• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.39-69
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• 2012

With the advent of communication technologies including electronic collaborative tools and conferencing systems provided over the Internet, virtual collaboration is becoming increasingly common in organizations. Virtual collaboration refers to an environment in which the people working together are interdependent in their tasks, share responsibility for outcomes, are geographically dispersed, and rely on mediated rather than face-to face, communication to produce an outcome. Research suggests that new sets of individual skill, knowledge, and ability (SKAs) are required to perform effectively in today's virtualized workplace, which is labeled as individual virtual competence. It is also argued that use of online social networking sites may influence not only individuals' daily lives but also their capability to manage their work-related relationships in organizations, which in turn leads to better performance. The existing research regarding (1) the relationship between virtual competence and task performance and (2) the relationship between online networking and task performance has been conducted based on different theoretical perspectives so that little is known about how online social networking and virtual competence interplay to predict individuals' task performance. To fill this gap, this study raises the following research questions: (1) What is the individual virtual competence required for better adjustment to the virtual collaboration environment? (2) How does online networking via diverse social network service sites influence individuals' task performance in organizations? (3) How do the joint effects of individual virtual competence and online networking influence task performance? To address these research questions, we first draw on the prior literature and derive four dimensions of individual virtual competence that are related with an individual's self-concept, knowledge and ability. Computer self-efficacy is defined as the extent to which an individual beliefs in his or her ability to use computer technology broadly. Remotework self-efficacy is defined as the extent to which an individual beliefs in his or her ability to work and perform joint tasks with others in virtual settings. Virtual media skill is defined as the degree of confidence of individuals to function in their work role without face-to-face interactions. Virtual social skill is an individual's skill level in using technologies to communicate in virtual settings to their full potential. It should be noted that the concept of virtual social skill is different from the self-efficacy and captures an individual's cognition-based ability to build social relationships with others in virtual settings. Next, we discuss how online networking influences both individual virtual competence and task performance based on the social network theory and the social learning theory. We argue that online networking may enhance individuals' capability in expanding their social networks with low costs. We also argue that online networking may enable individuals to learn the necessary skills regarding how they use technological functions, communicate with others, and share information and make social relations using the technical functions provided by electronic media, consequently increasing individual virtual competence. To examine the relationships among online networking, virtual competence, and task performance, we developed research models (the mediation, interaction, and additive models, respectively) by integrating the social network theory and the social learning theory. Using data from 112 employees of a virtualized company, we tested the proposed research models. The results of analysis partly support the mediation model in that online social networking positively influences individuals' computer self-efficacy, virtual social skill, and virtual media skill, which are key predictors of individuals' task performance. Furthermore, the results of the analysis partly support the interaction model in that the level of remotework self-efficacy moderates the relationship between online social networking and task performance. The results paint a picture of people adjusting to virtual collaboration that constrains and enables their task performance. This study contributes to research and practice. First, we suggest a shift of research focus to the individual level when examining virtual phenomena and theorize that online social networking can enhance individual virtual competence in some aspects. Second, we replicate and advance the prior competence literature by linking each component of virtual competence and objective task performance. The results of this study provide useful insights into how human resource responsibilities assess employees' weakness and strength when they organize virtualized groups or projects. Furthermore, it provides managers with insights into the kinds of development or training programs that they can engage in with their employees to advance their ability to undertake virtual work.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.191-204
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• 2010

