International Technology Company Research Articles

Postcolonial Analysis of Transcultural News Frames: A Case Study of Facebook Rebranding

Abstract This study investigates the portrayal of international technology companies in the media, with a specific focus on Facebook rebranding. Utilizing content analysis and correlational observation, we conducted a comparative analysis of search interests and news frames between Western and African-based news websites following the announcement of Facebook’s rebranding to Meta. Two datasets were examined to assess search interest and sentiment scores based on the positivity, negativity, and neutrality of published stories from selected African and Western countries. The findings reveal the persistence of colonial influences in news coverage, with Western websites demonstrating sympathy and African websites emphasizing conflict-driven narratives. These observations underscore the significance of media diversity and representation in shaping public discourse, particularly in postcolonial contexts characterized by ethnocentrism, poverty, violence, and political instability.

An Overview Of Inbound Marketing At Wan International Technology Companies

Indonesia potential and challenges for the information technology and telecommunications industry.This is due to its large population and strategic geographical location. To achieve optimal results inmarketing activities with the help of technology, one of the strategies is inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is a series of activities implemented by companies to attract potential buyers through engagingcontent and satisfying their needs. The objectives of this Final Project are: 1) To determine how the implementation of inbound marketing at WAN International Technology Companies; 2) To identify thebarriers to implementing inbound marketing at An Overview of Inbound Marketing at WAN International Technology Companies; 3) To explore efforts to overcome the barriers to implementing inbound marketingat WAN International Technology Companies. The findings of this Final Project are: 1) The implementationof inbound marketing includes email marketing, blog posts, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), display advertising, and social networks. 2) The challenges in implementing inbound marketing include errors in email subject lines, selecting blog topics, internal factors within the company, targeting unpopular keywords, slow indexing of the website by Google due to competitors implementing similar SEO strategies, and ineffective business promotional content and hashtag optimization. 3) Efforts to overcome these challenges include Blast Email, Educational Articles, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), VideoAdvertising, and Research Content Marketing.

The productive accountant as (un-)wanted self: Realizing the ambivalent role of productivity measures in accountants’ identity work

How do accountants experience and respond to increasing productivity pressure and a corresponding measurement regime monitoring their work? Drawing on case research in an international technology company, our study problematizes that productivity measurement tends to build on the assumption that accountants perform primarily routinized and standardized tasks that are amenable to quantification. However, this assumption can contradict their business partner identity, which they perceive as entailing complex, varying, and strategically oriented tasks that are difficult to measure and evaluate in standardized units. We find that accountants’ realization of this ambiguity in productivity measurement can make them recognize the (potential) unwanted self that an unreflective subordination to those measures might give rise to. We further illustrate how, to protect their aspired identity against the entrenchment of such an unwanted self, accountants (subtly) resist productivity measures. We thus show how accountants resist the very technologies that otherwise form their tools of the trade and shape a crucial part of their occupational identity and status. Overall, by focusing on the ambivalent role of productivity measurement, this study contributes to our understanding of the organizational dynamics that make accountants’ business partner identity fragile. We demonstrate how productivity measures can produce a false sense of clarity and direction and an incomplete representation of an occupational identity, which also renders problematic the transparency and comparability that those measures produce.

Development of Internal Marketing with Dynamic Systems Approach in Utilities (Case Study: Wuhan Fiberglass International Technology Company)

Development of Internal Marketing with Dynamic Systems Approach in Utilities (Case Study: Wuhan Fiberglass International Technology Company)

Understanding Machine Learning Practitioners' Data Documentation Perceptions, Needs, Challenges, and Desiderata

