Multi-Country Analysis of E-commerce Adoption: The Impact of National Culture and Economic Development

Background: The effect of national culture on e-commerce adoption and usage has yet to be thoroughly examined. This multi-country study examines the influence of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions on e-commerce adoption. It also explores the moderating effect of economic development on the relationships between national culture factors and e-commerce adoption. Method: Secondary data, collected from reputable organizations on sixty countries, are used to test the hypotheses. Correlation, linear regression, cluster analysis, and ANOVA were used to assess the hypotheses presented in the model. Results: The data supported our hypotheses on the direct relationships between national culture factors namely power distance, individualism, long term orientation, and indulgence, and e-commerce adoption. The regression analysis showed that individualism is the most important of all culture factors. The results also indicated that power distance and individualism have different impact on e-commerce adoption, depending on the level of economic development. Conclusions: This study contributes to the growing empirical base of literature on e-commerce and national culture. It validated the importance of a cultural perspective in explaining e-commerce adoption at the national level. It also demonstrated the importance of economic development and its role in shaping the relationships between national culture and e-commerce

What motivates students to use Podcasting?

Podcasting which is one of the technologies that was found for personal entertainment or for information usage, has become one of the fastest growing technologies over the past several years (Shim, Shropshire, Park, Harris, and Campbell, 2007). Currently it is used for many different subjects, from music to technology, news to foreign languages, politics to education (Lazzari, 2009). This study attempts to identify and empirically assess the motivational factors, intrinsic and extrinsic, that drive users to adopt podcast. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is employed as the base model for this study and it is modified by adding motivational factors that affect the adoption of podcast. The model is tested via a survey that was developed for the aim of this study. The structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships and the results revealed that intrinsic motivational factors have a big effect on podcast adoption

The Effect of Digital Transformation on Corruption: A Global Analysis

Background: This study investigates the effect of digital transformation on corruption at country level. Very few studies have empirically investigated this phenomenon. The model presented lays the relationships between socio-technical and socio-political factors and their impact on technological factors, which in turn, influence corruption. Methods: Secondary data from 139 countries collected by credible international organizations are used for the empirical analyses. The sample of 139 countries, used in this study, makes the results more robust and generalizable than those published in previous studies. PLS-SEM and multi-group analysis were used to test the hypotheses presented in the research model. Results: The results of the analysis show that digital transformation can significantly lower the corruption. The empirical analysis also demonstrates that socio-technical and socio-political factors are important in supporting the technological factors in reducing corruption. Multi-group analysis based on the GNI categorization of the World Bank revealed fine results for nations of different economic level. The significance of the relationships varies based on the development level of the country. Conclusions: This study contributes to the growing empirical base of literature on digital transformation and corruption by empirically assessing new relationships that have not been explored in the extant literature using a relatively larger sample size. The results suggest that technology plays a critical role in reducing the corruption in any country. Factors such as infrastructure, e-participation, education/human capital, laws relating to ICT, and Importance of ICT to government are found to be vital for fighting corruption

Creating an information systems security culture through an integrated model of employees compliance

Employees’ non-compliance with information systems security policies has been identified as a major threat to organizational data and information systems. This dissertation investigates the process underlying information systems security compliance in organizations with the focus on employees. The process model is complex, comprising many normative, attitudinal, psychological, environmental, and organizational factors. Therefore, the study of information security compliance requires a holistic assessment of all these factors. This dissertation seeks to achieve this objective by offering a comprehensive and integrated model of employee behavior especially focused towards information security compliance. The research framework is influenced by the Reciprocal Determinism Theory which explains individuals psycho-social functioning in terms of triadic reciprocal causation. Several theories explain the role of various factors forming the intellectual puzzle. These are: General Deterrence Theory, Social-Exchange Theory, Social Learning Theory, Expectation-Disconfirmation Theory, Rational Choice Theory, Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Reactance Theory, and Status-Quo Bias Theory. This dissertation makes several significant contributions to literature and to practitioners. Several new factors that influence compliance decisions by employees have been proposed, namely task dissonance, self-policing, word-of-mouth, and habit. For the first time, top management support has been examined as a multi-dimensional construct which provides a better understanding of the phenomenon. Also for the first time, this dissertation constructs a process model to examine the interactions between punishment severity and certainty and top management support and normative factors. It also investigates the interactions between normative and psychological factors, namely resistance and self-policing on information security compliance. This dissertation emphasizes that the practitioners should consider all the relevant factors in order to manage the information security compliance problem. Therefore, it is more useful to think in terms of establishing a security culture that embodies all the relevant factors prevalent in an organization. The dissertation is guided by positivist paradigm. Hypotheses are tested and validated using established quantitative approaches, namely data collection using survey and structural equation modeling. Major findings were derived and most of the dissertation’s hypotheses were supported. The findings are discussed, and the conclusions, significant theoretical and practical implications of the findings, limitations, and recommendations for future research are presented

Understanding Country Level Adoption of E-Commerce: A Theoretical Model Including Technological, Institutional, and Cultural Factors

