bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Determinants for South African SMEs to Adopt Broadband Internet Technologies
Authors: Gareeb Prashil Pravin , Naicker Visvanathan 
Published: December 2017

AbstractInternet based technology is globally endorsed as a stimulant for small business success (Chibelushi and Costello, 2009). For the last twenty years, the Small Medium Enterprise (SME) business segment is seen as a key driver to social and economic growth in South Africa (Manuel, 1995). The purpose of the research was to identify and rank all socio‐psychological influences on South African SMEs at macro (institutional), meso (industrial) and micro (individual) levels to adopt and use broadband based internet. The Technology‐Organisational‐Environmental (TOE) model proposed by Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990) was augmented with the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA) (Fishbein and Ajzen, 2011) to ensure reasonable inter‐relatedness and defragmentation of the various socio‐psychological items, including environmental, industry and technology level influences. Exploratory factor analysis was used to establish specific factors influencing broadband adoption amongst SMEs in South Africa. Three levels of statistical testing were conducted: testing strength of all items using exploratory factor analysis, testing factor impact on independent variables (business activity and turnover) through one‐way ANOVA and predictability testing using logistic regression analysis. This was done across multiple SME sectors and business sizes. Purposive sampling was used, with a target of both users and non‐users of broadband technologies, and a response rate of 14.1% (211 valid observations) was obtained across both sets. From the ANOVA analysis, there was a significant impact of technology drivers on retail businesses, and higher impact on manufacturing than on transport. It was found that organisational elements related significantly differently across varying sizes of businesses, especially between retail versus manufacturing entities. Finally, for the environmental factor, supplier and customer influence on SMEs weighed in relatively higher than competitor pressure. It is recommended that to enhance business climate for broadband adoption, key operator tactics for supply need to be defined and market conditions adjusted to influence demand. Ultimately, the paper suggests that an ecosystem of elements that must be managed to assist in widespread adoption, over and above technology readiness and possibilities in using broadband based ICT for SME growth.
Assessing the Role of Mobile Phones in Offering Price Information and Market Linkages: The Case of M‐Farm in Kenya
Authors: Baumüller Heike 
Published: December 2017

AbstractMany farmers in the developing world have limited access to agricultural technologies and markets. Mobile phone‐enabled services that offer price information and market linkages could contribute towards bridging this gap by reducing uncertainty about expected profits, information asymmetries and market inefficiencies. This article uses the example of the price information and marketing service M‐Farm in Kenya to empirically test this potential. Findings from a survey of M‐Farm users confirm that m‐services offering price information can help farmers plan production processes better, but also show that the radio can be an effective dissemination channel especially at the early stages of production. While evidence on the utility of the price information to help farmers obtain better prices is inconclusive, resulting changes in cropping patterns and harvesting times are likely to have contributed to perceived income gains. M‐Farm appears to have had limited impact on trading relationships. In terms of methodology, the study also highlights the limitations of relying on farmers’ perceptions gathered through surveys when assessing the impact of m‐services.
The Adoption of Electronic Commerce by Small and Medium Enterprises in Pretoria East
Authors: Garg Ajay K , Choeu Thobeng 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThe objectives of this study were to determine the current level of e‐commerce adoption and factors that motivates the adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Pretoria East. A structured questionnaire survey was distributed to 200 randomly selected small and medium enterprises and 48 valid responses were obtained. The results indicate that 67 percentage of SMEs in the sample in Pretoria East have somewhat embraced the adoption of e‐commerce. Retail is the largest industry sector in the sample followed by Service industry with 45.8percentage and 35.4 percentage respectively. The results also indicates that Service sector was at adoption level 2 followed by Retail and others. The results show that only three independent factors namely (relative advantage, competitive pressure, IT knowledge) were statistically significant. Relative advantage emerged as the most important factor influencing the adoption of e‐commerce among SMEs in terms of relative importance. The Chi‐square test indicates that the type of business, occupation level, numbers of employees in the company and academic qualification did influence the adoption levels amongst SMEs whilst how long as owner/manager and gender did not influence the adoption level.
ICTs for the Broader Development of South Africa: An Analysis of the Literature
Authors: Johnston Kevin A , Jali Ndumiso , Kundaeli Flora , Adeniran Tejumade 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThe purpose of this research is to ascertain whether Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been valuable in the provision of broader development to South African citizens. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted on data in the form of peer reviewed academic literature. The data is therefore not primary as the works of authors are subjected to the relative and subjective scrutiny of the authors themselves (Walsham, 1995). Thus the underlying philosophy of the study is one of an interpretivism nature. The study found that ICT has been a key contributor to development in areas such as agricultural supply chains and also served as a key enabler in the provision of health care for the poor. The study also found that ICTs are an integral part of development policies aimed at bettering the lives of the poor. However, an understanding of the context in which ICTs are implemented is vital in ensuring the success of ICT projects. The analysis and understanding of exactly how ICTs contribute towards development can provide a basis from which further studies can be conducted and also provide a pragmatic insight into how development can be achieved through the use of ICTs. The study highlights avenues for future research, especially with regards to ICTs for the development of South Africa and the role ICT plays in improving civil society.
Empirically Examining Barriers to E‐business Adoption in SMEs in Indonesia
Authors: Irma Janita , Chong Tristan , Ram Jiwat 
Published: December 2017

