Thesis (M.Com. (Business Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The aim of the study was to determine the relationships between determinants of mobile commerce adoption and the actual adoption of mobile commerce by Small and Medium Enterprises in Polokwane Municipality. The study utilised the quantitative research approach with 146 SME owner respondents from population of 261 owners using a random sampling technique. The questionnaire was developed from the empirical literature review. The determinants of m-commerce were represented by technological, organisational and environmental contextual factors. M-commerce was measured using 11 questions against all other contextual factor variables . Data was cleaned to enhance its fitness for further analysis. To attain this, normality, mean and standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis were performed. The data was found to be fit for the purpose of the study. Furthermore, the data was tested for validity and reliability and it satisfied the requirements. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. ANOVA was used to test for sub-hypotheses and to make a decision on whether to accept or reject the stated hypotheses based on the significance level. Regression analysis was used to test main hypotheses. ANOVA results showed that all technological factors (perceived benefits, perceived costs, perceived compatibility), organisational factors (technology readiness), environ mental factors (customer pressure, supplier pressure, competitor pressure) and technology acceptance model factors (perceived usefulness) significantly predicted m commerce adoption. On the other hand, factors such as gender, age, level of education and perceived ease of use were not significant predictors of m-commerce adoption. Based on the above results, SMEs should improve on their handling of determinants of m-commerce as they effectively influence the adoption of m-commerce. The government also needs to boost the SME sector by introducing several measures which can expose small businesses to enabling business environment.

This thesis looks to explore from a user-centered standpoint, which mobile application features are relevant in the social integration of new arrivals in Sweden. Mobiles are used by individuals who are moving away from home not only to stay connected to their close ones but also as a way for empowerment and adaption in their new homes. Access to information helps immigrants to face the new challenges new host societies present. Nowadays mobiles and more specifically smartphones are becoming the principal sources for new arrivals to obtain information. As mobiles become more common among immigration groups, governments and institutions are turning to them as new ways for addressing migration challenges such as integration. This thesis, through a participatory design study, explores possible mobile digital application features that could be relevant in the social integration of immigrants. The goal is to develop through a cooperative and co-design method a prototype of a mobile application that can fit better with the necessities of new arrivals and can also facilitate better ways for social integration. As a result, it could be determinate that features that provide users the ability to gather information from one source are the most important for immigrants. Additionally, users want to be able to have control over the information they are receiving according to what phase they are at the integration process. Also, digital features seem not to be enough and digital and offline cooperation are suggested. In the process, participants provided innovative ways on how integration challenges can be addressed.

The development of Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) as opposed to Native Applications (NAs) has experienced a significant shift in recent years in the mobile application market. PWAs are more and more common since they are affordable, simple to use, and cross-platform compatible. Even so, there is an ongoing discussion and lacking research about which application can deliver a better user experience, which is what this thesis aimed to research. This was accomplished by developing two identical applications, one PWA and one NA, and comparing them in terms of responsiveness. Responsiveness was quantified by measuring the complexity in terms of computational time for each functionality within each application. The applications were developed using the two React frameworks named React JS and React Native, for the PWA and NA, respectively. Thus, the main comparison was between these two frameworks, and not PWAs and NAs in general. The goal is to help developers decide which application out of the two is more suitable, depending on the possible functionalities that their application is considered to have. The functionalities that were chosen were all different but deemed to be relevant