Success Factors of Adoption of Mobile Applications in Rural India

The framework for this research is the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. The increasing rural proliferation of mobile services has created a unique opportunity to deliver to the rural users information and services through innovative mobile applications. This chapter develops a conceptual model of factors that make a rural mobile application successful and that are the barriers to its implementation. The conceptual framework developed has been validated by a questionnaire based field survey using structural equation modeling (AMOS). The chapter explores how the conceptual model is impacted by the service characteristics. The contribution of this research to further the understanding of technology adoption models for rural mobile applications has been discussed. The findings of the study have been corroborated with similar research focusing on adoption of rural mobile applications. The practical significance as to how the research findings help in successful implementation of mobile applications has been presented.

Factors Affecting Towards Green Purchase Behavior Among Young Consumers in India

The objective of the chapter is to examine the factors that are essential for the green purchase behavior among the young consumers in India. The study consists of 343 young respondents, who were surveyed with the help of structured measurement instrument. The sample has been analyzed with the help of exploratory factor analysis and linear regression analysis. It was found in the study that the awareness towards the green product, attitude towards eco-labeling, and satisfaction via green products are significantly and positively linked to the green purchase behavior, whereas the attitude towards green pricing and ecologically concerned consumers are not associated with the green purchase behavior.

Environmental Sustainability in the Computer Industry for Competitive Advantage

The computer industry is quite often blamed for excessive energy consumption, carbon emissions, and e-waste. Shipment of e-waste to developing countries where it is often disposed of in unsafe ways is another major issue. Implementation of an end-to-end computer and related products sustainability management strategy by incorporating the reuse of existing technology can make a major impact on the environment. Organizations can take sustainability programs as part of business strategies to achieve competitive advantage in the industry. This chapter discusses different aspects of a sustainable computer industry program and proposes that computer makers take ownership of disposing of e-waste by following safety standards. The chapter also proposes adopting a reverse supply chain process for possible reuse, recycle, or disposal of computers. The author also points out that adopting strategic sustainability initiatives can help an organization to achieve competitive advantage.

Order-Supply Information Service in Solid Wood Fuel Business

Forest resource information and real-time order-supply service are significant in wood fuel procurement. Section 1 defines the data sources of solid wood fuel procurement for regional power plants and their material supply chain. Section 2 presents an architecture for the order-supply process of wood fuel, and Section 3 creates an application for managing the supply chain and reporting. The system creates and uses data from different sources: a forest resource information system, wood material webstores, and enterprise resource planning (ERP). The data model, which follows the entity-attribute-value approach, is based on the annual processes of wood fuel procurement. These include wood fuel procurement planning in plants, processing of wood materials, ordering of wood fuel, and reporting. There is the view of the characteristics of PC and mobile services used by the enterprises of solid wood fuels. Reporting includes real-time information for suppliers, effectiveness of transportation and megawatt production, and spatial marking of forest nature reserves and carbon sinks.

Let's Go Green

To shed light on how green computing can assist organizations in achieving improved competitive advantage and business sustainability, this chapter has two objectives. First, it aims to develop a theoretically informed taxonomy of enablers that have the potential to incentivize organizations to go green. Second, with the taxonomy as the lens of analysis, it seeks to study the adoption of green computing by two well-known technology giants, namely, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft Corporation. The taxonomy, which was informed by the theoretical perspectives of short-termism and impression management, identifies three enablers. These include the financial enabler, the technical enabler, and the marketing enabler. Moreover, a case study method was adopted to trace the greenification journey of Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft Corporation. Contributions and implications of the study are discussed both from a theoretical point of view as well as a practical point of view.

Energy-Efficient Query Processing in a Combined Database and Web Service Environment

The energy-efficiency of server hardware, web server software, and databases has been widely studied. However, studies that combine these aspects are rare. In this chapter, the authors present an energy-efficiency evaluation of a web/database application in a Windows/IIS/MSSQL environment running on an industrial grade Intel server. Moreover, they provide a wide overview of related research and technologies. Researchers have noticed that despite energy-saving technologies, energy consumption of data centers is still growing. To resolve this dilemma, the authors explore the background and propose concrete solutions. They concentrate on the following aspects: server BIOS/operating system energy optimization (limited impact) and “bursting” (i.e., queuing requests and then executing them in bursts). The authors have used the bursting method with both database and web/database applications. Their results indicate about 10% energy savings using this method. The authors analyse the model using statistical tools and present an equation to express the quality of service vs. burst wait time relationship.

Green IT Readiness and Directions of Power Consumption

Since the advent of information technology (IT) is continuously increasing, energy consumption is on the rise, which forces the global world to be directed toward green IT. The Joulemeter program developed by Microsoft used to make the comparisons between computers types. The results showed that laptops consume less power than desktops, and CO2 emissions of the laptop are about 4.5 times less than desktop emission. A questionnaire was developed to evaluate green IT readiness from the perspective of the IT employees. The data collected from 401 IT employees. The results showed the dimension maintenance gain the highest average, which indicates the IT employees realize that the maintenance is an important factor for green IT readiness. The factors, technology, practice, attitude, and maintenance, have an agree degree of agreement; the factors, policy, governance, and green IT readiness, have neutral degree of agreement. The governance has the highest correlation and influence on green IT readiness. The study recommends organizations setup strategies for implementing green IT.

Integrating Sustainability Into IT/IS Project Evaluation Methods

Sustainability is one of the most important challenges of our time. How can we develop prosperity without compromising the lives of future generations? Information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) provide organizations with the ability to change and improve business processes to better support sustainable practices. IT/IS evaluation methods should therefore reflect this ability and include criteria for the assessment of sustainability aspects of IT/IS projects. However, IT/IS evaluation methods are still dominated by the economical perspective that resulted from the infamous IT productivity paradox. This chapter aims to broaden the perspective on IT/IS evaluation by exploring the integration of indicators that reflect the concepts of sustainability into IT/IS evaluation methods. The analysis will conclude that integrating sustainability considerations in IT/IS evaluation requires far more than a set of additional criteria to be considered.

Sustaining Competitive Advantage in SME Sector Through Green Computing

The objective of this chapter is to identify the factors that will make e-commerce adoption a sustainable one in a developing country like India. Using secondary research, variables that influence decision for e-commerce adoption were determined. Then using primary research, these variables were tested in different SMEs in Odisha, India. Data from 50 organizations were collected using a structured interview process. The results of data analysis using discriminant analysis indicate that organizational readiness, managerial productivity, external pressure, decision aids, compatibility, and perceived usefulness were factors found to be important determinants of adoption.

Advances in Green Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is witnessing tremendous growth at a time when climate change and reducing emissions from energy use is gaining attention. With the growth of the Cloud, however, comes an increase in demand for energy. There is growing global awareness about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and healthy environments. Green computing in general aims to reduce the consumption of energy and carbon emission and also to recycle and reuse the energy usage in a beneficial and efficient way. Cloud data centers consume inordinate amounts of energy and have significant CO2 emissions. This chapter gives an overview about green cloud computing and its evolution, surveys related work, discusses associated integrated green cloud architecture (green cloud framework), innovations, and technologies, discusses green cloud computing scenarios, and highlights future work and challenges that need to be addressed to sustain an eco-friendly cloud computing environment that is poised for significant growth.