The purpose of this study is to propose a unified model integrating both the technology acceptance model (TAM) and task technology fit (TTF) model, and explore the organizational and environmental fit of the integrated model in order to investigate usage of Big Data Analytics and its effect on business performance. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 280 companies in CPG & Retail, Healthcare, Banking and Telecom in India. The data were analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Further, structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed model. The findings show that the research model for integrating the TAM for adoption and TTF model for utility provides a more comprehensive understanding of Big Data Analytics usage. The study identified task technology fit , individual technology fit, organizational data fit, organizational process fit, and business strategy fit as Tidd important variables for affecting Big Data Analytics usage using perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) as mediating variables. Competitive fit and partner support/customer fit were also found to be directly affecting Big Data Analytics usage, which in turn has significant influence on business performance. The model explained 71.4 percent of Business performance. The integrated model may be used as a guideline to ensure a positive outcome of Big Data Analytics usage in organizations. This study combined both the key ideas of TAM and TTF to show that they were necessary in predicting Big Data Analytics usage and business performance.
E‑government development varies across countries. This study aims to examine the impact of national culture on e‑government development across 78 countries. The dimensions of national culture are power distance, individualism, masculinity, long‑term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, and indulgence. The paper also examines the role of GDP per capita on e‑government development. The result shows that individualism and long‑term orientation are positively related to e‑government development, whereas power distance is negatively related to e‑government development. Also, GDP per capita is found to be significantly impacting e‑government development. Multi‑level interaction effect of GDP per capita and culture on e‑government development is discussed. The paper outlines the implications of results and strategies to design culturally acceptable e‑government policies. The paper argues that growth in economic prosperity cannot guarantee e‑government development, and national culture must be included in a holistic discussion of the development.
Humans and machines generate data at an alarming rate but still struggle to analyse and process this data fast enough. In order to meet this rising demand, business intelligence (BI) software firms are constantly incorporating new reporting or analytical functionalities in their software. At the same time, in order to be used optimally, they must ensure these features do not overwhelm users. There has however recently been cases where organisations, even after significant monetary investments, fail to realise the full potential of BI tools, sometimes reporting less than 20% utilisation. The purpose of this study was to investigate possible causes of the low utilisation and test the inclusion of a BI usability process. The study uses an off‑the‑shelf tool as a matter of convenience but proposes that including an empirical evaluation process as part of the BI design and development could increase BI adoption and usage. A small feasibility study was conducted to determine whether eye‑tracking is viable as a means of determining why the usability problems exist. Findings suggest that analysis of eye‑tracking data, together with traditional usability measures offer insight into how users solve problems and use the BI tool. Therefore, it will be a valuable aid in the design and testing of BI tools before release to enhance the usability therefore and potentially increase adoption and usage rates and should be included as a phase in the design and development lifecycle.
Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) is an important process in the implementation and use of IT systems in today’s dynamic and increasingly digitalized organizations. However, SISP is not a straightforward task, it is a process that covers simultaneous multiple planning issues often in changing environmental and organizational climates. Although SISP has been widely studied, and evaluating the SISP process has matured, theory on SISP facilitators that enable successful outcomes remain sparse. The main objective of this paper is to explore such facilitators and to investigate their relationship and contribution in achieving SISP success. By postal surveying a random sample of managers with SISP experience in South Korean organizations, we modeled the relationship between facilitators of SISP and their outcomes. The study used Structural Equation Modelling to analyze and validate its findings. This study suggests that facilitators positively affect successful SISP through business and IT alignment. It also demonstrates that effective SISP has a positive effect on organizational outcomes by ensuring organizational capabilities and IT infrastructure flexibility. The findings of this study expounding the role of facilitators adds to the theory of SISP and provides a guide to planners and managers responsible for information systems.
