Sergio Picazo-Vela

Why provide an online review? An extended theory of planned behavior and the role of Big-Five personality traits

Online review, an important form of reputation systems, has been studied intensively because of its powerful impact on online retailers, intermediaries, and customers. However, to date, very little attention has been paid to factors that influence an individuals intention to provide an online review. An extended theory of planned behavior and Big-Five personality framework are used in this study. We empirically examine our model by using a cross-sectional survey study, collecting data from a sample of 171 online shoppers. Results show that attitude, perceived pressure, neuroticism, and conscientiousness are significant predictors of an individuals intention to provide an online review. Findings may help online retailers and/or intermediaries increase the number of online reviews provided, which will lead to more accurate rating information about transactions, products, or services and may serve as a stepping-stone to continuous improvements. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Opening the black box: Developing strategies to use social media in government

Abstract Governments have widely adopted social media as tools to communicate and engage with citizens or as tools for service delivery. Current research suggests that social media adoption in government has been mainly market driven and that the various adoption strategies have resulted from a combination of trial and error, imitation, and both informal and formal knowledge exchanges. Given the nature of the adoption process and the nature of social media, the use of social media in government involves high levels of risk and uncertainty, and the main barriers of adoption lay in the organizational and institutional arrangements of government organizations. Nevertheless, little or no research has looked for the ways in which government organizations design strategies or use social media. In this paper, we open the black box to look at the process of adoption and implementation of social media in a government-lead social marketing program to promote healthy habits among young people living in urban areas, the Puebla Sana (Healthy Puebla) program. The case suggests that commercial social media, such as Facebook, Youtube, or Twitter, are instances of sociomaterial systems, and to take advantage of their features, government organizations need to collaborate with multiple individual and organizational actors in the co-creation of a message to accomplish their goals.

Creating Public Value through Digital Government: Lessons on Inter-Organizational Collaboration and Information Technologies

Creating and delivering public value is becoming an important goal in digital government projects around the globe. Moreover, the transition from government to governance has revitalized the interest in inter-organizational collaboration and new approaches to technology development. In working towards a better understanding of the interactions between institutions, organizations, new forms of collaboration, and value creation, we test a model based on the technology enactment framework and survey data. Our results suggest that regulatory frameworks have an impact on facilitating the development of effective organizations, increasing collaboration, and producing better information technologies. Additionally, inter-organizational collaboration and specific technology enactments have an impact on the creation of value, but enacted technology appears to be unrelated to collaboration. Further exploration of how different forms of inter-organizational collaboration and information technologies impact the process of public value creation in a more coordinated fashion is necessary.

Strengthening institutional-based trust for sustainable consumption: Lessons for smart disclosure

Smart disclosure constitutes a form of open data policy that has the objective of promoting more sustainable economies and innovation by providing consumers with information to help them make better purchasing decisions. Trust in the information regarding product and certification is crucial for the adoption and usage of smart disclosure tools that make use of such information. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of trust in sustainable product information through a survey administered in Mexico and the United States. Our results suggest that information indicating brands and certificates reputation are important factors that encourage the development of trust. Our results also suggest that additional information to verify labels does not emerge as significant predictor to induce trust. We argue that to be useful, such information should be aggregated and presented to consumers in a simple way right at their fingertips. Finally, we found that information indicating support from government agencies and endorsement from non-for-profit organizations significantly influence consumers trusting beliefs on sustainable practices information.

The role of joint actions in the performance of IT clusters in Mexico

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to show the importance of joint actions and institutions for collaboration (IFCs) in the development and performance of information technology (IT) business clusters in the context of Mexico. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature suggests the types of linkages that the clusters must develop to be successful in the context of emerging countries. Two IT clusters in the region of Puebla and Jalisco are compared to highlight the factors that differentiate successful and less successful clusters in this type of environment. Findings – The presence of an IFC, such as the Jalisco Institute of Information Technology in Jalisco, is a determinant factor of the performance of the IT cluster there, contrary to Puebla. A model of dynamic interactions in clusters is proposed as a result of the analysis of the two cases. Research limitations/implications – Our analysis included clusters from IT industry in Mexico. It needs to be extended to more clusters, more ...

