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Mentoring Doctoral Students in a Developing Society




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The Adoption of Single Sign-On and Multifactor Authentication in Organisations: A Critical Evaluation Using TOE Framework




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Modeling, Training, and Mentoring Teacher Candidates to Use SMART Board Technology




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A Comparison Study of Impact Factor in Web of Science and Scopus Databases for Engineering Education and Educational Technology Journals




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Transitioning from Data Storage to Data Curation: The Challenges Facing an Archaeological Institution




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Challenges in Adopting Open Innovation Strategies in SMEs: An Exploratory Study in Portugal




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Applying a Modified Technology Acceptance Model to Qualitatively Analyse the Factors Affecting E-Portfolio Implementation for Student Teachers’ in Field Experience Placements




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Web-based Tutorials and Traditional Face-to-Face Lectures: A Comparative Analysis of Student Performance




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Critical Design Factors of Developing a High-quality Educational Website: Perspectives of Pre-service Teachers




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To Social Login or not Login? Exploring Factors Affecting the Decision




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Learning and Assessment Practices of Doctoral Studies of Developing and Developed Countries: A Case Study of Doctoral Studies in Bangladesh




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Towards the Realization of the ICT Education Living Lab – The TechTeachers.co.za Success Story

This paper presents the success story of the intuitive vision of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) high school educator in South Africa. The growth and evolution of a Community of Practice towards a full-fledged living lab is investigated. A grounded theory study analyses the living lab concept and highlights some of the current challenges secondary high school ICT education face within the South African educational landscape. Some of the concepts, ideas, best practices, and lessons learned in the establishment and running of two web based technologies to support secondary school ICT subjects is discussed. The researchers present a motivation for the use of living labs to address some of the issues identified and highlights how the existing platforms fits into bigger design.




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Usability and Pedagogical Assessment of an Algorithm Learning Tool: A Case Study for an Introductory Programming Course for High School

An algorithm learning tool was developed for an introductory computer science class in a specialized science and technology high school in Japan. The tool presents lessons and simple visualizations that aim to facilitate teaching and learning of fundamental algorithms. Written tests and an evaluation questionnaire were designed and implemented along with the learning tool among the participants. The tool’s effect on the learning performance of the students was examined. The differences of the two types of visualizations offered by the tool, one with more input and control options and the other with fewer options, were analyzed. Based on the evaluation questionnaire, the scales with which the tool can be assessed according to its usability and pedagogical effectiveness were identified. After using the algorithm learning tool there was an increase in the posttest scores of the students, and those who used the visualization with more input and control options had higher scores compared to those who used the one with limited options. The learning objectives used to evaluate the tool correlated with the test performance of the students. Properties comprised of learning objectives, algorithm visualization characteristics, and interface assessment are proposed to be incorporated in evaluating an algorithm learning tool for novice learners.




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Training Librarians for 21st Century Repository Services: Emerging Trends

The paper reviewed the emerging roles of the 21st century librarians, charged with the responsibility to manage repository services across libraries in present-day information technology environment. Librarians need to be trained and empowered with requisite skills and knowledge needed for successful management of the ICT driven repository initiatives that the 21st century demands. Literature was reviewed on the roles and responsibilities of librarians, training needs and opportunities, career path and recruitment of librarians, and community support necessary for effective and efficient implementation and management of repository initiatives. This entails the ability to comprehend trends and change patterns which are essential for providing research focused and user-friendly models in open repository services that are based on thorough analytical understanding of the challenges of emerging trends. To achieve this requires the training and retraining of librarians to reposition them as information specialists in their career path. The role of the library as an integral part of its social environment is to educate the community about the existence of an open repository by building partnership with community-oriented research centres through seminars, workshops, symposium, training, and awareness programmes. The study recommends that librarians should strategize and collaborate with researchers to make open repository an essential research tool.




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Factors Driving Business Intelligence Culture

The field of business intelligence (BI), despite rapid technology advances, continues to feature inadequate levels of adoption. The attention of researchers is shifting towards hu-man factors of BI adoption. The wide set of human factors influencing BI adoption con-tains elements of what we call BI culture – an overarching concept covering key managerial issues that come up in BI implementation. Research sources provide different sets of features pertaining to BI culture or related concepts – decision-making culture, analytical culture and others. The goal of this paper is to perform the review of research and practical sources to examine driving forces of BI – data-driven approaches, BI agility, maturity and acceptance – to point out culture-related issues that support BI adoption and to suggest an emerging set of factors influencing BI culture.




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Student Preferences and Performance in Online and Face-to-Face Classes Using Myers-Briggs Indicator: A Longitudinal Quasi-Experimental Study

This longitudinal, quasi-experimental study investigated students’ cognitive personality type using the Myers-Briggs personality Type Indicator (MBTI) in Internet-based Online and Face-to-Face (F2F) modalities. A total of 1154 students enrolled in 28 Online and 32 F2F sections taught concurrently over a period of fourteen years. The study measured whether the sample is similar to the national average percentage frequency of all 16 different personality types; whether specific personality type students preferred a specific modality of instructions and if this preference changed over time; whether learning occurred in both class modalities; and whether specific personality type students learned more from a specific modality. Data was analyzed using regression, t-test, frequency, and Chi-Squared. The study concluded that data used in the study was similar to the national statistics; that no major differences in preference occurred over time; and that learning did occur in all modalities, with more statistically significant learning found in the Online modality versus F2F for Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving types. Finally, Sensing and Thinking (ST) and Sensing and Perceiving (SP) group types learned significantly more in Online modality versus F2F.




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The Elements Way: Empowering Parents, Educators, and Mentors in the Age of New Media

Aim/Purpose: This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of mentor’s work with immigrant children and adolescents at risk, using the Elements Way. Background: The New Media offers our “screen kids” a lot of information, many behavioral models, and a new type of social communication. The Elements Way is an educational method designed to enhance openness, development, breakthroughs, goal achievement, and transformation in the age of media and social networks. Methodology: The Elements Way was developed following research on communication in the diversified media, especially new media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and television reality shows, and the study is an examination of the effectiveness of mentors’ work with immigrant children and adolescents at risk, using the Elements Way. All mentors had been trained in the Elements Way. The study population included 640 mentors working with immigrants’ children in Israel. The work was conducted in 2010-2013. The mixed-methods approach was selected to validate findings. Contribution: Empowering children and enhancing their ability to cope; Creating openness and sharing, making children more attentive to the significant adults in their lives; Supporting children who face the complex reality that characterizes our age. Findings: Significant differences were found in the mentors’ conduct with the children. Work programs were designed and implemented with care and consistency, and mentors succeeded in generating change within the children and achieving desired goals. Of the 640 participating mentors, 62 were not able to promote the child, and interviews with them revealed that their work with the children was not consistent with the Elements Way and began from a different vantage point. Recommendations for Practitioners: Success factors: Self-awareness and awareness of one’s surroundings. Empathy. Willingness to engage in significant interactions. Self-cleansing and self-reflection. Ability to engage in a personal and interpersonal dialogue. Ability to accept and contain the child. Cooperation with the child in creating a work program and assisting the child to achieve the goals that were set in the program. Recommendation for Researchers: Future studies should focus on analyzing the discussions of children and adolescents, to add depth to our insights regarding children and adolescents’ perception of the mentors’ work from their perspective. Impact on Society: Finding the “keys” to openness, development, goal achievement, and transformation in our work with “screen kids.” Future Research: Studies that are designed to examine the effectiveness of mentor’s work with immigrant children and adolescents at risk, using the Elements Way.




