Producers are increasingly compelled by legislation to understand the volume of their products recycled and a product's total impact on waste management systems (WMS). Improved data quality is essential to drive the adoption of a waste management system, and to guide policy strategy and planning decisions. This study focuses on the data from post-consumer waste in the City of Cape Town within the broad field of solid waste management (SWM). This study explores the (primary) research questions: “What is the value of waste data in the City of Cape Town waste management system ?” It answer the primary question through three secondary-questions 1. How do stakeholders within the WMS perceive the availability of waste data? 2. What is the current volume and composition of waste data in the City Of Cape Town's WMS ? 3. Additionally, can data from the informal waste sector assist in improving existing waste data quality? A sequential mixed-methods exploratory case study approach and the solid waste information management model (SWIMM) are used. Through interviews with key industry players, a review of selected literature, and publicly available data on waste from the City of Cape Town, the study surfaces the misalignment between stakeholder expectations and currently collected data on waste within the waste management system. This study finds that expectations from stakeholders across waste management are misaligned around the perception of essential waste data indicators. The research presents a novel SWIMM model that collects a higher volume, frequency, quality, diversity, and composition of data across the waste stream, predicting future short-term waste scenarios, legislation compliance, and production planning.

The issue of determining the most appropriate software tools for instructional purposes is not new. As the tools keep changing and evolving and considering the vast number of existing tools that are there, this process of selecting the best tools for students may become quite challenging and it is important that the dynamic be explored. This research targets studying factors that have impact on tool selection, implementation of tools in the curriculum, and impact of tool use on students. The study also uses Activity Theory as the theoretical framework in holistically exploring how these tools are implemented in an undergraduate Information Systems curriculum. The research adopts an interpretivist approach and follows an exploratory research design using qualitative methods to gather data and thematic analysis for data analysis. This case study is of a South African university, which was chosen using convenience sampling. Data was collected through interviews with 10 lecturers and 8 students at the Information Systems Department and analysis of course outlines. Key findings point to alignment with industry needs, affordability, availability of supplementary resources, and software functionality as some of the important criteria used by educators when selecting software products. The study also identifies primary and secondary contradictions as per the Activity Theory and these highlight the inconsistencies which exist in the department's use of technologies. It is important to note the lack of studies in this area, where existing research mainly focuses on tools used in specific courses in Information Systems, but none have looked at the Information Systems discipline as a whole. The study also highlights the different roles played by technology companies in facilitating the use of tools in courses, which to the researcher's knowledge, has never been done before. Thus, the research contributes to literature and fills the stated gaps in research and answers the research questions.

Implementing Open Government Data (OGD) increases a government's ability to share data on its activities with citizens in machine-readable formats. OGD improves citizen participation, transparency, accountability and creates impact. By permitting more transparency, OGD helps citizens monitor government activities, which contributes to minimizing corruption. For example, while Also, OGD enables governments to track the impact of their actions; it gives citizens the ability to monitor government activities and critique where necessary. In addition, institutionalizing OGD by governments encourages economic growth and creates employment for citizens. The aim of this study is to examine OGD as a phenomenon in Ghana by focusing on how social factors either constrained or enabled the publication and use of OGD in Ghana. The investigation also examined how these social factors were created and sustained over time, influencing OGD institutionalization. The Structuration Theory was used as the primary theoretical lens to aid in understanding these social factors. In addition, the Structuration Theory was supplemented with concepts from Network Power, Ownership, and the Public Value Frameworks to provide additional theoretical categorization for the empirical findings. This study adopted a qualitative interpretive approach. Data sources for the research included semi-structured interviews, observations, and secondary data. The primary sources of data included Data Users, Data Publishers, Data “controllers,” and beneficiaries. The main findings from the study indicated that despite Ghana's long-standing democracy and being one of the early implementers of OGD, the phenomenon was yet to be institutionalized in the country. Data ownership, data quality, regulatory mandate, data sharing culture, control, and resources were the core social factors that influenced OGD publication. The meanings that actors ascribed to data ownership resulted in establishing and maintaining bureaucratic structures that allowed institutions and individuals to control available data. The actual use of OGD was influenced by social factors such as alliances/network creation, resources, power in networks, informal networks, and data quality assessment. Conversely, factors like alliances/network creation and technological resources acted as enablers that helped data users access the data. Data Users relied on technology and constantly drew upon their knowledge and understanding of technology and social connections to enable them to access and use data. They also relied on their ability to use technology to scrutinize data to ensure that it was of good quality and its use could create an impact or public value. Specific recommendations of this study include the need to use change management strategies targeted at all actors and institutions in the OGD ecosystem; educating and sensitizing actors on the relevance of making data technically available on a single approved web portal; and the creation of a context specific data quality indicators.

