Quo vadis industry 4.0? Position, trends, and challenges

Industry 4.0 vision and its mandated digital transformation are radically reshaping the way business is carried out and the way overall industrial processes and collaborations are operating. In this work, the objective is to analyze the current level of adoption of Industry 4.0, via the footprint available in industrial and academic research works. The analysis performed reveals insights on how Industry 4.0 has impacted and is still influencing research and innovation in industrial systems, services, and business approaches. It also reveals pertinent trends on key enabling features, technologies and challenges associated with this 4th industrial revolution, mainly focusing on the pathways for wider industrial adoption of Industry 4.0-compliant technologies and solutions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

IT Capabilities – Quo Vadis?

The successful management of IT capabilities and their complex interdependencies with other organizational capabilities constitutes an important source of competitive advantage for many organizations today. The role of IT capabilities in enabling competitive actions is well-researched. By reviewing a large number of IT capabilities-focused research articles, the authors seek to answer the questions, “What have we learned? What do we still need to learn?” This research-in-progress article presents key findings regarding IT capabilities, highlighting current research limitations, and providing propositions and recommendations regarding future research

An Exploration of Utilization of College Graduates in Social Work: An Innovative Approach to the Manpower Crisis in the Profession of Social Work

The researcher’s interest in the professional manpower shortage in Social Work (i.e. the MSW) has been generated by the belief that Provincial and Canadian Associations of Social Workers have not been sufficiently concerned with the agency employed by B.A. level of social workers who are eager to attain professional status, if they are given the appropriate opportunity. This researcher believes that many such social workers do not make application to Graduate Schools and conversely, are not recruited by the Graduate Schools as some members of both groups have a suspicion that the present curriculum is not in keeping with the total learning needs of the experienced, agency employed B.A., social worker

E-government adoption: A cultural comparison

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008.E-government diffusion is an international phenomenon. This study compares e-government adoption in the U.K. to adoption in the U.S. In particular, this study seeks to determine if the same factors are salient in both countries. Several studies have explored citizen acceptance of e-government services in the U.S. However, few studies have explored this phenomenon in the U.K. To identify the similarities and differences between the U.K. and the U.S. a survey is conducted in the U.K. and the findings are compared to the literature that investigates diffusion in the U.S. This study proposes a model of e-government adoption in the U.K. based on salient factors in the U.S. A survey is administered to 260 citizens in London to assess the importance of relative advantage, trust and the digital divide on intention to use e-government. The results of binary logistic regression indicate that there are cultural differences in e-government adoption in the U.K. and the U.S. The results indicate that of the prevailing adoption constructs, relative advantage and trust are pertinent in both the U.S. and the U.K., while ICT adoption barriers such as access and skill may vary by culture. Implications for research and practice are discussed

MARTYRS ON THE SILVER SCREEN: EARLY CHURCH MARTYRDOM IN ITALIAN SILENT CINEMA (1898-1930)

While the historical film genre and works like Quo Vadis (1913) and Cabiria (1914) have long been considered as highpoints for Italian silent cinema, the religious aspects of the genre have remained little-explored. My thesis examines screen representations of the Early Church martyr between 1898 and 1930, investigating one illustrated lecture series, nine one-reel films and seven feature films. The early chapters set out the cinematic and intertextual contexts within which these films appeared, from the religious novels of the mid-nineteenth century to the Catholic film sector of the early 1900s. The first case study uncovers the depictions of Early Church life made by Vatican archaeologist and film pioneer Rodolfo Kanzler. Subsequent chapters consider depictions of martyrdom in one-reel narrative films, the first epic features, wartime propaganda, the sexualised epics of the 1920s and emigrant-commissioned projects. Tracing this theme across Italian silent cinema uncovers some fascinating works, including Enrico Guazzoni’s gory Fabiola (1918), the Lyda Borelli propaganda vehicle La Leggenda di Santa Barbara (1918) and Elvira Notari’s emigrant-commissioned project, Trionfo Cristiano (1930). Combining cultural studies and close film analysis, I reveals connections between the films, Italian society, Catholicism and earlier cultural production featuring Christian martyrs. The thesis argues that the early Church martyr was a complex figure in Italian cinema, stuck between nationalistic interpretations of the Roman past and Catholic models of heroism; religious audiences and those seeking the decadent spectacles of ancient Rome; high art values and popular entertainment; domestic political meanings and transnational appeal. In balancing between these competing priorities and discourses, cinematic representations of the Christian martyr charted Italy’s relationship with its Classical and Early Christian pasts during the early part of the twentieth century

