A theory-grounded framework of Open Source Software adoption in SMEs

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in European Journal of Information Systems. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Macredie, RD and Mijinyawa, K (2011), "A theory-grounded framework of Open Source Software adoption in SMEs", European Journal of Informations Systems, 20(2), 237-250 is available online at: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ejis/journal/v20/n2/abs/ejis201060a.html.The increasing popularity and use of Open Source Software (OSS) has led to significant interest from research communities and enterprise practitioners, notably in the small business sector where this type of software offers particular benefits given the financial and human capital constraints faced. However, there has been little focus on developing valid frameworks that enable critical evaluation and common understanding of factors influencing OSS adoption. This paper seeks to address this shortcoming by presenting a theory-grounded framework for exploring these factors and explaining their influence on OSS adoption, with the context of study being small- to medium-sized Information Technology (IT) businesses in the U.K. The framework has implications for this type of business – and, we will suggest, more widely – as a frame of reference for understanding, and as tool for evaluating benefits and challenges in, OSS adoption. It also offers researchers a structured way of investigating adoption issues and a base from which to develop models of OSS adoption. The study reported in this paper used the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) as a basis for the research propositions, with the aim of: (i) developing a framework of empirical factors that influence OSS adoption; and (ii) appraising it through case study evaluation with 10 U.K. Small- to medium-sized enterprises in the IT sector. The demonstration of the capabilities of the framework suggests that it is able to provide a reliable explanation of the complex and subjective factors that influence attitudes, subjective norms and control over the use of OSS. The paper further argues that the DTPB proved useful in this research area and that it can provide a variety of situation-specific insights related to factors that influence the adoption of OSS

Integrated electronic prescribing and robotic dispensing: a case study

INTRODUCTION: To quantify the benefits of electronic prescribing directly linked to a robotic dispensing machine. CASE DESCRIPTION: Quantitative case study analysis is used on a single case. Hospital A (1,000 beds) has used an integrated electronic prescribing system for 10 years, and in 2009 linked two robotic dispensing machines to the system. The impact on dispensing error rates (quality) and efficiency (costs) were assessed. EVALUATION AND DISCUSSION: The implementation delivered staff efficiencies above expectation. For the out-patient department, this was 16% more than the business case had suggested. For the in-patients dispensary, four staff were released for re-deployment. Additionally, £500,000 in stockholding efficiency above that suggested by the business case was identified. Overall dispensing error rates were not adversely affected and products dispensed by the electronic prescribing - robot system produced zero dispensing errors. The speed of dispensing increased also, as the electronic prescribing - robot combination permitted almost instantaneous dispensing from the point of a doctor entering a prescription. CONCLUSION: It was significant that the combination of electronic prescribing and a robot eliminated dispensing errors. Any errors that did occur were not as a result of the electronic prescribing - robotic system (i.e. the product was not stocked within the robot). The direct linking of electronic prescribing and robots as a dispensing system together produces efficiencies and improves the quality of the dispensing process

Conducting rigorous research with subgroups of at-risk youth: lessons learned from a teen pregnancy prevention project in Alaska

In 2010, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) received federal funding to test an evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention program. The grant required a major modification to an existing program and a randomized control trial (RCT) to test its effectiveness. As the major modifications, Alaska used peer educators instead of adults to deliver the program to youth aged 1419 instead of the original curriculum intended age range of 1214. Cultural and approach adaptations were included as well. After 4 years of implementation and data collection, the sample was too small to provide statistically significant results. The lack of findings gave no information about the modification, nor any explanation of how the curriculum was received, or reasons for the small sample. This paper reports on a case study follow-up to the RCT to better understand outcome and implementation results. For this study, researchers reviewed project documents and interviewed peer educators, state and local staff, and evaluators. Three themes emerged from the data: (a) the professional growth of peer educators and development of peer education, (b) difficulties resulting from curriculum content, especially for subpopulations of sexually active youth, youth identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and/or asexual, pregnant, and parenting youth and (c) the appropriateness of an RCT with subpopulations of at-risk youth. Three recommendations emerged from the case study. First, including as many stakeholders as possible in the program and evaluation design phases is essential, and must be supported by appropriate funding streams and training. Second, there must be recognition of the multiple small subpopulations found in Alaska when adapting programs designed for a larger and more homogeneous population. Third, RCTs may not be appropriate for all population subgroups.Ye

Digital Natives and Educational Traditions. What Changes When Exchanging Textbook Content with Internet Search?

Use of technology challenge traditional concepts of learning in school. But what is actually changing? The paper shows result from a study that finds that the shift from textbook to internet content implicates significant changes. Textbooks present qualified content that is well adapted to the cognitive development of students of certain ages. Using internet content gives no such guarantees. The content validation has to be taken care of by the students. The internet search demands more complex skills than accessing content through the textbook. The students have to find relevant search terms, review and validate the results they find, select relevant content, use relevant strategies for storing and retrieving content and having the ability to present abstracts of their findings that are adapted to their learning purpose. Collaboration works well for searching for content online because the students can benefit from each other’s prior knowledge when discussing and reflecting during the learning work. Communicative and collaborative skills are important. So are good relations, to able students to work through obstacles and keep focus on the task even when internet searching takes them everywhere. Internet content has a flexibility that makes it easy adaptable to all students’ learning prerequisites. Student collaboration between heterogeneous peers can work well because the complexity of the task involves a lot of different tasks to manage and are easy to distribute. It also makes possible for high performing students to find engaging content that will motivate and nourish the learning motivation

