M.Tech (Department of Information technology, Faculty of Applied and Computer Science), Vaal University of Technology. / The advancement of technology, particularly in the area of mobile computing, revolutionizes the way business is done in many industries such as the education sector, government sector, financial institutions, retail sector and the way people conduct their daily activities. The current technology provides influential tools for organisations and can significantly influence their operation, structure and approach. The development of mobile computing has created a new innovation for various industries by increasing the availability, frequency and speed of communication between the organisations and the individuals. However, users’ perceptions can play an important role towards the adoption of these new developments. The overriding purpose of this study was to investigate the users’ perceptions on the security of mobile computing in South Africa for adoption of e-applications. The literature review was concentrated on the process of progressive development occurring during the study. To accomplish that goal it became necessary to reach some essential objectives i.e. investigating the users’ perceptions models in literature. For the purpose of the study, it was important to propose a research framework for users’ perceptions on the security of mobile computing with the potential for the adoption of e-applications in South Africa. The research evaluated the proposed framework to establish if there is any relationship between the e-application adoption factors. Furthermore, the hypotheses were tested to determine which factors would influence the adoption of e-applications in South Africa. Technology Adoption Model 2 (TAM2) and Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) provide the theoretical basis for explaining how users perceive e-application services that they access and operate through mobile computing. To achieve that, a quantitative study was conducted with South African residents, with respect to mobile security perceptions; 476 valid questionnaires were received from the participants who were selected non-randomly. Questionnaires were developed from the proposed research framework derived from DOI and TAM2 and the items were adopted from other prior technology adoption studies. Through the use of the survey instrument developed for this study, data were collected in order to address the importance of this study based on the problem statement posed in the first chapter of this dissertation. The valid questionnaires were analysed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 24.0. Reliability analysis, principal component analysis, correlations and multiple linear regression tests were conducted. Among other things this study made sure that ethical considerations are adhered to. The findings revealed positive relationships between perceived usefulness of security mechanisms, perceived ease of use of security mechanisms, subjective norm on security mechanisms, relative advantage of security mechanisms, compatibility of security mechanisms, complexity of security mechanisms, aesthetics of security mechanisms interface and intention to adopt e-applications. Furthermore, subjective norm on security mechanisms was strongly correlated to intention to adopt e-applications, complexity of security mechanisms strongly correlated to perceived usefulness of security mechanisms, relative advantage of security mechanisms and aesthetic of security mechanisms interface strongly correlated to perceived usefulness of security mechanisms. In addition, subjective norm of security mechanisms strongly influence intention to adopt eapplications in South Africa. Also, aesthetics of security mechanisms interface strongly influence both perceived usefulness of security mechanisms and perceived ease of use of security mechanisms. The reason behind it may be interpreted as users nowadays seeing the beauty as the platform to attract and encourage them to use e-applications. Finally, the proposed model analysis and survey evaluation will enable South African organizations to make informed decisions about the use of e-applications services. These findings contribute to a road map for the education sector, government sector, financial institutions, and retail sector as well as to encourage their customers or clients to adopt e-applications.

