Drivers of managers’ affect (emotions) and corporate website usage: a comparative analysis between a developed and developing country

Purpose Existing literature reveals a general lack of research on business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce showcasing how managers’ affect plays a role in enhancing their attitude toward the businesses they work with. The purpose of this study is to fill that void by ascertaining whether managers’ corporate website knowledge, corporate website expertise and affect toward a corporate site influence their attitude toward the corporate website. It also investigates whether managers’ attitude guides corporate website usage intention in the context of two culturally diverse countries. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from managers from the USA and Kuwait using an online survey method. Structural equation modeling using EQS 6.2 software was used for analysis. Findings The results indicate that corporate Web knowledge influences Web expertise and affect in the US sample; in the Kuwaiti sample, Web knowledge influences Web expertise but does not influence affect. The findings in both studies reveal that managers’ knowledge about the Web has a positive effect on their attitude toward a business website. For Kuwaiti managers, Web expertise has a positive influence on affect. However, Web expertise does not influence managers’ affect in the US sample. The results further suggest that affect influences a manager’s attitude toward corporate websites in the US and Kuwaiti samples. Originality/value Self-efficacy and affect infusion theories serve as the foundation for this study. This research adds to these two theories in three ways. First, it examines the combined influence of affect and attitude on B2B managers’ intent to use a corporate website. Second, it proposes a single model that examines the combined relationships among managers’ knowledge and managers’ Web expertise that elicit managerial affect toward corporate websites. Third, the proposed model was tested using samples from two diverse countries (developed, the USA, and developing, Kuwait).

Knowledge Management Systems Analysis and Planning for Employees Recruitment and Training

The development of science in the era of globalization is happening so quickly. The ability of humans to develop a variety of science (knowledge) is getting better with the tacit and explicit knowledge. From this development both tacit and explicit knowledge can be combined and varied to a Knowledge Management System. PT SCF (Limited) Palembang branch is a company engaged in the field of inspection and certification services. The problem faced by this company is that the process and media for sharing and transferring knowledge between colleagues is still small and not yet entrenched. This condition makes the company less effective in terms of producing and disseminating knowledge to staff quickly and accurately. Documentation of daily activities and routines are not carried out in a planned and integrated manner. Each department carries out its own activities in its own way, for example storing documentation on a CD, as well as a piece of paper. So the authors are interested in analyzing and designing Web Knowledge Management System. The method used is the object analysis and design method. While the tools for modeling using Unified Modeling Language (UML). The results obtained are a prototype web Knowledge Management System (KMS) that can be a media of information and knowledge sharing related to employee acceptance and training

Web Knowledge Turbine as a Proposal for Personal and Professional Self-Organisation in Complex Times

This article describes a proposal for sustainable way to adapt to current complex process of global transformation, using the ‘Web Knowledge Turbine' (WKT) as a self-organised ecosystem for the co-creation of personal and collective narratives. The authors contemplate all human social systems as Complex Adaptive Systems with the capacity for self-organisation derived from a permanent learning process. Accordingly, a shift in the focus of teaching programmes from mere mechanisms of knowledge transmission, to a process focused on learning and in particular, a process of self-directed, connected, and deep learning which has at its core the profile of the eLearner as the central protagonist. The cornerstone of this process is a Complex Ecosystem of Personal Knowledge (CEPK) which will support teaching at an undergraduate level, progressively and transversely, from its outset. Considering the classroom as a networked community of learners whose objective is not only to gain a command of a particular subject (WHAT content do they need to learn?), but also HOW and WHY they need to learn it.