Keiichi Nakata

A conceptual model for acceptance of social CRM systems based on a scoping study

Recent developments in information technology and Web services have increased the potential for creating more rapid and extensive social networks and business relationships. Web 2.0 technologies, commonly referred to as online social media, have become important tools within the growth of information and communication technology (ICT) in the last few years. Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, Wiki and other services, which are widely used by individuals, also have an effect on customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Consequently, social CRM (SCRM) is emerging as a new paradigm for integrating social networking in more traditional CRM systems. However, social CRM is yet to be fully utilised as a value-adding tool in improving customer relationships. This paper reports on a scoping study that explored the current situation of CRM adoption in banking industry in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors that may influence businesses and customers’ adoption of social CRM. Various models have been proposed to study ICT and information systems acceptance and usage. This paper proposes an enhancement to one of these models, specifically the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), by incorporating a range of factors identified in the social networking and business relationships literature believed to influence social CRM adoption. In particular, the model proposes that familiarity, caring behaviour, sharing information and perceived trustworthiness can generate cognitive view about the relationships between employees and customers. This view besides Web 2.0 features may offer a way of analysing the potential adoption of social CRM.

Concept indexing

Marking text in a document is a convenient way of identifying bits of knowledge that are relevant for the reader, a colleague or a larger group. Based on such markings, networks of concepts with hyperlinks to their occurrences in a collection of documents can be developed. On the Internet, marked documents can easily be shared, concepts can be constructed collaboratively and the concept-document network can be used for navigation and direct access. Text marking, grounded concepts and the Internet as base technology are characteristics of our tool for managing so called “concept indexes”. We describe the current and the new design and outline some application scenarios: electronic help desks, information digests on the Web, teaching design in virtual classes and planning under quality control in distributed teams.

The Evolution of Green ICT Practice: UK Higher Education Institutions Case Study

Green ICT is understood as an initiative to encourage stakeholders engaged in ICT activities to address environmental problems and find solutions to them. The UK is one of the first countries to focus on Green ICT inform of governmental strategies and policies. The UK public sector, including UK HEIs, is under pressure to implement Green ICT. Although the UK government encourages HEIs to work on Green ICT, there has not been a comprehensive review of existing Green ICT policies and strategies devised by UKHEIs. This paper first reviews the concepts of Green ICT, and presents a framework to analyse Green ICT strategy, practice, and measurement in UK HEIs. This is followed by the analysis of evolution of Green ICT practices in UK HEIs based on web-based data collection in 2009 and 2011.

Scoping study to identify factors influencing the acceptance of social CRM

Web 2.0 at a high level is described as the convergence of technologies that enable people to easily interact and collaborate. The use of these tools as a channel for communication and sharing information by individuals has also an effect on customer relationship management (CRM). This paper reports on a scoping study that explored the current situation of CRM adoption in banking industry in Saudi Arabia. It aims to identify the factors that influence the use of social CRM (SCRM). Various models have been proposed to study technologies acceptance and usage. This paper proposes an enhancement of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), by incorporating a range of factors identified in the business relationships literature believed to influence SCRM adoption.

Pervasive informatics: theory, practice and future directions

Pervasive informatics as an emerging interdisciplinary study focuses on how information affects human interaction with built environments. Pervasive informatics is different from pervasive computing in that its focus is on ICT-enhanced physical and social spaces, called intelligent pervasive spaces, rather than on the technology itself. An information-rich social interaction taking place within intelligent pervasive spaces offers a complex domain of study. Many theoretical approaches are relevant to the design of effective pervasive spaces. For example, a socio-technical systems (STS) approach is helpful to understand and support the provision and use of intelligent spaces and pervasive technologies. This article reviews some related contributing theories, including STS, computer-supported cooperative work and semiotics. Semiotics, the study of signs, symbols and information, is used to examine the efficacy of a built environment on physical, empirical, syntactical, semantic, pragmatic and social levels. The prototypical expression of ‘agent-in-environment’ allows analysis of the ontological dependency (or affordance) between the space and its capability. With an empirical example, the article illustrates how the semiotic approach is used in the design of pervasive spaces, which would lead to the further conceptual development of a pervasive informatics approach, including new methods and techniques.