Significant environmental impacts such as climate change, reduction in biodiversity, increasing food scarcity, impacts on water supply and availability, and exacerbation of human health problems are occurring and are expected to increase. Despite these environmental challenges the teaching of California’s environmental literacy standards, the California Environmental Principles and Concepts (CA EP&Cs), in the K-12 public education system is infrequent and inadequate. The purpose of this study was to use a mixed methods approach to examine relationships between environmental identity (EI), personal environmental education teacher efficacy (PEETE), and peak stage of concern (SOC) for implementing CA EP&Cs for K-12 in-service teachers participating in regional 3-year California Environmental Literacy Projects (CELP). In the last year of CELP, a survey was given to 72 of the participating teachers to probe their EI, PEETE, and peak SOC for implementing CA EP&Cs. Eighteen months after the conclusion of CELP, five participating teachers engaged in a follow-up interview providing further insight about the relationships between EI, PEETE, and peak SOC for implementing CA EP&Cs. The findings from quantitative analysis of the survey and the qualitative analysis of the follow-up interviews indicate that participating teachers had high levels of EI and PEETE, and that there is a moderately large correlation between EI and PEETE within the sample of teachers surveyed. These high levels of EI and PEETE did not translate into impact level peak SOC in the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) for most teachers. This finding demonstrates that environmental literacy professional development providers, site and district administrators, and teachers will have to overcome significant challenges to be able to increase the environmental literacy for students in California’s educational system. For environmental literacy professional development providers, it is suggested to surface teachers’ individual challenges to implementing CA EP&Cs and provide explicit recommendations to overcome these challenges. For district and site administrators, it is suggested that the CA EP&Cs be prioritized as important standards that are taught, and that student access to outdoor field experiences be valued and funded. For teachers, it is suggested to prioritize the teaching of CA EP&Cs and to integrate environmental literacy into the teaching of the various content areas where appropriate. Further details and additional suggestions are outlined in this research study.

Global food systems are facing a grand challenge due to daunting food security targets, risk vulnerabilities (e.g., COVID-19 crisis), internal unsustainability regarding resource use and contribution to environmental degradation (e.g., GHG emissions, land degradation and biodiversity loss). Such a situation demands a transformation of the global food system towards more local, alternative, community, and sustainable food systems. Past studies of the food system have shown that major advances toward socio-environmental sustainability can be achieved through the application of technology and the push for innovation. Therefore, since water is at the center of all food system challenges this study focused on climate-resilient water innovation, which includes using hydroponics, aeroponics or aquaponics technologies within a Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) to bring about this change. This qualitative study was undertaken to uncover the individual, institutional, technological, and farm/organizational factors that influenced the adoption of such climate-resilient water technologies. Additionally, it also involved investigating the individual construals and their relation to sustainable water innovation adoption. The study was able to discover new constructs, namely- sustainability ethos, individual construals, land/soil characteristics, location of urban farm, farm size bias, inter-provincial variation, complex systemic technologies, localization, and all-year-round production, that act as barriers and facilitators to sustainable water innovation adoption. Finally, developed a sustainable water innovation adoption model using an inductive and deductive approach that can be used by technology providers, the government and policy institutions for insightful decision-making with respect to water innovation in the Canadian agri-food sector.

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Spelindustrin är gigantisk och kontinuerligt växande, där detta inkluderar spelutveckling samt spelande av spel. Detta medför att en betydande mängd akademiker i sina yrkesliv kommer att beröra ämnesområdet spelutveckling. Trots detta faktum finns det en avsaknad av akademisk litteratur som behandlar ämnesområdet spelutveckling, specifikt med ett IS-perspektiv. För att fylla avsaknaden ämnar denna undersökning utöka det specifika konceptet inom spelutveckling som är “skapande av en 2D-spelmotor med tillhörande spel”. Att spela innebär hedonistiska upplevelser. Gäller denna hedonism också vid spelutveckling? Vilka utmaningar och vilken problematik uppstår vid utveckling av en spelmotor? För att utreda detta används en kvalitativ undersökning med en induktiv metodik via forskning genom design (eng. Research through Design, RtD) tillsammans med kollaborativ autoetnografi (Collaborative Autoethnography, CAE). Detta skapar ett unikt perspektiv som används för att producera välmotiverad vägledning för introduktion till ämnesområdet. Datainsamling utgörs av loggbok och dagbok där dessa används för att reflektera kring problem, utmaningar, framgångsfaktorer samt hedonistiska upplevelser inom processen. Undersökningens bakomliggande teori är baserat på Hedonic-motivation system adoption model (HMSAM) samt kriterier för utvärdering av ett lyckat RtD-projekt. Resultaten visar att spelutveckling är en komplicerad process, där egenskaper av spelutveckling identifierats och som bildat riktlinjer som förbereder akademiker inför framtida forskning och arbete. / The gaming industry is gigantic and continuously growing, which includes game development and gaming. This means that a significant number of academics will touch on the subject area of game development during their professional lives. Despite this fact there is a lack of academic literature which deals with the subject area of game development, specifically with an IS perspective. To fill the gap, this study aims to expand the specific concept in game development that is “creation of a 2D game engine with an associated game”. Gaming involves hedonistic experiences. Is this also associated with game development? What challenges and problems arise when developing a game engine? Answering this involves a qualitative study with an inductive methodology via Research through Design (RtD) together with Collaborative Autoethnography (CAE). This creates a unique perspective that is used to produce well-motivated guidance for introduction to the subject area. Data collection consists of a journal and diary where these are used to reflect on problems, challenges, success factors and hedonistic experiences within the process. The study’s underlying theory is based on the Hedonic-motivation system adoption model (HMSAM) and criterias for evaluating successful RtD projects. The results show that game development is a complicated process, where characteristics of game development have been identified which developed guidelines that prepare academics for future research and work.

