Guest editorial: Interaction between human and ICT
Dear HSM readers,
On behalf of the Editorial Board of Human Systems Management and as a guest editor of this issue, I am glad to introduce the special issue “Interaction between Human and ICT”. The brief introduction and benefits of this topic is given below:
Interaction between Human and ICT
The interaction between human and technology is increasingly gaining popularity among practitioners and academics. Technology has always played a decisive role in humanity’s progress. Throughout history, it has not only strengthened economic development but has become a powerful tool for human development. Nevertheless, the positive impact technology has on human development may become tainted by the risks it entails.
The interaction between Human and ICT creates awareness on how ICTs contribute to human development in multiple areas. This publication describes the link between ICTs and human development, which includes economic, social, and political development. It identifies potential applications for the development of human beings and provides insightful analysis about those factors (also contextual and institutional ones) that affect ICTs for human development initiatives. However, experts suggest that there are several challenges in the interaction between human and ICT including human resource issues, marketing issues such as online shopping through social media apps and information systems such as understanding the technical aspects and knowledge.
Aims
The interaction between human and ICT significantly impact on modern society. As the research relating to the antecedents and consequences of interaction between human and ICT is very limited especially in human resource and marketing areas, this special issue has the following objectives:
1. To understand the factors affecting the relationship between human and ICT.
2. To discuss and explore the major challenges in development of congruity between human and ICT.
3. To capture the dynamics of variables in the field of human resource management, marketing and information systems focusing on the contemporary issues.
4. To develop the standardized models of ICT addressing the issues of diversity manage-ment.
5. To identify the challenges encountered in implementation of ICT programs in organizations contending the theoretical insights and practical strategies to overcome issues.
There are 11 papers included in this special issue. First paper, The Comparison Study on Employees’ adoption of Public and Enterprise Social Networks”, authored by Qi and his colleagues, is a cross sectional study and aims to find out the adoption mechanism in two contexts – enterprise social network services (ESNs) and public social network services (PSNs). The authors used survey questionnaire for data collection and found that the use of social network. Compared with ESNs that are weighted in favor of the utilitarian-oriented perspective, PSNs are inclined to be more hedonic-oriented. The findings offer a novel insight on understanding and applying social network services.
Second paper, “The status quo of digital transformation in china: A pilot study”, authored by Mengling Yan and her colleagues, aims to provide a holistic and comprehensive understanding of the status quo of Chinese firms’ digital transformation. The authors used mixed method approach qualitative and quantitative in this paper and 282 Chinese firms were used for data collection. The results disclose the unique findings that the majority of Chinese firms reach a consensus on the strategic importance of digital transformation and agree on the importance of technological and human resources.
Third paper, “A novel approach for the design of context-aware services for social inclusion and education”, authored by Serena and her colleagues, examines how the nature of social relationships and the similarity among individuals play a role in the collective dynamics. The authors used evolutionary game theory and the analysis of social networks, modeled as multiplex networks. This article provides a unique conclusion as “Exploiting these tools it is possible to design innovative ICT context-aware services based on collective cooperation and aimed at improving social inclusion, education and support for frail people”.
Forth paper, “Social media usage and international expatriate’s creativity: An empirical research in cross-cultural context”, authored by Hu Shangui and his colleagues, aims to address the gaps. The research is designed to investigate whether and how social media usage accounts for variance phenomena in international expatriates’ creativity with intervention role of cultural intelligence. Data were collected from three Chinese public sector universities. The authors find that social media usage contributes to international expatriates’ creativity partially through the conduit of peer relationship. Additionally, cultural intelligence positively moderates the relationship between social media usage and peer relationship. The usage of cultural intelligence is a unique contribution of this study.
The fifth paper, “Too obvious to ignore: Influence of popular reviews on consumer online purchasing decisions”, authored by Su and Niu, investigates the impact of online review valence, review volume, and their interactions on online sales, focusing on the question of what are the factors that influence customer purchase decisions and what is the moderating effect of popular reviews on review valence. Authors collect data from Amazon.cn website. They conclude that (1) in terms of review valence, the average score significantly promotes online sales, and negative word-of-mouth significantly decreases online sales; (2) as for review volume, the number of total reviews and popular reviews have significantly promoted online sales; (3) regarding the interactions between the review valence and review volume, popular reviews significantly enhance the impact of review valence on online sales, playing a complementary effect for review valence.
