Reducing critical hindrances to building information modeling implementation: The case of the Singapore construction industry

10.3390/app9183833Applied Sciences (Switzerland)918383

Effect of Auditor Proficiency and Audit Quality on Internal Audit Effectiveness in Nigeria’s Federal Public Service

The internal audit function, with clearly defined competence and process requirements, has despite its presence within the operations of federal public sector organizations in Nigeria being unable to check the rising cases of frauds and financial improprieties which have continuously been highlighted against them. Furthermore, sufficient attention has not been given to related control issues regardless of the increasing use of information technology (ICT) in public sector operations. The study investigates the effects of competence; the role of ICT; and the quality of internal audit on internal audit effectiveness in Nigeria’s federal public service which is charged with the responsibility of the management of over half of the public revenues accruing to the Nigerian federation but with particular reference to 28 self-accounting federal public organizations operating in the North East Geo-Political Zone. Primary data was obtained from 139 valid responses out of 148 questionnaires administered on the internal auditors of such organizations. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed as the technique of data analysis to test the relationships.   The finding of this study revealed that competence and the quality of internal audit showed positive and significant influence on internal audit effectiveness. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) however showed positive but insignificant contribution. The study recommends an effective compliance with minimum entry requirements in the employment and deployment of Internal Auditors; a review and continuous improvement of operating regulations and standards; as well as the deployment of appropriate ICT audit tools and continuous training of internal audit staff by the relevant government offices (Offices of the Accountant General and that of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation – OAGF & OHCSF; and the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency - NITDA). Keywords: Internal Audit Effectiveness, Competence, ICT, Quality of Internal Work, Public Sector DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-6-01 Publication date:March 31st 202

Analysis and evaluation of the largest 500 family firms’ websites through PLS-SEM technique

Dado que pocos estudios relacionan los aspectos técnicos de un sitio web corporativo con la facturación de una empresa, este documento tiene como objetivo examinar cómo la calidad de un sitio web corporativo influye en las redes sociales y la facturación de la empresa en grandes empresas familiares. También se prueba el efecto moderador y mediador de las redes sociales en las relaciones entre la calidad del sitio web y la rotación. Además, el documento realiza un análisis multigrupo para analizar las diferencias entre las empresas familiares con baja y alta concentración de propiedad familiar. La muestra utilizada en el estudio, los sitios web de las 500 empresas familiares más grandes de todo el mundo extraídos del Índice Global de Negocios Familiares compilados por la Universidad de St. Gallen, se analizaron utilizando modelos de ecuaciones estructurales de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS-SEM). Los resultados indican que tanto el efecto directo e indirecto de la calidad del sitio web en la rotación como el efecto moderador de las redes sociales en la relación entre la calidad del sitio web y la rotación fueron negativos y significativos. El análisis multigrupo revela algunas diferencias significativas entre ambos grupos. El estudio contribuye a la evaluación de la literatura del sitio web al explorar un nuevo sector de aplicación: las empresas familiares. Además, las empresas familiares más grandes deberían mejorar su presencia en las redes sociales para aumentar sus ventas.As few studies relate the technical aspects of a corporate website to a firm’s turnover, this paper aims to examine how the quality of a corporate website influences social networks and the company’s turnover in large family firms. The moderating and mediating effect of social networks on the relationships between website quality and turnover are also tested. In addition, the paper performs a multigroup analysis to analyze the differences between family businesses with low and high family ownership concentration. The sample used in the study, the largest 500 family firms’ websites around the globe extracted from The Global Family Business Index compiled by the University of St. Gallen, were analyzed using partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that both the direct and indirect effect of website quality on turnover and the moderating effect of social networks in the relationship between website quality and turnover were negative and significant. The multigroup analysis reveals some significant differences between both groups. The study contributes to the evaluation of website literature by exploring a new sector of application: family businesses. Moreover, the largest family firms should improve their presence in social networks to increase their sales.• Junta de Extremadura y Fondos FEDER. AyudapeerReviewe

Ready for digital transformation? The effect of organisational readiness, innovation, airport size and ownership on digital change at airports

This study investigates the effect of organisational readiness, innovation and airport size and ownership on digital change at airports. Data is collected from a survey of managers at 94 airports worldwide and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Organisational readiness is found to have a direct effect on digital change. Organisational readiness also has a direct effect on innovation, which subsequently affects digital change. Airport size has a direct effect on digital change while the effect of ownership is not significant. The findings show that successful development of organisational readiness can be used to speed up the rate of innovation needed for digital change at airports. Keywords: innovation, organisational readiness, technology, digital transformation, airportspublishedVersio

Examining the Influence of Perceived Risk on the Selection of Internet Access in the U.S. Intelligence Community

Information technology security policies are designed explicitly to protect IT systems. However, overly restrictive information security policies may be inadvertently creating an unforeseen information risk by encouraging users to bypass protected systems in favor of personal devices, where the potential loss of organizational intellectual property is greater. Current models regarding the acceptance and use of technology, Technology Acceptance Model Version 3 (TAM3) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Version 2 (UTAUT2), address the use of technology in organizations and by consumers, but little research has been done to identify an appropriate model to begin to understand what factors would influence users that can choose between using their own personal device and using organizational IT assets, separate and distinct from “bring your own device” constructs. There are few organizations with radical demarcations between organizational assets and personal devices. One such organization, the United States Intelligence Community (USIC), provides a controlled environment where personal devices are expressly forbidden in workspaces and therefore provides a uniquely situated organizational milieu in that the use of personal devices would have to occur outside of the organizational environment. This research aims to bridge the divide between these choices by identifying the factors that influence users to select their own devices to overcome organizational restrictions in order to conduct open-source research. The research model was amalgamated from the two primary theoretical frameworks, TAM3 and UTAUT2, and is the first to integrate these theories as they relate to the intention to use personal or organizational systems to address the choices employees make when choosing between personal and organizational assets to accomplish work related tasks. Using survey data collected from a sample of 240 employees of the USIC, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) statistical techniques were used to evaluate and test the model, estimate the path relationships, and provide reliability and validity checks. The results indicated that the Perception of Risk in the Enterprise (PoRE) significantly increased the Intention to Use Private Internet and decreased the Intention to Use Enterprise devices, as well as increasing the Perceived Ease of Use of Private Internet (PEUPI). The results of this study provide support to the concept that organizations must do more to balance threats to information systems with threats to information security. The imposition of safeguards to protect networks and systems, as well as employee misuse of information technology resources, may unwittingly incentivize users to use their own Internet and devices instead, where enterprise safeguards and protections are absent. This incentive is particularly pronounced when organizations increase the perceived threat of risk to users, whether intentional or inadvertent, and when the perception of the ease of use and usefulness of private Internet devices is high