Recently, the CO2 emission and energy consumption have become critical global issues to decide the future of nations. Especially, the spread of IT products and the increased use of internet and web applications result in the energy consumption and CO2 emission of IT industry though information technologies drive global economic growth. EU, the United States, Japan and other developed countries are using IT related environmental regulations such as WEEE(Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), RoHS(Restriction of the use of Certain Hazardous Substance), REACH(Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of CHemicals) and EuP(Energy using Product), and have established systematic green business/IT strategies to enhance the competitiveness of IT industry. For example, the Japan government proposed the "Green IT initiative" for being compatible with economic growth and environmental protection. Not only energy saving technologies but energy saving systems have been developed for accomplishing sustainable development. Korea's CO2 emission and energy consumption continuously have grown at comparatively high rates. They are related to its industrial structure depending on high energy-consuming industries such as iron and steel Industry, automotive industry, shipbuilding industry, semiconductor industry, and so on. In particular, export proportion of IT manufacturing is quite high in Korea. For example, the global market share of the semiconductor such as DRAM was about 80% in 2008. Accordingly, Korea needs to establish a systematic strategy to respond to the global environmental regulations and to maintain competitiveness in the IT industry. However, green competitiveness of Korea ranked 11th among 15 major countries and R&D budget for green technology is not large enough to develop energy-saving technologies for infrastructure and value chain of low-carbon society though that grows at high rates. Moreover, there are no concrete action plans in Korea. This research aims to deduce the priorities of the Korean green business/IT strategies to use multi attribute weighted average method. We selected a panel of 19 experts who work at the green business related firms such as HP, IBM, Fujitsu and so on, and selected six assessment indices such as the urgency of the technology development, the technology gap between Korea and the developed countries, the effect of import substitution, the spillover effect of technology, the market growth, and the export potential of the package or stand-alone products by existing literature review. We submitted questionnaires at approximately weekly intervals to them for priorities of the green business/IT strategies. The strategies broadly classify as follows. The first strategy which consists of the green business/IT policy and standardization, process and performance management and IT industry and legislative alignment relates to government's role in the green economy. The second strategy relates to IT to support environment sustainability such as the travel and ways of working management, printer output and recycling, intelligent building, printer rationalization and collaboration and connectivity. The last strategy relates to green IT systems, services and usage such as the data center consolidation and energy management, hardware recycle decommission, server and storage virtualization, device power management, and service supplier management. All the questionnaires were assessed via a five-point Likert scale ranging from "very little" to "very large." Our findings show that the IT to support environment sustainability is prior to the other strategies. In detail, the green business /IT policy and standardization is the most important in the government's role. The strategies of intelligent building and the travel and ways of working management are prior to the others for supporting environment sustainability. Finally, the strategies for the data center consolidation and energy management and server and storage virtualization have the huge influence for green IT systems, services and usage This research results the following implications. The amount of energy consumption and CO2 emissions of IT equipment including electrical business equipment will need to be clearly indicated in order to manage the effect of green business/IT strategy. And it is necessary to develop tools that measure the performance of green business/IT by each step. Additionally, intelligent building could grow up in energy-saving, growth of low carbon and related industries together. It is necessary to expand the affect of virtualization though adjusting and controlling the relationship between the management teams.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.57-76
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• 2017

Recently, consumer needs are diversifying as information technologies are evolving rapidly. A lot of IT devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs are launching following the trend of information technology. While IT devices focused on the technical advance and improvement a few years ago, the situation is changed now. There is no difference in functional aspects, so companies are trying to differentiate IT devices in terms of appearance design. Consumers also consider design as being a more important factor in the decision-making of smart phones. Smart phones have become a fashion items, revealing consumers' own characteristics and personality. As the design and appearance of the smartphone become important things, it is necessary to examine consumer values from the design and appearance of IT devices. Furthermore, it is crucial to clarify the mechanisms of consumers' design evaluation and develop the design evaluation model based on the mechanism. Since the influence of design gets continuously strong, various and many studies related to design were carried out. These studies can classify three main streams. The first stream focuses on the role of design from the perspective of marketing and communication. The second one is the studies to find out an effective and appealing design from the perspective of industrial design. The last one is to examine the consumer values created by a product design, which means consumers' perception or feeling when they look and feel it. These numerous studies somewhat have dealt with consumer values, but they do not include product attributes, or do not cover the whole process and mechanism from product attributes to consumer values. In this study, we try to develop the holistic design evaluation model based on consumer values based on three-step approach from product attributes, perceived attributes, to consumer values. Product attributes means the real and physical characteristics each smart phone has. They consist of bezel, length, width, thickness, weight and curvature. Perceived attributes are derived from consumers' perception on product attributes. We consider perceived size of device, perceived size of display, perceived thickness, perceived weight, perceived bezel (top - bottom / left - right side), perceived curvature