to the functionalities present in some of the largest mobile applications. Functionalities relevant to social media were chosen, such as image and tweet searching. Additional functionalities include geolocation and a word counter. The former was chosen for the prevalence of geolocation-based applications, while the latter was chosen as a means to compare the computational power of each application. The results showed that the PWA was considerably more capable when it came to executing the image search word counter, and tweet search functionality, as it was able to render and handle the data considerably faster than the NA. When it came to the geolocation functionality, however, the NA was the faster application. / Utvecklingen av Progressiva webbapplikationer (PWAs) jämfört med nativa applikationer (NAs) har genomgått en betydande förändring de senaste åren på mobilapplikationsmarknaden. PWAs blir allt vanligare eftersom de är prisvärda, enkla att använda och kompatibla över olika plattformar. Trots det pågår det en kontinuerlig diskussion och brist på forskning om vilken typ av applikation som kan leverera en bättre användarupplevelse, vilket är det forskningsämne som denna avhandling syftar till att undersöka. Detta åstadkoms genom att utveckla två identiska applikationer, en PWA och en NA, och jämföra dem med avseende på responsivitet. Responsivitet kvantifierades genom att mäta komplexiteten i form av beräkningstid för varje funktionalitet inom varje applikation. Applikationerna utvecklades med hjälp av de två React-ramverken React JS och React Native, för PWA respektive NA. Således var huvudjämförelsen mellan dessa två ramverk och inte generellt mellan PWAs och NAs. Målet är att hjälpa utvecklare att bestämma vilken av de två applikationerna som är mest lämplig, beroende på vilka funktionaliteter deras applikation förväntas ha. De valda funktionaliteterna var olika men ansågs vara relevanta för funktionaliteterna i några av de största mobilapplikationerna. Funktionaliteter relaterade till sociala medier valdes, såsom bild- och tweetsökning. Ytterligare funktionaliteter inkluderar geolokalisering och en ordräknare. Den förstnämnda valdes på grund av utbredningen av geolokaliseringsbaserade applikationer, medan den senare valdes som ett sätt att jämföra beräkningskraften hos varje applikation. Resultaten visade att PWA var betydligt mer kapabel när det gällde att utföra bildsökning, ordräknare och tweetsökning, eftersom den kunde rendera och hantera data betydligt snabbare än NA. När det kom till geolokalisering var dock NA den snabbare applikationen.

The purpose of this study was to understand boaters’ adoption and usage of smartphones and mobile apps as well as to obtain their opinion on potential features of a targeted mobile app being developed as part of a broader interdisciplinary Florida Sea Grant outreach project. Data were gathered from an online survey of a sample of 164 boaters from the surrounding Central Florida area. In contrast with previous empirical mobile app studies, many respondents reported using mobile apps for information-seeking versus escape gratifications. Further more than half of the respondents’ age sixty-five and over indicated using smartphones and mobile apps. These findings reflected recent national trend data showing shifting gratifications and an increase in technology use among older American adults. In regards to the planned mobile app, the study’s respondents had favorable reactions to its potential features and indicated an above average intent toward downloading the app

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Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-10-04T11:04:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Gastão de Freitas Neto.pdf: 11817033 bytes, checksum: 2185f8eeb7a6e75715d983ba1621b228 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-04T11:04:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gastão de Freitas Neto.pdf: 11817033 bytes, checksum: 2185f8eeb7a6e75715d983ba1621b228 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / That the elderly people aim to be up to date with the handling of smartphones and tablets is nothing new. Especially those who return to the University, and who are aware, even if it’s by their fellow students, of the advantages of using, for example, applications that enable everything from exercising the mind with games, such as a crossword application, to facilitate everyday activities, How to locate addresses, call a taxi, get a movie / theater ticket, pay a bill, make national and international calls at no cost. After all, as it has been asserted that humans have always subjected to multiple "devices" in the Agambian sense, why would the simple condition of age alter the competence of the elderly or prevent new skills in dealing with mobile devices, that is, with mobile-portable technologies of smartphones and Tablets. In this direction, this masters