Online‑to‑offline (O2O) is a fast‑growing business innovation, pointing online customers to physical locations where they can more closely inspect – and purchase – their desired products, or can collect them after ordering online. However, the growth of O2O may be limited by the lack of reliable understanding of its benefits to customers. This study aims to remedy this lack of knowledge, by analyzing the transcripts of 24 semi‑structured interviews with managers. The study finds that O2O benefits customers in three main ways: (1) making more informed decisions, (2) receiving timely information on discounts and sales, leading to time and cost savings, and (3) having direct interaction opportunities with the business ‑ something which is not the case in a pure online business. Contrary to general understanding, the results show that offering discounts as a benefit to customers is an approach that is not necessarily applicable across‑the‑board, because in some industries the margins are too low to offer any discounts. Further work may be needed to examine the relevance of discount as a customer benefit proposition for adopting O2O. We also find that the time saving benefit to customers remains a contentious issue, as the availability of too much choice may lead to customers spending too much time investigating the product/service, thereby delaying their decisions and ultimately negating any benefits. The results contribute to e‑commerce literature in building the theoretical understanding of the perceived benefits of O2O for customers from a managerial perspective. The identification of O2O benefits for customers will also help in understanding the behaviors and intentions as well as perceived value of adoption and acceptance of newer forms of technological ‑oriented innovations such as O2O in general. Managers can use the results for business‑case development and strategizing benefits realization of adopting O2O. The results will help managers in creating tailored strategies to integrate features and functionalities in the software products used for O2O to ensure that identified benefits are provided to the customers, thus improving the chances of successful realization.
Higher learning institutions (HLIs) are implementing enterprise content management (ECM) systems as web portals that are helping them interact with and serve their students better. However, there is a paucity of research that has evaluated the factors that account for students using their university’s portals. As a case study and using the D&M IS Success Model as a guiding lens, this paper explored the factors that influence Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT) Students to use the university’s portal through a survey. Data was collected from 134 students through Stratified Random Sampling technique that was analysed through Partial Least Square ‑ Structural Equation Modelling (PLS‑SEM). Results obtained show clearly that LUCT students are using the university’s portal as a result of the System Quality and Information Quality which gives them Satisfaction. However, the findings reveal no significant correlation between Service Quality and Satisfaction of the students as well as the System Quality and Behavioural Intention (BI) to use the Systems. This study has given more insights into LUCT Management, Administrators, and Faculties concerning how to handle their Students need. Other implications for both practice and theory were also discussed.
The alignment between information technology (IT) and business strategy is regarded as an ongoing issue for information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners. Although prior studies suggest the enabling role of IT‑business alignment on firm performance, our understanding of the processes through which such gains are achieved in the small‑to‑medium enterprise (SME) context still remains unclear. Moreover, there is limited research exporing how SMEs employ the alignment between IT and business strategy to work closely with their business partners in order to achieve business competences. In order to address these research gaps, this study investigates whether and how IT‑business alignment enables SMEs to achieve performance goals through developing strategic business activities effectively and efficiently. Using structural equation modelling analyses of survey responses collected from 211 Australian high growth SMEs, we find positive, significant, and impactful linkages between IT‑business alignment, strategic collaboration, coordination, responsiveness, and SME performance. The results also show that strategic collaboration, coordination, and responsiveness fully mediate the relationship between IT‑business alignment and SME performance. This study contributes to the IS research by providing empirically‑supported explanations for the critical role of IT‑business alignment in SME success. More significantly, through investigating the effect of IT‑business alignment at the inter‑mediate business process level, this research provides new insights to understand the underlying influential mechanisms of IT‑business alignment in the SME context. These findings have important implications for SME business managers.
