Ubiquitous Decision Support System Research Articles

Understanding continued ubiquitous decision support system usage behaviour

With the recent surge in the use of ubiquitous computing devices, users are carrying their own ubiquitous decision support systems (UDSS) and making important decisions using them. UDSS enables decision makers to access mobile networks to acquire information at anytime, anywhere. However, there have been few studies investigating why UDSS users intend to use the systems continuously, as there would be a large number of elements to take into consideration. The specific factors of the UDSS that this study focuses on include the connectivity and context-awareness function, which were not considered in previous research on the adoption of UDSS. Accordingly, this study empirically explores this research question by using the scanphone-based ubiquitous delivery system (UDS), which many delivery service providers have been adopting recently as a form of the ubiquitous decision support system (UDSS). The results reveal that connectivity, context-awareness function, and perceived values play meaningful roles in the UDSS. Based on these results, this study suggests implications and directions for future research to enable the planning and realization of the future UDSS.

The impact of ubiquitous decision support systems on decision quality through individual absorptive capacity and perceived usefulness

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine a mobile delivery system as a working ubiquitous decision support system (UDSS) and determine whether it would improve decision quality.Design/methodology/approachUbiquitous mobility and context awareness are the two core functions of the UDSS. Hence the authors examined how they might influence individual absorptive capacity and perceived usefulness. Moreover the authors investigated how individual absorptive capacity and perceived usefulness might be related to decision quality. A total of 174 completed questionnaires were collected from delivery workers, and a financial incentive was provided to participants. To test the hypotheses the research model was analysed with the partial least square method.FindingsThe results reveal that all paths are statistically valid. Individual absorptive capacity and perceived usefulness were positively influenced by ubiquitous mobility and context awareness. In addition individual absorptive capacity and perceived usefulness have positive effects on decision quality.Research limitations/implicationsThis research model did not consider all the capabilities enabled by the UDSS. Future study should pay attention to nomadicity, proactiveness, invisibility, and portability as relevant antecedents within the model.Originality/valueIn the field of IS studies the impact of the UDSS on users' decision quality has remained unclear to date. The authors adopted a mobile delivery system as a working UDSS and applied it in their study. Thereby the authors found the mediating effects of perceived usefulness and absorptive capacity under a ubiquitous environment.

The impacts of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators on ubiquitous delivery decision making

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the causal relationship between intrinsic-extrinsic motivators and decision performance in a ubiquitous decision-making environment. Specifically, 340 delivery service men were surveyed, and an empirical analysis was conducted by regarding the Mobile Delivery System MDS as a Ubiquitous Decision Support System UDSS. Then, Structural Equation Modelling SEM analysis was performed using AMOS 18 and PASW 18. The results revealed that the individual factors of intrinsic motivation, personal innovativeness and knowledge self-efficacy did not have a significant effect on the ubiquitous decision-making process; however, trustworthiness, a relational factor, did. Mobility and locatability of extrinsic motivators, composed of technological factors, had significant effects. In addition, a significant causal relationship between the ubiquitous decision-making process and time/cost saving and decision satisfaction was identified.

Integration of General Bayesian Network and ubiquitous decision support to provide context prediction capability

We propose a new type of ubiquitous decision support system which is powered by a General Bayesian Network (GBN). While complicated decision support problems are plagued by complexities involved in interpreting causal relationships among decision variables, GBN has shown excellent decision support competence due to its flexible structure which allows itself to extract appropriate and robust causal relationships among target variable and related explanatory variables. The potentials of GBN, however, were not explored enough in the field of ubiquitous decision support area. Hence, we propose a new type of ubiquitous decision support mechanism named U-BASE which uses GBN for context prediction to improve decision support. To prove the validity of the proposed decision support mechanism, we collected a set of contextual data from college students, and applied U-BASE to induce useful and robust results. Practical implications are fully discussed for motivating future studies.