This research study investigated the social interaction in an online cross-disciplinary research conference. The research study followed an online conference of researchers from disciplines of social sciences, law, and humanities. The online conference was initiated by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and was hosted by Centre for Educational Technology (CET) at University of Cape Town (UCT). The main aim of the research study is to identify social interaction enablers and inhibitors in an online cross-disciplinary conference. The Internet is being used for numerous purposes, such as extending one's social networks, participating in online communities, finding a marriage partner, learning, and developing successful business relationships. An online conference uses the Internet for social networking. The study followed an interpretive research approach and combined critical discourse analysis (CDA) and the social presence indicators template (SPIT) as its analytical framework. The focus of the study was on the analysis and interpretation of the online conference text messages (artefacts) to identify enablers and inhibitors of social interaction. The social interaction enablers identified in the study included sharing and seeking of information, social presence, time and geographical confidence and flexibility, facilitation, prescribed/relevant topics and increased confidence and reduced evaluation anxiety. Inhibitors of social interaction were lack of community, prescribed topics, minimal activities, lack of non-verbal and social cues and clarity of topics. The social interaction enablers that were not identified in the literature were prescribed/relevant topics and collaboration and lobbying. Lack of community, clarity of topics, prescribed topics and minimal activities were identified as inhibitors of social interaction in the study but were not identified in the literature. In addition, the research found that some social interaction enablers were also found to be inhibitors. A revelation in the research study was that prescribed topics both enabled and inhibited social interaction. While some participants contributed towards these topics, others did not. Although the study focused predominantly on a cross-disciplinary research conference the findings reported in this study could have useful applications on online social interaction in general. The study has found out that an online conference arguably has merits over a face-to-face conference, but these benefits can only be optimised when social interaction is deliberately fostered through convergence of the online conference tool, facilitation, and topic design.

Multi-channel retail banking is a novel banking approach, one which encompasses traditional banking approaches as well as modern internet based banking innovations. South Africa (SA) has the potential market to ensure the success of alternative banking strategies, which in turn would lead to better quality banking services. This study is of importance to banks, providing them with a better understanding of the consumer's interaction within the banking environment. The main objective of the study is to investigate the adoption of multi-channel banking in SA and to develop a theory that explains this phenomenon. Identifying these factors may allow the banks to ultimately improve the quality and reach of services of the channels independently or collectively. This study is conducted within an interpretivist paradigm under the guidance of an inductive approach. The purpose of this combination is to allow for the exploration of the phenomenon through the use ~f semi-structured interviews to gather data from only individuals who had bank accounts. The gathered data was analysed employing the techniques available through grounded theory methodology. Numerous concepts evolved through the analysis of the data and through the open coding technique. The main results showed that the consumer's decision making process and their continual growth of knowledge were highly influenced by varying concepts such as their banking needs, received experiences, the associated costs, preference of channel, the associated convenience and the received satisfaction of the respective channels of choice. The decision making process included the categories of channel evaluation and channel choice. The concepts within these categories were determined as being highly influenced among the collection of identified concepts. With their choices changing as their circumstances changed the channels were not thought of as independent, but rather a collective from which the consumer could choose from. This demonstrates the existence of the phenomenon of multi-channel banking.

