This causal and correlational study was designed to extend the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and to test its applicability to Valencia Community College (VCC) Engineering and Technology students as the target user group when investigating the factors influencing their decision to adopt and to utilize VMware as the target technology. In addition to the primary three indigenous factors: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and intention toward utilization, the model was also extended with enjoyment, external control, and computer self-efficacy as antecedents to perceived ease of use. In an attempt to further increase the explanatory power of the model, the Task-Technology Fit constructs (TTF) were included as antecedents to perceived usefulness. The model was also expanded with subjective norms and voluntariness to assess the degree to which social influences affect students decision for adoption and utilization. This study was conducted during the fall term of 2009, using 11 instruments: (1) VMware Tools Functions Instrument; (2) Computer Networking Tasks Characteristics Instrument; (3) Perceived Usefulness Instrument; (4) Voluntariness Instrument; (5) Subjective Norms Instrument; (6) Perceived Enjoyment Instrument; (7) Computer Self-Efficacy Instrument; (8) Perception of External Control Instrument; (9) Perceived Ease of Use Instrument; (10) Intention Instrument; and (11) a Utilization Instrument. The 11 instruments collectively contained 58 items. Additionally, a demographics instrument of six items was included to investigate the influence of age, prior experience with the technology, prior experience in computer networking, academic enrollment status, and employment status on student intentions and behavior with regard to VMware as a network virtualization technology. Data were analyzed using path analysis, regressions, and univariate analysis of variance in SPSS and AMOS for Windows. The results suggest that perceived ease of use was found to be the strongest determinant of student intention. The analysis also suggested that external control, measuring the facilitating conditions (knowledge, resources, etc) necessary for adoption was the highest predictor of perceived ease of use. Consistent with previous studies, perceived ease of use was found to be the strongest predictor of perceived usefulness followed by subjective norms as students continued to use the technology. Even though the integration of the task-technology fit construct was not helpful in explaining the variance in student perceived usefulness of the target technology, it was statistically significant in predicting student perception of ease of use. The study concluded with recommendations to investigate other factors (such as service quality and ease of implementation) that might contribute to explaining the variance in perceived ease of use as the primary driving force in influencing student decision for adoption. A recommendation was also made to modify the task-technology fit construct instruments to improve the articulation and the specificity of the task. The need for further examination of the influence of the instructor on student decision for adoption of a target technology was also emphasized.

Electronic medical records (EMRs) or electronic health records have been in use for years in hospitals around the world as a time-saving system for patient record keeping. Despite its widespread use, some physicians disagree with the assertion that EMRs save time. The purpose of this study was to explore whether any time saved with the use of the EMR system was actually devoted by doctors to patient-care and thereby to improved patient-care efficiency. The conceptual support for this study was predicated employing the task-technology fit theory. Task-technology theorists argue that information technology is likely to have a positive impact in individual performance and production timeliness if its capabilities match the task that the user must perform. The research questions addressed the use of an EMR system as a time-saving device, its impact on the quality of patient-care, and how it has influenced patients' access to healthcare in Nigeria. In this research, a comparative qualitative case study was conducted involving 2 hospitals in Nigeria, one using EMRs and another using paper-based manual entry. A purposeful sample of 12 patients and 12 physicians from each hospital was interviewed. Data were compiled and organized using Nvivo 10 software for content analysis. Categories and recurring themes were identified from the data. The findings revealed that reduced patients' registration processing time gave EMR-using doctors more time with their patients, resulting in better patient care. These experiences were in stark contrast to the experiences of doctors who used paper-based manual entry. This study supports positive social change by informing decision makers that time saved by implementing EMR keeping may encourage doctors to spend more time with their patients, thus improving the general quality of healthcare in Nigeria.

This thesis has two distinct research threads. One thread examines the effectiveness of technology support on the performance of focus groups. Unlike previous research, the work described in this thesis addresses the fundamental issue that groups are social systems, and that comprehensive measurement of the effectiveness of group activities requires assessment of both the task-oriented and social aspects of the group activity. In this research, four different communication modes are used to compare group effectiveness. The second research thread in this thesis is the use of Systems Thinking, and specifically Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), as the framework for inquiring into the effects of technology support on group effectiveness. The strategy in this thesis for developing and evaluating hypotheses extends the general descriptions and guidance in the literature on using SSM for hypothesis testing. Systems thinking also provides the basis for examining the prevailing ???profile deviation??? view that the better the fit between the group task and the technology support the greater the group performance. Using the six perspectives of fit developed by Venkatraman (1989), the most common GSS models and other models developed to examine Task-Technology Fit (TTF) are analysed. The results show that group performance models are most often tested from a ???profile deviation??? perspective and TTF models developed from a profile deviation perspective claim to have predictive and descriptive validity for assessing the level of group performance. To assess whether an SSM based approach can improve the predictive and/or descriptive analysis of the impact of technology support on group work, a field experiment was conducted at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Twenty focus groups of officer cadets assessed their military training program using a GSS in one of four communication modes. The results showed little predictive or descriptive support for the profile deviation perspective of TTF when measuring the group???s overall effectiveness, task effectiveness, participant satisfaction or group relations. The alternative ???gestalt??? perspective, operationalised in this research by using SSM, provided a more comprehensive approach to examining the effectiveness of technology support for group work.