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Executive Higher Education Doctoral Programs in the United States: A Demographic Market-Based Analysis

Aim/Purpose: Executive doctoral programs in higher education are under-researched. Scholars, administers, and students should be aware of all common delivery methods for higher education graduate programs. Background This paper provides a review and analysis of executive doctoral higher education programs in the United States. Methodology: Executive higher education doctoral programs analyzed utilizing a qualitative demographic market-based analysis approach. Contribution: This review of executive higher education doctoral programs provides one of the first investigations of this segment of the higher education degree market. Findings: There are twelve programs in the United States offering executive higher education degrees, though there are less aggressively marketed programs described as executive-style higher education doctoral programs that could serve students with similar needs. Recommendations for Practitioners: Successful executive higher education doctoral programs require faculty that have both theoretical knowledge and practical experience in higher education. As appropriate, these programs should include tenure-line, clinical-track, and adjunct faculty who have cabinet level experience in higher education. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should begin to investigate more closely the small but growing population of executive doctoral degree programs in higher education. Impact on Society: Institutions willing to offer executive degrees in higher education will provide training specifically for those faculty who are one step from an executive position within the higher education sector. Society will be impacted by having someone that is trained in the area who also has real world experience. Future Research: Case studies of students enrolled in executive higher education programs and research documenting university-employer goals for these programs would enhance our understanding of this branch of the higher education degree market.




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Automatic Detection and Classification of Dental Restorations in Panoramic Radiographs

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a prototype of an information-generating computer tool designed to automatically map the dental restorations in a panoramic radiograph. Background: A panoramic radiograph is an external dental radiograph of the oro-maxillofacial region, obtained with minimal discomfort and significantly lower radiation dose compared to full mouth intra-oral radiographs or cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging. Currently, however, a radiologic informative report is not regularly designed for a panoramic radiograph, and the referring doctor needs to interpret the panoramic radiograph manually, according to his own judgment. Methodology: An algorithm, based on techniques of computer vision and machine learning, was developed to automatically detect and classify dental restorations in a panoramic radiograph, such as fillings, crowns, root canal treatments and implants. An experienced dentist evaluated 63 panoramic anonymized images and marked on them, manually, 316 various restorations. The images were automatically cropped to obtain a region of interest (ROI) containing only the upper and lower alveolar ridges. The algorithm automatically segmented the restorations using a local adaptive threshold. In order to improve detection of the dental restorations, morphological operations such as opening, closing and hole-filling were employed. Since each restoration is characterized by a unique shape and unique gray level distribution, 20 numerical features describing the contour and the texture were extracted in order to classify the restorations. Twenty-two different machine learning models were evaluated, using a cross-validation approach, to automatically classify the dental restorations into 9 categories. Contribution: The computer tool will provide automatic detection and classification of dental restorations, as an initial step toward automatic detection of oral pathologies in a panoramic radiograph. The use of this algorithm will aid in generating a radiologic report which includes all the information required to improve patient management and treatment outcome. Findings: The automatic cropping of the ROI in the panoramic radiographs, in order to include only the alveolar ridges, was successful in 97% of the cases. The developed algorithm for detection and classification of the dental restorations correctly detected 95% of the restorations. ‘Weighted k-NN’ was the machine-learning model that yielded the best classification rate of the dental restorations - 92%. Impact on Society: Information that will be extracted automatically from the panoramic image will provide a reliable, reproducible radiographic report, currently unavailable, which will assist the clinician as well as improve patients’ reliance on the diagnosis. Future Research: The algorithm for automatic detection and classification of dental restorations in panoramic imaging must be trained on a larger dataset to improve the results. This algorithm will then be used as a preliminary stage for automatically detecting incidental oral pathologies exhibited in the panoramic images.




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Factors Influencing Women’s Decision to Study Computer Science: Is It Context Dependent?

Aim/Purpose: Our research goal was to examine the factors that motivate women to enroll in Computer Science (CS) courses in order to better understand the small number of women in the field of CS. Background: This work is in line with the growing interest in better understanding the problem of the underrepresentation of women in the field of CS. Methodology: We focused on a college that differs in its high numbers of female CS students. The student population there consists mostly of religious Jews; some of them are Haredi, who, because of their unique lifestyle, are expected to be the breadwinners in their family. Following group interviews with 18 students, a questionnaire was administered to all the female students and 449 of them responded. We analyzed it statistically. We compared the responses of the Haredi and non-Haredi students. Contribution: The main contribution of this work lies in the idea that studying the factors underlying women’s presence in a CS program in unique communities and cultures, where women are equally represented in the field, might shed light on the nature of this phenomenon, especially whether it is universal or confined to the surrounding culture. Findings: There were significant differences between the Haredi and non-Haredi women regarding the importance they attributed to different factors. Haredi women resemble, regarding some social and economic variables, women in developing countries, but differ in others. The non-Haredi women are more akin to Western women, yet they did not completely overlap. Both groups value their family and career as the most important factors in their lives. These factors unify women in the West and in developing countries, though with different outcomes. In the West, it deters women from studying CS, whereas in Israel and in Malaysia, other factors can overcome this barrier. Both groups attributed low importance to the masculine image of CS, found important in the West. Hence, our findings support the hypothesis that women’s participation in the field of CS is culturally dependent. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is important to learn about the culture within which women operate in order to attract more women to CS. Recommendations for Researchers: Future work is required to examine other loci where women are underrepre-sented in CS, as well as how the insights obtained in this study can be utilized to decrease women’s underrepresentation in other loci. Impact on Society: Women's underrepresentation in CS is an important topic for both economic and social justice reasons. It raises questions regarding fairness and equality. In the CS field the gender pay gaps are smaller than in other professional areas. Thus, resolving the underrepresentation of women in CS will serve as a means to decrease the social gender gap in other areas.




