PurposeThis study aims to identify the social representation of cloud computing from the perspective of Information Technology (IT) professionals in emerging countries, comparing it with the extant literature on this subject.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from IT professionals in Brazil, which was used as a proxy for the emerging countries’ context related to cloud computing. Social Representation Theory was then applied to analyze the data.FindingsMismatches between theory and practice on cloud computing make it clear that most of the current scientific literature on cloud computing is, to a great extent, based on the context of developed countries rather than on the context of emerging ones.Research limitations/implicationsErrors of inference may have been made during the categorization of the words evoked. Furthermore, Brazil was used as a proxy for the emerging countries’ context related to cloud computing.Practical implicationsIT professionals in emerging countries have quite an operational view of cloud computing. Thus, companies in these countries have to align cloud computing better with new business models and corporate strategies in order to take advantage of the transformational impacts of cloud computing.Originality/valueIT professionals in emerging countries have failed to notice the strategic value of cloud computing, the new business models enabled by same, the privacy issues related to it and the impact cloud computing adoption can have on the IT costs of an organization. Moreover, mobility can be a paramount issue related to cloud computing in emerging countries – a fact thus far overlooked by academia.

RESUMO Este estudo busca identificar a representação social sobre Cloud Computing, pela percepção dos profissionais brasileiros de Tecnologia da Informação (TI). Os dados empíricos foram coletados por meio de questionários on-line respondidos por uma amostra por acessibilidade de 221 profissionais de TI e analisados por meio da Teoria da Representação Social (TRS), operacionalizada pelas técnicas de evocação livres de palavras e do quadro de quatro casas de Vergès, bem como pelas análises implicativa, léxica e de conteúdo. Como resultado, identificou-se que o núcleo central da representação social associada ao Cloud Computing é composto pelas palavras: nuvem, armazenamento, disponibilidade, internet, virtualização e segurança. Assim, conclui-se que os profissionais de TI no Brasil têm uma visão mais operacional do que estratégica do Cloud Computing. Essa visão funcional, congruente com parte da literatura científica sobre o tema, fundamenta-se basicamente em aspectos relacionados à segurança, armazenamento e disponibilidade dos dados armazenados no Cloud Computing, faltando uma percepção do valor estratégico do Cloud Computing, baseada na viabilização de novos modelos de negócio. Finalmente, este artigo traz uma contribuição metodológica original ao usar a TRS - por meio da aplicação conjunta das análises implicativa, léxica e de conteúdo - na definição de um constructo específico.

Purpose: This article aims at explaining how a decision is made in the first management level, within five different organizations, from different origins - American, Brazilian and Chinese - in different branches of activity. Originality/value: This is an original work, since it goes beyond the frontiers of knowledge about the subject researched, both for its approach and for its practical usefulness in the day-to-day of the decision makers, being useful for both professionals - and decision making - and for companies - on how to improve the decision-making capacity of their managers. Design/methodology/approach: Fifty managers were interviewed, through the application of a qualitative exploratory research, with the collection of data through semi-structured interviews and content analysis as data analysis and treatment technique. Findings: One may conclude that the decision-making of the first level decision-making managers is more rational. Also, the organizational culture, among the studied variables is the one with the greater impact in the way this management level makes the decisions. This influence of the organizational culture contains three important elements: 1. the need of the manager to act procedurally, using the rules and standards of the company, 2. the use of supporting tools for the decision-making and 3. the learning from the current relationship - or from the past one - with their peers. To go deeper in the theme, we suggest the analysis of the influence of gender in decision-making, under the focus of rationality or intuition, in the first level of the managerial function of the organizations.

A Teoria da Complexidade é aplicada a muitos campos do conhecimento humano, e suas implicações são crescentes, tanto no mercado quanto na academia. No entanto, usualmente, a teoria é abordada por fragmentos em revisões de literatura, que não a tem como foco principal. Dessa forma, dificulta-se o entendimento de sua unicidade, sua continuidade e sua consistência. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho é prover um panorama sobre a Teoria da Complexidade, apresentando seus principais elementos e fomentando a discussão a respeito de suas potencialidades de uso. A abordagem da pesquisa é qualitativa, exploratória e bibliográfica, focada em três das principais bases científicas: Web of Knowledge, Scopus e SciELO Brasil. Constata-se que a popularidade da Teoria da Complexidade entre acadêmicos e praticantes é crescente e tem potencial para gerar benefícios ainda não explorados em diversas áreas.

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O presente artigo propõe um novo método hipotético-dedutivo de pesquisa, de abordagem mista, que propicia a identificação de um Problema de Pesquisa. A metodologia utilizada para a escolha das técnicas que compõem o método misto proposto foi a Pesquisa-ação. Este método possibilita ao pesquisador identificar seu problema de pesquisa, seja pelo viés das lacunas teóricas e/ou das práticas. Para tanto, fez-se uso de uma abordagem quantitativa – bibliometria -, bem como de uma abordagem qualitativa - Técnica do Incidente Crítico (TIC) e Análise de Conteúdo ou Teoria Fundamentada. Conclui-se que o método misto proposto é robusto, sendo aderente a qualquer área do conhecimento que busque resolver um problema ou construir uma teoria, a partir de lacunas teórico-práticas. No entanto, o método carece de uma maior utilização prática para as áreas do conhecimento onde os temas de pesquisa são mais abstratos ou subjetivos.

This quali-quantitative, exploratory field study approach is based on analyzing data obtained by applying the word recall test involving 100 respondents in order to build the social representation of distance learning (DL) from a Brazilian viewpoint. The 'four-house board' technique by Pierre Vergès was adopted as the data-treatment technique. Making use of theoretical concepts previously presented to discuss distance learning (DL), the social representation of DL is compared to this theory, in order to validate the knowledge and identify learning gaps. It was found that the main focus of the social representation of DL consists of the following words: Flexibility, Facility, Practicality, Discipline, Time, Low-cost, Cost, Opportunity, Internet and Convenience. The main conclusion is that, despite the positive outlook that Brazilians have of distance learning, some assumptions should be adopted to ensure its effectiveness: 1) the need to mix DL with classroom encounters; 2) the need for DL-based courses to have trained teachers that insist on interaction and 3) the need for material to be suitable for this form of education, as well as for the communication media and technologies used. Keywords: Learning. Education. DL. Social representation. IntroductionWith the advent of the internet and advances in information and communications technology (ICT), distance education, which used to be restricted to a small niche within the educational sector, has grown and taken on greater relevance in academic a Universidade Federal Fluminense -UFF. Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Gustavo Guimarães Marchisotti, Fátima Bayma de Oliveira e Alessandro Prudêncio Lukosevicius discussions. The expansion of this method of teaching has been responsible for a true revolution in the educational field, due to the greater access it provides for those with fewer resources, and thus it has contributed to a reduction in social inequality. Brazilian governments have used distance education as an efficient way to diminish Brazil's problems in terms of access to education (GOMES, 2013).Distance education is based on the student's initiative, using his or her skills to interact and solve problems in groups, and does not permit the simple memorization of content. In other words, learning based on "knowing how to do something" and not just "knowing facts," which only occurs when one breaks from the traditional model of teaching (LITTO; FORMIGA, 2008).Distance education, through the use of computational resources, has appeared as a way to stimulate a new model of learning, facilitating the construction of knowledge and helping students to be active participants and transformers of reality. It is an educational process (TAPERINO, 2006) focused on developing skills, centered on student learning, allowing students to grow as people, professionals and citizens.There is a scarcity of education in the world, with greater growth in the number of students than in the growth of the number of universities (DANIEL, 1996), or in other words, there is a...

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