of edge, perceived curvature of back side, gap of each part, perceived gloss and perceived screen ratio. They are factorized into six clusters named as 'Size,' 'Slimness,' 'No-Frame,' 'Roundness,' 'Screen Ratio,' and 'Looseness.' We conducted qualitative research to find out consumer values, which are categorized into two: look and feel values. We identified the values named as 'Silhouette,' 'Neatness,' 'Attractiveness,' 'Polishing,' 'Innovativeness,' 'Professionalism,' 'Intellectualness,' 'Individuality,' and 'Distinctiveness' in terms of look values. Also, we identifies 'Stability,' 'Comfortableness,' 'Grip,' 'Solidity,' 'Non-fragility,' and 'Smoothness' in terms of feel values. They are factorized into five key values: 'Sleek Value,' 'Professional Value,' 'Unique Value,' 'Comfortable Value,' and 'Solid Value.' Finally, we developed the holistic design evaluation model by analyzing each relationship from product attributes, perceived attributes, to consumer values. This study has several theoretical and practical contributions. First, we found consumer values in terms of design evaluation and implicit chain relationship from the objective and physical characteristics to the subjective and mental evaluation. That is, the model explains the mechanism of design evaluation in consumer minds. Second, we suggest a general design evaluation process from product attributes, perceived attributes to consumer values. It is an adaptable methodology not only smart phone but also other IT products. Practically, this model can support the decision-making when companies initiative new product development. It can help product designers focus on their capacities with limited resources. Moreover, if its model combined with machine learning collecting consumers' purchasing data, most preferred values, sales data, etc., it will be able to evolve intelligent design decision support system.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.137-150
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• 2015

This study investigated the influence of Entrepreneurship, Start-up Competency on Entrepreneurial Satisfaction and the moderating effect of Flow experience. The goal of this investigation is to empirically prove that despite the benefits of educational and financial support, mentoring and consulting which selected applicants received as a part of supporting business for start-up companies provided by national and local government and public organizations, there is a gap between individual entrepreneurs' satisfaction after actual foundation of the company. For the purpose of this investigation, data was collected through a survey with 320 entrepreneurs who were beneficiaries of government's supporting business for start-up companies and have founded their companies less than 5 years ago. For entrepreneurship variables, three factors of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking were reviewed, and also reviewed the three variables network capability, market orientation and marketing capacity as Start-up competency. The collected data was used to perform a multiple regression analysis, and the moderating effect of flow experience was analysed using moderated regression analysis. The result of analysis shows that innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking of entrepreneurship positively affected the entrepreneurial satisfaction, and network capability, market orientation and marketing capability also positively affected the entrepreneurial satisfaction. As a result of analysing the moderating effect of flow experience, it appeared that there is a positive moderating effect between entrepreneurship, start-up competency, and the entrepreneurial satisfaction. This result concludes that evaluation items of entrepreneurship and start-up competency as applicant selecting criteria in supporting business for start-up companies, are valid. It is also concluded that start-up supports such as education, funds and consulting are also important, but it is necessary to make changes such as construction of start-up ecosystem and reinforcement of networking support, so that entrepreneurs can have the flow experience themselves in the process after founding a company.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.79-91
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to examine how much secondary school home economics teachers paid attention to performance assessment, to what extent and in which way they carried it out and how much support was given to that. It's basically meant to help provide more systematic support for performance assessment. The instrument used in this study was an Interest-Based Reform Adoption Model developed by Hall. Hord and et. al. at Texas University Research & Development Center for Teacher Education. and the subjects in this study were home economics teachers from 95 secondary schools in Gyeonggi province. After a survey was conducted by mail. the responses from 157 teachers were chosen for analysis. For data handling. SPSS/WIN program was utilized, and statistical data on mean. standard deviation and percentage were obtained. In addition. t-test and ANOVA were employed. The major findings of this study were as follows: First. as for their type of interest in performance assessment. influential type(35.0%) was most common. followed by confident type (29.3%). indifferent type(20.4%) and task type(15.3%). Second, regarding their implementation. every teacher carried out performance assessment. The largest group of the teachers fulfilled it as part of routine daily schedule(60 teachers. 38.2%). which could be called the level 4. The second largest group tried to integrate performance assessment to education programs(53 teachers. 33.8%). which could be called the level 5. The third largest group implemented it without making careful preparations for that(26 teachers. 16.6%). which could be called the level 3. and the fourth largest group tried to reinvent it(11 teachers. 7.0%), which could be called the level 6. The fifth largest group was in the middle of researching it(5 teachers, 3.2%). which could be called the level 1. And the sixth largest group was in the course of making preparations for that(2 teachers. 1.3%) . which could be named the level 2. Third. concerning how much they found themselves to be supported about performance assessment. they eave three or less marks to that. which showed that they weren't supported sufficiently There was little gap among them in their concern for performance assessment and its implementation levels. and this fact suggested that there wasn't satisfactory backup for their performance assessment.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.403-409
