Based on grounded theory and thematic analysis of 70 in-depth interviews conducted over 32 months (from November 2007 to June 2010) with domain scientists, computational technologists, supercomputer center administrators, program officers at the National Science Foundation, social scientists, policy analysts, and industry experts, this dissertation explores the rationalities behind initial adoption of cyberinfrastructure for e-science in the early 21st century U.S. This dissertation begins with Research Question 1 (i.e., how does cyberinfrastructure's nature influence its adoption process in early 21st century U.S.?) and identifying four areas of challenging conditions to reveal a lack of trialability/observability (due to the participatory/bespoke nature), a lack of simplicity (due to the meta/complex characteristic), a lack of perceived compatibility (due to the disruptive/revolutionary quality), and a lack of full control (due to the community/network property). Then analysis for Research Question 2 (i.e., what are the rationalities that drive cyberinfrastructure adoption in early 21st century U.S.?) suggests that there are three primary driving rationalities behind adoption. First, the adoption of cyberinfrastructure as a meta-platform of interrelated technologies is driven by the perceived need for computational power, massive storage, multi-scale integration, and distributed collaboration. Second, the adoption of cyberinfrastructure as an organizational/behavioral practice is driven by its relative advantages to produce quantitative and/or qualitative benefits that increase the possibility of major publications and scientific reputations. Third, the adoption of cyberinfrastructure as a new approach to science is driven and maintained by shared visions held by scientists, technologists, professional networks, and scientific communities. Findings suggests that initial adoption by pioneering users was driven by the logic of quantitative and qualitative benefits derived from optimizing cyberinfrastructure resources to enable breakthrough science and the vision of what is possible for the entire scientific community. The logic was sufficient to drive initial adoption despite the challenging conditions that reveal the socio-technical barriers and risky time-investment. Findings also suggest that rationalization is a structuration process, which is sustained by micro individual actions and governed by macro community norms simultaneously. Based on Browning’s (1992) framework of organizational communication, I argue that cyberinfrastructure adoption in the early 21st century lies at the intersection of technical rationalities (i.e., perceived needs, relative advantages, and shared visions) and narrative rationalities (i.e., trialability, observability/communicability, simplicity, perceived compatibility, and full control). / text

A Doctoral thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Systems, Division of Information Systems School of Economic and Business Sciences Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management.Johannesburg, March 2017 / This thesis is about the adoption of an Information System (IS) at a country level. Information Systems literature addresses adoption of IS at an individual level, organisational level or national/country level. Each level of analysis has its own complexities. However, literature acknowledging these varied complexities has not been forth coming. That is, literature has more studies done at either individual or organisational, and hardly at national or country level. This thesis argues that the adoption of an information system (also referred to as an innovation) at country level is a multi-dimensional and multi-level phenomenon. Existing literature and previous studies have hardily addressed fully, this complexities and multi-dimensionalism, although it has been noted that countries experience and internalise the innovation adoption, as a social process, differently. The study was on a developing country adopting a Physical Address System (PAS), herein seen as an IS innovation. In this thesis, PAS is seen as a social system comprising of artefacts (digital and visual representations), physical world, residents and organisations as stakeholders. The goal of the study was to conceptualise a multi-dimensional framework for adopting a Physical Address System, in the context of a developing country. Since the thesis argument is that the adoption of IS at a country level is even more complex, varied theories were employed as lenses to tackle the various aspect of the study. These lenses are the Diffusion of Innovation, the Stakeholder Theory, Upper Echelon Theory and the Contextualist Approach. Following the interpretivist philosophy, a case study was employed as a research strategy, using Botswana as a developing country case. The research design included semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, observations, policy documents. The data was analysed, discussed, synthesised and interpreted using thematic framework analysis method. Informed by the empirical evidence and the existing literature, this thesis conceptualises that the adoption of the Physical Address System ought to be done sensitive to the developing country as a multi-dimensional social system. This multi-dimensional social system includes the roles of stakeholders, determinants of innovation and context. The contribution of the thesis is in four folds; theoretical, methodological, practical, and contextual. Theoretically, the thesis conceptualised a multi-dimensional framework for the adoption of the Physical Address System in a developing country. Methodologically, the thesis contributed by following an interpretive philosophy and a case study as appropriate for understanding the complexities of adopting an information system, employing a case. Practically, the thesis, through the framework, may inform practitioners with ways to adopt a physical address system. Contextually, the thesis gives insight into the uniqueness of a developing country adopting an information system. Keywords: Developing Country, Adoption, Physical Address System, Stakeholder Theory, Upper Echelon Theory, Diffusion of Innovation, Context / GR2018

The purpose of the current study was to understand public opinion formation by determining what factors influence opinion leaders in the organic food community to engage in the genetically modified food debate, and how opinion leaders describe American lay publics' engagement in the debate.

