This paper details an empirical pilot study that explores the development of several conceptual measures and models regarding intellectual capital and its impact on business performance. The objective of this pilot study is to explore the development of items and constructs through principal components analysis and partial least squares (PLS). The final retained, subjective measures and optimal structural specification show a valid, reliable, significant and substantive causal link between dimensions of intellectual capital and business performance. These results should help both academics and practitioners more readily understand the components of intellectual capital and provide insight into developing and increasing it within an organization. Suggestions are then made to advance and improve this research programme

The applicability of 5 conventional guidelines for construct measurement is critically examined: (a) Construct indicators should be internally consistent for valid measures, (b) there are optimal magnitudes of correlations between items, (c) the validity of measures depends on the adequacy with which a specified domain is sampled, (d) within-construct correlations must be greater than between-construct correlations, and (e) linear composites of indicators can replace latent variables. A structural equation perspective is used, showing that without an explicit measurement model relating indicators to latent variables and measurement errors, none of these conventional beliefs hold without qualifications. Moreover, a “causal ” indicator model is presented that sometimes better corresponds to the relation of indicators to a construct than does the classical test theory “effect ” indicator model. Factor analysis (Spearman, 1904) and classical test theory (Lord & Novick, 1968; Spearman, 1910) have influenced perspectives on measurement not only in psychology but in most of the social sciences. These traditions have given rise to criteria to select “good ” measures and to a number of beliefs about the

Research in organizational learning has demonstrated processes and occasionally performance implications of acquisition of declarative (know-what) and procedural (know-how) knowledge. However, considerably less attention has been paid to learned characteristics of relationships that affect the decision to seek information from other people. Based on a review of the social network, information processing, and organizational learning literatures, along with the results of a previous qualitative study, we propose a formal model of information seeking in which the probability of seeking information from another person is a function of (1) knowing what that person knows; (2) valuing what that person knows; (3) being able to gain timely access to that person’s thinking; and (4) perceiving that seeking information from that person would not be too costly. We also hypothesize that the knowing, access, and cost variables mediate the relationship between physical proximity and information seeking. The model is tested using two separate research sites to provide replication. The results indicate strong support for the model and the mediation hypothesis (with the exception of the cost variable). Implications are drawn for the study of both transactive memory and organizational learning, as well as for management practice.

ly, we applied principal component analysis to the pixel-coded face images with the aim of extracting measures related to the gender classifiability and recognizability of individual faces. We incorporated these model-derived measures into the factor analysis with the human rating and performance measures. This combined analysis indicated that face recognizability is related to the distinctiveness of a face with respect to its gender subcategory prototype. Additionally, the gender classifiability of faces related to at least one caricatured aspect of face gender. 1. introduction 1 Human faces provide us with a plethora of information that is valuable and necessary for social interaction. When we encounter a face, we can quickly and efficiently decide whether it is one we know. For faces of persons we know, we can often retrieve semantic and identity information about the person. Additionally, from both familiar and unfamiliar faces we can make judgments

We examine the controversial practice of using parcels of items as manifest variables in structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures. After detailing arguments pro and con, we conclude that the unconsidered use of parcels is never warranted, while, at the same time, the considered use of parcels cannot be dismissed out of hand. In large part, the decision to parcel or not depends on one’s philosophical stance regarding scientific inquiry (e.g., empiricist vs. pragmatist) and the substantive goal of a study (e.g., to understand the structure of a set of items or to examine the nature of a set of constructs). Prior to creating parcels, however, we recommend strongly that investigators acquire a thorough understanding of the nature and dimensionality of the items to be parceled. With this knowledge in hand, various techniques for creating parcels can be utilized to minimize potential pitfalls and to optimize the measurement structure of constructs in SEM procedures. A number of parceling techniques are described, noting their strengths and weaknesses. Using parcels as indicators of constructs in structural equation models (SEMs) has been and remains a controversial practice. Historically, debates on the utility and efficacy of parcels date back over 40 years (e.g., Cattell, 1956; Cattell & Burdsal, 1975), and the debates have continued in contemporary SEM circles (e.g.,