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How to Program a Chatbot – An Introductory Project and Student Perceptions

Aim/Purpose: One of the most fascinating developments in computer user interfaces in recent years is the rise of “chatbots”. Yet extent information system (IS) curriculum lacks teaching resources on chatbots programming.. Background: To better prepare students for this new technological development and to enhance the IS curriculum, we introduce a project that teaches students how to program simple chatbots, including a transactional chatbot and a conversational chatbot. Methodology: We demonstrated a project that teaches students how to program two types of simple chatbots: a transactional chatbot and a conversational chatbot. We also conducted a survey to examine students’ perceptions on their learning experience. Findings: Our survey on students’ perception of the project finds that learning chatbots is deemed very useful because chatbot programming projects have enabled the students to understand the subject better. We also found that social influence has positively motivated the students to learn chatbot programming. Though most of the students have no prior experiences programming chatbots, their self-efficacy towards chatbot programming remained high after working through the programming project. Despite the difficult tasks, over 71% of respondents agree to various degrees that chatbot programming is fun. Though most students agree that chatbot programming is not easy to learn, more than 70% of respondents indicated that they will use or learn chatbots in the near future. The overwhelmingly positive responses are impressive given that this is the first time for the students to program and learn chatbots. Recommendations for Practitioners: In this article, we introduced a step by step project on teaching chatbot programming in an information systems class. Following the project instructions, students can get their first intelligent chatbots up and running in a few hours using Slack. This article describes the project in detail as well as students’ perceptions. Recommendations for Researchers: We used UTAUT model to measure students’ perception of the projects. This study could be of value to researchers studying students’ technology learning and adoption behaviors. Impact on Society: To our best knowledge, pedagogical resources that teach IS students how to program chatbots, especially the introductory level materials, are limited. We hope this teaching case could be of value for IS educators when introducing IS students to the wonderful field of chatbot programming. Future Research: For future work, we plan to expand the teaching resources to cover more advanced chatbot programming projects, such as on how to make chatbot more human-like.




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Using Teach Back Tutorials to Overcome Pandemic Learning Gaps

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of gaps in students’ knowledge at the time they enter a comprehensive Information Systems cap-stone course. This problem of knowledge gaps was exacerbated by the forced remote learning and isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim was to find a technique that would identify and fill those gaps. Ideally, the method would also reinforce the students’ interpersonal soft skills. Background: Many universities have a capstone course where students may apply their knowledge from the curriculum to a project, and they are evaluated on their retention of knowledge from the core classes. Over the past two years, students have experienced course interruptions and modifications due to the pandemic, resulting in learning gaps on topics covered in the core courses. Depending on the project’s scope and curriculum, this may prevent students from conversing on many essential concepts during the capstone course. By requiring students to create “Teach Back” tutorials on materials from their core courses, faculty may ensure that the key concepts are discussed multiple times within the curriculum. Methodology: We present a case study to identify key concepts and compare cohort results before and after implementation. Contribution: A process for identifying potential knowledge gaps is identified, and a method to repeatedly expose students to concepts is introduced. Findings: There were improvements to the overall capstone scores after the tutorial implementation. While many factors influence changes in scores across cohorts, the initial findings are promising, supporting the concept that teaching back helps to close knowledge gaps. Recommendations for Practitioners: Faculty should collaborate to identify knowledge areas that need to be rein-forced later in their students’ academic careers. Teaching back essential concepts that may not be prioritized in implementing a capstone project ensures a repeated exposure to the identified concepts. Recommendations for Researchers: There needs to be a priority to teach students to be lifelong learners and to teach the skills needed to share their knowledge with future coworkers. There needs to be more research into a pedagogy that builds these essential soft skills within our curriculum. Finally, research into alumni feedback on course topics and pedagogy is needed. Impact on Society: Introducing pedagogy that improves both knowledge and soft skills, this re-search looks to build individuals who will learn independently and be able to communicate with and improve others. Future Research: There needs to be additional research to study the changes in technical knowledge before and after Teach Back, the consequences of elective sequencing, the consideration of elective versus required courses, and the use of Teach Back to capture student knowledge gained from completing diverse electives prior to the capstone course.




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The Tutor’s Role in the Online Training of Preservice Teachers: Tutor and Tutee Perspectives

Aim / Purpose This study examined the perception of the role of tutors in online training of preservice teachers during the COVID period, from the perspective of pre-service teachers and their tutors. Background Because of the COVID pandemic, learning in schools was conducted online, therefore preservice teachers’ practicum also took place online, as did the tutoring process. Methodology The research question was: How did preservice teachers and their tutors perceive the experience of teaching during the COVID period perceived by them; specifically, what was their sense of self-efficacy and satisfaction, and what difficulties did they encounter? This was a quantitative study. The sample included 221 participants comprising 111 tutors and 110 preservice teachers. Data were collected in Israel in 2021. Contribution This study sheds light on the process of online tutoring of preservice teachers by their tutors. Findings The study found that preservice teachers and their tutors perceived the practicum during the COVID period to be helpful, answering preservice teachers’ needs and providing professional assistance in their training. This was more so in the professional aspects of teaching, in the emotional aspects of the tutoring process, and in the process of shaping the preservice teachers’ professional identity, and less so in the organizational aspects of the school. In both groups (tutors and preservice teachers), it emerged that during a complex period of social isolation, maintaining contact reinforces the sense of self-efficacy. Tutors who encountered fewer technical difficulties and thought the tutoring process was enjoyable expressed more satisfaction with the tutoring process. Tutors felt that they were able to get better acquainted personally with the preservice teachers they taught, and vice versa, and preservice teachers were able to get to know their tutors personally. Tutors thought that their interpersonal communication benefitted the preservice teachers, that they listened to their mentees, and understood them. Preservice teachers felt that tutors allowed them to voice their expectations and concerns about their teaching experiences. Recommendations for practitioners One of the main goals of practicum in studies toward a teaching certificate is to prepare the students for their role as teachers. In the online tutoring process, emphasis should be placed on professional aspects (such as instruction and classroom management, identifying points for improvement and setting them as goals and challenges for the future) and on emotional aspects (such as promoting growth and personal development of preservice teachers in the process of shaping their professional identity). Recommendations for researchers One of the findings of the study is that the tutor-mentee relationship should be preserved in remote tutoring. The findings showed a positive correlation between maintaining such contact and high self-efficacy for both tutors and preservice teachers. It was found that tutors who reported high self-efficacy felt that interpersonal communication benefitted the teachers they were guiding. Impact on society Information collected in this study indicates that the tutors made a great effort to provide preservice teachers with meaningful coaching during the COVID period. In certain aspects, the tutoring was more successful and in other aspects less so, given the characteristics of the period, such as social distancing, no attendance of regular classes at school, and so forth. Future research It is recommended to continue investigating the online tutoring process, both from the perspective of preservice teachers and of tutors, to explore in-depth the correlation between self-efficacy and interpersonal communication, with emphasis on feedback between the tutors and preservice teachers.




