COBRA framework to evaluate e-government services: A citizen-centric perspective

E-government services involve many stakeholders who have different objectives that can have an impact on success. Among these stakeholders, citizens are the primary stakeholders of government activities. Accordingly, their satisfaction plays an important role in e-government success. Although several models have been proposed to assess the success of e-government services through measuring users' satisfaction levels, they fail to provide a comprehensive evaluation model. This study provides an insight and critical analysis of the extant literature to identify the most critical factors and their manifested variables for user satisfaction in the provision of e-government services. The various manifested variables are then grouped into a new quantitative analysis framework consisting of four main constructs: cost; benefit; risk and opportunity (COBRA) by analogy to the well-known SWOT qualitative analysis framework. The COBRA measurement scale is developed, tested, refined and validated on a sample group of e-government service users in Turkey. A structured equation model is used to establish relationships among the identified constructs, associated variables and users' satisfaction. The results confirm that COBRA framework is a useful approach for evaluating the success of e-government services from citizens' perspective and it can be generalised to other perspectives and measurement contexts. Crown Copyright © 2014.PIAP-GA-2008-230658) from the European Union Framework Program and another grant (NPRP 09-1023-5-158) from the Qatar National Research Fund (amember of Qatar Foundation

The Relationship Between Low Family Income and Psychological Disturbance in Young Children: An Australian Longitudinal Study

Objective This study examines the relationship between low family income (LFI) experienced at different points in time, chronic low income status and its impact on child behaviour measured at 5 years of age. Method Longitudinal data from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy were used to measure LFI in families at three points in time (the antenatal period, 6 months post birth and at 5 years of age). Outcome variables were three independent groups of behaviour problems labelled as externalising, social, attentional and thought (SAT) problems, and internalising problems. These groups were developed from the Child Behaviour Checklist. An analysis based on logistic regression modelling was carried out examining the relationship between LFI and a range of intermediate variables known to be associated with child behaviour problems. Results The more often families experienced low income, the higher the rate of child behaviour problems at age 5. Low family income was still independently associated with SAT behaviour problems after controlling for smoking in the first trimester, parenting styles, maternal depression and marital disharmony at age 5. The association between LFI and internalising and externalising behaviour problems was largely mediated by maternal depression. Conclusion Low family income is a significant factor in the aetiology of a variety of child behaviour problems. The mechanisms involved in the link between LFI and childhood internalising and externalising behaviours involve the exposure of the children to maternal depression. However, the relationship between LFI and SAT behaviour problems remains to be elucidated

Social mobility from a comparative perspective between Europe and Latin America

Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004This chapter presents a review of the analysis of social mobility in the international sphere (Europe and Latin America), with a particular focus on the partner countries of the INCASI network. To date, few studies have linked nations whose economic and social aspects are so dissimilar. As is usual in the specialized literature, the relationship between social origin and class destination is addressed. This is done by noting the comparisons made across the geographical areas. We review the analyses that have been made of the evolution of social fluidity as well as the distance between social classes within each country and the comparisons made between them. We compare the main theories that have inspired the study of social mobility to date: modernization theory, which predicts an increase in relative mobility rates, and invariance theory, which postulates the constancy of social fluidity. Special attention is devoted to the role played by the family, the state and the market in late industrialized countries. We study the difficulties for social change, i.e. upward mobility from one class to another, as well as the likelihood of reproduction in comparative terms. To do so, we link these mechanisms with the AMOSIT model. The advances in methodology, techniques, theory and data processing are highlighted

Family History of Alcoholism and Childhood Adversity: Joint Effects on Alcohol Consumption and Dependence

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65494/1/j.1530-0277.1994.tb00085.x.pd

Social Mobility in Latin America: A Review of Existing Evidence

This paper reviews evidence on social mobility in Latin America. Several studies have used data sets that collect intergenerational socio economic information. The data, though limited, suggest that social mobility is low in the region, even when compared with low social mobility developed countries like the United States and United Kingdom, with high levels of immobility at the lower and upper tails of the income distribution. While Latin America has improved education mobility in recent decades, which may have translated into higher mobility for younger cohorts, the region still presents, except for Chile, lower education mobility than in developed countries. The paper also reviews studies on the main determinants of the region's low levels of social mobility, including social exclusion, low access to higher education, and labor market discrimination

Exploring consumers perceived risk and trust for mobile shopping: A theoretical framework and empirical study

Despite mobile device usage being at an all-time high, their utilisation for mobile shopping activities is inherently low. The study, first, identifies prominent areas of academic concern and examines areas requiring further insight. A theoretical model is developed to examine multi-faceted risk and trust effects on consumer adoption intention. Empirical results demonstrate several trust and risk perceptions as having varying effects on consumers’ m-shopping intention. Inclusion of age and gender reveals discrepancies among positive and negative influencers of intention. Results contribute to theoretical and practical understandings surrounding deterrents of intention and potential risk-reduction mechanisms for future considerations

Meaningful regression and association models for clustered ordinal data

Many proposed methods for analyzing clustered ordinal data focus on the regression model and consider the association structure within a cluster as a nuisance. However, often the association structure is of equal interest, for example, temporal association in longitudinal studies and association between responses to similar questions in a survey. We discuss the use, appropriateness and interpretability of various latent variable and Markov models for the association structure and propose a new structure that exploits the ordinality of the response. The models are illustrated with a study concerning opinions regarding government spending and an analysis of stability and change in teenage marijuana use over time, where we reveal different behavioral patterns for boys and girls through a comprehensive investigation of individual response profiles