Ying-Chieh Liu

A model to develop effective virtual teams

A review of the literature shows the factors that impact on the effectiveness of virtual teams are still ambiguous. To address this problem we developed a research design that included a meta-analysis of the literature, a field experiment and survey. The meta-analysis identified factors which impact on the effectiveness of virtual teams which were then validated by a field experiment and survey. The results of the study indicate that social dimensional factors need to be considered early on in the virtual team creation process and are critical to the effectiveness of the team. Communication is a tool that directly influences the social dimensions of the team and in addition the performance of the team has a positive impact on satisfaction with the virtual team. A major contribution of the paper is an integrated model of factors that contribute to virtual team effectiveness.

Exploration of Social Capital and Knowledge Sharing: An Empirical Study on Student Virtual Teams

Although research on virtual teams is becoming more popular, there is a gap in the understanding of how social capital affects knowledge sharing and creating, and their impacts on virtual team performance. To fill in this gap, this study establishes a framework by incorporating social capital with the SECI model and further examines it with an experiment on 65 student virtual teams. The results show that three factors of social capital, namely network ties, shared vision and trust are positively related to the four SECI modes, namely socialization, internalization, combination and externalization, and the latter three factors are found to be positively related to virtual team performance. The contributions of this study are twofold. The framework examines the relationships between social capital and the SECI model, which brought a broader prospective of studying knowledge management in a virtual team context. Moreover, leaders and managers of virtual teams should be made aware of enhancing the effects of social capital to improve the processes of knowledge sharing and creating, and encouraging internalizationn, combination and externalization to substitute the role of socialization.

A method for assessing patent similarity using direct and indirect citation links

Assessing patent similarity is a fundamental and critical step in patent citation analysis. When evaluating a similarity among two patents, considering both direct and indirect citation links leads to more precise similarity assessment. This study proposes a method for assessing patent compound similarity that includes direct and indirect similarities. Given a direct similarity matrix that represents a patent citation network, the method calculates indirect similarity matrices and then obtains a compound similarity matrix. Keyword analysis in the text mining is employed to obtain a similarity for a pair of patents. In addition, two criterion are proposed for validating the compound similarities for the patent citation network.

How Do Virtual Teams Work Efficiently: A Social Relationship View

Virtual teams are groups of members collaborating in the execution of a specific task from disperse locations. Increasing use of virtual teams has highlighted the need for organizations to focus on ways to improve their performance. The key issues of concern include both technical and social dimensions, and this research study addresses the latter. Hence, this study derives a social relationship model from a comprehensive literature review and conducts an experiment to validate this through SEM (structural equation modeling). The results reveal: (1) communication has a direct positive impact on relationship building, but indirect positive effects on performance and satisfaction; (2) relationship building impacts directly with strong and positive impacts on cohesion and trust, but indirectly with strong impacts on performance and satisfaction; (3) cohesion has a direct, strong, and positive impact on performance, but a strong indirect impact on satisfaction; (4) trust has a positive direct impact on performance, but an indirect positive impact on satisfaction; and (5) performance has a strong and positive impact on satisfaction. In addition, this study confirms that relationship building is a vital mediator in the social relationship model. Managerial implications and future research directions are identified.

Self-efficacy as the moderator: Exploring driving factors of perceived social support for mainland Chinese students in Taiwan

More and more mainland Chinese college students study in Taiwan. Social support is one of the main factors helping them study and live happily in Taiwan. This study aims to investigate the relationships among self-efficacy, social identity, and perceived social support through online social networks in helping mainland Chinese college students improve their adaption ability of diversified campuses in Taiwan. We assume social identity affects positively perceived social support, and self-efficacy served as a moderator of the relationships between social identify and social support. A convenience sample of 366 mainland Chinese students from five universities in Taiwan was conducted to validate the hypotheses. The results revealed that affective and cognitive identification were significantly and positively related to perceived emotional, tangible and informational support. The moderator, self-efficacy, was shown to moderate the three relationships from affective identification to emotional, tangible and informational support. Also, it moderated the relationships from cognitive identification to tangible support, but not the relationships from cognitive identification to emotional and informational support. The suggestions for Taiwanese host universities to lighten the stress of study adaptation of mainland Chinese college students are provided. Affective and cognitive identification positively relate to perceived emotional, tangible and informational support.Self-efficacy moderates the relationships from affective identification to emotional, tangible and informational support.Self-efficacy moderates the relationships from cognitive identification to tangible support.

Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Teams a Perspective View of Social Capital

Although research on virtual teams is becoming more popular, there is a gap in the understanding of how social capital affects the processes of knowledge sharing and creating, and their impacts on virtual team performance. To fill in this gap, this study formed a framework by incorporating social capital and SECI model [7] and examined it by an experiment with 65 virtual teams collaborating in a Wiki platform. The results showed that social capital was positively related to the four SECI modes (socialization, internalization, combination and externalization) and three SECI modes (internalization, combination and externalization) were found to be positively related to virtual team performance. The contributions of this study were twofold. Firstly the framework brought a broader view of researching knowledge management in a virtual team context. Secondly leaders and managers of virtual teams should be made aware of enhancing the effects of social capital to encourage internalization, combination and externalization to substitute the role of socialization.

Competition Field Perceptions of Table-tennis Athletes and their Performance

Abstract The distinction between positive and negative perceptions is fundamental in perception models. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between field perceptions of table tennis players and the outcome (net result) during the matches in a competition. Experimental data were collected from 10 elite table tennis players and analysed. The results addressed the following three competition field perceptions: (1) before the service, the player’s positive perceptions had significant effect on the positive outcome (winning rate) of that service; (2) the perception after the net result of the previous service increased the positive outcome of the next service, and (3) the player’s positive/negative perception during the matches affected the win/loss outcome of that competition. In conclusion, the player’s positive perceptions enhanced their winning rate during table tennis competitions. Therefore, during the training program, coaches need to develop positive perceptions and strengthen the psychological quality of table tennis players.

B2B e-commerce adoption and implementation constraints and critical success factors in the healthcare organizations

The adoption and effective utilization of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce in the healthcare industry can potentially assist in setting up an infrastructure which supports complex, multiparty Internet-based trading and transactions among medical products and services suppliers, insurers, wholesalers, and retailers in order to reduce health supply costs. This can lead to many benefits such as an increased accessibility to healthcare providers, faster sharing of information, a higher quality of healthcare services, searchable health information databases, enhanced care delivery capabilities, new product offerings, and reduction in healthcare costs and medical errors. However, despite high expectations for realizing the benefits of B2B e-commerce in healthcare, its adoption remains poorly understood and is also a relatively under-researched area. The potential for realizing significant benefits for implementation of B2B e-commerce does not appear to have been enough to provide impetus for extensive adoption by many healthcare organizations. Although B2B e-commerce provides these organizations a wealth of new opportunities and ways of doing business, it also presents them with a series of challenges. Therefore, the case study approach was utilized to investigate the constraints and critical success factors in adopting and utilizing B2B e-commerce systems in twenty-six organizations in the healthcare industry. The objectives of this research are: (1) to identify B2B e-commerce adoption and implementation constraints and critical success factors for organizations within the healthcare industry; and (2) to develop a framework for managing B2B e-commerce adoption and implementation constraints and critical success factors for healthcare organizations. A key contribution of the paper is to propose a framework in which constraints and critical success factors faced by healthcare organizations undertaking B2B e-commerce activities can be identified and examined.

A model of transiting individual efforts to the outcomes of virtual team

Few studies have formulated how individuals contribute to the team process and bring the success of virtual teams. The researcher attempted to integrate Technology-Task fit (TTF), Self-disclosure and Social Networks to build a framework to formulate how individual efforts are transited to the outcome of virtual teams. This framework was validated by an experiment which was engaged in a Wiki system. The results revealed that virtual team members interact by computer-mediated communication (CMC), the social relations were formed and gradually the team was tied together as a group. The efforts of each member are integrated by social ties in order to accomplish the goals. Three suggestions were proposed: (a) an appropriate technology which fits to the tasks should be provided; (b) an adequate training of operating the technology and disclose is needed to help members convey social cues and information to accomplish the tasks; (c) a mechanism to ensure the social ties go on the right track is crucial such as the frequency of communication and the way of solving conflicts.

Gender Differences in a Text-Based Virtual Environment

Research which addresses gender issues in a virtual environment is an emerging area. In the area of small group research, it has been found that perceived gender differences will enter into groups interactions and impact the groups processes and outcomes. A framework for evaluating gender differences in a text-based virtual environment was formed and underpinned by Essentialism theory, Similarity-attraction paradigm and Individual Difference theory, and further validated by an experiment which was engaged in a text-based discussion system ”Blackboard”. The results revealed that females perceived higher extent of relationship building, commitment and satisfaction than males but perceived no significant differences in communication, trust, collaboration and performance. It was also found that there was difference between males and females in their behavioral patterns. Females presented more adaptive and enjoyable attitude in working in a virtual environment than males because of the equality and fairness created by CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication). Females also regarded CMC as a tool to reduce conflict. The managerial application is provided for managers to retrieve a better performance while they are managing virtual teams.