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Mandatory Gamified Security Awareness Training Impacts on Texas Public Middle School Students: A Qualitative Study

Aim/Purpose. The problem statement in the proposed study focuses on that, despite the growing recognition that teenagers need to undergo security awareness training, little is known about the impacts security training experts believe implementing a mandatory gamified security awareness training curriculum in public middle schools will have on the long-term security behavior of students in Texas. Background. This study was guided by the research question: What are the impacts security training experts believe implementing a mandatory gamified security aware-ness training curriculum in public middle schools will have on the long-term security behaviors of students in Texas? The study gathers opinions from experts on the impacts of security awareness training on students. Methodology. Our research used semi-structured interviews with twelve experts chosen through the use of purposive sampling. The population for the study consisted of experts in the fields of security awareness training for and teaching middle school-aged children. Candidates were recruited through the Cyber-Texas Foundation and snowball sampling techniques. Contribution. The research contributed to the body of knowledge by using interviews to explore the impacts of security awareness training on middle school students based on the opinions and views of the teachers and instructors who work with middle school students. Findings. The findings of this study demonstrate that middle school is an ideal time to provide cybersecurity training and will impact student behaviors by making them more conscious of cyber threats and preparing them to be more tech-savvy professionals. The research also showed that well-designed cybersecurity games with real-world application combined with traditional teaching techniques can help students develop positive habits. The research also suggests that teachers possess the skills to teach cybersecurity classes and the classes can be integrated into the current school day without the need for any significant changes to existing daily schedules. Recommendations for Practitioners. A well-design gamification-based curriculum implemented in Texas Middle Schools, combined with traditional teaching techniques and repeated over an extended time period, will impact students’ behaviors by making them more able to recognize and respond to cyber risks and will transform them into more secure and tech-savvy members of society. Recommendations for Researchers. The research shows middle school instructors and technology experts believe the implementation of a security awareness training program in middle schools is both possible and practical, while also beneficial to the students. The recommendation is to encourage researchers to explore ways to build curricula and games capable of appealing to students and implementing the instruction into school programs. Impact on Society. Demonstrating that training provided in middle school will make lasting impacts and improvements to student behaviors benefits children and their families in the short-term and workplaces in the long-term. The development of a more security-conscious workforce can reduce the significant number of data breaches and cyber attacks resulting from the poor security habits of companies’ users. Future Research. Future research that will add significant value to the body of knowledge includes testing the effectiveness of habit-shaping games to determine whether existing long-term games maintain student interest. Qualitative studies could interview parents of teenagers using habit-shaping games to determine the effectiveness of the applications. Another qualitative study could interview teachers to determine how teachers’ ages affect their comfort level teaching technology classes. Both studies could provide valuable insights into how to implement security awareness training in schools.




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The Absorption Experience of Gen Y Beginning Teachers in Elementary Schools, From the Point of View of the Beginning Teachers and Their Mentors

Aim/Purpose . The present study aimed to understand in depth the experience of identity formation of beginning teachers (BTs), members of Gen Y, in their first year at elementary school, teaching students of Gen Alpha, from the perspective of BTs and their teacher mentors (TMs). Background. The purpose of the study was to compare the aspects described by BTs and their mentor teachers of the initial experience of teaching and of shaping the professional identity of BTs, members of Gen Y, in elementary schools, from the perspective of BTs and teacher mentors (TMs). Methodology. This was a qualitative study. Two groups participated in the study: (a) 75 BTs, members of Gen Y, and (b) 40 mentors of beginning teachers. Contribution. The findings of this study indicate that the creation of an emotionally and professionally supportive community led to a fruitful discussion on issues related to the process of absorption and integration of BTs in the school. This process advanced their professional development, expanding knowledge, abilities, strategies, and innovative pedagogical practices for classroom management, and meaningful teaching and learning in the classroom. The supportive community provided an emotional, professional, social-organizational, and evaluative-reflective response to the needs of BTs, facilitating meaningful interactions between the BTs and their students. It created for students a space for emotional training, organizing and managing behavior, regulating emotions and behavior, reducing feelings of anger, and arousing a feeling of optimism. Findings. The findings show that there was a conflict between the BTs’ and TMs’ perceptions of school reality. The mentors expected the BTs to adapt to the existing system, whereas the BTs perceived the process as one of formation of their identity as teachers. It turned out that parameters that were important to Gen Y teachers, such as knowing the school organization and being an influential factor that brings about change, were less important to their mentors. The findings of the present study reinforce those of previous studies that investigated the employment characteristics of Gen Y. Recommendations for Practitioners. A supportive community at school is likely to increase the level of mental well-being of Gen Y teachers. To this end, support communities of teachers by form and by discipline of study should be created. In the community, emphasis should be placed on reflection and mental resilience in all situations and challenging events that happen to the BTs to help them cope with the accumulated stress. Recommendations for Researchers. Students need a sensitive environment that is appropriate for Gen Alpha children. This environment must allow for emotional training and regulation, behavior organization and management to arouse a feeling of optimism and reduce anger. To develop students’ emotional, social, and cognitive abilities, teachers must teach with love, sensitivity, affectivity, and empathy. Impact on Society. To retain BTs and prevent them from quitting their career, schools must ensure that members of Gen Y understand the school organization and are satisfied with the way the organization is managed. They must have a sense of being significant partners in the life of the school. Under optimal working conditions, Gen Y teachers may greatly contribute to the values of education and equal opportunity, maximizing the personal potential of each student and the classroom as a whole, and making the school relevant. Future Research. Future studies should examine the characteristics of students belonging to Gen Alpha. One of the difficulties mentioned by BTs was a misunderstanding of the characteristics of Gen Alpha, which created problems in the interactions within the teaching staff and between the teachers and the students, and pre-vented gaining authority with other teachers and with students.




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Gamified Cybersecurity Education Through the Lens of the Information Search Process: An Exploratory Study of Capture-the-Flag Competitions [Research-in-Progress]

Aim/Purpose. Capture the Flag (CTF) challenges are a popular form of cybersecurity education where students solve hands-on tasks in a game-like setting. These exercises provide learning experiences with various specific technologies and subjects, as well as a broader understanding of cybersecurity topics. Competitions reinforce and teach problem-solving skills that are applicable in various technical and non-technical environments outside of the competitions. Background. The Information Search Process (ISP) is a framework developed to under-stand the process by which an individual goes about studying a topic, identifying emotional ties connected to each step an individual takes. As the individual goes through the problem-solving process, there is a clear flow from uncertainty to clarity; the individual’s feelings, thoughts, and actions are all interconnected. This study aims to investigate the learning of cybersecurity concepts within the framework of the ISP, specifically in the context of CTF competitions. Methodology. A comprehensive research methodology designed to incorporate quantitative and qualitative analyses to draw the parallels between the participants’ emotional experiences and the affective dimensions of learning will be implemented to measure the three primary goals. Contribution. This study contributes significantly to the broader landscape of cybersecurity education and cognitive-emotional experiences in problem-solving. Findings. The study has three primary goals. First, we seek to enhance our under-standing of the emotional and intellectual aspects involved in problem-solving, as demonstrated by the ISP approach. Second, we aim to gain in-sights into how the presentation of CTF challenges influences the learning experience of participants. Lastly, we strive to contribute to the improvement of cybersecurity education by identifying actionable steps for more effective teaching of technical skills and approaches. Recommendations for Practitioners. Competitions reinforce and teach problem-solving skills applicable in various technical and non-technical environments outside of the competitions. Recommendations for Researchers. The Information Search Process (ISP) framework may enhance our understanding of the emotional and intellectual aspects involved in problem-solving as we study the emotional ties connected to each step an individual takes as the individual goes through the problem-solving process. Impact on Society. Our pursuit of advancing our understanding of cybersecurity education will better equip future generations with the skills and knowledge needed to ad-dress the evolving challenges of the digital landscape. This will better pre-pare them for real-world challenges. Future Research. Future studies would include the development of a cybersecurity curriculum on vulnerability exploitation and defense. It would include practice exploiting practical web and binary vulnerabilities, reverse engineering, system hardening, security operations, and understanding how they can be chained together.