There is a general consensus that games are effective as learning tools. There is however, a lack of knowledgeregarding what makes online games effective as learning tools. The purpose of this study is therefore to answer the question:What are the factors influencing online game‑based learning effectiveness? The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptualframework that reflects the factors influencing online game‑based learning effectiveness. The conceptual frameworkcombines concepts from the Information Systems Success Model, Task‑Technology Fit Model and Flow theory. The studyused a quantitative method. Data was collected using an online instrument. The study used 134 respondents from mainlythe United Kingdom, United States and South Africa. The model was validated using confirmatory factor analysis and testedusing Smart‑PLS to assess path coefficients. The identified factors influencing Knowledge Improvement, the key measurechosen for learning effectiveness with online game‑based learning, are Game‑Task Fit, Flow (where Flow consists ofdimensions of Goal Orientation/Feedback and Concentration) and Perceived Usefulness. The utilitarian factors of Game‑TaskFit and Perceived Usefulness have a stronger effect on Knowledge Improvement than Flow. On the other hand Flow was theonly one of these three variables to have an influence on intensity and frequency of game use, suggesting a hedonicmotivation for intense and frequent game usage. These increases in game usage do not necessarily translate into KnowledgeImprovement suggesting that the link between game use and Knowledge Improvement may not be a simple linearrelationship. Game Quality influences Game‑Task Fit, while Information Quality influences both Flow and Game‑Task Fit.
Evaluation of performance of the Information System (IS) function has long been a concern of senior management in organisations. The IS function can impact competitive advantage which is why executives regularly look for evidence of returns on IT investments. The paper reports on a study which investigated how patrimonial value (inherent or actual quality of hardware, software and know‑how) and use value (contribution to the business) influence the success and organisational impact of an intranet. This paper proposes a set of principles for the conduct and implementation of analysis of these two intangible values of IS function. Research was conducted in three field studies of business and engineering schools in France. The data collected in questionnaires were analysed using the PLS structural equation method. This research provides theoretical contributions with a model giving a deeper comprehension of patrimonial value and use value of information systems, as well as explaining the relationships between these two values, success and organisational impact.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are large complex software packages that are widely usedin organizations today. Due to the complexity, sandbox environments are often used for training on ERPsystems. This study examines the effectiveness of training using a sandbox environment, specifically examininguser attitudes, users’ perception of financial knowledge gained, and user satisfaction in the ERP environmentwhile learning financial concepts. The theoretical framework is based on the Technology Acceptance Modelwith additional factors predicted to impact users’ attitude and satisfaction. Data were collected from 124subjects who voluntarily participated in the study. Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the data.The results of this study should help organizations understand the factors impacting user attitudes on ERPtraining leading to higher self‑perception of knowledge gains and task completion satisfaction. In addition, thisstudy provides the results of using ERP systems as a tool for financial education.
Most evaluation methods for purchasing newer and enticing information and communication technology (ICT) in organisations are based on financial models, or are premised on the presumption that the new ICT is not replacing an existing ICT. However, the availability and constant proliferation of more powerful and functional ICT in most organisations today means that the models may need to recognise already existing ICTs in use. There is therefore a need for such a tool that can assist decision makers, particularly in Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Using the Information Systems Success Model as the base model, the study developed a conceptual framework using financial and non‑financial models. Data collected from 222 SME owners using an online survey was analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The key findings suggest that the psychological views of SME owners and the performance of the existing ICTs are important in the evaluation of existing ICTs. The study found that some features of the existing ICTs and SME surroundings do not matter, but the contentment of the SME owner with the existing ICTs does. This study is expected to assist SME owners with the creation of a handy tool to evaluate existing ICTs before considering newer enticing ICTs. The study recommends that SME owners should not base their decisions to continue using the existing ICTs on their personal experiences only. Future research, however, should consider other factors which may be relevant in the evaluation of existing ICTs.
