Three Essays on the Role of IT in Environmental Sustainability: Motivating Individuals to Use Green IT, Enhancing Their User Experience, and Promoting Electricity Conservation

This dissertation focuses on the role of IT in environmental sustainability and electricity conservation through three research essays. The first essay makes a case for behavior research, with the focus on individuals\u27 use of Green IT. Moreover, environmental studies lack a coherent theory that could identify the motivators of Green-IT beliefs. We develop the hedonic motivation theory, which synthesizes theoretical and philosophical thoughts on hedonism with concepts from environmental research. Using this theory, we develop a conceptual model that identifies the motivators of context-specific beliefs, attitudes, and uses of Green IT. We theorize that there are significant generational differences in the process by which hedonic motivators influence Green IT use behaviors. Young adults are more motivated by personal hedonic motivation, and an affective and automatic process, whereas older adults are motivated by a cognitive and attitudinal process. This study was carried out using a structural equation modeling method of analysis based on 702 observations of the survey data. The results support the theorized model, with significant implications. The second essay examines the design taxonomy of electricity consumption feedback applications, which are considered one of the critical technologies in alleviating the increasing trends of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. We relied on an integrative theoretical framework and literature review to propose a comprehensive taxonomy for salient design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications. Using a survey method, we collected data from general public to evaluate the preference and relative importance of the design elements. We found that there is a preferred set of design elements for the feedback applications. Our results could serve as a basis to evaluate the design of existing electricity consumption feedback applications, and to help in studying the influence of design elements on beliefs and behaviors related to individuals\u27 electricity conservation. The third essay investigates the role of the salient design elements identified in the second essay, and the processes by which these elements motivate electricity consumers\u27 behaviors towards energy conservation. We developed a conceptual framework by extending the theory of planned behavior to study how salient design elements of feedback applications impact the beliefs and behaviors of individual electricity consumers. To our knowledge, this is the first study aimed at examining the relationship between electricity consumers\u27 beliefs and behaviors and the specific perceived design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications. We empirically evaluated the conceptual model by developing a mobile app and a corresponding website and conducting a controlled longitudinal lab experiment. The results indicate strong support for the premises of the model and support the significant role of personalized design elements in use behaviors and electricity conservation. Our findings show the importance of integrating descriptive social norm, personalized goal setting, and personalized privacy preferences design elements in feedback applications. This dissertation makes a number of significant contributions to theory and application. First, it develops a new theory that identifies motivators of Green IT use. It shows that the conceptualized motivators impact use behaviors though multiple paths--the cognitive and emotional automatic paths-- and are moderated by users\u27 age. Second, this work develops a taxonomy of design elements for electricity consumption feedback applications based on an integrative theoretical framework and extensive review of the existing literature. This taxonomy and the relative importance of elements in the taxonomy could serve as the standard for developing and assessing feedback application tools. Third, this work develops a conceptual model that identifies the processes by which design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications help in the conservation of electricity by individuals. Together, the three essays contribute to the sustainability and Green IT literature by uncovering the significant role of individuals in dealing with environmental threats and energy consumption challenges and by conceptualizing the different antecedents and processes that shape the perceptions and behaviors related to Green IT and electricity consumption. Moreover, the three studies extend user-centric design research by integrating insights from multiple disciplines to explain, design, create, and test innovative tools that could have a pivotal role in dealing with global sustainability challenges. This work also provides a standard for the evaluation of such tools from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Finally, the three essays contribute to practice by proposing guidelines to industry designers and policy makers for promoting sustainability and energy conservation through personalized tools and effective campaigns

Tradespace and Affordability – Phase 2

MOTIVATION AND CONTEXT: One of the key elements of the SERC’s research strategy is transforming the practice of systems engineering – “SE Transformation.” The Grand Challenge goal for SE Transformation is to transform the DoD community’s current systems engineering and management methods, processes, and tools (MPTs) and practices away from sequential, single stovepipe system, hardware-first, outside-in, document-driven, point-solution, acquisition-oriented approaches; and toward concurrent, portfolio and enterprise-oriented, hardware-software-human engineered, balanced outside-in and inside-out, model-driven, set-based, full life cycle approaches.This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract H98230-08- D-0171 (Task Order 0031, RT 046).This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract H98230-08- D-0171 (Task Order 0031, RT 046)

A Study of the Relationship Between Revenue Sources and Undergraduate Students\u27 Graduation Rates at Public Research Universities

