Wireless Technologies at Agriculture ITP

On December 15, 2002, Myles Gustofson, IT Manager at Agriculture ITO, an industry training organization in New Zealand, evaluated the results of a five-month pilot of Telecom’s Mobile Jetstream. Mr. Gustofson was impressed with the potential benefits that mobile data transmission could bring to their organization. However, he was concerned with the maturity of this emerging technology as well as the costs involved. He wanted to determine whether they should adopt this new service

Mobile Banking in Germany

One of the first commercial mobile services was mobile banking. This paper explores the state-of-the-art of m-banking in Germany. It initially presents a brief discussion of the main characteristics of German banking practices, which is followed by an overview of the mobile services offered by the top 100 banks in the country. In addition, a detailed analysis the m-services offered by Postbank, Hamburg\u27s Saving Bank, and the DZ Bank is presented. Finally, a discussion of the results is guided by a comparison with the findings obtained in previous studies undertaken in Germany (Wolf, 2003) Japan (Scornavacca & Barnes, 2004) and New Zealand (Scornavacca & Cairns, 2005). The paper concludes with a discussion about the future of mobile banking in Germany

A Design Science Approach For Developing And Evaluating A Competence Acquisition Mobile App

The continuous development and acquisition of competences by a firm’s employee are fundamental instruments for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In this scenario, digital technologies play a relevant role in providing a ubiquitous platform to foster and facilitate this learning process. This paper describes the design, development and evaluation process of a competence acquisition mobile app. The evaluation of the app was carried out through an experimentation involving middle managers as well as project managers form an IT consulting firm. The results indicate that the use of the mobile app effectively improved users’ learning process outcomes as well as the ability to deploy the new competence – demonstrating that an ubiquitous learning environment can be paramount for the development of competence acquisition tools

An Investigation of the Factors that Influence User Acceptance of Mobile information Systems in the Workplace

Mobile information systems (IS) such as field force automation and mobile office applications are rapidly being adopted by a large number of organizations. Despite its popularity and widespread adoption, the body of knowledge regarding user acceptance of mobile information systems in the workplace still is largely anecdotal. The purpose of this study was to develop and rigorously test a model of the factors that influence user acceptance of mobile information systems in the workplace. A thorough review of relevant literature in electronic business, mobile business, user acceptance of technology and user acceptance of mobile technology provided the basis for the development of the conceptual model that guided this research. The model hypothesized that temporal, spatial and structural characteristics of the portfolio of tasks performed by users of mobile information systems in the workplace (namely, temporal requirements of job, spatial dispersion of job, spatial dependence of job, job structuredness and job interdependence) would influence their perceived individual need for mobile information systems (PINMIS). It also suggested that the perceived individual need for mobile IS would influence the performance expectancy as well as intention to use mobile IS. In addition, the model posed that system portability would influence effort expectancy and intention to use mobile IS. In order to develop a research instrument, construct domains were specified and an initial set of items was generated. This was followed by an extensive purification process which consisted of card sorting and expert review rounds, survey pre-tests as well as a pilot study with 234 respondents from a large telecommunications company in New Zealand. The results obtained in this stage helped to refine the measurements and provided the foundations for the main study. The main study was based on a survey with 309 respondents from a wide range of organizations in New Zealand. Using Partial-Least-Squares (PLS) the data collected in the main study was used to test the model. The model was successfully validated and statistically significant evidence was provided that temporal requirements of job, spatial dispersion of job, spatial freedom of job and job interdependence positively influenced PINMIS. On the other hand, job structuredness did not significantly influence PINMIS. It was also found that PINMIS significantly influences performance expectancy and that system portability has a positive effect over effort expectancy as well as intentions to use mobile IS

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ROLE OF DEPENDENCY IN PREDICTING CONTINUANCE INTENTION TO USE UBIQUITOUS MEDIA SYSTEMS: COMBINING A MEDIA SYTEM PERSPECTIVE WITH EXPECTATION-CONFIRMATION THEORIES

The mobile telecommunications landscape has evolved into a highly competitive and complex ecosystem composed of network operators, mobile device manufacturers as well as software, content and service providers. This major shift has strongly impacted the fundamental nature of mobile devices which have now become complex multi-purpose, multi-context ubiquitous media systems. Such change has engendered an urgent need to revisit our understanding of mobile device usage through the lens of theories that encompass the multifaceted nature of ubiquitous systems. Relying on a media perspective, the paper investigates the role of individual media dependency in predicting continuance intention to use ubiquitous media systems. Data collected from 150 smartphone users were used to test the developed conceptual model. The results confirmed the overall effect of ubiquitous media systems dependency on individuals´ reasoned continuance usage decision. The findings suggest that the level of dependency towards a ubiquitous media system inflates the perceived positive attributes about the system: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, as well as the cognitive appraisal about the discrepancies between initial expectations and post-use performance. Theoretical and practical implications developed from these findings are then discussed

User Perceived Requirements for a Mobile Accounting Information System

Mobile technologies are giving rise to significant changes in the way that organisations operate and conduct business. However, up to now no existing online accounting service has been delivered via a mobile channel. While there is a business interest in extending online accounting to mobile devices there is scarce empirical research examining the user requirements of mobile accounting services. Using user requirements elicitation techniques, this research investigated the mobility requirements of customers of an online accounting system offered by a New Zealand based firm. The findings illustrate end-users’ mobility requirements as well as their perceptions of which key accounting software functionalities should be extended and adapted to a mobile channel. The paper concludes with a summary of the findings and recommendations for future research

To connect or disconnect – that is the question: ICT self-discipline in the 21st century workplace

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the workplace are increasingly connecting employees to people and sources of information. As a result, this ICT connectivity has had both a positive and a negative impact on employee productivity. Existing literature suggests that further investigation on ‘self-control’ in the context of employee productivity is necessary. To address this we introduce the idea of ICT self-discipline – an individual’s ability to control their behaviours towards use of ICTs. We investigated ICT self-discipline through interviews and focus groups. That research led to the development of an empirically grounded instrument for measuring employee ICT self-discipline. Preliminary statistical results are promising and are returning reliable scores. This paper reports on part of a larger project that investigates the influence ICT self-discipline has on the moderating effect of ICT connectivity on employee productivity. Findings from this research contribute to both IS research and informs practice