What drives mobile commerce? An empirical evaluation of the revised UTAUT model

© 2012 UK Marketing and Communication Academy. This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below.When developing and aiming to achieve success in the arena of mobile commerce, user acceptance is a key aspect for consideration. This study aims to empirically examine some of the factors affecting the acceptance of m-commerce within the context of Saudi Arabia. Based on the revised UTAUT model, the revised model include two particular construct : costs and trust to enhance our understanding of m-commerce acceptance and usage. Survey data were collected from 574 participants in several cities across Saudi Arabia. The results emphasise that cost, effort expectancy, and performance expectancy all considerably affect the intention to use. In this regard, usage intention actually decides utilisation

Social media for student learning: enhancing the student experience and promoting deep learning

Traditional Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) was introduced as a retention-motivated initiative in the College of Science and Engineering 5 years ago. Despite a high level of interest from students, there were several practical barriers that prevented many students from attending these sessions. As an alternative, an online space for Virtual Peer Assisted Learning (VPAL) was trialled. VPAL was found to have not only all the benefits of traditional PAL but also more that had not been anticipated. In this paper we will discuss the practicalities involved and the design choices that had to be made. We will also showcase some anonymised examples of academic and social dialogue between peers and outline some of the unexpected advantages of using VPAL over traditional PAL

Nonlinear Realization of Supersymmetry and Superconformal Symmetry

Nonlinear realizations describing the spontaneous breakown of supersymmetry and R symmetry are constructed using the Goldstino and R axion fields. The associated R current, supersymmetry current and energy-momentum tensor are shown to be related under the nonlinear supersymmetry transformations. Nonlinear realizations of the superconformal algebra carried by these degrees of freedom are also displayed. The divergences of the R and dilatation currents are related to the divergence of the superconformal currents through nonlinear supersymmetry transformations which in turn relates the explicit breakings of these symmetries.Comment: 22 pages, LaTe

The Supercurrent In Supersymmetric Field Theories

A supercurrent superfield whose components include a conserved energy-momentum tensor and supersymmetry current as well as a (generally broken) R-symmetry current is constructed for a generic effective N=1 supersymmetric gauge theory. The general form of the R-symmetry breaking is isolated. Included within the various special cases considered is the identification of those models which exhibit an unbroken R-symmetry. One such example corresponds to a non-linearly realized gauge symmetry where the chiral field R-weight is required to vanish.Comment: 26 pages, LaTe

Nonlinear Realization of Supersymmetric AdS Space Isometries

The isometries of $AdS_5$ space and supersymmetric $AdS_5\otimes S_1$ space are nonlinearly realized on four dimensional Minkowski space. The resultant effective actions in terms of the Nambu-Goldstone modes are constructed. The dilatonic mode governing the motion of the Minkowski space probe brane into the covolume of supersymmetric $AdS_5$ space is found to be unstable and the bulk of the $AdS_5$ space is unable to sustain the brane. No such instablility appears in the non-supersymmetric case.Comment: 18 page

Updating the UK’s code for fiscal stability

The 1998 Code for Fiscal Stability sets out the framework within which UK fiscal policy is now set. While having such a code does not make it easier for a Government to meet its fiscal objectives, it may improve the economic credibility of the policy process. To date the Code has generally worked well, and in any case many of the Treasury’s practices exceed the minimum requirements of the Code. However, improvements could be made in the light of recent experiences. In particular it would be preferable for less emphasis to be placed on the precise forecasts for fiscal aggregates and greater emphasis to be placed on the magnitude of the risks to those forecasts. Using the projections contained in the March 2004 Budget, and information on the size of errors made in the past, we estimate that there is now a 60% chance that the Chancellor’s “golden rule” will be met without further tax increases or spending cuts. This compares to 74% for the forecast made by the Treasury 12 months earlier. As well as clarifying how cautious forecasts are, the uncertainty surrounding projections for fiscal aggregates also has implications for the way in which progress towards any fiscal rules should be interpreted

Factors influencing students' acceptance of m-learning: An investigation in higher education

M-learning will play an increasingly significant role in the development of teaching and learning methods for higher education. However, the successful implementation of m-learning in higher education will be based on users' acceptance of this technology. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to study the factors that affect university students' intentions to accept m-learning. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003), this study proposes a model to identify the factors that influence the acceptance of m-learning in higher education and to investigate if prior experience of mobile devices affects the acceptance of m-learning. A structural equation model was used to analyse the data collected from 174 participants. The results indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, influence of lecturers, quality of service, and personal innovativeness were all significant factors that affect behavioural intention to use m-learning. Prior experience of mobile devices was also found to moderate the effect of these constructs on behavioural intention. The results of this research extend the UTAUT in the context of m-learning acceptance by adding quality of service and personal innovativeness to the structure of UTAUT and provide practitioners and educators with useful guidelines for designing a successful m-learning system

On Local Dilatation Invariance

The relationship between local Weyl scaling invariant models and local dilatation invariant actions is critically scrutinized. While actions invariant under local Weyl scalings can be constructed in a straightforward manner, actions invariant under local dilatation transformations can only be achieved in a very restrictive case. The invariant couplings of matter fields to an Abelian vector field carrying a non-trivial scaling weight can be easily built, but an invariant Abelian vector kinetic term can only be realized when the local scale symmetry is spontaneously broken.Comment: 3 page