Understanding continuance usage of natural gas: a theoretical model and empirical evaluation

The adoption of natural gas increased notably last years, and there is some recognition that it improves the quality of life of inhabitants. While initial acceptance is an essential first step, the continued use is relevant to the long-term success of any technology. However, the literature on energy has focused on adoption and has devoted less attention to models that explain continuance usage. Accordingly, this study developed a model to explain continuance usage, grounded in Expectation-Confirmation Model (ECM). Unlike adoption models, confirmation of previous expectations and satisfaction with the experience of use have a relevant role in this phenomenon. Data was gathered through a questionnaire to 435 users of the service in a Latin American metropolis, and structural equations model was used for analysis. The results show that constructs of the ECM (perceived usefulness, disconfirmation, and satisfaction) influences on continuance intention. While the price impacts as expected, it is surprising that environmental consciousness strongly impacts the intention. These results may be useful for public agents to foster more comprehensive policies (beyond traditional: price and access), which include environmental and safety issues to consolidate the use of this energy source. Energy companies should develop strategies to manage consumer expectations and loyalty programs based on a high level of satisfaction

Determinants of information and communication technologies for the online citizen participation adoption in urban contexts

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Information Management, specialization in Geographic Information SystemsThe electronic citizen participation (e-participation) is considered a branch of e-government with a focus on citizen involvement in information, consultation, and decision-making processes along with local governments. E-participation is considered an important pillar to support an inclusive and participative democracy. Governments all around the world, mainly local governments, are implementing different e-participation tools, for instance, online participatory budgeting, e-petitions, online incident reporting systems, online forums, etc. The potential benefits for the society of citizens engagement in the use of e-participation is widely agreed in the literature. However, the drivers of the e-participation adoption by the citizens are still on an exploratory stage in existing research. The understanding of the e-participation adoption factors is of a crucial importance for defining governmental strategies that pursue the citizen participatory engagement. This thesis contributes to a better understanding of the determinants of e-participation adoption in the urban contexts at individual level. The dissertation first carries out a review of the existing literature following a quantitative approach. Second, we developed three research models grounded in theories as unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), psychological empowerment, social capital, and sense of virtual community. Each model was evaluated in a cross-sectional experiment in two Portuguese cities that have implemented e-participation tools. The analysis of each model and its results are analysed in detail in each of the sections of this dissertation. And finally, we propose two lines for future research, one focused on the citizens satisfaction with e-participation, and the other explores the inclusion of components from social geography. Furthermore, the findings from this dissertation also provide insights for local governments that implement e-participation tools. The literature review of sixty quantitative studies published from the year 2000 to year 2017 revealed that the factors with stronger effect on the intention to use e-participation were the perceived usefulness, attitude, trust, trust in government, effort expectancy, and social influence. However, the most of these studies used a single theory of information systems to investigate e-participation, which may not uncover specific factors of the e-participation phenomenon. Moreover, the success of e-participation tools relies on the continuous usage over time. Understanding solely the drivers of intention to use in the short time does not guarantee the success in the long-term adoption. From the three research models presented in this dissertation, the first model focus on the study of the intention to use, usage, and intention to recommend e-participation. The last two focus on the continued intention to use e-participation. The first study develops a model that integrates the psychological empowerment, as second-order construct, and UTAUT to explain the intention to use and intention to recommend e-participation. We found that performance expectancy and empowerment were the stronger motivators of intention to use, and empowerment was the stronger driver for the citizens recommend the e-participation technologies. The second study evaluates the effect of each of the dimensions of empowerment plus habit on the continued intention to use e-participation. Results show that competence, meaning, and habit have a significant effect on the continuous intention. Multigroup analysis in this study revealed that the use of e-participation has stronger meaning for older participants. The third cross-sectional study integrates the sense of virtual community theory with constructs of UTAUT that have a direct effect on the usage behaviour, namely facilitating conditions and habit. We found that habit is a good predictor of use behaviour and continued intention, nevertheless, sense of virtual community resulted a good predictor of e-participation usage in the short term, but not significant on the continued intention to use over time