Data is central to the development and evaluation of machine learning (ML) models. However, the use of problematic or inappropriate datasets can result in harms when the resulting models are deployed. To encourage responsible AI practice through more deliberate reflection on datasets and transparency around the processes by which they are created, researchers and practitioners have begun to advocate for increased data documentation and have proposed several data documentation frameworks. However, there is little research on whether these data documentation frameworks meet the needs of ML practitioners, who both create and consume datasets. To address this gap, we set out to understand ML practitioners' data documentation perceptions, needs, challenges, and desiderata, with the ultimate goal of deriving design requirements that can inform future data documentation frameworks. We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with 14 ML practitioners at a single large, international technology company. We had them answer a list of questions taken from datasheets for datasets~\citegebru2018datasheets. Our findings show that current approaches to data documentation are largely ad hoc and myopic in nature. Participants expressed needs for data documentation frameworks to be adaptable to their contexts, integrated into their existing tools and workflows, and automated wherever possible. Despite the fact that data documentation frameworks are often motivated from the perspective of responsible AI, participants did not make the connection between the questions that they were asked to answer and their responsible AI implications. In addition, participants often had difficulties prioritizing the needs of dataset consumers and providing information that someone unfamiliar with their datasets might need to know. Based on these findings, we derive seven design requirements for future data documentation frameworks such as more actionable guidance on how the characteristics of datasets might result in harms and how these harms might be mitigated, more explicit prompts for reflection, automated adaptation to different contexts, and integration into ML practitioners' existing tools and workflows.

How Teams Communicate about the Quality of ML Models: A Case Study at an International Technology Company

Machine learning (ML) has become a crucial component in software products, either as part of the user experience or used internally by software teams. Prior studies have explored how ML is affecting development team roles beyond data scientists, including user experience designers, program managers, developers and operations engineers. However, there has been little investigation of how team members in different roles on the team communicate about ML, in particular about the quality of models. We use the general term quality to look beyond technical issues of model evaluation, such as accuracy and overfitting, to any issue affecting whether a model is suitable for use, including ethical, engineering, operations, and legal considerations. What challenges do teams face in discussing the quality of ML models? What work practices mitigate those challenges? To address these questions, we conducted a mixed-methods study at a large software company, first interviewing15 employees in a variety of roles, then surveying 168 employees to broaden our understanding. We found several challenges, including a mismatch between user-focused and model-focused notions of performance, misunderstandings about the capabilities and limitations of evolving ML technology, and difficulties in understanding concerns beyond one's own role. We found several mitigation strategies, including the use of demos during discussions to keep the team customer-focused.

The conquest of gender prejudices over sales negotiations: which will prevail?

Study level/applicability Students from undergraduate and graduate levels. Subject area Leadership, implicit leadership theories, decision-making, gender stereotypes and discrimination. Case overview Defne was working as a sales manager in Diel Turkey, an international technology company. Diel focuses on software, hardware, network and business consultancy services. Defne had worked as a computer engineer before starting to work in the sales department. In her leadership, she gave importance to long-term relationships and justice. Defne had two meetings this week. The first one was with T&X, a big scale fast moving consumer goods company; and the other one was with Q-Coding, a medium-scale technology company. Defne had negotiated with T&X two years ago, and the project got canceled. Defne worked on T&X new contract very cautiously, as this time she wanted to finish the project and make the deal. Defne had to deal with prejudices during the T&X meeting. Implicit beliefs are grounded in the cultural background of the country, which determines the perceptual framework for the society. Male-dominated countries have implicit beliefs that women’s priorities should be their families, thus being successful at work is not expected. Defne faced male-oriented stereotypes, which challenged her in doing business. Even though she was a successful manager, these subjective beliefs made her perform poorly. During the meeting with Q-Coding, Defne discussed the prejudice for women leaders with a women entrepreneur Suzan. Expected learning outcomes This case is trying to achieve two main objectives: first, to make all students be aware of implicit leadership theories and beliefs, which are rooted in the countries’ cultural background; second, to make female students be aware of these dysfunctional coping behaviors and increase their self-efficacy without thinking about their gender roles. Subject code CSS 7: Management science

Unicorn planning: Lessons from the rise and fall of an American ‘smart’ mega-development

Over the past two decades, ‘smart’ urban mega-developments built from scratch have proliferated across the Global South. More recently, similar techno-utopian enclaves are being planned in North America, including Union Point, a smart city project south of Boston announced in 2017. We use the case of Union Point to think through why public and private actors with conventionally competing interests, including local governments, international technology companies, and real estate developers, are collaborating enthusiastically to create smart mega-developments. This alignment of interests in the use of ‘tech’ to engineer the ‘city of the future’, and the pervasive idealism, entrepreneurialism, and ‘high-risk, high-rewards’ attitudes that enable ‘instant’ smart mega-developments, is characterized by what we term ‘unicorn planning’. This article connects Union Point to the global phenomenon of tabula rasa smart city developments and suggests that Union Point reproduces problems of earlier smart city experiments built from scratch in the Middle East and Asia. We critically examine local officials' susceptibility to being seduced by smart city rhetoric, and highlight their troubling willingness to cede public land, power, citizen privacy, and data governance to corporate actors in their entrepreneurial quest to create an instant ‘tech’ hub.