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the teaching efficiency of clinical training for dental hygiene students in Gyeonggi Province. The subjects in this study were 371 dental hygiene juniors in seven different colleges in Gyeonggi Province, on whom a self-administered survey was conducted. The collected data were analyzed with a SPSS WIN 12.0 program, and the findings of the study were as follows: 1. The teaching efficiency of clinical training that the dental hygiene students undergone was on the average. As for evaluation of the factors of teaching efficiency, they gave the highest marks to the role model factor(3.40). 2. The size of the institutions where they received clinical training made no statistically significant differences to the teaching efficiency of their clinical training. The university hospitals ranked first in professional knowledge, one of the sub-directory of teaching efficiency, and the gap between them and the others was statistically significant(p=.005). 3. Concerning links between satisfaction level with the major and view of teaching efficiency, stronger satisfaction with the major led to better perception of teaching efficiency(p=.001). Among the subdirectory of teaching efficiency, that made statistically significant differences to view of interpersonal skills, performance as a supporter, fair evaluation, academic organization skills(p=.005), encouragement and support, teaching methods, professional academic knowledge(p=.001), communicative competency, performance as a role model and cooperation with the staff of dental clinics(p=.000). 4. There were no statistically significant gaps in teaching efficiency according to teaching styles. Among the sub-directory of teaching efficiency, statistically significant differences were found only in encouragement and support(p=.005). The above-mentioned findings suggest that the teaching efficacy of the clinical training was approximately on the average, and that a better satisfaction with the major led to a higher teaching efficacy. Therefore a wide variety of teaching methods and systematic training programs should be developed to boost the quality of clinical training to improve its teaching efficacy.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.13-28
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• 2022

Korean Government Budget Supports for startups have been spiked and resulted in increasing the number and scaling up Startup Accelerating managers. It have skyrocketed the strong demand for their qualified roles. However, unclear role description and gap between required role and their capability have discouraged startup manager's self-efficacy resulted in declining their full commitment and causing poor role performance. The focus of this research falls on empirical analysis to the effect of startup accelerating manager's capability characteristics on their full commitment and performance to start-up support groups. This research is expected to deliver diverse policy alternatives to build up manager's core competencies to accelerate their self-efficacy leading their full role commitments and finally pushing up policy performance. In addition, this research will found more strong literature review for the following researches in this emerging fields. This research is brought four highlighting results with respect to four research problems. First, it propose proper concept of startup accelerating manager based upon its legal entitlement. Second, it drive required core competencies of manager for successful their accountability. Third, it analyze the unique features of startup accelerating manger's capabilities against business incubation manger. Fourth, it empirically analyze in coming with government startup funding, the effect of self-efficacy including employment status, job environment, etc. on their organizational commitment and job performance. This research reveal the required unique core competencies of manger into founder sourcing ability, project managing ability, startup proving and pivoting ability, consulting ability for successful investment raising. As of this empirical research results, First, manager's ability have positively effect on their job performance, full commitment, and self-efficacy. Second, self-efficacy have a mediating effect on manager's ability, job performance, full commitment. This research derive key policy implication of requiring to build up more accelerating ability, of manager from the basics to advance level by customized and algorithm based traing program. This accelerating ability buildup program will not only surge self-efficacy of manger resulting in making full commitment and better job performance, but also devote to categorizing the unique new feature and position of manger as seed investment and supporter.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.27-36
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• 1975

