When Cost-Efficient Technologies Meet Politics: A Case Study of Radical Wireless Network Implementation

Cost efficiency has been a dominant perspective in the traditional IT literature. However, in complex technology and business environment, the widely recognized cost efficient assumption of information technology has been increasingly challenged. Drawing from a case study of wireless network implementation situated in a politically sensitive workplace, this paper provided practice insights for IT managers in today’s networked economy. More specifically, stories experienced in the case study illustrated that despite well-calculated cost efficiency of wireless network infrastructure, the radical implementation process in the case organization encountered enormous challenges and opposition due to the fact that administrators failed to consider various stakeholders’ positions and interests. Eventually, the implementation objectives and outcome were considerably undermined. Implications from this empirical case research reemphasized the significance of understanding political forces situated in any business environment where different stakeholders hold conflicting interests. Lessons learned from the case story further encouraged IT managers and policy makers to better strategize emerging information technology in general and wireless networks in particular as the whole global society and business environment are increasingly facing an emerging wireless world

SME Adoption of Wireless LAN Technology: Applying the UTAUT Model

Wireless network technologies present unique opportunities and challenges for businesses, and Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are no exception. Recently Vankatesh et al. (2003) proposed a more complete model for the understanding of the acceptance and adoption of Information Technology. Their model builds upon and extends beyond the well established Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study utilizes this new Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to further validate the model and enhance our understanding of the adoption of wireless technologies as well as SME adoption

The Social Values of Wireless Technology in the Institutional Context

Despite growing attention, social values, compared to economic aspects, of information technology (IT) capture substantially less attention in the mainstream IT literature. In the context of mobile technology, social values might be as critical to help justify technology investment as the predominant economics perspective in the existing IT literature. As wireless networks and relevant mobile technologies continue to penetrate the global society and business world, an emerging social phenomenon rapidly reshapes how organizations interact with the technology and reposition themselves in their specific institutional context where organizations often develop networked alliance to compete against one another. This study thus seeks to shed light on how organizations make sense of the social aspects of wireless network implementation. Preliminary understanding derived from two higher education organizations’ experiences is summarized. Implications for future research endeavor are suggested

Mobile Phone Use in Social Settings: A Multinational Study

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Improving the Adoptability of a Mobile Service: A Case Study

Mobile technologies are penetrating into everyday lives of people and are providing miscellaneous services on the mobile device for users. Most of researches in this area have been done after the introduction of the service to the market. In this tough market, service providers need to know exactly which elements of their services or technologies can be improved before final stage of development and surely before launching the application or service. This article studies intentions to use a service, through a mobile application, for possible improvements in adoptability of the service. The Nysveen et al’s integrated model (2005) has been utilized for conducting the research and data was collected over a survey study. Such insights allow mobile service providers and mobile marketers to create more customized services. This paper concludes with both theoretical and practical implications and limitations of the study results

The Application of Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM 2) E-Purchase Intention Among Health Tourist in Thailand

Thailand is considered as having an excellent potential for becoming a hub in health tourism in Asia. Indisputably, health tourism seems to be a lucrative business in Thailand. Thailand is increasingly enjoying international acclaim for its health care services while touring the country. Health tourism has seen a marked increase in the number of health tourists which reached 2 million in 2008 as compared to just 1.2 million in 2005 (Department of Export Promotion, 2009). However, in 2009, there is a marked decline of health tourism to only 1.3 million mainly due to political instability. Since the hospitals do not have electronic commerce (e-commerce) infrastructure for securing e-purchase intention, also due to the low internet penetration rate (2.1%) and low on-line purchase for health care services (4.2%) in Thailand, the health tourism slumps further. This may not happen if the health businesses in Thailand have proper e-commerce sites to offer e-purchase facilities to customers. Thus, the main objective of the study is to examine the predictors of electronic purchase intention of health tourism based on Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM 2) as the underpinning theory (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000). E-purchase intention is defined as the degree to which the consumer would like to purchase on-line in the future (Chu and Lu, 2007). Based on the literature, four factors (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use image and price) could be hypothesized as affecting e-purchase intention and attitude. Also, attitude is hypothesized as a mediator on the relationship between the four predictors and e-purchase intention. Measurement constructs for purchase intention (5 items) was adapted from Heijden et al., (2003); perceived ease of use (6 items) was adapted from Davis (1989); perceived usefulness (5 items) was adapted from Lymperopoulos & Chaniotakis (2005), image (8 items)was adapted from Venkatesh & Davis (2000) and Yun and Good (2007; and attitude (8 items) was adapted from Lanseng and Andreassen (2007) and Lymperopoulos & Chaniotakis (2005); and price (5 items) was adapted from (Broekhuizen & Huizingh, 2009). All measures use the 7-point Likert-scale of “strongly disagree - strongly agree” continuum. The primary data was collected from 320 target respondents of international patients who came for health care services in Thailand’s private hospitals. The responses collected were 236 completed questionnaires representing 73.75% response rate. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) method. The result shows that the revised model achieves goodness of fit (p=0.242, CMIN/df=1.063, GFI=0.923, RMSEA=0.041, AGFI=0.903, TLI=0.997). This study found two direct significant predictors of e-purchase intention which are perceived usefulness (β=0.194; CR=2.494; P=0.013), thus asserting H7, and attitude (β=0.385; CR=7.562; P<0.001) thus asserting H5; and four direct significant predictors of attitude which are perceived ease of use (β=0.367; CR=7.511, p<0.001), H1 is asserted; perceived usefulness (β=0.385; CR=7.562; P<0.001), H2 is asserted; image (β=0.311; CR=6.170; P<0.001), H3 is asserted; price (β=0.139; CR=3.02, p<0.001), H4 is asserted. Attitude is also found to be a full mediator for all four linkages. The underpinning or competing model also achieves model fit, thus indicating the robustness of TAM2 model for explaining international patients e-purchase intention for health tourism. The findings of this study are discussed in the perspective of health tourism and its implications to patient’s e-purchase intention