Generic context ontology modelling: A review and framework

Improvements in context modelling and reasoning techniques have facilitated the development of context-aware applications, where these applications need to accommodate and respond autonomously to changing context information. Context is often used to refer to any piece of information regarding the surrounding environment, where human activities and computing tasks take place. In this paper, we propose a generic context model, which consists of three fundamental classes, namely Extrinsic Context, Interface Context, and Intrinsic Context. The goal of the proposed framework is to represent context information in general, which can be implemented to facilitate common context representation, context matching, and context reasoning.

Analysing the factors affecting users in intelligent pervasive spaces

Recent advancements in pervasive computing allow embedded Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems to collect information and apply it in ways that result in new advanced services. In order to provide these services, a vast number of sensors are used to collect large levels of data pervasively. While successful in many environments, in some situations, monitoring technologies have been known to cause undesirable effects, such as increases in stress in those being observed. With an increase in the coverage of the data collection in pervasive spaces, we anticipate an increase in the impact of such effects. To date, the use of this monitoring technology and its effect on human behaviour have not been thoroughly investigated, meaning future system designs may result in (preventable) undesirable effects. This article analyses a series of recurring factors, identified in the literature and believed to influence occupant behaviour, from both physical and social perspectives. The use of such factors, and their relationships, as a means of analysing and comparing monitoring systems is also described. These factors/concepts can be linked to existing predictive behavioural models, and when empirical evidence is collected, a tool for predicting, and therefore preventing, the undesirable effects of this new technology may be possible.

Comparing British and Japanese Perceptions of a Wearable Ubiquitous Monitoring Device

Ubiquitous Monitoring (UM) describes the continuous collection of data on a large scale, enabled by embedded, mobile, wireless, and sensory technologies [1]. This data will enable the envisioned applications of Ubiquitous Computing. Research has shown that monitoring can affect user behavior [2], which is problematic for ubiquitous computing because the data collected may not fully reflect the reality. Hence, any services provided may not fully align with user expectations or needs. One proposed solution is the use of deterministic models to predict the behaviors of users prior to deployment, reducing the undesirable effects of monitoring. The Perceptions of System Attributes-Behavioral Intention (PSA-BI) model was specifically designed for this purpose [1]. While the model has been validated, the moderating effect of culture has not yet been explored. As such, we present here results from a study carried out in the U.K. exploring the relationships in the PSA-BI model. This is then compared with a structural model from a previous study in Japan [3], [4], allowing us to explore any potential differences and similarities.

Evolving the social business: a look at stages of growth for Web 2.0 integration with business activities

The use of Web 2.0 technologies, in particular, Social Media tools, are rapidly increasing. Accordingly, the distinction between personal and professional lives is blurring, as users incorporate the advantages of SM into their work environment. Companies have begun to integrate Web 2.0 technologies into their business activities, as the expectation from employees, customers and partners increases. One of the ways to aid integration with these technologies is to use a stages of growth framework as a guideline for future implementation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the appropriateness of Earls [1] model, as companies evolve using Web 2.0 technologies. Earl states that when companies reach the full transformation stage of the e-business model it is necessary to revisit the six stages as technologies evolve and try to adapt to the latest demands from customers, suppliers, partners and employees.

Categorizing users in behavior change support systems based on cognitive dissonance

Most developers of behavior change support systems (BCSS) employ ad hoc procedures in their designs. This paper presents a novel discussion concerning how analyzing the relationship between attitude toward target behavior, current behavior, and attitude toward change or maintaining behavior can facilitate the design of BCSS. We describe the three-dimensional relationships between attitude and behavior (3D-RAB) model and demonstrate how it can be used to categorize users, based on variations in levels of cognitive dissonance. The proposed model seeks to provide a method for analyzing the user context on the persuasive systems design model, and it is evaluated using existing BCSS. We identified that although designers seem to address the various cognitive states, this is not done purposefully, or in a methodical fashion, which implies that many existing applications are targeting users not considered at the design phase. As a result of this work, it is suggested that designers apply the 3D-RAB model in order to design solutions for targeted users.