Measuring task-specific perceptions of the world wide web

This paper describes the development of multi-item scales for measuring user perceptions of the ease-of-use and usefulness of the Web (hereafter web), incorporating a system task focus into the scales dimensional structure (e.g. how easy or useful the web is for information search, communication and or purchasing). The items are tested on 2077 web users recruited using a web survey, revealing four factors for each scale. Perceived ease-of-web use consists of learning, search and find, transaction and communication ease, and perceived web usefulness consists of communication, purchase, information search and acquisition, and access to quality products and information. A regression analysis on web usage frequency shows how easy users find it to learn how to use the web and how useful the web is for purchasing are the best predictors of how frequently they will use the web. These results highlight the importance of training users how to effectively use hypermedia-based systems like the web, and the design of systems that are easy to navigate and that provide advanced functionality for transactional activity.     

Mining linguistic browsing patterns in the world wide web

 World-wide-web applications have grown very rapidly and have made a significant impact on computer systems. Among them, web browsing for useful information may be most commonly seen. Due to its tremendous amounts of use, efficient and effective web retrieval has thus become a very important research topic in this field. Data mining is the process of extracting desirable knowledge or interesting patterns from existing databases for a certain purpose. In this paper, we use the data mining techniques to discover relevant browsing behavior from log data in web servers, thus being able to help make rules for retrieval of web pages. The browsing time of a customer on each web page is used to analyze the retrieval behavior. Since the data collected are numeric, fuzzy concepts are used to process them and to form linguistic terms. A sophisticated web-mining algorithm is thus proposed to find relevant browsing behavior from the linguistic data. Each page uses only the linguistic term with the maximum cardinality in later mining processes, thus making the number of fuzzy regions to be processed the same as the number of the pages. Computational time can thus be greatly reduced. The patterns mined out thus exhibit the browsing behavior and can be used to provide some appropriate suggestions to web-server managers.     

Motivational factors that influence the acceptance of Moodle using TAM

Moodle and other virtual teaching platforms have bolstered the ability and motivation of universities to support distance learning.     

A text mining approach on automatic generation of web directories and hierarchies

The World Wide Web (WWW) has been recognized as the ultimate and unique source of information for information retrieval and knowledge discovery communities. Tremendous amount of knowledge are recorded using various types of media, producing enormous amount of web pages in the WWW. Retrieval of required information from the WWW is thus an arduous task. Different schemes for retrieving web pages have been used by the WWW community. One of the most widely used scheme is to traverse predefined web directories to reach a user's goal. These web directories are compiled or classified folders of web pages and are usually organized into hierarchical structures. The classification of web pages into proper directories and the organization of directory hierarchies are generally performed by human experts. In this work, we provide a corpus-based method that applies a kind of text mining techniques on a corpus of web pages to automatically create web directories and organize them into hierarchies. The method is based on the self-organizing map learning algorithm and requires no human intervention during the construction of web directories and hierarchies. The experiments show that our method can produce comprehensible and reasonable web directories and hierarchies.     

Social influence on the use of Clinical Decision Support Systems: Revisiting the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology by the fuzzy DEMATEL technique

The aim of study is to examine whether social influence affects medical professionals’ behavioral intention to use while introducing a new Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). The series of Technology Acceptance Models (TAMs) have been widely applied to examine new technology acceptance by scholars; nevertheless, these models omit system diversity and the user’s profession. On the other hand, causal analysis greatly affects the efficiency of decision-making, and it is usually analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM); however, the method is often misapplied. This research applies the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique to explore the causal relationship between the significant Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) variables. Fuzzy concept is applied to illustrate human vague judgment. It is significant that, in contrary with UTAUT, this study found that social influence does not matter in the behavioral intention to use the CDSS for medical professionals.     