Towards a service governance framework for the internet of services

There are now many virtual worlds in existence, a number of which have built considerable user bases. However, there is little empirical evidence to suggest what factors underpin their continued usage and success. This study set about determining why users continue to use virtual worlds, using the example of the popular virtual world of Second Life. The study adopts continuance theory and extensions to the basic model to examine the effects of enjoyment, habit and absorption. The results (n=339) suggest that continuance intention is driven by perceived usefulness, habit, absorption and enjoyment, which together provide a comprehensive explanation for virtual world behaviour (R 2 =0.565). Interestingly, satisfaction did not appear to play a direct strong role in determining intentions. The paper rounds off with conclusions and implications for future research and practice in this very new area of inquiry

Understanding Continued IT Usage: An Extension to the Expectation-Confirmation Model in IT Domain

A model that has been proposed to investigate the continued IT usage behavior is the Expectation-Confirmation Model in IT Domain (ECM-IT). This paper proposes an extension to the ECM-IT that incorporates perceived ease of use; provide empirical evidence for the utility of the extended ECM-IT; and deepen our knowledge about the factors affecting the continued IT usage behavior. The extended ECM-IT was tested with data collected from 1,826 Mobile Data Services (MDS) users. The LISREL analysis showed that the extended ECM-IT has good explanatory power (R(2) =67%), with perceived ease of use having a stronger impact on user satisfaction and continued usage intention than perceived usefulness. Hence, the extended ECM-IT can provide valuable additional information that is relevant for understanding continued IT usage. The strong impact of perceived ease of use on user satisfaction and intention implies that the nature of the target technology can he an important boundary condition in understanding the continued IT usage behavior. At a more specific level, the extended ECM-IT provides practitioners with deeper insights into how to address customer satisfaction and retention

HR practices, commitment, job performance and early retirement among older employees with an on average low occupational status

This study examined the influence of the perception of the quality of HR practices on job performance, commitment and a preference for early retirement among older employees, with an average low occupational status in the creative industry in the Netherlands, This study has adopted a mixed-methods approach, using both surveys and semi-structured interviews. Using the principles underlying social exchange theory, it was expected that perceived quality of HR practices would have a positive relationship with job performance and affective organizational commitment and a negative relationship with a preference for early retirement. Perceived quality of certain HR practices seemed to have a positive relationship with job performance and affective organizational commitment. However, in contradiction with the social exchange theory, perceived quality of HR practices was found to be unrelated to a preference for early retirement. An explanation of this lmexpected finding arose from the qualitative study: older employees perceive the provision of HR practices for older employees as a stamp that they now belong to this devalued social group, which can be explained by the social identity theory. It was found that for older employees with an average low occupational status personal factors like finances and health strongly influenced the retirement decision. On the organizational level, flexibility, communication and a mentality change towards older employees seemed important in this decision. The qualitative study could explain the unexpected findings of the quantitative study, showing the contribution of a mixed-methods, approach. Theoretically, this raises the question whether social exchange theory applies to older employees with an average low occupational status and shows that the social identity theory better explains the relationship between perceived quality of HR practices and a preference for early retirement