Sixth paper, authored by Anum and Yasir, entitled “Organic consumption through ICT: A moderated mediation model of consumer attitude and perceived irritation”. The organic consumption patterns based on online consumers’ reviews were reviewed through moderated mediation model. This research paper examines the mediating role of consumer attitude in the relationship between online consumers’ reviews and organic consumption. It further examines if perceived irritation moderates this effect. The examination of organic consumption through ICT is an important cultural context of China. It is unique in this study along with moderated and mediated mode.
Seventh paper is entitled “Role of e-learning technology and culture on learning agility: An empirical evidence”, authored by Susmita and her colleagues. This study aims to investigate the role of culture and e-learning technology on learning agility. In detail, the research examines the relationship between learning agility and outcome. Further, it also seeks to examine the mediating relationship of culture and e-learning between learning agility and outcome. The authors used quantitative technique for this study and data were collected from 776 executives across all levels. Authors confirmed that learning agility significantly related with outcome. Secondly, culture and e-learning technology mediate between learning agility and outcome. Using the e-learning technology as a mediator variable is a unique context.
The eighth paper, “Do platforms favour dissidents? Characterizing political actor types based on social media uses and gratifications”, authored by Rathnayake and Jenifer Sunrise, established two objectives: 1) identify differences in social media uses and gratifications among four political personality types (i.e., potential dissidents, allegiants, subordinates, and the alienated); and 2) examine the extent to which political personality types can be discerned using social media uses and gratifications. Data were collected from 313 US citizens above the age of 18. The authors confirmed that potential allegiants and dissidents are driven by a similar set of social media uses and gratifications as opposed to political subordinates and the alienated. The study is unique in the context of the United States while using characterizing political actor types based on social media uses and gratifications.
Ninth paper, “Cognitive-affective appraisal of technostressors by ICT-based mobile workers and their impacts on technostrain”, authored by Shirish Anuragini, aims to explain the relative importance of the cognitive and affective processes used amongst ICT-based mobile workers when coping with technostressors. The author used unique methods to develop dual-path serial mediation models, showing the relationships between technostress-technostrain via two processes: (a) the primary cognitive appraisal process mobilization (threat/opportunity technology frame); and (b) the secondary affective resource process mobilization (affect towards ICT use) to account for technostrain perceptions. The author further confirms that a predominant cognitive ‘threat frames’ leads to increase in technostrain, which decreases if ‘affective resource’ available for coping. This relationship is inverse in the case of ‘opportunity frames’ path, as technostrain perceptions decreases with and without affective resource mobilization. This paper is unique as the framework is a combination of technostressors by ICT-based mobile workers and their impacts on technostrain.
Tenth paper, “The impact of technological alignment and advancement on firms’ project performance with mediating role of technology acceptance model” authored by Kamila Shahid and her colleagues, examines the linkage of technological alignment (TAL) and technological advancement (TAD) on organizational project performance (OPP) with mediating influence of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) considering two TAM attributes – perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU). The findings affirm the positive relationships of TAL and TAD on OPP. The study reveals the mediating influence of PEOU between TAL and OPP. The study further affirms a positive mediation of PU between TAD and OPP, respectively. This study is unique in providing insights into how incorporation of technological and TAM tools – TAL, TAD, PEOU, and PU – may improve OPP of the organizations in today’s digital era.
The eleventh paper, authored by Taiba Sardar and colleagues is entitled “Impact of ICT on entre-preneurial self-efficacy in emerging economy: Sustaining lock-down during COVID-19 pandemic”. This article investigates the impact of information communication technology (ICT) on entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), social networking (SN) and facilitation to micro-entrepreneurs during COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. The authors used TAM model in this work and data were collected online from 398 micro-entrepreneurs. The results indicate that survival of micro-entrepreneurs can be achieved through ICT as it is a strong variable which affects social capital building, bridging and self-efficacy, both directly and indirectly. The entrepreneurial activity can be increased through ICT and entrepreneurs can sustain the implications of lock-downs. The study is unique in the context of Pakistan while using entrepreneurial self-efficacy during COVID-19 pandemic.
I sincerely thank Prof. dr. Nada Trunk, the Editor-in-Chief, who trusted me with this responsibility. I am also grateful to all authors for their effort of revising the papers and their patience during the review process. I look forward to working with all of you as we continue to make HSM a success and we welcome your submissions.