AbstractWe examine SMEs’ attitudes towards e‐Business adoption from a multi‐dimensional perspective to provide an understanding of the challenges and barriers to e‐Business adoption in the SMEs context. We derive a framework containing the interaction among various elements that influence e‐Business adoption. The framework was analysed with data from case studies involving Indonesian SMEs. Prior findings have shown the importance of e‐Business for companies’ growth. However, we have extended this evidence by providing an understanding of issues that are important for e‐Business adoption in the SMEs context. We have empirically established that e‐Business adoption occurs through an interaction of various internal and external factors with owner‐manager‐related factors having the greatest influence on the outcome. The understanding of issues identified by this study will help policy makers, business owners, industry institutions, and other stakeholders to influence the uptake of e‐Business among SMEs in Indonesia and elsewhere. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
The Impact of Contextual Factors on the Implementation of Government E‐Strategy in Previously Disadvantaged Areas in Cape Town
Authors: Mooketsi Bojelo Esther , Chigona Wallace 
Published: December 2017

AbstractDespite the fact that it has been established that contextual factors affect implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects, there is a dearth of information on how these were addressed in the implementation of the whitepaper on e‐education in schools in previously disadvantaged areas in South Africa. This interpretive study, guided by contextual interaction theory, examines the impact of contextual factors in the implementation of ICT in schools in previously disadvantaged areas. The findings show that the implementation context and the history of the implementers and other issues that are in no way related to the implementation process affect the implementation process and outcomes. The results of this study offer those who carry out ICT in education implementation projects in disadvantaged areas in South Africa and similar contexts elsewhere insights into the Information Systems implementation dynamics.
E‐Government for Development: A Thematic Analysis of Zimbabwe's Information and Communication Technology Policy Documents
Authors: Ruhode Ephias 
Published: December 2017

AbstractTraditionally, governments have been viewed as complex, large bureaucratic establishments with a set of information silos that erect barriers to the access of information and make the provision of services cumbersome and frustrating. However with the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), there is evidence of improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of internal administration within governments and the relocation of government services from government offices to locations closer to the citizens. This paper is motivated by the need to investigate an e‐government phenomenon in a developing country context which is characterised by complex dynamics rooted in politics, economy and social setting. The paper has been scoped to explore the evolution of e‐government in Zimbabwe as articulated in ICT policy documents. The policy documents are analysed through the lens of thematic analysis which leads to critical narrative analysis. The use of thematic analysis as a theoretical foundation and a methodological approach for analysing text contributes to a better understanding of government publications. This study has identified that all documents are silent on the political and economic reality in Zimbabwe which directly influences the implementation of capital projects. The policy documents also make no reference to other considerations as funding models and execution plans under a complex political, social and economic environment. As a result, government policy documents remained only as blueprints without any impact towards the implementation of e‐government in Zimbabwe.
Current Landscape and Potential of Mobile Computing Research in the Least Developed Countries
Authors: Imran Ahmed , Quimno Val , Hussain Mehdi 
Published: December 2017

