Information systems management positions - a market perspective

Information systems (IS) managers have become key senior executives for organising the IT resources for delivering support to businesses. Understanding characteristics of IS managers’ employment positions is hence an increasingly important topic in computer personnel research. An investigation in Singapore that included a job advertisement analysis, surveys and case studies was thus conducted to investigate such aspects. This article presents the findings of the job advertisement analysis concerning what kinds of IS managers the market is seeking and what are the basic conditions for such management positions. The literature in this area asserts that job advertisements represent firms’ wishes and the nature of the conditions required of different IS personnel. The results of this analysis therefore reflect a collective market perspective about the changing IS managerial workplace. The results of the analysis benefit both firms and IS employees in formulating personnel development plans and actions, and raise issues for further research.

The impact of drug information on the prescribing of drugs

Using prescription analyses and questionnaires, the way drug information was used by general medical practitioners during the drug adoption process was studied. Three new drugs were considered; an innovation and two 'me-too' products. The innovation was accepted by general practitioners via a contagion process, information passing among doctors. The 'me-too' preparations were accepted more slowly and by a process which did not include the contagion effect. 'Industrial' information such as direct mail was used more at the 'awareness' stage of the adoption process while 'professional' sources of information such as articles in medical journals were used more to evaluate a new product. It was shown that 'industrial' information was preferred by older single practice doctors who did not specialise, had a first degree only and who did not dispense their own prescriptions. Doctors were divided into early and late-prescribers by using the date they first prescribed the innovatory drug. Their approach to drug information sources was further studied and it was shown that the early-prescriber issued slightly more prescriptions per month, had a larger list size, read fewer journals and generally rated industrial sources of information more highly than late-prescribers. The prescribing habits of three consultant rheumatologists were analysed and compared with those of the general practitioners in the community which they served. Very little association was noted and the influence of the consultant on the prescribing habits of general practitioners was concluded to be low. The consultants influence was suggested to be of two components, active and passive; the active component being the most influential. Journal advertising and advertisement placement were studied for one of the 'me-too' drugs. It was concluded that advertisement placement should be based on the reading patterns of general practitioners and not on ad-hoc data gathered by representatives as was the present practice. A model was proposed relating the 'time to prescribe' a new drug to the variables suggested throughout this work. Four of these variables were shown to be significant. These were, the list size, the medical age of the prescriber, the number of new preparations prescribed in a given time and the number of partners in the practice.

How brand attribute typicality and consumer commitment moderate the influence of comparative advertising

This study examines how product attribute typicality and brand commitment influence the effects of comparative versus non-comparative ads on brand attitudes. Employing perspectives from the literatures on typicality and commitment, the study examines the effects of commitment to the comparison brand on the effectiveness of comparative versus non-comparative advertising. A between-informants experiment uses data from 466 student informants. It is hypothesized that (a) when the attribute under consideration is typical (atypical), among comparison brand committed informants, a non-comparative ad is more (no more) persuasive than a comparative ad, (b) when the attribute under consideration is typical, among comparison brand non-committed informants, a comparative ad is more persuasive than a non-comparative ad, and (c) when the attribute under consideration is atypical, among comparison brand non-committed informants, a comparative ad is likely to be more persuasive than a non-comparative ad, but the effect will be weaker than in the case of a typical attribute. Hypothesis (a) is supported while (b) has directional support. The results support a three-way interaction between consumer commitment, attribute typicality, and type of advertisement. The findings are relevant to a variety of contexts, such as markets characterized by high levels of market share and commitment for the market leader as well as fragmented markets where market share and commitment levels are low.

Changing consumer markets and marketing in China

China's enormous population and rapidly increasing consumer spending are attractive to many multinational corporations (MNCs) to supply products to the Chinese markets. Yet MNCs continue to struggle to find ways to serve this diverse and culturally unique market. This article reviews and integrates existing knowledge on Chinese consumers' responses to marketing efforts, and specifies and empirically tests several propositions. Chinese consumers are found to have higher brand consciousness, brand loyalty, lower price sensitivity for visible goods, and to be less responsive to sales promotions compared to Western consumers. We also find indications that the influence of face considerations (i.e., prestige earned in a social network) cause Chinese consumers to have higher emphasis on prestige in their channel choices and advertisement evaluations than Western consumers. By outlining these implications, our study can help MNCs better understand how Chinese consumers behave and that understanding can help MNCs adapt their marketing efforts.

Proactive environmental systems:the next generation of environmental monitoring

In this article we envision factors and trends that shape the next generation of environmental monitoring systems. One key factor in this respect is the combined effect of end-user needs and the general development of IT services and their availability. Currently, an environmental (monitoring) system is assumed to be reactive. It delivers measurement data and computational results only if the user explicitly asks for it either by query or subscription. There is a temptation to automate this by simply pushing data to end-users. This, however, leads easily to an "advertisement strategy", where data is pushed to end-users regardless of users' needs. Under this strategy, the mere amount of received data obfuscates the individual messages; any "automatic" service, regardless of its fitness, overruns a system that requires the user's initiative. The foreseeable problem is that, unless there is no overall management, each new environmental service is going to compete for end-users' attention and, thus, inadvertently hinder the use of existing services. As the main contribution we investigate the nature of proactive environmental systems, and how they should be designed to avoid the aforementioned problem. We also discuss how semantics, participatory sensing, uncertainty management, and situational awareness link to proactive environmental systems. We illustrate our proposals with some real-life examples.

