The recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) over the past two decades have influenced many aspects of live ([19] and [7]). These advances make the issue of acceptance of ICTs a topic of increasing importance, particularly in educational research and practice [18]. Many studies have been conducted to understand, explain, and predict the issue of acceptance and use of new technologies. Fortunately, these studies have resulted in several serious theoretical developments [9]. Overall understanding of the role of culture and social norms in influencing acceptance and use of education technologies, particularly collaborative and interactive technologies such as the internet, can facilitate the successful implementation and use of these technologies in the educational context. This study concentrates on providing insight into the influence of culture and social processes on staff members’ acceptance and use of educational technology, namely the internet at Khartoum state universities (KSUs). Specifically, the study aims to identify the influential role of these factors on acceptance and the use of the internet as a helpful collaborative educational technology. To achieve this aim, the study adopts technology acceptance model (TAM), which is modified (i.e. extended) with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (mainly uncertainty avoidance and masculinity). With the help of a structural equation model (SEM), the data assessment demonstrates the validity of the model and proves that social influence process and cultural factors have significant (direct and moderate) influence on staff members’ acceptance and use of internet technology for teaching and academic activities – i.e. the authors are able to assert that community matters in the adoption of these new ICTs. The article concludes by offering important implications and recommendations for both research and practice.

A large amount of research has been conducted in order to seek explanations that clarify e-commerce acceptance throughout the world; however, there is a gap in the research as to how e-commerce acceptance is attributable to national culture. Two previous studies (Yoon, 2009), (Capece, et al., 2013) used Hofstede’s five dimensions of national culture in conjunction with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a means to filling this gap with perspectives on low-acceptance populations (China in 2008 and Italy in 2013). The study presented in this paper is a continuation of the previous work, offering a perspective on a high-acceptance population (Sweden). The main research question is about investigating how Swedish e-commerce acceptance is related to national culture, and the answer is sought by probing on the Swedish perspective of e-commerce in the light of the TAM, e-commerce trust, and Hofstede’s five dimensions of national culture in an online survey. The data is analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and compared to the findings of the Chinese and Italian precursors. Furthermore, an attempt is made to explain the contrast between the comparably high e-commerce acceptance in Sweden to the lower degrees of acceptance in China and Italy.

La résolution de problèmes complexes (RPC) est une compétence du 21e siècle essentielle chez les gestionnaires. Or, bien que les programmes en gestion visent à développer cette compétence, de nombreux diplômés récents éprouvent des lacunes lorsqu’ils arrivent sur le marché du travail. Si leur manque de connaissances disciplinaires et leur faible niveau de compétences métacognitives peuvent les expliquer en partie, ces lacunes sont aussi possiblement attribuables aux méthodes pédagogiques couramment utilisées en gestion, qui n’enseignent pas explicitement un processus de RPC. Considérant l’importance d’enseigner explicitement une démarche générale de RPC et le développement des compétences métacognitives, cette recherche est fondée sur la théorie de l’échafaudage. Ainsi, des outils d’échafaudage numériques visant à assister temporairement les apprenants, afin qu’ils puissent internaliser un processus de RPC et développer leurs compétences métacognitives, ont été intégrés à une application numérique utilisée par des apprenants de 1er cycle universitaire en gestion. Cette recherche mixte a permis d’évaluer l’influence de ces outils d’échafaudage numériques sur l’apprentissage de la RPC et le développement de compétences métacognitives, de comprendre leur influence durant le processus de résolution, et de décrire l’intention d’utilisation des apprenants. Les résultats quantitatifs montrent que l’accès aux outils a amélioré la performance de RPC à une reprise et soutenu le développement de la compétence métacognitive de planification. Les résultats qualitatifs suggèrent que les apprenants considéraient que les outils les aidaient à améliorer la qualité de leurs évaluations, mais ils ne percevaient pas qu’ils visaient aussi à développer leurs compétences métacognitives. Les résultats suggèrent que ces apprenants peuvent être qualifiés de novices quant à leur compétence de RPC. En effet, ils semblent accorder un temps