Determining and enhancing the effectiveness of computer-based information systems (1/S) in organisations remains a top priority of managers. This study shows that the essential nature and role of 1/S is changing and that classic views of 1/S effectiveness have become increasingly inappropriate. Drawing on the organisational effectiveness literature, it is argued that user perceptions provide a practical alternative and a conceptually sound basis for defining and measuring 1/S effectiveness. A popular measure - User Information Satisfaction - is examined and empirical studies using this measure are critiqued. This reveal limited theoretical grounding or convergence but a growing emphasis on behavioural theory. Based on prior empirical work by the author and expectancy and motivation theory, a model of 1/S behaviours is offered. The model suggests that fit between the needs of the organisation and the capability of 1/S to satisfy these needs is essential to achieving 1/S effectiveness. Several hypotheses are formulated. The development and validation of a particular measurement instrument is traced. The instrument addresses 37 facets of the overall information systems function and respondents complete perceptual scales tapping the relative importance of these facets and how well each is performed. The instrument is used in a field survey of 1025 managers and 1/S staff in eleven large organisations. Attitudes towards 1/S are found to correlate with perceptions of fit between organisational needs and 1/S capabilities. The survey is complemented by management interviews, document analysis and an assessment of the dynamics of the relevant 1/S groups. Cultural and other features associated with perceived 1/S success are found. It is concluded that perceptions of organisational members are central to the meaning of information systems effectiveness, but that the user information satisfaction construct and purely attitudinal measures are inadequate. Based on the notion of fit, a new definition of 1/S effectiveness is proposed. Guidelines for measurement are presented and it is argued that the instrument used in this study is a satisfactory tool. Specific recommendations for management are made and rich opportunities for future research are identified.

In the last two decades, the worldwide information and communication technology (ICT) market has been growing at a rapid rate. This has led to the global net increase in ICT usage and investments. International organizations, ICT vendors, policy makers have been trying to determine if such huge investments are worthwhile. However, the result regarding this issue is inconclusive, for this research area is fraught with complexity and existing empirical study is limited. Investigating the impact of ICT investments on human development requires appropriate methods that can provide a deeper understanding and which are based on IS perspective theory. Of particular importance are different aspects of ICT investments and the components of human development. For example, ICT investments consist of four aspects namely hardware, software, internal spending and telecommunication investments while human development components are GOP, literacy rates and life expectancy rates. If these variables are not modelled correctly, their effect on each other can be either under- or overestimated and the appropriate level of impact is therefore required.

Mobile bullying on social networks is a growing problem in South African public high schools. It is described as a fairly new form of cyber bullying which is conducted using a mobile phone through communication channels such as text messages, emails, Instant messaging and other chat rooms such as social networks. Excessive usage of mobile phones in schools has elevated the delinquency of bullying in school grounds and challenged how school policies are executed when it comes to mobile bullying. While mobile technology is more widely use than conventional methods to commit antisocial behaviours today, our understanding of mobile bullying is still limited in the South African context. Although studies on bullying in general have been conducted, there has been limited focus on one type called bully-victims. Bully-victims are adolescents that swing between being a bully and a victim and are difficult to identify. The present study aims to bridge the gap by examining the factors that influence the behaviour of mobile bully-victims on Facebook in South African public secondary schools. Children who are greatly exposed to violence and victimisation at an early age tend to struggle when they become adults and experience emotional trauma, perform poorly in their academics and at times commit suicide. Cyberbullying has similar negative impacts whereby the intention is to frequently harm another person using virtual platforms. Research shows that there is rapid growth in suicidal cases which is one of the leading causes of death among adolescents in South Africa. While suicide has not been associated with bully-victims in South Africa, international studies link adolescent suicidal tendencies with bully-victim behaviour. Facebook has been chosen because it is the most popular and commonly use social network by adolescents. Extensive literature on the potential causes of mobile bully-victim behaviour has been reviewed and a conceptual model (Mobile Bully-victim Model) of the influencing factors identified. This model aims at assisting schools understand the nature of mobile bully-victims, potential causes of bully-victim behaviour and guide the development of appropriate interventions for this form of aggression. A total number of 457 school learners participated on the quantitative survey both from Gauteng and Western Cape provinces. The study population is based on learners from Western Cape and Gauteng public schools because there are more school violence cases occurring in communities where there is a high crime rate. These two provinces fall under four provinces including Limpopo and Free State that are leading in high crime rate in South Africa. Due to unavailability to participate from other provinces, only Western Cape and Gauteng public schools were available and willing to participate in the study. 319 of those learners were found to be mobile bully-victims. The degree to which mobile bully-victim behaviour occur was examined in relation to Anonymity, Collective behaviour, Power, Facebook usage and Emojis and Facebook features. After various tests including spearman correlation, T-tests, and regression analysis were run, the results confirmed that adolescents who have anonymous profiles that follow collective behaviour of public pages, possess power and who are frequent Facebook users are likely to be mobile bully-victims and they demonstrate bully-victim behaviour on Facebook. However, Emoji and features showed an inverse relationship with bully-victim behaviour on Facebook. Therefore, the study confirms that these factors do indeed influence mobile bully-victim behaviour on Facebook except for Emoji and Facebook features.