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Do Project Management Tools and Outcomes Differ in Organizations of Varying Size and Sector?




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A Methodology for Increasing Business Process Maturity in Public Sector




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Designing a Self-Assessment Item Repository: An Authentic Project in Higher Education




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Factors Determining the Balance between Online and Face-to-Face Teaching: An Analysis using Actor-Network Theory




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Clickers in the Laboratory: Student Thoughts and Views




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Analysis of Explanatory and Predictive Architectures and the Relevance in Explaining the Adoption of IT in SMEs




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Critical Success Factors for Implementing Business Intelligence Systems in Small and Medium Enterprises on the Example of Upper Silesia, Poland




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Critical Success Factors for ERP Systems Implementation in Public Administration




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Factors of Project Manager Success

This research seeks to analyse the project success factors related to project managers’ traits. The context of the research entails a ‘United Nations’ type of organization. Critical success factors from previous recent studies were adopted for this research. Nineteen factors were adopted and a survey methodology approach was followed. Sixty six participants completed the survey. Exploratory factor analysis results revealed the existence of two constructs: project manager engagement, and project manager certification. The total number of factors representing these two constructs after the factor reduction exercise is nine. Our findings indicate that the capacity for a project manager to communicate and lobby for the project to create and sustain positive perceptions, is the most important factor; whereas project manager credentials are viewed as not important for his/her success. The results may seem counter-intuitive, however, in the context of United Nations Organizations, consideration of their political, cultural and international nature reveals that the results apply.




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Influential Factors of Collaborative Networks in Manufacturing: Validation of a Conceptual Model

The purpose of the study is to identify influential factors in the use of collaborative networks within the context of manufacturing. The study aims to investigate factors that influence employees’ learning, and to bridge the gap between theory and praxis in collaborative networks in manufacturing. The study further extends the boundary of a collaborative network beyond enterprises to include suppliers, customers, and external stakeholders. It provides a holistic perspective of collaborative networks within the complexity of the manufacturing environment, based on empirical evidence from a questionnaire survey of 246 respondents from diverse manufacturing industries. Drawing upon the socio-technical systems (STS) theory, the study presents the theoretical context and interpretations through the lens of manufacturing. The results show significant influences of organizational support, promotive interactions, positive interdependence, internal-external learning, perceived effectiveness, and perceived usefulness on the use of collaborative networks among manufacturing employees. The study offers a basis of empirical validity for measuring collaborative networks in organizational learning and knowledge/information sharing in manufacturing.




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Analogical Thinking for Generation of Innovative Ideas: An Exploratory Study of Influential Factors

Analogical thinking is one of the most effective tools to generate innovative ideas. It enables us to develop new ideas by transferring information from well-known domains and utilizing them in a novel domain. However, using analogical thinking does not always yield appropriate ideas, and there is a lack of consensus among researchers regarding the evaluation methods for assessing new ideas. Here, we define the appropriateness of generated ideas as having high structural and low superficial similarities with their source ideas. This study investigates the relationship between thinking process and the appropriateness of ideas generated through analogical thinking. We conducted four workshops with 22 students in order to collect the data. All generated ideas were assessed based on the definition of appropriateness in this study. The results show that participants who deliberate more before reaching the creative leap stage and those who are engaged in more trial and error for deciding the final domain of a new idea have a greater possibility of generating appropriate ideas. The findings suggest new strategies of designing workshops to enhance the appropriateness of new ideas.




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Factors Affecting the Adoption and Usage of ICTs within Polish Households

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) encompassing computer and network hardware and software, and so on, as well as various services and applications associated with them, are assuming a growing presence within the modern homestead and have an indelible impact on the professional and everyday life of people. This research aims to explore factors influencing the successful adoption and usage of ICTs within Polish households. Based on prior literature and practical experiences, a framework of success factors is provided. The required data was collected from a survey questionnaire administered to a sample of Polish households to examine this framework and identifies which factors are of greatest importance for the adoption and usage of ICTs within households in Poland. Based on 751 questionnaires the paper indicates that the adoption of ICTs within households is mainly influenced by the economic status of households and cost of ICTs, perceived economic benefits from the usage of ICTs, technological availability and security of ICTs, ICT competences and awareness, as well as satisfaction with the adoption of ICTs. Furthermore, gender, education, and place of residence do not reflect significant differences on the factors. Yet, there are significant differences among the factors that could be attributed to age. Both, policy makers and ICT providers can benefit from the findings with regard to bridging the gap of ICT adoption and use in the Polish households.




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Accounting Information Systems Effectiveness: Evidence from the Nigerian Banking Sector

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the interrelationship among the quality measures of information system success, including system quality, information, quality, and service quality, that eventually influence accounting information systems effectiveness. Background: It is generally believed that investment in an information system offers opportunities to organizations for business process efficiency and effectiveness. Despite huge investments in accounting information systems, banks in Nigeria have not realized the full potential benefits of using these systems because of persistent failures. Few studies have been conducted to address the problem. Methodology: A survey research design was used to collect data, and a total of 287 questionnaires were retrieved from respondents in the Nigerian banking sector. Contribution: This study contributes to the understanding of the most important antecedent factors of the quality measures, the interrelationship among the quality measures, and the influence of these measures on the accounting information systems effectiveness. Findings: The result of the study revealed that security, ease of use, and efficiency are key features of system quality, while the information quality dimension includes accuracy, timeliness, and completeness. The result of the study further revealed that information quality and system quality have significant influences on accounting information systems effectiveness. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study provides practitioners with important measures for evaluation of AIS effectiveness in the context of Nigerian banks. Recommendation for Researchers: Future researchers may build on the findings of current study to conduct fur-ther research in the area of AIS effectiveness in different contexts. Future Research: This study examines only three quality measures of Delone and Mclean model and antecedents of information and system quality measures, neglecting contingency factor. Therefore, future study should include other factors to the AIS effectiveness model to help in developing more specific theory in AIS domain.




