An international comparison of technology adoption : Testing the UTAUT model

We examined the relationships of the constructs in the UTAUT model to determine how they are affected by culture. In our study, we used data from Korea and the U.S. to examine two technologies: the MP3 player and Internet banking. Results showed that the UTAUT model fits our data well. The comparison of Korea and the U.S. revealed that the effects of effort expectancy on behavioral intention and the effects of behavioral intention on use behavior were greater in the U.S. sample. The implications of this are discussed.     

Channel choice and the digital divide in e-government: the case of Egypt

This paper examines channel choice and the digital divide in Egyptian electronic government or e-government. Citizens have access to a variety of service delivery channels when they initiate contact with their government, ranging from e-government to more traditional channels such as the phone and in-person visits to a government office. This paper examines the extent of use of both contact channels for citizens and the impact of the digital divide on channel use. A public opinion survey of Egyptian citizens was analyzed, and the results showed that there was a digital divide in the use of e-government by citizens. The digital divide also extended to other contact channels such as the phone and when citizens used multiple contact channels for public service delivery. The results of this study imply that for the development of e-government, especially in the context of a developing country such as Egypt, policy-makers need to understand that e-government is one of many channels that citizens can use when they initiate contact with their government. The results of this study should encourage policy-makers to recognize the importance of public service delivery in a multichannel environment. Shirin Madon is the accepting Associate Editor for this article. View all notes     

The influence of information security on the adoption of web-based integrated information systems: an e-government study in Peru

This study analyzes the determinants of information security that influence the adoption of Web-based integrated information systems (IIS) by government agencies in Peru. The study introduces Web-based information systems designed to formulate strategic plans for the Peruvian government. A theoretical model is proposed to test the impact of organizational factors such as deterrent efforts, severity efforts, and preventive efforts and individual factors such as perceived information security threats and security awareness on intentions to use Web-based IIS. The empirical results indicate that deterrent efforts and deterrent severity have no significant influence on use intentions of IIS, whereas preventive efforts play an important role in such intentions. Information security awareness and perceived information security threats as individual factors have a significant effect on intentions to use the system. This suggests that organizations should implement preventive efforts by introducing various information security solutions, and improve information security awareness while reducing perceived information security threats.     

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.     

Healthcare Technology Self-Efficacy (HTSE) and its influence on individual attitude: An empirical study

Previous research on technology acceptance and adoption has established perceived self-efficacy as an important factor influencing user acceptance of information technologies. However, research on self-efficacy perceptions and its effect on user attitude in the context of health technologies is limited. This study identifies three self-efficacy factors that may be important for shaping individual attitude toward healthcare technologies. This research proposes a new context-specific self-efficacy factor, Healthcare Technology Self-Efficacy (HTSE) and a conceptual model incorporating HTSE and two existing self-efficacy factors, General Self-Efficacy (GSE) and Computer Self-Efficacy (CSE). The conceptual model is validated using a survey of 314 participants. We found that HTSE has a positive influence on attitude toward the use of health technologies. We also found that two existing self-efficacy constructs (GSE and CSE) have positive relationships with HTSE. However these two factors did not have any significant influence on attitude toward health technology use, contrary to our expectations. Rather, HTSE mediates the relationships between GSE and attitude and the relationship between CSE and attitude in the context of health technology use behavior. The results of this study have important implications for both research and practice in the healthcare technology domain.     

Adoption of ICT in a government organization in a developing country: An empirical study

eGovernment initiatives all over the world endeavor to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to transform delivery of government services to their stakeholders by improving quality of services, accountability and efficiency. In this study we explore adoption of ICT to enhance government-to-employee interactions in a government organization in a developing country. We examine this adoption behavior by utilizing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) that provides an integrative view of user acceptance. We found that performance and effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions all positively impact the use of the ICT. We did not find a significant moderating effect of gender on these relationships.     

Good governance,development theory,and aid policy: Risks and challenges of e-government in Jordan

Poor governance is among the most important causes of state failure and underdevelopment. Hence innovations and reforms in the governmental and bureaucratic apparatus are an important prerequisite for development. E-government policy initiatives have gained international validity by the donor community as a catalyst for such reforms. To be sure, the characteristics of the state model implicit in e-government applications and the economics of transition from a backward state organization to e-government are equally relevant for the success of the initiative. This study focuses on the analysis and early design of e-government solutions in a less-developed country: Jordan. It shows that implementing a general standardized ICT portfolio to support good governance proves to be a difficult task and that there are a number of risks emerging from development aid policies aimed at good governance. The paper provides suggestive evidence that e-government and the view of the minimal state put forward by international development agencies might not be conducive to rapid late development. The New Institutional Economics provides an illuminating framework for this purpose. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Internet anxiety: An empirical study of the effects of personality,beliefs, and social support

We examined sources of Internet anxiety; specifically modeling the ties from broad dispositional traits (computer anxiety, computer self-efficacy, and personal innovativeness with IT), beliefs about the work environment (about the adequacy of resources and trust in technology), and two forms of social support for IT (leader and peer support) to individuals’ anxiety about using Internet applications. We tested our model using respondents who participated in virtual teams during a 16-week period. Our findings suggested that Internet anxiety was affected both by the users’ personality and by beliefs that can be influenced by providing adequate resources to support the technology, encourage trust in technology, and working to assure users that leaders and peers are supportive of their using the technology. Our findings suggest that by providing appropriate resources and fostering a supportive environment, leaders could reduce Internet anxiety and thus influence the use of technology in the workplace in ways that benefit organizations.     

