Design and use of mobile technology in distance language education : Matching learning practices with technologies-in-practice

This thesis focuses on the adaptation of formal education to people’s technology- use patterns, theirtechnology-in-practice, where the ubiquitous use of mobile technologies is central. The research question is: How can language learning practices occuring in informal learning environments be effectively integrated with formal education through the use of mobile technology? The study investigates the technical, pedagogical, social and cultural challenges involved in a design science approach. The thesis consists of four studies. The first study systematises MALL (mobile-assisted language learning) research. The second investigates Swedish and Chinese students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technology in education. The third examines students’ use of technology in an online language course, with a specific focus on their learning practices in informal learning contexts and their understanding of how this use guides their learning. Based on the findings, a specifically designed MALL application was built and used in two courses. Study four analyses the app use in terms of students’ perceived level of self-regulation and structuration. The studies show that technology itself plays a very important role in reshaping peoples’ attitudes and that new learning methods are coconstructed in a sociotechnical system. Technology’s influence on student practices is equally strong across borders. Students’ established technologies-in-practice guide the ways they approach learning. Hence, designing effective online distance education involves three interrelated elements: technology, information, and social arrangements. This thesis contributes to mobile learning research by offering empirically and theoretically grounded insights that shift the focus from technology design to design of information systems.

Salesperson’s Personality, Motivation and Selling Performance : The Study of New Product Selling

In the highly competitive environment businesses invest big amounts of money into the new product development. New product success potentially depends on different factors among which salespeople play an important role. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential link between salespeople’s personality, motivation to sell new products and performance in selling new products. Based on the theoretical background of the Big Five personality dimensions, motivation and selling performance hypotheses were formulated and tested using statistical methods of correlation and regression analysis. The data was collected within one technologically intensive organization – ABB AB in Sweden using online web questionnaire and self-assessment measurements. Total investigation was conducted among organization’s salesforce. The findings confirm the importance of salesperson’s personality empirically showing that the latter significantly predicts both motivation and performance in selling new products. From all the Big Five Extraversion was confirmed to be the most important predictor of both motivation and performance in selling new products. Extraversion was found positively related with both motivation and performance in selling new products. Salespeople scoring high in Extraversion and especially possessing such characteristics as confident, energetic and sociable tend to be more motivated to sell new products and show higher performance results. Other personality dimensions such as Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to experience complexly approached are not proved to be significantly related neither with motivation nor performance in selling new products. The results are explained by the extreme importance of Extraversion in new product selling situation which analyzing in combination with the other personality dimensions suppresses the others. Finding regarding controlling for certain demographical characteristics of salespeople reveal that performance in selling new products is determined by selling experience. Salespeople’s age is not proved to be significantly related neither with motivation nor performance in selling new products. Findings regarding salespeople’s gender though proposing that males are more motivated to sell new products cannot be generalized due to the study limitations.