Improving the performance of focused web crawlers

This work addresses issues related to the design and implementation of focused crawlers. Several variants of state-of-the-art crawlers relying on web page content and link information for estimating the relevance of web pages to a given topic are proposed. Particular emphasis is given to crawlers capable of learning not only the content of relevant pages (as classic crawlers do) but also paths leading to relevant pages. A novel learning crawler inspired by a previously proposed Hidden Markov Model (HMM) crawler is described as well. The crawlers have been implemented using the same baseline implementation (only the priority assignment function differs in each crawler) providing an unbiased evaluation framework for a comparative analysis of their performance. All crawlers achieve their maximum performance when a combination of web page content and (link) anchor text is used for assigning download priorities to web pages. Furthermore, the new HMM crawler improved the performance of the original HMM crawler and also outperforms classic focused crawlers in searching for specialized topics.     

Observations of achievement and motivation in using cloud computing driven CAD: Comparison of college students with high school and vocational high school backgrounds

Cloud computing technology has matured as it has been integrated with every kind of digitalization processes. It offers numerous advantages for data and software sharing, and thus making the management of complex IT systems much simpler. For education in engineering, cloud computing even provides students with versatile and ubiquitous access to software commonly used in the field without having to step into an actual computer lab. Our study analyzed learning attitudes and academic performances induced by the utilization of resources driven by cloud computing technologies. Comparisons were made between college students with high school and vocational high school backgrounds. One hundred and thirty-two students who took the computer-aided designing (CAD) course participated in the study. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as the fundamental framework. Open-ended sets of questionnaires were designed to measure academic performance and causal attributions; the results indicated no significant differences in the cognitive domain between the two groups of students, though it is not so in both the psychomotor and the affective domains. College students with vocational high school background appeared to possess higher learning motivation in CAD applications.     

Cloud Computing: An Examination of Factors Impacting Users’ Adoption

With a rapid growth in technology, cloud computing has become increasingly popular among individual users and businesses around the world. This computing technology continues to attract attention in both academic and business settings. The popularity of cloud computing is due to its ability to provide faster on-demand infrastructure, self-service, and independent ability to contribute to, and access, resources. Despite many potential benefits of cloud computing usage, there are certain aspects that have prohibited some consumers to accept this technology and remain reserved toward its adoption. There are some crucial factors to consider before cloud computing can be accepted entirely by the individual, larger business, or academic groups. This study thus aims at investigating how cloud computing is perceived by potential users and which factors have a tendency to encourage or discourage them to adopt cloud computing.     

An empirical study of the factors affecting social network service use

Social network services are emerging as a promising IT-based business, with some services already being provided commercially such as Facebook, Cyworld and Xiaonei. However, it is not yet clear which potential audience groups will be key social network service participants. Moreover, the process showing how an individual actually decides to start using a social network service may be somewhat different from current web-based community services. Hence, the aims of this paper are twofold. First, we empirically examine how individual characteristics affect actual user acceptance of social network services. To examine these individual characteristics, we apply a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to construct an amended model that focuses on three individual differences: social identity, altruism and telepresence, and one perceived construct: the perceived encouragement, imported from psychology-based research. Next, we examine if the users’ perception to see a target social network service as human relationship-oriented service or as a task-oriented service could be a moderator between perceived constructs and actual use. As a result, we discover that the perceived encouragement and perceived orientation are significant constructs that affect actual use of social network services.     

The roles of intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators in promoting e-learning in the workplace: A case from South Korea

Acceptance of e-learning by employees is critical to the successful implementation of e-learning in the workplace. To explain why employees might accept the e-learning technology, motivational factors must be considered. Although the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) has identified many variables to understand employees’ motivation to use e-learning, current literature cannot conclude the roles of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators in the technology adoption process. Consequently, organizations often overestimate the effects of extrinsic motivators in promoting e-learning while ignoring employees’ intrinsic motivation. To examine the effect difference between the two motivational factors, this study surveyed 261 employees in a food service company in South Korea with the UTAUT instrument. Upon analyzing 226 valid cases with LISREL, the findings revealed that intrinsic motivators (effort expectancy, attitudes, and anxiety) affected employees’ intention to use e-learning in the workplace more strongly than did the extrinsic motivators (performance expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions). Furthermore, the effects of intrinsic motivators mediated the effect of extrinsic motivators. Implications of this study are important for both researchers and practitioners.     

