Concerns over Information Technology security, including theft, fraud and abuse have forced organizations to take a cautious approach to Electronic Commerce. This research study suggests that organizations can keep secure their resources by implementing an effective and accurate identification system, which will enable them to provide a better service to their customers and to prevent individuals from misrepresenting themselves to the organization. Various means of identification are available, but the key focus should be to establish accurate identity. The research study addresses biometric identification methods as a means of improving the security of on-line transactions. The specific focus is an investigation of user perceptions with regard to biometric identification methods. The research study, through a theoretical understanding of the concepts found within the research problem statement, compiles a Technology Adoption Model for understanding why individuals accept or reject Information Technology innovations, which has proved to be one of the most challenging issues in Information Technology research. The exploratory field study section of the research study makes use of interpretive research as a basis to identify various themes related to user perceptions of biometrics. The themes identified are discussed during a focus group session with research participants. The main focus of the exploratory field study section is on user perceptions related to biometric identification methods and to enhance the Technology Adoption Model compiled by gathering user perceptions regarding the Internet, Electronic Business, biometrics and user adoption via a questionnaire to provide a possible solution for the research study problem statement. From the exploratory field study, it was concluded that user perceptions will play a role with regard to identification through biometrics within Electronic Business and that the social factors trust, security, and privacy considerations will also have to be taken into account. / Dissertation (MCom Informatics)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Informatics / unrestricted

Policymakers in the United States and elsewhere have recognized that a broad and competitive manufacturing sector is crucial to a robust economy and that to remain competitive, a nation must invent and master new ways of making things. Moving technologies from laboratory to commercial success poses considerable challenges however. If the technology is radically new, this transition can be so risky and investment-heavy that only very large private firms can attempt it. One such new technology is metal additive manufacturing (MAM). MAM provides a vivid illustration of the tensions policymakers must resolve in simultaneously supporting the commercialization of early-stage innovations of strategic national interest, while fulfilling the government’s duty to ensure human health and safety. After an initial chapter with a general overview of additive manufacturing technologies, this dissertation explores these tensions from the perspective of two very different industrial contexts: the U.S. as a technology leader and trailblazer in the development of the technology, and Portugal as a technology follower with severely constrained resources. In the first case study, I use the extreme case of MAM (an emerging technology with many sources of process uncertainty) in commercial aviation (an industry where lapses in safety can have catastrophic consequences) to unpack how the characteristics of a technology may influence the options for regulatory intervention. Although my work focuses on the U.S. and the Federal Aviation Administration’s regulation, I expect this work to have an international scope, given that in most countries regulation is heavily influenced by, if not an exact copy of, the U.S. regulation. Based on my findings, I propose an adaptive regulatory framework in which standards are periodically revised and in which different groups of companies are regulated differently as a function of their technological capabilities. I conclude by proposing a generalizable framework for regulating emerging process-based technologies in safety-critical industries in which the optimal regulatory configuration depends on the industry structure (number of firms), the performance and safety requirements, and the sources of technological uncertainty. In the second case study, I analyze the adoption of polymer (PAM) and metal (MAM) additive manufacturing technologies in the Portuguese molds industry, both of which offer important benefits to their products. Leveraging archival data (related to the history of Portuguese institutions, and the development of additive manufacturing both globally and in Portugal), insights from 45 interviews across academia, industry, and government; and 75 hours of participant observations, we develop insights about why institutional instability affected the adoption of Polymer Additive Manufacturing (PAM) and Metal Additive Manufacturing (MAM) differently. In both cases, Portugal invested in the technology relatively early, and in the case of PAM the research community has been able to move towards high-tech applications. In contrast, the adoption of MAM has been modest despite its potential to greatly improve the performance and competitiveness of metal molds. From the comparison between PAM and MAM, we generate theory about which technological and contextual factors affect their ‘technological forgiveness’, defined as the resiliency of a new technology’s adoption to institutional instability. We conclude by proposing a generalizable framework for ‘forgiveness’ in different industrial contexts. The final chapter of this dissertation contains practical recommendations for regulators and managers interested in adopting the technology. Policymakers in the aviation industry may want to encourage the creation of programs to gather more flight experience with MAM parts. Small aircraft and other applications with higher risk tolerance than commercial aviation might represent more important channels to gather information, as the history of composite materials suggests. More importantly, regulators may need to introduce clauses in their rules to regulate MAM to avoid situations of ‘regulatory lock-in’ which could harm the long-term potential of the technology. Despite the potential of additive manufacturing, we believe that near-term expectations for it are overblown. In general, additive manufacturing holds great promise, but in many areas the cart has gotten ahead of the horse. Much of the technology is still under development. The history of comparable technologies such as composite materials and high-performance castings shows that the problems may take decades to resolve. For now, additive manufacturing is cost-competitive only in niche applications — for instance, those involving plastics. Businesses that want to plunge into additive manufacturing should be cognizant of the challenges. Determining whether it makes sense to invest in additive manufacturing will require experimentation and learning.

