ABSTRACT
Graphic elicitation, an arts‐based method that focuses on participant‐led drawing activities, is often conducted with the researcher in situ and discussed in an interview setting, either during or after drawing. However, the COVID‐19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns have meant that using graphic elicitation in its current form required a re‐evaluation. Reflecting on a research project that undertook graphic elicitation remotely, this paper considers the emotional affordance and disruption management of the method in caregiver research. While informal caregiving may be an emotionally fraught topic for the participants, we demonstrate how graphic elicitation explores emotions and experiences with sensitivity and care. Furthermore, we show that graphic elicitation enabled us to acknowledge the pandemic but maintain focus on caregiving itself. The caregivers were responsive to the method and found it rewarding and insightful, albeit with some initial hesitancy and ingrained perceptions of arts‐based outputs. Through our discussions, we show the potential for remote graphic elicitation in geography as a method to explore potentially sensitive, emotionally charged topics like caregiving. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Area is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
During the Covid-19 pandemic, digital technologies have come to the forefront of most people's social, professional, and educational lives, and children have, like everyone else, depended on digital media for remote schooling as well as informal communication with their peers. This article presents results from a qualitative interview study among 20 Danish children, aged 3-12, and their parents during the spring and summer of 2020. As would be expected, age predicted a certain level of proficiency with, and access to, digital media technologies. However, children across the age spectrum of our sample relied on adult facilitation of digital practices in similar ways during a time where these were foregrounded in unforeseen ways. We discuss these findings in relation to a triadic theoretical framework of distributed agency, dynamic affordances, and access-oriented aspects of children's practices with communication technology. © 2023 The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
To cope with the digital transition exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, managers of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to adopt innovative practices to face uncertain scenarios and create long-term value, identified as transformational entrepreneurship practices. Among emerging digital technologies, digital platforms are shaping and outgrowing the e-commerce channel representing a potential opportunity for manufacturing SMEs to embrace digital transformation. Drawing on affordance theory, this research uses a mixed method approach to investigate how manufacturing SMEs' e-commerce commitment and digital platform adoption stimulate the actualization of three e-commerce affordances: consumer knowledge generation, internationalization, and customer diversification. Based on survey responses from 165 manufacturing SME managers, we find that direct selling through owned websites actualizes consumer knowledge generation and internationalization, indirect selling actualizes customer diversification and internationalization, and agency selling through third-party platforms actualizes all three affordances. The relationship between e-commerce commitment and ecommerce performance is mediated by consumer knowledge generation and internationalization but not by customer diversification. A fsQCA analysis outlines seven configurations actualizing these e-commerce affordances by pairing different ecommerce approaches with degrees of e-commerce commitment. Finally, an analysis of open-ended questions from 24 respondents complements the study and deeply interprets the seven unique configurations outlined. © 2023 The Authors
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major changes in digitization in many areas of life and professions. New areas were digitized almost overnight, the school system in Germany was no exception leading to a demand for videoconferencing tools and communication platforms. These technologies have many different functionalities that need to be discovered, explored, and exploited by the user. Given the disruptive events that the COVID pandemic brought to us, this paper aims to shed light on how the dynamics of discovery, exploration, and exploitation unfolds. We use a functional affordance theory perspective to analyze and understand how user learn to use new technologies. To do this, we conducted an exploratory case-study-based research design including interviews with teachers from various schools to analyze how they appropriate new technologies to develop an explanatory theoretical model. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
From the perspectives of IT Affordances, this paper attempts to explore the influence of the characteristics of live streaming on purchase intention, and to consider the elements required for live streaming service and customers' perceptions thereof in post-COVID-19. Through empirical research, this study establishes a framework emphasizing the major factors promoting customer immersion and the moderating effect of situational involvement that contributes to customer purchase intention in a live stream commerce context. The research model was tested using structural equation model analysis. Based on 428 valid responses, we identify that the quality of live streaming has a direct significant effect on customers' purchase intention. Specifically, relationship between platform stability, customer relationship, anchors' professional knowledge, and purchase intention is significant positive from the Affordance perspectives. The results emphasize the importance of platform stability which allows real-time communication, in-depth interaction, and real scenes for the benefits of sellers using such internet platforms. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's ecological system and van Lier's affordance, this study explored livestream English teaching anxiety experienced by high school teachers through interviews with 12 high school EFL teachers from China. Six types of anxiety were identified at the macro, exo, and micro levels, namely, anxiety related to the COVID-19 pandemic, limited technological support from school authorities, students' parents, inadequate technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK), and insufficient effective teacher-student interactions. Implications for alleviating teachers' online anxiety were proposed to enhance the teachers' livestreaming confidence and the teaching quality in the post pandemic era. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Current research in social media is heavily anchored on young individuals due to its wide acceptance in this social cluster. However, the trajectory of literature points to increased use of social media among older adults and a heightened interest in its community feature, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook communities are online avenues that can portray the everyday lives of older adults in the absence of social participation during a pandemic. To compensate for this absence, older adults have joined, mingled, and interacted with various online communities to engage in learning opportunities. Using netnography, we analyzed 378 Facebook posts in a private community of older adults during the early months of the pandemic. We found that the learning affordances of a Facebook community include informal learning, knowledge dissemination, and information validation. The result of this study is helpful to various aged care stakeholders, including geriatric care, technology providers, and the academe. © ICCE 2022.All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
As a result of the post-pandemic situation, enhancing digital heritage services has become one of the key issues for the recovery of tourism. Disruptive innovation in human–computer interaction technology has brought new opportunities for digitalization and intelligent transformation in the contemporary cultural tourism industry. Existing research on the adoption behavior of digital heritage services primarily focuses on users' assessments of behavior results. There is a considerable gap in research about the interaction and value co-creation between users and digital intelligence services and users' cognitive construction logic of digital heritage services. Following reciprocal determinism, we propose a conceptual model to deconstruct the detailed transmission path of interactive affordance and sensory affordance to digital heritage adoption. In Study 1, a lab experiment in an AI-assisted smart screen digital heritage service context revealed that interactive affordance and user adoption of digital heritage services were partially mediated by psychological distance. Findings from a between-subject online experiment in Study 2 confirmed that embodied cognition and psychological distance play a parallel intermediary role in the impact of sensory affordance on adoption. In Study 3, a lab experiment in a VR-based digital museum context further verified that information overload moderates the influence of embodied cognition on psychological distance. This research reveals the deep-bounded, rational decision-making logic of digital heritage service adoption and provides significant practical enlightenment for the optimization of the affordance experience.
ABSTRACT
The loss of psychosocial well-being is an overlooked but monumental consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. These effects result not only from the pandemic itself but, in a secondary way, from the Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) made to curb the spread of disease. The unprecedented physical distancing and stay-at-home requirements and recommendations provide a unique window for housing researchers to better understand the mechanisms by which housing affects psychosocial well-being. This study draws on a survey conducted with over 2,000 residents of the neighbouring Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta in 2021. We propose a new multi-dimensional model to examine the relationships between the Material, Economic, Affordances, Neighbourhood, and Stability (MEANS) aspects of housing and psychosocial well-being. Our analysis reveals the direct and indirect pathways by which deficiencies in each of these areas had negative effects on psychosocial well-being. Residential stability, housing affordances, and neighbourhood accessibility exert stronger direct impacts on psychosocial well-being than material and economic housing indicators (e.g. size of living space and tenure). Notably, we find no significant well-being differences between different homeowners and renters when we account for other housing MEANS. These findings have important implications for housing policy across pandemic and post-pandemic contexts, suggesting a need for research and policy focus on understanding housing and well-being in terms of non-material aspects, such as residential stability and affordances that housing provides.