Exploring the Factors Influencing Acceptance of Mobile Phone

This chapter describes how the adoption and usage of technologies is influenced by a number of factors. Such factors tend to affect the perception of people to accept or reject a technology in their usage context. Mobile phone technology has gained popularity as a dependable tool in SMEs. In Tanzania, for example, it is used to accomplish activities such as marketing, communication and mobile money transactions. This chapter highlights the key factors which influence the acceptance of mobile phones as they are used by individual peoples in the SMEs. The conceptual model shows that TAM can be extended by factors such as perceived values in explaining the acceptance of mobile phone technology in Tanzanian SMEs.

Assessment of Mobile Money Enablers in Nigeria

This chapter describes how mobile money is an emerging and innovative financial service delivery mechanism. With huge success, recorded mostly in the developing economies, it is scholarly unclear the antecedents of its adoption. Using a survey of 151 respondents comprising both the banked and underbanked in the South-Western part of Nigeria, the authors used the PLS-SEM to test the research hypothesis. The results reveal the enablers of mobile money, which are social influence, performance expectancy, security and effort expectancy, and inhibitors such as system anxiety and cost. Privacy, trust, image and convenience were not found significant in this study. Social influence, performance expectancy and effort expectancy variables adapted from the UTAUT model have considerable influence on mobile money in Nigeria. Study implications and future directions are offered.

Implications of the Proposed Communication Service Tax Bill on the Socio-Economic Development of Nigeria

This chapter describes how the decision of the Nigerian government to introduce a Communication Service Tax Bill to the National Assembly to compel consumers of certain communication services to pay a 9 percent tax has pitted the government against major stakeholders in the ICT sector who are concerned about the future of the industry. While the government wants the legislative process regarding the bill to go on because of the financial gains that will accrue to it monthly, the stakeholders want it jettisoned for fear that it would impact negatively on the ICT sector and the economy, which is currently in recession. This chapter wades through the controversy by presenting the various positions canvassed by stakeholders and points the way ahead for the sector, which is fast becoming the hub of economic activities in Nigeria, to harness its full potentials for the overall benefit of the Nigerian society.

A SEM-Neural Network Approach for Predicting Antecedents of Factors Influencing Consumers' Intent to Install Mobile Applications

This chapter explores the present gap in the literature regarding the acceptance of mobile applications by investigating the factors that affect users' behavioral intention to use apps in Turkey. First, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to determine which variables had significant influence on intention to install. In a second phase, the neural network model was used to rank the relative influence of significant predictors obtained from SEM. The results reveal that habit, performance expectancy, trust, social influence, and hedonic motivation affect the users' behavioral intention to use apps.

TerrorWatch

Activities of prominent terrorist groups like Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Ansaru, and Ansar Dine have left thousands of people dead and properties destroyed for a number of decades in some developing nations. The high level of insecurity occasioned by operations of terror groups has impacted negatively on the socio-economic development of these nations. On the other hand, the use of mobile devices, such as cell phones, has gained prominence in developing nations over the past two decades. Putting side-by-side these two facts, namely, that the menace of terrorism among some developing nations is alarming and that the use of mobile devices is common among citizens of developing countries, this chapter develops a mobile application prototype called TerrorWatch. TerrorWatch is equipped with relevant menus, buttons, and interfaces that will guide a user on what to do when confronted with a terrorist attack or threat. The unified modeling language (UML) was deployed to design the architecture of the application, while the object-oriented paradigm served in the implementation.

Mobile Application for Ebola Virus Disease Diagnosis (EbolaDiag)

This chapter describes how the Ebola virus is considered extremely infectious with a series of physical and psychological traumas on the victims. Common clinical signs associated with the disease include a sudden fever, severe headaches, muscle pain, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting, and unexplained hemorrhages. In Africa, with strained medical facilities and remote localities, prompt identification and diagnosis of the symptoms of Ebola in a suspected patient are important to the control of the epidemic and in curtailing further spread. This chapter presents the development of an Android mobile application called EbolaDiag (Ebola Diagnosis), which is capable of supporting the diagnosis, screening, and healthcare experts working on the frontline in contact tracing and monitoring of the spread of Ebola. Furthermore, EbolaDiag is suitable for aiding the strained medical facilities in endemic areas. In addressing this gap, the application provided a model for implementing such solutions in pandemic environments. Such a solution becomes more relevant and useful to combat Ebola and several other diseases in similar environments.

Mobile Financial Services in Developing Countries

This chapter describes how mobile technologies have recently emerged as the new wave in Information Technology revolution and are constantly gaining importance and popularity in nearly every avenue of our working and social lives. One area of mobile technology that has become a focus in recent times is the use of mobile devices particularly the mobile phones for an array of financial services. Mobile financial services and their massive adoption and rapid spread in the developing world, has deepened investments in mobile infrastructure and has further contributed to financial inclusion and economic development. Their adoption, in particular, has had a significant impact on consumer financial behaviour. This chapter builds on a rich body of literature available to highlight the impact of mobile financial services on consumer financial behaviour and the implications for financial institutions.

Security Issues in Mobile Devices and Mobile Adhoc Networks

For successful data transmission in wireless networks, security features are very much essential to implement. A mobile adhoc network contains a set of autonomous mobile stations that can correspond with each other instead of some adverse situation of wireless environment. Those mobile nodes that are not in the same series can communicate with others through intermediate hops. Security is a challenging mission in mobile adhoc network (MANET) due to many serious issues in the network such as hop-to-hop persistent wireless connectivity, high frequency of variation in topology of the network, and increasing rate of link failure due to higher mobility. So, it is very challenging to develop a secured, dynamic, and efficient routing protocol for such a magnificent network. In this chapter, vulnerability issues of MANET are focused on with a spotlight on prominent MANET protocols. A brief study on technical issues responsible for vulnerability in MANET has been depicted with systematic review on various issues and protocols that provide secured routing in the network.

Mobile Financial Services in Emerging Countries

This chapter describes a recent World Bank report which indicated a sizable percentage of households in developing countries do not have access to formal accounts with financial institutions. The situation has created a major barrier in the quest for a world without poverty due to the exclusion of segments of society from the formal financial system. The phenomenon has resulted in the exclusion of many from traditional financial services, thus the use of other means to conduct informal financial transactions. In Ghana, many households rely on domestic informal forms of remittance to relatives and payments. Such informal mediums of remitting money to and from relatives in Ghana (e.g. via “Bus Driver”) received wide patronage irrespective of the associated risks until mobile financial services were introduced. This chapter discussed Mobile Financial Services (MFS) from the perspective of emerging economy and treats the following topics; technology, adoption and the regulatory issues in MFS.

Mobile Phone Usage in Agricultural Extension in India

This chapter describes how the rural economy of India is basically agrarian in nature and agriculture is the life and livelihood of maximum number of rural people. As per Census 2011 of India there are about 95.8 million cultivators and out of which about 80 percent of farmers are marginal and small. Information asymmetry, ‘Information-haves' and ‘information-have-nots', digital divide was once major paradox of Indian Extension system. Through the mKisan platform, 152 crore SMSs have sent till date to the Indian farmers in the subjects of weather information, pest management, market price, quality seed, etc. In addition, the Kisan Call Centre (KCC) Service, the Buyer Seller Platform, and mobile apps viz. Kisan Suvidha, IFFCO Kisan Agriculture, Pusa Krishi, Krishi Gyan, Crop Insurance, AgriMarket, etc., are consistently supporting the farmers. In the future more farmers will be brought under this mobile-based service.