Editorial

Editorial for AJIS v1, n2

The Scottish University Level Entrepreneurship Education Initiative: Lessons for Ghana in Dealing with Graduate Unemployment

The aim of the study was to investigate entrepreneurship education at the university level in Scotland and lessons Ghana could learn from their experience in solving graduate unemployment.  The main data used for the study was primary, collected through interviews with six academics involved in university level entrepreneurship education at four universities in Scotland.  Qualitative approach was used for this research so as to have a first-hand perception of academics on the entrepreneurship education at the university level. Scottish Enterprise is using entrepreneurship education at the university level as a policy strategy for increasing business birth rate among Scottish university graduates.  It clearly emerged from the perspective of academics that entrepreneurship education at the university level cannot significantly lead to business start-ups and therefore cannot be used as a strategy for self-employment among graduates.  It became therefore evident that entrepreneurship education cannot be used as a sole strategy for solving unemployment; it can though equip students with some employability skills.  The lessons that Ghana can learn from the Scottish experience is that entrepreneurship education could equip students with some enterprise skills (which are needed by employers in Ghana) that would make them employable, thereby contributing to solving graduate unemployment in Ghana. Keywords: enterprise and entrepreneurship education, universities, unemployment, Scotland, Ghana, graduates.

Growing in the Digital Economy: The Case of a Digital Enterprise in a Developing Country

Africa has a higher business discontinuation rate of 13 percent when compared with that of Europe and the USA. This situation calls for a study that explores the strategic actions and growth of digital enterprises which are able to survive within the African context. Again, studies on Digital Business Strategy (DBS) which is a multidimensional concept focus on digital enterprises with formalised structures. Against this background, using a comprehensive DBS framework, this study explored the DBS evolution of a digital enterprise in a developing economy in the quest to survive and grow. Miles and Huberman’s transcendental realism technique was adopted for the case analysis. Three major growth events were identified in the case. The digital business strategic actions of the enterprise were reviewed for each of the phases of growth. It was discovered that the survival of the digital enterprise, in the first stage of growth, depends largely on the entrepreneur\u27s innovativeness, and the competence to govern the available resources to achieve competitive advantage. This research is arguably the first to explore the growth and survival of a digital enterprise using a multidimensional DBS framework. Lessons from the study are of practical importance to managers and executives of digital enterprises who are struggling to develop digital business strategic actions to survive and grow. This study is useful for entrepreneurs who wish to develop DBS to survive and thrive in the digital economy of an African country

Dominant Issues and Conceptual Approaches in Mobile Business Research From 2005-2012

This paper undertakes a review and classification of the mobile business (m-business) theme of mobile computing research, with the intention of identifying the dominant issues and conceptual approaches to existing research. It consists of 100 articles published between 2005 and 2012 in a diverse journals focused on information systems, business, and development. The papers are reviewed under the subcategories of Mobile Business Applications/Services; Economics, Strategy and Business Models; and Consumer Acceptance/Adoption. In terms of issues, the review shows a concentration of research on firm-level adoption of mobile technology within first subcategory, whilst mobile business analysis, capturing customer value and responses to competition dominates the second subcategory. Determinants of consumer adoption of mobiles dominate the third subcategory. Similarly, technology adoption models like TAM and UTAUT dominate the conceptual approaches to m-business. There is much room for studies into the strategies adopted by firms to create value for consumers and to sustain the value creation process in response to consumer demands and advances in mobile technologies and applications. The review serves as a useful research synthesis and is excellent for future research on mobile business based on the gaps we have identified

Motivation and Information Affordances Towards User Engagement in a Gamified System

Gamification is a growing phenomenon, and educational institutions have begun incorporating it into their existing information systems (IS) curriculum. This study seeks to examine how motivational affordances and information quality contribute to student engagement within gamified IS education. Drawing on the frameworks of affordances, information quality, and engagement, this study develops a conceptual model to explain motivational affordances and information quality and its satisfaction effects on students’ engagement in IS education. Our preliminary results show a contrary view that despite the challenges or competition evoked by gamification, it is more satisfying for students to continue using the gamified system. This research-in-progress paper is theoretically important because there are currently no widely accepted theoretical models linking motivational affordances, information quality, and engagement to gamified outcomes, and test the effect on students’ learning behaviours