AbstractDespite the huge potentialities, the actual growth of information and communications technology (ICT) in the least developed countries (LDCs) is still hindered by a number of factors beyond the infrastructural constraints. However, over the last decade, mobile computing has emerged as an important means to bridge the longstanding digital divide between LDCs and first world countries by accelerating the diffusion of various services (government, business, health, education and environment) through mobile devices. These services can be classified according to their domain of application, such as m‐agriculture, m‐finance, m‐banking, m‐commerce, m‐government, m‐health and m‐learning. The overreaching goal of this paper is to explore mobile applications and services in LDCs and to assess the extent of research that has permeated in this area within the LDCs. The research questions that this paper seeks to answer are: what has existing research in LDCs identified regarding mobile technology applications, services and usage; and what are the typical characteristics and trends of mobile computing technology innovation and services within LDCs? The paper presents a comprehensive literature review of 480 articles on mobile technology application and services in the LDCs from the basket of Information Systems literature. The review draws on the current landscape of mobile computing studies in the LDCs to analyse and evaluate research trends, focus, regional priorities and gaps. Through the meta‐analysis of secondary data, the paper highlights some interesting comparisons about mobile technologies among the LDCs as regards to research themes, focus areas and applications. Also, based on an assessment of current state of research, the paper identifies gaps and potential research directions.
A Citizen‐Centric Framework For Assessing E‐Government Effectiveness
Authors: Sigwejo Annastellah , Pather Shaun 
Published: December 2017

AbstractIn a quest to offer better services to both citizens and businesses throughout Africa, efforts to adopt e‐government projects are gaining momentum. As a result of this, there is a need for effective measurement of delivery and quality of such e‐services. Currently, there are several metrics applied to measure and rank the e‐readiness of various African countries. However, while these measures have provided a source of comparative analysis between different e‐government projects, they are far from being perfect. For example, most of these measures are diverse and difficult to compare, since they assume ‘one size fits all’ and ignore differing environmental, cultural and contextual factors of various countries. Further criticisms of these measures are that they are ‘first generation metrics’ designed for developed countries, as opposed to developing countries.This paper addresses the problem that there is a need for suitable evaluation strategies for understanding and measuring the effectiveness of e‐government services in order to improve the management thereof, and thereby attain the best possible value for citizens. The objective of this study was to investigate and develop a framework, for evaluating the effectiveness of e‐government services in a typical developing country. Tanzania was chosen as the context for this study: as a typical developing African country, its early phase of e‐government development provided an optimal case for this study concerned with the useful and effective evaluation of e‐government services.The findings indicate the key dimensions to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of e‐government services. These dimensions are synthesised into an e‐government citizen satisfaction framework (ECSF). The framework demonstrates how citizen and government imperatives should be amalgamated to evaluate the effectiveness of e‐government service. The findings further support the call to increase monitoring and evaluation of all ICT projects within government.
Vulnerability and Information Practices among (Undocumented) Latino Migrants
Authors: Gomez Ricardo 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThis paper explores the information practices (information seeking, using, and sharing) among Latino migrants, particularly undocumented migrants, in three different settings: at the US‐Mexico border, in Seattle, Washington, and in Cali, Colombia. Through participatory photography and unstructured interviews, we explore the life experiences and information practices of marginalized and underserved communities and relate them to their experience of transience through different stages of the migration experience. We discuss how stages of migration may be limited to understand the iterative and constantly shifting experiences of migrants in the contexts we studied. Using a narrative style, we offer the richness of stories and the power of pictures to illustrate the concepts, in the words and images of the participants themselves.
Scaffolding Health Information Infrastructure's Generativity by Scaffolded Gateways: The Case of Vietnam
Authors: Nguyen Thanh Ngoc , Braa Jorn 
Published: December 2017

AbstractStandards and gateways are important components that play critical roles in information infrastructure (e‐infrastructure) evolution. Surprisingly, little research has been conducted into this area. To fill that gap, we undertook a longitudinal action research study in the health care sector in Vietnam in the period between 2012 and 2015. The empirical work involved designing or cultivating, reconfiguring, (re)assembling multiple socio‐technical components and transforming them into a larger health information infrastructure. To understand how gateways performed in our cases, we employed a concept namely “scaffolded gateways”, which was basically a hybrid between scaffoldings and gateways. We defined it as having three properties: interconnecting, supportive, and evanescent.
An Exploratory Study of Attitudes Towards Privacy in Social Media and the Threat of Blackmail: The Views of a Group of Saudi Women
Authors: Al‐Saggaf Yeslam 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThe Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or the Religious Police as it is commonly known in the west, has dealt with 1834 incidents of women being blackmailed by men in 2014 and of those 22% (N= 403) were initiated using Social Network Sites (SNS). In light of the reality about these crimes, this study asked the following questions: (1) Are Saudi women concerned about their privacy in SNS? (2) Are Saudi women worried about falling victim to blackmail in SNS? (3) Do Saudi women know how to change the privacy settings in SNS? (4) Are Saudi women comfortable with communicating across gender lines in SNS? To address these questions, qualitative interviews with 16 women who used Facebook regularly and a focus group discussion with another group of 10 Saudi female students were conducted. The findings of the study show that the Saudi women interviewed appeared concerned about their privacy in Facebook, worried about falling victim to blackmail, knew how to change the privacy settings and are not comfortable with communicating across gender lines. This suggests that the participants in this study are not the likely victims of blackmail crimes. Further research is needed to understand the profile of the victims of blackmail and the root cause of these crimes.
ICTs and Hope for Development: A Theoretical Framework
Authors: Heeks Richard , Krishna Shyam 
Published: December 2017