An empirical study of behavioral characteristics of spammers: Findings and implications

In this paper we present a detailed study of the behavioral characteristics of spammers based on a two-month email trace collected at a large US university campus network. We analyze the behavioral characteristics of spammers that are critical to spam control, including the distributions of message senders, spam and non-spam messages by spam ratios; the statistics of spam messages from different spammers; the spam arrival patterns across the IP address space; and the active duration of spammers, among others. In addition, we also formally confirm an informal observation that spammers may hijack network prefixes in sending spam messages, by correlating the arrivals of spam messages with the BGP route updates of the corresponding networks. In this paper we present the detailed results of the measurement study; in addition, we also discuss the implications of the findings for the (content-independent) anti-spam efforts.     

User behaviour towards protective information technologies: the role of national cultural differences

Computer technologies that protect data and systems from viruses, unauthorized access, disruptions, spyware and other threats have become increasingly important in the globally networked economy and society. Yet little is known about user attitudes and behaviour towards this category of information technologies. Comparative studies across different cultures in this context are even rarer. In this study, we examine the cross-cultural differences between South Korea and the United States in user behaviour towards protective information technologies. We develop a theoretical model of user behaviour based on the framework of the theory of planned behaviour and national cultural dimensions and indices. We posit that cultural factors moderate the strength of the relationships in the behavioural model in the context of protective information technologies. The model was then empirically tested using structural equation modelling techniques in conjunction with multi-group analysis. Most of the hypothesized moderating effects of national cultural factors were found to be statistically significant. Our findings suggest that cultural factors should be considered in order to design effective information security policies, practices and technologies in global networks where multiple cultures coexist. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.     

Behavioral aspects of enterprise systems adoption: An empirical study on cultural factors

Recently, behavioral aspects of enterprise systems have been called to investigate further in the information systems (IS) community. The purpose of this paper is to apply individual-level measurement of cultural orientation, such as power distance and uncertainty avoidance, to the recent findings of computer self-efficacy and ERP adoption belief, such as perceived ease of use, based on the survey of 101 ERP system experts. An online survey methodology is used to gather data from the various industrial fields. The research model is constructed based on the findings of the previous studies in IS, management, and cultural psychology. The results indicate that low power distance and high uncertainty avoidance cultural orientation influence general CSE. In addition, uncertainty avoidance positively influences ease of use of ERP systems. As expected, general CSE positively influences ease of use of ERP systems. Training and managerial interventions through communication to improve these cultural orientations would be effective for the successful ERP systems project. The findings of this research would be helpful to the project managers, IS researchers, and ERP practitioners who want to understand the behavioral aspects of ERP systems adoption in the organization.     

An empirical study of pupils' attitudes to computers and robots*

A 64-item Likert type instrument assessed seven scales of pupils' attitude toward computers and robots. Scale scores were investigated as functions of pupils' sex, Piagetian stage, chosen course of study, home use of a microcomputer and experience of computer-assisted learning (CAL). More favourable attitudes were held by boys and by pupils choosing Computer Studies. Amongst pupils not choosing Computer Studies, those reporting experience of CAL or high use of a home microcomputer showed smaller declines of attitudes over a 1-year period.     

Critically classifying: UK e-government website benchmarking and the recasting of the citizen as customer

In recent years, discussion of the provision of government services has paid particular attention to notions of customer choice and improved service delivery. However, there appears to be marked shift in the relationship between the citizen and the state moving from government being responsive to the needs of citizens to viewing citizens explicitly as customers. This paper argues that this change is being accelerated by government use of techniques like benchmarking, which have been widely used in the private sector. To illustrate this point, the paper focuses on the adoption of website benchmarking techniques by the public sector. The paper argues that the essence of these benchmarking technologies, a process comprised of both finding and producing truth, is fundamentally based on the act of classifying and draws on Martin Heidegger's etymological enquiry to reinterpret classification as a dynamic movement towards order that both creates and obfuscates truth. In so doing, it demonstrates how Heidegger's seminal ideas can be adapted for critical social research by showing that technology is more than an instrument as it has epistemic implications for what counts as truth. This stance is used as the basis for understanding empirical work reporting on a UK government website benchmarking project. Our analysis identifies the means involved in producing the classifications inherent in such benchmarking projects and relates these to the more general move that is recasting the relationship between the citizen and the state, and increasingly blurring the boundaries between the state and the private sector. Recent developments in other attempts by the UK government to use private-sector technologies and approaches indicate ways in which this move might be challenged.     

