Factors influencing Malaysian consumers online purchase of herbal products

The industry for natural products has experienced a significant growth in demand for its products and there is no surprise that the government has given it full support. The economical production methods have made it possible for the Malaysian Small and Medium Businesses Enterprises (SMEs) to increase their output. However due to the limited number of available resources, local SMEs are finding themselves in competition for shelf space in retail grocery stores. One way to resolve this issue is for producers and entrepreneurs to turn to the internet to attract customers. A website that could offer the herbal products online could be an ideal venue to market such products. Moreover, the launch of such a website needs relatively minimal skills and infrastructure. In this study 1063 internet users were interviewed online in order to identify the factors which could influence their intention to purchase herbal products online. Descriptive Analysis and Factor Analysis were employed in this study. The factors which have been found to be significant in predicting the intentions of an average Malaysian to shop online for herbal product are: the internet speed and experience, herbal product characteristics, perceived benefits, subjective norm, payment methods and English proficiency

Exploring Factors Affecting Fixed Broadband Adoption in Oman: Pilot Study (33)

This study intends to examine various attitudinal, normative and control factors influencing users’ behavioural intention to adopt fixed broadband in Oman. A Quantitative method based survey approach relating to the attitudinal, normative, and control variables has been utilized. Regression analysis is conducted to test the role of numerous variables on users’ behavioural intentions to adopt fixed broadband in Oman. The results of the study revealed that the behavioural intention of Omani users towards fixed broadband adoption is significantly affected by Primary Influence, Hedonic Outcomes, Self-Efficacy, Perceived Ease of Use and Relative advantage. Considering the slow growth of fixed broadband in Oman, this study provides policy makers and broadband service providers in Oman with an insight and understanding about factors that can have an influence on users’ intention to adopt the broadband technology. Theoretically, this paper is useful for providing baseline data for studies on broadband adoption in Oman in general and its impact on information science in particular

Analisis Faktor-Faktor yang Mempengaruhi Broadband Adoption: Telaah pada Calon Pelanggan Layanan Fixed Broadband MyRepublic

Pertumbuhan dan perkembangan internet yang pesat membuat aktivitas manusia tidak bisa dipisahkan dengan peran penting internet. Hal ini tercermin dari penggunaan internet di Indonesia yang terus mengalami peningkatan dan pertumbuhan dari tahun ke tahun termasuk penggunaan internet rumah tangga. Oleh karena itu, Indonesia menjadi salah satu negara yang memiliki peluang besar untuk bisnis fixed broadband. Melihat peluang yang ada, menjadikan para pemain fixed broadband di Indonesia berlomba untuk memberikan pelayanan dan kualitas terbaik kepada pelanggan salah satunya adalah MyRepublic. Namun, jika dilihat dari peta persaingan fixed broadband di Indonesia, MyRepublic berada di posisi kelima dengan jumlah pelanggan yang masih sangat jauh dibandingkan dengan Indihome dan First Media. Hal ini menjadi tantangan bagi MyRepublic untuk bisa meningkatkan dan mengembangkan bisnisnya di Indonesia. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk mengetahui faktor-faktor yang memiliki pengaruh terhadap broadband adoption. Penelitian ini menggunakan survei online dengan menyebarkan kuesioner untuk mendapatkan responden yang sesuai kriteria. Sebanyak 140 responden didapatkan lalu diuji dengan menggunakan metode regresi linier berganda melalui software SPSS versi 25. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa facilitating conditions, self-efficacy dan prior knowledge memiliki pengaruh positif terhadap broadband adoption, sedangkan relative advantage, utility outcomes dan hedonic outcomes tidak memiliki pengaruh signifikan terhadap broadband adoption

Conceptualising service quality and technology factor as drivers for continuous usage of broadband among rural dwellers in Malaysia