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The Effect of Personality Traits on Sales Performance: An Empirical Investigation to Test the Five-Factor Model (FFM) in Pakistan

Aim/Purpose: The present study investigates the relationship between the five-factor model (FFM) of personality traits and sales performance in Pakistan. Background: Personality is a well-researched area in which numerous studies have examined the correlation between personality traits and job performance. In this study, a positive effect between the various dimensions of the five-factor model (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and open to experience) and sales performance in Pakistan is investigated. Methodology: Pearson’s correlation values as well as analysis methodologies were employed to gather descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and use the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Cronbach’s alpha value helped determine the internal consistency of the group items. Questionnaires were distributed among 600 salespersons in various cities of Pakistan from April 2015 to January 2016. Subsequently, 510 questionnaires were acquired for the sample. Contribution: The current study contributes to the literature on personality traits and sales performance by applying empirical evidence from sales managers in three industries of Pakistan: pharmaceutical, insurance, and electronics. Findings: The results affirmed a positive effect of the five-factor model on sales performance among various industries in Pakistan. The effect of each sub-factor from the five-factor model was examined autonomously. There is a favorable benefit to sales managers in considering FFM when making hiring decisions. Impact on Society: FFM offers important insights into personality traits that work well within Pakistani sales industry structure. Future Research: A broader rendering of the effects of FFM on sales organizations in other geographical locations around Pakistan should be considered. Additionally, an extended study should be conducted to investigate the effects of FFM on female sales employees involving religious and cultural forces within that country.




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Factors Affecting Re-usage Intentions of Virtual Communities Supporting Cosmetic Products

Aim/Purpose: This study uses a cosmetic virtual community (VC) as the research context and the UTAUT model as the theoretical structure aim to explore factors affecting the re-usage intentions of VC members. Background: The Internet use rate of VC was up to 50%, thereby implying that VC gained the attention of Internet users. Therefore, operating a VC will be an effective way to communicate with customers. However, to maintain an existing member is more efficient than creating a new one. As such, understanding determinants of VC members’ re-use intentions becomes important for firms. Methodology: Through an online survey, 276 valid responses were gathered. The collected data were examined by performing confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling procedures, as well as the moderator analysis. Contribution: This study shows the importance in the context of online cosmetics-related VC, which was rarely explored before. We provide issues for future research, despite the accumulated academic literature related to UTAUT and VC. Findings: Results show that only performance expectancy and social influence significantly affecting re-usage intentions and only gender has moderating effects on the path from performance expectancy to VC re-use intention and from trust to VC re-use intention. Recommendations for Practitioners : This study found that users emphasized performance expectancy most of all. A cosmetic product-related VC should introduce products abundantly, offer useful information, and help people accomplish tasks quickly and productively. Recommendation for Researchers: Future researchers may use our findings to conduct further positivist research in the area of social influence using different subjects and research contexts.




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Knowledge Management Orientation, Market Orientation, and SME’s Performance: A Lesson from Indonesia’s Creative Economy Sector

Aim/Purpose: Two research objectives were addressed in this study. The first objective was to determine the effect of knowledge management orientation behaviour on business performance, and the second objective was to investigate the mediating effect of market orientation in the relationship between knowledge management orientation behaviour and business performance. Background: In business strategic perspective, the idea of knowledge management has been discussed widely. However, there is a lack of study exploring the notion of knowledge management orientation especially in the perspective of Indonesia’s creative economy sector. Methodology: One hundred and thirty one participants were involved in this study. They were economy creative practitioners in Indonesia. Data were analysed by using Partial Least Squares. Contribution: Upon the completion of the research objectives, this study contributes to both theoretical and practical perspectives. From a theoretical standpoint, this study proposes a conceptual model explaining the relationship among knowledge management orientation behaviour, market orientation, and business performance in Indonesia’s creative economy sector. As this study found a significant effect of knowledge sharing in market orientation and market orientation in business performance, the study showed the mediation role of market orientation in the relationship between knowledge sharing and business performance. From a practical perspective, this study implies a guideline for business practitioners in enhancing business through the application of knowledge management orientation behaviour. Findings: The results show that organizing memory, knowledge absorption, and knowledge receptivity has a direct significant effect on business performance. However, in affecting business performance, knowledge sharing must be mediated by market orientation. Recommendations for Practitioners: Based on the results of the study, practitioners should enhance their behaviour in implementing knowledge management in terms of increasing business performance. In addition, it is suggested that business practitioners must be market driven, as market orientation was found to have an important role in affecting business performance. Recommendation for Researchers: Future researchers might integrate other constructs such as innovation, marketing capabilities, or organizational learning with this current conceptual model to have more comprehensive insight about the relationship between knowledge management orientation and business performance. Impact on Society: This study suggests that business practitioners must have knowledge management driven behaviour as well as market orientation to enhance the performance of their business. Future Research: Future research might add other variables to make the conceptual model more comprehensive and also replicate this study into different industrial settings.




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Identification of Influential Factors in Implementing IT Governance: A Survey Study of Indonesian Companies in the Public Sector

Aim/Purpose: This study is carried out to determine the factors influencing the implementation of IT governance in public sector. Background: IT governance in organizations plays strategic roles in deciding whether IT strategies and investments of both private and public organizations could be efficient, consistent, and transparent. IT governance has the potential to be the best practice that could improve organizational performance and competency. Methodology: The study involves qualitative and quantitative approaches, where data were collected through questionnaire, observation, interview, and document study through a sample of 367 respondents. The collected data were analyzed using Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) for validating the model and testing the hypotheses. Besides, semi-structured interview, observation, and document study were also carried out to obtain the management’s feedback on the implementation of IT governance and its activities. Contribution: The results of this study contribute to knowledge regarding good IT governance. Practically, this study can be used as a guideline for the future development and good IT governance. Findings: The findings reveal that policy has a significant direct influence on system planning, the management of IT investment, system realization, operation and maintenance, and organizational culture. The existence of IT governance policies, the success of the IT process can work well. Monitoring and evaluation processes also significantly affect system plan-ning, management of IT investment, system realization, operation and maintenance, and organizational culture. It indicates the process of monitoring and evaluation required for indications of financial efficiency, infrastructure, resources, risk and organizational success. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is important for organizational management to pay more attention to the organization’s internal controls in order to create good IT governance. Recommendation for Researchers: A comparative study between Indonesia and developing countries on the implementation of IT governance is needed to capture the differences be-tween those countries. Impact on Society: Knowledge of the factors influencing the implementation of IT governance as an effort to implement and improve the quality of IT governance. Future Research: Future studies should look further at the policy and IT governance models, specifically in public organizations, besides other influencing factors. Moreover, the outcome of this study could be generated as a guideline for the advanced development of IT governance and as a point of improvement as a way to generate a better good IT governance. It is essential because such evidence is lacking in current literature.




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The Effects of the Critical Success Factors for ERP Implementation on the Comprehensive Achievement of the Crucial Roles of Information Systems in the Higher Education Sector

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine empirically the effects of certain key Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems on the comprehensive achievement of the crucial roles of Computer-Based Information Systems (CBISs) Background: The effects of the CSFSs were examined in the higher education sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) using a case study of the ERP adoption in Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University. Methodology: A theoretical model was proposed based on the literature written on the CSFs and the roles of CBISs in business. The model encompasses six key CSFs and their associations with the realization of the crucial roles of CBISs. To test the proposed model, a questionnaire was developed by considering the most frequently used measurements items in the ERP’s literature. The data were collect-ed from 219 key stakeholders. Contribution: This study acts as one of the few empirical studies in assessing the effects of the important CSFs for ERP implementation upon its successful implementation. Its outcomes provide more insights and clarifications about the effects of six key CSFs on the comprehensive achievement of the crucial CBIS’s roles. Particularly, the uniqueness of this study lies in addressing the effects of these CSFs on the achievement of the vital CBIS’s roles collectively rather than the achievement of each role individually. Moreover, the study examined these effects in the higher education environment, which is characterized by its own special business processes and services. Findings: The results reveal that the six key CSFs have a positive relationship with the comprehensive achievement of the crucial roles of CBISs. These findings are consistent with many previous studies on the effects of the CSFs on the realization of the expected benefits of the enterprise systems. Recommendations for Practitioners: The managers and other key stakeholders should carefully manage the vital aspects of the CSFs in order to realize the promised ERP’s benefits, including the CBIS’s roles. Future Research: Additional empirical examinations are needed to investigate the effects of the rest of the CSFs on realizing the roles of information systems.




