision aids facilitating screening of product alternatives and presenting of filtered alternatives. In comparison, few studies are conducted to examine decision aids that support the assessment and evaluation of the presented product alternatives prior to actual purchase, i.e., explanation-featured decision aid. This article conceptualizes three implementations of explanation aid differed by the forms of explanation elaboration. Experimental results indicate that a more elaborated explanation aid could heighten a consumers decision confidence leading to lesser cognitive effort expended and inferior product choice made. Highlights? We proposed three types of explanation aid differing in the degree of elaboration. ? They are trace of reasoning (most elaborated), justification and strategic. ? Using a more elaborated explanation aid will increase perceived decision confidence. ? Using a more elaborated explanation aid will decrease decision time. ? Using a more elaborated explanation aid will decrease decision quality.

Visiting Mobile Application Development: What, How and Where

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.