The public\u27s demand for accountability will have a significant impact on research universities\u27 revenue resources in the future. Driving the demand is a perceived lack of institutional productivity. Undergraduate students\u27 graduation rates represent one product of public research universities. States have already latched onto these rates as a measure of institutional performance; and as a result, states have provided a basis for public research universities to use the relationship between dollars invested in the institution and undergraduate students\u27 graduation rates to respond to accountability issues. Current research provides little insight into this relationship. Research in this study uses concepts from the higher education production function, the resource dependency theory, and the Principal-Agent Model to investigate undergraduate students\u27 four-year and six-year graduation rates as an institutional product. The research provides a greater degree of transparency into the relationship between dollars invested in public research universities and undergraduate students\u27 graduation rates than has previously been shown. As a result of this relationship analysis, the research enables the development of a model for predicting undergraduate student graduation rates relative to dollars invested in the institution from different sources

Quantifying fisher responses to environmental and regulatory dynamics in marine systems

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017Commercial fisheries are part of an inherently complicated cycle. As fishers have adopted new technologies and larger vessels to compete for resources, fisheries managers have adapted regulatory structures to sustain stocks and to mitigate unintended impacts of fishing (e.g., bycatch). Meanwhile, the ecosystems that are targeted by fishers are affected by a changing climate, which in turn forces fishers to further adapt, and subsequently, will require regulations to be updated. From the management side, one of the great limitations for understanding how changes in fishery environments or regulations impact fishers has been a lack of sufficient data for resolving their behaviors. In some fisheries, observer programs have provided sufficient data for monitoring the dynamics of fishing fleets, but these programs are expensive and often do not cover every trip or vessel. In the last two decades however, vessel monitoring systems (VMS) have begun to provide vessel location data at regular intervals such that fishing effort and behavioral decisions can be resolved across time and space for many fisheries. I demonstrate the utility of such data by examining the responses of two disparate fishing fleets to environmental and regulatory changes. This study was one of "big data" and required the development of nuanced approaches to process and model millions of records from multiple datasets. I thus present the work in three components: (1) How can we extract the information that we need? I present a detailed characterization of the types of data and an algorithm used to derive relevant behavioral aspects of fishing, like the duration and distances traveled during fishing trips; (2) How do fishers' spatial behaviors in the Bering Sea pollock fishery change in response to environmental variability; and (3) How were fisher behaviors and economic performances affected by a series of regulatory changes in the Gulf of Mexico grouper-tilefish longline fishery? I found a high degree of heterogeneity among vessel behaviors within the pollock fishery, underscoring the role that markets and processor-level decisions play in facilitating fisher responses to environmental change. In the Gulf of Mexico, my VMS-based approach estimated unobserved fishing effort with a high degree of accuracy and confirmed that the regulatory shift (e.g., the longline endorsement program and catch share program) yielded the intended impacts of reducing effort and improving both the economic performance and the overall harvest efficiency for the fleet. Overall, this work provides broadly applicable approaches for testing hypotheses regarding the dynamics of spatial behaviors in response to regulatory and environmental changes in a diversity of fisheries around the world.General introduction -- Chapter 1 Using vessel monitoring system data to identify and characterize trips made by fishing vessels in the United States North Pacific -- Chapter 2 Paths to resilience: Alaska pollock fleet uses multiple fishing strategies to buffer against environmental change in the Bering Sea -- Chapter 3 Vessel monitoring systems (VMS) reveal increased fishing efficiency following regulatory change in a bottom longline fishery -- General Conclusions

In Search of Evidence for Model-Driven Development Claims: An Experiment on Quality, Effort, Productivity and Satisfaction

Context: Model-Driven Development (MDD) is a paradigm that prescribes building conceptual models that abstractly represent the system and generating code from these models through transformation rules. The literature is rife with claims about the benefits of MDD, but they are hardly supported by evidences. Objective: This experimental investigation aims to verify some of the most cited benefits of MDD. Method: We run an experiment on a small set of classes using student subjects to compare the quality, effort, productivity and satisfaction of traditional development and MDD. The experiment participants built two web applications from scratch, one where the developers implement the code by hand and another using an industrial MDD tool that automatically generates the code from a conceptual model. Results: Outcomes show that there are no significant differences between both methods with regard to effort, productivity and satisfaction, although quality in MDD is more robust to small variations in problem complexity. We discuss possible explanations for these results. Conclusions: For small systems and less programming-experienced subjects, MDD does not always yield better results than a traditional method, even regarding effort and productivity. This contradicts some previous statements about MDD advantages. The benefits of developing a system with MDD appear to depend on certain characteristics of the development context. 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was developed with the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation project SMART ADAPT (TIN2013-42981-P), TIN2011-23216 and was co-financed by ERDF. It also has the support of Generalitat Valenciana-funded IDEO project (PROMETEOII/2014/039) and UV (UV-INV-PRECOMP13-115032).Panach Navarrete, JI.; España Cubillo, S.; Dieste, O.; Pastor López, O.; Juristo Juzgado, N. (2015). In Search of Evidence for Model-Driven Development Claims: An Experiment on Quality, Effort, Productivity and Satisfaction. Information and Software Technology. 62:164-186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2015.02.012S1641866