This paper provides a theoretically grounded model of e-commerce adoption to explain differences in adoption rates among countries. The model extends the existing culture-policy-technology (CPT) framework to examine causal relationships between the technological, institutional, and cultural factors in order to examine country-level e-commerce adoption. Thus, interesting relationships among macro-level factors are hypothesized. The paper highlights the important of risk mitigating mechanisms or institutions to facilitate adoption of e-commerce in countries with high uncertainty avoidance. A call for empirical examination into country level adoption is answered by analyzing macro level data from 69 countries. The hypotheses are confirmed using PLS analytical procedures. The study is timely as e-commerce technology has now taken hold in several countries but its revenues in proportion to the overall total revenues remain low. The study is motivated by significant different in e-commerce adoption rates among countries. The paper makes significant contributions to literature and practice

Information Security Policies Compliance: The Role of Organizational Punishment

It has been argued that organizational punishment serves as a deterrent to unwanted employee behavior but there is no clear consensus on the influence of punitive actions on employees’ behavior to comply with information security policies. This study proposes a model that explains the influence of organizational punishment on employees’ cognitive beliefs and their intention to comply with information security policies. We argue that likelihood of punishment impacts employees’ cognitive beliefs that in turn affect their information security compliance behavior. This study uses the theory of planned behavior as a support for its propositions and contributes to the body of knowledge in the IS security stream by addressing a significant gap in the current literature. This is a work in progress and we plan to present results of the empirical study at the conference

The double-edged sword of social media usage during the COVID-19 pandemic: demographical and cultural analyses

Purpose This exploratory research aims to (1) investigate the bright and dark sides of social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) explore the impact of demographic factors on social media usage; and (3) assess the effects of cultural dimensions on social media usage. Design/methodology/approach The data are collected through an online survey. Factors derived from grounded theories and models such as affordance theory and Hofstede\u27s cultural framework were considered. Spearman correlation and nonparametric analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results revealed that social media usage was positively associated with healing and affiliation, and negatively associated with self-control. There are also positive associations between social media usage and sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification, perceived reliability of COVID-19 information on social media and relapse. The impact of demographic and cultural factors indicated significant effects of gender, age, marital status, educational level, power distance and collectivism on social media usage, sharing information, perceived information reliability, healing and affiliation. Originality/value This study contributes to technology affordances by examining social media\u27s positive and negative affordances in a new context (COVID-19 pandemic). From the positive side, this study explores the use of social media for healing and affiliation. As for the negative impact of social media during the pandemic, this study assesses the user\u27s addiction to social media use (relapse) and perception of the social media information reliability and information sharing without verification. It is among few research endeavors conducted in a non-Western country. This study also examines the influence of demographic and cultural factors on social media users. The results provide insights for both researchers and policymakers regarding social media usage

Reactive oxygen species and male reproductive hormones

Reports of the increasing incidence of male infertility paired with decreasing semen quality have triggered studies on the effects of lifestyle and environmental factors on the male reproductive potential. There are numerous exogenous and endogenous factors that are able to induce excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) beyond that of cellular antioxidant capacity, thus causing oxidative stress. In turn, oxidative stress negatively affects male reproductive functions and may induce infertility either directly or indirectly by affecting the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis and/or disrupting its crosstalk with other hormonal axes. This review discusses the important exogenous and endogenous factors leading to the generation of ROS in different parts of the male reproductive tract. It also highlights the negative impact of oxidative stress on the regulation and cross-talk between the reproductive hormones. It further describes the mechanism of ROS-induced derangement of male reproductive hormonal profiles that could ultimately lead to male infertility. An understanding of the disruptive effects of ROS on male reproductive hormones would encourage further investigations directed towards the prevention of ROS-mediated hormonal imbalances, which in turn could help in the management of male infertility

Learners’ Satisfaction in Online Courses

Online education is gaining more and more attention from both learners and institutions. Many institutions are moving some of their courses or creating sections of current face-to-face courses online. The success and continuation of online courses depend on learners’ satisfaction. This research in progress is an effort to understand the impact of critical factors on learners’ satisfaction in online courses. This paper extends the existing literature by considering interrelationships among important factors that have been found to impact individuals’ perceptions. To our best knowledge, the interrelationships and hypotheses presented in this paper have not been investigated in the literature. Thus, this study is a crucial contribution to theory and practice

A Cross-Country Analysis of Cross-border E-commerce Adoption

This paper develops and empirically tests a comprehensive model of cross-border e-commerce adoption. In doing so, it bridges important gaps in the literature. Research on cross-border e-commerce adoption has been confined to small sample sizes which limit the generalization of their findings. This paper overcomes this limitation by using data from a larger sample of countries. Factors such as “social and cultural environment”, “legal environment”, “government policy and vision related to IT”, “social trust”, “uncertainty avoidance”, and “connectivity” are included in our model to examine their influence on cross-border e-commerce adoption. The hypotheses are confirmed using PLS analytical procedures and the findings are reported. We discuss the results and their implications for researchers and practitioners