This research examines the integration of electronic book (e-book) technology within an academic library. The University of Ottawa library is explored as a qualitative case study. The perceptions of use and communication pertaining to e-book adoption from the perspectives of students, faculty members, and librarians are combined with other documentation to provide a comprehensive examination of the case. Rogers (1962; 2003) Diffusion of Innovations provides the theoretical framework to guide the study and structure its analysis. Main findings revealed the following: (1) participants preferred print books, (2) inadequate communication occurred between students, faculty members, and librarians, and (3) information literacy training initiatives were insufficiently standardized. This study contributes to communication research by examining adoption of e-book technology and the spread of ideas within a social environment. It also furthers Diffusion of Innovations by confirming that even when individuals acknowledge advantages of a communication technology, it is not necessarily adopted.

A popular school of thought in the study of publishing, exemplified by the influential Long Tail theory, suggests that the economic advantages of e-books will lead to a boom in self-publishing. However, this position focuses on economic factors at the expense of other potential influences. This thesis applied Azjen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour to explore which factors have the most influence on authors' decision to self-publish e-books, and, conversely, which factors influence others' decision not to. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 authors in the Ottawa area who have self-published or who are considering doing so in the near future. We discovered that there is significant resistance to e-books as a format for self-publishing, and that normative factors such as a lack of prestige and different promotional requirements were particularly influential. While e-books were seen to reduce economic risk, they were believed to be a less prestigious format, and so to represent an elevated risk to what Bourdieu called symbolic-capital. Some authors were also resistant because they felt unable to promote e-books in the way they are expected to. However, most said they would be willing to abandon their resistance if they perceived sufficient demand from their audience. These results open up paths for future study, including more focused examinations of the resistance factors that emerged; more longitudinal studies to see how authors' opinions change over time, particularly those of the non-adopters; and a further examination of the digital skills developed by adopters.

No description available.

Agile software development methods, characterized by delivering customer value via incremental and iterative time-boxed development processes, have moved into the mainstream of the Information Technology (IT) industry. However, despite a growing body of research which suggests that a predictive manufacturing approach, with big up-front specifications, detailed estimates, and speculative plans applicable to manufacturing domains, is the wrong paradigm for software development, many IT organizations are still hesitant to adopt agile approaches (Larman, 2004). This study extends research based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003) into the domain of business processes. Specifically, processes related to the `behavioral intent' to adopt agile software development methods. Further, it investigated relationships between adoption and the impact on project performance attributes. A sample was obtained from a population of IT practitioners from within the IT industry. The sampling frame consisted of members from the global Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) chapters, Agile User Groups, and I.T. industry conference promoters and presenters. Independent variables included performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions, with the dependant variable being behavioral intent to adopt agile software development methods. The independent variable of agile software development adoption and dependent variables of project performance were also included as well as predictive models relating adoption to on-time delivery of project functionality and stakeholder satisfaction. The variables in the study were measured via a 65-item questionnaire based on previous scales, and tested to ensure validity and reliability. The research questions were developed to identify correlations between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and the behavioral intent to adopt agile software development methods. Additional questions measured the correlation between adoption and key project performance attributes. The research found positive correlations between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and behavioral intent to adopt agile software development methods, positive correlations between adoption and on-time delivery of project functionality and stakeholder satisfaction, and weak positive correlations with post delivery defects and project success rates.

The development of e-commerce relies upon consumer usage intentions, and Information Systems (IS) researchers have examined usage intentions toward various online e-commerce systems. However, these systems have been studied in prior works independently rather than comprehensively. In order to pursue better measures for predicting and explaining Business to Customer (B2C) e-finance and some other major e-commerce adoptions for consumers, a comparison analysis across three different online systems (online shopping, online banking and online payment) was conducted to advance the understanding of the adoption factors and their linkage to consumer behavior. Refining from Perceived Risk Theory and existing studies, specific risk facets, consumer characteristics and system characteristics were operationalized and integrated within the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) resulting in a proposed e-finance and other e-commerce system adoption model. A survey instrument was developed based on exploratory qualitative inquiry and quantitative assessment and was used to assess the influence of different risk and utility facets on the attitude towards e-commerce adoption. Results of this empirical study showed that the relationships between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and intention of use were positively and significant towards all three online systems, while perceived risk had a negative impact on the adoption of online shopping and online payment only, which could result from the relative high risk perception towards the two systems. The results provide support of extended TAM model which integrates perceived risk and additional system-specific features and user-specific demographic factors in predicting a consumer's intention of adoption of online systems. Implications for both the academic and practitioner communities were discussed.