A review of online platforms in training and surgical education

The use of technology in surgical education has rapidly evolved. Blended learning refers to provision of online instruction platforms by international technology companies, prompting a combination of face-to-face teaching with computer-mediated tuition. This nonsystematic literature review focuses on online teaching platforms with applications for potential use in future surgical education. A literature search was performed using PubMed, Embase, OVID, and Google Scholar. To identify studies on online platforms in surgical education, the following search terms were used: “online platform,” “online learning,” “surgical education and online learning,” and “surgical education and blended learning.” The search was limited to citations in English from 1998 to 2018. The first author performed the detailed literature search. The final list of the articles was included by consensus between authors. Search items were studied from the nature of the articles, country of origin, date of publication, and aims and findings in relation to use of online platforms surgical education. Altogether 279 relevant citations were reviewed, of which 22 articles met the inclusion criteria: 19 papers (ten original research, two review items, seven Internet articles) and three books were found to be relevant for this study. Their analysis comprised models of platforms along with their applications in surgical education. Data on the advantages and disadvantages of online platforms as well as authors’ personal experience of this instruction manner in surgical education were extracted. Problems with determining, analyzing, and integrating reading matters in a nonsystematic literature review comprising different teaching methods combined with the use of online platforms in surgical education were discussed and resolved. Online platforms were introduced by international technology companies to encourage paperless blended learning in schools. We envisaged the use of online classrooms in surgical education because of its simple format, easy access, low costs, and interaction-inspiring nature between teachers and students in professional surgical education.

Energy efficiency left behind? Policy assemblages in Sweden’s most climate-smart city

ABSTRACTSmart city experiments have the potential to reshape urban climate change governance. Smart city initiatives have been supported by international technology companies and the European Union for many years and continue to be promoted by national and municipal governments. In relation to sustainability and climate change, such initiatives promise more efficient use of resources through the use of information and communications technology in energy infrastructure. Experiments with smart city technologies such as urban smart grids have shown the potential to restructure relationships between energy utilities, energy users and other actors by reconfiguring the dynamics of energy supply and demand. But do urban experiments lead to institutional change? The aim of the article is to provide a better understanding of how smart city experiments reshape the urban governance of building energy use. Hyllie, a new city district in Malmö, Sweden, was home to two smart city experiments that contributed to the institutionalization of urban smart grid technology. However, the analysis of Hyllie’s policy assemblages shows that this institutional change could redefine sustainability at the expense of energy efficiency.

Does one model fit all? Exploring factors influencing the use of blogs, social networks, and wikis in the enterprise

ABSTRACTEnterprise social media (ESM) have become increasingly widespread, but many intranet communities barely survive, miss their initially planned targets, or are even terminated. Research on technology acceptance can be a useful approach to improve adoption rates, but more empirical research needs to be conducted to examine factors driving the adoption of enterprise social media. To address this gap, we develop a model of individual ESM adoption, including technological and individual factors based on findings from collaboration and knowledge-sharing research. Because different ESM tools, such as blogs, social networks, and wikis, can be employed for fundamentally different uses, we explain differences between individual adoptions of the three technologies by identifying their uses and gratifications from the perspective of employees. The model is tested in three parallel studies, one for blogs, social networks, and wikis each, among employees of an international technology company in the pre-implementation phase. We find substantial differences between the factors influencing the intention to adopt the three applications. This provides the basis to employ the applications in a more effective way by considering organizational and employee needs.