Syfte: Molnbaserade tjänster har blivit allt vanligare i redovisningsbranschen. Därför syftar denna studie till att undersöka vilka faktorer som ligger till grund för små och medelstora redovisningsbyråers adoptionsbeslut vid implementeringen av molnbaserad klientredovisning. Metod: Studien utgår ifrån den hermeneutiska forskningsfilosofin med en abduktiv ansats då tidigare studier inom området varit få och att vi söker förståelse för motiven bakom människors handlingar. Rent praktiskt har elva semi-strukturerade intervjuer hos små och medelstora redovisningsbyråer genomförts. En modifierad EDI-adoptionsmodell har använts som en del av studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt. Resultat och slutsats: Faktorer som påverkar beslutet följer till stor del den modifierade EDI- adoptionsmodellen. Däremot hade organisatorisk beredskap inte lika stor påverkan som övriga tre kategorier. Dessutom upptäcktes en ny faktor, trygghet. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till en förståelse för vilka faktorer som är av betydelse vid adoption av molnbaserade redovisningssystem. Det bör vara av intresse för leverantörer, men även ge stöd åt redovisningsbyråer som står inför ett sådant beslut. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag är att undersöka vilka faktorer som är av betydelse i framtiden när molnbaserad redovisning är mindre nytt, hur byråer påverkas efter implementeringen samt hur relationerna med klienterna och lönsamheten påverkas. Vidare hade det varit önskvärt att undersöka den nytillkomna faktorn, trygghet, och se om den bör läggas till som en del av en ny modifierad EDI-adoptionsmodell. / Aim: Cloud computing is more interesting now than ever before, especially in the accounting industry. Therefore, this study aims to examine which factors motivate small and medium sized accounting practices to adopt cloud-based client accounting. Method: This study assumes a hermeneutic research philosophy with an abductive approach because of the lack of previous studies in the field and that we are seeking to understand motives behind people's actions. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees from small and medium-sized accounting practices. A modified EDI-adoption model was used as a part of the study's theoretical framework. Results and conclusions: The results show that most of the factors follow the modified EDI- adoption model but the organisational readiness didn ́t have as much impact on SMP:s decision as the others. A new factor, safety, was also discovered. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to an understanding of which factors that have an impact on SMP:s decision to adopt cloud-based client accounting. The findings should be of interest to different cloud accounting providers such as Fortnox, as well as accounting practices that are thinking about adopting cloud-based client accounting. Suggestions for future research: One suggestion for future research is to study which factors have an impact on SMP:s in the future when cloud-based accounting isn ́t seen as something new and how the client relationships and profitability of the practices will be affected by the adoption. Also, it would be interesting to examine the new factor, safety, and see if it should be a part of the future EDI-adoption model.