insuffisant à l’analyse de la situation problème, n’évaluent pas les autres solutions possibles, ne considèrent pas les conséquences négatives de leur solution et mobilisent peu leurs compétences métacognitives de monitoring et d’autocontrôle et d’autoévaluation. La perception d’utilité serait corrélée avec la perception de pertinence, d’amélioration de la qualité du travail et du caractère agréable des OÉN. Considérant la perception de facilité d’utilisation fortement élevée parmi tous les participants, cela suggère que l’intention d’utilisation serait principalement liée à la perception d’utilité Les résultats suggèrent que ces OÉN seraient davantage pertinents en formation à distance, plutôt qu’en présentiel. Les questions incitatives influenceraient davantage le processus de RPC, comparativement à une liste de vérification et des vidéos de solutions d’experts. Plusieurs recommandations ont été élaborées pour améliorer la conception et l’usage des OÉN. Les apprenants doivent être formés par leur enseignant à utiliser les OÉN, qui doit leur montrer la pertinence et la manière de les exploiter adéquatement. Les OÉN doivent offrir un niveau de soutien cognitif suffisant et constant à toutes les étapes de la RPC. L’application doit être dotée de fonctionnalités qui permettent de comprendre pourquoi les outils doivent être mobilisés. Les concepteurs doivent considérer les déterminants qui influencent la PU pour susciter leur usage. En somme, bien que cette recherche comporte plusieurs limites, notamment une collecte de données pendant la COVID-19, elle contribue significativement à la littérature grâce à ses recommandations visant la conception et l’usage des outils d’échafaudage numériques en enseignement supérieur. / Complex problem-solving (CPS) is an essential 21st century skill for all managers. Although most of the business administration programs aim to develop this skill, many graduates still feel gaps when they enter the labour market. If their lack of content knowledge and their low level of metacognitive skills can explain in part these gaps, they might also be caused by the teaching methods commonly used in business administration education. Indeed, these methods do not demonstrate a process for CPS explicitly. Considering the importance of teaching a CPS process explicitly and the development of metacognitive skills, this research is based on the scaffolding theory. Thus, digital scaffolds aiming at temporary assisting learners to internalize a CPS process and to develop their metacognitive skills were integrated to a digital application that has been used by undergrad students in business administration. By using a mix method, this research evaluated the influence of these scaffolds on the learning of CPS and the development of metacognitive skills. It also contributes to understand how these scaffolds influence learners during their problem-solving process and to describe their intention of use. Quantitative results indicate that access to scaffolds improved the performance on one assessment and show that it led to the development of the planning metacognitive skill. Qualitative results suggest that learners considered that these scaffolds were helping them to improve the quality of their assessments, although they did not perceive that these tools were also designed to develop their metacognitive skills. The results suggest that these learners can be called novices regarding their CPS skill. Indeed, they seem to allocate insufficient time to analyze the situation, they do not evaluate alternative solutions nor consider the negative consequences of their chosen solution and they insufficiently used their metacognitive skills of monitoring, self-regulation, and self-evaluation. The perceived utility of these scaffolds seem correlated with the perceived relevance, the perceived output quality, and the perceived enjoyment of using them. Considering a high perceived ease-of-use amongst all participants, this suggests that intention of use is mostly linked to the perceived utility. The results suggest that these scaffolds are more relevant in online learning, compared to face-to-face learning. Prompts, compared to a check list and videos of experts’ solutions, seem to have more influence on CPS process. Several recommendations are proposed to improve the design and the use of digital scaffolds. Learners should be trained by their teacher to use them efficiently. Teachers should demonstrate their relevance and the manner that students should use them for learning purposes. Digital scaffolds should offer a sufficient cognitive support throughout the CPS process. The application should include functions that allow students to understand why these should use these tools. Designers should consider the determinants of perceived usefulness when they conceptualize scaffolds to foster their usage. In sum, although this research has some limitations, notably a data collection done during the COVID-19 pandemic, it significantly contributes to the literature by proposing several recommendations aiming at improving the design and the use of digital scaffolds in higher education.