research in qualitative approach, invests in gerontological reflections of interdisciplinary character and social focus, that ground professional practices of this researcher in the field of the new technologies with the elderly. And under the especially Agambian theoretical-methodological orientation, among other theorists of aging and the field of digital technologies, and based on the researcher's participant observation (including with field journal records) on the advancement of the elderly, oriented towards the acquisition of Hands-on smartphone and tablet handling skills. It is a study involving thirty elderly people, thus, the research is at the interface between the area of aging and the new mobile technologies. The aim is to offer a practice of learning to the elderly, who can, using some strategies or facilitating techniques - including consolidated in the Online Tutorial created by this researcher - to exercise digital technologies such as the use of applications in their smartphones, or mobiles, and tablets, that facilitate their daily activities, with timely gain of efforts, time, and costs, besides bringing them subjective benefits, for a better quality of life. Examples in this sense are the evidence that the simple age standard does not prevent the elderly from gaining skills in the efficient handling of their mobiles, thus refuting any prejudicial, generalizing and discriminatory allegation, as a consequence, of not updating the elderly in the face of technological innovations. This leaves us to say that the elderly can become proficient in the use of their mobile applications, including the exchange of facilitating media experiences to the daily activities among their fellow students, to the point of talking about it with grandchildren and children, reinforcing Intergenerational relations / Que as pessoas idosas almejem estar em dia com o manejo de smartphones e tablets não é novidade. Especialmente aquelas que voltam à Universidade, e que ficam a par, até pelos próprios colegas de curso, das vantagens de usar, por exemplo, aplicativos que possibilitem desde exercitar a mente com jogos, como um aplicativo com palavra-cruzada, até facilitar atividades corriqueiras como localizar endereços, chamar um táxi, adquirir um ingresso de cinema/teatro, pagar uma conta bancária, fazer ligações nacionais e internacionais sem custos. Afinal, assujeitados que sempre estiveram os seres humanos a múltiplos “dispositivos” no sentido agambiano, por que a simples condição etária alteraria a competência dos idosos ou lhes impediria novas habilidades para lidar com dispositivos mobiles, ou seja, com tecnologias móveis-portáteis dos smartphones e tablets? Nessa direção, esta pesquisa de mestrado em abordagem qualitativa, investe em reflexões gerontológicas de caráter interdisciplinar e foco social, que fundamentam práticas profissionais deste pesquisador no campo das novas tecnologias com idosos. E sob a orientação teórico-metodológica especialmente agambiana, dentre outros teóricos do envelhecimento e do campo das tecnologias digitais, e a partir da observaçãoparticipante do pesquisador (inclusive com registros em diário de Campo) sobre o avanço dos idosos, orientados para aquisição de habilidades práticas de manuseio do smartphone e tablet. Trata-se de estudo envolvendo trinta idosos, situando-se, pois, a pesquisa na interface entre a área do envelhecimento e das novas tecnologias mobile. Objetiva-se oferecer uma prática de aprendizagem às pessoas idosas, que podem, a partir de algumas estratégias ou técnicas facilitadoras – inclusive consolidadas em Tutorial on-line criado por este pesquisador -, valerem-se das tecnologias digitais, como o uso de aplicativos em seus smartphones, ou celulares, e tablets, que facilitam suas atividades cotidianas, com oportuno ganho de esforços, tempo, e custos, além de lhes trazer benefícios de ordem subjetiva, para uma melhor qualidade de vida. Exemplares nesse sentido são as evidências de que o simples critério etário não impede que idosos ganhem habilidades de manuseio eficiente de seus mobiles, refutando-se, assim, qualquer alegação preconceituosa, generalizante e discriminadora por consequência, de não atualização dos idosos diante das inovações tecnológicas. Isso nos licencia a dizer que idosos podem tornar-se exímios no uso de seus aplicativos mobiles, inclusive com a troca de experiências midiáticas facilitadoras às atividades do cotidiano entre os próprios colegas de estudos, a ponto de dialogarem a respeito com netos e filhos, reforçando-se, desse modo, as relações intergeracionais

