Use of e‐services by faculty members of business schools in a state of India: a study

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess and evaluate quantitative and qualitative use of electronic resources in the academic ambience of business schools in Orissa (India) with a view to examining the level of electronic information services (EIS) offered to the faculty members of the state with an opinion pool of the faculty members of the respective business schools. Moreover, the study aims to highlight some of the problems and constraints faced by the target users with some constructive suggestions and recommendations for the improvement of the status of electronic information services in the business schools of the state in days to come.Design/methodology/approachThe paper investigates the use of e‐resources by the faculty members of business schools of the state through a survey based on responses of the target users from structured questionnaires. The SPSS package is used for data analysis.FindingsFaculty members pay high preference to the use of e‐articles while the least preference goes towards the use of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). Further it is found that a selected few online databases like Emerald Management Xtra (EMX), EBSCO, and PROQUEST are fairly in use while the use of other online databases is not up to expectations. In tandem, the majority of faculty members are in favor of commercial e‐services.Practical implicationsThe paper restricts the study exclusively to e‐resources as the type of material and faculty members of major business schools of Orissa (India) as the respondents in its scope of discussion.Originality/valueThe study focuses on the use of e‐resources by faculty members in business schools of Orissa with some constructive outcomes for effective generalization.