Internet Banking and Technology acceptance Model (TAM): is it applicable to users and non users: An empirical study of Banks in Albania

Traditional branch-based retail banking remains the most widespread method for conducting banking transactions in Albania as well as any other country. However, Internet technology is rapidly changing the way personal financial services are being designed and delivered. The explosion of Internet usage and the huge funding initiatives in electronic banking have drawn the attention of researchers towards Internet banking. In the past, the conventional focus of Internet banking research has been on technological development, but this is now shifting to user-focused research. Although millions of ( Lek) have been spent on building Internet banking systems, reports have shown that potential users may not use the systems in spite of their availability. This point outs the need for research to identify the factors that determine acceptance of Internet banking by the users. The primary objective of this research is to extend the technology acceptance model (TAM) in the context of Internet banking. This research also identifies critical individual difference variables (i.e. computer self-efficacy) that have a significant effect, through the TAM framework, on the intention of potential users to use Internet banking. By explaining usage intention from the user‘s perspective, the findings of this research will not only help Internet banking authorities to develop better user-accepted Internet banking systems, but also provide insights into how to present the new IT to potential users. The findings of this study strongly support the appropriateness of using TAM to understand the intention of people to adopt Internet banking services. Significant effects of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived credibility on behavioral intention were observed, with perceived ease of use exerting a stronger influence than both perceived usefulness and perceived credibility. In addition, the Internet banking authorities need to concern themselves less with directly influencing behavioral intentions. These internal psychological processes will result if the belief formation is appropriately managed. Thus, management attention might be more fruitfully focused on the ―development‖ of belief. Especially, the Internet banking authorities should employ training and promotion approaches to develop the customers‘ beliefs of usefulness, ease of use, and credibility in the system, which in turn will influence the behavioral intention to adopt Internet banking services. Our results provide evidence of the significant effects of the individual difference variable (i.e. computer self-efficacy) on behavioral intention through perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived credibility

How to Survive Identity Management in the Industry 4.0 Era

Industry 4.0 heavily builds on massive deployment of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices to monitor every aspect of the manufacturing processes. Since the data gathered by these devices impact the output of critical processes, identity management and communications security are critical aspects, which commonly rely on the deployment of X.509 certificates. Nevertheless, the provisioning and management of individual certificates for a high number of IIoT devices involves important challenges. In this paper, we present a solution to improve the management of digital certificates in IIoT environments, which relies on partially delegating the certificate enrolment process to an edge server. However, in order to preserve end-to-end security, private keys are never delegated. Additionally, for the protection of the communications between the edge server and the IIoT devices, an approach based on Identity Based Cryptography is deployed. The proposed solution considers also the issuance of very short-lived certificates, which reduces the risk of using expired or compromised certificates, and avoids the necessity of implementing performance expensive protocols such as Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP). The proposed solution has been successfully tested as an efficient identity management solution for IIoT environments in a real industrial environment.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the National Towards zeRo toUch nEtwork and services for beyond 5G (TRUE-5G) Project under Grant PID2019-108713RB-C53, in part by the European Commission through the Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership-Joint Undertaking (ECSEL-JU) 2018 Program under the framework of key enabling technologies for safe and autonomous drones' applications (COMP4DRONES) Project under Grant 826610, with the national financing from France, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria, Czech, Belgium, and Latvia, in part by the Ayudas Cervera para Centros Tecnologicos Grant of the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) through the Project EGIDA under Grant CER-20191012, and in part by the Basque Country Government through the Creating Trust in the Industrial Digital Transformation (TRUSTIND) ELKARTEK Program Project under Grant KK-2020/00054

Information Technology and the Workplace: Implications for Persons with Disabilities

The Internet improves access to employment and community for many people. However, there is growing concern that many Web sites are inaccessible to people with certain disabilities. This article examines the impact on people with disabilities of online human resources processes used for employee recruitment, benefits, and training. In 2002, Cornell University staff reviewed the accessibility of 10 Job boards and 31 corporate e-recruiting Web sites. Human resource (HR) professionals are well positioned to report on key issues regarding these processes. A survey of 433 HR representatives was conducted regarding their organizations\u27 use of information and Web technology in HR processes; knowledge of computer/Web barriers to employees with disabilities; and familiarity with assistive technology and resources. The authors summarize current literature and legislation relevant to Web accessibility, and discuss implications of their findings for businesses and people with disabilities in the workplace

From Sensor to Observation Web with Environmental Enablers in the Future Internet

This paper outlines the grand challenges in global sustainability research and the objectives of the FP7 Future Internet PPP program within the Digital Agenda for Europe. Large user communities are generating significant amounts of valuable environmental observations at local and regional scales using the devices and services of the Future Internet. These communities’ environmental observations represent a wealth of information which is currently hardly used or used only in isolation and therefore in need of integration with other information sources. Indeed, this very integration will lead to a paradigm shift from a mere Sensor Web to an Observation Web with semantically enriched content emanating from sensors, environmental simulations and citizens. The paper also describes the research challenges to realize the Observation Web and the associated environmental enablers for the Future Internet. Such an environmental enabler could for instance be an electronic sensing device, a web-service application, or even a social networking group affording or facilitating the capability of the Future Internet applications to consume, produce, and use environmental observations in cross-domain applications. The term ?envirofied? Future Internet is coined to describe this overall target that forms a cornerstone of work in the Environmental Usage Area within the Future Internet PPP program. Relevant trends described in the paper are the usage of ubiquitous sensors (anywhere), the provision and generation of information by citizens, and the convergence of real and virtual realities to convey understanding of environmental observations. The paper addresses the technical challenges in the Environmental Usage Area and the need for designing multi-style service oriented architecture. Key topics are the mapping of requirements to capabilities, providing scalability and robustness with implementing context aware information retrieval. Another essential research topic is handling data fusion and model based computation, and the related propagation of information uncertainty. Approaches to security, standardization and harmonization, all essential for sustainable solutions, are summarized from the perspective of the Environmental Usage Area. The paper concludes with an overview of emerging, high impact applications in the environmental areas concerning land ecosystems (biodiversity), air quality (atmospheric conditions) and water ecosystems (marine asset management)

The e-revolution and post-compulsory education: using e-business models to deliver quality education

The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself but the whole process through which services are provided; and from which important lessons can be learnt by post-compulsory educational institutions. This book aims to move debates about ICT and higher education beyond a simple focus on e-learning by considering the provision of post-compulsory education as a whole. It considers what we mean by e-business, why e-business approaches are relevant to universities and colleges and the key issues this raises for post-secondary education