Sally Rao Hill

Exploring the public sector adoption of HRIS

– Human resources information systems (HRIS) are becoming increasingly important in helping modern organizations manage their human assets effectively. Yet, HRIS adoption remains an under‐researched phenomenon. The purpose of this paper to isolate the factors that influence the organizational adoption of HRIS in public sector organizations., – Adopting the technology‐organization‐environment model as an analytical framework, the paper draws on qualitative evidence from 16 interviews across 11 Australian public sector organizations., – The authors find that champions in public sector organizations should demonstrate HRIS benefits before their adoption can succeed. With standardization trends adopted by HRIS vendors, complete organizational fit between adopted HRIS and business processes may be elusive for adopters suggesting that post‐adoption vendor support must be negotiated if costly customizations are to be minimized. In addition to various organizational factors, including management commitment and human capability, the authors also find that broader environmental factors including regulatory compliance can have a deep impact on the success of HRIS adoption by creating urgency in adoption intentions., – There is paucity of research concerning HRIS adoption in the public sector which presents unique challenges due to its idiosyncrasies. This paper contributes to the existing body knowledge by investigating the role of technological, organizational, and environmental factors and their interactions. It provides an improved understanding of the challenges related to HRIS adoption in public sector organizations.

Factors influencing the adoption of personalisation mobile services: empirical evidence from young Australians

The adoption of mobile services is often studied at a generic level and limited research has addressed personalisation mobile services. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model that attempts to predict the adoption of personalisation mobile services amongst young Australians. Employing quantitative empirical evidence, it was found that perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness are the most important factors in predicting the adoption of these services. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications and insights for the development, design and marketing of personalisation mobile services. Knowledge and appreciation of these factors may help mobile operators and service providers to both design novel personalisation services or enhance existing ones in order to gain competitive advantage.

Understanding broadband adoption in rural Australia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model concerning broadband adoption in a rural setting.Design/methodology/approach – A computer‐aided telephone survey was conducted to collect data to validate the proposed model in rural Australia.Findings – It was found that relative advantage, utility outcomes, and facilitating conditions play a crucial role in explaining broadband adoption behavior amongst rural Australian households.Practical implications – The key challenges to stakeholders involved in promoting broadband adoption in these settings are discussed in light of the findings.Originality/value – A more realistic approach at household level was adopted to investigate broadband adoption in a rural setting. The theoretical framework offers a comprehensive view of broadband adoption applicable to rural Australia.

The effect of service employees’ accent on customer reactions

Purpose – The primary objective of this article is to investigate customer reactions to service employees with accents that differ from a non-native accent taking into account customer emotions. Design/methodology/approach – This article reports on a study with a 2 (accent of service employee: Australian or Indian) × 2 (service employee’s competency: competent or incompetent) × 2 (customer’s affective state: positive or negative) between-subject experimental design to uncover the effects of service employees’ accent on customers’ reactions. Findings – The findings revealed that hearing a service employee with a foreign accent was not enough on its own to influence customer responses. However, when the service employee is incompetent or the customer was in a negative affective state, a foreign accent appeared to exacerbate the situation. Research limitations/implications – While the findings indicate that accents are used a cue for customers to evaluate service employees, further research should also take ...

Can consumers be racist

Purpose – Consumer racism (CR) is a highly relevant issue to societies such as Australia and one which has, up until now, been somewhat neglected by marketers. This paper aims to investigate this relatively “new” construct and its impact on product evaluation and subsequent willingness to buy cross‐ethnic products amongst Australian consumers.Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a quasi‐experiment method. Data were collected from an intercept sample of 212 Australian consumers via personal interviews. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics, and hypotheses were tested using regression analysis and two‐way between groups ANOVA.Findings – The results provide evidence that higher levels of CR translate into more negative evaluations of product quality which, in turn, decrease willingness to buy products perceived as originating from the ethnic minority. Further, regardless of the importance of product outcome, CR has a consistent negative effect on product evaluation and willingness to buy am...

Online Consumers’ Responses to Deal Popularity as an Extrinsic Cue

ABSTRACT Deal popularity indicates the popularity of a product or service within a specific deal duration and is being used by many e-tailers in their websites/apps. While deal popularity is receiving increasing attention by academics and practitioners alike, its effect as an extrinsic cue remains under-researched. Using an experimental design, this study investigates the effect of deal popularity on expected service quality in an e-tailing environment. It is found that deal popularity influences service quality expectations for credence services, but not experience services. High deal popularity positively influences consumers’ intention to purchase and willingness to recommend credence services. E-tailers of services need to pay attention to deal popularity displayed for credence services and leverage on the positive effect it has on consumers.

Developing service climate in local vs. foreign firms in smaller Asian emerging markets: a resource-based and social exchange perspective

Abstract While research on drivers of service climate has focused on organisational resources and human resource practices such as training, employee autonomy and inter-departmental support, how these resources interrelate and influence service climate has not been examined, especially in the context of smaller Asian emerging market. Drawing on the resource-based view and its extension on dynamic capability, and social exchange theory, this qualitative study investigates how local and foreign firms in smaller Asian emerging markets create a favourable service climate. Our findings suggest three inter-related groups of factors that influence service climate, namely firm-based, market-based and culture-based drivers. Notably, foreign service firms perform better than their local counterparts in several firm-based drivers (e.g. service-oriented human resource management practices, work facilitation resources). Our study proposes a conceptual framework that integrates inter-relationships of organisational resource-based factors and explains how internal and external factors drive service climate in firms in smaller Asian emerging markets.

Engagement in online communities: implications for consumer price perceptions

Modern consumers are engaged in online communities where interaction with paying and non-paying customers impacts their knowledge and perceptions of marketing strategies such as dynamic pricing practice. Given the increased transparency of pricing strategies due to information sharing via online platforms, service providers need to understand the extent to which online communities influence consumer perceptions of price fairness. Drawing from social information processing and social identity theories, we argue that online community engagement is positively related to consumers’ perceptions of the fairness of dynamic pricing strategies, and this relationship is fully mediated by community norms and rule familiarity. We further find the positive effect of community norms on perceived price fairness is stronger among consumers with a higher degree of online savviness.

Broadband Adoption in Regional and Urban Households

Broadband offers key advantages as a communication infrastructure, including efficiency and cost savings which can stimulate productivity, innovation, and ultimately economic growth and social well-being. This paper presents a comparative study on the adoption of broadband in urban and regional areas. It proposes a model concerning broadband adoption which we validate with data collected using a computer-aided telephone survey. We find that relative advantage, utility outcomes, and facilitating conditions play a crucial role in explaining the broadband adoption behavior of both urban and regional household users. In a dynamic environment where technologies are changing quickly, our findings about broadband adoption drivers are useful to stakeholders such as internet service providers, regulators, broadband application developers for encouraging further broadband and application adoption and developments in communication space in both regional and urban areas.

A Transaction Cost Assessment of a Pervasive Technology Solution for Gestational Diabetes

Diabetes is one of the leading chronic diseases affecting Australians and its prevalence continues to rise. It is becoming a serious challenge for both the quality of healthcare and expenditure in the Australian healthcare system. The goal of this study is to investigate the development and application of a pervasive wireless technology solution to facilitate the effective management of diabetes in the context of women with gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that affects up to 8% of pregnant women. A transactions cost assessment of this solution is also provided. Integral to the success of this solution is the pervasive technology solution which serves to support and facilitate superior diabetes self-management.