Consumer self-service technology adoption in multiple service industries in Saudi Arabia

The current convergence of information and communication technology (ICT) is found to be creating new opportunities. Business organizations are leveraging this technology in response to the need for greater business integration, flexibility, and agility. One of the technologies that have been utilized quite aggressively by firms is the Self-Service Technologies (SST). Although the proclaimed benefits of SSTs are enormous, few institutions which have adopted the SST have achieved its intended objectives. Even thought the use of the SSTs in the service settings within the developed economies has attained an increasing level of acceptance by consumers, little is known about the consumer‟s adoption in the Arab world, particularly in Saudi Arabia which is still lack of research in this area. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis is to explore the SST adoption in multiple sectors in Saudi Arabia as well as the usage of all types of SST. The main focus of this thesis, is to explore the consumers‟ adoption of the SSTs through the users‟ seek values. The users‟ seek values construct is a new construct proposed in this study to complement the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework. The research model composes of four variables: the antecedents of users‟ seek values; the users‟ seek values; the customers‟ intention to use the SST; and the customers‟ adoption of the SST. Using a mall-intercept technique, a sample of 400 respondents was collected in three major cities in Saudi Arabia. The hypothesis was tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results showed that, for the antecedent factors, demographic profiles and personality traits were found to influence the users‟ seek values. In addition, users‟ seek values were found to mediate the relationship between the consumers‟ characteristics and their intention to use the SST. In addition, the intention to use the SST also mediates the relationship between users‟ seek values and the SST adoption. Finally, the direct positive relationship between customers‟ intention and adoption was also confirmed. The research concluded with a discussion on the management implications as well as the recommendations and the future research that need to be carried out

Evolution of a Lean Smart Maintenance Maturity Model towards the new Age of Industry 4.0

Over the last few years, the complexity of asset and maintenance management of industrial plants and machinery in the producing industry has risen due to higher competition and volatile environments. Smart factories, Internet of Things (IoT) and the underlying digitisation of a significant number of processes are changing the way we have to think and work in terms of asset management. Existing Lean Smart Maintenance (LSM) philosophy, which focuses on the cost-efficient (lean) and the learning organisation (smart) perspectives enables a value-oriented, dynamic, and smart maintenance/asset management. The associated LSM maturity model is the evaluation tool that contains the normative, strategic, and operational aspects of industrial asset management, based on which numerous reorganisation projects have already been carried out in industrial companies. However, due to the ever-increasing development of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), it is necessary to extend the model by selected aspects of digitisation and digitalisation. Based on a structured literature review (SLR) of state of the art I4.0 maturity models, we were able to investigate the essential maturity items for I4.0. To restructure and expand the existing LSM maturity model, the principle of design science research (DSR) was used. The architecture of the LSM maturity model was based on the structure of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). Further development of a Lean Smart Maintenance maturity model thus covers the future requirements of I4.0 and data science. It was possible to enhance existing categories with new artefacts from the I4.0 range to represent the influence of cyber-physical systems (CPS), (big) data and information management, condition monitoring (CM) and more. Furthermore, the originally defined LSM-Model was restructured for a more simplified application in industrial use cases

Metodologías ágiles Scrum, XP, SLeSS, Scrumban, HME, Mobile-D y MASAN empleadas en la industria de dispositivos móviles: Un contraste en favor de la industria del desarrollo móvil

La finalidad de este artículo fue realizar un contraste entre metodologías ágiles Scrum, XP, SLeSS, Scrumban, HME, Mobile-D y MASAN, empleadas en la industria del desarrollo de software para dispositivos móviles. Como resultado de la investigación se encontró que dichas metodologías no están direccionadas a cumplir con los todos los requerimientos especiales, exigidos por los aplicativos móviles, ya que la mayor parte de éstas no surgieron pensando en el desarrollo de los mismos. Si bien parte de las características de las metodologías ágiles es que fueron concebidas para abordar proyectos de cortos y mediano plazo con requerimientos cambiantes a lo largo del mismo, en algunos de los casos dejan varios vacíos como la baja calidad y la precaria robustez del software resultante. Después de un análisis exhaustivo se concluyó Scrum, SLeSS y Scrumban, son las más capacitadas para atender las necesidades del desarrollo de aplicaciones para dispositivos móvil.TARAPOTOEscuela Profesional de Ingeniería de SistemasDesarrollo de Softwar

Big Data Analytics (BDA) and Degree of Internationalization: the Interplay between Governance of BDA Infrastructure and BDA Capabilities

In order to face the challenges of internationalization and to cope more efficiently with the uncertainty of foreign expansion, firms are called to analyze an increasing amount of real-time semi-structured and unstructured datasets. In this sense, big data analytics (BDA) can become strategic in stimulating the international growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the specific relationship between BDA and internationalization has been analyzed fragmentarily within the mainstream literature. With the purpose of shedding light on this relationship, the authors drew on resource-based view (RBV) and collected data through a questionnaire directed to CEOs of 266 SMEs, receiving 103 responses. A quantitative analysis based on an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression showed that the relationship between governance of BDA infrastructure and the degree of internationalization (DOI) is not significant, while the direct effect of BDA capabilities as well as the interaction term between BDA infrastructure and BDA capabilities are positive and significant. This suggests that the governance of BDA per se is not enough for enhancing internationalization in SMEs. On the contrary, this article points out the relevance of developing specific BDA capabilities and the existence of a positive interplay between governance of BDA infrastructure and BDA capabilities that can exploit the new knowledge coming from BDA in SME international growth. © 2020, The Author(s).Open access funding provided by Università degli Studi di Torino within the CRUI-CARE Agreement