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Multinational small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly participating in cross-border digital platforms – especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, knowledge integration (KI) has become more and more important. In fact, it has been deemed by many as the key to organizational resilience. Given this burgeoning phenomenon, this study aims to explore a path for improving the resilience of multinational SMEs. Through this process, this study also finds a relationship between the KI processes associated with adopting global digital platforms and the resiliency of local–global businesses. Hence, in part, this paper also explores the effectiveness of all these mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach: This study used the stepwise regression method in Stata 16.0 to analyze the direct effects of both horizontal and vertical KI processes on the resilience of local–global businesses. Additionally, t-tests were also used to compare the differences in coefficients between the mechanisms. The sample analyzed comprised data on multinational manufacturing SMEs in the Yangtze River Delta region of China who are using global digital platforms. Findings: The KI processes of these firms, both horizontal and vertical, positively correlate to resilience. Horizontal KI processes more efficiently increase the resilience of global businesses, whereas vertical processes more efficiently increase the resilience of local businesses. Originality/value: First, this study provides insights into how multinational SMEs can improve their resilience in a crisis. In addition to adding to the knowledge of KI processes, this expands the KM literature on pandemics. Second, by creating two KI processes based on global digital platforms and discussing their influence on resilience, this research deepens the understanding of affordance in the KM literature. Third, focusing on the KI research stream, the results shed light on how KI processes might occur and how firms develop their KI processes. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The study explores the affordances and constraints perceived by older adults through their experiences using mobile banking apps. Design/methodology/approach: Twenty-five interviews via Skype were carried out with older adults aged 65 years and over between April and May 2021 (during the COVID-19 pandemic). Findings: Based on their usage experiences with mobile banking, older adults identified functional (saving time, avoiding physical risk and having control over their finances) and social affordances (supporting and bonding with family and friends), as well as non-technological (lack of useful information and patience from bank employees) and technological constraints (concerns about cybersecurity, data privacy and passwords). Originality/value: The study offers a novel approach to customer experience research in mobile banking by adopting a customer-centered perspective and applying the theoretical framework of affordances and constraints to analyze the experiences of older adults as active mobile banking users. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
The outbreak of COVID-19 forced schools to swiftly transition from in-person classes to online or remote offerings, making educators and learners alike rely on online videoconferencing platforms. Platforms like Zoom offer audio-visual channels of communication and include features that are designed to approximate the classroom experience. However, it is not clear how students' learning experiences are affected by affordances of the videoconferencing platforms or what underlying factors explain the differential effects of these affordances on class experiences of engagement, interaction, and satisfaction. In order to find out, we conducted two online survey studies: Study 1 (N = 176) investigated the effects of three types of videoconferencing affordances (i.e., modality, interactivity, and agency affordances) on class experience during the first two months after the transition to online learning. Results showed that usage of the three kinds of affordances was positively correlated with students' class engagement, interaction, and satisfaction. Perceived anonymity, nonverbal cues, and comfort level were found to be key mediators. In addition, students' usage of video cameras in class was influenced by their classmates. Study 2 (N = 256) tested the proposed relationships at a later stage of the pandemic and found similar results, thus serving as a constructive replication. This paper focuses on reporting the results of Study 1 since it captures the timely reactions from students when they first went online, and the second study plays a supplementary role in verifying Study 1 and thereby extending its external validity. Together, the two studies provide insights for instructors on how to leverage different videoconferencing affordances to enhance the virtual learning experience. Design implications for digital tools in online education are also discussed. © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
The ravaging effect of COVID-19 has been felt in all spheres of life. While countries are easing their restrictions, the remnants of COVID on education remain, with most universities formally embracing online teaching. Faculty have had to deal with this sudden and enduring transition to online teaching. Although some developments have been made with online education, enormous challenges are simultaneously reported in the literature. This mixed-method study aims to assess the essence of a faculty's bionetwork of lived experience after the sudden shift to online teaching due to the pandemic. Affordance theory was used as a theoretical lens to study the benefits, challenges, and opportunities associated with online education during and post-COVID. The study data comes from faculty members at one institution (n = 170) and follow-up interviews with a smaller subset of participants from the same pool (n = 10). Path analysis and mediation analysis revealed significant differences between the participants based on nationality and gender. While the findings supported two hypotheses, the third hypothesis was not supported. Overall, the findings showed both convergence and divergence between the qualitative and quantitative data. The study incorporates recommendations for online teaching, faculty well-being, and further research based on the results.
