Exploring the Reality of E-Commerce Benefits among South African Businesses

The use of e-commerce by businesses in developing countries is related to the potential benefits of improving linkage to international value chains, increasing market access and reach, enhancing internal and market efficiency and lowering transaction costs. The opportunity imperative has resulted in the adoption of e-commerce by some businesses in these countries. However, the questions of what and how much benefit businesses in developing countries are extracting from their e-commerce investments are not well covered. This paper attempts to explore the real benefits of e-commerce based on data from 92 businesses in South Africa. The findings indicate that e-commerce benefits are by and large limited to improving intra and inter-organizational communications. Strategic benefits such as improving relationships across the value chain, increasing market reach and reducing market, operation and supply chain management costs are not as widely dispersed as the standard model of e-commerce would have made us believe. These findings support the argument that cautions against an over-optimistic view of e-commerce for developing countries

GITAM: A Model for the Adoption of Green IT

Over the last decade, an increasing number of businesses are undertaking initiatives to reduce their environmental footprint and improve their “green” credentials. As information technology (IT) has permeated most, if not all, business processes and supply chains, it offers an important means to tackle the climate problem. On the other hand, IT managers are pressed to reduce the total cost of IT operations and run energy efficient IT shops. Greening IT has therefore become one of the latest considerations to improve a business’s environmental sustainability whilst reducing the cost of IT operations. A growing number of consulting reports speculate the benefits of greening IT for both IT vendors and mainstream businesses that use IT. While the opportunities and potentials of Green IT might be attractive, the extent of Green IT adoption and the actual realization of the benefits that Green IT aficionados allude to remain unknown. Indeed, unless business organisations incorporate Green IT into their operations, the potential benefits of Green IT remain potential and not reality. Currently, there does not appear to be a model to systematically investigate Green IT adoption. This paper proposes such a model called the Green IT Adoption Model (GITAM). The model defines Green IT from four distinct but interrelated perspectives. It posits that the technological, organisational and environmental contextual variables, dynamic Green IT readiness dimensions and strong order Green IT drivers can predict the intention and the breadth and depth of Green IT adoption

The Reach And Richness Of Green IT: A Principal Component Analysis

The pairing of Information Technology (IT) and the environment, under the headline of Green IT, has given rise to a near-endemic concern on how Green ITs themselves are and on how IT can enable a business’s Green strategy. However, Green IT is neither a well defined concept, nor a single innovation, nor a uniformly accepted set of practice. This ambiguity has an implication in advancing Green IT research, as it affects the definition of the dependent and independent variables. This paper proposes a framework that can assist in the conceptualisation of Green IT and the definition of the Green IT phenomenon. The framework is partially tested using data from a survey of 143 Chief Information Officers and IT managers and employing principal component analysis. With the findings, the study makes an original contribution, albeit preliminary, to the definition and operationalisation of Green IT in a given research context. Practitioners can use the framework to chart out different strategic options in Greening their IT

eReadiness and eCommerce success: developing and exploring an antecedent model in developing countries context

eCommerce is touted as offering developing countries unprecedented opportunities for economic growth and development. In addition, current wisdom maintains that developing countries' success in eCommerce will have an impact far beyond their borders in accelerating global productivity and facilitating global economy success. Therefore, understanding how eCommerce is accepted by businesses in developing countries and what affects its success are primary issues of interest for researchers, businesses, governments and development agencies. The literature on IT, eCommerce, eReadiness and eCommerce success in developing countries has been examined and critiqued. The result reveals the environmental determinism view as a dominant perspective in most of the existing works and the lack of a theoretically sound model to explain and understand eCommerce success in developing countries. Using a theoretically eclectic approach derived from organization science, information systems, competitiveness, innovation and institutional theories and based on an interactionism perspective, the study proposes a theoretical framework for eReadiness and eCommerce success with particular relevance to established businesses in developing countries. From the framework, a model relating nine organizational (awareness, commitment, governance and human resources, business resources and technological resources) and environmental (government, market forces and supporting industries) constructs of eReadiness and four facets of eCommerce success (adoption, development, deployment and benefits) is derived. An instrument to operationalize the model is developed and validated. The model is empirically tested based on data collected from a cross section of 150 South African businesses using multivariate statistical techniques. The result shows various blends of organizational and environmental eReadiness factors affecting the different facets of eCommerce success. The key finding refutes the environmental determinism perspective that dominates eCommerce discussion in developing countries and supports the interactionism perspective. It is concluded that if we are to understand the emergence and development of eCommerce in developing countries we must depart from the conventional wisdom of looking into environmental constraints only and pay attention to internal organizational capabilities and characteristics as well

