Purpose -More hospitals and caregivers are realizing the importance of radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology in the face of increased healthcare costs, medical errors, and pressure of governmental mandates. The necessity for and awareness of RFID has yet to drive its widespread adoption in the healthcare industry. As such, this study aims to examine key factors that contribute to the intention to continue using RFID. Design/methodology/approach -The paper adopts the expectation-confirmation model (ECM) to study the intention of caregivers to continue using RFID as a vehicle to deliver emergency medical services. It is theorized that perceived usefulness of front-end interoperability and backend interoperability along with performance expectancy contribute to confirmation experience, which in turn leads to satisfaction and ultimately to intention to continue to use RFID. The study surveys caregivers and staffs in the emergency room department of five hospitals in Taiwan. Findings -Perceived usefulness of front-end interoperability and performance expectancy both have significant relationships with confirmation experience; confirmation experience has a significant relationship with satisfaction, which in turn relates to intention to continue using RFID. The relationship between perceived usefulness of back-end interoperability and confirmation experience is not significant. Research limitations/implications -This study explains RFID adoption behavior using the ECM. Limitations of the study and possible future research direction are discussed. Practical implications -The results of this study should help hospital management to build commitment to the RFID system and help equipment vendors to build loyalty to the technology. Originality/value -This study represents a novel attempt to explain RFID adoption behavior using the ECM. It is expected that the proposed framework and empirical findings can contribute to further understanding of how RFID is adopted and used in a hospital environment.

The Emergency Room (ER) receives patients in critical conditions. The operation of many emergency service chains is hampered because the required medical equipment is not always conveniently available and patient vital signs are manually monitored, but not automatically tracked on a real-time basis. This has resulted in medical errors, increased stress levels of medical teams, and poor utilisation of staff and equipment. Our research investigates factors that contribute to the adoption of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies by the medical team in ERs. We propose a theoretical framework to address this issue based upon the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) theory.

Debate abounds over whether the virtual team is an effective substitute for the traditional F2F team and can sustain itself. Drawing upon literature on leadership, trust, computer-mediated communication, and teams, we propose a theoretical model of online learning team effectiveness. A quasi-experiment was conducted to empirically test the impact of trust, trust propensity, leadership effectiveness, and communication frequency on virtual learning team satisfaction and performance. The results of PLS support the majority of our hypotheses. Trust serves a mediating role in the relationship between leadership effectiveness and team satisfaction and performance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed at the end of the paper.

Purpose -This study investigates the impact of online synchronous audio and video systems on the performance of cooperative learning in decision making and intellective tasks. Design/methodology/approach -In total, 156 subjects, divided into 46 groups, were invited to resolve decision and intellective tasks in text messaging and audio conferencing e-learning environments. Findings -For decision-making tasks, audio conferencing has a significant impact on cooperative learning satisfaction but not on learning performance; while for intellective tasks, neither audio conferencing nor text messaging has an impact on cooperative learning outcomes. There are no cross-effects between platforms and task types on cooperative learning outcomes. The results indicate that the main effects of platforms and task types are independent. In other words, the impact of platforms on group discussion processes can be examined without the need of considering task types, since the latter will not affect the impacts of platforms. Research limitations/implications -The main effects of information richness and task types are independent. Major limitation is that the student sample may not be sufficiently representative to allow wider generalization of the findings of this study. Practical implications -The main effects of information richness and task types are independent as far as learning outcomes are concerned. The learners' attitude toward the synchronous learning system significantly affects the satisfaction of synchronous online cooperative learning. Originality/value -This study uses empirical data to validate the hypothesized relationships between the independent variables of online synchronous learning systems (audio-and text-based), the moderating variable of task types (decision making vs intellective) and the dependent variable of learning outcomes. Purpose -This study investigates the impact of online synchronous audio and video systems on the performance of cooperative learning in decision making and intellective tasks. Design/methodology/approach -In total, 156 subjects, divided into 46 groups, were invited to resolve decision and intellective tasks in text messaging and audio conferencing e-learning environments. Findings -For decision-making tasks, audio conferencing has a significant impact on cooperative learning satisfaction but not on learning performance; while for intellective tasks, neither audio conferencing nor text messaging has an impact on cooperative learning outcomes. There are no cross-effects between platforms and task types on cooperative learning outcomes. The results indicate that the main effects of platforms and task types are independent. In other words, the impact of platforms on group discussion processes can be examined without the need of considering task types, since the latter will not affect the impacts of platforms. Research limitations/implications -The main effects of information richness and task types are independent. Major limitation is that the student sample may not be suffici...

No abstract