A Qualitative Approach to Examine Technology Acceptance

The research field of technology acceptance and software acceptance is a fertile field in the discipline of MIS. Acceptance research is mainly affected by the technology acceptance model (TAM). The TAM is counted as the major guideline for acceptance research. But recently more researchers discover the deficits of former acceptance research. The main cause of the criticism is the focus on quantitative research methods. We will show this with the help of former meta-studies and a literature review. Quantitative approaches are basically appropriate for the testing of theories. The development of new theories or constructs is followed to a lesser intent. In the article we will show how a qualitative approach can be used for theory-construction. We will introduce a qualitative research design and show how this approach can be used to develop new constructs of acceptance while some existing constructs taken from TAM and related theories cannot be confirmed

MISERABLE COMFORTS OR CONCRETE PROTECTIONS: HUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTIONS, TREATIES, DECLARATIONS, AND THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS/OTHERED COMMUNITIES—QUO VADIS?

It has become an annual ritual for the world—especially through the United Nations (UN)—to organize events and activities celebrating Indigenous Peoples.1 Further to this disposition, the UN has adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.2 Equally, it is now fashionable, to include the needs, and questions, affecting indigenous peoples in our development programs and climate action activities—albeit sometimes as an addendum to the mainstream policies.3 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the current prominence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and decolonialization language in international policy briefs, give further credence to this apparent commitment to the rights of indigenous and othered communities. The recently concluded UN Climate Action Conference in Scotland (C0P26) 4 also voiced out some of the concerns of indigenous communities.5 Beyond these Conventions, Treaties, Declarations, and good faith statements, about the rights of indigenous/othered communities, it is imperative to articulate a set of principles, that can ensure that these apparent commitments do not become miserable comforts to indigenous and othered communities. Such principles can be implemented as best practices, and therefore sharpen the blunt edges of liberal international human rights. More so, such will enhance the pedagogies regarding the rights of indigenous peoples using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) because indigenous people are often the racialized other, and also part of the “third world.” Thus, this essay highlights the possibilities that CRT and TWAIL can bring to the paradigms and proposes a ten-principle approach through which we can (re)invigorate these conventions, treaties, and declarations; thereby enhancing the human rights of indigenous/othered communities

An empirical study on behavioural intention to reuse e-learning systems in rural China

The learner’s acceptance of e-learning systems has received extensive attention in prior studies, but how their experience of using e-learning systems impacts on their behavioural intention to reuse those systems has attracted limited research. As the applications of e-learning are still gaining momentum in developing countries, such as China, it is necessary to examine the relationships between e-learners’ experience and perceptions and their behavioural intention to reuse, because it is argued that system reuse is an important indicator of the system’s success. Therefore, a better understanding of the multiple factors affecting the e-learner’s intention to reuse could help e-learning system researchers and providers to develop more effective and acceptable e-learning systems. Underpinned by the information system success model, technology acceptance model and self-efficacy theory, a theoretical framework was developed to investigate the learner’s behavioural intention to reuse e-learning systems. A total of 280 e-learners were surveyed to validate the measurements and proposed research model. The results demonstrated that e-learning service quality, course quality, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and self-efficacy had direct effects on users’ behavioural intention to reuse. System functionality and system response have an indirect effect, but system interactivity had no significant effect. Furthermore, self-efficacy affected perceived ease of use that positively influenced perceived usefulness