Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T14:58:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2006- Jose Claudio de Oliveira Flores.pdf: 1453977 bytes, checksum: 7b91cd274e1470123d15754dce1eb1c8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-12-08 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The objective of this research was to diagnose organic production in Rio de Janeiro State, through the analysis of the annual visit reports produced by ABIO (certification agency of Rio de Janeiro state) certification agents from 1999 through 2002. The research covered 239 visit reports, from 156 organic growers located at various areas of Rio de Janeiro State. All variables contained on the reports were transferred to computer worksheets. They were then, classified into one of the three axes: technological, environmental or social. Each variable was then divided into items, which were scored, according to its conformity to the organic production rules. Basic statistics were applied to the individual variables which were discussed individually. Then, all scores were standardized by subtracting from the average and dividing by the standard deviation and submitted to an ordination by the three axes - technological, environmental and social. This ordination enabled a group diagnosis of the variables belonging to the three axes. A classification of the growers was then performed, by the sum of the scores for each axis for each year. Most variables contained on the report fitted on the technological axis. The majority of growers used techniques permitted by the legislation; however, no distinction seemed to be made between the recommended and the restricted practices by the growers, since they were used indistinguishably by growers with different profiles and from different regions. The heterogeneity verified among different growers, was in part, a result of the different degrees of conversion into the organic system. There was no relation between time of experience by the grower, with the level of adoption of recommended or restricted practices. The environmental axis also showed a very heterogeneous scenario, with no clear trend towards the location, time of experience, or degree of adoption of technologies. Market issues were the main cause of both, motivation of farmers to enter organic production as well as the main concern for the future of their properties. / O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de diagnosticar a produ??o org?nica no Estado do Rio de Janeiro por meio da an?lise dos relat?rios anuais de vistoria da ABIO (Associa??o dos Produtores Biol?gicos do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) referentes aos anos de 1999 a 2002. A pesquisa considertou 239 relat?rios de vistoria, pertencentes a 156 unidades de produ??o, situadas em diferentes locais do Estado do Rio. Todas as informa??es contidas no relat?rios de vistoria, foram transformadas em vari?veis e transferidas para planilhas. Elas foram ent?o alocadas em um dos tr?s eixos: tecnol?gico, ambiental ou social. Cada vari?vel foi subdividida em items, que eram quantificados de acordo com sua conformidade com as normas vigentes sobre produ??o org?nica no Estado. Estat?stica b?sica foi aplicada ? vari?veis, que foram discutidos individualmente. Ent?o, todos os valores atribu?dos ? diferentes vari?veis foram ent?o padronizados pela diferen?a entre a m?dia , dividida pelo desvio padr?o. Esses valores foram ent?o ordenados de acordo com os tr?s eixos tecnol?gico, ambiental e social. Essa ordena??o permitiu um diagn?stico em grupo das vari?veis. Uma classifica??o dos produtores foi feita por meio da soma dos valores padronizados, para cada ano. A maioria das vari?veis contidas nos relat?rios, encaixou-se no eixo tecnol?gico. A maioria dos produtores usou pr?ticas permitidas pela legisla??o, no entanto, n?o parece ter havido distin??o entre uso de pr?ticas recomendadas e o de pr?ticas permitidas, mas restritas. Essas foram usadas indiscriminadamente por produtores com diferentes perfis e tempos de ado??o de pr?ticas org?nicas. A heterogeneidade verificada entre os produtores foi, em parte, resultado dos diferentes graus de convers?o para o sistema org?nico. N?o houve rela??o entre tempo de experi?ncia do produtor com o n?vel de ado??o das pr?ticas restritas ou recomendadas. O eixo ambiental tamb?m mostrou um cen?rio muito diverso sem nenhuma tend?ncia aparente no que diz respeito ?s praticas usadas, localiza??o da propriedade, ou outra vari?vel qualquer. Os aspectos de mercado parecem ter sido a principal causa/motiva??o dos produtores para entrar na agricultura org?nica e parece ser tamb?m a principal causa de apreens?o dos produtores