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Revealing the Influential Factors Driving Social Commerce Adoption

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to identify the main factors influencing consumers’ adoption of social commerce (s-commerce). Based on the socio-technical theory, the study suggests a research model that investigates the key social and technical factors driving consumers’ decision to purchase from social commerce websites. In addition, the research model explores the interactive relationship among these factors. Background: The phenomenon of social commerce (s-commerce) has emerged due to the increased penetration of social media and the rapid development of Web 2.0 technologies. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) companies have made significant efforts to shift their operations to s-commerce. Therefore, to facilitate their efforts to transform, various research has been conducted to investigate the main factor influencing the adoption of s-commerce. Most of these studies have emphasised the social aspects related to s-commerce design features to understand how the use of advanced web technologies influence how customers interact with each other in s-commerce environments. However, s-commerce is viewed as a socio-technical system that requires the investigation of both social and technical factors to help in the design of effective s-commerce platforms. Methodology: To validate the proposed research model, 418 paper-based and online questionnaires were collected from online shoppers in Jordan. The Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) approach was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Contribution: This study offers a research model that serves as a theoretical framework for investigating customers’ behaviour in s-commerce environment. It represents a strong context-specific model that includes both the technical and social facilitators of s-commerce. The research model participates in gaining an improved understanding of how customers’ intention, actual purchase and post-purchase experience are formed in the s-commerce environment. Findings: The results of Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) reveal that s-commerce constructs, familiarity and user experience have a positive influence on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of s-commerce. In addition, perceptions of its usefulness and ease of use have a positive influence on trust, which in turn influences the purchase intention and the actual purchase. Finally, the post-purchase experience significantly influences both trust and purchase intention. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study shows that social commerce constructs strengthen customers’ perceptions of usefulness. S-commerce service providers are required to provide their customers with various channels to seek social support. Both familiarity and user experience are key enablers of customers’ perceived ease of use. S-commerce service providers consider the variation in customers’ familiarity and experience with s-commerce websites because this has a significant influence on purchase intentions and behaviour. Consequently, system designers should offer useful and sufficient information and tutorials that effectively guide customers in their searching, decision-making and purchasing activities throughout the shopping process. S-commerce service providers should understand the importance of providing secure payment systems and make their privacy policies clear to customers. Post-purchase experience has an influential role in reinforcing customers’ trust and purchase intention. The findings confirm the important role of post-purchase experience in retaining customers by improving their trust and repurchase intention. Therefore, making a customer’s post-purchase experience pleasant should be a key priority for s-commerce service providers because it has a significant influence on customers’ trust and repurchase intentions. Recommendation for Researchers: This study offers a unidimensional conceptualisation of the design features of s-commerce. These features include three main forms: recommendations and referrals, communities and forums, and reviews and ratings. Such conceptualisation provides additional insights and an understanding of the activities of information sharing in s-commerce. The significance of the technical side of s-commerce is highlighted and empirical proof is provided that social interactions guided by social technologies enhance customers’ perceived usefulness of an s-commerce website, thus increasing their trust and intention to purchase which leads to an actual purchase. This offers insights into the various types of s-commerce characteristics that contribute to facilitating customers’ purchase behaviour on s-commerce websites. Impact on Society: The findings offer insights which have important implications for research and practice to help facilitate the adoption of s-commerce. Future Research: This study considered the s-commerce websites as a homogenous online environment. Additional research could collect data from diverse online communities, such as professional groups, to provide a comprehensive understanding of how a wider variety of user behaviour is affected. Second, this was a quantitative study based on data collected in a questionnaire. Further studies may consider using qualitative or mixed methodologies (i.e. focus groups and interviews) to explore other technical and social factors that influence the use of s-commerce.




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Information Technology Capabilities and SMEs Performance: An Understanding of a Multi-Mediation Model for the Manufacturing Sector

Aim/Purpose: Despite the fact that the plethora of studies demonstrate the positive impact of information technology (IT) capabilities on SMEs performance, the understanding of underlying mechanisms through which IT capabilities affect the firm performance is not yet clear. This study fills these gaps by explaining the roles of absorptive capacity and corporate entrepreneurship. The study also elaborates the effect of IT capability dimensions (IT integration and IT alignment) upon the SMEs performance outcomes through the mediating sequential process of absorptive capacity and corporate entrepreneurship. Methodology: This study empirically tests a theoretical model based on the Dynamic Capability View (DCV), by using the partial least square (PLS) technique with a sample of 489 manufacturing SMEs in Pakistan. A survey is employed for the data collection by following the cluster sampling approach. Contribution: This research contributes to the literature of IT by bifurcating the IT capability into two dimensions, IT integration and IT alignment, which allows us to distinguish between different sources of IT capabilities. Additionally, our findings shed the light on the dynamic capability view by theoretically and empirically demonstrating how absorptive capacity and corporate entrepreneurship sequentially affect the firms' performance outcomes. At last, this study contributes to the literature of SMEs by measuring the two levels of performance: innovation performance and firm performance. Findings: The results of the analysis show that the absorptive capacity and the corporate entrepreneurship significantly mediate the relationship between both dimensions of IT capability and performance outcomes.




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Critical Success Factors for Implementing Business Intelligence Projects (A BI Implementation Methodology Perspective)

