Introductory Chapter: Intelligence, Sustainable and Post-COVID-19 Resilience Built Environment: An Agenda for Future

Digital communication and information technologies were the core of businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses and tasks have been done remotely, such as business meetings, education, and e-commerce. There are many reports that show technology played an essential role in response to the pandemic and is predicted to be the core strategy for long-term resilience. The recent reports show that the use of digital technologies and further technical advances occurred due to COVID-19 in different sectors, including infrastructure and transportation. The initial readiness for adopting the Fourth Industrial Revolution concept in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector was helpful for industry resilience during COVID-19. The current reports show that the adoption process of Industry 4.0 technologies will be accelerated due to the community’s higher demand in terms of working remotely with less human close interactions. The current investigations show that site managers and operational teams in the construction, transportation, and infrastructure sectors need to monitor the progress of tasks and keep track. In addition, they should assist their team members and ensure they will achieve the project objectives, including time, cost, and quality. However, the investigations show that the lockdown caused many difficulties to managers’ tasks and attending the construction site or infrastructures. However, designers using digital technologies such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) or Geographic Information System (GIS) experienced much less difficulties. This chapter aims to provide an insight into the recent literature of COVID-19 in the built environment. Then, suggestions for future studies are presented

Technology acceptance in e-governance: A case of a finance organization

Presently, one of the most critical challenges for e-government and e-banking is the accurate and correct realization of factors that have a significant impact on customer behavior. Without appropriate knowledge of these factors, it would be impossible to predict the level of welcoming toward new services, acquire a competitive advantage, and coordinate marketing programs with the needs of customers. On the other hand, in today's competitive world, banks are obliged to implement new services to retain current customers and attract new ones. This research has been conducted with the goal of identifying influential factors that have an impact on the development of user intentions. The theoretical research model has been designed based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), as well as technology adoption theory, technology dissemination theory, and planned behavior theory. This study adopted an empirical approach to investigate key acceptance factors in a case organization. The statistical population of this research consists of customers and employees in different branches of a financial institution called Mehr bank in Iran. The data was collected by means of questionnaires that were completed by 200 customers and employees who work at Mehr bank or have business relationships with it. Data analysis in descriptive and inferential statistics domains had been done in SPSS and AMOS software, respectively. This paper presents first-hand data analysis of a case study on technology adoption in banking systems in Iran. In addition, structural equations have been used for inferential analysis. The findings of this study confirm the direct impact of “perceived usefulness” and “perceived ease of use” towards user attitudes. In addition, results show that's attitude's; and perceived usefulness'; have a direct impact on the development of usage intention in customers. However, the results do not confirm the role of subjective norms on the development of user intent. This study is limited to a selected organization, and the proposed model should be examined by applying it in different contexts