Recently, Web 2.0 tools and technologies are widely adopted by organizations. This phenomenon drives attention and discussion on the intention of adoption and usage of such tools within enterprises. The purpose of this study was to explore the intention of enterprise to adopt Web 2.0 technologies for internal collaboration, using the fit-viability model that takes into consideration the degree of fitness between technological tools and the collaboration tasks, and the feasibility of implementation. In this research, a more comprehensive model to evaluate the intention to adopt Collaboration 2.0 tools and major factors identified from previous studies were developed. An empirical survey was conducted and 347 valid observations were collected. Results from the data analysis reveal that both the fit between task and technology and organizational viability have positive effects on organizational adoption of the collaboration 2.0 tool.

The main goal of this study is to understand factors in implementations of mobile guide systems in exhibitions and to discuss how ¡§ fit¡§ and ¡§viability¡§ perspectives affect the wiliness of exhibitors to implement mobile guide systems. The study begins with interviews with Professor Hong Wanlong and Mr. Zhangjian Zhiting of National Science and Technology Museum, to understand how exhibitors evaluate mobile guide systems. Combined with analysis and induction of perspectives and variables from studies of past journals, sub-perspectives of ¡§ fit¡§and ¡§viability¡§ are built. Then, for a through statistical survey, a questionnaire survey is conducted to explore the wiliness of exhibitors to implement mobile guide systems. Analysis revealed that localization, sufficient storage for databases, mobility and timeliness showed positive correlations between the ¡§ fit¡§ perspective, while financial concern, infrastructure of information technology, support from top management and capability of information technology department showed their positive correlations with the ¡§viability¡§ perspective. However, the ¡§financial concern¡¨ factor showed a lower significance level than others, indicating that for exhibitors the factor is taken into account but not the most important concern.

Along with the rapid and continuing evolution of enterprise computerization, enterprise establishes Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) gradually. The function and property of EIP changing with complicated environment and technology. Thus, the way enterprise adopt and use the EIP will influence enterprise operating and users satisfaction of EIP and the faithfulness of appropriation of information system will influencing user satisfaction. The goal of this research is to find the significant factors that link between the user satisfaction of EIP and faithfulness of appropriation by using diamond model and contingency theory. We combine with three distinct factors of compatibility, including (1) Technology¡VTask Compatibility (2) Technology¡VPeople Compatibility (3) Technology¡VOrganization Compatibility, to build an integrated model. An empirical survey methodology is applied to test the research model and six hypotheses are developed in this study, and then we use PLS to analysis it. The results reveal that Technology¡VTask Compatibility contributes most to the use of EIP. It implies that EIP should fulfill the task needs of users to promote user satisfaction. Moreover, Technology¡VPeople Compatibility implies that it will enhance the user satisfaction if the EIP is more compatible with user past experience and value. We also found that as EIP is more compatible with enterprise needs of tasks, and people, and the way user use EIP is more faithful with the purpose of the designer will promote user satisfaction of EIP.

The Internet has become a very important tool in the modern life and a useful channel for people to find information. Although there is a lot of information in the internet, it does not mean that Internet users can always find what they really need and want. The difficulty for Internet users is not that they can¡¦t find out the information but that too much information exists. Therefore, good search tools that can help them find useful information become critical to productivity improvement. The purpose of this research is to investigate how people use different tools on the Internet to find information they are looking for. Three factors were examined: task characteristics, search tools, and user characteristics. Experiments were conducted on tasks designed to show different characteristics. Four task types featured by different uncertainty and equivocality levels and two Internet search tools were used in the experiment. Users were asked to use different tools for solving the assigned tasks to see whether their satisfaction differs under different settings. The results indicate that the effect of task types is not significant. That is, user satisfaction of using search engines is similar under different circumstances. Using the search tool itself is the key factor that affects the level of satisfaction. Therefore, the most important thing for internet user to find useful information is to adopt a proper search tool.

With the increasing use of knowledge management technologies for collaborative work, organizations must recognize how to evaluate individual performance. User evaluations of information systems are frequently used as measures of MIS success, since it is extremely difficult to get objective measures of system performance. When the technology meets the user¡¦s needs and provides features that support the fit of the requirements of the task, positive performance impacts will result. This dissertation takes the special characteristics of the knowledge management system (KMS) and task into a research model and extends the theory of task technology fit with concepts from Fit-Appropriation Model. This dissertation goes on to empirically test the research model by investigating the task and related KMS characteristics. Furthermore, it seeks to understand the task technology fit, which links with KMS use and individual performance. Four hypotheses are developed. Structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques and moderated regressions will be used to provide statistical support indicating that there is a positive relationship between task-technology fit, the use of knowledge management systems and individual performance. The data was collected from 203 KMS users. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications that the results have for future research, and managerial practices are described.

Commercial off-the-shelf enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been adopted by large companies to support their inter- and intra-business processes. Midsize market firms are now investing in ERP systems too. However, research has indicated that about three quarters of attempted ERP projects turned out to be unsuccessful. A common problem encountered in adopting ERP software has been the issue of fit or alignment. This paper presents an ERP misfit analysis methodology, grounded on the task-technology fit theory and cognitive fit theory, for measuring misfits between ERP candidates and enterprise¡¦s requirements in ex-ante implementation. A decision support system prototype embedded the approach has been developed. A usability evaluation is performed on the prototype to demonstrate the approach. With this approach, organizations can more easily and systematically determine where the misfits are and the degree of misfits, thereby reducing the risks in implementing ERP systems. Our research contributes to the practical solution of the problem of misfit analysis.

This paper proposed a revised technology acceptance model for measuring end user computing (EUC) acceptance. An empirical study was conducted to collect data and the revised model was evaluated by structural equation modeling, and then confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test if the empirical data confirmed to the presumed model. The results demonstrated that the model explained 56% of the variance. The finding contributes to an expanded understanding of the factors that promote the EUC acceptance.