Manlu Liu

How do social-based cues influence consumers' online purchase decisions? An event-related potential study

Product rating and sales are two important social-based cues in online shopping. This study applies the event-related potential (ERP) approach to explore the underlying neural mechanism of the joint influence of these two cues on consumers’ decision-making. Behavioral data show that product rating has a greater impact on the purchasing rate than sales, which positively moderates the latter’s effect and supports cue-diagnosticity theory. Electrophysiological data provide further explanations for the observed behavioral pattern. Analyses of main ERP components suggest that consumers go through a series of cognitive processes from processing of perceived risk (N2) and informational conflict (N400) to evaluative categorization (LPP) before making the final purchasing decision. Specifically, product rating significantly influences the risk perception while the combination of high rating and low sales elicits significant cognitive conflict. Both cues are adopted by consumers to make an overall evaluation based on their similarity to the criterion.

A framework for transformation from conceptual to logical workflow models

Both conceptual and logical workflow models are needed to support business process automation via workflow systems. Conceptual models are normally used to document the generic business process requirements in the company. Logical models are generally used for defining technology specific requirements, where software modules as well as their behavioral patterns should be clearly specified. However, the transformation from conceptual models to logical models can be a tedious task, often causing errors in the resulting logical model. In this paper, we propose a formal approach that can be used to support efficient and accurate model transformation. First, we develop a procedure for transforming a conceptual workflow model into its corresponding logical workflow model. Business requirement analysis, dependency mapping, and workflow pattern-based model transformation are the major components of this transformation procedure. Second, we create a validation procedure that can validate whether the derived logical model is consistent with its original conceptual model. Business process ontologies are employed in our approach to describe both conceptual and logical models. We also implement a prototype system and conduct a demonstrative case study to show the feasibility of our approach.

Adapting the SERVQUAL scale to China hospitals services

A survey research instrument called SERVQUAL is used to measure service quality. In China, the health care system is quite different from that of other countries; how to adapt the SERVQUAL scale to Chinese hospitals services becomes a research subject. A system to measure Chinese health service quality that considers Chinas special situation is needed. In this paper, a series of Chinese hospitals are studied. A system of measuring Chinese health service quality based on the SERVQUAL instrument is built.

COOPERATIVE INVESTMENT DECISIONS IN COMMUNITY SOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Community source development has emerged as a new way of developing enterprise applications, leading to a unique type of open source development involving collaborative investment decisions by multiple institutional partners. A critical research question is what motivates partnering institutions to invest jointly in community source development, knowing that the result will become open source. We study this research question by investigating cooperative behaviors among partner institutions involved in community source such as Kuali. We apply option pricing to model cooperative investment decisions under uncertainty with the Black–Scholes (BS) model in comparison with the net present value (NPV) approach. Our analytical results reveal that several institutional characteristics such as size, financial power, and IT capability affect how institutions make cooperative decisions in community source development regardless if either the BS model or the NPV approach is used as the utility function. These business insights help deepen the understanding of the emerging community source phenomenon.

Starting open source collaborative innovation: the antecedents of network formation in community source

Specific needs in the area of enterprise applications have led to a new type of collaborative open source innovation development across institution borders: community source. We use the Kuali community source network, a jointly managed, border‐spanning organization that supplies the institutions that created it, to describe how community source works. This study builds a theoretical basis for understanding the individual and institutional factors affecting community source network formation and the decision by organizations to join a community source network. We identify eight antecedents of decisions about forming or joining community source initiatives: motives, learning, trust, norms and monitoring, institutional similarity, external funding, hostile external environment and information technology.

The community source approach to software development and the Kuali experience

Participating educational institutions get a much more cost-effective result compared to the commercial off-the-shelf alternative.

The productivity paradox in health information technology

New York State healthcare providers increased their use of the technology but delivered only mixed results for their patients.

Antecedents of Community Source Network Formation: The Case of Kuali

Community source system development has emerged as a new way of developing enterprise applications, leading to a unique type of open source development involving collaborative investment decisions by multiple institutional partners. The community source network formation has become an interesting issue to study. We use the social entrepreneurship case of the Kuali community source network to examine the antecedents of community source network formation, and in particular the likelihood of existing organizations to join such a network. We develop propositions and a model, and offer some thoughts on future directions for research on this emerging phenomenon.

Strategic and tactical electronic business solutions in pharmacies and drug stores

The purpose of this paper is to develop electronic service solution standards in the pharmacies and drug stores strategically and tactically. Specifically, it first developed a strategic value chain model to present the adoptions of information and communication technologies in the pharmacies and drug stores for business value increases. Second, a set of tactical electronic business standards were in the pharmacies and drug stores. Third, the implementation patterns of the top 20 dominant companies in the pharmacies and drug stores were analysed. The results of this research will help to accelerate the adoption of information and communications technologies in the pharmacies and drug stores to achieve value increase in business. The managerial and practical implications were also presented.

On Outsourcing and Offshoring in Community Source

Community source has emerged as a unique way of developing enterprise applications that combine the resources of multiple user organizations to reduce risk and improve efficiency in application development. The completed software products in a community source will become open source. In this paper, we discuss potential problems found in the development stage in community source via an empirical study in Kuali - a real world community source project. We further examine the possible impacts of applying outsourcing and offshoring to community source.