Social Media & Privacy: Understanding Privacy in The Age of Content Creator Culture

In today\u27s digital age, content creators are gaining public attention and becoming highly influential. With that increased influence, it is important to acknowledge the privacy concerns within this culture. This interpretive research study seeks to identify and understand the dynamics of privacy within the content creator culture. This research will leverage information from interviews with content creators from various social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Using theories to understand the phenomena, theories of privacy calculus, privacy paradox and self-disclosure, will be used to view how content creators define and navigate privacy, strategies employed to control personal information sharing, and measures set in place to address privacy concerns. The findings of this research will fill a gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive understanding of privacy dynamics within the content creator culture. This knowledge will not only contribute to academic discussions but also inform the development of practical guidelines and recommendations for content creators, social media platforms, and policymakers to ensure a balance between content sharing and privacy protection

Digital Transformation of SMEs through social media

This research paper explores the strategic integration of social media platforms by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) beyond marketing. Drawing from Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capabilities theories, the study investigates how social media enhances management, coordination, and control functions. Through five diverse case studies from Ghana, findings reveal SMEs’ innovative use of platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp, Slack, and Trello. These platforms foster efficient internal communication, customer engagement, project management, and talent acquisition. Challenges such as technical expertise and dynamic digital landscapes are identified

Rationalizing Online Romance Fraud: In the Eyes of the Offender

This study seeks to understand romance scam from the offenders\u27 perspective and how they rationalize their motivations, opportunities and abilities towards the commission of the crime. To this end, we adopt the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability framework and the Rationalization dimension of the Fraud Triangle Theory. The study employed a qualitative methodological approach to analyze the opportunities presented by emerging technologies to cyber fraudsters amid socio-economic drivers. One is the interplay of various socio-economic factors being a major driving force behind the commission of cybercrime. These include peer recruitment and training, poverty, unemployment, low level of education and low income. The uniqueness of this study stems from the fact that it deviates from previous studies to investigate cybercrime from the perspective of the perpetrators. Again, this study is arguably one of the first to put all three dimensions of the MOA framework and the rationalization dimension of the Fraud Triangle to study romance scammers\u27 behaviors

Technology for street traders in Tanzania: A design science research approach

The informal sector employs the major part of workers in developing countries. Street trading is a common form of informal work. Despite its huge economic value in developing countries, little research is being done to improve street traders’ empowerment and entrepreneurship. Also, development informatics is over-focused on social development and under-focused on economic development. This study takes a design science research (DSR) approach in order to identify barriers for street traders in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that can be addressed with technology. As a follow-up to our previous qualitative study, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of (N = 285) street traders. The data was analysed using mixed methods. The results show that street traders operate in a challenging environment, and make most of their decisions based on tacit knowledge. Traders are restrained by unreliable business information, weak business strategies, and access to capital. A variety of technology innovations, such as customer-client matchmaking, and record keeping are proposed to directly address the daily challenges of street traders. Future technology projects form exciting possibilities for technology experts, students, and scholars globally. The expected future implications of this project are increased STI capacities, economic growth, and human development.</p

Internationalising a Multi-disciplinary PhD program offered by the University of Eastern Finland: Strategies and Approaches

Given the interrelated and interdependencies of countries, business organizations including higher education have taken the advantage to extend their products and services across borders. Higher education, for instance, is one aspect that has benefited from the international cooperation and trade liberalization. However, many of the higher institutions that have extended their service to foreign countries fail to make an impact due to the poor managerial and internationalisation strategies. For such a reason, this thesis has analysed and proposed internationalization strategies and approaches for a multidisciplinary PhD program (IMPDET) from the University of Eastern Finland. The proposition of the internationalisation strategies was based on the International market assessment opportunity framework that has widely been used in international business. Hence, this framework encapsulates with several other fine-grained international business strategies in every stage. Network and waterfall models were proposed for the IMPDET program in terms of its entry into developing economies. The proposition of the internationalisation strategies was partly based on data collected from the selection of students and managements of the IMPDET program. Through a mixed research method analysis, the internal abilities and suitability of the IMPDET program was ascertained. The investigation revealed that the IMPDET program has the internal ability, such as the required resources, to internationalise its operations in the foreign country. Additionally, this thesis found that the IMPDET program is suitable for meeting the challenges of the emerging economies, as this forms part of the key objectives of IMPDET to extend its operations to the developing economies

Social Media Aggression: An Assessment Based on the Contemporary Deterrence Theory

The role played by incendiary messages identifies as online radicalism is a low-cost tool that has been a medium to violence and potential dangers to social media users and the society at large. The unregulated mass communication evolves as an overtly aggressive, a covertly aggressive, and non-aggressive society. Strategies to attract compliance to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) ethics to scrutinize the applicability of the theories of neutralization and deterrence on cognition and behaviour have been recognised in Information Systems (IS) research. This study uses the contemporary deterrence theory to explain illicit, deviant, and unethical behaviours of social media user\u27s with the construct and effect of the Sub-Saharan Africa cultural values. The study seeks to answer the research question: What are the influencers of the adolescent intention to engage in social media aggression? The study draws on the contemporary deterrence theory to answer the underpinning research question

Adoption of Mobile Pedigree as an Anticounterfeiting Technology for Pharmaceuticals in Developing Countries

One major challenge facing the pharmaceutical industry is counterfeiting, which is more prevalent in developing countries. Combating counterfeiting requires various technological approaches, and the most hailed technologies, including RFID-based ePedigrees, are too expensive for developing economies. However, mobile pedigree, which utilizes mobile phones and SMS communication, is a highly affordable, readily available, and user-friendly alternative technological approach. This research seeks to explore factors that influence the adoption of the mobile pedigree in the pharmaceutical industry in developing countries and offers a case study of four companies in Ghana using the Technology-Organization-Environmental (TOE) framework. The findings establish influencing factors as relative advantage, complexity, and compatibility; strategic direction and management support; pressures from partners, competitors, associations, and regulator; and legal framework and counterfeiting threat. These factors provide guidelines for research, practice, and policy, while the study could be extended to include consumer views, other industry types and developing countries

A semiotic study of lingua-culture of digital paralanguages

Lingua does not include only textual or symbolic forms or even pictograms. It has other cultural underpinnings, norms, and culturally bound expressions, which invariably are missing from the digital Paralanguages provided by social media platforms. In the absence of these critical aspects of lingua in their digital forms, social media platforms offer creative tools to develop digital Paralanguages for use. This study attempts to elucidate the link between the indigenous digital paralanguage development and the link to the lingua-culture of the people, which is missing in the discourse of Paralanguages in social media from an agential realist perspective. This research employs a socio-semiotic study (which looks at the meanings embedded in the diverse modes of objects) on the Twi lingua culture of the people of Ghana as used as a mode of communication in social media platforms, specifically WhatsApp. This paper contributes to the academic literature by extending the discourse on digital paralanguage development with lingua culture