Mediating role of managing information technology and its impact on firm performance: insight from China

Purpose: Managing IT with firm performance has always been a debatable topic in literature and practice. Prior studies examining the above relationship have reported mixed results and have yet ignored the eminent managing IT practices. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the relevance of ValIT 2.0 practice in managing IT investment, and its mediating role in the firm performance context. Design,methodology,approach:This paper developed on two themes of literature. First managing IT as a firm's IT capability in order to generate value from IT investment. Second IT as a firm's resource under resource-based view offers firm's competence that deploys potentials in achieving firm performance. The structural equation modeling with PLS techniques used for analyzing data collected from 176 organization's IT, and business executives in China. Findings: The results of this study show empirical evidence that Val-IT's components (value governance, portfolio management, and investment management) are significantly linked to the management of IT, and it found to be a significant mediator between Val-IT components and firm performance. Research implications: This research contributes to the literature and practice by way of highlighting the value generation through managing IT on firm performance. Originality: This study is fully based on ValIT 2.0 with the firm performance where the managing IT mediate this relationship in a country-specific study in China. This study adds to the Chinese information system literature which suffers the lack of empirical studies in the context of management of IT research

Perceptions of International Female Students Towards E-learning in Resolving High Education and Family Role Strain

It is a common phenomenon for many mature female international students enrolled in high education overseas to experience strain from managing conflicting roles of student and family, and difficulties of cross-cultural adjustment. The purpose of this study is to examine perceptions and behavioral intentions of international female students towards e-learning as a tool for resolving overseas high education and family strain from a technology acceptance standpoint. To achieve this goal, Davis's (1989) technology acceptance model is used as the study's conceptual framework, to investigate perceived usefulness, ease of use and behavioral intentions towards e-learning. The research draws on face-to-face interviews with 21 female international students enrolled in classroom taught degree programs at a university in Wuhan, China. The data is analyzed through coding and transcribing. The findings reveal that given its convenience, e-learning is generally perceived as practical in balancing study with family as well as feasible in saving time, money and energy. However, key concerns were raised over the issues of poor and costly Internet connectivity in developing countries, as well as perceived negative reputation, lack of face-to-face interaction and lack of motivation in online environment. Important issues and recommendations are raised for consideration when promoting e-learning programme. This study emphasis on the need to revisit gender supporting policies and effective marketing to re-position the prevailing image of e-learning as a reputable and reliable education delivery method.Comment: 31 page

Multi-Step-Ahead Time Series Prediction using Multiple-Output Support Vector Regression

Accurate time series prediction over long future horizons is challenging and of great interest to both practitioners and academics. As a well-known intelligent algorithm, the standard formulation of Support Vector Regression (SVR) could be taken for multi-step-ahead time series prediction, only relying either on iterated strategy or direct strategy. This study proposes a novel multiple-step-ahead time series prediction approach which employs multiple-output support vector regression (M-SVR) with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) prediction strategy. In addition, the rank of three leading prediction strategies with SVR is comparatively examined, providing practical implications on the selection of the prediction strategy for multi-step-ahead forecasting while taking SVR as modeling technique. The proposed approach is validated with the simulated and real datasets. The quantitative and comprehensive assessments are performed on the basis of the prediction accuracy and computational cost. The results indicate that: 1) the M-SVR using MIMO strategy achieves the best accurate forecasts with accredited computational load, 2) the standard SVR using direct strategy achieves the second best accurate forecasts, but with the most expensive computational cost, and 3) the standard SVR using iterated strategy is the worst in terms of prediction accuracy, but with the least computational cost.Comment: 26 page

Investigating factors affecting learners perception toward online learning evidence from ClassStart application in Thailand

Twenty-First Century Education is a design of instructional culture that empowers learner-centered through the philosophy of "Less teaching but more learning". Due to the development of technology enhance learning in developing countries such as Thailand, online learning is rapidly growing in the electronic learning market. ClassStart is a learning management system developed to support Thailand's educational management and to promote the student-centred learning processes. It also allows the instructor to analyse individual learners through system-generated activities. The study of online learning acceptance is primarily required to successfully achieve online learning system development. However, the behavioural intention of students to use online learning systems has not been well examined, in particular, by focusing specific but representative applications such as ClassStart in this study. This research takes the usage of ClassStart as research scenario and investigates the individual acceptance of technology through the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, as well as technological quality through the Delone and McLean IS success model. A total of 307 undergraduate students using ClassStart responded to the survey. The Partial Least Squares method, a statistics analysis technique based on the Structural Equation Model (SEM), was used to analyze the data. It was found that performance expectancy, social influence, information quality and system quality have the significant effect on intention to use ClassStart

A PSO and Pattern Search based Memetic Algorithm for SVMs Parameters Optimization

Addressing the issue of SVMs parameters optimization, this study proposes an efficient memetic algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSO) and Pattern Search (PS). In the proposed memetic algorithm, PSO is responsible for exploration of the search space and the detection of the potential regions with optimum solutions, while pattern search (PS) is used to produce an effective exploitation on the potential regions obtained by PSO. Moreover, a novel probabilistic selection strategy is proposed to select the appropriate individuals among the current population to undergo local refinement, keeping a well balance between exploration and exploitation. Experimental results confirm that the local refinement with PS and our proposed selection strategy are effective, and finally demonstrate effectiveness and robustness of the proposed PSO-PS based MA for SVMs parameters optimization.Comment: 27 pages. Neurocomputing, 201