Organizations in all sectors have been utilizing virtual teams and virtual technologies for projects, making use of geographically dispersed human capital. Other forms of virtual working such as work-from-home, remote-work and telecommuting have also been implemented by organizations, often to a few employees usually over a small period of time and not applicable to the full organization. The transitioning from a collocated environment to a virtual context induced by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had an effect on the process of performing Information Systems Development (ISD). The objectives of the study are: RO1: Explain how virtuality influences the process of doing ISD projects inside the IS Industry. RO1a: Explain how virtuality influences the execution of ISD activities inside the IS Industry. RO1 b: Explain how virtuality influences the assessment of ISD projects inside the IS Industry. RO2: Identify how organizations can improve ISD when working in a virtual context. This study employed a single case study of a technology company that recently transitioned from a collocated context to a full remote context. Data was collected through seventeen semi-structured interviews and secondary documents. Thematic analysis was employed to explain virtuality's influence on performing ISD and assessing ISD outcomes. A modified Systems Development as Performing (sd-as-p) conceptual model was utilized as a guide for this study's data collection process. A literature-derived sd-as-p conceptual model was developed made up of the following processes of performing ISD, namely leading; communicating; collaborating; knowing; developing with agility; dealing with challenges; trusting; assessing achievements and the enactment of virtuality. The study explained how virtuality influences the processes of performing ISD. Subthemes of the processes of performing ISD were identified resulting in the modification of the initial literature-derived sd-as-p model. Components that enhance the performing of ISD in a virtual context were found to be people, tools, processes, and virtual culture.

The current literature on e-government implementation in South Africa informs this research that there is no framework to guide the implementation of e-government for local municipalities. The public sector does not adopt models that are designed and developed for their context. SA as a developing nation still battles with the implementation of e-government for local government. The research findings in this research depict that the implementation of electronic services is complicated, stagnant, and incoherent due to various factors that hinder its swift implementation. The research commenced its pursuit to identify the factors that hinder the implementation of e-government through conducting four areas of investigations, firstly, the study investigated 205 existing municipal electronic portals to establish the extent to which eportal offers the relevant e-services to the citizens; secondly, the study conducted a research survey and a sample of 579 citizens gave their perspective about e-government services that they receive from local municipalities; thirdly, the study also evaluated the City of Cape Town electronic services to ascertain its adoption; and finally, the study conducted in-depth interviews with 35 e-government experts to understand the factors that hinder the implementation of e-government in SA. The study selected three social theoretical approaches, namely structuration, activity, and agency theories to address the different contexts of the research. Structuration theory has aided the research to ask critical questions about the social structures in local government that affect implementation. The activity theory was used to provide some guidelines to investigate how e-government activities are implemented within the identified social structure. Finally, the agency theory was used to develop a model to guide the implementation of a successful egovernment model by employing a deductive approach. Keywords: e-government, collaboration, citizens, agents, actors, implementation, structuration theory, activity theory, agency theory, and municipalities