Information and communication technology(ICT) have found to be a key player in making IT and IT-enabled services of some countries a tradable and leading to the fastest average annual growth in their economy.Broadband which is the arm of ICT is believed to be a vital links of enhancing competitiveness in an economy and sustaining economic growth. Despite the significances of broadband, broadband connectivity is not yet seen to have enormous potential to increase national competition in Malaysia, especially in the rural areas.This shows that there is need to take a drastic step to maintain continuous use of broadband among rural dwellers in Malaysia.This paper presents a model that will aid continuous use of broadband among rural consumers in Malaysia

Factors Affecting Leaders’ Adoption of Innovation: The Case of Digital Ticketing in the High School Athletic Space

In an environment where technologies continuously evolve, we must seek to understand how sport professionals evaluate innovation. The purpose of this study is to identify critical factors influencing sport organization leaders’ decisions to adopt a technological innovation as the best strategy to gain efficiencies. We explore the factors influencing sport managers’ evaluation of technological innovations— prior conditions (i.e., need identification and individual innovativeness), perceived characteristics of the technology (i.e., relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability), and situational constructs (i.e., trust and cost)— and the effect they have on leaders’ decisions to adopt or reject a given tool. The context of this study was high school athletic directors (N = 628) and their decision to adopt or reject digital ticketing as the best course of action for securing revenue and serving their event attendees. From a theoretical perspective, we extend the conceptual model proposed by Rogers’ (2003) diffusion of innovations theory to include situational constructs, which provide future explorations of technology adoption with the flexibility to account for specific complexities of the situation considered within a wide range of sport settings. From a managerial standpoint, the insights are valuable to companies and professionals developing and promoting innovative technologies

What drives customer loyalty in social commerce sector? PLS-SEM approach

This study explores the factors influencing customer loyalty in social commerce, defined as the integration of e-commerce with Web 2.0 software and social technology. Despite the significance of customer loyalty in maintaining long-term competitive advantages, limited research has focused on this aspect within the context of social commerce. The aim of this study is to identify the key factors affecting customer loyalty in social commerce platforms. Data was collected through surveys from 218 social commerce customers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, representing various s-commerce platforms. The partial least squares approach was used to analyze the data. The results reveal that customer loyalty is positively influenced by trust and satisfaction. Additionally, service quality, reputation, perceived security, and customer feedback positively impact both trust and satisfaction. These findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of customer loyalty in social commerce and provide practical implications for social commerce managers. The study highlights the importance of fostering trust and satisfaction through various factors, such as service quality, reputation, perceived security, and customer feedback, to enhance customer loyalty

Behavioural intention to adopt point of sales technology in Nigerian retail industry

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and customer concerns on behavioural intention to use point of sale terminal in the Nigerian retail industry and the moderating effect of technology awareness. Data were collected from 165 owners/managers of retail businesses in Nigeria, in a cross-sectional survey and were analysed using the partial least square structural equation modelling technique. The result of hypotheses testing confirmed that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and customer concerns have a significant positive influence on behavioural intention, while effort expectancy does not. Similarly, technology awareness moderates the relationship between effort expectancy, social and behavioural intention, but does not moderate the relationship between performance expectancy, facilitating conditions and behavioural intention. The extended model explained 56 per cent of variance in behavioural intention. Due to resource limitations, this study focused on intention alone, neglecting the actual usage, thus the survey was cross-sectional. Therefore further studies should extend the horizon by capturing the intention and actual usage, perhaps in a longitudinal study. Based on empirical evidence, customer concerns and technology awareness are essential issues in technology diffusion, and therefore practitioners should pay more attention to them, particularly in the implementation of technology in retail business. The novelty of this research is pioneering the integration of customer concern and moderating effect of technology awareness in technology adoption litrature. Hence, it provides further explanation to the existing literature by empirically extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology with customer concerns and technology awarenes

A model for assessing procurement irregularities in decision making process at the tendering stage of construction projects