¡@In pace with the digital service development and technology expansion, the traditional media environment is in a transformation period. Along with the innovation of mobile reading, there is coming an emerging trend, digital mobile reading in the entire world. Therefore, it is clear that print media is toward to the digital convergence trend. ¡@ ¡@It is iPad, first launch tablet in 2011. Apr., contributed to the highest tablet market share among all for Apple Inc. In the future, tablet is going to be a kind of innovative and leading media tools. For that reason, there are plenty of traditional print media companies plan to launch iPad applications. Then, print media not only becomes the potential novel media technology but also leads the trend of print media transformation. However, print media application at present is still in the primary stage. It is still waiting for market test that print media application could be the main stream or not, in the coming future. ¡@¡@This research, on the basis of Rogers¡¦ ¡§Diffusion of Innovations,¡¨ investigates and analyzes the print media applications. Also, setting United Daily News iPad Application as an example, it is focus on the relationship among the features of the early adopters, demographic variables, perceived characteristics of innovations, lifestyle and the willing of print media applications intension. Through the collaboration between academy and industry, UDN. COM, it is 396 effective samples after collecting that distributes to United Daily News iPad Application and UDN. COM. (digital information area) ¡@¡@The result shows that the profiles of the early adopters using United Daily News iPad Application are middle-aged males, well-educated and high income. It is demographic variables, perceived characteristics of innovations and media usage behavior that significantly impact on the willing of print media applications intension. Further, the lifestyle prototype, much closer to sophisticated and fashionable, life expansionists and preference for foreign products, owns superior adoption intensions to United Daily News iPad Application.

Thesis (Ph. D.)(Informatics)--University of Pretoira, 2002. / Appendices mostly in Portuguese. Includes bibliographical references.

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HPV vaccine school entry mandates and vaccine funding by state was examined using the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory. The DOI was applied to HPV immunization policy to evaluate the rate of vaccine adoption and to determine whether associations existed between an empirical need for vaccine adoption and action by the states. State-level data on political characteristics, health and policy were collected from several secondary sources. Data analyses were performed utilizing SPSS logistic regression models. Odds rations were used to evaluate the associations between the independent and dependent variables to determine whether there was a statistical significance level of .05. Cervical Cancer incidence in a state was significantly associated with HPV school entry mandates (proposed or enacted), but it did not show a significant association with HPV vaccine funding. Diffusion of vaccine innovation is slow, which may offer additional opportunities to evaluate effective policy strategies for coverage and use of the HPV vaccine.

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There has been a considerable amount of research on the diffusion of innovations, beginning with the rural sociologist. The rural sociologist's work was followed by extensive research in the field of education, but the focus of the studies was generally on the school as an adopting unit rather than on the individual teacher. This study was designed to attempt to identify those teacher characteristics and other factors which are significantly related to the acceptance or rejection of innovation in history instruction.Three techniques were selected and designated innovational approaches in history instruction: (1) use of role playing, (2) use of simulation games, and (3) use of the conceptual method. This study was designed to provide information relative to the use of the three designated factors of innovation and their relationship to selected teacher characteristics. The teacher characteristics studied were teacher age, cosmopolitism, years of teaching experience, college degree held, and level of teacher dogmatism as measured by Rokeach's Dogmatism Scale. One additional factor was studied which was the relationship of school size to the acceptance or rejection of the three designated types of innovation.

Internet and mobile phones are two of the most popular innovations of information technology in recent times. As the number of Internet and mobile phone users continues to grow, it is expected that mobile services that enable e-commerce would provide new business opportunities constantly. With the expected rapid growth of mobile commerce, factors affecting the adoption of relative technologies have recently turned into a critical topic of business research. / While the final success of 3G networks is still to be determined, GPRS-enabled mobile phones have been publicly available since 2001. In the area of mobile technologies that enable mobile commerce, GRPS is currently the most popular mobile phone service that allows users to execute business transactions through Internet. The innovation of GPRS technology offers mobile services with the advantages of low cost and fast speed, and thus becomes an ideal tool to be used for mobile commerce. Realizing the advantages of GPRS and the importance of relative studies to the mobile industry, this research aimed to address the issues of user acceptance and behavioural intentions on GPRS-enabled mobile phones. / In Taiwan, the penetration rate of mobile phone had reached 114% and made the number one in the world. This high penetration rate made Taiwan a practical site for studying mobile technology acceptance. This research was therefore proposed to be conducted in Taiwan to better understand the user adoption of mobile phones. This study first reviewed the development of mobile technologies as well as the theoretical background for the research. The model of decomposed theory of planned behaviour was then adopted as the research framework based on previous empirical studies of new mobile services. Fourteen hypotheses were developed to address the key research question as to the factors affecting the adoption of GPRS mobile phones in Taiwan. An online questionnaire was implemented for data collection from Internet users. Data analysis followed for hypotheses testing based on structural equation modelling. The study results show that cost and speed, perceived usefulness, image, risk, compatibility, peer influence, self-efficacy, and facilitating conditions are found to significantly influence the adoption intentions of GPRS technology. / This study on the adoption of GPRS technology is important for enterprises that are planning to offer mobile services. The results of this research may offer directions for industrial practitioners in the field to improve the diffusion and acceptance of GPRS. Such research results can also provide knowledge for business executives to better understand the primary concerns of mobile customers and thus develop mobile services and technologies more strategically. Other managerial implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed at the end of this dissertation. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.