An effective approach for evaluating and selecting information systems (IS) projects in project management from a sustainability perspective is highly desirable in contemporary organisations with sustainable objectives. Such an approach, however, is absent from the literature. This paper presents a multi‑criteria analysis approach for effectively evaluating and selecting IS projects for project management in organisations based on their sustainability performance under environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Such an approach considers the subjective and uncertain nature of the IS project selection process using linguistic variables approximated by fuzzy numbers and effectively aggregates the subjective assessments for determining the overall sustainable performance of individual IS projects across all the selection criteria and their associated sub‑criteria. The proposed multi‑criteria decision‑making approach provides organisations with a proactive mechanism for effectively evaluating and selecting IS projects from a sustainability perspective. An IS project selection problem is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
Recent developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have initiated significant transformation in the way in which B2B firms interact with existing and potential customers. These advancements have a profound impact on the marketing practices of firms. Social media is one of the most important information technology tools which have a transformative impact on business enterprises. It has dramatically influenced businesses and industries in this era. Social connectivity through this online platform has become a key to marketing in firms. Given the exponential increase in the use of social media, firms need to be present where their customers are in order to know the needs of their customers and to satisfy them. The use of social media as a component of a firms’ marketing strategy is widely recognised by marketing practitioners. Also, marketers have embraced the abilities of these online platforms to assist in marketing practices in firms. However, there is limited research that explores the influence of social media usage on customer satisfaction in the B2B sector. This study seeks to fill this gap and examines the influence of social media practices adopted by the ICT firms on customer satisfaction. A web based survey was used to collect data from a sampling frame of ICT firms in India. Analysis shows that social media practices have a positive and significant influence on customer satisfaction. This research makes a distinct contribution to social media literature. It addresses the gap in literature by providing an understanding of the effective use of social media for marketing purposes by the B2B firms in the ICT sector in India. It provides empirical evidence to support that these effective social media practices improves customer satisfaction in these firms.
The proliferation of e‑government adoption in developing nations is anticipated to radically progress governance and transform government‑to‑citizen interactions and general administrative operations. More so, the benefits and level of e‑government adoption in the public sector have been echoed world over; but remains subdued in the context of developing nations. This study investigates the effect of effort expectancy, price value, service quality, optimism bias and behavioural intention on citizens’ decisions to use e‑government systems in Zimbabwe. Informed by the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) as a theoretical lens, a research model for this study was adapted and tested using quantitative data collected from a survey of 489 respondents in Zimbabwe. Using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling, the proposed model was validated, thus, the major contribution of this research. Findings of this study may be of value in policy formulation and restructuring by practitioners on e‑government matters. Thus, the results shade a light to some of the key drivers and inhibitors of e‑government adoption in developing nations. Despite achieving its aim, this study has its limitations which constitute the future research direction
In recent times, many organisations have difficulties to keep up with a frequent technology changes. On the other hand, their employees continue to bring their own devices in order to access organisational information systems and data. This phenomenon is also known as Bring‑Your‑Own‑Device (BYOD). Although a number of studies have demonstrated that the introduction of BYOD commonly has a positive effect on organisation and employees (e.g. improved optimism, job satisfaction and productivity), this concept appears as still not well understood. This particularly refers to possible risks related to the introduction of BYOD in the organisations. Hence, the intention of this study is to explore potential risks of introducing BYOD in organisations and to propose a model for addressing these risks effectively. The study began with reviewing the pertinent literature that elicited a number of the BYOD related risks that can further be classified into five groups: implementational, technological, policy and regulation, human aspects and organisational concerns. This helped in the creation of the “BYOD risk management model” as the identified risks and the proposed model were consequently tested in a middle‑sized South African IT organisation, deploying exploratory case study methodology. The empirical study has corroborated the literature review findings, hence confirming that the BYOD risks identified in the researched South African organisation do not differ from those reported in the reviewed literature. The contribution of this study is seen as twofold: academic and practical. Since there is a very limited BYOD literature in a South African setting, this study added to the contextual body of knowledge on the BYOD phenomenon in general, and in the area of understanding potential risks in particular. The study also provides guidelines for the decision‑makers responsible for the introduction of BYOD practice in the organisation.
The variable Net Impacts, a key variable in the models for information systems evaluation, is rarely operationalized according to a rigorous method and never for the banking sector. DeLone and McLean (2016) note that the challenge of developing measures to evaluate information systems is still relevant. The measurement and conceptualization of variables in real contexts is both very important and relatively absent in the literature. This research aims at operationalizing the Net Impacts construct resulting from DeLone and McLean's (2016) evaluation model for information systems, in the specific context of retail banks. It also aims at highlighting the socio‑demographic variables influencing this construct. This original work conducted with 763 people applies the Churchill paradigm (1979) to provide a reliable and valid measure of Net Impacts, inspired by the Balanced Score Card. The main result of the research concerns the empirical validation of the measure of Net Impacts. This tool consists of three categories, relating to customer satisfaction, productivity and risk and ten items, which take into account the user but also include customer perception. This three‑dimensional construct shows how the information system supports the user in a wide spectrum of work. Also, by showing that in the banking field, only the function occupied by the user influences the perception of the impact of IS, we contribute to a better knowledge of the variables related to the evaluation of IS. Thus, this instrument represents a strategic tool for monitoring and guiding efforts to increase performance. The proposed instrument is very easy for CIOs and managers to use in order to evaluate their information systems with users.