Factors driving the adoption of m-learning: An empirical study

Even if m-learning is spreading rapidly in many regions of the world, research addressing the driving factors of m-learning adoption is in short supply. Built on the Technology Acceptance Model, this paper proposes a hypothesized model of m-learning adoption. Employing structural equation modeling technology, the model was assessed based on the data collected from 230 participants using a survey questionnaire. Results indicate that perceived near-term/long-term usefulness and personal innovativeness have significant influence on m-learning adoption intention, while perceived long-term usefulness significantly affects the perceived near-term usefulness. Personal innovativeness is a predictor of both the perceived ease of use and perceived long-term usefulness as well. Of all variables, the perceived long-term usefulness contributes to the most influential predictor of m-learning adoption. The model accounts for approximately 60.8% of the variance of behavioural intention. The results indicted that offing high-quality contents complying with students’ future targets is key to the success of m-learning in China. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Exploring consumers’ intention to accept smartwatch

With the growing smartwatch market over the past few years, smartwatch acceptance in consumer markets has become an important topic for both researchers and designers. Identification of factors that influence consumers to accept a smartwatch can improve user-centered design. This study explores the intentions of using a smartwatch from the consumer perspective, combining innovation diffusion theory (IDT), the technology acceptance model (TAM), the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), and perceived enjoyment. It presents an integrated method empirically tested with data from 212 participants in Taiwan. Partial lease squares (PLS) were used for models and hypotheses tests. We find several interesting results greatly different from previous studies: (1) Attitude, often identified as a weak mediator, is significant; (2) Ease of use was not significant, which implies that it should be the basic specification of smartwatches; (3) Gender has no significant effect on acceptance of smartwatches; and (4) Individuals 35–54 years old exhibit a significant demand for enjoyment in their use of smartwatch. This study contributes to the technology acceptance research field, and identifies the characteristics that influence smartwatch acceptance. Our methods and results should benefit both academics and managers with useful suggestions for research directions and product strategies.     

Effects of innovativeness and trust on web survey participation

Responding to suggestions of prior research for examining the psychological constructs involved in a decision for or against participation in web surveys, this paper investigated the effects of trust in sponsor and personal innovativeness on potential respondents’ participation intention. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), two alternative models were empirically tested in which the roles of trust and innovativeness were theorized differently—either as moderators of the effects which perceived behavioral control and attitude have on participation intention (moderator model) or as direct determinants of the attitude, perceived behavioral control and intention (direct effects model). Data was collected from a sample of 131 university students enrolled in a computer course. The results of our study indicated that: (1) TPB could satisfactorily predict the behavioral intention with up to 44% variation of the intention being predicted by the model; (2) trust in sponsor and personal web innovativeness exerted direct determinant effects rather than moderate effects on participation attitude and perceived behavioral control, which in turn significantly affected participation intention; and (3) integrating the variables of trust and personal innovativeness into TPB model enhanced the prediction effect.     

Web Services的安全性

通过对现有的Web Services服务中存在的包括数据保密性、完整性、用户身份的认证和交易的不可抵赖性的4个涉及安全性问题的分析和研究，提出了解决这4个方面问题的解决方案，最后指出了Web Services的发展前景。     

Examining the effects of information system characteristics and perceived usefulness on post adoption usage of information systems

Understanding post adoption behavior has emerged as an important issue in IS research. Organizations have invested in a plethora of Information Systems (IS) and the benefits that can be gained from these systems depend on their usage. Prior research has examined factors that impact users’ intention to continue using the IS. However, comprehending post adoption IS usage behavior has not received much attention. Building on TAM and IS success model, this study proposes that information quality and system integration influence perceived IS usefulness which will then drive post adoption usage of the IS. Post adoption IS usage is conceptualized as a broad concept that includes extended usage and exploratory usage. Data (N = 1032) was collected to test the model, in the context of a web-based student information system that students use to manage their academic work. The results show that at the post adoption stage, perceived IS usefulness is a good predictor of extended usage and exploratory usage. However, surprisingly IS usefulness was found to explain a much larger variance in exploratory usage. Information quality and system integration were found to influence IS usefulness. However, information quality also has a direct affect on extended usage, while system integration directly influenced exploratory usage. Assessment of the moderating role of gender and internet experience on model relationships reveals interesting insights. Implications are drawn for future research and practice.     