Mobile money is gaining momentum in emerging markets as the solution to bank those who were previously unbanked. The number of people in Africa who have mobile phones is 644 million subscribers and has for a long time exceeded those who have bank accounts and access to formal financial services (Cobert, Helms,&Parker, 2012). About 2.5 billion adults, just over half of world’s adult population, do not use formal financial services to save or borrow, of this number 2.2 billion of these unserved adults live in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East (Chaia et al., 2009). This study sought to explore factors that will determine adoption of mobile money by adapting Venkatesh, Thong and Xu’s (2012) Unified Theory of Acceptance and Technology Use (UTAUT 2) research model to assess the drivers of behavioural intention. The model was extended by incorporating two additional constructs; trust and infrastructure reliability, which have been excluded in previous studies that have been done in developed countries. Further to this, the findings of this study will make a significant contribution to Information Systems (IS) research by identifying factors that influence technology adoption in a developing market context.This main aim of this quantitative research was to empirically discover the deeper motivations that affect the consumer behavioural intention and usage behaviour to use mobile money in Malawi. The value of this paper lies in the use of interviews to unveil new determinants of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Technology use in the adoption of mobile money in a developing market that influence behavioural intention and usage behaviour. The seven factors examined in this study are performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), price value (PV), infrastructure reliability (IR), and trust (T) moderated by gender and age impact on technology adoption. The study sample consists of 508 respondents with a response rate of 84%.The findings indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, trust, and price value were positively associated with consumer behavioural intention to use mobile money in Malawi. In addition, infrastructure reliability and social influence were found to have an insignificant effect on consumer behavioural intention to use mobile money.The research adds value on existing studies on technology adoption as it contributes to understanding disruptive technology from a consumer perspective in a developing market which has been excluded in previous research papers. Another value of this paper lies in the use of UTAUT 2 to identify a new construct, trust, as a determinant of mobile money adoption in a consumer perspective which is applicable in Malawi. In addition to this it enables us to contribute to current literature on the emerging mobile money market in Malawi, which is largely under researched. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Nowadays, sustainability in general and energy-efficiency in specific have become very populardue to environmental issues which can be directly traced back to a wasteful lifestyle of currentgenerations. Therefore, the European Commission specified European Union-wide targets andpolicy objectives in order to achieve a cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by atleast 40% and at least 32,5% improvement in energy-efficiency until 2030 with an option toupward the values by 2023.The literature review of this study showed that former research mainly chose an overallperspective about systems which support people and organizations in living more sustainablywithout covering a specific topic and without elaborating on a concept for a specific use-case.Most of the studies examined technology in regard to a piece of hardware which is integratedinto an existing environment (e.g. household), where no continuous interaction of its users isnecessary. Furthermore, none of it addressed how an organization, along (and in tightcooperation) with its members, can become more sustainably by implementing a technology—where technology refers to an app (software)—which enables employees to live moresustainably at the workplace.In order to tangle the identified gap, the author of this study created a concept of an app whichcan optimize a utilization of office spaces. The aim of this app is to group colleagues togetherin offices according to their project, team or previous seating habits in order to avoidunnecessary heating, air-conditioning and lighting of unused rooms (e.g. pool offices,conference rooms). As an organization should not just create a guideline to which everyemployee must stick to, this study elaborates on possible prompts and constraints (e.g.employees which have concerns about privacy). To achieve that, a web-based survey wasconducted in Germany in order to evaluate the hypotheses emerged from the literature review.From this aim, the research question ‘Which elements prompt and constrain employees to adoptan app that addresses optimal office utilization?’ emerged.Notwithstanding the thoroughly conducted literature review and the emerged hypotheses, noneof the stated hypotheses could have been confirmed and verified.

Access to news supports the development of democratic societies. News can promote sustainable community development and encourage healthy social, political, and economic engagement. Mobile news services (MNSs) are one means to reach out to citizens to share news and provide citizens with a forum to review and voice their opinion. However, the extant of research related to technology adoption of MNSs is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a framework which articulates factors influencing the adoption of MNSs particularly by the citizens of South Africa. A review of the literature on MNSs and technology adoption helped to identify potential factors that could influence adoption. This study considers existing theoretical evidence and provides new empirical evidence, to extend current theoretical understanding. Mixed methods research supported the identification of influencing factors and relationships which support the adoption of MNSs. The resultant MNS adoption model offers new insights into the personal and social factors, attributes of adopters and attributes of MNSs influencing adoption of MNSs. The model included influencing factors such as social concerns, psychological drivers, motivators, trust sensitivities for accessing information, relative advantage and value, observability, usability, portability, immediacy, compatibility, and facilitating conditions. The identified relationships between the individual factors introduced a new perspective to the prior models of technology adoption, by highlighting connections between the social environment, the adopter, and MNSs. A pragmatic approach and statistical analysis of the data validated the relationships, and the model. The decision to adopt was found to be directly affected by sixteen interlinked factors. The findings are important to mobile service providers, designers, and developers, in their endeavour to satisfy their consumer’s needs and desires.