Michail N. Giannakos

Using social media for work: Losing your time or improving your work?

Social Media have been gaining in popularity worldwide over the last years at an increasingly growing rate. The introduction of social media in companies enables a new method of communication among colleagues and with customers. Although social media are in the top of the agenda for many companies to date, there seems to be very limited understanding of the usage of social media for work purposes. In this study, we investigate whether employees make use of social media for work purposes, what values increase this usage, and if that usage is related with their performance. Responses from 1799 employees in the insurance industry were used to examine the impact of social media on work. Results confirmed that in the case of social media for work, employees make extended use of them no matter their age. We found also that both utilitarian and hedonic values influence employees to use more social media for their work, at least in the insurance sector. Last but not least, this study confirms that there is an important relation between the use of social media and the work performance.

Moderating effects of online shopping experience on customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions

Purpose – Satisfaction and experience are essential ingredients for successful customer retention. This study aims to verify the moderating effect of experience on two types of relationships: the relationship of certain antecedents with satisfaction, and the relationship of satisfaction with intention to repurchase. Design/methodology/approach – This paper applies structural equation modelling (SEM) and multi-group analysis to examine the moderating role of experience in a conceptual model estimating the intention to repurchase. Responses from 393 people were used to examine the differences between high- and low-experienced users of online shopping. Findings – The research shows that experience has moderating effects on the relationships between performance expectancy and satisfaction and satisfaction and intention to repurchase. This study empirically demonstrates that prior customer experience strengthens the relationship between performance expectancy and satisfaction, while it weakens the relationship...

Shopping and word-of-mouth intentions on social media

Social Media has been gaining popularity worldwide over the last years at an increasingly growing rate. Motivated by this fact, firms are piloting different approaches of promoting their products and services to consumers in order to capitalize on the prominence of such websites. However, there is much debate in the academic and business community about the potential of social media as a platform for marketing and commerce, and the viable strategies that could constitute them as a possible solution for future ventures. Research to date has been growing, with only a limited number of studies exploring the business potential of social media. The aim of this research is to elucidate how specific aspects of social media websites foster user intention to browse products, and the effect that this has in shaping purchasing and information sharing intentions. Utilitarian and Hedonic motivation theory provides the theoretical background on which we segregate the factors that contribute to product browsing on social media websites. Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis is performed on data obtained from 165 social media users to test our research model. Outcomes indicate that specific aspects trigger Utilitarian (Convenience and Product Selection) and Hedonic (Idea and Adventure) motivations which in sequence impact user intention to browse products on such mediums. Finally, browsing intention is linked in a significantly positive manner with purchasing and word-of-mouth intention.

Exploring the video-based learning research: A review of the literature

Although the use of learning videos has been widely employed in the past years, recently the interest has been incrementally increased. Millions of learners watch videos from different platforms (eg, YouTube) on a diverse number of terminals (desktop, phone, tablet). Students access academic content via digital libraries, discussions with tutors by email and online courses from their homes. Additionally, massive online open courses (MOOCs) are becoming an increasingly important part of education (Martin, 2012).

Computer science/informatics in secondary education

Computer Science (CS) Education research, specifically when focusing on secondary education, faces the difficulty of regionally differing political, legal, or curricular constraints. To date, many different studies exist that document the specific regional situations of teaching CS in secondary schools. This ITiCSE working group report documents the process of collecting, evaluating, and integrating research findings about CS in secondary schools from different countries. As an outcome, it presents a category system (Darmstadt Model), as a first step towards a framework that sup-ports future research activities in this field and that supports the transfer of results between researchers and teachers in CS education (CSE) across regional or national boundaries. Exemplary application of the Darmstadt model shows in several important categories how different the situation of CSE in secondary education in various countries can be. The Darmstadt Model (DM) is now ready for discussion and suggestions for improvement by the CSE-community.

Using Facebook out of habit

This article investigates the uses and gratifications of the popular social networking site Facebook. In the exploratory stage, 70 users generated phrases to describe the manner they used Facebook. Interestingly, some users not only described the uses, but also mentioned how they perceive these uses. These phrases were coded into 14 items and clustered into four factors. The principal component analysis that was conducted in the third stage of the study, which was addressed to 222 Facebook users, verified the validity of the four factors: Social Connection, Social Network Surfing, Wasting Time and Using Applications. Previous user studies on Facebook have examined the immediate social effects of this popular social networking site, but they have not regarded emerging uses of the platform, such as gaming and applications, which do have a social component as a feature and not as a core principle. The ‘Wasting Time’ factor and the growth of ‘Using Applications’ factor indicate that Facebook has already become an integral part of daily computing routine, alongside with the rest of the entertainment desktop and web applications.