To date, the literature on E-Government evaluation tends to stress on benchmarking and performance measurements of customer satisfactions with the use of quantitative rather than qualitative measurements. This paper seeks to address this problem by introducing a design science approach to build a new theoretical framework, namely, return on investment (ROI) vs return on relationship (ROR), as a qualitative evaluation tool, to evaluate E-Government services by classifying customer experiences into categories of customer satisfactions. Our results should help government to identify strategic focus areas that need attentions and allocation of funds.
Online Information Services (OISs) have become an important medium for meeting the information needs of consumers for e‑commerce purposes. Yet, there is little existing research that has investigated the factors which govern users’ intentions to adopt OISs. The study addresses this gap. Data collected from 511 users of a travel company OIS in Taiwan through a cross‑sectional survey were analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling technique. It was found that: (a) subjective norms manifested through social influences, information sharing and word‑of‑mouth directly influence the Behavioural Intention (BI) to adopt and, (b) social interaction in the form of ‘networking’ among users is not associated with the BI or with the Trust of the service provider to adopt OIS. The results extend earlier research by showing that social media interactions underpinned by subjective norms are significant in influencing adoption behaviours. Evidence is provided that people’s behaviours are shaped by how they will be perceived by people they trust ‑ or wish to be aligned with. Therefore, subjective norms should be viewed from users’ networks perspective, rather than broad societal context. Managers need to focus on social networks made up of people with close alignments and common interests, where people look to each other to maintain a level of positive perception and trust. Simply focussing on social networks composed of loose relationships may neither lead to trust nor affect the behavioural intentions of users. The work offers empirical evidence of the design factors that can encourage OISs adoption.
Serious games are slowly becoming a part of educational systems and corporate training facilities in lots of fields such as industry, health, management, etc. Despite this, the academic knowledge on these artefacts is still limited. The research reported in this paper examined emotional implications of serious games on the user experience. This correlational research observed the relationships between factors of serious gaming and emotions. Fifty students took part in the study. The participants used a serious game on the security of an Information System and answered a structured questionnaire. The data was analysed by Spearman’s correlation. The results show that the quality components of the multimedia system and the quality of the content of the game are correlated with emotions, satisfaction and intention to use. Moreover, they show that emotions are correlated with satisfaction, learning and success of the serious game. Satisfaction and learning play a key role in these programs. If serious game training is to have some efficiency, a deeper understanding of the factors that lead to the success of these applications is required. These factors are all levers of control that affect the perception and emotions of the user. Understanding these mechanisms could eventually lead to more effective serious games.
Given the challenges associated with the analysis of emotions in text by counsellors, we present an intelligent ecounselling system for automatic detection of emotions and sentiments in text. The systemEmoTectwas developed using a supervised support vector machine learning classifier. Therefore, students’ life stories were collected and developed into a corpus for training and evaluating of the classifier. EmoTect allows users to label instances of the training data based on their own perception of emotions, and then gradually learns to classify emotions according to the user’s perceptions. The EmoTect interface provides a visualization of the emotional changes from automatically analysed students’ submissions over a selectable period. In this paper, the EmoTect classifier is evaluated with a gold standard corpus obtained from students but annotated by counsellors. In addition to the classifier evaluation, the EmoTect prototype was evaluated with counsellors in their settings. From the experimental results, the EmoTect classifier for the sentiment classification achieved comparable accuracy to that achieved with a gold standard when presented with unknown data. The contextual evaluation of the system indicates counsellors' satisfaction and sense of enthusiasm for using EmoTect for counseling delivery.