Open data and e-government – related or competing ecosystems: a paradox of open government and promise of civic engagement in Estonia*

ABSTRACT

The article analyzes an open data movement in an unusual context of highly developed digital economy and widespread popularity of e-government services in a country that is universally well-known as one of the global leaders in promoting information society and electronic democracy, but paradoxically demonstrating modest results in propagating a presumably related concept of open government data. In this regard, paying special attention to the investigation of main drivers, stakeholders and challenges of the open data movement in Estonia, the author argues that a highly centralized administrative policy that has been widely used previously by authorities in advancing various technology-driven public reforms, which partly explains a truly impressive advance of this Nordic state in e-government, e-commerce, e-banking and evoting, does not necessarily lead to same effective results in the open data domain. On the contrary, the presence of established democratic institutions and developed civil society as well as an incredibly advanced and dynamic private ICTindustry that values competition and professional curiosity along with a very strong sense of patriotism and adherence to a particular neighborhood deeply rooted in Estonian society has played a much more important role in diffusing the concept rather than just traditional government directives and strategies.     

Existence and stability of impulsive stochastic coupled systems in infinite dimensions

This paper considers the exponential stability of a class of infinite-dimensional impulsive stochastic coupled systems. With the help of generalized Itô's formula for the mild solution of infinite-dimensional systems, we avoid limiting the domain of the mild solution. Then we use the combination of the Lyapunov function and graph theory to construct the Lyapunov function of the systems; the criteria of $p$-th moment exponential stability are obtained, which is related to the average impulsive interval $T_a$ and the connectivity of impulsive stochastic systems. In addition, noting that the existence may be affected by impulsive effects and stochastic perturbations, using the graph theory and the principle of contraction mapping, we get the condition that guarantees the existence and uniqueness, which is also related to the structure of the networks. Finally, we consider the stability of impulsive stochastic coupled heat equations and neural networks with reaction diffusion and give some numerical simulations to verify the theoretical results.     

A model of e-commerce adoption (MOCA): consumer's perceptions and behaviours

The paper analyses factors that usually influence the adoption of online commerce, focusing in particular on how social influence acts in this process considering in particular an Italian sample. It investigates about the actual transaction behaviour, and not just the intention to shop online. Starting from analysing technology acceptance models of literature, the paper proposes and empirically validates a new model for e-commerce adoption. A self-administered survey approach was used to collect data from a sample of different ages, genders and educational levels by using a structured questionnaire. Empirical data were analysed using correlation and regression analysis. Results showed that social influence, usability and perceived usefulness are predictors of the frequency of use and then, of e-commerce adoption. The paper gives both a theoretical and an empirical contribution to the e-commerce literature by designing and testing a model for predicting online consumers’ behaviour and enhancing the e-commerce adoption understanding.     

Household technology adoption in a global marketplace: Incorporating the role of espoused cultural values

This paper extends prior research in household technology adoption by incorporating the role of espoused cultural values. Specifically, we theorize that espoused cultural values–individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation—play an important role in affecting consumers’ behaviors by altering consumers’ belief structures—attitudinal beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs. Our theoretical model predicts that the impact of consumers’ belief structures on household technology adoption intention varies across consumers with different cultural values. Propositions are provided to explain how different cultural mechanisms moderate the relationships between consumers’ beliefs and household technology adoption intention. The paper concludes with theoretical implications, future research directions, and practical implications.

Bridging the IT Adoption Gap for Small Physician Practices: An Action Research Study on Electronic Health Records

This article reports on an action research project to investigate the barriers to adoption and assimilation of electronic health records (EHRs) in small physician practices. The project draws on theories of technology-use mediation and communities of practice to develop interventions to promote adoption and integration of EHRs into chronic care management processes in these practice settings. The field results suggest that developing community-based knowledge and resources to assist physician organizations one-on-one may be essential for their effective utilization of EHRs.     

An empirical study of the effect of complexity, platform, and program type on software development effort of business applications

Several popular cost estimation models like COCOMO and function points use adjustment variables, such as software complexity and platform, to modify original estimates and arrive at final estimates. Using data on 666 programs from 15 software projects, this study empirically tests a research model that studies the influence of three adjustment variables—software complexity, computer platform, and program type (batch or online programs) on software effort. The results confirm that all the three adjustment variables have a significant effect on effort. Further, multiple comparison of means also points to two other results for the data examined. Batch programs involve significantly higher software effort than online programs. Programs rated as complex have significantly higher effort than programs rated as average.