Yes / By employing an extended social cognitive theory, this study examines factors (such as outcome expectation, affect, anxiety, self-efficacy and social influence) influencing intention to adopt an electronic government system called online public grievance redressal system (OPGRS) in context of India. The extended social cognitive theory (SCT) was validated using 419 responses collected from eight selected cities in India. The empirical outcomes of the proposed model indicated the significant relationships of seven hypothesised relationships between six constructs. This is the first study, which has used the SCT model to understand the adoption of an e-government system. The policy implication provided in this research can help the government to improve upon the effectiveness and quality of the system and the level of social impact on the users by employing the project champions. It also helps in enhancing their positive feelings toward adopting this system and fully utilise the potential of the OPGRS as a useful tool toward a transparent and corruption free society.

Yes / Banks seem to be one of the most business that are really interested in such systems to provide their customers better services as well as to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency. However, the successful implementation of Mobile banking largely depends on the extent of how much customers are fully motivated to adopt it. In fact, over the Jordanian context, the adoption rate of mobile banking is very low and quite few studies that have examined the related issues of mobile banking. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing behavioural intention and adoption of Mobile banking by customers of Jordanian banks. The proposed model has assimilated factors from the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) along with trust. Data was collected by conducting a field survey questionnaire completed by 343 participants. The results mainly showed that behavioural intention is significantly and positively influenced by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, price value and trust. This study also looking forward to providing the Jordanian banks with applicable guidelines for effectively implementing and designing Mobile banking. Furthermore, research limitations and future directions will be discussed further in the last section.

Yes / The purpose of this paper is to propose and examine a conceptual model that best explains the key factors influencing Jordanian customers' intention to adopt mobile banking (MB). Design/methodology/approach – The proposed conceptual model was based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This was extended by adding perceived risk and self-efficacy as an external factors. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted to analyse the data collected from the field survey questionnaires administered to a convenience sample of Jordanian banking customers. Findings – The results showed that behavioural intention is significantly influenced by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived risk. Research limitations/implications – Practical and theoretical implications for both Jordanian banks and researchers in the MB context are also discussed in the concluding section. Originality/value – MB-related issues are yet to be examined empirically in the Jordanian context. This submission has attempted to fill this gap by empirically examining some of the important factors influencing the adoption of MB from the Jordanian customers’ perspective.

Yes / As more and more institutions are integrating new technologies (e.g., audience response systems such as clickers) into their teaching and learning systems, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have a detailed understanding of the underlying mechanisms of these advanced technologies and their outcomes on student learning perceptions. We proposed a conceptual model based on the technology acceptance model to understand students’ use behavior and satisfaction with clickers. The valid response from 138 second-year business students of Digital Marketing module taught in a British university, where clickers are extensively used in the teaching and learning process, made the basis for data analysis. The results provided a strong support for the proposed model with a reasonably adequate variance (i.e., adjusted R2) of 67% on behavioral intentions and sufficiently high variance on use behavior (i.e., 86%) and user satisfaction (i.e., 89%).

No / The study explores the adoption of an electronic government (e-government) system called online PAN card registration system (OPCRS) in context of India. The study validates the extended theory of reasoned action (TRA) to understand the impact of some of its factors on the citizen's intention to adopt this system. The proposed research model is extended with the variables including perceived usefulness, perceived trust, and self-efficacy as antecedents of attitude and subjective norm, which are the core constructs of the TRA. The eight hypotheses were formulated between six constructs of the proposed extended TRA. The proposed research model is validated using the usable sample of data gathered from 377 respondents. The data was analysed using AMOS 22.0. The empirical findings of the proposed research model indicated the significant relationships of all proposed hypotheses. The study also provides its limitations, future research directions, and implications for theory and practice toward the end.

Improper pesticide use on crops causes adverse effects on humans, livestock, crops and the environment. Integrated pest management practices emphasize minimal use of pesticides in controlling pests, and their adoption by farmers can reduce the use of pesticides and their adverse impacts. The introduction of IPM CRSP activities in Uganda to institutionalize IPM methods focused on priority crops in the country. This study analyzed adoption of eight IPM technologies on cowpea, sorghum and groundnuts. Low levels of adoption (<25%) were found with five of these technologies while three technologies had high adoption levels (>75%). Results indicate that farmers' participation in on-farm trial demonstrations, accessing agricultural knowledge through researchers, and prior participation in pest training were associated with increased adoption of most IPM practices. Size of farmer's land holdings did not affect IPM adoption suggesting that IPM technologies are mostly scale neutral, implying that IPM dissemination may take place regardless of farmer's scale of operation. Farmers' perception of harmful effects of chemicals did not influence farmers' decisions in regard to IPM technology adoption despite their high knowledge of this issue, suggesting that these farmers did not consider environmental and health impacts important factors when choosing farming practices. Farmers' managerial capabilities were not important in explaining cowpea IPM technology adoption. / Master of Science