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to investigate the integration of technology in undergraduate courses by faculty at private colleges and universities. Integration of technology is using technology as an instructional tool to improve teaching and learning (Clayton-Pedersen & O’Neill, 2005; Wilson & Hayes, 2000; Woodbridge, 2004). Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) 7 principles for good practice in undergraduate education provided the theoretical framework for this research. The researcher conducted a survey of full-time faculty at 21 private colleges and universities in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The results of the study indicated that faculty use technology significantly to communicate high expectations to students and to support diverse talents and ways of learning. However, faculty reported that they do not use technology significantly for the other 5 principles: to support student-faculty contact, promote cooperation and reciprocity among students, promote active learning, provide prompt feedback, and promote time on task. Analysis of the data indicated that female faculty use technology significantly more than male faculty for all 7 principles. Findings regarding age indicated that faculty who are 40-59 use technology significantly more than faculty under 40 to support prompt feedback, time on task, and diverse talents and ways of learning. No significant differences existed between other age groups regarding these 3 principles. No significant differences existed between any age groups regarding use of technology to promote student-faculty contact, encourage reciprocity and cooperation, promote active learning, and communicate high expectations. The results of this study extend the current knowledge about faculty use of technology to advance good practice in undergraduate education. Additionally, the results provide information about differences in use of technology by faculty based on gender and age. These findings may inform institutional policies and practices with regard to implementing a systemic approach to teaching with technology.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that cyber actors will likely increase cyber intrusions against healthcare systems and their concomitant medical devices because of the mandatory transition from paper to electronic health records, lax cyber security standards, and a higher financial payout for medical records in the deep web. The problem addressed in this quantitative correlational study was uncertainty surrounding the benefits of palm vein authentication adoption relative to the growing crime of medical identity theft. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to understand healthcare managers' and doctors' perceptions of the effectiveness of palm vein authentication technology. The research questions were designed to investigate the relationship between intention to adopt palm vein authentication technology and perceived usefulness, complexity, security, peer influence, and relative advantage. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology was the theoretical basis for this quantitative study. Data were gathered through an anonymous online survey of 109 healthcare managers and doctors, and analyzed using principal axis factoring, Pearson's product moment correlation, multiple linear regression, and 1-way analysis of variance. The results of the study showed a statistically significant positive correlation between perceived usefulness, security, peer influence, relative advantage, and intention to adopt palm vein authentication. No statistically significant correlation existed between complexity and intention to adopt palm vein authentication. These findings indicate that by effectively using palm vein authentication, organizations can mitigate the risk of medical fraud and its associated costs, and positive social change can be realized.

The dissertation consists of three studies that seek to identify school caterer and women farmer constraints that have hindered the buy-local policy mandate of the Ghana School Lunch program, and to explore gendered agricultural technology adoption and contract participation strategies that could facilitate the policy mandate. The first study documents the constraints that have minimized caterer purchases of school food items from local farmers. The study presents an overview of the Ghana School Lunch Program and the buy-local policy mandate issued to school caterers. Survey data and descriptive analysis are employed to document and discuss the constraints that prevent school caters from purchasing from local farmers as well as the constraints faced by smallholder women farmers in supplying to school caters. The study subsequently discusses school caterers’ compensating variation of a hypothetical policy that requires them to firstly provide recommended portions of vegetables and protein, and secondly include fruits in the lunch of the schoolchildren. The second study analyses the factors underlying the probability that women smallholder farmers - compared to male farmers - adopt less a) improved seeds, b) fertilizer, c) herbicides and d) pesticides. The study further examines the sensitivity of gender differences in technology adoption to crop choice, particularly maize and legume, as well as the possible heterogeneity of technology adoption differences within rural and peri-urban communities. The adoption of these improved technologies is modeled using multivariate probit regressions. A gender gap is observed among legume farmers for improved seed and pesticide adoption. Moreover, the findings indicate that female maize farmers who have input into all cash crop production decisions are more likely to adopt improved seeds and pesticides. Among legume farmers, the results indicate that female farmers who are educated and have access to credit are more likely to adopt fertilizer, while female legume farmers who have a say in what the use of income generated from cash crop farming are more likely to adopt pesticides. These results imply that policy-makers and development practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa should consider strategies to target and increase educational, financial and productive assets of female farmers in order to close the gender technology gap and increase multiple technology adoption. The third study examines the use of farm-to-school contracts as a means to provide access to credit for women farmers in rural and peri-urban areas and facilitate the buy-local policy mandate. In particular, the study examines the factors influencing male and female smallholder farmers’ minimum willingness to accept (WTA) farm-to-school-lunch contracts for maize and cowpea beans. The minimum WTA simultaneously measures the decision to participate as well as the minimum price at which the smallholder farmer accepts the contract. Using sex-disaggregated data from a field experiment, a Tobit model is applied to explain the underlying factors influencing male and female smallholder farmer’s minimum WTA for a set of hypothetical maize and cowpea beans contracts. The results for the pooled sample indicate that the delivery at harvest option increases farmers’ minimum willingness to accept both the maize and beans contracts. The study further examines heterogeneity in the minimum WTA among smallholder farmers. The results in the female specification indicate that, the advance pay option lowers the minimum WTA for maize contracts. Additionally, women farmers who own non-farm business, compared to a male with a non-farm business, have a lower minimum WTA for the maize and beans contracts. The results suggest that if the government considers contractual arrangements between school caterers and local farmers to facilitate the buy-local policy mandate, an advance pay option to women farmers may yield lower premiums for contracted food items.