Politically Sensitive IT Practice: A case story of wireless network implementation

Drawing from social perspectives, we narrate a case story of wireless network implementation situated in a socially connected but politically segregated environment. We seek to understand how the interplay between radical IT implementation and organizational structure shapes and reshapes organisational members‟ perception of implementation success and how unintended consequences of popular mobile technology emerge in a politically sensitive workplace. Detailed narrative analysis reveals that many subtle conflicting issues intertwined among various stakeholder groups. Those issues not just reshape how organisational members perceive IT implementation success but also how future IT management take place. The insights gained from this case story thus suggest that a more socially and politically sensitive IT practice in general and wireless network management in particular might be essential in the contemporary service oriented IT environment

Cultural Contradictions of the Anytime, Anywhere Economy: Reframing Communication Technology

Technology-aided ubiquity and instantaneity have emerged as major goals of most information technology providers and of certain classes of users such as “road warriors”. New mobile technologies promise genie-in-a-bottle type near-magical qualities with anytime, anywhere access to information and services. While the complex science, systems, and economics of such technologies receive considerable attention from industry executives and researchers, the social and cultural aspects of these technologies attract less attention. This paper explores the oft-contradictory promises and pitfalls of anytime, anywhere technologies from a cultural standpoint. It makes suggestions for reinterpreting these technologies for greater human good

Contribution to Quality of Life: A New Outcome Variable for Mobile Data Service

The rapid spread of technological innovations like mobile data services (MDS) has made mobile computing a fact of everyday life for many people. Therefore, we need to understand the contribution of mobile computing to overall quality of life (QoL). Employing the satisfaction hierarchy model and bottom-up spillover theory, this study proposes a theoretical model in the context of MDS that connects user satisfaction (a traditional outcome variable of IT) with contribution to QoL (a new outcome variable for mobile computing) in a range of life domains. The validity of the proposed model and outcome variable was tested through three empirical studies conducted in Korea. User satisfaction with MDS was found to affect the contribution of MDS to QoL in eleven life domains, and these contributions in turn influenced the overall contribution of MDS to QoL. The paper ends with a discussion of the study\u27s implications and limitations

An Investigation into How Degree of Distraction with Mobile Device Users Influences Attention to Detail

Previous research has indicated that the overuse of mobile devices by youths, especially at work or in class, can be disruptive to others, and be detrimental to the individual engaged in this activity in regards to task performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between distraction due to use of mobile devices, while engaged in a task, and subsequent recall of details being presented during exposure to a stimulus. Due to the ubiquitous and pervasive nature of mobile devices in today\u27s youth culture, and in our society as a whole, understanding and explaining what personality types and dispositions, are likely to engage in the overuse of mobile devices, and how their motivations for acquiring and using mobile devices in the first place may potentially impact the users task performance, could possibly enlighten parents, educators, and even the subject themselves as to the causes and ramifications of such behavior; thus, paving the way to possibly developing and establishing protocols that might allow individuals to use these devices more effectively and responsibly.This investigation found that there is a significant overall inverse relationship between distraction by mobile device use while on task and attention to the details of the stimulus being presented. Persons between the ages of 26 and 40, and the personality type of Neuroticism showed some relation to being distractible. The study also found evidence that the personality type of Openness, those whose motivation for using mobile devices were utility based, and females were more likely to pay closer attention to the details of a stimulus (when controlling for all other variables including distraction by mobile device use)