Direct-to-consumer genomics (DTCG) health testing offers great promise to humanity, however to date adoption has lagged as a result of consumer awareness, understanding, and previous government regulations restricting DTCG companies from providing information on an individual's genetic predispositions. But in 2017 the broader DTCG market which also includes genealogical testing demonstrated exponential growth, implying that DTCG is starting to diffuse as an innovation. To better understand the sociocultural forces affecting diffusion, adoption, and satisfaction, qualitative ethnographic research was conducted with DTCG genealogy and health consumers. The data was qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis to understand the similarities and differences in beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and mediating factors that have influenced consumers. Design anthropology theory and methods were used to produce ethnographically informed insights. The insights were then translated into actionable product management and business strategy recommendations.

Ph. D. (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The use of technology in supply chain management has increased over the years. Procurement is one of the primary supply chain management areas where the use of technology has gained momentum. This has been realised through the use of e-procurement systems. However, the adoption and implementation of e-procurement can be achieved more effectively if available models of technology adoption are taken into consideration. This study tested a conceptual framework integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of the Acceptance and use of Technology (UTAUT) in the implementation of e-procurement practices in the South African public sector. Although there are several studies that have focused on procurement in the public sector in South Africa, there is no evidence of studies that extended the use of the TAM and the UTAUT within the public sector in South Africa. This study was conducted to fill this gap by proposing a framework combining the TAM and UTAUT and modelling their role in the adoption of e-procurement in the public sector. The study adopted a survey design and a quantitative research approach was used to evaluate relationships between different variables. The final sample for this study consists of 263 supply chain management (SCM) practitioners drawn from the public sector in the Gauteng Province, South Africa. A self-completion survey questionnaire was used to gather data to measure the eight constructs of the TAM and UTAUT. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) procedure was performed to assess the factor structure of the data collected in the study. Descriptive statistics were applied to examine the demographic profile of respondents and the perceptions of respondents towards the research constructs. Pearson correlations were used to test relationships and regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. In the EFA, two new factors, labelled as Personal Competence and External Assistance, were identified. The results of the hypotheses tests showed that five factors, namely: perceived use, self-efficacy, facilitating conditions, personal competence and external assistance significantly predicted attitudes towards the use of e-procurement systems. However, perceived ease of use was statistically insignificant. The results further show that attitudes towards system use significantly predict behavioural intention, which in turn significantly influences actual e-procurement system use. The theoretical framework fusing the TAM and UTAUT models provides useful insights for other researchers and adds valuable knowledge to the factors that might contribute to the adoption of e-procurement in the South African public sector. The study further makes significant contributions to SCM professionals in the public sector. It reiterates the challenges faced in SCM in the public sector and then demonstrates how the adoption of e-procurement could improve the system, while reducing service delivery inequality. By indicating the factors either promoting or impeding the adoption of e-procurement in the public sector, the study provides practitioners and other decision makers in SCM with suggestions on how to facilitate more rapid adoption and circumvent the influence of irrelevant factors. Among other things, the study recommends that to improve the adoption and continued use of e-procurement systems in the public sector in the Gauteng Province, it is necessary to customise the e-procurement system to ensure that it responds to the needs of users. In addition, it is important to increase the confidence and competence of users of the systems, providing the relevant technical infrastructure and support to users in order to positively influence their attitudes and behavioural intention towards the use of e-procurement systems.

