Compromising gender identities

Female lens in urban mobility: technology-use behavior and individual differences

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate how women's individual differences influence urban mobility service technology-use behavior. The reduction in urban mobility is a major problem in countries with emerging economies, thus affecting both the economy and quality of life.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical approach follows the individual differences theory of gender and information technology (IDTGIT). This research combines structured interviews to understand how the use of urban mobility service technology in daily routines is perceived, questionnaires to map individual differences and user demonstrations to capture how participants used mobility applications on their cell phones.

Findings

This study shows the influence of individual characteristics on the use of mobile apps and presents five behavioral profiles of women. This article goes beyond gender segregation to also show intragender differences.

Practical implications

This study explains women's behavior regarding urban mobility mobile applications through the generation of five profiles. These profiles can inform public policy managers on urban mobility and provide opportunities for improving the services of companies in the urban transport service chain.

Originality/value

With an intragender perspective, this study identifies the influence of individual characteristics on the use of technology and suggests that contextual identity, a novel dimension of characteristics that influence technology-use behavior, is relevant in the adoption of technology by its users.

Effects of enterprise social media usage on task performance through perceived task structure: the moderating role of perceived team diversity

Purpose

Organisations have widely adopted enterprise social media (ESM) to improve employees' task performance. This study aims to explore the mediating role of perceived task structure on the relationship between ESM usage and employee task performance. The authors investigate the moderating effects of perceived team diversity on the relationship between ESM usage and perceived task structure.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a questionnaire survey in China on 251 working professionals who use social media in their respective organisations.

Findings

Results showed that employees' perception of task structure considerably mediates the relationship between ESM usage and task performance. Findings also confirmed that perceived team diversity negatively affects the relationship between ESM usage and perceived task interdependence.

Research limitations/implications

Practitioners and/or managers should pay attention to the effect of ESM usage on employee's perceived task structure. Furthermore, they should focus on the level of team diversity when adopting ESM to enhance task performance.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the knowledge of perceived task structure in explaining the effect of ESM usage on task performance based on communication visibility theory. This work presents the relationship among ESM usage, perceived task structure, perceived team diversity and task performance. Moreover, this research enriches the literature on ESM usage by investigating the moderating roles of perceived team diversity whilst presenting the negative effects of perceived team diversity.