Taking Computer Science and Programming into Schools: The Glyndŵr/BCS Turing Project

2012 and 2013 have been challenging years for Computer Science (CS) education in the UK. After decades of national neglect, there has been a sudden impetus to reintroduce CS into the 11-16 age school curriculums. Immediate obstacles include a generation of children with no CS background and an estimated need for 20,000 new CS teachers - existing UK IT teachers being insufficiently qualified and experienced. The Computing at School (CAS) movement has been instrumental in this quantum transition from an IT to Computing syllabus, as have the British Computer Society (BCS), leading UK universities and a number of major international technology companies, including Microsoft, Google, IBM, British Telecom and Facebook.This paper discusses the background to this position and the progress being made to address these challenges. It describes, in particular, the work of the BCS-funded Glyndwr University ‘Turing Project’ in introducing Welsh high-school students and staff to high-level programming and ‘computational thinking’. The Turing Project uses an innovative combination of Lego NXT Mindstorm robots, Raspberry Pi computers and PicoBoard hardware together with the Robot C and Scratch programming platforms. The paper discusses initial objectives and the general approach, describes focused delivery across different age groups and ability ranges and presents results and analysis demonstrating the effectiveness of the programme. Lessons learnt and future directions are considered in conclusion.

Autistic Ethos at Work: Writing on the Spectrum in Contexts of Professional and Technical Communication

I explore the rise of international technology companies that recruit people with autism and Asperger's Syndrome, focusing specifically on the type of professional ethos that these companies cultivate for their employees. Using theories of ethos and communication from the field of technical communication, I argue that these companies often predetermine a limited sense of professional ethos for employees and reinforce stereotypes about people with autism. More broadly, I examine how this limitation is indicative of the ableism of traditional formulations of ethos in the rhetorical tradition. I then turn to potential revisions that technical communicators with autism can offer. Specifically, I examine two technical and professional writers in particular—Temple Grandin and Dawn Prince Hughes—showing how each invents a professional ethos that resists stereotypes about autism and what it means to be an "ideal" professional communicator.

The impact of emotional intelligence on accuracy of self‐awareness and leadership performance

PurposeThis research paper aims to follow a line of research that examines the impact of elements of emotional intelligence (EI), particularly those related to self‐awareness, on self‐other agreement and performance.Design/methodology/approachThis is a quantitative study that employs the same methodology as Sosik and Megerian to analyze survey data gathered from a matched sample of 146 managers and 1,314 subordinates at a large international technology company based in North America.FindingsThe analysis revealed that the relationship between EI and leader performance is strongest for managers who underestimate their leader abilities. Underestimators earn higher follower ratings of leader performance than all other agreement categories (In agreement/good, In agreement/poor, and Overestimators). The analysis also suggests that there appears to be a negative relationship between EI and leader performance for managers who overestimate their leader abilities.Research limitations/implicationsImplications of the counterintuitive findings for underestimators as well as the imperative for further study utilizing alternative measures of EI are discussed.Originality/valuePrevious empirical work in this area used anad hocmeasure of EI. This study extends this work by utilizing a larger, business sample and employing a widely‐used and validated measure of EI, the Emotional Quotient Inventory. Results further illuminate the nature of the relationship between EI and self‐other agreement and provide a potential selection and development tool for the improvement of leadership performance.

Valuing An Emerging International Technology Company

The requirements of Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) 142 provide an excellent opportunity to examine various financial valuation methods used to determine a company’s value. Under FASB 142, goodwill and intangible assets with indefinite useful lives are no longer amortized, but instead tested for impairment at least annually in accordance with the provisions. Any impairment loss has to be measured as of the date of adoption and recognized as the cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle in an organization’s first interim period. The impairment test requires an accurate and fair valuation of the asset in question. This case is based upon the valuation dilemma faced by Integrated Silicon Solution (NASDAQ: ISSI), a publicly traded international technology company, in late 2008. ISSI had made several acquisitions and carried substantial goodwill. Since ISSI was publicly traded, a public market value was available but the financial crisis of 2008 caused the company to consider other methods, as is allowed under FASB 142. The case uses both the income and comparable market approaches to arrive at a fair value, and this value is used to determine if impairment for the goodwill the company carried on its balance sheet existed.