The technology acceptance model (TAM) has been widely used to assess technology adoption in business, education, and health care. The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) launched a web-based Individualized Educational Program (IEP) system for school psychologists to use in conducting evaluations and reviews. This quantitative study examined the relationship between school psychologists' TAM factors associated with the web-based IEP system's perceived usability and usefulness measured by a TAM Instrument with individual job performance assessed by the Job Performance Ratings Measure. A random sample of 69 NYCDOE school psychologists participated in this study, and a regression analysis addressed the research questions. The results showed no positive effects of perceived ease of use in job performance. In addition, there were no positive effects of perceived usefulness in job performance. The results of this study might benefit administrators and districts to see the need to explore additional resources. As ease of use and usefulness are vital to technology acceptance, providing resources to school psychologists are key to the overall success of the IEP process. Future research should take a qualitative approach to illuminate why and how school psychologists accept technology, especially when it involves the IEP process.

The adoption rate of health information technology (HIT) remains low in developing countries, where healthcare institutions experience high operating costs and loss of revenue, which are related to systems and processes inefficiency. The purpose of this case study was to explore strategies leaders in Zimbabwe used to implement HIT. The conceptual framework of the study was Davis's technology acceptance model (TAM). Data were gathered through observations, review of organizational documents (i.e., policies, procedures, and guidelines), and in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 10 healthcare leaders and end-users from hospitals in Zimbabwe who had successfully implemented HIT. Transcribed interview data were coded and analyzed for emerging themes. Implementation strategies, overcoming barriers to adoption, and user acceptance emerged as the themes most healthcare leaders associated with successful HIT projects. Several subthemes also emerged, including: (a) the importance of stakeholder involvement, (b) the importance of management buy-in, and (c) the low level of IT literacy among healthcare workers. The strategies identified in this study may provide a foundation on which healthcare leaders in developing countries can successfully adopt and implement HIT. The recommendations from this study could lead to positive social change by providing leaders with knowledge and skills to use information technology strategies to deliver better healthcare at lower costs while creating employment for local communities.

Industrial experts agree that cloud computing can significantly improve business and public access to low cost computing power and storage. Despite the benefits of cloud computing, recent research surveys indicated that its adoption in U.S. hospitals is slower than expected. The purpose of this study was to understand what factors influence cloud adoption in U.S. hospitals. The theoretical foundation of the research was the diffusion of innovations and technology-organization-environment framework. The research question was to examine the predictability of cloud computing adoption for U.S. hospitals as a function of 6 influential factors: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, organizational size, structure, and culture. The research methodology included a cross-sectional survey with an existing validated questionnaire. A stratified random sample of 118 information technology managers from qualified U.S. hospitals completed the questionnaire. The categorical regression analysis rendered F statistics and R2 values to test the predictive models. The research results revealed that all 6 influential factors had significant correlations with the public cloud adoption intent (adjusted R2 = .583) while only the 3 technological factors had significant correlations with the private cloud adoption intent (adjusted R2 = .785). The recommendation is to include environmental factors and increase sample size in the similar future research. The developed predictive models provided a clearer understanding among hospital IT executives and cloud service providers of cloud adoption drivers. The potential implications for positive social change can be the increase of efficiency and effectiveness in U.S. hospital operation once their speed of cloud adoption has increased.

Ample research has been conducted to identify the determinants of information technology (IT) adoption. No previous quantitative researchers have explored IT adoption in the context of enterprise social computing (ESC). The purpose of this study was to test and extend the social influence model of IT adoption. In addition, this study addressed a gap in the research literature and presented a model that relates the independent variables of social action, social consensus, social authority, social cooperation, perceived relative advantage, perceived compatibility, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and organizational commitment to the dependent variables of social embracement and embedment. A randomized stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was performed on survey data from 125 C-level executives (i.e., chief information officers and chief technology officers). The analysis found that executives consider perceived relative advantage, organizational commitment, and social computing action as the most significant factors relating to the adoption of ESC. Executives' perceptions about ESC could impact organizational commitment, implementation, and use of such technologies. The findings could make a social contribution within organizations by helping C-level executives understand the degree to which these factors contribute to the ESC adoption. The knowledge from this study may also help organizations derive operational effectiveness, efficiency, and create business value for their clients and society.