<p>The overall goal of this dissertation is to predict and explain how information literacy instruction (ILI) influences the adoption of online library resources (OLRs) by business students. This dissertation has two other important goals. First, this dissertation aims to assess the efficacy of active ILI and passive ILI. Second, this dissertation seeks to examine the role that OLR self-efficacy and OLR anxiety play in influencing ILI learning outcomes and the adoption of OLRs.</p> <p>To achieve these goals, a theoretical model was developed that integrates research on ILI outcomes and technology adoption. To test this model, a web-based survey was developed and administered to 337 business students at McMaster University.</p> <p>This dissertation makes several important contributions to theory. First, the findings from the analysis of the structural equation model confirm that the Technology Acceptance Model is an appropriate tool for studying the adoption of OLRs. Second, the findings indicate that amount of ILI is not a significant predictor of the adoption of OLRs. Third, though the amount of ILI was not found to be a predictor of OLR self-efficacy or OLR anxiety in the quantitative analysis, results from the qualitative analysis suggest that ILI increases self-efficacy and reduces anxiety. Fourth, the findings suggest that OLR self-efficacy and OLR anxiety are significant determinants of the adoption of OLRs where OLR self-efficacy was the strongest determinant of the adoption of OLRs. Last, consistent with Bandura’s social cognitive theory, OLR self-efficacy and OLR anxiety were found to be significantly negatively correlated; a partial mediation effect of OLR anxiety on the relationship between OLR self-efficacy and the perceived ease of use of OLRs was supported.</p> <p>This dissertation makes a contribution to practice by revealing that instructors should focus on delivering higher quality ILI rather than higher amounts of ILI. In particular, training interventions should be designed to promote OLR self-efficacy among business students, especially among students who have received the least amount of ILI.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Poor health care delivery in rural communities is a major problem facing the health sector in Namibia. Patients who visit rural communities often wait on queues for several hours every day before they can be examined by a medical practitioner. This is detrimental to the health care process and impacts negatively on the efficiency and effectiveness of the sector. Mobile phones can however be employed as tools to improve work processes in such hospitals and as a result improve health care delivery in rural communities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the health care services provided to patients at Outpatient Departments (OPDs) in rural hospitals through the use of data collection instruments such as interviews, questionnaires, document analysis, expert validation and photographs in order to compile a Mobile Health Service Framework (MHSF) to improve healthcare delivery processes in OPDs. From an interpretive paradigm perspective, the qualitative design was used together with a case study approach. Three hospitals in rural communities were used as case studies. These were Okuryangava Hospital, Katutura Hospital and Khomasdal Hospital. Interviews were conducted and questionnaires distributed to the participants. The findings revealed that there is a high concentration of mobile phone usage in rural communities and there is a high usage of the SMS feature on such mobile phones. / Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)

The federal government continues to monitor the cost of paper texts as an essential component of postsecondary education expenses. The Higher Education Act (HEA), which was initially passed in 1965, was created to buttress the educational resources of colleges and universities. Along with addressing the benefits of financial aid in postsecondary and higher education, the act referenced the projected financial burdens of paper texts. The last 2008 reauthorization suggested that colleges and universities develop plans to reduce the costs of college. Congress is currently working to reauthorize the legislation. Based on this information, the problem identified in this study explored how to use the results of the study to develop a framework that may be used by universities. This framework could be used to consider the success (or failure) of the intention to use e-texts in student learning, given how the cost of textbooks contributes to the perceived high cost of college attendance. The primary goal of the study was to evaluate students’ perceptions of the usefulness of e-texts. The subordinate goal was to address the financial benefits of e-texts. In this study, the author has explored the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and computer self-efficacy involved in the actual use of new technology such as textbooks in electronic format among undergraduate, postsecondary or university students. The main research questions for the study were: “How do the variables perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and computer self-efficacy impact the intention to use, which may be a predictor of actual use of new technology?” and “How will the results of this study assist institutions of higher education in planning for the successful acceptance of new technologies, which may or may not be a predictor of actual use?” The researcher used a Web-based survey and selected a sample of 5,600 undergraduate students from two universities. There were 482 complete responses to the survey. The context of the study included two traditional, land-based, universities. This was an exploratory, quantitative, qualitative research study. The research study measured the level of impact of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and computer self-efficacy on the intention to use that may or may not lead to the actual use of new technology. The researcher investigated the topic and provided a framework for identifying factors that may lead to the intention to use new technology, which may determine the actual use of technology (i.e., technology acceptance). The higher levels of students’ perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness of the e-texts, the more apt the student is to choose an e-text as opposed to a paper text. The lower costs of e-texts in comparison to paper texts would be a positive predictor of financial benefits for the students that choose to use e-texts. The financial gains in the purchasing of e-texts could lead to a positive impact on the total of college and education costs. The author also concluded that the market for recreational reading continues to grow for e-texts usage. Academic use of e-texts still represents a lesser portion of the market place. This study contributed to the body of knowledge, profession, and overall literature in the field of study regarding intentions to use new technology, user acceptance research, and information systems. The results of the study have provided a framework for launching new technology within a postsecondary school environment.