The success of the family planning program in Korea is reflected in the decrease in the growth rate from 3.0% in 1962 to 2.0% in 1971, and in the decrease in the fertility rate from 43/1,000 in 1960 to 29/1,000 in 1970. However, it would be erroneous to attribute these reductions entirely to the family planning program. Other socio-economic factors, such as the increasing age at marriage and the increasing use of induced abortions, definitely had an impact on the lowered growth and fertility rate. Despite the relative success of the program to data in meeting its goals, there is no room for complacency. Meeting the goal of a further reduction in the population growth rate to 1.3% by 1981 is a much more difficult task than any one faced in the past. Not only must fertility be lowered further, but the size of the target population itself will expand tremendously in the late seventies; due to the post-war baby boom of the 1950's reaching reproductive ages. Furthermore, it is doubtful that the age at marriage will continue to rise as in the past or that the incidence of induced abortion will continue to increase. Consequently, future reductions in fertility will be more dependent on the performance of the national family planning program, with less assistance from these non-program factors. This paper will describe various approaches to help to the solution of these current problems. 1. PRACTICE RATE IN FAMILY PLANNING In 1973, the attitude (approval) and knowledge rates were quite high; 94% and 98% respectively. But a large gap exists between that and the actual practice rate, which is only 3695. Two factors must be considered in attempting to close the KAP-gap. The first is to change social norms, which still favor a larger family, increasing the practice rate cannot be done very quickly. The second point to consider is that the family planning program has not yet reached all the eligible women. A 1973 study determineded that a large portion, 3096 in fact, of all eligible women do not want more children, but are not practicing family planning. Thus, future efforts to help close the KAP-gap must focus attention and services on this important large group of potential acceptors. 2. CONTINUATION RATES Dissatisfaction with the loop and pill has resulted in high discontinuation rates. For example, a 1973 survey revealed that within the first six months initial loop acceptance. nearly 50% were dropouts, and that within the first four months of inital pill acceptance. nearly 50% were dropouts. These discontinuation rates have risen over the past few years. The high rate of discontinuance obviously decreases the contraceptive effectiveness. and has resulted in many unwanted births which is directly related to the increase of induced abortions. In the future, the family planning program must emphasize the improved quality of initial and follow-up services. rather than more quantity, in order to insure higher continuation rates and thus more effective contraceptive protection. 3. INDUCED ABORTION As noted earlier. the use of induced abortions has been increase yearly. For example, in 1960, the average number of abortions was 0.6 abortions per women in the 15-44 age range. By 1970. that had increased to 2 abortions per women. In 1966. 13% of all women between 15-44 had experienced at least one abortion. By 1971, that figure jumped to 28%. In 1973 alone, the total number of abortions was 400,000. Besides the ever incre.sing number of induced abortions, another change has that those who use abortions have shifted since 1965 to include- not. only the middle class, but also rural and low-income women. In the future. in response to the demand for abortion services among rural and low-income w~men, the government must provide and support abortion services for these women as a part of the national family planning program. 4. TARGET SYSTIi:M Since 1962, the nationwide target system has been used to set a target for each method, and the target number of acceptors is then apportioned out to various sub-areas according to the number of eligible couples in each area. Because these targets are set without consideration for demographic factors, particular tastes, prejudices, and previous patterns of acceptance in the area, a high discontinuation rate for all methods and a high wastage rate for the oral pill and condom results. In the future. to alleviate these problems of the methodbased target system. an alternative. such as the weighted-credit system, should be adopted on a nation wide basis. In this system. each contraceptive method is. assigned a specific number of points based upon the couple-years of protection (CYP) provided by the method. and no specific targets for each method are given. 5. INCREASE OF STERILIZA.TION TARGET Two special projects. the hospital-based family planning program and the armed forces program, has greatly contributed to the increasing acceptance in female and male sterilization respectively. From January-September 1974, 28,773 sterilizations were performed. During the same time in 1975, 46,894 were performed; a 63% increase. If this trend continues, by the end of 1975. approximately 70,000 sterilizations will have been performed. Sterilization is a much better method than both the loop and pill, in terms of more effective contraceptive protection and the almost zero dropout rate. In the future, the. family planning program should continue to stress the special programs which make more sterilizations possible. In particular, it should seek to add the laparoscope techniques to facilitate female sterilization acceptance rates. 6. INCREASE NUMBER OF PRIVATE ACCEPTORS Among the current family planning users, approximately 1/3 are in the private sector and thus do not- require government subsidy. The number of private acceptors increases with increasing urbanization and economic growth. To speed this process, the government initiated the special hospital based family planning program which is utilized mostly by the private sector. However, in the future, to further hasten the increase of private acceptors, the government should encourage doctors in private practice to provide family planning services, and provide the contraceptive supplies. This way, those do utilize the private medical system will also be able to receive family planning services and pay for it. Another means of increasing the number of private acceptors, IS to greatly expand the commercial outlets for pills and condoms beyond the existing service points of drugstores, hospitals, and health centers. 