China Healthcare ICT: Reinventing China’s National Healthcare System through Electronic Medical Records, Telecom Networks and Advanced IT Services

In January 2009 China announced a RMB 850 billion ($124 billion) stimulus package over three years to fundamentally reshape the nation's healthcare sector. A key element of the plan is to modernize healthcare services with digital hospitalization, electronic medical records, and next-generation information networks. The goal is to dramatically improve healthcare service quality and, importantly, to enable virtual healthcare services that can overcome service disparities between rich areas and poor. But the lack of technical standardization complicates take-up and adoption of unified e-healthcare solutions. The stakes are high for the government and for international technology companies seeking position in this large and fast-moving market.

The Myers‐Briggs type indicator and transformational leadership

PurposeThis paper aims to study the possible relationship between elements of personality as measured by the Myers‐Briggs type indicator (MBTI) and transformational leadership (TL) as measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ).Design/methodology/approachThe study was done at the North American manufacturing facility of an international technology company. Utilizing the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to measure transformational leadership, over 2,000 followers provided assessments of transformational leadership for 148 managers who had done self‐assessments and had completed Form K of the MBTI.FindingsNo relationship was found between follower assessments of transformational leadership and leader personality as measured by the MBTI. Leaders did, however, perceive themselves to be significantly more transformational than did those who reported to them. Leader preference for extraversion over introversion and intuition over perception were both significantly associated with self‐reports of transformational leadership.Research limitations/implicationsStudies utilizing large samples across a variety of organizational settings are needed to confirm the results of this study.Practical implicationsThis study calls into question the existence of a relationship between the MBTI and transformational leadership. The study does not provide any support for the possible utility of the MBTI for the prediction or explanation of transformational leadership behaviors. Assuming that followers' perceptions of TL are the more valid, the findings suggest that previous results linking MBTI and TL may be measurement artifacts.Originality/valueUtilizing a large sample, the MLQ and continuous measures of MBTI preferences the results of this study contradict previous reports of a relationship between personality as measured by the MBTI and transformational leadership.

Extracting appropriate scope for information systems: a case study

PurposeThis study aims to evaluate the practical suitability of the frameworks of Tillema and Dixon et al. for assessing the scope of information systems (IS). The study also investigates whether these frameworks help determine an appropriate scope for a new IS before implementation.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative data from a case company. The company is a middle‐sized Finnish international technology company with about 1,000 employees.FindingsBoth frameworks are useful in assessing scope. The integrated contingency framework (ICF) by Tillema lacks detailed suggestions of how to design an IS. The performance measurement questionnaire (PMQ) by Dixon et al. makes it possible to determine detailed information requirements in addition to an appropriate scope.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has the general case study limitations.Practical implicationsCompanies should utilize both ICF and PMQ frameworks when implementing IS. ICF allows determination of the general scope of IS whereas PMQ enables investigation of the specific measures of IS.Originality/valueEarlier IS scope contingency theory studies used few contingency factors, and were primarily quantitative and so did not provide useful frameworks for determining scope in practice. ICF and PMQ are exceptions but their usability in determining the appropriate IS scope is not evaluated in earlier studies. This study also combines both quantitative and qualitative approaches; which has been a limitation of earlier studies.

China's wind industry: policy lessons for domestic government interventions and international support

The dynamics of the development of China's wind power industry were investigated from a dual perspective of domestic government interventions and international support. The progress of China's wind power industry is largely attributed both to the effective implementation of a bundle of domestic public policies (such as the wind power concession programme, mandatory renewable power market share, power surcharge for renewables, and tax relief) and international support (in the forms of technology transfer, CDM and public finance support). Wind power has great potential for mitigating China's future CO2 emissions. However, resource uncertainty, technology risk, and market uncertainty will need to be addressed in order to translate the potential into market reality. Enhancing domestic technology R&D support, increasing the level of the power surcharge for renewables, international support (e.g. CDM), and improving technology transfer will assist in minimizing these uncertainties and risks. Policy relevance: International technological cooperation is illustrated in terms of how domestic policy and international support interact through constructive domestic policies, private-sector joint ventures, and international capacity building and financial support. The definition of a new objective for future policy (large-scale penetration of wind in the Chinese power system) allows for the identification of future priorities for technology cooperation. Large amounts of intermittent generation require new technologies and practices for grid operation and management, and better adaptation of turbine design to domestic materials and local conditions. Win—win options exist, but need to be supported by capacity building and frameworks that balance incentives for international technology companies against Chinese concerns over dependence on imported technology and high licensing fees.