Adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Applications in E-learning: Perception of the Management Undergraduates in a Selected State University of Sri Lanka

Software-as-a-Service applications immensely impact the success of e-learning with their ability of cost saving, scalability, and better collaboration. Identifying the factors influencing Software-as-a-Service applications’ adoption and their impact on the adoption of e-learning by management undergraduates in Sri Lanka became the main objectives for this research. 116 responses obtained were analyzed adopting Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling in SmartPLS. Findings revealed that behavioral intention to adopt such software together with facilitating conditions has a significant impact on the SaaS applications’ adoption by undergraduates in e-learning and factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and trust determine the intention towards adoption. This research is a value addition to the theoretical arena where studies are lacking regarding SaaS technology, specifically in the context of e-learning. Universities can focus on significant factors determined in this research when promoting the adoption of SaaS applications as an innovative tool to enhance the quality of education. Keywords: Software-as-a-Service; e-learning; UTAUT model; Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modellin

Impact Evaluation of Interoperability Decision Variables on P2P Collaboration Performances

This article deals with the impact evaluation of interoperability decision variables on performance indicators of business processes. The case of partner companies is studied to show the interest of an Interoperability Service Utility (ISU) on business processes in a peer to peer (P2P) collaboration. Information described in the format and the ontology of a broadcasting entity is transformed by ISU into information with the format and the ontology of the receiving entity depending on the available resources of interoperation. These resources can be human operators with defined skill level or software modules of transformation in predefined languages. A design methodology of a global simulation model for estimating the impact of interoperability decision variables on performance indicators of business processes is proposed. Its implementation in an industrial case of collaboration shows its efficiency and its interest to motivate an investment in the technologies of enterprise interoperability

Specification of vertical semantic consistency rules of UML class diagram refinement using logical approach

Unified Modelling Language (UML) is the most popular modelling language use for software design in software development industries with a class diagram being the most frequently use diagram. Despite the popularity of UML, it is being affected by inconsistency problems of its diagrams at the same or different abstraction levels. Inconsistency in UML is mostly caused by existence of various views on the same system and sometimes leads to potentially conflicting system specifications. In general, syntactic consistency can be automatically checked and therefore is supported by current UML Computer-aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. Semantic consistency problems, unlike syntactic consistency problems, there exists no specific method for specifying semantic consistency rules and constraints. Therefore, this research has specified twenty-four abstraction rules of class‟s relation semantic among any three related classes of a refined class diagram to semantically equivalent relations of two of the classes using a logical approach. This research has also formalized three vertical semantic consistency rules of a class diagram refinement identified by previous researchers using a logical approach and a set of formalized abstraction rules. The results were successfully evaluated using hotel management system and passenger list system case studies and were found to be reliable and efficient

Exploring the Relationship between Membership Turnover and Productivity in Online Communities

One of the more disruptive reforms associated with the modern Internet is the emergence of online communities working together on knowledge artefacts such as Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap. Recently it has become clear that these initiatives are vulnerable because of problems with membership turnover. This study presents a longitudinal analysis of 891 WikiProjects where we model the impact of member turnover and social capital losses on project productivity. By examining social capital losses we attempt to provide a more nuanced analysis of member turnover. In this context social capital is modelled from a social network perspective where the loss of more central members has more impact. We find that only a small proportion of WikiProjects are in a relatively healthy state with low levels of membership turnover and social capital losses. The results show that the relationship between social capital losses and project performance is U-shaped, and that member withdrawal has significant negative effect on project outcomes. The results also support the mediation of turnover rate and network density on the curvilinear relationship

Investigating the impact of networking capability on firm innovation performance:using the resource-action-performance framework

The author's final peer reviewed version can be found by following the URI link. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose The experience of successful firms has proven that one of the most important ways to promote co-learning and create successful networked innovations is the proper application of inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms. This study aims to use a resource-action-performance framework to open the black box on the relationship between networking capability and innovation performance. The research population embraces companies in the Iranian automotive industry. Design/methodology/approach Due to the latent nature of the variables studied, the required data are collected through a web-based cross-sectional survey. First, the content validity of the measurement tool is evaluated by experts. Then, a pre-test is conducted to assess the reliability of the measurement tool. All data are gathered by the Iranian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (IVMA) and Iranian Auto Parts Manufacturers Association (IAPMA) samples. The power analysis method and G*Power software are used to determine the sample size. Moreover, SmartPLS 3 and IBM SPSS 25 software are used for data analysis of the conceptual model and relating hypotheses. Findings The results of this study indicated that the relationships between networking capability, inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms and inter-organizational learning result in a self-reinforcing loop, with a marked impact on firm innovation performance. Originality/value Since there is little understanding of the interdependencies of networking capability, inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms, co-learning and their effect on firm innovation performance, most previous research studies have focused on only one or two of the above-mentioned variables. Thus, their cumulative effect has not examined yet. Looking at inter-organizational relationships from a network perspective and knowledge-based view (KBV), and to consider the simultaneous effect of knowledge mechanisms and learning as intermediary actions alongside, to consider the performance effect of the capability-building process, are the main advantages of this research

