This paper presents a study that was designed to examine efforts undertaken by two cities—Atlanta and LaGrange, Georgia—to redress the digital divide. Atlanta’s initiative has taken the form of community technology centers where citizens can come to get exposure to information technology and to learn something about computers and their applications. LaGrange has taken a very different approach, providing free Internet access to the home via a digital cable set-top box. This research is designed to examine the strengths and limitations of the two initiatives, with the goal of understanding why neither effort has had the impact that policy makers had hoped for with respect to solving the digital divide problem. Our findings indicate that the relationship between access and use of IT is not deterministic. Social processes that exist at both the institutional and individual levels of analysis complicate this relationship. From the institutional perspective, a persistent divide exists even when cities are giving away a theoretically “free good ” or service. Free goods often took the form of a training course that delivered little more than basic IT literacy and computer hardware of inferior quality and capabilities. From the individual perspective, we found that economic capital explains

Methodological fit, an implicitly valued attribute of high-quality field research in organizations, has received little attention in the management literature. Fit refers to internal consistency among elements of a research project—research question, prior work, research design, and theoretical contribution. We introduce a contingency framework that relates prior work to the design of a research project, paying particular attention to the question of when to mix qualitative and quantitative data in a single research paper. We discuss implications of the framework for educating new field researchers. To advance management theory, a growing number of scholars are engaging in field research, studying real people, real problems, and real organizations. Although the potential relevance of field research is motivating, the research journey can be messy and inefficient, fraught with logistical hurdles and unexpected events. Researchers manage complex relationships with sites, cope with constraints on sample selection and timing of data collection, and often confront mid-project changes to planned research designs. With these additional challenges, the logic of a research design and how it supports the development of a specific theoretical contribution can be obscured or altered along the way in field research. Compared to experimental studies, analyses of published data sets, or computer simulations, achieving fit between the type of data collected in and the theoretical contribution of a given field research project is a dynamic and challenging process.

According to constructivist theory, learning is an active, continuous process whereby the learner takes information from the environment and constructs personal interpretations and meaning based on prior knowledge and experience (von Glasersfeld, 1995). Personal interests and needs that arise from the learner

POLICY RESEARCH

Collaborative information behavior is an essential aspect of organizational work; however, we have very limited understanding of this behavior. Most models of information behavior focus on the individual seeker of information. In this paper, we report the results from two empirical studies that investigate aspects of collaborative information behavior in organizational settings. From these studies, we found that collaborative information behavior differs from individual information behavior with respect to how individuals interact with each other, the complexity of the information need, and the role of information technology. There are specific triggers for transitioning from individual to collaborative information behavior, including lack of domain expertise. The information retrieval technologies used affect collaborative information behavior by acting as important supporting mechanisms. From these results and prior work, we develop a model of collaborative information behavior along the axes of participant behavior, situational elements, and contextual triggers. We also present characteristics of collaborative information system including search, chat, and sharing. We discuss implications for the design of collaborative information retrieval systems and directions for future work.

The purpose of this study was to determine a definition and appropriate assessment methods of intercultural competence as agreed upon by a panel of nationally-known intercultural experts. This information was validated by a sample of higher education administrators and can be used by administrators in identifying and assessing intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization efforts. The process and procedures used to develop and validate this information were a 3-round Delphi technique involving the intercultural experts, along with an institutional questionnaire to higher education administrators involved in internationalization efforts. The Delphi technique is a reiterative, interactive process between a researcher and a panel of experts, often with the goal of reaching consensus among panelists. Three rounds of questions were communicated to the panel through the use of electronic mail. Experts generated and submitted definitions of intercultural competence, refined those definitions, and reached some agreement on key elements of intercultural competence and appropriate assessment methods. In addition, higher education administrators participated in the final round of the Delphi to indicate their acceptance or rejection of the data developed by the

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ABSTRACT: Customer relationship management is an integral component of business strategy for on-line service providers. This paper investigates the aspects of on-line transactions in electronic retailing that are most likely to satisfy or dissatisfy customers, thereby increasing or decreasing the likelihood of building and maintaining relationships with them. For this study, 513 respondents reported behaviors, perceptions, beliefs, events, features, characteristics, attributes, and situations that expressed their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with electronic service encounters. Content analysis of these encounters yielded three meta-categories, six categories, and 33 subcategories of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with on-line service providers. The findings suggested that three major categories are robust even in the electronic context of the Internet. The antecedents identified were relevant both to product-related services (e.g., books, apparel) and to pure services (e.g., on-line banking, on-line stock trading). The study found that the characteristics and behaviors of customer-contact employees play an important role in on-line service encounters. It also revealed a percentage decrease in satisfactory incidents, a percentage increase in unsatisfactory incidents, and a percentage increase in unsatisfactory

Over the past two years, nearly 200 first-year, junior, and senior students have participated in one-hour interviews designed to measure their intellectual development using the Perry model [1]. A Perry scheme expert rates these interviews producing a numerical intellectual development "score". From a sample of 27 seniors, seven had Perry ratings of 5 or higher. Ratings in this range indicate that students are able to sort through conflicting, ambiguous data and make informed choices between alternatives [2, 3]. This paper examines the profiles of these students to determine what classroom and cocurricular experiences influenced their intellectual growth.

This paper describes the Free Internet Initiative in LaGrange, Georgia: a program undertaken by the City of LaGrange to address the digital divide. In 2000, LaGrange became the first city in the world to provide broadband Internet access to every citizen. This research explores the history of the initiative and documents the achievements made as well as the challenges that city officials have faced in bridging the digital divide. Due to the nature of the initiative, the case study provides a good context for examining the limits of technology access. In particular, we note that in spite of some positive results, the Free Internet Initiative has failed to have the impact that policy makers had hoped for with respect to bridging the digital divide. The implications of the city's experience with the initiative are discussed.