Digital transformation: an analysis of opportunities for retailers

In this study, the opportunities and challenges for retailers in the course of the digital transformation were examined from three perspectives: the retailer perspective, the customer perspective, and the platform perspective. The first chapter provides a historical overview of the development of retail, followed by a definition of key terms and a characterisation of the study's subject. Furthermore, the first chapter also derives the guiding research questions for the subsequent chapters. Chapter two presents a survey of 243 LOORO owners from 26 cities in Germany, aimed at understanding why the LOOROs are hesitant about their digital transformation. For the analysis, the study applied a structural equation modelling approach and used the Stimulus-Organism-Response model as a theoretical framework. In the third chapter, the perspective shifts from the retailer to the customer. For this purpose, 1,139 customers were surveyed in four studies on various technologies (e.g. mobile payment, live stream shopping) and their willingness to use or continue using them. The two studies on mobile payment, in particular, expand the existing research to include comparative analyses with existing payment alternatives. From a theoretical perspective, the Technology Threat Avoidance Theory is also used to shift the theoretical perspective from almost exclusively negative feedback loops to positive ones. The third study in Chapter 3, Self-Service Technology, is the first to examine trust in self-service technologies and the different perceptions based on the level of experience. The fourth study in Chapter 3 on live-stream shopping is the first study in Europe on this new service and provides the first theoretical and practical implications for existing research from a European or German perspective. All studies in Chapter 3 were analysed using a structural equation model and other statistical methods for group comparisons (e.g. age, gender, experience). In the fourth chapter, there is another change of perspective. In this case, platforms are analysed as intermediaries or service hubs between the connected retailers and customers. The focus here is particularly on so-called local shopping platforms. These were examined by means of content analysis and telephone interviews. Regarding the content analysis, 149 websites were analysed. In addition, 26 local shopping platform operators were interviewed during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic to understand the impact of this pandemic on the platforms. The final study in the fourth chapter compares the results of German LSPs with Chinese LSPs. The results were analysed using Hofstede's cultural dimensions. This study also extends the existing findings in the area of the platform economy with regard to the influence of culture on the service offering. The empirical results were used to derive strategic recommendations for retailers in Chapter 5

Social worker participation in organizational change: input, impacts, and commitment

The purpose of this case study is to elicit the perceptions of social workers of the costs and benefits related to a pervasive and rapid organizational change process. The costs and benefits are analysed within the context of an expanded version of the Bolman and Deal (1991, 1997) model for organizational analysis within a case study design. The study employs a method of triangulation in its approach to analysis. The first part of the study includes an analysis of selected government and government related documents (7 documents), primarily leading up the organizational change processes and products. The second part of the study analyzes the participants' selected experiences of the change processes as conceptualized through the use of six ( 6) quantitative questionnaires related to commitment, leadership, intention to turnover (by employees), and organizational change experiences. The population under study includes all social workers (160) in a particular organization which had experienced the integration of key selected traditional social work programs (Child Welfare, Community Living, and Youth Corrections) being integrated from a provincial government model to a community health board governed model. The third part of the study includes in-person interviews with selected participants (social workers) who had experienced the organizational change process and products (the move from the government governed model to the community board governed model). -- The results of the study demonstrated that changes were needed to improve service delivery mechanisms. The actual change process itself indicated that participants' commitment to the organization was less than adequate and that participants reported moderate to strong intentions to leave the organization. Front line leadership styles (in terms of transformational and transactional leadership) were also reported to be lacking at a time in which one would expect or hope for strong leadership qualities in all of its leaders. Finally, participants reported that they did not have the levels of input into organizational change processes and products that they would liked to have had. -- The study employs an exploratory case study design methodology. However, it does provide beginning insights into the challenges to rapid and pervasive organizational change in human services organizations. The study makes a number of recommendations regarding how the processes may be improved, as well as the implications for social work research, education, and practice

Information Technology's Role in Global Healthcare Systems

Over the past few decades, modern information technology has made a significant impact on people’s daily lives worldwide. In the field of health care and prevention, there has been a progressing penetration of assistive health services such as personal health records, supporting apps for chronic diseases, or preventive cardiological monitoring. In 2020, the range of personal health services appeared to be almost unmanageable, accompanied by a multitude of different data formats and technical interfaces. The exchange of health-related data between different healthcare providers or platforms may therefore be difficult or even impossible. In addition, health professionals are increasingly confronted with medical data that were not acquired by themselves, but by an algorithmic “black box”. Even further, externally recorded data tend to be incompatible with the data models of classical healthcare information systems.From the individual’s perspective, digital services allow for the monitoring of their own health status. However, such services can also overwhelm their users, especially elderly people, with too many features or barely comprehensible information. It therefore seems highly relevant to examine whether such “always at hand” services exceed the digital literacy levels of average citizens.In this context, this reprint presents innovative, health-related applications or services emphasizing the role of user-centered information technology, with a special focus on one of the aforementioned aspects