A framework to evaluate the impact of ICT usage on collaborative product development performance in manufacturing firms : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

Manufacturers are increasingly adopting collaborative product development (CPD) to achieve competitive advantage through joint synergies. Information and communication technology (ICT) is the major enabler of communication, collaboration, product designing, development, knowledge and information management, project management, and market research activities involved in CPD. Most ICT implementations incur a significant cost for firms, thus a deeper understanding of the impact of ICT usage on CPD performance would be immensely useful for managing ICT resources effectively in innovation programmes. However, existing evidence for the direct relationships between ICT usage and performance dimensions are counterintuitive (negative or insignificant). Not considering the different aspects of ICT usage was identified as a key reason for the lack of strong empirical evidence. Furthermore, the impact of ICT usage on collaboration-based product development performance and indirect impact through this collaboration performance on new product performance, as well as moderating effects of project characteristics on the direct and indirect ICT impact have largely been ignored in the literature. Therefore, drawing on relational resource-based view and organizational information processing theory, this study develops and utilizes a model including multidimensional ICT usage and CPD performance measurements, and possible moderating project characteristics, for better evaluating the impact of ICT usage on CPD performance. Initially, product development professionals from manufacturing firms and knowledgeable managers from ICT vendor firms were interviewed for a preliminary qualitative evaluation of the suggested model with industry perspectives. In addition, a quantitative investigation of secondary data obtained from the PDMA’s (Product Development and Management Association) 2012 comparative performance assessment study was conducted prior to the main survey in order to assess the significance of the proposed model with a different source of data. In the final main quantitative study, data collected from 244 CPD projects via an online global survey were used to test the research hypotheses. The study contributes to the current body of knowledge by revealing a positive direct impact of ICT usage on new product performance in terms of quality, commercial success, and time performance, and collaboration performance, which also in turn increases new product performance. In addition, moderating effects of project characteristics (complexity and uncertainty) on these associations have been explored. The study implies that manufacturers need to value not only the direct project benefits of ICT use, but also the collaboration-related outcomes that significantly increase the likelihood of achieving higher performance in their present and future CPD projects. Adequate attention must be paid to individual ICT usage dimensions as well. Particularly, other than frequency of ICT use, manufacturing firms need to improve the utilization of available features and functionalities of the tools (intensity) and the ICT proficiency of R&D staff, to gain the desired results in CPD projects

Git4Voc: Git-based Versioning for Collaborative Vocabulary Development

Collaborative vocabulary development in the context of data integration is the process of finding consensus between the experts of the different systems and domains. The complexity of this process is increased with the number of involved people, the variety of the systems to be integrated and the dynamics of their domain. In this paper we advocate that the realization of a powerful version control system is the heart of the problem. Driven by this idea and the success of Git in the context of software development, we investigate the applicability of Git for collaborative vocabulary development. Even though vocabulary development and software development have much more similarities than differences there are still important differences. These need to be considered within the development of a successful versioning and collaboration system for vocabulary development. Therefore, this paper starts by presenting the challenges we were faced with during the creation of vocabularies collaboratively and discusses its distinction to software development. Based on these insights we propose Git4Voc which comprises guidelines how Git can be adopted to vocabulary development. Finally, we demonstrate how Git hooks can be implemented to go beyond the plain functionality of Git by realizing vocabulary-specific features like syntactic validation and semantic diffs

The determinants of the quality of Sales-Marketing Interface in a Multinational Customer Brand Focused Company: The Latin American Branches

Customer evolution and changes in consumers, determine the fact that the quality of the interface between marketing and sales may represent a true competitive advantage for the firm. Building on multidimensional theoretical and empirical models developed in Europe and on social network analysis, the organizational interface between the marketing and sales departments of a multinational high-growth company with operations in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay is studied. Both, attitudinal and social network measures of information exchange are used to make operational the nature and quality of the interface and its impact on performance. Results show the existence of a positive relationship of formalization, joint planning, teamwork, trust and information transfer on interface quality, as well as a positive relationship between interface quality and business performance. We conclude that efficient design and organizational management of the exchange network are essential for the successful performance of consumer goods companies that seek to develop distinctive capabilities to adapt to markets that experience vertiginous change

Control, Process Facilitation, and Requirements Change in Offshore Requirements Analysis: The Provider Perspective

Process, technology, and project factors have been increasingly driving organizations to offshore early software development phases, such as requirements analysis. This emerging trend necessitates greater control and process facilitation between client and vendor sites. The effectiveness of control and facilitation has, however, not been examined within the context of requirements analysis and change. In this study, we examine the role of control and facilitation in managing changing requirements and on success of requirements gathering in the Indian offshore software development environment. Firms found that control by client-site coordinators had a positive impact on requirements analysis success while vender site-coordinators did not have similar influence. Process facilitation by client site-coordinators affected requirements phase success indirectly through control. The study concludes with recommendations for research and practice