Assessment of the benefits of user involvement in health research from the Warwick Diabetes Care Research User Group : a qualitative case study

Objective  To assess the benefits of involving health-care users in diabetes research. Design and participants  For this qualitative case study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with researchers who had worked extensively with the group. During regular meetings of the Research User Group, members discussed their views of the group's effectiveness as part of the meeting's agenda. Interviews and discussions were transcribed, coded using N-Vivo software and analysed using constant comparative methods. Results  Involvement of users in research was generally seen as contributing to effective and meaningful research. However, the group should not be considered to be representative of the patient population or participants of future trials. An important contributor to the group's success was its longstanding nature, enabling users to gain more insight into research and form constructive working relationships with researchers. The user-led nature of the group asserted itself, especially, in the language used during group meetings. A partial shift of power from researchers to users was generally acknowledged. Users' main contribution was their practical expertise in living with diabetes, but their involvement also helped researchers to remain connected to the `real world' in which research would be applied. While the group's work fulfilled established principles of consumer involvement in research, important contributions relying on personal interaction between users and researchers were hard to evaluate by process measures alone. Conclusions  We demonstrated the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of this longstanding, experienced, lay-led research advisory group. Its impact on research stems from the continuing interaction between researchers and users, and the general ethos of learning from each other in an on-going process. Both process measures and qualitative interviews with stakeholders are needed to evaluate the contributions of service users to health research

The ins and outs of participation in a weather information system

In this paper our aim is to show even though access to technology, information or data holds the potential for improved participation, participation is wired into a larger network of actors, artefacts and information practices. We draw on a case study of a weather information system developed and implemented by a non-profit organisation to both describe the configuration of participation, but also critically assess inclusion and exclusion. We present a set of four questions - a basic, practical toolkit - by which we together with the organisation made sense of and evaluated participation in the system

Health system performance assessment in small countries: The case study of Latvia

Managing the complexity that characterizes health systems requires sophisticated performance assessment information to support the decision‐making processes of healthcare stakeholders at various levels. Accordingly, in the past few decades, many countries have designed and implemented health system performance assessment (HSPA) programmes. Literature and practice agree on the key features that performance measurement in health should have, namely, multidimensionality, evidence‐based data collection, systematic benchmarking of results, shared design, transparent disclosure, and timeliness. Nevertheless, the specific characteristics of different countries may pose challenges in the implementation of such programmes. In the case of small countries, many of these challenges are common and related to their inherent characteristics, eg, small populations, small volumes of activity for certain treatments, and lack of benchmarks. Through the development of the case study of Latvia, this paper aims at discussing the challenges and opportunities for assessing health system performance in a small country. As a result, for each of the performance measurement features identified by the literature, the authors discuss the issues emerging when adopting them in Latvia and set out the potential solutions that have been designed during the development of the case study

Behavioral influences on driver crash risks in Ghana: A qualitative study of commercial passenger drivers

Objectives: While there is a growing body of literature on crash risks in the developed world, little is known about how well these models apply to motoring in developing countries, the context in which the majority of road traffic fatalities occur. This qualitative study explores factors perceived to influencinge crash risks for commercial drivers in Ghana. Method: Twenty commercial drivers of varied ages and experience were sampled from 7 major lorry terminals in 3 regions (Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Volta) of Ghana. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Results: The participants identified some issues that are shared with drivers in the developed world, though moderated by the Ghanaian context. These included working pressures (e.g., fatigued driving), speeding, distracted driving and inadequate vehicle maintenance. Other factors identified by the participants are infrequently less frequently considered in research addressing driving behavior in developed countries. These included aggressive competition over passengers and corruption (e.g., improper licensing practices) among others. Conclusion: The findings have implications for building a research base to support the development of road safety policy and interventions in developing countries

What influences the speed of prototyping? An empirical investigation of twenty software startups

It is essential for startups to quickly experiment business ideas by building tangible prototypes and collecting user feedback on them. As prototyping is an inevitable part of learning for early stage software startups, how fast startups can learn depends on how fast they can prototype. Despite of the importance, there is a lack of research about prototyping in software startups. In this study, we aimed at understanding what are factors influencing different types of prototyping activities. We conducted a multiple case study on twenty European software startups. The results are two folds, firstly we propose a prototype-centric learning model in early stage software startups. Secondly, we identify factors occur as barriers but also facilitators for prototyping in early stage software startups. The factors are grouped into (1) artifacts, (2) team competence, (3) collaboration, (4) customer and (5) process dimensions. To speed up a startups progress at the early stage, it is important to incorporate the learning objective into a well-defined collaborative approach of prototypingComment: This is the author's version of the work. Copyright owner's version can be accessed at doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57633-6_2, XP2017, Cologne, German

The local economic development processes in low-income countries: the case of the metropolis of Chegutu in Zimbabwe

Local authorities are widely regarded as catalysts accelerating localised processes of economic development in industrialised countries but in low-income countries they are perceived as dysfunctional, inefficient and ineffective in meeting and addressing societal demands. This abstract view is however, not grounded in empirical research. As such, utilising the case of the metropolis of Chegutu a survey was designed to empirically explicate the economic processes militating its economic development. The findings are useful to policy-makers, local government authorities and management scholars. The study's unique contribution lies in its examination of the processes of local economic development in a low-income country