The importance of family is widespread, both in society in general and within social work specifically. This essay focuses on the construction of family in the guidelines concerning adoption that the Board of health and welfare issue. The aim of this study is to identify and uncover dominant discourses concerning family in the guidelines. To do this we have used a form of Critical Discourse Analysis, influenced by Norman Faircloughs three-dimensional analytical model. Our major findings were, among others, that different kinds of family practices are excluded from the idea of what a family is. This process of exclusion is done through two different sets of discourses; discourses of sameness and discourses of difference. Discourses of sameness is concerned with including the adoptive family in the norm of the “ideal” family, but without really changing the idea of what a family can be. This leaves the traditional idea of family to remain unchallenged in the guidelines. Discourses of differences is concerned with the construction of the adoptive family as different than the idea of the “ideal” family. The consequences of this is that the construction of the “good” family excludes family practises that defy the traditional “ideal” family.

The study explored the narratives of three adoptive couples. The participants were selected using criterion based convenience and snowball sampling. The adoptive couples’ data was captured through written narratives and/or individual or joint semi-structured interviews. The data was then analysed by means of thematic analysis conducted from the perspective of second order cybernetics. The results note the participants’ experiences of their infertility threatened their functioning as a couple. However, this threat to the couples’ functioning was limited by the adoptions through two means. First, the adoptions limited the couples’ communication about their infertility. Second, the adoptions allowed the couples to continue functioning as a couple dedicated to the goal of becoming parents. Differences between the participant couples’ experiences surrounded their interactions with social workers; their selection of support structures; their interaction with external systems; as well as their anxiety towards the individuation of the adopted child. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Bakgrund Hotellbranschen står inför utmaningar vad gäller att möta gästens ständigt förändrade förväntningar. För att ligga i framkant i gästerbjudandet satsas mer än någonsin på investeringar i teknologi där implementering av SST är en strategi för att överleva. Detta förändrar gästens roll i servicemötet vilket skapar en osäkerhet angående adoption av SST. Syfte Studiens syfte är att från ett kundperspektiv skapa en djupare förståelse för adoption av självserviceteknologi (SST) genom att identifiera och förstå faktorer som triggar en hotellgästs inställning och användande av SST vid incheckning. Genomförande Med avstamp i en litteraturgenomgång genomfördes en förstudie i form av ostrukturerade intervjuer med hotellgäster i syfte att identifiera triggers. Utifrån förstudien och litteraturgenomgången skapades sedan en enkät som analyserades kvantitativt i programmet SPSS för att med stöd av kvalitativa delar från förstudien besvara studiens forskningsfrågor. Slutsats Hotellgästen har generellt en god inställning till SST vid incheckning vilket förklaras mycket av SSTs förmåga att minska kö och väntan. Gästens behov av mänsklig interaktion har dock visat sig hämma adoptionen. SST vid incheckning anses vara en naturlig utveckling men behovet av interaktion tyder på att gästen inte är riktigt redo för hur teknologins framfart förändrar roller och manus i servicemötet. Istället kan interaktion ske utanför incheckningsmomentet, så länge personal finns tillgänglig på gästens villkor finns goda förutsättningar att öka gästens inställning och därmed användande av SST. / Background The hotel business is facing great challenges meeting the guest’s constantly pivoted expectations. In order to maintain the guest offering attractive, hotels are investing more than ever in technology with SST as a strategy of survival. This changes the customers’ role which makes the customer adoption doubtful. Purpose  The purpose of this study is to create a deeper knowledge for adoption of SST from a customer perspective. This by identify and understand triggers of a hotel guest’s attitude and intention to use SST at the check in. Completion  With support from a literature review, a pre-study in form of unstructured interviews with hotel guests took place in order to identify triggers. With the pre-study and literature review in mind a survey was carried out and later analysed using the software SPSS. The quantitative analysis was supported by qualitative results from the pre-study in order to fulfil the purpose. Conclusion  The hotel guest has in general a good attitude to SST at the check in which is shown to by a large extent be explained by the ability to reduce queue and waiting time. Thus is the guest’s need for interaction a hinder for adoption. SST at the check in is more or less seen as a natural service progress, but the need for interaction implies that the guest is not quite ready for how technology is changing role and script. Instead interaction can take place separated from the check in - as long as personnel is available for interaction on the guest’s own terms there are good chances to increase their attitude and thereby usage of SST.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.