7. IE&C PROGRAM The current preferred family size is nearly twice as high as needed to achieve a stable poplation. Also, a strong boy preference hinders a small family size as nearly all couples fuel they must have at least one or more sons. The IE&C program must, in the future, strive to emphasize the values of the small family and equality of the sexes. A second problem for the IE&C program to work. with in the: future is the large group of people who approves family planning, want no more children, but do not practice. The IE&C program must work to motivate these people to accept family planning And finally, for those who already practice, an IE&C program in the future must stress continuation of use. The IE&C campaign, to insure highest effectiveness, should be based on a detailed factor analysis of contraceptive discontinuance. In conclusion, Korea faces a serious unfavorable sociodemographic situation- in the future unless the population growth rate can be curtailed. And in the future, the decrease in fertility will depend solely on the family planning program, as the effect of other socio-economic factors has already been maximumally felt. A second serious factor to consider is the increasing number of eligible women due to the 1950's baby boom. Thus, to meet these challenges, the program target must be increased and the program must improve the effectiveness of its current activities and develop new programs.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.199-207
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• 2010

For us, there is virtually no distinction between being a responsible citizen and a successful business... they are one and the same for Wal-Mart today." ~ Lee Scott, al-Mart CEO after the 2005 Katrina disaster; cited in Green to Gold (Esty and Winston 2006). Lee Scott's statement signaled a new era in sustainability as manufacturers and retailers around the globe watched the world's largest mass merchandiser confirm its intentions with respect to sustainability. For decades, the environmental movement has grown, slowly bleeding over into the corporate world. Companies have been born, products have been created, academic journals have been launched, and government initiatives have been undertaken - all in the pursuit of sustainability (Peattie and Crane 2005). While progress has been admittedly slower than some may desire, the emergence and entrance of environmentally concerned mass merchandisers has done much to help with sustainable efforts. To better understand this movement, we incorporate the perspectives of both executives and consumers involved in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. This research relies on three underlying themes: (1) Conceptual and anecdotal evidence suggests that companies undertake sustainability initiatives for a plethora of reasons, (2) The number of sustainability initiatives continues to increase in the consumer packaged goods industries, and (3) That it is, therefore, necessary to explore the role that sustainability plays in the minds of consumers. In light of these themes, surveys were administered to and completed by 143 college students and 101 business executives to assess a number of variables in regards to sustainability including willingness-to-pay, behavioral intentions, attitudes, willingness-to-pay, and preferences. Survey results indicate that the top three reasons why executives believe sustainability to be important include (1) the opportunity for profitability, (2) the fulfillment of an obligation to the environment, and (3) a responsibility to customers and shareholders. College students identified the top three reasons as (1) a responsibility to the environment, (2) an indebtedness to future generations, and (3) an effective management of resources. While the rationale for supporting sustainability efforts differed between college students and executives, the executives and consumers reported similar responses for the majority of the remaining sustainability issues. Furthermore, when we asked consumers to assess the importance of six key issues (healthcare, economy, education, crime, government spending, and environment) previously identified as important to consumers by Gallup Poll, protecting the environment only ranked fourth out of the six (Carlson 2005). While all six of these issues were identified as important, the top three that emerged as most important were (1) improvements in education, (2) the economy, and (3) health care. As the pursuit and incorporation of sustainability continues to evolve, so too will the expected outcomes. New definitions of performance that reflect the social/business benefits as well as the lengthened implementation period are relevant and warranted (Ehrenfeld 2005; Hitchcock and Willard 2006). We identified three primary categories of outcomes based on a literature review of both anecdotal and conceptual expectations of sustainability: (1) improvements in constituent satisfaction, (2) differentiation opportunities, and (3) financial rewards. Within each of these categories, several specific outcomes were identified resulting in eleven different outcomes arising from sustainability initiatives. Our survey results indicate that the top five most likely outcomes for companies that pursue sustainability are: (1) green consumers will be more satisfied, (2) company image will be better, (3) corporate responsibility will be enhanced, (4) energy costs will be reduced, and (5) products will be more innovative. Additionally, to better understand the interesting intersection between the environmental "identity" of a consumer and the willingness to manifest that identity with marketplace purchases, we extended prior research developed by Experian Research (2008). Accordingly, respondents were categorized as one of four types of green consumers (Behavioral Greens, Think Greens, Potential Greens, or True Browns) to garner a better understanding of the green consumer in addition to assisting with a more effective interpretation of results. We assessed these consumers' willingness to engage in eco-friendly behavior by evaluating three options: (1) shopping at retailers that support environmental initiatives, (2) paying more for products that protect the environment, and (3) paying higher taxes so the government can support environmental initiatives. Think Greens expressed the greatest willingness to change, followed by Behavioral Greens, Potential Greens, and True Browns. These differences were all significant at p<.01. Further Conclusions and Implications We have undertaken