ABSTRACT
PurposeMultinational small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly participating in cross-border digital platforms - especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, knowledge integration (KI) has become more and more important. In fact, it has been deemed by many as the key to organizational resilience. Given this burgeoning phenomenon, this study aims to explore a path for improving the resilience of multinational SMEs. Through this process, this study also finds a relationship between the KI processes associated with adopting global digital platforms and the resiliency of local-global businesses. Hence, in part, this paper also explores the effectiveness of all these mechanisms. Design/methodology/approachThis study used the stepwise regression method in Stata 16.0 to analyze the direct effects of both horizontal and vertical KI processes on the resilience of local-global businesses. Additionally, t-tests were also used to compare the differences in coefficients between the mechanisms. The sample analyzed comprised data on multinational manufacturing SMEs in the Yangtze River Delta region of China who are using global digital platforms. FindingsThe KI processes of these firms, both horizontal and vertical, positively correlate to resilience. Horizontal KI processes more efficiently increase the resilience of global businesses, whereas vertical processes more efficiently increase the resilience of local businesses. Originality/valueFirst, this study provides insights into how multinational SMEs can improve their resilience in a crisis. In addition to adding to the knowledge of KI processes, this expands the KM literature on pandemics. Second, by creating two KI processes based on global digital platforms and discussing their influence on resilience, this research deepens the understanding of affordance in the KM literature. Third, focusing on the KI research stream, the results shed light on how KI processes might occur and how firms develop their KI processes.
ABSTRACT
Graphic elicitation, an arts-based method that focuses on participant-led drawing activities, is often conducted with the researcher in situ and discussed in an interview setting, either during or after drawing. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns have meant that using graphic elicitation in its current form required a re-evaluation. Reflecting on a research project that undertook graphic elicitation remotely, this paper considers the emotional affordance and disruption management of the method in caregiver research. While informal caregiving may be an emotionally fraught topic for the participants, we demonstrate how graphic elicitation explores emotions and experiences with sensitivity and care. Furthermore, we show that graphic elicitation enabled us to acknowledge the pandemic but maintain focus on caregiving itself. The caregivers were responsive to the method and found it rewarding and insightful, albeit with some initial hesitancy and ingrained perceptions of arts-based outputs. Through our discussions, we show the potential for remote graphic elicitation in geography as a method to explore potentially sensitive, emotionally charged topics like caregiving.
ABSTRACT
The rapid robotization of the hotel industry faces reluctance from frontline employees. This study aims to explore frontline employees’ intentions to use service robots in the hotel workplace. Combining technology affordance theory and socio-material perspective, the study conducted four experiments pre-pandemic, amid-pandemic, and post-pandemic to test the proposed framework. The results reveal that hotel employees, especially those with low collectivism (vs. high), prefer a room service robot with physical affordance to a concierge robot with cognitive affordance because the former offers more relative advantages and higher trust. This main effect remained the same both pre- and amid-pandemic. During the pandemic, the COVID-19 compliance of guests showed a significant interaction effect on the employees’ intentions to use service robots in the workplace. The study findings provide meaningful implications for hoteliers selecting the correct type of robot for adoption and encouraging employees to use service robots.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The study explores the affordances and constraints perceived by older adults through their experiences using mobile banking apps. Design/methodology/approach: Twenty-five interviews via Skype were carried out with older adults aged 65 years and over between April and May 2021 (during the COVID-19 pandemic). Findings: Based on their usage experiences with mobile banking, older adults identified functional (saving time, avoiding physical risk and having control over their finances) and social affordances (supporting and bonding with family and friends), as well as non-technological (lack of useful information and patience from bank employees) and technological constraints (concerns about cybersecurity, data privacy and passwords). Originality/value: The study offers a novel approach to customer experience research in mobile banking by adopting a customer-centered perspective and applying the theoretical framework of affordances and constraints to analyze the experiences of older adults as active mobile banking users. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Lockdown impositions have impacted people’s lives, their health and wellbeing, changing the ways in which dwellings are used and occupied. Spaces within the home have had to be rapidly renegotiated, redesigned and resynchronised in ways not yet fully explored or understood. Social relationships in the home have shifted and adapted as a result of ‘enforced togetherness’. This study presents a rich snapshot of 23 UK designer-architects’ transformative lived experiences of lockdown, using an interpretative phenomenological approach. It identifies four critical socio-spatial affordances that are rooted in the physical and mental wellbeing of the architects/designers. ‘Individuality’ suggests the need for increased physical separation to be alone. ‘Communality’ denotes a need for household members to be together. Both individuality and communality are seen as two opposite dimensions of the socio-spatial affordance of the home. ‘Adaptability’ points to requirements for flexible, decluttered and versatile spaces to enable ‘vibrancy’ not ‘suffocation’. Finally, ‘connectivity’ encompasses the need for a strong connection between the indoors and outdoors. These dimensions must be considered in housing design, so new housing models can emerge. The use of interpretative phenomenological analysis, employing the architectural tool of drawing, is shown to be a useful approach for housing research. PRACTICE RELEVANCE The impact on households’ wellbeing as a consequence of Covid-19 lockdowns has led to new considerations for future housing design. In a post-Covid environment, the particular needs for housing have been transformed. The findings and insights from this study will help to reframe the existing conventions of housing design criteria (e.g. a reliance on defining space functions) toward a clearer set of qualities for inhabitant and household wellbeing. New housing criteria involving socio-spatial affordances of individuality, communality, adaptability, and connectivity are shown to be viable and highly appropriate. These new dimensions highlight how inhabitants’ wellbeing can be included in viable and affordable housing. © 2022 The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
With the development of technology and media and the pursuit of non-face-to-face due to the corona pandemic, the influence of live commerce, a real-time streaming shopping channel, is growing. Starting from China, the popularity of live commerce is growing all over the world, and it has become an interesting topic among many practitioners and researchers. However, compared to its popularity, there are few studies on live commerce. Therefore, we build a theoretical model in terms of IT affordance such as visibility, guidance shopping, trading, and meta-voicing and investigate how live commerce affects engagement with customers. We empirically measure 428 individuals who have used live commerce using survey data. In addition, we conduct four types of scenario experiments on whether social cues on exposures of other consumers, influence customer engagement. Our results show that trading affordance has the most significant effect. This shows that the live commerce platform may want to devise a program that helps make payment easier for users who prefer a quick and simple process. Our study contributes to the literature by presenting the importance of IT affordance for live commerce. © 2022. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
The educational implications of COVID-19 have shaken both practitioners and researchers alike. Practitioners were expected to use technologies instantaneously, and this set up trauma in individuals. The ramification of understanding people’s response to why technologies are accepted/not accepted and used/not used has significant implications for education. This conceptual paper sets out the process used to develop a theoretical framework based on the technology acceptance model (TAM). The constructs within the original TAM and extended TAM, were explored to understand “why” practicing teachers would choose to use technologies for educational purposes at primary and secondary school levels during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The TAM has been criticized for being simplistic and narrowly focused. Many researchers criticize TAM because their finding cannot be confirmed or that the constructs don’t fit their needs. This paper challenges these critiques. The theoretical framework suggested in this paper represents a view of reality of the relational and influencing effects of variables that potentially moderate or control affective and cognitive responses. It contributes to the existing literature through a comprehensive reviewing of concepts, constructs and COVID-19 “event” contextual realities. The findings offered are that: contextual realities and application often require a grounded theoretical framework to unravel complex questions and answers;the suggested unidirectional influence of perceived ease of use (PEOU) on perceived usefulness (PU) can be challenged through a dispositional rationale;neglecting non-use as a reality severely hampers TAMs applicability in studies focused on theory testing, and TAM provides sufficient flexibility by leaving the doors open for adaptation, and this flexibility is an asset in social science research. Copyright © 2022 Sadeck.