A multi-plot assessment of vegetation structure using a micro-unmanned aerial system (UAS) in a semi-arid savanna environment.

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have emerged as a capable platform for measuring vegetation health, structure and productivity. Products derived from UAS imagery typically have much finer spatial resolutions than traditional satellite or aircraft imagery, allowing the spectral and structural heterogeneity of vegetation to be mapped and monitored with more detail. This study uses UAS-captured imagery from the Chobe Enclave of northern Botswana. Flights were conducted across a gradient of savanna sites classified as grass-, shrub-, or tree-dominated. We compare multiple approaches for extracting woody vegetation structure from UAS imagery and assess correlations between in situ field measurements and UAS estimates. Sensor types were also compared, to determine whether multispectral data improves estimates of vegetation structure at the expense of spatial resolution. We found that leveraging multispectral reflectance information aids in crown delineation, areal estimates, and fractional cover of woody and non-woody vegetation within the study area. Comparisons are made between two crown delineation techniques, and the efficacy of each technique within savanna environments is discussed. The methods presented hold potential to inform field sampling protocols and UAS-based techniques for autonomous crown delineation in future dryland systems research. These findings advance research for field and remote sensing analyses assessing degradation in heterogeneous landscapes where varying vegetation structure has implications on land use and land functions

An investigation into the use of B-Nodes and state models for computer network technology and education

This thesis consists of a series of internationally published, peer reviewed, conference research papers and one journal paper. The papers evaluate and further develop two modelling methods for use in Information Technology (IT) design and for the educational and training needs of students within the area of computer and network technology. The IT age requires technical talent to fill positions such as network managers, web administrators, e-commerce consultants and network security experts as IT is changing rapidly, and this is placing considerable demands on higher educational institutions, both within Australia and internationally, to respond to these changes

Proceedings of the 2004 ONR Decision-Support Workshop Series: Interoperability

In August of 1998 the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) of the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), approached Dr. Phillip Abraham of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) with the proposal for an annual workshop focusing on emerging concepts in decision-support systems for military applications. The proposal was considered timely by the ONR Logistics Program Office for at least two reasons. First, rapid advances in information systems technology over the past decade had produced distributed collaborative computer-assistance capabilities with profound potential for providing meaningful support to military decision makers. Indeed, some systems based on these new capabilities such as the Integrated Marine Multi-Agent Command and Control System (IMMACCS) and the Integrated Computerized Deployment System (ICODES) had already reached the field-testing and final product stages, respectively. Second, over the past two decades the US Navy and Marine Corps had been increasingly challenged by missions demanding the rapid deployment of forces into hostile or devastate dterritories with minimum or non-existent indigenous support capabilities. Under these conditions Marine Corps forces had to rely mostly, if not entirely, on sea-based support and sustainment operations. Particularly today, operational strategies such as Operational Maneuver From The Sea (OMFTS) and Sea To Objective Maneuver (STOM) are very much in need of intelligent, near real-time and adaptive decision-support tools to assist military commanders and their staff under conditions of rapid change and overwhelming data loads. In the light of these developments the Logistics Program Office of ONR considered it timely to provide an annual forum for the interchange of ideas, needs and concepts that would address the decision-support requirements and opportunities in combined Navy and Marine Corps sea-based warfare and humanitarian relief operations. The first ONR Workshop was held April 20-22, 1999 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Luis Obispo, California. It focused on advances in technology with particular emphasis on an emerging family of powerful computer-based tools, and concluded that the most able members of this family of tools appear to be computer-based agents that are capable of communicating within a virtual environment of the real world. From 2001 onward the venue of the Workshop moved from the West Coast to Washington, and in 2003 the sponsorship was taken over by ONR’s Littoral Combat/Power Projection (FNC) Program Office (Program Manager: Mr. Barry Blumenthal). Themes and keynote speakers of past Workshops have included: 1999: ‘Collaborative Decision Making Tools’ Vadm Jerry Tuttle (USN Ret.); LtGen Paul Van Riper (USMC Ret.);Radm Leland Kollmorgen (USN Ret.); and, Dr. Gary Klein (KleinAssociates) 2000: ‘The Human-Computer Partnership in Decision-Support’ Dr. Ronald DeMarco (Associate Technical Director, ONR); Radm CharlesMunns; Col Robert Schmidle; and, Col Ray Cole (USMC Ret.) 2001: ‘Continuing the Revolution in Military Affairs’ Mr. Andrew Marshall (Director, Office of Net Assessment, OSD); and,Radm Jay M. Cohen (Chief of Naval Research, ONR) 2002: ‘Transformation ... ’ Vadm Jerry Tuttle (USN Ret.); and, Steve Cooper (CIO, Office ofHomeland Security) 2003: ‘Developing the New Infostructure’ Richard P. Lee (Assistant Deputy Under Secretary, OSD); and, MichaelO’Neil (Boeing) 2004: ‘Interoperability’ MajGen Bradley M. Lott (USMC), Deputy Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command; Donald Diggs, Director, C2 Policy, OASD (NII