O imediatismo relacionado a troca de informações é uma realidade enfrentada pela população dos tempos modernos e o uso de sistemas de mensagens instantâneas móveis (MIM) é indispensável para que a comunicação aconteça da forma esperada. Atualmente a maioria da população mundial utiliza de sistemas MIM como meio de comunicação rápida e muitas vezes gratuita, com a finalidade de auxiliar a comunicação no ambiente de trabalho, troca de informações gerais e também como um meio de entretenimento. Devido a sua importância e eficácia é que diversas pesquisas buscam entender os fatores que determinam a adoção e o uso desses sistemas. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo avaliar por meio da percepção de estudantes do ensino superior, os fatores que afetam o uso dos serviços de mensagens instantâneas móveis. Para alcançar este objetivo, foi realizada uma pesquisa survey com 1.386 estudantes de quatro instituições de ensino superior. Após a coleta foi realizada a modelagem das equações estruturais com o uso do software SmartPLS 2.0 para o cálculo dos mínimos quadrados parciais (Partial Least Squares - PLS), além do uso do Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) para a análise descritiva dos dados. Esta pesquisa obteve como resultado que o construto Qualidade do serviço influencia positivamente na Confirmação, bem como a Confirmação tem relação positiva com a Utilidade percebida, Prazer percebido, Interface do usuário e Segurança percebida. Prazer percebido e Interface do usuário tem relação positiva com a Satisfação e as relações entre Satisfação, Utilidade percebida e Prazer percebido influenciam positivamente na Intenção de continuidade de uso do sistema WhatsApp. Identificou-se que, no contexto desta pesquisa, o prazer e a satisfação atuam como fatores que influenciam diretamente na intenção de continuidade de uso do sistema WhatsApp, seguidos pela Utilidade, o que faz o uso deste sistema ser mais intuitivo do que prático. / Immediacy related to the exchange of information is a reality faced by the population of modern times and the use of mobile instant messaging (MIM) is indispensable for the communication to happen as expected. Today the majority of the world's population uses MIM systems as a fast and often free medium for the purpose of helping communication in the workplace, exchange of general information and also as a means of entertainment. Due to its importance and effectiveness, several studies seek to understand the factors that determine the adoption and use of these systems. This research aims to evaluate, through the perception of students of higher education, the factors that affect the use of mobile instant messaging services. To achieve this goal, a survey was conducted with 1,386 students from four higher education institutions. After the collection, the modeling of the structural equations was performed using the SmartPLS 2.0 software for the calculation of the partial least squares (PLS), besides the use of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for the descriptive analysis of the data. This research has as a result that the Quality of Service construct positively influences Confirmation, as well as Confirmation has positive relation with Perceived Utility, Perceived Pleasure, User Interface and Perceived Security. Perceived pleasure and user interface has a positive relationship with satisfaction and the relationship between satisfaction, perceived utility and perceived enjoyment positively influences the intention to use the WhatsApp system. It was identified that, in the context of this research, pleasure and satisfaction act as factors that directly influence the intention to use WhatsApp system, followed by Utility, which makes the use of this system more intuitive than practical.

Historically, progress in technology development has continually created new opportunities for criminal activities which, in turn, have triggered the need for the development of new security-sensitive systems. Organisations are now adopting mobile technologies for numerous applications to capitalise on the mobile revolution. They are now able to increase their operational efficiency as well as responsiveness and competitiveness and, most importantly, can now meet new, growing customers’ demands. However, although mobile technologies and applications present many new opportunities, they also present challenges. Threats to mobile phone applications are always on the rise and, therefore, compel organisations to invest money and time, among other technical controls, in an attempt to protect them from incurring losses. The computerisation of core activities (such as mobile banking in the banking industry, for example) has effectively exposed organisations to a host of complex fraud challenges that they have to deal with in addition to their core business of providing services to their end consumers. Fraudsters are able to use mobile devices to remotely access enterprise applications and subsequently perform fraudulent transactions. When this occurs, it is important to effectively investigate and manage the cause and findings, as well as to prevent any future similar attacks. Unfortunately, clients and consumers of these organisations are often ignorant of the risks to their assets