新商品上市後造成流行的機率低於25%（Cooper & Kleinschmidt, 1990；Cooper, 2011），但Rogers（唐錦超，民95）的創新擴散模型實驗卻提出若早期採用者接受新商品並分享他們的創意使用價值，則能影響早期消費大眾較快且容易接受新商品且在市場上誘發流行。因此本研究的動機是希望透過資訊技術，首先確認早期採用者存在於網路族群之中，再萃取被網際網路大量資料包圍的網路早期採用者與其在新商品的創意使用價值資料，希望能夠藉此影響早期消費大眾的接受意願，並跨越他們之間的鴻溝(Moore, 1991)。 本研究目的是探討即使網路早期採用者與早期消費大眾兩者之間無實體的社會關係網絡時，網路早期採用者所創造的新商品創意使用價值，還是能夠影響早期大眾消費者購買的意願，以形成一種新型創新擴散模式。實作上是將網路早期採用者的創意使用價值，設計成廣告宣傳單直接刺激早期消費大眾，觀察新商品是否被他們接受。經過購買意願問卷回收、整理和分析消費者族群與接受程度，證實網路早期採用者的創意使用價值確實能引起早期消費大眾往高購買意願的族群移動。 再者，企業為了能夠在市場生存競爭獲勝，必須比其他同業更早挖掘出稀少且有價值的資訊幫助新商品跨越鴻溝，協助企業獲得更多的利益。雖然本研究提出的新型創新擴散模式，能提高早期消費大眾接受新商品的意願，但是在人機互動的資料分析過程中，耗費過多人力。因此本研究再根據文字探勘的IDF概念提出ICF演算法，藉以縮小決策範圍並且得到效率前緣的機會點，依然能在眾多的資料中也萃取出網路早期採用者的微弱創意使用價值，同時降低人工作業、專家主觀解讀和決策制定的複雜度的問題，得到高品質的效率方案。 / The chance for a new product to be prevalent is lower than 25% (Cooper & Kleinschmidt, 1990; Cooper, 2011). However, in Rogers’ innovative diffusion model (Rogers, 2003), he proposed that if early adopters accepted new products and shared their innovative use value with others, the early majority may accept the new products quickly and readily. First of all, this study intends to use information technology to make sure that the early adopters exist on the Internet world. Then the author tries to extract innovative use information employed by the early adopters who are surrounded by huge amount of information. Hopefully, the early majority can be affected by such measures. That is, in the process of consuming merchandise, consumers tend to build mutual affections, value, and psychological sensation. This may enable the new products to cross over the chasm between the early adopters and early majority (Moore, 1991; 1995). The purpose of this study is to explore the innovative use value created by early adopters existing on the Internet world. It is to affect the purchasing intention of the early majority when there is no social relationship network between early adopters and early majority so as to build a new innovative diffusion model. In order to achieve this, the innovative use value created in the Internet by the early adopters was designed as commercial fliers to directly stimulate the early majority. It is used to observe whether new products are accepted by the early majority. The experimental results proved that this measurement surely can move the early majority toward groups with high intention. Moreover, talking about the continuing existence of a business, one needs to find out the rare and valuable information in the early stage in order to make the new products to cross over the chasm. The new innovative diffusion proposed by this study is able to extract the innovative use value created by the early adopters in Internet. And, for the purpose of reducing manpower and contracting the weak innovative information created by the early adopters, this study was conducted by using ICF algorithm which is derived from IDF concept existing in the text mining. It is to narrow the range of policy making, gain the chance point from the effect frontier, improve the quality and efficiency when making a decision, and reduce subjective judgement made by experts, which may help decision makers to make an effective policy based on their advantage and preference, and in the end, to reduce the complexity of making a policy.

