In response to the competitive global economy, lean manufacturing has become more prevalent in the United States. Manufacturing has changed, but cost accounting has not. Lean manufacturing has the potential to change the U.S. manufacturing economy, resulting in positive economic social change, yet it requires lean accounting to increase successful implementations. This study addressed the problem of lack of adoption of lean-accounting techniques like value-stream costing in lean-manufacturing enterprises. The purpose of this nonexperimental explanatory study was to investigate factors that influence the adoption of lean accounting. Using the technology acceptance model (TAM), based on the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior, this study examined whether management accountants- perceptions of the ease of use (PEOU), or perceived usefulness (PU) of value-stream costing may influence their intention (BI) to implement value-stream costing. The 2,307 attendees of the Lean Accounting Summit from 2005-2013 were invited to participate in an online survey; 70 attendees agreed to participate. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regressions were calculated. Statistically significant positive relationships emerged between PEOU, PU, and the intention to implement value-stream costing. Also, PEOU and PU for the individual accounted for 51% of the variance of BI, and PEOU and PU for the organization accounted for 49% of the variance of BI. This study added to the understanding how management accountants- perceptions positively influence their intention to implement value-stream costing. The relationships found by this study will create positive social change when used to influence the adoption of value-stream costing in order to increase the successful implementation of lean manufacturing in the U.S.

The implementation of a new Information Technology in an organization represents a significant change. Little research, however, has been conducted on the collective power of Information Technology acceptance and change management. The current research seeks to integrate a prominent model of technology acceptance and change management theory to develop an holistic approach to Information Technology implementation and acceptance. Using Davis' (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Attitude) and Beer, Eisenstat and Specter's (1990) six step model of change (Change), this three phase longitudinal case study examined the change management of the implementation of a new Information System within a statutory authority. Results from the current study show that the addition of the six step model (Change) adds appreciably to the TAM (Attitude) in the prediction of general service satisfaction and perceived implementation success. Findings also show the temporal salience of the factors of the six step model and the TAM in the prediction of these dependent variables. The current research supports previous work by Davis (1989) and Thompson, Higgins and Howell (1994) who stated that initially people are motivated to use an Information System by affect, but will in time be more concerned with usefulness as habit formation occurs. The current study found that during the pre-implementation phase, commitment through communication and vision are critical to the change process. However, as the change moves into the implementation phase, consensus becomes most important. The shift in factors salient during the change process is what the author refers to as the temporal progression proposition. Strengths and limitations of the current study and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Predicting customers’ intention to purchase products online is an important issue. This thesis aims to understand how online shopping decision is determined by individual’s intention to buy via Internet and his/her attitude toward e-purchase. This study by integrating the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), attempts to understand how website usefulness and ease of use, as well as customers’ attitude toward online shopping, influence purchase intention influence the online purchase. Those two models adopted in an online environment were used to analyze the outcome of the survey among Polish e-shoppers. By adopting the idea of regular and heavy Internet users, this study tries to differentiate the online shopping behavior in those two groups. The findings of the thesis have been found to be partially consistent with both models. However the difference between heavy and regular Internet users in frequency of buying online has not been confirmed.

Adverse drug events, resulting in preventable patient harm or death, are of great concern. To keep patients safe, hospitals have implemented barcode medication administration (BCMA) technology for RNs who have accepted this technology with varying levels of satisfaction. When nurses are dissatisfied with a BCMA system, they may find alternative methods to complete their work. Framed by the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989), this analytic, cross-sectional study aimed to understand the relationship between BCMA satisfaction and workarounds, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of a BCMA system by 80 hospital-based RNs in northeastern US. Data were collected using the Workaround Usage and Satisfaction with Barcoding Instrument for Nurses (WUSBIN), which was adapted from Hurley's (2006) Medication Administration System-Nurses Assessment of Satisfaction Scale (MAS-NAS) Halbesleben and Rathert's (2010) Workaround Assessment. Results suggested that RNs who were more satisfied with the BCMA system were less likely to use workarounds than nurses who were less satisfied (r2(78)= -.681, p < .05). Significant relationships were noted among BCMA Satisfaction and PEOU (r2(78) = -.725, p < .05), Workaround Usage and PEOU (r2(78) =.943, p < .05) and Workaround Usage and PU (r2(78)=.501, p < .05). RNs perceived the BCMA system to be easy to use (PEOU), but not very useful (PU). BCMA Satisfaction was significantly related to the use of six workarounds, while Workaround Usage was significantly related to five. Significant relationships were also noted among both BCMA Satisfaction (r2(78) = -.393, p < .01), and Workaround Usage (r2(78) = .423, p < .01) with the total number of workarounds used. Significant relationships were found among demographic variables, BCMA Satisfaction, and Workaround Usage. Since admitting to the use of workarounds may be a sensitive matter for RNs, measuring BCMA satisfaction may help understand the state of patient safety related to medication administration. Based on high satisfaction scores and low workaround usage, a profile may be developed to identify nurse champions to improve quality of care. Further research is indicated to fully understand these possibilities. / School of Nursing / Nursing / PhD / Dissertation

Television is the most important media in modern life. Recently, the rapid development of information and telecommunication technology has created opportunities for new media usage. In order to expedite the adoption of digital technology,the government has initiated the ¡§challege2008- national important development¡¨project. Mobile television is one item included in the project. So far, not much research has investigated issues related to the adoption and use of this new media. The purpose of this research is to investigate motivations and factors that influence people¡¦s willingness to use mobile digital TV. Potential motivations, including fashion, information, mobility, social and entertainment, and their effects on the perceived usefulness and attitude are investigated. The research used quantity analysis, Snowball Sampling and convinence sampling to collect 316 samples. The data were analyzed using LISREL, the structural equation modeling tool. The result shows that information and fashion are two major motivations that had positive influence to the perceived usefulness. Social motivation and entertainment motivation had positive influence on attitudes. Attitudes and the perceived usefulness had positive influence on the intention to adopt mobile TV. Social norm did not have significant effect on the intention. The implications of the findings and research limitations are discussed.