This article addresses the concern for effective web site design by means of the conceptualization and empirical validation of a web site user satisfaction construct. Based on IS success theory, hypermedia design theory, a qualitative exploratory pilot study, and a quantitative online critical incident technique, we introduce and define the construct of web site user satisfaction, explore its dimensionality, provide empirical validation of the construct and its underlying dimensionality, develop a standardized instrument with desirable psychometric properties for measuring WUS, and explore the measure's theoretical and practical application.

The influence of topic involvement on two mail survey response characteristics, response rate and speed of response, was examined in an experimental setting consisting of two phases. Firstly, topic involvement was measured for an on average low involvement, and an on average high involvement topic (fast food and clothing, respectively), for both respondents and non-respondents to a subsequent mail survey. Secondly, the mail survey itself was carried out, involving questions about attitudes towards fast food and clothing. Response rate and the speed of response were determined on the basis of this mail survey. The contribution of this study is twofold. Firstly, in contrast to previous studies, it makes use of the most recent theoretical and operational developments in the literature concerning the definition and measurement of topic involvement. Secondly, and most importantly, this study finds a significant interaction effect between an individuals ’ topic involvement and

Physical controls such as knobs, sliders, and buttons are experiencing a revival as many computing systems progress from personal computing architectures towards ubiquitous computing architectures. We demonstrate a process for measuring and comparing visceral emotional responses of a physical control to performance results of a target acquisition task. In our user study, participants experienced mechanical and rendered friction, inertia, and detent dynamics as they turned a haptic knob towards graphical targets of two different widths and amplitudes. Together, this process and user study provide novel affect- and performance-based design guidance to developers of physical controls for emerging ubiquitous computing environments. Our work bridges extensive human factors work in mechanical systems that peaked in the 1960’s, to contemporary trends, with a goal of integrating mechatronic controls into emerging ubiquitous computing systems. Author Keywords Haptic display, physical control, design process, affect, rotary Fitts-like task.

Location-based services (LBS), enabled by advances in mobile and positioning technologies, have afforded users with a pervasive flexibility to be uniquely addressable and to access network and services on-the-move. However, because LBS could also associate the lifestyle habits, behaviors, and movements with a consumer’s personal identity, privacy concerns are particularly salient for LBS. Drawing on psychological control and privacy literature, we designed an experiment study to test the basic proposition that the assurance of consumers ’ perceived control over their personal information has a considerable influence on alleviating their privacy concerns. Three different mechanisms of assurance of control—technology, industry self-regulation, and legislation—were manipulated in the experiment, and their effects on consumers ’ privacy concerns were examined. The results indicated that the technological assurance mechanism (i.e., mobile device in this study) played the most important role in assuring consumers ’ perceived control over personal information. The marriage of the privacy and psychological control literature streams provides a rich understanding of consumers ’ privacy reaction to LBS usage and, therefore, benefits the privacy and human-computer interaction (HCI) research in the Information Systems discipline.

Internet usage in the American workplace is increasing at a phenomenal rate. This exploratory study examines factors influencing employee Internet usage and individual perceptions of the consequences of such usage. Using the Theory of Reasoned Behavior, a questionnaire was designed and administered to MBA students in the northeast sector of the United States. The results of this preliminary study indicate that personal and organizational variables are associated with beliefs and attitudes about the Internet, and that beliefs and attitudes are related to Internet usage. For someone who perceives the Internet as intimidating, Internet usefulness, time and frequency on the Internet, and business activity usage decreases. In contrast, for someone who perceives the Internet as useful, there is an increase in Internet use, and frequency. Additionally, Internet usage is related to several indicators measuring Internet impact. Time on the Internet is positively associated with enhanced job characteristics, job satisfaction, overall productivity, but also inefficiency.