This study sought to understand concerns and levels of use of a group of teachers in the process of developing a project-based learning (PBL) program, and the effect of a change facilitator on these processes. The research was guided by the following research questions: One, what are the concerns of teachers regarding the planning of a PBL curriculum? Two, what are the levels of use of teachers in the process of planning the PBL curriculum? Three, how does a change facilitator affect the process of change in the planning of a PBL curriculum? The population of this study consisted of seven subject area high school teachers and one district level administrative staff member. This study used the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) to study the PBL innovation. CBAM is a conceptual framework that describes, explains, and predicts teachers' concerns and behaviors throughout the change process in education. In this study, the teachers progressed through the levels of use on a timeline at a rate that was much more rapid that what is typical for implementation of an innovation in an educational setting. This rapid progression was the function of the teacher population studied and the change facilitator that led the PBL curriculum design process. With the leadership of the change facilitator, the goals of the PBL curriculum innovation were realized, and the team created a PBL curriculum with multidisciplinary PBL products that could be implemented after the development phase.

There are ethical concerns on how competitive intelligence (CI) is practiced. CI is mainly confused with industrial espionage or sometimes smeared with harmful unethical conduct. The assumptions have negative implications for the full recognition of CI as a profession and the reputation of the practice on, industries or firms and performance. In an attempt to address these concerns, the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) developed a CI code of ethics. However, critics of CI claim that the CI code of ethics has not been adopted by CI professionals, firms and industries. Moreover, there is very little evidence, if any, on how ethical theory influence the adoption of CI. In response to the critics, this study aimed at developing a CI Ethics Adoption Model (CIEAM) that will be the premise for analysing factors that positively or negatively influence the adoption of a CI code of ethics. This study followed interpretive structural modelling to identify core determinants of CI ethics adoption. Based on extracts from literature, a web-based questionnaire was designed, validated by CI experts and empirically/quantitatively tested by 184 South African ICT firms. The results reveal that South African ICT firms have adopted CI ethics to an absolute extent and utilises different CI ethics enforcement methods. The results also reveal that organisational and stakeholders’ factors, business ethics and ethical theories, decision-making factors, CI practice factors, raising CI ethics awareness, and CI ethics challenges are the core determinants for the adoption of CI ethics and are components of the CIEAM. In practice, the CIEAM may minimise unethical conduct by some CI professionals, and the confusion of CI with espionage, whilst improving the credibility and recognition of the CI profession. The model may also serve as a valuable tool for practitioners and scholars who need to measure the adoption of CI ethics across different business sectors. Theoretically, it may serve as input to the development of CI policies and CI ISO standards in the ICT industry and related industries. Recommendations are made towards the application of the model in other industries. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)

<p>Information technology (IT) has been applied in every aspect in common everyday experience. Most industries have changed from paper based to digitally supported processes. The implementation of IT has resulted in lower costs, faster operations, and faster response to consumer demands, thus achieving economies of scale and major advancements in the quality of products introduced to the consumer.</p> <p>In healthcare, IT has led to extensive advances in many different aspects of medicine. IT has enhanced diagnostic equipment, laboratory result accuracy, research methodologies and analysis advancements, and has resulted in more effective prescription of medications. These advances have increased the overall quality of life for patients.</p> <p>Despite the fact that the adoption rate of Electronic Medical Record systems (EMRs) in European countries has reached more than 90%, the adoption of EMRs by primary care physicians in Canada lags far behind at a rate closer to 30%. Much of this low adoption rate can be attributed to barriers due to resistance to change. Many adoption projects in IT fail, even after change has occurred. These failures have occurred in many different industries, including healthcare. EMR adoption in primary care requires a focus on change management and sustainability for primary care physicians, the target audience of change.</p> <p>This thesis research investigates the reasons for the low rate of adoption of EMRs in the primary care environment in Canada. A change management model dedicated to the Canadian primary healthcare environment for the management and sustainability of change is created and discussed in detail. This study is based on a thorough literature review of change management models; a qualitative analysis of interviews with industry leaders from different backgrounds such as consultancy, government, and vendors; and a quantitative analysis of data through an online primary care physician questionnaire.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)