Ronald M. Lee

A logic programming framework for planning and simulation

A common theme underlying various models that explain information technology adoption is the inclusion of perceptions of an innovation as key independent variables. Although a fairly significant body of research that empirically tests these models is now in existence, some questions with regard to both the antecedents as well as the consequents of perceptions remain unanswered. This paper reports the results of a field study examining adoption of an information technology innovation represented by an expert systems application. Two research objectives that have both theoretical and practical relevance motivated and guided the study. One, the study challenges an assumption which is implicit in technology acceptance models: that of the non-existence of moderating influences on the relationship between perceptions and adoption decisions. Specifically, the study examines the effects of an important moderating influence – personal innovativeness – on this relationship. Two, the study seeks to shed further light on the determinants of perceptions by examining the relative efficacy of mass media and interpersonal communication channels in facilitating perception development. Theoretical and practical implications that follow from the results are discussed. q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.A common theme underlying various models that explain information technology adoption is the inclusion of perceptions of an innovation as key independent variables. Although a fairly significant body of research that empirically tests these models is now in existence, some questions with regard to both the antecedents as well as the consequents of perceptions remain unanswered. This paper reports the results of a field study examining adoption of an information technology innovation represented by an expert systems application. Two research objectives that have both theoretical and practical relevance motivated and guided the study. One, the study challenges an assumption which is implicit in technology acceptance models: that of the non-existence of moderating influences on the relationship between perceptions and adoption decisions. Specifically, the study examines the effects of an important moderating influence – personal innovativeness – on this relationship. Two, the study seeks to shed further light on the determinants of perceptions by examining the relative efficacy of mass media and interpersonal communication channels in facilitating perception development. Theoretical and practical implications that follow from the results are discussed.

InterShop: enhancing the vendor/customer dialectic in electronic shopping

Electronic shopping systems offer new horizons in vendor marketing, customer convenience, and overall market efficiencies. Information networks can gather thousands of vendors and millions of customers into an information-rich marketplace that serves both their perspectives. Unfortunately, existing electronic shopping systems provide a vendor/customer dialectic that offers low product differentiation and comparability. This limits market efficiency and results in negative experiences for both vendors and customers. We propose a functional architecture for a new generation of electronic shopping infrastructures to dramatically improve vendor representation and customer navigation. This design reshapes the vendor/customer dialectic by providing higher levels of both product differentiation and comparability. A prototype implementation of the architecture is described.

Engaging Group E-Learning in Virtual Worlds

Abstract: E-learning has seen tremendous growth in recent years. More and more, university courses are now available online to a potentially global audience. However, a significant shortcoming of e-learning technologies has been poor support for group-oriented learning. We believe that virtual worlds offer a potential solution. Unlike videoconferencing (for instance), virtual worlds provide a shared visual space for students to meet and interact (via avatars). Not only do students share the quasi-realism of a 3D environment where participants can see and hear one another, they also have the capability to manipulate artifacts together. These factors provide a strong sense of group presence, which leads to engaging group learning interactions.

Bureaucracies as deontic systems

Bureaucratic offices are not only for clerical work, but more important, they are for officiating in the sense of issuing directives, granting permissions, enforcing prohibitions, waiving obligations, and so forth. Bureaucracies are thus deontic systems for organizational and social control. Conventional information processing approaches are inadequate for capturing these aspects of bureaucratic modeling. A logic-based representation that emphasizes deontic and performative aspects is proposed.

A logic model for electronic contracting

Abstract: Contracting is an essential aspectof doing business. Electronic contracting uses telecommunications and artificial intelligence to improve contracting processes by streamlining red tape enforcing legal correctness. To do this, the underlying conceptual structures of contracts and contracting must be carefully understood. A logic model is presented that emphasizes temporal, deontic and performative aspects of contracting.

Towards Open Electronic Contracting

A design and pilot implementation of a system, called InterProcs, supporting electronic contracting is presented. A key concept in the design of this system is the notion of electronic trade scenarios (or procedures), which are generic may be downloaded by the trading parties for a particular transaction. These scenarios may be fixed in structure, with simple parameter substitution, or they may also be designed to be customizable, within a certain range of flexibility, depending on the type of transaction. The system also includes multi-lingual text generation, in support of international trade transactions.

Shopping in the Electronic Marketplace

Abstract:The concept of an electronic marketplace is introduced whereby consumers may browse through a structured database giving product offerings and local supply outlets. We consider the nature of software to facilitate the shopping process developing a concept of similarity between generic products using a semantic net structure. The search is guided by specified user preferences. A prototype implementation, using Prolog, is described.

Legal procedures as formal conversations: contracting on a performative network

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a telecommunications system that many view as the next major productivity gain made possible by information technology. This paper discusses how our semantic, procedure-oriented view of business transactions leads to a different kind of telecommunications system -- a performative network. Viewing procedures as formal conversations, we present a representation schema and grammar to model these conversations and initiate the development of a formal language by which users can cooperate, negotiate, and make commitments over a performative network. Our approach complements and extends EDIs syntactic, record-format orientation, seeking to express not only the data transmitted through these transactions but also the semantics of the procedures themselves.

Logic modeling: a tool for management science

Abstract Developments in logic and in information technology (especially the advent of logic programming) have converged to the point at which logic is, for a broad variety of problems, a useful tool to employ for modeling in areas of interest to management scientists. This paper presents the concept of logic modeling (model building with symbolic logic) and reviews several lines of research having in common a logic modeling approach to problems of interest in management scientist.

Formal aspects of electronic commerce: research issues and challenges

The notion of electronic or digital commerce is gaining widespread popularity. For the most part, these developments are being led by industry and government, with academic research following these trends in the form of empirical and economic research. Much more fundamental improvements to (global) commerce are possible but are presently being overlooked for lack of adequate formal theories, representations, and tools. This paper attempts to incite research in these directions.