Understanding the individual performance of m-banking

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Information Management, specialization in Information and Decision SystemsOs avanços significativos em tecnologias e dispositivos móveis tornaram o m-banking importante para o comércio móvel e serviços financeiros. Apesar de ter sido desenvolvida muita investigação neste campo, a maior parte da literatura académica existente centra-se na adoção de m-banking, em vez de avaliar o seu impacto sobre o desempenho individual (eficiência e eficácia da execução de tarefas bancárias) na fase da pós-adoção. Esta dissertação preenche esta lacuna na literatura através da análise do desempenho individual. O modelo conceptual é suportado pela teoria do alinhamento da tecnologia e tarefa (TTF) e o modelo de sucesso em sistemas de informação de DeLone e McLean para avaliar o desempenho individual no m-banking ao nível do contexto individual. A dissertação pretende contribuir para uma melhor compreensão do m-banking e do desemprenho individual na fase da pós-adoção. Para atingir esse objetivo foram desenvolvidos 4 estudos empíricos. No 2º capítulo apresentamos a revisão da literatura do m-banking e performance individual. Este capítulo abarca um conjunto de conhecimento alargado e relevante que servirá para apresentar o que foi analisado e quais as lacunas identificadas. A revisão da literatura indica que os temas de adoção do m-banking e intenção comportamental dominam a maioria dos estudos realizados, não tendo sido encontrado nenhum estudo sobre a pós-adoção e uso. Para além disso, os dois fatores mais significativos de intenções para adotar m-banking são: a facilidade de uso percebido e a utilidade percecionada. Considerando as várias definições m-banking e as mudanças tecnológicas ao longo do tempo, propomos uma nova e mais ampla definição. No 3º capítulo testou-se empiricamente, em Portugal, o modelo do TTF para estudar os fatores determinantes do m-banking para o desempenho individual com o objetivo de avaliar se existem diferenças de idade ou gênero. Os resultados revelam que TTF e uso são precedentes importantes do desempenho individual. Encontramos diferenças estatisticamente significativas no percurso TTF e uso para o impacto no desempenho para a subamostra de idade, e diferenças estatisticamente não significativas na subamostra de gênero. No 4º capítulo combinamos a teoria do TTF e o modelo de sucesso em sistemas de informação de DeLone e McLean para avaliar o desempenho individual no m-banking. O estudo empírico foi desenvolvido com base numa amostra de 233 observações. Os resultados revelam que o uso e satisfação são vetores importantes do desempenho individual. A qualidade do sistema, a qualidade da informação e a qualidade de serviço afetam a satisfação dos utilizadores do m-banking. No 5º capítulo, demonstramos empiricamente a importância de incluir variáveis culturais na análise da relação com o desempenho individual. O desempenho individual pode tornar-se uma fonte de retenção e captação de potenciais utilizadores do serviço de m-banking. Neste capítulo aplicamos o modelo de DeLone e McLean e duas dimensões de cultura de Hall, alto-baixo contexto e perceção do tempo monocromático e policromático. Compreendendo o efeito da cultura no desempenho individual, poderemos fornecer contributos importantes para os fornecedores de serviço de m-banking, no âmbito do desenvolvimento de estratégias que levem os utilizadores a continuar satisfeitos com o serviço bem como fomentar a utilização continuada do serviço. Neste estudo empírico, concluímos que a qualidade do sistema, a qualidade da informação e a qualidade de serviço afetam a satisfação dos utilizadores de m-banking, que por sua vez determina a utilização continuada e o desempenho individual do serviço. Demonstramos a importância da perceção do tempo na execução de tarefas bancárias no âmbito do uso e satisfação e a sua influência no desempenho individual. No 6º capítulo, investigamos a influência da cultura no uso e desempenho individual, combinando o modelo TTF com duas dimensões culturais de Hofstede: aversão à incerteza e o individualismo. O estudo empírico foi desenvolvido com base numa amostra de 204 observações. Os resultados do estudo revelam que o individualismo modera a relação entre o TTF e o uso, e a aversão à incerteza modera a relação entre o TTF e o desempenho individual. Os outros construtos que representam o núcleo do modelo de TTF continuam a explicar empiricamente o TTF, o uso e o desempenho individual. São sugeridas estratégias baseadas nestes fatores aos gestores de m-banking com vista a captação e retenção de