Examining trust as key drivers in smart disclosure for sustainable consumption: the case of I-choose

Smart disclosure constitutes a form of open data policy that has the objective of promoting more sustainable economies and innovation by providing consumers with information to help them make better purchasing decisions. Trust in the information regarding product and certification is crucial for the adoption and usage of smart disclosure tools that make use of such information. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of trust in sustainable product information through a survey administered in Mexico and the United States. Our results suggest that brands and certificates reputation are important components to develop trust. Our results also suggest that additional information to verify label does not emerge as significant predictor to induce trust. We argue that to be useful, such information should be aggregated and presented to consumers in a simple way right at their fingertips. Finally, we found that support from government agencies and endorsement from non-for-profit organizations significantly influence consumers trusting beliefs on sustainable practices information.

IT's alive!!: social media to promote public health

Organizations of all types are taking advantage of social media and social networks such as Facebook or Twitter to communicate with their stakeholders. Public managers are also using social media as an engaging and low cost strategy in social marketing programs. However, social media and social networks constitute good examples of technology artifacts with embedded social structures that interact with organizational strategies, potentially limiting design strategies. The technology enactment framework has been used to analyze the factors that affect the adoption implementation, and use of social media technology the case of the Puebla Sana (Healthy Puebla) program in the State of Puebla, Mexico. Social media is used as a key component of a social marketing strategy to promote healthy habits. The case illustrates complex interactions between technology and organizational properties in the process of technology enactment.

Interorganizational collaboration and value creation in digital government projects

The importance of IT collaboration between government agencies and private organizations has been already identified in the literature. However, there is still a gap about the determinants of success of such collaborations. Using survey data, we look at the impact of the resources and processes of the public entity in delivering public value for private public IT collaborations in the context of Mexico, and the moderating role of collaboration with the private sector and with other public organizations in both causal relationships. Our results show that internal processes of the public entity have a positive impact on public value creation in their IT projects, while internal resources have no effect. Collaboration with the private sector moderates negatively the effect of internal resources on public value creation, and moderates positively the effect of internal processes on public value creation. Inter-organizational collaboration within other public sector organizations, on the other hand, moderates positively the relationship between internal resources and public value creation, and does not moderate the relationship between internal processes and public value creation.

The Effect of Online Review Configurations, Prices, and Personality on Online Purchase Decisions: A Study of Online Review Profiles on eBay

Online reviews have been studied extensively because of their impact on online consumers’ purchase decisions. Little attention, however, has been paid to consumers’ perceptions of online review configurations. This study examines how a consumers purchase decision is affected by online review configurations. Additionally, researchers analyze whether the purchase decision is affected by price level and personality. Results illustrate that a consumers purchase decision is affected by the number of reviews only when price level is high. In terms of personality, openness significantly predicts purchase decision when price level is high, whereas neuroticism affects purchase decision when price level is low.

Assessing the impacts of digital government in the creation of public value

Digital government has been a key component on government reform strategies during the last years. Unfortunately, few research exists reporting on the impacts of electronic government in terms of the final outcomes. By using a model that links inputs to impacts, this paper explores the impacts of electronic government on competitiveness, efficiency, and transactions. We used panel data analysis to test eighteen hypotheses. Results support 5 of the 18 hypotheses, however three of the supported hypothesis resulted in the opposite direction. Results suggest that citizens use digital government mainly to complete electronic transactions with government, and also that they need simple portals to accomplish these tasks. Additionally, our results suggest that, at least at the initial stages, having two delivery channels have a negative impact on government efficiency. Finally, it appears that the relationship between digital government and more general impacts in the competitiveness of a region is not directly linked, at least on the short term.