AIR FORCE SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND AS INNOVATION PATHFINDERS

This thesis investigates Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) as innovation pathfinders for the Air Force, and answers how their performance in the role can be improved. This is accomplished through a review of AFSOC’s suitability for pathfinding and exploration of the innovation ecosystem. The thesis finds AFSOC has limited influence over acquisition reform and relatively small size, but that small size presents opportunities of organizational agility and funding speed available at limited scale. Pathfinding can be enabled by powerful special operations culture and itself reinforces a culture of initiative and innovation which pays dividends in AFSOC’s warfighting functions. Innovation pathfinding can benefit from understanding wicked problem methodologies and leveraging the power of trust and trustworthiness. Lastly, industry best practices provide means to structure and manage innovation. The concluding recommendations give stakeholders means to increase the effectiveness of AFSOC innovation pathfinding, including working within the scale of more agile acquisitions process, valuing colocation and relationships, identifying efficiencies to be gained in fast following, pathfinding adjacent innovation, and valuing trust beyond compliance.Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.Major, United States Air Forc

Digital Transformation and Public Services

Through a series of studies, the overarching aim of this book is to investigate if and how the digitalization/digital transformation process affects various welfare services provided by the public sector, and the ensuing implications thereof. Ultimately, this book seeks to understand if it is conceivable for digital advancement to result in the creation of private/non-governmental alternatives to welfare services, possibly in a manner that transcends national boundaries. This study also investigates the possible ramifications of technological development for the public sector and the Western welfare society at large. This book takes its point of departure from the 2016 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report that targets specific public service areas in which government needs to adopt new strategies not to fall behind. Specifically, this report emphasizes the focus on digitalization of health care/social care, education, and protection services, including the use of assistive technologies referred to as "digital welfare." Hence, this book explores the factors potentially leading to whether state actors could be overrun by other non-governmental actors, disrupting the current status quo of welfare services. The book seeks to provide an innovative, enriching, and controversial take on society at large and how various aspects of the public sector can be, and are, affected by the ongoing digitalization process in a way that is not covered by extant literature on the market. This book takes its point of departure in Sweden given the fact that Sweden is one of the most digitalized countries in Europe, according to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), making it a pertinent research case. However, as digitalization transcends national borders, large parts of the subject matter take on an international angle. This includes cases from several other countries around Europe as well as the United States

An agile based integrated framework for software development.

Doctor of Philosophy in Management. University of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban, 2018.Software development practice has been guided by practitioners and academics along an evolutionary path that extends from a Waterfall approach, characterised as highly prescriptive, to an approach that is agile, embracing the dynamic context in which software is developed. Agile Methodology is informed by a set of generic principles and agile methods that are customised by practitioners to meet the requirements of the environment in which it is used. Insight into the customisation of agile methods is pivotal to uphold the evolutionary trajectory of software development methodology. The study adopted a ‘socio-technical’ orientation to enhance the implementation of Agile Methodology. The social component of the study was aligned to the role played by organisational culture in the adoption of software development methodology. The amorphous concept of organisational culture has been operationalised by implementing the Competing Values Framework to develop a model that aligns organisational culture to an optimal methodology for software development. The technical component of the study has a software engineering focus. The study leveraged experiential knowledge of software development by South African software practitioners to develop a customised version of a prominent agile software development method. The model has been developed so that it is compatible with a variant of organisational culture that is aligned with agile methodology. The study implemented a sequential research design strategy consisting of two phases. The first phase was qualitative consisting of a phenomenological approach to develop the study’s main models. The second phase was quantitative, underpinned by technology acceptance theory, consisting of a survey based approach to determine South African software practitioners’ acceptance of the agile-oriented technical model that was developed in the study. The results from the survey indicated an 80% acceptance of the model proposed in study. Structural Equation Modelling was used to demonstrate that the inclusion of organisational culture as an independent construct improved the predictive capacity of technology acceptance theory in the context of software development methodology adoption. The study’s overall theoretical contribution was to highlight the significance of organisational culture in the implementation of agile methodology and to extend the evolutionary path of software development methodology by proposing an agile oriented model that scales the software process to an organisational infrastructure level

Europe: from emancipation to empowerment

Marx is dead. But so is Hayek. With neoliberalism crumbling, Europeans are beginning to wonder what it is that is really wrong with the current European Union. The paper proposes the following answer: To this day, European integration has not been a process of emancipation. This shortcoming, however, is not written on the Union’s face. It requires, pursuant to best psychological traditions, a careful analysis of symptoms. One indication of the absence of emancipation is, indeed, the Union’s rhetorical embrace of empowerment

FEAR and "The great reset": Analysis of the World Economic Forum's post-COVID agenda videos and the adverse reactions to them

This article compares the ideological positions found in the visions of the future proposed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in “The Great Reset” campaign and in the internet users’ reaction to it. In this YouTube campaign, the WEF presents what it understands the “new normal” should be –understood as the new social, economic, and political relations after the COVID-19 pandemic.The YouTube users’ comments reject the agenda and express different grounds for such an attitude. This study identifies the main ideas and ideologies within the comments and in the presentation of the WEF’s campaign using the psychoanalytical political theory. The results reveal that the agenda and reactions to it are motivated by the exacerbated state of inequality and suffering caused by the current pandemic. While “The Great Reset” attempts to save capitalism by integrating human values, the comments contain populist and conspiratorial ideas. Although they rely on different epistemological grounds, the analysis reveals that both share a common understanding of a society that separates the populace against the ruling elites, who have become wealthier during the pandemic