Crispin Coombs

Bio: Crispin Coombs is an academic researcher from Loughborough University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Information system & Information technology. The author has an hindex of 19, co-authored 65 publications receiving 1717 citations.

Reassessing the protean career concept: Empirical findings, conceptual components, and measurement

Abstract: The protean career concept is a widely acknowledged contemporary career model, but conceptual and empirical analysis of the model is scarce. We provide an integrative literature review of empirical research and note that the research is hampered by inconsistent use of terminology and methodological limitations. First, we show that the two protean metacompetencies-adaptability and identity-have been relatively neglected as the research has evolved. Second, we describe how preexisting protean measures are limited in covering the full range of the concept. Finally, we draw on career theory to suggest four conceptual components as a basis for future model development and offer suggestions for research that tests the utility of the protean career concept in relation to other similar constructs. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A re-conceptualization of the interpretive flexibility of information technologies: redressing the balance between the social and the technical

Abstract: Interpretive flexibility – the capacity of a specific technology to sustain divergent opinions – has long been recognized as playing an important role in explaining how technical artefacts are socially constructed. What is less clear is how a system's technical characteristics might limit its ability to be interpreted flexibly. This gap in the literature has largely arisen because recent contributions to this debate have tended to be rather one-sided, focussing almost solely upon the role of the human agent in shaping the technical artefact, and in so doing either downplaying or ignoring the artefact's shaping potential. The broad aim of this study was to reappraise the nature and role of interpretive flexibility but giving as much consideration to how an information system's technical characteristics might limit its ability to be interpreted flexibly, as we do to its potential for social construction. In this paper, we use the results of two in-depth case studies, in order to propose a re-conceptualization of the role of interpretive flexibility. In short, this model helps explain how the initial interpretations of stakeholders are significantly influenced by the scope and adaptability of the system's functionality. Stakeholder interpretations will then, in turn, influence how the system's functionality is appropriated and exploited by users, to allow divergent interpretations to be realized and sustained.

Measuring information systems success: models, dimensions, measures, and interrelationships

Abstract: Since DeLone and McLean (D&M) developed their model of IS success, there has been much research on the topic of success as well as extensions and tests of their model. Using the technique of a qualitative literature review, this research reviews 180 papers found in the academic literature for the period 1992–2007 dealing with some aspect of IS success. Using the six dimensions of the D&M model – system quality, information quality, service quality, use, user satisfaction, and net benefits – 90 empirical studies were examined and the results summarized. Measures for the six success constructs are described and 15 pairwise associations between the success constructs are analyzed. This work builds on the prior research related to IS success by summarizing the measures applied to the evaluation of IS success and by examining the relationships that comprise the D&M IS success model in both individual and organizational contexts.

The theory of planned behaviour: Self identity, social identity, and group norms

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to examine further the role that self-identity plays in the theory of planned behaviour and, more specifically, to: (1) examine the combined effects of self-identity and social identity constructs on intention and behaviour, and (2) examine the effects of self-identity as a function of past experience of performing the behaviour. The study was concerned with the prediction of intention to engage in household recycling and reported recycling behaviour. A sample of 143 community residents participated in the study. It was prospective in design: measures of the predictors and intention were obtained at the first wave of data collection, whereas behaviour was assessed two weeks later. Selfidentity significantly predicted behavioural intention, a relationship that was not dependent on the extent to which the behaviour had been performed in the past. As expected, there was also evidence that the perceived norm of a behaviourally relevant reference group was related to behavioural intention, but only for participants who identified strongly with the group, whereas the relationship between perceived behavioural control (a personal factor) and intention was strongest for low identifiers.