utilizadores. Em termos epistemológicos, nesta dissertação, adotámos uma postura característica do positivismo. No que diz respeito às metodologias de investigação utilizamos o método dedutivo. A teoria do contextualismo esteve assente no modelo de investigação proposto.Fast advances in mobile technologies and devices have made m-banking increasingly important in mobile commerce and financial services. Although much research has been developed in this field, most of the academic literature until now has focused on m-banking adoption rather than on assessing the impact on individual performance in the post-adoption phase. This dissertation fills this gap in the literature through the analysis of the individual performance. The task-technology fit (TTF) theory and the DeLone & McLean IS Success model ground the current research’s conceptual model for assessing the m-banking individual performance at individual level. With this dissertation we contribute to a better understanding of the m-banking and individual performance in the post-adoption stage. To this end we developed four empirical studies. In Chapter 2 is a review of literature of m-banking and individual performance. This chapter assembles this diverse body of knowledge into a coherent whole. The present review indicates that the topics of m-banking adoption and behavioural intention dominate the majority of research, but finds no studies on post-adoption and use stage. Moreover, the two most significant drivers of intentions to adopt m-banking are perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Considering several m-banking definitions and the technological changes over time, we propose a new, broader definition. In Chapter 3 we empirically tested in Portugal the task-technology fit (TTF) model to study the determinants of m-banking for individual performance and to discover if there are any age or gender differences. The results reveal that TTF and use ii are important precedents of individual performance. We found statistically significant differences in path TTF and use to performance impact for the age subsample, and not statistically significant differences for the gender subsample. In Chapter 4 we propose a model combining the TTF model and DeLone & McLean IS success model to evaluate the impact of m-banking on individual performance. The empirical approach is based on an online survey questionnaire of 233 individuals. The results reveal that usage and user satisfaction are important precedents of individual performance, and the importance of the moderate effects of TTF over usage to individual performance. The system quality, information quality, and service quality positively affect user satisfaction. In Chapter 5 we show the relevance of the relationship between culture and individual performance in the m-banking context. The individual performance (efficiency and effectiveness of performing banking tasks) becomes a source of retention and attraction of potential adopters of m-banking service. We apply the DeLone & McLean IS success model and two of Hall’s cross-cultural dimension scales of high-low context and monochromic-polychronic time perception. Understanding the importance of the culture effects on individual performance can positively influence service providers, so as to develop strategies that lead to continued use and user satisfaction of the service. We find that system quality, information quality, and service quality play important roles in user satisfaction, and influence its use and individual performance. Additionally, we test the relevance of the moderating effect of time perception over the use and user satisfaction to individual performance. In Chapter 6 we show evidence on the influence of culture on m-banking use and individual performance, using a combination of the task-technology fit model and iii two of Hofstede’s cross-cultural dimension scales: uncertainty avoidance and individualism. Based on a sample of 204 m-banking users, we show that individualism moderates the relationship between TTF and use, and uncertainty avoidance moderates the relationship between TTF and individual performance. The remaining constructs, which represent the core of the TTF model, can still empirically explain the TTF, use, and individual performance of m-banking. Strategies grounded in these factors are suggested for m-banking service providers to better attract and retain users. In this dissertation, in epistemological terms, we adopted a posture characteristic of positivism. With regard to research methodologies we used the deductive method. The contextualist theory was applied to organize our proposed research model