and the consequences of the compromises that might occur. Organisations are therefore obliged, at least, to put in place measures that will not only minimise fraud but also be capable of detecting and preventing further similar incidents. The goal of this research was to develop a unified fraud management and digital forensic framework to improve the security of Information Technology (IT) processes and operations in organisations that make available mobile phone applications to their clients for business purposes. The research was motivated not only by the increasing reliance of organisations on mobile applications to service their customers but also by the fact that digital forensics and fraud management are often considered to be separate entities at an organisational level. This study proposes a unified approach to fraud management and digital forensic analysis to simultaneously manage and investigate fraud that occurs through the use of mobile phone applications. The unified Fraud Management and Digital Forensic (FMDF) framework is designed to (a) determine the suspicious degree of fraudulent transactions and (b) at the same time, to feed into a process that facilitates the investigation of incidents. A survey was conducted with subject matter experts in the banking environment. Data was generated through a participatory self-administered online questionnaire. Collected data was then presented, analysed and interpreted quantitatively and qualitatively. The study found that there was a general understanding of the common fraud management methodologies and approaches throughout the banking industry and the use thereof. However, while many of the respondents indicated that fraud detection was an integral part of their processes, they take a rather reactive approach when it comes to fraud management and digital forensics. Part of the reason for the reactive approach is that many investigations are conducted in silos, with no central knowledge repository where previous cases can be retrieved for comparative purposes. Therefore, confidentiality, integrity and availability of data are critical for continued business operations. To mitigate the pending risks, the study proposed a new way of thinking that combines both components of fraud management and digital forensics for an optimised approach to managing security in mobile applications. The research concluded that the unified FMDF approach was considered to be helpful and valuable to professionals who participated in the survey. Although the case study focused on the banking industry, the study appears to be instrumental in informing other types of organisations that make available the use of mobile applications for their clients in fraud risk awareness and risk management in general. / Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)

行動應用程式是當今最受歡迎和最主要的軟體應用程式，因此應用程式的實際行為以及相關的安全和隱私問題變得越來越重要。另一方面，隨著時間的推移，AppStore上有越來越多的應用程式已經停止更新或停止服務，但沒有從AppStore中刪除。然而，用戶對於缺少維護問題一無所知，仍然下載並使用它。在本研究中，我們將解決在應用程式中檢查特定屬性方法序列的問題。通過使用IDApro生成Function call dependency graph和Subroutine control flow graph，我們使用語法分析方式來進行跨子程式的序列檢查方案。我們將通過預先定義屬性的方法序列作為模型來檢查應用程式行為。這個分析方法可以說明在App Store中可用的應用程式中是否存在屬性方法序列。有助於我們在應用程式中檢查一些惡意行為屬性方法序列或特定行為方法序列（例如使用不推薦的api方法）。 我們的網絡爬蟲從官方文件中摘取了的所有可用的iOS SDK方法，並從中提取做為我們的模型序列。我們將檢查應用程式是否包含所準備的模型序列。如果應用程式中存在該序列，我們將在應用程式中記錄子程式中包含的方法序列調用。然後將結果數據匯總到我們的數據庫中，並將結果視覺化、數據化，並建立系統的的API服務。最後，我們構建了一個使用上述檢查功能所識做的的分析系統，並以Web服務形式顯示結果。 / Mobile application is the most popular and dominant software applications nowadays, so the actual behaviors of the application and the related security and privacy issues become more and more important. On the other hand, as time goes by, there are more and more applications on the AppStore stop to update or being abandoned but not removed from AppStore. However, the users know nothing about the lack of maintenance problems and still download and use it. In this research, we will resolve the issue for checking specific property method sequence within an application. By using IDApro to generate function call graph and the subroutine control flow graphs, we use syntax checking strategy to perform a across subroutines sequential checking solution. We will check the application behavior by predefining a property method sequence as pattern and then check with applications’. The analysis method can illustrate whether a property method sequence exists in the application which is available on App Store. This may help us to check some malicious behavior property method sequence or specific behavior method sequence (ex. using deprecated api methods) in the applications. We have prepared some property method sequence as our system input pattern extracted from all the available iOS SDK methods fetching by our web crawler. We will check whether an application contains the prepared method sequence or not. If the sequence exists in the application, we would record the method sequence call included in the subroutine within the application. Then the results data will be aggregated in our database, and export as api service for visualizing and statistic uses. Finally, we construct a call sequence analysis system for the above checking functions and show the result in a web service form