Although Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technology toolsets present enterprises with a significant amount of business benefits, such as improved enterprise communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation; nevertheless, enterprises are still facing tremendous challenges in promoting and sustaining end-user adoption. The challenges associated with the adoption and promotion of Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technologies can often be linked to a resistance to change, a closed culture environment, and concerns pertaining to information security, technology complexity, as well as an unclear enterprise collaboration technology strategic roadmap. The primary objective of this study was to determine how generic guiding principles could facilitate the adoption and promotion of Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technologies within an enterprise environment. In support of the primary objective, our sub-objectives were to identify the challenges that enterprises, as well as enterprise end-users experience when adopting and promoting Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technologies, as well as to explore and describe the critical success factors for adopting and promoting Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technologies. A case study technique was used to gather the data from a large South African information and communications technology (ICT) enterprise operating within the retail sector based in Johannesburg. Enterprise end-users that formed part of the case study were selected by using purposive sampling. The end-users were selected, based on their experience, project sponsorship, as well as the project-participation roles performed in the adoption of their Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technology toolset. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on three (3) end-users, comprising a business analyst, a technology specialists and a senior executive. Furthermore, administered questionnaires were completed by five (5) end-users, who actively use their Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technology toolset on a daily basis, performing operational, as well as business administrative tasks. This study used a qualitative research approach. Since validity forms a vital role in any qualitative study, this research study incorporated three validity approaches, including: the theoretical, internal and external approaches. The theoretical and external validity approaches were used to validate the identified guiding principles through a systematic review of the existing literature, as well as reviews and comments obtained from two subject-matter experts representing independent enterprises. Furthermore, internal validity was employed to complement and substantiate the research findings, consisting of project documents and reports made available by the enterprise. The main contribution in this research study is a set of ten (10) guiding principles that could be applied by enterprises either planning to, or in the process of adopting an Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technology toolset. Furthermore, the guiding principles could assist enterprises in formulating a Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technology adoption strategy, incorporating key adoption elements, including commitment, promotion and sustainability. / Computing

有關科技創新在擴散上的研究已行之有年，且有不少有關的研究發現及案例。但是創新的層面不只侷限於科技，在近年來服務創新、行銷創新等概念的興起，產生了創新領域內新的研究目標。而這些類型的創新擴散研究更是相當稀少，故本研究希望從此一方向進行探索性研究，期望同時有助於實務與學術的發展。 社會與科技的快速發展，促使網際網路的使用普及化，也影響到公司與消費者間的溝通及行銷模式。行銷創新：Inbound Marketing也是在這樣的情境下誕生。而近來台灣大量公司也採行Inbound Marketing作為重要的行銷手段時。讓公司不斷採納Inbound Marketing的理由及想法應該有可解釋的背後因素，所以本研究期望藉由研究的結果回答三點研究問題：(1) 影響行銷創新採用的重要關鍵因素為何？(2) 行銷創新擴散主要因素為何？(3) 不同產業在採用行銷創新上的異同為何？ 本研究藉由文獻與學理的回顧，進一步探討Inbound Marketing行銷創新。以創新擴散、科技接受模式及兩階段理論作為基礎，發展出個案研究的基礎架構。研究架構將創新採用的過程，以創新決策流程作為基礎，區分為動機、啟發、執行及常規化等四個階段，並結合科技接受模式及兩階段理論中所討論的要素，進一步發展出構面。動機構面中含括創新、環境及組織等要素，啟發構面則包含設定標的及尋求創新等項目，執行構面則有重新定義及釐清兩個步驟，最後的構面則是常規化階段。本研究採用多重個案研究法，依前述的架構構面與變項進入深入的探討。 本研究所得到的初步結論包括：(1) 資源、環境及競爭要素是影響行銷創新採用的重要關鍵因素。(2) Inbound Marketing的高創新可近性是行銷創新擴散的主要因素。(3) 消費性電子及連鎖餐飲業在Inbound Marketing行銷創新採用的比較中，產業差異並不顯著。本論文最後進一步提出實務上及後續研究上的建議。 / Studies in innovation distribution and diffusion field have been researched for decades, but most innovation target will focus on technology innovation. Marketing innovation is still a new issue in innovation diffusion field. The study wants to be a base for following research in this topic. Internet quickly developing has totally changed communication tools between customers and companies, and forced new marketing method (or “marketing innovation”) “Inbound Marketing” was generated. And in these years, more and more companies adopt inbound marketing as a regular marketing tool. This study tries to explain the factors and motivation of company adopts marketing innovations, main reason of marketing innovation diffusion and differences of marketing innovation adoption between different industries. This study review innovation, marketing innovation related research, and make sure study target” Inbound Marketing” as a marketing innovation. And the study frame combines innovation diffusion, technology adoption model and two stage theory to analyze all study cases. The study structure is divided into four stages: Motivation, Inspiration, Execution and Routinization. Motivation contains “Innovation”,” Environment” and “Organization” factors. Inspiration includes “setting targets” and “seeking innovation”. Execution has ” Re-define” and “clarify” two stages. Finally companies adopt innovation and “Routinization”. The study finds “Resources”, “Environment” and “Competition” would be the main reason of marketing innovation adoption. And the high accessibility of inbound marketing with “Environment ” and “Competition” is the main factor of marketing innovation diffusion. Finally ,comparing “ Consumer Electronics Industry” and “ Chain restaurants” two industries, the difference in marketing innovation adoption is not obvious.