a descriptive study which seeks to enhance our understanding of the strategic domain of sustainability. Specifically, this research fills a gap in the literature by comparing and contrasting the sustainability views of business executives and consumers with specific regard to preferences, intentions, willingness-to-pay, behavior, and attitudes. For practitioners, much can be gained from a strategic standpoint. In addition to the many results already reported, respondents also reported than willing to pay more for products that protect the environment. Other specific results indicate that female respondents consistently communicate a stronger willingness than males to pay more for these products and to shop at eco-friendly retailers. Knowing this additional information, practitioners can now have a more specific market in which to target and communicate their sustainability efforts. While this research is only an initial step towards understanding similarities and differences among practitioners and consumers regarding sustainability, it presents original findings that contribute to both practice and research. Future research should be directed toward examining other variables affecting this relationship, as well as other specific industries.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.79-96
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• 2012

As the pace of competition dramatically accelerates and the complexity of change grows, a variety of research have been conducted to improve firms' short-term performance and to enhance firms' long-term survival. In particular, researchers and practitioners have paid their attention to identify promising technologies that lead competitive advantage to a firm. Discovery of promising technology depends on how a firm evaluates the value of technologies, thus many evaluating methods have been proposed. Experts' opinion based approaches have been widely accepted to predict the value of technologies. Whereas this approach provides in-depth analysis and ensures validity of analysis results, it is usually cost-and time-ineffective and is limited to qualitative evaluation. Considerable studies attempt to forecast the value of technology by using patent information to overcome the limitation of experts' opinion based approach. Patent based technology evaluation has served as a valuable assessment approach of the technological forecasting because it contains a full and practical description of technology with uniform structure. Furthermore, it provides information that is not divulged in any other sources. Although patent information based approach has contributed to our understanding of prediction of promising technologies, it has some limitations because prediction has been made based on the past patent information, and the interpretations of patent analyses are not consistent. In order to fill this gap, this study proposes a technology forecasting methodology by integrating patent information approach and artificial intelligence method. The methodology consists of three modules : evaluation of technologies promising, implementation of technologies value prediction model, and recommendation of promising technologies. In the first module, technologies promising is evaluated from three different and complementary dimensions; impact, fusion, and diffusion perspectives. The impact of technologies refers to their influence on future technologies development and improvement, and is also clearly associated with their monetary value. The fusion of technologies denotes the extent to which a technology fuses different technologies, and represents the breadth of search underlying the technology. The fusion of technologies can be calculated based on technology or patent, thus this study measures two types of fusion index; fusion index per technology and fusion index per patent. Finally, the diffusion of technologies denotes their degree of applicability across scientific and technological fields. In the same vein, diffusion index per technology and diffusion index per patent are considered respectively. In the second module, technologies value prediction model is implemented using artificial intelligence method. This studies use the values of five indexes (i.e., impact index, fusion index per technology, fusion index per patent, diffusion index per technology and diffusion index per patent) at different time (e.g., t-n, t-n-1, t-n-2, ${\cdots}$) as input variables. The out variables are values of five indexes at time t, which is used for learning. The learning method adopted in this study is backpropagation algorithm. In the third module, this study recommends final promising technologies based on analytic hierarchy process. AHP provides relative importance of each index, leading to final promising index for technology. Applicability of the proposed methodology is tested by using U.S. patents in international patent class G06F (i.e., electronic digital data processing) from 2000 to 2008. The results show that mean absolute error value for prediction produced by the proposed methodology is lower than the value produced by multiple regression analysis in cases of fusion indexes. However, mean absolute error value of the proposed methodology is slightly higher than the value of multiple regression analysis. These unexpected results may be explained, in part, by small number of patents. Since this study only uses patent data in class G06F, number of sample patent data is relatively small, leading to incomplete learning to satisfy complex artificial intelligence structure. In addition, fusion index per technology and impact index are found to be important criteria to predict promising technology. This study attempts to extend the existing knowledge by proposing a new methodology for prediction technology value by integrating patent information analysis and artificial intelligence network. It helps managers who want to technology develop planning and policy maker who want to implement technology policy by providing quantitative prediction methodology. In addition, this study could help other researchers by proving a deeper understanding of the complex technological forecasting field.