An empirical study of factors affecting the perceived usability of websites for student Internet users

This study analysed Student Internet Users’ (SIUs’) perception of Web usability. Adopting a user testing method, seven Web Usability Factors (WUFs) were tested for their significance in affecting the ease of use of website. Several elements in websites were also tested for their significance in affecting the WUFs. Result shows the most significant WUF is related to the aesthetic appeal of a website, i.e., Use of Colour and Font. However, it was found that most Web developers are not focusing on this important WUF. Elements such as site map, site search, product image catalogue and others were also found to positively affect SIUs’ perception of the WUFs. The results presented in this paper can be used as guidelines for designing usable websites for SIUs.     

Determinants of choice of semantic web based Software as a Service: An integrative framework in the context of e-procurement and ERP

The ever increasing Internet bandwidth and the fast changing needs of businesses for effectiveness with the partners in the procurement chain and is leading organizations to adopt information systems infrastructures that are cost effective as well as flexible. The question seems to be: what is driving organizations to go in for Software as a Service (SaaS) based e-procurement and ERP, rather than the packaged model of software provisioning? Whereas there have been studies reporting technology, cost, quality, network externalities and process as the main variables in the utility function of the user, but most of the studies have modelled either one or two in the their models. The study is exploratory in nature and tries to identify, classify and rank dimensions affecting SaaS sourcing decisions. In this study, we developed an integrative framework to identify the determinants of choice of SaaS in the specific context of SaaS based e-procurement and ERP. The framework was then analyzed using the extended Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method suggested by Liberatore (1987) and the relative importance and the weights of the criteria identified using data collected on 8 users and 9 service providers of SaaS based e-procurement and ERP. Although the analysis helped in identifying quality and costs as the two most important determinants of choice of SaaS based e-procurement and ERP, but the other criteria such as network externality benefits, technology and process were also found to be significant determinants of choice.     

Information technology (IT) in Saudi Arabia: Culture and the acceptance and use of IT

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), a model of the user acceptance of IT, synthesizes elements from several prevailing user acceptance models. It has been credited with explaining a larger proportion of the variance of ‘intention to use’ and ‘usage behavior’ than do preceding models. However, it has not been validated in non-Western cultures. Using a survey sample collected from 722 knowledge workers using desktop computer applications on a voluntary basis in Saudi Arabia, we examined the relative power of a modified version of UTAUT in determining ‘intention to use’ and ‘usage behavior’. We found that the model explained 39.1% of intention to use variance, and 42.1% of usage variance. In addition, drawing on the theory of cultural dimensions, we hypothesized and tested the similarities and differences between the North American and Saudi validations of UTAUT in terms of cultural differences that affected the organizational acceptance of IT in the two societies.     

网上Web QoS控制技术的需求分析

针对IETF提出的两种不同QoS体系的基本结构,即IntServ和DiffServ,做一些Web QoS控制技术的用户需求分析,并给出一些Web QoS控制技术研究的基本方向与实用建议.     

The Enriched UTAUT Model for the Acceptance of Software Engineering Tools in Academic Education

This article provides an enriched technology acceptance model explaining the impact of both classic and additional variables on software engineering tools acceptance within Information Systems Development courses. Two novel, domain-specific variables were identified (i.e., Professional Training Diffusion and Model Interchange). Statistical verification of the proposed model and study regarding the influence of the variables on students’ intention to use specific tools were conducted—providing users with enhanced means of selecting optimal software for real-life projects.