Objetivo: Adaptar culturalmente y reportar evidencia de validez de contenido del cuestionario de usabilidad mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) de aplicaciones interactivas al idioma español en proveedores de atención médica. Materiales y Métodos: Estudio de diseño transversal e instrumental que busca analizar las propiedades psicométricas sobre las evidencias de validez y fiabilidad de instrumentos de medida, además de estar encaminados en procesos de adaptación, en el cual se evaluó el cuestionario en base a las categorías Coherencia, Relevancia, Claridad y Suficiencia. También se evaluó la redacción y la equivalencia semántica del nuevo instrumento con el original. Se calculó el V de Aiken por pregunta en las categorías Coherencia, Relevancia y Claridad con un intervalo de confianza (IC) al 95%. Se consideró aceptable un IC como límite inferior mayor o igual a 0.70. Se aplicó una prueba piloto en 30 médicos usuarios de aplicaciones interactivas para medir el coeficiente Alfa de Cronbach. La evaluación de la categoría Suficiencia, se dio por el grupo de ítems que conforman la dimensión a valorar, y no por ítem, dado que se evalúa si son suficientes o no para ello. Resultados: Todos los resultados obtenidos para los ítems tuvieron un V de Aiken con IC al 95% mayor a 0.70. El promedio de edad de los participantes fue 32.1 (DE = 4.61) y 17 (56.7%) eran de sexo masculino. En la traducción directa, las diferencias más resaltantes fueron los términos “involved”, “recover” y “manage”, los cuales fueron traducidos como “dedicado”, “corregí” y “manejar” respectivamente. Además, en el proceso de traducción inversa se pudo observar diferencias semánticas en la retraducción de los términos “deliver” y “acknowledged” originales del cuestionario. Para la fiabilidad, la primera dimensión (Facilidad de uso y satisfacción) tuvo un α= 0.90, la segunda dimensión (Estructura de la información del sistema) tuvo un α= 0.87 y la tercera dimensión (Utilidad) tuvo un α= 0.92. Todos los valores de Alfa fueron superiores a 0.70. Conclusión: A partir del desarrollo de este estudio se contará con una herramienta adaptada culturalmente y con evidencia de validez de contenido. Dicha herramienta contribuirá a medir la usabilidad de aplicaciones por parte de médicos. / Objective: To culturally adapt and report evidence of content validation of the mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) of interactive applications in the Spanish version among health care providers. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional and instrumental design study that seeks to analyze the psychometric properties on the evidence of validity and reliability of measurement instruments in addition to being directed towards adaptation processes, in which the questionnaire was evaluated based on the characteristics of Coherence, Relevance, Clarity, and Sufficiency. Besides, we also evaluated the new instrument's wording and semantic equivalence compared to the original document. The Aiken’s V was calculated per question for the characteristics of Coherence, Relevance, and Clarity, and the confidence interval (CI) was 95%. The minimum acceptable standard for CI was 0.70. A pilot test was administered among 30 doctors who were users of interactive applications to measure the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Regarding the characteristic of Sufficiency, validation was not conducted per item, but per item sections that made up the dimension to be evaluated, since we assess whether they are sufficient to do so or not. Results: All the results obtained for the items showed Aiken's V with CI of 95% higher than 0.70. The participants’ average age was 32.1 (SD = 4.61) and 17 (56.7%) were male. When translating from English into Spanish, the most relevant differences were the terms “involved”, “recover”, and “manage”, since they were translated as dedicado (devoted), corregir (correct), and manejar (handle), respectively. Furthermore, when translating from Spanish into English, we observed semantic differences in the back-translation process of the terms “deliver” and “acknowledged” on the original questionnaire. Regarding reliability, the first dimension (ease of use and satisfaction) achieved α= 0.90, the second dimension (system information arrangement) achieved α= 0.87, and the third dimension (usefulness) achieved α= 0.92. All alpha values were higher than 0.70. Conclusion: Based on the development of this research study, we will have an instrument that is culturally adapted and shows evidence of content validation. This instrument will allow us to measure the usability of applications among doctors. / Tesis