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for Business Intelligence (BI) implementation projects by studying the existing BI project implementation methodologies and to compare these methodologies based on the identified CSFs. Background: The implementation of BI project has become one of the most important technological and organizational innovations in modern organizations. The BI project implementation methodology provides a framework for demonstrating knowledge, ideas and structural techniques. It is defined as a set of instructions and rules for implementing BI projects. Identifying CSFs of BI implementation project can help the project team to concentrate on solving prior issues and needed resources. Methodology: Firstly, the literature review was conducted to find the existing BI project implementation methodologies. Secondly, the content of the 13 BI project implementation methodologies was analyzed by using thematic analysis method. Thirdly, for examining the validation of the 20 identified CSFs, two questionnaires were distributed among BI experts. The gathered data of the first questionnaire was analyzed by content validity ratio (CVR) and 11 of 20 CSFs were accepted as a result. The gathered data of the second questionnaire was analyzed by fuzzy Delphi method and the results were the same as CVR. Finally, 13 raised BI project implementation methodologies were compared based on the 11 validated CSFs. Contribution: This paper contributes to the current theory and practice by identifying a complete list of CSFs for BI projects implementation; comparison of existing BI project implementation methodologies; determining the completeness degree of existing BI project implementation methodologies and introducing more complete ones; and finding the new CSF “Expert assessment of business readiness for successful implementation of BI project” that was not expressed in previous studies. Findings: The CSFs that should be considered in a BI project implementation include: “Obvious BI strategy and vision”, “Business requirements definition”, “Business readiness assessment”, “BI performance assessment”, “Establishing BI alignment with business goals”, “Management support”, “IT support for BI”, “Creating data resources and source data quality”, “Installation and integration BI programs”, “BI system testing”, and “BI system support and maintenance”. Also, all the 13 BI project implementation methodologies can be divided into four groups based on their completeness degree. Recommendations for Practitioners: The results can be used to plan BI project implementation and help improve the way of BI project implementation in the organizations. It can be used to reduce the failure rate of BI implementation projects. Furthermore, the 11 identified CSFs can give a better understanding of the BI project implementation methodologies. Recommendation for Researchers: The results of this research helped researchers and practitioners in the field of business intelligence to better understand the methodology and approaches available for the implementation and deployment of BI systems and thus use them. Some methodologies are more complete than other studied methodologies. Therefore, organizations that intend to implement BI in their organization can select these methodologies according to their goals. Thus, Findings of the study can lead to reduce the failure rate of implementation projects. Future Research: Future researchers may add other BI project implementation methodologies and repeat this research. Also, they can divide CSFs into three categories including required before BI project implementation, required during BI project implementation and required after BI project implementation. Moreover, researchers can rank the BI project implementation CSFs. As well, Critical Failure Factors (CFFs) need to be explored by studying the failed implementations of BI projects. The identified CSFs probably affect each other. So, studying the relationship between them can be a topic for future research.




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An Exploratory Study on the DevOps IT Alignment Model

Aim/Purpose: Based on business-IT alignment, this study addresses the understudied practice of DevOps. Background: Although organizations continue to implement DevOps practices, few studies explore connections with prior theory. This study contributes to this need by developing the DevOps strategic IT alignment model. Methodology: The sample included 57 firms from the current Forbes Global 2000 and the Fortune 500 lists. The authors employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the DevOps IT alignment model. Contribution: The proposed model builds a foundation for further investigation into the influence of theory on DevOps using quantitative research methods. It also contributes to a reliable and valid DevOps instrument for future exploration. Findings: Continuous integration of software and knowledge sharing increases the level of IT subunit alignment in large organizations that foster DevOps. Furthermore, practicing DevOps positively influences the level of business-IT alignment. Recommendations for Practitioners: Organizations that cultivate DevOps experience greater levels of business-IT alignment through stronger knowledge sharing and continuous integration of applications. Thus, managers should identify how to develop closer bonds between subunits with dissimilar skillsets in their organizations. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should explore how theories interact, help, and/or do not support blossoming practices like DevOps. Impact on Society: Stronger bonds increase knowledge sharing between interdepartmental colleagues. Lower hierarchical levels of an organization as well as higher managerial levels benefit from cross-domain IT knowledge. Future Research: It is important to explore how different types of knowledge in diverse disciplines requires unique cross-discipline bonds to form and whether these relationships have connections with the contingency theory and quality management.




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The Influence of Soft Skills on Employability: A Case Study on Technology Industry Sector in Malaysia

Aim/Purpose: This research investigates the influence of soft skills on graduates’ employability in the technology industry, using the technology industry sector in Malaysia as a case. Background: Organizations are looking for appropriate mechanisms to hire qualified employees with strong soft skills and hard skills. This requires that job candidates possess a set of qualifications and skills which impact their employability. Methodology: Fuzzy Delphi analysis was conducted as preliminary study to identify the critical soft skills required by technology industry sector. The preliminary study produced ten critical soft skills to form a conceptual model of their influence on employability. Then, an online questionnaire survey was distributed in two industry companies in Malaysia to collect research data, and regression analysis was conducted to validate the conceptual model. Contribution: This research focuses on the influence of soft skills on graduate employability in the technology industry sector, since the selection of the best candidate in the industry will improve employee performance and lead to business success. Findings: The results of regression analysis confirmed that Communication skills, Attitude, Integrity, Learnability, Motivation, and Teamwork are significantly correlated with employability, which means that these soft skills are the critical factors for employability in Malaysian technology companies. Recommendations for Practitioners: The model proposed in this article can be used by employers to give better assessment of candidates’ compatibility with the jobs available. Impact on Society: This research highlights the critical soft skills required by technology industry sector, which will reduce the unemployment percentages among graduates. Future Research: More studies are required to examine the soft skills found in the literature and to define the most important skills from a general perspective of the industry. Future research should assess the moderating role of other variables, such as skills gap, employee performance, and employee knowledge. Furthermore, it is recommended to conduct similar studies of soft skills for employability in other countries.




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A Framework for Ranking Critical Success Factors of Business Intelligence Based on Enterprise Architecture and Maturity Model

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify Critical Success Factors (CSF) of Business Intelligence (BI) and provide a framework to classify CSF into layers or perspectives using an enterprise architecture approach, then rank CSF within each perspective and evaluate the importance of each perspective at different BI maturity levels as well. Background: Although the implementation of the BI project has a significant impact on creating analytical and competitive capabilities, the lack of evaluation of CSF holistically is still a challenge. Moreover, the BI maturity level of the organization has not been considered in the BI implementation project. Identifying BI critical success factors and their importance can help the project team to move to a higher maturity level in the organization. Methodology: First, a list of distinct CSF is identified through a literature review. Second, a framework is provided for categorizing these CSF using enterprise architecture. Interviewing is the research method used to evaluate the importance of CSF and framework layers with two questionnaires among experts. The first questionnaire was done by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a quantitative method of decision-making to calculate the weight of the CSF according to the importance of CSF in each of the framework layers. The second one was conducted to evaluate framework layers at different BI maturity levels using a Likert scale. Contribution: This paper contributes to the implementation of BI projects by identifying a comprehensive list of CSF in the form of a holistic multi-layered framework and ranking the importance of CSF and layers at BI maturity levels. Findings: The most important CSF in BI implementation projects include senior management support, process identification, data quality, analytics quality, hardware quality, security standards, scope management, documentation, project team skills, and customer needs transformation, which received the highest scores in framework layers. In addition, it was observed that as the organization moves to higher levels of maturity, the average importance of strategic business and security perspectives or layers increases. But the average importance of data, applications, infrastructure, and network, the project management layers in the proposed framework is the same regardless of the level of business intelligence maturity. Recommendations for Practitioners: The results of this paper can be used by academicians and practitioners to improve BI project implementation through understanding a comprehensive list of CSF and their importance. This awareness causes us to focus on the most important CSF and have better planning to reach higher levels of maturity according to the maturity level of the organization. Future Research: For future research, the interaction of critical success factors of business intelligence and framework layers can be examined with different methods.