The public procurement in Malaysia has always been regulated by a comprehensive procedure of tender preparation, evaluation and award. Though these measures are meant to insulate unwarranted behaviors or biased decisions of the procurement officers, the public procurement is still plagued with recurring irregularities. Therefore, this study aimed to review and investigate the factors causing irregularities in the current contractor selection and award process. In addition, a conceptual model for improving the procurement decision making process has been developed based on the notion of bounded rationality. In the context of a procurement committee, the individuals were not only influenced by their cognitive limitation, they are also susceptible to irrational group behavior, namely groupthink. The compound of both influences has substantially undermined the deliberation process and hence resulted irregularities in procurement decisions. This research employed quantitative approach and was participated by 289 procurement officers from Malaysian local authorities. Partial Least Square - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) statistical analysis technique was employed to test the model. The model confirmed that three antecedents namely accountability, prior knowledge and work experience directly impact the procedural rationality. Whereas, two antecedents namely group insulation and group cohesiveness were directly related to groupthink. Besides, procedural rationality was confirmed to mitigate groupthink effect, whereas groupthink induced defective decision making. In addition, both procedural rationality and defective decision making were found to be associated with procurement decision irregularities. The model was validated for its capability to detect the likelihood of irregularities decisions in the public procurement context

The relationship between attitudinal, normative, control and satisfaction with continue broadband intention among household users in Malaysia

For broadband internet service providers, loss of subscriber base due to termination of service is inevitable. Meanwhile, it is alarming to see unpredictable broadband penetration in major cities while at the same time, the government strives to overcome slow broadband penetration in rural areas due to lack of continue broadband service intention. This research has adopted the factors from MATH Model, and information system (IS) continuance usage model to investigate the relationship with the continuance of broadband intention (CBI) where satisfaction is developed and integrated as a new construct. By understanding the factors affecting the CBI, it also describes the factors that influence household broadband penetration (HBP). This study has gauged the 1Malaysia Internet Center or Pusat Internet 1Malaysia (Pi1M) users' experience to measure their response towards CBI. The relations among the constructs of the proposed model are then hypothesized according to the literature findings and examined using SMART PLS 3.0. The study has drawn the samples of its population from the Pi1M in six regions of Malaysia (northern, central, southern, east coast, Sabah, and Sarawak). The cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2016 to January 2017 with 406 respondents from the target population. The results indicate that attitudinal and normative constructs are the critical factors followed by control construct that have shaped CBI. On the contrary, this study finds a negative association between satisfaction and CBI among the Pi1M users. Despite the growing number of studies on intention and adoption of technology, only a few number of researches have been done on theory-building and its linkage with CBI. In addition, the findings of this study and the new development of satisfaction as a new construct have also contributed to the existing literature which can be used by policymakers to improve their strategy in ensuring sustainable growth of broadband penetration in Malaysia

Investigating motivational factors influencing broadband adoption and usage in South African low-income households

A research report submitted In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the field of ICT Policy and Regulation to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the WitwatersrandBroadband technology has been identified as a vital contributor to socio-economic development in South Africa. Hoverer, the rate of broadband adoption and usage in low-income households is lower as compared to middle and high-income households. Although there are studies that have presented motivational factors for broadband adoption in South Africa, there is little knowledge about how these motivational factors collectively influence the adoption and usage of broadband in low-income households and how they use the technology. To address this gap, this study investigated motivational factors that influence low-income households in South Africa to adopt and use broadband. An extended Model for Broadband Adoption (MBA) was derived from literature and used to provide the basis for the theoretical and conceptual framework for this study. The researcher then followed a phenomenological approach to collect qualitative data that was analysed using a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). The findings of this study show that the participants from low-income households used broadband everyday but only for basic applications and the high cost of data hindered increased usage. The findings further suggest that attitude, normative beliefs and control factors can have both positive and negative influence on the adoption and usage of broadband by low-income households. In addition, low-income households regarded broadband as a key element towards improving their livelihood and confirmed the lack of local content in most broadband platforms. The study recommends that policy makers, regulatory authorities and broadband service providers should consider adopting models such as the MBA to advance their understanding on the interactions between low-income households and broadband, in order to develop policy interventions and products that are relevant to the lived experience of low-income households. The study emphases further the importance of expediting policies and regulations that are meant to address the high cost of data to ensure that broadband adoption and usage is inclusive of all income groups in South Africa.MT 201