Adoption of B2B e-Commerce in Developing Countries: Evidence from Ready Made Garment (RMG) Industry in Bangladesh

The rapid adoption of e-Commerce, especially Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Commerce among Ready-made Garments (RMG) industry is a key opportunity for local and international trade development of developing countries like Bangladesh. However, although high expectations for realizing the benefits of B2B e-Commerce in RMG sectors, its adoption remains poorly understood and are a relatively under-researched area in Bangladesh. This study is an attempt to fill this gap. This study explores the factors that affect B2B e-Commerce adoption in RMG sectors of Bangladesh by using Perceived eReadiness Model (PERM). A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from over 250 RMG firms in Bangladesh. The data was analyzed by using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method; a statistical analysis technique based on the Structural Equation Model. The study found that awareness, resources, government eReadiness, and market forces eReadiness were significant factors for initial adoption of B2B e-Commerce. However, commitment, governance, and supporting industries eReadiness are insignificant for initial adoption of B2B e-Commerce. Again, the relationships between resources, commitment, government eReadiness, market forces eReadiness, supporting industries eReadiness and institutionalization of B2B e-Commerce are significant in RMG sectors of Bangladesh. However, awareness, governance and institutionalization of B2B e-Commerce are insignificant. The output of the study can help RMG firms in Bangladesh to address the factors that influence adoption of B2B e-Commerce. This study can also help the policy maker and government to identify the promising local opportunities for B2B e-Commerce by discovering the distinctive e-Commerce adoption factors. Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pajais/vol9/iss1/4

VIRTUALISATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRY HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: AN ACTIVITY THEORY PERSPECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to understand how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in developing countries virtualise their administrative work environment. Despite the increasing use of the internet and web technology to virtualise education and related activities, IS research on HEIs in both devel-oped and developing countries has focused more on learning environment and less on administrative work environment. Therefore, not much is known about how HEIs migrate from physical to virtual administrative work environment. Given this research gap, this study employs activity theory as ana-lytical lens and interpretive case study as the methodology to investigate the attempt by a developing country university to virtualise its administrative work environment. Although teaching and learning are the core activities of HEIs, administrative work provides the necessary support. It is thus im-portant that IS research in higher education pays attention not only to learning environment but also to administrative work environment. The study expects to draw specific implications and provide rich insight on how HEIs in developing countries virtualise their work environments

Examining the Factors Influencing the Achievement of IT-Business Alignment in a Developing Economy: Evidence from Ghanaian Public Universities

The purpose of this study was to qualitatively assess the state of information technology (IT) business alignment among Ghanaian universities and to identify factors that influence the achievement of four key dimensions of the concept. Studies show that factors influencing the achievement of the concept remain underexplored and research coverage for both developing economies and the higher education sector trails behind other sectors and developed economies. A two-round online Delphi technique was employed to elicit responses from personnel in IT leadership positions using Schlosser et al. (2012) alignment dimensions model as a lens. Findings suggest that IT investment is often aligned with institutional goals and that IT-business artifact mapping, IT-business partnerships, closing the IT-business communication gap, and technical skills and knowledge of IT staff are among key factors that influence the achievement of the intellectual, social, human, and environmental dimensions of IT-business alignment, respectively. Implications are also discussed

Smartphone Addictions: A Review of Themes, Theories and Future Research Directions

This research work presents a literature review on Smartphone Addiction (SA). The papers used for this review were retrieved from AIS (All Repositories), Elsevier, Wiley Online, Tailor and Francis and JSTOR databases using the phrase Smartphone Addiction . In all, 13 AIS top conferences and 31 peer-reviewed journals searched from 2007 to July 2018 returned 1572 papers. This paper details the findings based on the literature assessment of 128 publications. In terms of context and geographical gaps, Asia leads the chart with 39 articles representing 30.5percent and Africa recorded only 1 paper used for this work. Online data collection with global focus had 37 articles representing 28.9percent and quantitative methodology was adopted by 91 articles representing 71.1percent. SA research was more at the micro and meso levels. This review has demonstrated that literature offers several perspectives on SA but failed to establish a causal theory or a model that fully accounted for urge and craving phenomena from an IS design principle perspective to mitigate SA. Also, smartphones are devices (artifacts) that enable users to access and become addicted to applications such as video games, SNSs, emails, etc. Future research should, therefore, focus more on addictive activities and applications on these devices