Private Transactions in Public Places: An Exploration of the Impact of the Computer Environment on Public Transactional Web Site Use

Organizations and governments continue to advance toward using electronic means to interact with their customers. However, the use of this medium presents an access-to-service issue for people across the digital divide who do not have private Internet access from their homes. Publicly-available computers connected to the Internet are an important and expanding source of Internet access for consumers. Still, we do not know if people are willing to engage in e-commerce transactions in such environments. We expand the Facilitating Conditions construct of Triandis\u27 (1980) modified theory of reasoned action to develop a model of transactional Web site use in public environments that incorporates the physical and virtual computer environments associated with publicly accessible computers, moderated by the individual\u27s need for privacy. The model was tested in public libraries, and the results indicate that the virtual and physical facilitating conditions of a public computer are determinants of e-commerce use in a public environment, and the user\u27s need for privacy moderates these relationships

Exploring Paths of Justice in the Digital Healthcare : A Socio-Legal Study of Swedish Online Doctors

Online doctor services, healthcare provided via smartphone apps, have gone from being peripheral to seriously challenging the conventional Swedish way of providing healthcare services. The accessibility of online doctors is unsurpassed but all patient groups have not gotten better access to healthcare thanks to online doctors.The aim of this study was to investigate how perceptions of the online doctor service Kry influence the willingness to use said service. This has been achieved through two online surveys conducted in 2016 and 2017, generating two study samples of 1,264 and 882 cases, respectively. Survey items operationalised perceptions of justice as well as benefits and risk beliefs associated with Kry. Statistical modelling was performed, applying PLS path analysis.Inspired by the meta-theoretical perspective of critical realism, the aim was also to explain the underlying mechanisms that cause online doctors as a Swedish healthcare phenomenon. This has been achieved through a descriptive analysis based on, for instance, legal documents, governmental reports, regional recommendations, statistics, and newspaper articles. The descriptive study has been guided by Alan Norrie’s sociology of law and the theoretical figure of law’sarchitectonic, where the legal is always also the ethico-legal, the juridico political, and the socio-legal.Results from the surveys and the subsequent statistical modelling showed that the willingness to use Kry was predicted by perceptions of distributive justice, i.e., whether the service was perceived as accessible and inclusive (equality), and whether it was perceived as providing value for time and money spent (equity). Furthermore, perceptions of equality and equity were mediated by perceptions of perceived trust and interest in Kry. Perceptions of procedural justice did not impact the willingness to use Kry to the same extent.The descriptive study showed that Swedish online doctors as a phenomenon has emerged in a health system shaped by ethico-legal, juridico-political, and what I call econo-legal conflicts. Swedish healthcare law is based on the principle stating that those in most need of care should receive care first and on the overarching goal stating that the healthcare should strive towards an equal healthcare for the entire population. With the free choice of care reform, implemented in 2010, the Swedish health system was transformed into a quasi market and the principle of demand, stating that the patient should receive healthcare when she demands it rather than when she needs it, has entered the health system under the label free choice. This ethical and normative ambivalence is found in and expressed through healthcare law.Unlike the health system at large, online doctors are well equipped for a healthcare that is becoming increasingly consumer-driven. This may explain why distributive justice predict the will to use Kry. Much like the online marketplaceexperience, patients are judging the online doctor experience based on value for time and money spent

Deriving statistical inference from the application of artificial neural networks to clinical metabolomics data

Metabolomics data are complex with a high degree of multicollinearity. As such, multivariate linear projection methods, such as partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) have become standard. Non-linear projections methods, typified by Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) may be more appropriate to model potential nonlinear latent covariance; however, they are not widely used due to difficulty in deriving statistical inference, and thus biological interpretation. Herein, we illustrate the utility of ANNs for clinical metabolomics using publicly available data sets and develop an open framework for deriving and visualising statistical inference from ANNs equivalent to standard PLS-DA methods

Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) Applications in Economics and Finance

This book includes the 14 articles accepted and published in the Special Issue “Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM): Applications in Economics and Finance” of the MDPI journal Mathematics, which encompasses a wide range of topics connected with the theory and applications of PLS-SEM methodology. These topics involve, among others, prediction of stock market investment intention, institutional quality and international competitiveness, governance paradigms and public innovation, information and communication technologies in the supply chain, influence of the ability to absorb information from the environment and proactivity on the company's results, quality management, effects of the corporate social responsibility on financial performance, resource management for the improvement of the healthcare system, and the application of maximum entropy bootstrapping to time series. It is expected that the book will prove worthwhile and helpful for those working in the area of PLS-SEM, regardless of the field of application (economics, finance, marketing, education or other). Applications of higher order constructs, mediating variables, multigroup analysis and the latest advances in applied methodology can all be found in this book