An Introduction to Smart City Research: A review of The Past And The Future

Smart city is a growing area of research. Its scope is broad as it touches individuals’ life, government, and environment. Advancement in digital technologies, particularly the Internet of Things, have enabled cities to become smarter and thus affected many structures (physical, social, etc.). Given such broad scope and the effects the smart city could bring about, the growing numbers of research seems to be inadequate. This paper attempts to review the past studies and identify what have been done and not done. Smart city research related to Southeast Asia in particular is also looked at in this paper. The literature was categorised and discussed under three main aspects concerning the area of management information systems, namely business, organization and technology. Gaps are identified, and future research are called for

Disintermediation in the tourism industry: theory vs. practice

It has been several decades since disintermediation was first known (although under other terms), and it seems that disintermediation has become increasingly intense, particularly in the tourism industry where many large hotels and airlines have successfully utilized the Internet and website as a direct channel to sell to their customers. This paper examines disintermediation issues and situation and argues that in practice disintermediation, despite becoming increasingly intense, it will just require travel agents to acclimatize rather than to be removed from the tourism value chain. The review of both academic literature and practical survey research shows that effect of disintermediation on Thai tourism SMEs might not be as extreme as it has been on European tourism SMEs in the near future. Three in-depth case studies of Thai tourism SMEs are summarized and presented to show how travel agents act to respond to the disintermediation. The cases highlight the need for more study on customer behaviors which are likely to vary depending upon region and many other factors. Ultimately, this paper calls for future research on customer behaviors and strategic alignment for tourism SMEs

E-Business Use in Small and Medium-Sized Tourism Enterprises: A Post Adoption Perspective

In the context of ongoing research into e-business technologies in use by Thai SMEs in the travel service sector, this paper starts with an overview of e-business technology impact on the travel sector generally before focusing on the Thai context. Of primary interest in this paper is the user experience from the introduction of new technologies and their post-adoption evaluation. The analysis starts with consideration of the stakeholders in the travel industry and an understanding of the business models, including both the users and the providers of the e-business technologies. Two detailed case studies demonstrate how ebusiness technologies benefit both firms. In each company the decision on the degree of IT integration differs and this is shown to have considerable impact on benefits realised. In the post adoption evaluation, however, each has its own frame of reference. Formal methods of assessment for both SMEs are problematic and not in evidence

The use of web 2.0 technologies in tourism industry: A conceptual model

Tourism industry has been transformed dramatically by the Internet and web technologies. In the web 2.0 era, travelers‟ behaviors are affected by widely available user generated contents in a number of online social media. Much research has been conducted on the use and impact of web 2.0 on travelers; however, little was known from tourism suppliers‟ perspective. Our research therefore aims to study the topic from a holistic perspective, including activities throughout the tourism supply chain. This paper presents an initial part of the research. It reviews prior literature on the use of web 2.0 technologies in the tourism industry and proposes a conceptual model, which will be used to guide an investigation to the topic

Social Networking Management To Enhance Thailand Destination Image

This preliminary research studies the dimension of social network site management. It is part of a bigger research project which aims to investigate the influence of social network site management on the creation of destination image of Thailand. As the power of social media in the tourism industry has become stronger, it is important to understand its influence on destination image creation. This part of research confirms three factors that can be considered main components of social site network management that are influential to tourists’ decision to use social network sites to find travelling tips/ other tourism information

MIS2.0: Designing the Next Generation MIS Course Using Social Networking Technology

The major objective of this paper is to explore, via a design science research methodology, the implementation of a social constructivist learning framework for an introductory MIS course. Facebook was used as a learning artifact to build and foster a learning environment, and a series of features and activities using this artifact were conducted to utilize the social interactions amongst the system’s users to foster constructivist learning. Various pedagogic strategies were used to integrate activities occurring both inside and outside of the classroom setting to achieve social learning. All features utilized were evaluated based upon activities and interactions amongst all users. The research findings show great potential for the implemented features, as well as the activities conducted to take advantage of these features, suggest possible features for use in similar future studies based on feedback from this study\u27s sample group

