A qualitative analysis of innovation adoption in the olive oil extraction process

Pressures on the Italian olive oil sector have increased over the past few years due to seasons of bad weather, small innovation capacity and limited long term investment plans. Thus, it is of interest to explore signs of positive attitude towards innovation investment in the agricultural sector. The focus has been on technologies employed in the extraction process, since yield and quality of olive oil are mostly affected by this stage. To define the determinants of innovation adoption, 13 managers were interviewed. Questions covered organisation factors, personal factors, social factors, the impact of the olive oil value chain and the cost of the extraction machinery. The results of the thematic analysis showed that determinants of innovation adoption were: perceived usefulness, personal innovativeness, prior experience, influence of peers, training and managerial support, and the relative importance of quality, while major challenges are the lack of financial funds, demand pressure from customers, and lack of early warning systems to tackle bad weather conditions

The intention to use mobile digital library technology: A focus group study in the United Arab Emirates

IGI Global (“IGI”) granted Brunel University London the permission to archive this article in BURA (http://bura.brunel.ac.uk).This paper presents a qualitative study on student adoption of mobile library technology in a developing world context. The findings support the applicability of a number of existing constructs from the technology acceptance literature, such as perceived ease of use, social influence and trust. However, they also suggest the need to modify some adoption factors previously found in the literature to fit the specific context of mobile library adoption. Perceived value was found to be a more relevant overarching adoption factor than perceived usefulness for this context. Facilitating conditions were identified as important but these differed somewhat from those covered in earlier literature. The research also uncovered the importance of trialability for this type of application. The findings provide a basis for improving theory in the area of mobile library adoption and suggest a number of practical design recommendations to help designers of mobile library technology to create applications that meet user needs

Cloud computing services : theoretical foundations of ethical and entrepreneurial adoption behaviour

Clouicomputing is an emerging service technology that has ethical and entrepreneurial implications. Due to technological innovations increasing the attention placed on cloud computing services, more people are focusing on the security and privacy issues determined by ethical guidelines and how the technology is evolving as an entrepreneurial service innov.ation. This paper presents a theoretical perspective on how a person adopts cloud computing. The literature on technology innovation and adoption behaviour is examined with a focus on social cognitive theory. A theoretical framework is then presented, which indicates a number of propositions to describe the intention of a person to adopt cloud computing services. The role of technology marketing capability, sustained learning and outcome expectancy are included in helping to understand the role of cloud computing applications. Suggestions for future research and practical implications are stated.<br /

Factors affecting loyalty of mobile social networks' users

Increasing world-wide trends of using mobile social networks and the rise of competition between different social applications makes it essential for social network providers and marketers to identify the key factors leading to user loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key factors that affect the loyalty of mobile social networks users. The proposed model was tested through structural equation modeling techniques and an online survey. The sample consisted of 388 mobile social networks users in Iran. The results indicate that sociability, entertainment and fashion are primary drivers of attitude toward a mobile social network. The results also show the significant role of attitude and satisfaction on consumer loyalty. This study helps both marketers and mobile social network providers know the key drivers of customer loyalty in order to tailor their marketing efforts and communication strategies