Framework and Guidelines to Industry Web Portal Business

This chapter discusses a growth framework for industry web portals which present a new opportunity in the internet business. The framework contains five stages: business plan stage, website development stage, attraction stage, entrenchment stage, and defense stage. The actions to be taken and strategies to be applied in each stage are set out. Two industry web portals are investigated in detail. The two examples illustrate the applicability of the proposed growth framework to the real world. The combination of a conceptual growth framework and the application of this conceptual framework to two real-world examples yields a set of guidelines based in large part on lessons learned from the two examples. Thus, this chapter provides a concept-based growth framework and a set of real-world-based guidelines that will very possibly provide a practical benefit to industry web portal business practitioners.

Citizen-Government Collaborative Environment Using Social Networks

Electronic democracy is a concept which is used in some countries around the world with mixed success. Social networks helped in facilitating democracy and democratic change in several countries suggesting that they could be utilized as an e-democracy tool. This research proposed a new model of how the decision-making process for local governments could be improved via social networks. Quantitative approach was used to investigate how the use of a social network amongst people living in the same suburb could improve decision making on the local level. Findings showed that awareness building, deliberation, and consultation factors could be used to affect the decision making for their local governments.

Domestic vs. International E-Shopping

Contemporary commerce is completely different as regards features some years ago. Nowadays, a considerable number of individuals and firms take advantage of the information and communication technologies and conduct transactions online. In particular, the mobile industry along with the broad use of social networks and improvements in the internet bandwidth worldwide has created a completely different business environment. Consequently, the technology incited many consumers to cross-border e-shopping, allowing access to a wider variety of products and services, and in numerous circumstances, access to cheaper goods. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the perceptions internet users have towards e-shops focusing on Greece. More precisely, it aims to find out whether there are contingent differences on customers' perceptions regarding domestic vs. international e-shops, since a gradually augmented number of people have been expressing their preference on non-domestic e-stores for their purchases. Additionally, the chapter intends to shed light on the difficulty in understanding vital aspects of e-consumer behaviour.

Automatic Approach to Evaluate Collaborative Interaction in Virtual Environments

Virtual environments for multi-users, collaborative virtual environments (CVE), support geographical distant people to experience collaborative learning and team training. In this context, monitoring collaboration provides valuable, and in time, information regarding individual and group indicators, helpful for human instructors or intelligent tutor systems. CVE enable people to share a virtual space, interacting with an avatar, generating nonverbal behavior such as gaze-direction or deictic gestures, a potential means to understand collaboration. This chapter presents an automated model and its inference mechanisms to evaluate collaboration in CVE based on expert human rules of nonverbal participants' activity. The model is a multi-layer analysis that includes data filtering, fuzzy classification, and rule-based inference producing a high-level assessment of group collaboration. This approach was applied to a task-oriented session, where two participants assembled cubes in a CVE to create a figure.

The Rate of Adoption in Households and Organizations

The aim of this study is to investigate if households or organizations are faster in their adoption of an innovation. There does not appear to be existing research on this area of diffusion of innovations research. In this comparative study, the study object is digital terrestrial television (DTT), specifically the implementation of DTT in Denmark. By taking a service theory approach, DTT can be categorized as a service innovation. The rate of adoption is a concept in diffusion of innovations theory, which is used as the study's theoretical framework. For both units of analysis, three surveys were carried out. Based on the data, the rate of adoption for households and for organizations was established. It is clear that organizations adopt an innovation faster than households during the entire adoption process. Based on this research, a predictive model is constructed conceptually.

A Theoretical Framework for IT Consumerization

The chapter provided a comprehensive review of previous studies on the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT). The study further conducted a qualitative study on the adoption of “bring your own device” (BYOD). The study systematically reviewed technology acceptance theories and models such as TAM, TPB, and UTAUT at the individual level and technology adoption theories such as “innovation diffusion theory,” “technology-organization-environment framework,” and “institutional theory” at the organizational level. Thereby, key factors predicting the ICT adoption at the individual, organizational, institutional, and environmental level were identified. A theoretical framework that explains the ICT adoption and the consumerization process was proposed based on the theories. The qualitative data collected by semi-structured interviews with senior-level managers was analyzed using the content analysis. The findings suggested that perceived financial cost, compatibility, privacy, and security concerns were significant factors in predicting the enterprise's adoption of BYOD.

What Motivates Immigrants for ICT Adoption and Use?

Several studies demonstrate that most immigrants feel positively about technology adoption and use, and they use information and communication technologies (ICTs) more than non-immigrants or earlier immigrants. What motivates immigrants to use ICTs? Is their motivation to use ICTs for back home connection with their families and friends, or to adjust to their new environment? What are the factors that influence immigrants' ICT behaviors most often? For this study, the author chose 24 peer-reviewed journal articles published in English between 2001-2017 to assess immigrants' motivations for ICT adoption and use. The chapter, based on the systematic review of the existing literature for a longitudinal assessment, will discuss primary motives for immigrants' ICT adoption and use, as well as identify factors that influence immigrants' behavior with respect to ICT adoption and use. Based on these influencing factors, the chapter proposes a framework of technology adoption and use by immigrants.

Learning From Abroad on SIM Card Registration Policy

This chapter presents an analysis of policy transfer in the context of a developing country. The case of Malawi was analyzed as an African country attempting to implement a mandatory subscriber identity module (SIM) card registration policy. The study used a qualitative research approach and secondary data including government reports and media reports. The findings showed that the SIM card registration policy was transferred through coercive transfer to meet security standards and international conventions, and voluntary transfer to address local social challenges related to the use of mobile technologies. Despite initiating the SIM card registration process on several occasions, the implementation process was met with constraints related to social, economic, and political factors that affected the policy transfer process.

Executing a Real-Time Response in an Agile Information System

Agile information systems (AIS) is a current topic of interest in the IS industry. An AIS is defined as one that has ability to sense a change in real time, diagnose it in real time, and select and execute an action in real time. This study focuses on the properties or attributes of an AIS to execute an action in real time. The properties outlined in this research enable an AIS to select a response in real time and then execute a response in real time. The attributes are derived using industry literature, refined using interviews with industry practitioners and then verified for importance using a survey. From the exercise it is concluded that most properties or attributes are important for real-time execution in an AIS. Dimensions underlying these attributes are identified using EFA. Some recent frameworks and paradigms related to IS configurations that can respond to changes in real time are discussed. These frameworks incorporate many of the properties that were arrived for executing a change in real time in an agile IS and hence provide additional validation for the research.

Conceptualizing the Domain and an Empirical Analysis of Operations Security Management

Operations security management integrates the activities of all the information systems security controls. It ensures that the entire computing environment is adequately secured. This chapter conducts an in-depth review of scholarly and practitioner works to conceptualize the domain of operations security management. Drawing upon the existing information systems security literature, the chapter classifies operations security management into 10 domains. Following, the chapter performs an empirical analysis to investigate the state-of-practice of operations security management in organizations. The findings show that the maturity level of operations security management is at the Level 3 (well-defined). The maturity levels range from Level 0 (not performed) to Level 5 (continuously improving). The results indicate that operations security processes are documented, approved, and implemented organization-wide. Backup and malware management are the most applied operations security controls, while logging, auditing, monitoring, and reviewing are the least implemented controls.