ICT for eco-sustainability: an assessment of the capability of the Australian ICT sector

Executive summary As eco-sustainability issues become increasingly important to most, if not all, Australian organisations, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry is expected to provide solutions that reduce material consumption (dematerialise), emissions (decarbonise), and energy use and waste production (demobilise) in both the ICT infrastructure and the business processes and practices of industries. The term \u27Green ICT\u27 represents this eco- sustainability enabling role of the ICT industry. The School of Business Information Technology and Logistics, RMIT University in collaboration with the Australian Information Industries Association (AIIA) surveyed all members and affiliates of the AIIA at the beginning of 2010 to understand Australian ICT firms\u27 capability to enhance the eco-sustainability of other industries. Based on data collected from 133 ICT firms, this report constitutes the first comprehensive study that exclusively focuses on the Australian ICT industry

Green IT Assimilation: Comparing the Influence of Contextual and Absorptive Capacity Based Models

As Green IT is a relatively new area in Information Systems research, the first wave of research has often focused on organisations’ adoption of Green IT. In this study, we look beyond the initial adoption and investigate the assimilation of Green IT by organisations. We draw from and compare two theories – contextual theory and absorptive capacity – and investigate which of the two theories better explains the level of Green IT assimilation. Results from an international survey of 148 large organisations show that both theories explain Green IT assimilation, however while contextual theory has a medium to large effect, absorptive capacity has a small to medium effect

Definition and Measurement of the Adaptive IT Capabilities Construct

Information technology (IT) can play a key role as a necessary, but not sufficient, source of value. Contemporary research on the strategic role of IT is more and more taking the increasing dynamic and volatile business environment with its increasing intensity of market competition, demand for shortening time to market and pressure of first mover advantage into account. Following this approach, the strategic value of IT can be regarded as an enabler of organizational change. In order to be able to produce value to firms, especially in turbulent environments, IT has not only to adapt itself to a firm’s continuously changing competitive environment, IT has furthermore to enable the adaptation of firms core competences. This study investigates IT’s ability to enable these adaptations by introducing and validating a concept of adaptive IT capability which measures the extent that IT enables the adaptations of firms core competences. The result of this study is a validated research instrument that can be utilized in future research to investigate its antecedent enabling capabilities (upstream factors) as well its effect on organizations and their performance (downstream factors)

Framework for a Residential Energy Information System (REMIS) to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour in Residential Energy End Users

Previous studies on residential energy end use behavior reported significant reduction in energy end use of 7% to 24% when feedback is used to modify behavior in an energy efficient manner. However, most feedback systems investigated in previous studies have not benefited from advanced information systems (IS). IS can shape energy efficiency behavior by providing real-time feedback on energy consumption, cost and environmental impact. Such systems represent a new and less-researched subfield of energy informatics. This paper provides a conceptual framework for showing the potential use of IS to modify residential energy use behavior towards better energy efficiency. The framework builds on research in residential energy end use, in particular energy end use behavioral model. It provides conceptual inputs for a blue-print to develop a residential energy management information system (REMIS) and also highlights the use of new information and communications technologies (ICT) that had not been widely used, setting the grounds for further research in this area

Patterns and Magnitude of Defaulting from Leprosy Treatment in Jimma Health Centre

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