Image enhancement of real-time television to benefit the visually impaired

Purpose: To examine the use of real-time, generic edge detection, image processing techniques to enhance the television viewing of the visually impaired. Design: Prospective, clinical experimental study. Method: One hundred and two sequential visually impaired (average age 73.8 ± 14.8 years; 59% female) in a single center optimized a dynamic television image with respect to edge detection filter (Prewitt, Sobel, or the two combined), color (red, green, blue, or white), and intensity (one to 15 times) of the overlaid edges. They then rated the original television footage compared with a black-and-white image displaying the edges detected and the original television image with the detected edges overlaid in the chosen color and at the intensity selected. Footage of news, an advertisement, and the end of program credits were subjectively assessed in a random order. Results: A Prewitt filter was preferred (44%) compared with the Sobel filter (27%) or a combination of the two (28%). Green and white were equally popular for displaying the detected edges (32%), with blue (22%) and red (14%) less so. The average preferred edge intensity was 3.5 ± 1.7 times. The image-enhanced television was significantly preferred to the original (P < .001), which in turn was preferred to viewing the detected edges alone (P < .001) for each of the footage clips. Preference was not dependent on the condition causing visual impairment. Seventy percent were definitely willing to buy a set-top box that could achieve these effects for a reasonable price. Conclusions: Simple generic edge detection image enhancement options can be performed on television in real-time and significantly enhance the viewing of the visually impaired. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tracing social influence in responses to strategy change in an online community

Interest into the effects of social influence on members of online communities is growing but there is a lack of knowledge about the impact of influential members in online communities on responses to strategy change within the wider community. We explore social influence in responses to strategy change through content analysis of forum posts before and after a change in strategy. Acceptance or non-acceptance of strategy change and subsequent positive and negative behavioural responses online are dependent on individual factors. The details of these behavioural responses to a change in strategy are tabulated and included in a conceptual model to inform decision-makers. Strategy change precipitates a reduction in social influence effects. Non-acceptance of strategy change is associated with competitor advertisement, inflammatory behaviour, offensive behaviour and complaints. This negative behaviour has important ramifications for acceptance of strategy change within the wider community and impacts on the viability of setting up online forums. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Editorial

Full text: There are phrases in daily use today which were not so common a decade or so back, such as ‘ageing population’ or ‘climate changes’ or ‘emerging markets’ or even ‘social networking’. How do these things affect our lives is certainly interesting but for us as eye care practitioners how these changes affect our clinical work may be also relevant and sometimes more interesting. A recent advertisement for recruitment to the Royal Marine Corps of the British Army ended with a comment ‘find us on Facebook!’ The BCLA, IACLE and other organisations as well as many manufacturers have their own Facebook groups. In 2011 Chandni Thakkar was awarded the BCLA summer studentship and her project was based around increasing the contact lens business of a small independent optometric practice where contact lens sales were minimal. The practice typically recruited one new wearer per month. Chandni was able to increase the number of new patient fits with various strategies (her work was presented as poster at the 2012 BCLA conference in Birmingham). One of her strategies was to start a Facebook group and 655 joined the special group she started in just over a month. Interestingly she found that the largest single factor in convincing patients to trial contact lenses was recommendation by the eye care practitioner at the end of the examination, but nonetheless it is interesting that so many people used the social networking site to find out more information regarding contact lenses in her study. Moreover, we already see the use, by some practitioners, of smart phone ‘apps’ or electronic diaries or text messages when coordinating patient check-ups. Climate change has affected the way we think and act; we now leave out special recycle bins and we hope that the items that are recyclable are actually recycled and do not just join our other refuse somewhere down the track! How environmentally friendly are contact lenses? This was discussed by various speakers at this year's BCLA conference in Birmingham. Daily disposable lenses surely produce more contact lens waste but do not involve solutions in plastic bottles like monthly lenses. It is certainly something that manufacturers are taking seriously and of course there are environmental benefits but the cynic in each of us sees the marketing potential too. The way the ageing population is certainly something that will impact all healthcare providers. In the case of eye care with people living longer they will need refractive corrections for longer. Furthermore, since presbyopes are not resigning themselves to only gentle hobbies like knitting and gardening, but instead want to continue playing tennis or skiing or whatever, their visual demands are becoming more complex. This is certainly an area that contact lens manufacturers are focussing on (pun not intended!). Again the BCLA conference in Birmingham saw the launch of various new products by different companies to help us deal with our presbyopic contact lens wearers. It is great to have such choice and now with fitting methods becoming easier too we have no excuse not to try them out with our clients. Finally to emerging markets – well there was not a specific session at the BCLA conference in May discussing this but this most certainly would have been discussed by professional services managers and marketing directors of most of the contact lens companies. ‘How will we conquer China?’ ‘How can we increase our market share in Russia?’ Or ‘How should we spend our marketing budget in India?’ These topics as well as others would certainly have cropped up in backroom discussions. Certainly groups like IACLE (International Association of CL Educators) have increasing numbers of members and activities in developing markets to ensure that educators educate, to that practitioners can practice successfully and in turn patients can become successful contact lenses wearers. Companies also wish to increase their market share in these developing markets and from the point of view of CLAE we are certainly seeing more papers being submitted from these parts of the world. The traditional centres of knowledge are being challenged, I suppose as they have been throughout history, and this can only be a good thing for the pursuit of science. The BCLA conference in Birmingham welcomed more international visitors than ever, and from more countries, and long may that continue. Similarly, CLAE looks forward to a wider audience in years to come and a wider network of authors too.