「行動革命」到來，智慧型手機、平板或各式行動載具滲透人們日常生活，對人類的傳播模式產生了極大的變化。同樣的，這場行動革命，也襲捲到了公部門，「行動化」趨勢改變了政府現有的傳播方式。 在臺灣近年的行動媒介環境中，Line成為最普及的大眾化通訊程式，臺灣公部門也藉Line此行動平臺，試圖突破過往的傳播方式，公部門在Line平臺中的公共服務類官方帳號也先後上線。隨著行動裝置成為不可或缺的工具，這樣的行動官方帳號，更已成為臺灣政府在行動媒體時代資訊發布的重要管道。 基於上述研究背景與動機，本研究擬達成之研究目的為：(1)瞭解臺灣Line公共服務類官方帳號使用者的輪廓形貌；(2)調查臺灣群眾對於Line公共服務類官方帳號的使用行為；(3)瞭解影響臺灣群眾採用Line公共服務類官方帳號的因素；(4)建立並驗證描述「知覺實用性」、「知覺易用性」、「資訊內容品質」與「使用滿意度」之因果關係的假設和觀念性架構。 最終，以436份網路問卷資料，經結構方程模型驗證，本研究的5項假設均成立：Line公共服務類官方帳號中，使用者的「知覺實用性」、「知覺易用性」和「資訊內容品質」，皆對Line公共服務類官方帳號使用者的「使用滿意度」有正向且顯著的相關性。此外，研究中也檢驗出Line公共服務類官方帳號的「知覺易用性」以及「資訊內容品質」皆對於其「知覺實用性」有正向且顯著的關係。其中「知覺實用性」，是影響使用者採用Line公共服務類官方帳號的最重要因素。 本研究構建並驗證影響臺灣群眾對Line公共服務類官方帳號採用之因果模型，當中各構面之間皆具顯著相關，因此，以TAM為基礎，並加入「資訊內容品質」 的擴增模型，在預測臺灣群眾對Line公共服務類官方帳號的採用上，具有顯著效果。 / The development of mobile access technologies and the rapid growth of mobile broadband along with explosion of the mobile application ecosystem have created a new communication channel between the public administration and citizens. With mobile devices being one of the main tools of communication, Taiwan government agencies are increasingly using Line, one of the most popular messaging Apps in Taiwan, in a bid to increase effective communication with their citizens. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to (1)understand the behavioral and demographic attributes of the Public Service Line Official Account users; (2)propose an integrated model of Public Service Line Official Account acceptance by integrating perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use from Technology Acceptance Model(TAM), information quality theory and user satisfaction theory. The model and relationships were tested and validated with the Structural Equation Modeling(SEM), using data gathered from 436 users of Public Service Line Official Account in Taiwan. The results suggest that user satisfaction is directly influenced by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and information quality, whilst perceived usefulness is directly influenced by perceived ease of use and information quality. In addition, perceived usefulness to be a major influence on the adoption of Public Service Line Official Account in Taiwan.The implications of these findings are discussed.