Electronic health records (EHRs) facilitate storing, organizing, and sharing personal health information. The academic literature suggests that multimedia information (MM; image, audio, and video files) should be incorporated into EHRs. We examined the acceptability of MM-enabled EHRs for Ontario-based software vendors and physicians, using a qualitative analysis of primary and acute care EHR vendor websites, and a survey of physician perceptions regarding MM features in EHRs. Primary care EHR vendors provided more product-specific information than acute care vendors; however, neither group emphasized MM features in their EHRs. Physicians had slightly positive perceptions of image and video features, but not of audio features. None of the external factors studied predicted physicians‘ intention to use MM. Our findings suggest that neither vendors nor physicians are enthusiastic about implementing or using MM in EHRs, despite acknowledging potential benefits. Further research is needed to explore how to incorporate MM into EHR systems.

Electronic health records (EHRs) facilitate storing, organizing, and sharing personal health information. The academic literature suggests that multimedia information (MM; image, audio, and video files) should be incorporated into EHRs. We examined the acceptability of MM-enabled EHRs for Ontario-based software vendors and physicians, using a qualitative analysis of primary and acute care EHR vendor websites, and a survey of physician perceptions regarding MM features in EHRs. Primary care EHR vendors provided more product-specific information than acute care vendors; however, neither group emphasized MM features in their EHRs. Physicians had slightly positive perceptions of image and video features, but not of audio features. None of the external factors studied predicted physicians‘ intention to use MM. Our findings suggest that neither vendors nor physicians are enthusiastic about implementing or using MM in EHRs, despite acknowledging potential benefits. Further research is needed to explore how to incorporate MM into EHR systems.

Business Intelligence (BI) has become an essential part of the modern enterprise, and what used to be thought of as a luxury is now a matter of survival. Recent economic developments have forced companies to rethink their IT investment strategy. BI investments are now targeting the majority of people in the organisation instead of a select few. Thus, it is important to understand why users of a BI system choose to accept and use the system. Previous research has established the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as one of the most powerful and parsimonious models explaining user acceptance and usage behaviour of information technologies. This quantitative study replicates the original TAM study with the purpose to increase the understanding of BI usage, and investigates the behaviour of the users of the BI system QlikView in the case company GE Healthcare. The results showed a lower explanatory power for the model when compared to previous research. This indicates that how useful a user perceives a BI system to be does not affect the amount of usage to the same extent as predicted by TAM. Possible causes for this are discussed, with an emphasis on the influence of what tasks a user is confronted with and the measurement of system use.

Mobile Guide System has usually applied to enclosed spaces such as museums or exposition halls, but the prosperity of internet has made mobile application a trend. Then how it could be possible to make good use of mobile guide system in order to strengthen the dispersion of culture values, vibrate industrial economy and extend the life span of local culture industries so that culture and technology can develop mutual effects. The first stage of this research adopts discovery research to explain the concep-tual framework of local culture industries and mobile guide system and also uses Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) for research while the extended local culture value and consuming information values act as external factors to mobile guide sys-tem¡¦s Media Richness Theory(MRT). The second stage uses positive and qualitative research method to analyze the affecting factors to behavior intention of tourists from Anping Harbor National Historical Park about the mobile guide system applying to local culture industries. The total research tests are 250 copies and the effective tests are 226 copies. The research discovers that tourists have evolved from traditionally receiving information after arriving at the destination to collecting travling information beforehand. In the future, tourists would immediately receive information during traveling. This research considers that the development of local culture industries should acquire local culture values and local consuming values, which would strengthen the behavior intention of using mobile guide system. This discovery points out that mobile guide system can enhance the traveling happiness of tourists and lower searching cost. The information from tourist centers would be considered as one kind of hygiene factors and the messages passed from mobile guide system could be actively received by tourists to form different motivation in travel marketing and satisfaction.

Tablet PC is not a brand-new idea. But it did not draw much attention of consumers in the past. However tablet PC became the hottest product since Apple released the iPad in April 2010 which hit 15 million sales record in less than nine months. And this fever drives all of the IT, PC, mobile companies to start their production line. A war of tablet PC is about to begin in 2011. But from consumers¡¦ perspective, is tablet PC so different from its counterpart being utilized currently that attracts consumer to use it? What are the factors influencing the intention to use tablet PC? To answer the question, this study presents an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) integrating innovation diffusion theory and perceived price to examine the factors that influence the adoption of tablet PC. And the proposed model was empirically tested through data collected from an online questionnaire with 536 samples. And principal analysis, ANOVA, multiple regression as well as descriptive statistics were conducted to analyze the data. The findings indicate that all of the factors proposed in the model anticipate potential users¡¦ intention to use tablet PC. Among the factors, perceived enjoyment, perceived ease of use, relative advantage have the most significant influence and image is the least one. This study may extend use of TAM and provide further insights into tablet PC marketing strategies.