Shiny happy people buying: the role of emotions on personalized e-shopping

Personalized services are diffusing rapidly in online shopping communities. However, the current understanding of the influence of personalization is limited. This study extends personalization literature into the area of emotions related to intention to purchase and into the context of online shopping. Responses from 182 online shoppers were used to examine the impact of personalization on customer emotions and intention to purchase. The results show that there is a direct positive association between personalization and purchase intentions. In addition, provision of personalization features in e-shops may evoke positive emotions to online shoppers but does not evoke nor mitigate negative ones. Finally, our study reports that emotions influence online shopping behavior either positively, through the formulation of positive emotions, or negatively, through negative emotions. These findings indicate that positive emotions mediate the relationship between personalization and purchase intentions. Our study concludes with a critical appraisal of our findings and a discussion of prospective theoretical and managerial implications for e-shop practitioners.

Reviewing the flipped classroom research: reflections for computer science education

Recent technical and infrastructural developments posit flipped (or inverted) classroom approaches ripe for exploration. Flipped classroom approaches have students use technology to access the lecture and other instructional resources outside the classroom in order to engage them in active learning during in-class time. Scholars and educators have reported a variety of outcomes of a flipped approach to instruction; however, the lack of a summary from these empirical studies prevents stakeholders from having a clear view of the benefits and challenges of this style of instruction. The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the flipped classroom approach in order to summarize the findings, to guide future studies, and to reflect the major achievements in the area of Computer Science (CS) education. 32 peer-reviewed articles were collected from a systematic literature search and analyzed based on a categorization of their main elements. The results of this survey show the direction of flipped classroom research during recent years and summarize the benefits and challenges of adopting a flipped approach in the classroom. Suggestions for future research include: describing in-detail the flipped approach; performing controlled experiments; and triangulating data from diverse sources. These future research efforts will reveal which aspects of a flipped classroom work better and under which circumstances and student groups. The findings will ultimately allow us to form best practices and a unified framework for guiding/assisting educators who want to adopt this teaching style.

Empirical studies on the Maker Movement, a promising approach to learning: A literature review

Abstract The Maker Movement has gathered much attention recently, and has been one of the fastest-growing topics, due to contemporary technical and infrastructural developments. The maker culture can be described as a philosophy in which individuals or groups of individuals create artifacts that are recreated and assembled using software and/or physical objects. Typical topics of interest in maker culture include engineering-oriented pursuits such as electronics, robotics, 3D printing, and computer numerical control tools, as well as more traditional activities such as sewing or arts and crafts. Scholars and educators have reported a variety of outcomes from the Maker Movement as an instructional process; however, the lack of a summary of these empirical studies prevents stakeholders from having a clear view of the benefits and challenges of this instructional culture. The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the Maker Movement approach in order to summarize the current findings and guide future studies. Forty-three peer-reviewed articles were collected from a systematic literature search and analyzed based on a categorization of their main elements. The results of this survey show the direction of Maker Movement research during recent years and the most common technologies, subjects, evaluation methods, and pedagogical designs. Suggestions for future research include a further investigation into the benefits of using a specific technological tool and analysis of the Maker Movement approach, particularly in classrooms. These future research efforts will allow us to better indicate which aspects and ingredients of “making” work better for which circumstances and student groups. The findings will ultimately allow us to form best practices and a unified framework for guiding/assisting educators who want to adopt this teaching style.

What motivates children to become creators of digital enriched artifacts

The advent of programming languages for children (i.e., Scratch) combined with accessible programmable hardware platforms (i.e., Arduino) makes it possible for teenagers to engage in creative development of digital enriched artifacts, like robots and interactive installations. But what are the important factors that characterize these development activities? And more specifically, what motivates children to participate in such software and hardware intensive activities? In this paper we present the results of an empirical investigation regarding the key aspects of a creative learning context. The goal is to understand what motivates children to participate in these development activities. In our empirical evaluation, a group of researchers and artists designed, implemented, and evaluated three workshop programs of 66 children total, with the final goal of exploring childrens attitudes software and hardware-intensive activities. The workshops were based on the Reggio Emilia education principles, open source software Scratch and Arduino and were conducted in centers that use recycled materials for creative purposes. For the first phase of the evaluation, qualitative data was collected from 11 interviews and was analyzed using content analysis. For the second phase, we designed a survey grounded in motivational factors for technology. 37 survey responses were collected. For both evaluation phases, photos and observations were recorded and used to triangulate our data. The results showed that: (a) software and hardware intensive activities raise awareness of technology, intensify the experience, and invite students to explore boundaries and increase collaboration and the exchange of views and ideas, and (b) the activitys easiness and usefulness significantly affect childrens intention to participate. These results have implications for those programming languages and hardware platforms for children, as well as for those setting up creative learning frameworks around such technology.