Beyond One-Step-Ahead Forecasting: Evaluation of Alternative Multi-Step-Ahead Forecasting Models for Crude Oil Prices

An accurate prediction of crude oil prices over long future horizons is challenging and of great interest to governments, enterprises, and investors. This paper proposes a revised hybrid model built upon empirical mode decomposition (EMD) based on the feed-forward neural network (FNN) modeling framework incorporating the slope-based method (SBM), which is capable of capturing the complex dynamic of crude oil prices. Three commonly used multi-step-ahead prediction strategies proposed in the literature, including iterated strategy, direct strategy, and MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) strategy, are examined and compared, and practical considerations for the selection of a prediction strategy for multi-step-ahead forecasting relating to crude oil prices are identified. The weekly data from the WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil spot price are used to compare the performance of the alternative models under the EMD-SBM-FNN modeling framework with selected counterparts. The quantitative and comprehensive assessments are performed on the basis of prediction accuracy and computational cost. The results obtained in this study indicate that the proposed EMD-SBM-FNN model using the MIMO strategy is the best in terms of prediction accuracy with accredited computational load.Comment: 32 page

Exploring gender differences on general and specific computer self-efficacy in mobile learning adoption

Reasons for contradictory findings regarding the gender moderate effect on computer self-efficacy in the adoption of e-learning/mobile learning are limited. Recognizing the multilevel nature of the computer self-efficacy (CSE), this study attempts to explore gender differences in the adoption of mobile learning, by extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with general and specific CSE. Data collected from 137 university students were tested against the research model using the structural equation modeling approach. The results suggest that there are significant gender differences in perceptions of general CSE, perceived ease of use and behavioral intention to use but no significant differences in specific CSE, perceived usefulness. Additionally, the findings reveal that specific CSE is more salient than general CSE in influencing perceived ease of use while general CSE seems to be the salient factor on perceived usefulness for both female and male combined. Moreover, general CSE was salient to determine the behavioral intention to use indirectly for female despite lower perception of general CSE than male's, and specific CSE exhibited stronger indirect effect on behavioral intention to use than general CSE for female despite similar perception of specific CSE as males'. These findings provide important implications for mobile learning adoption and usage.Comment: 30 page

What obstruct customer acceptance of internet banking? Security and privacy, risk, trust and website usability and the role of moderators

Comparatively a little attention has been paid to the factors that obstruct the acceptance of Internet banking in Sri Lanka. This research assimilates constructs such as security and privacy, perceived trust, perceived risk, and website usability. To test the conceptual model, we collected 186 valid responses from customers who use Internet banking in Sri Lanka. The structural equation modelling technique is applied and hypotheses are validated. The findings show perceived trust and website usability are the possible obstructing factors that highly concerned by Internet banking customers. While security and privacy, and perceived risk are not significant and these are not highly concerned by customers in Internet banking acceptance. The age and gender reveal the moderating effect in each exogenous latent constructs relationship. The practical and managerial implications of the findings are also discussed. This country specific study contributes to the advancement of Internet banking acceptance, and offers some useful insights to researchers, practitioners and policy makers on how to enhance Internet banking acceptance for country similar in context

On Cram\'{e}r-von Mises statistic for the spectral distribution of random matrices

Let $F_N$ and $F$ be the empirical and limiting spectral distributions of an $N\times N$ Wigner matrix. The Cram\'{e}r-von Mises (CvM) statistic is a classical goodness-of-fit statistic that characterizes the distance between $F_N$ and $F$ in $\ell^2$-norm. In this paper, we consider a mesoscopic approximation of the CvM statistic for Wigner matrices, and derive its limiting distribution. In the appendix, we also give the limiting distribution of the CvM statistic (without approximation) for the toy model CUE

Can Online MBA Programs Allow Professional Working Mothers to Balance Work, Family, and Career Progression? A Case Study in China

Career progression is a general concern of professional working mothers in China. The purpose of this paper is to report a qualitative study of Chinese professional working mothers that explored the perceptions of online Master's of Business Administration (MBA) programmes as a tool for career progression for working mothers balancing work and family in China. The objective was to examine existing work-family and career progression conflicts, the perceived usefulness of online MBA in balancing work-family and career aspirations, and the perceived ease of use of e-learning. Using Davis's (1989) technology acceptance model (TAM), the research drew on in-depth interviews with 10 female part-time MBA students from a university in Wuhan. The data were analysed through coding and transcribing. The findings showed that conflicts arose where demanding work schedules competed with family obligations, studies, and caring for children and the elderly. Online MBA programmes were viewed as a viable tool for balancing work and family and studying, given its flexible time management capabilities. However, consideration must be given to address students' motivation issues, lack of networking, lack of face-to-face interaction, and quality. The research findings emphasise the pragmatic need to re-align higher education policy and practice to position higher education e-learning as a trustable education delivery channel in China. By shedding light on the prevailing work-family conflict experienced by women seeking career advancement, this study suggests developing better gender-supporting policies and innovative e-learning practices to champion online MBA programme for this target niche.Comment: 31 page