An Investigation of the Determinants of Knowledge Management Systems Success in Banking Industry

The efficient knowledge management system (KMS) is one of the important strategies to help firms to achieve sustainable competitive advantages, but little research has been conducted to understand what contributes to the KMS success. This study thus set to investigate the determinants of KMS success in the context of Thai banking industry. A questionnaire survey was conducted in four major Thai Banks to test the proposed KMS Success model. The result of this study shows that KMS use and user satisfaction relate significantly to the success of KMS, and knowledge quality, system quality, service quality, and trust lead to system use and user satisfaction. However, this research focuses only on system and user-related factors. Future research thus can extend to study factors such as management support and organization readiness

Usability evaluation of a mobile health application by older adults in Thailand

As the world’s population is aging, research on older adults and their use of IT is becoming more important. Usability issues were found one of the main problems hindering older adults from using IT, including mobile health application. This study aims to understand older adults’ behavior and to identify barriers and enablers for using a mobile health application, called Raksa. Two theories, namely Usability and Accessibility were adopted as a conceptual framework. A think-aloud protocol, a system usability scale (SUS), and in-depth interviews were utilized. ISO 9241-11 guide was used for identifying usability performance level of Raksa application based on think-aloud approach. Task incompletion rate, error rate and time on task were calculated to assess effectiveness and efficiency. Interviews were conducted for validating reason of use and comment on the application design, using Nielsen’s 5 quality components namely, Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Error and Satisfaction. The results showed that the task to find a medical specialist for a consultation was deemed the most difficult by the participants as it has the lowest task completed rates and the longest times on task. The task to create account and register had the most errors. The average satisfaction (SUS score) was 31.50, indicating poor system usability. Demographic data showed males were more successful in task completion. Educational level were related to task performance, and older adults with more experienced in information technology or social media achieved higher performance rate. This research identified usability problems and barriers that may affect usability in older adults, including visual design, poor interaction and navigation, user interface difficulty to understanding. Recommendations for design modifications were offered

Health-related misinformation sharing on social media in Thailand: A case study during the Covid-19 pandemic

Misinformation affects people because it can convince them to believe in how to respond to uncertain situations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of misinformation or fake news were distributed on social media, in Thailand. This research aimed to study attributes and causes of Health-Related Misinformation Sharing in Thailand on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dataset used in this study was collected from the Anti-Fake News Center, the Thai government factchecking website certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). In-depth interviews based on qualitative research technique were also conducted to identify the causes of the transmission of false health news on Thai social media by applying the rumors transmission concept during times of crisis and the theory of Uses and Gratifications. The findings showed five main themes of fake news: conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, fake advertisements, inaccurate information, and misleading information. These elements may establish a conceptual framework for finding the root cause of misinformation spreads during crises. Factors that affect how psychological information was presented and shared are anxiety, insecurity, and uncertainty during the crisis. However, belief is not the only justification for sharing this information because some social media users have shared unverified and no evidence information for personal purposes. The Uses and Gratifications theories are found relevant. This study is intended to broaden the reach of disseminating misleading information as much as possible to lessen the effect of detrimental health fake news on Internet news consumers

The Emergence of Social Media as Boundary Objects in Crisis Response: A Collective Action Perspective

During a series of recent natural catastrophes, social media has played an increasingly prominent and varied role in crisis response, ranging from facilitating the recruitment of volunteers during an earthquake to supporting spiritual recovery after a hurricane. In this paper, we propose that social media, beyond the conventional role of information support, can also function as boundary objects, which are crucial in spanning the boundaries among involved parties that inherently restrict crisis response. Using the 2011 Thailand floods as a case study, we present a conceptual model of the role of social media in enabling a coordinated response to disasters. More specifically, the model presents three distinct processes of emergence and the corresponding boundary objects enabled by the use of social media, which are important in bridging the cognitive, relational and social boundaries among the various entities involved in crisis response