AbstractHope is a core part of what it means to be human, and has long been recognised as foundational in driving people to make changes in their lives and contexts. Yet this importance of hope is not reflected in academic research, with little work being undertaken on hope and development, and none on hope and the application of ICT‐for‐development (ICT4D). This paper makes a start on closing this knowledge gap by exploring the different meanings of hope within existing literature. It synthesises these meanings into a new multi‐dimension content model of hope that looks at the subject, object and enaction of hope. This model is then linked to ICT4D initiatives by taking into account the hopes of different stakeholders, which are seen – via a modified ICT4D value chain framework – to be both an input to and an output from ICT4D adoption and use. The paper then undertakes a preliminary application of this framework to a case study using multiple sources of secondary data from the One‐Laptop‐per‐Child initiative. This provides preliminary validation for the models of hope, and offers a foundation for future research seeking to understand the connection between ICT4D and this key human belief.
The Use of Participatory Approaches in Developing ICT‐Based Systems for Disseminating Agricultural Knowledge and Information for Farmers in Developing Countries: The Case of Tanzania
Authors: Barakabitze Alcardo Alex , Fue Kadeghe G. , Sanga Camilius Aloyce 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThis paper provides an insight on the use of various participatory approaches to develop ICTs to the rural farming communities. The paper shows how collective groups of farmers can be empowered through involvement of different stakeholders in a participatory action research. The paper also discusses how participatory action research will help the farming community in adopting ICT‐based solutions for agriculture. This in turn will contribute in solving problems as well as assisting decision making in identifying technological and agricultural needs. In this study, a total of 64 researchers and extension workers and 320 rural farmers were involved. Primary data were collected using a self‐administered questionnaire and interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics tool. The results indicate that many ICT‐based solutions for agriculture are not adopted by farmers and other stakeholders in various agricultural value chains because those ICTs were developed without using participatory approaches. Moreover, the results from study indicate that participatory action research approaches such as Participatory Communication (PV), Participatory Video (PV), Participatory Learning and Action Research (PLAR), Farmer Participatory Research (FPR), Informal‐Mobile Learning Research (IMLR) have a significant impact on the effective use of ICTs in rural farming community and the agricultural domain in general. Among of these participatory approaches, the IMLR and PLAR have shown to be more effective because of availability and interactive mobile learning environments that excite interests, commitments and encourages participatory attitudes among famers and researchers. This study provides an evident that ICTs has a dominant position to alleviate rural poverty and strengthen the agriculture productivity through participatory approaches. We recommend that a strong commitment of all actors in agriculture value chain is needed so that they can collaborate to identify the problem, analysis and design possible solutions and finally, implement and later on use those developed ICTs to increase agriculture productivity.
The Impact of Connectivity in Africa: Grand Visions and the Mirage of Inclusive Digital Development
Authors: Friederici Nicolas , Ojanperä Sanna , Graham Mark 
Published: December 2017

AbstractCorporations, development organisations and governments have launched ambitious programmes to ‘connect the unconnected’, reasoning that this creates economic growth and inclusive development. This paper contrasts these actors’ discourses with evidence from academic research. The evidence suggests a highly uneven economic impact of Internet connectivity across geographies and social strata. The analysed sources of discourse (African ICT policies and reports by international organisations) instead propose Grand Visions of connectivity, attributing a self‐evident positive, widespread, and transformational impact to the Internet. We discuss technological determinism, acontextual modernism, and optimistic simplism as underlying this contrast, calling for more reflexivity towards the opportunities of ‘digital development’.