Search results

This study aims to blockchain facilitate information sharing among different players in the food industry, such as farmers, food suppliers and investors, enabling an effective decision-making process where the information about goods is traceable without any inherent risk. Although blockchain technology is emerging, its use in the food industry needs to be explored from different angles, such as organizations’ policy, adoption strategies and potential technology innovations which could positively impact business processes.

For this purpose, the authors survey 84 organizations in the food industry. Further, the authors conducted in-depth- interviews with three organizations that applied blockchain technology in the production phase to address the pros and cons of this adaption and discuss how the technology could be improved based on the challenges they faced. Moreover, an overview of current and potential digital transformation uses cases of blockchain technology in the food industry has been provided.

The results suggested that perceived efficiency, transparency, standardization and platform development and traceability factors positively influenced intention to use (ITU).

The adoption of the blockchain cloud solution is neither time-consuming nor expensive; organizations may attempt to predict how regulations or standards will be developed to create a blockchain solution compatible with them.

This study is among the primary studies investigating the role of blockchain technology in the food sector from the organizations’ viewpoint, highlighting the factors influencing the ITU.

Large attention surrounds identifying the meaningful blockchain business model on financial services, while a little focus about non-financial organizations and solutions in terms of how the blockchain business model can affect the organization and bring more value. To address the complex structure of businesses that have public goods, it is important to develop sustainable blockchain-based business models.

This study offers the first qualitative research that uses an integrated technological, environmental and organizational (TOE) framework with technology acceptance theory (TAM) to study the adoption of blockchain technology by Spanish firms.

The results of the paper discuss how that competitive pressure, competence, top management support and relative advantage have a positive impact on intention to adopt blockchain technology while complexity affects the intention to adopt the technology negatively. Contrary to many adoption studies, the findings show that intention to adopt negatively impacts adoption and outline the effect of blockchain on business model elements on the macroeconomic level.

The key contribution of this study lies in providing a comprehensive understanding of the environmental, technological and organizational factors that impact the intention to adopt blockchain that eventually affects adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the motives, opportunities, and threats associated with the adoption of market-driven externally developed reforms (EDRs) as well as how these motivator factors, combined with background variables, account for school principals’ satisfaction with EDR adoption.

Principals from 208 Israeli schools (grades 1-9) completed anonymous self-report questionnaires about the factors motivating their decision to implement EDRs and their satisfaction with these reform programmes in their schools. Validity and reliability tests, bivariate correlations and Pearson tests, paired t-tests, and a step-by-step multiple regression analysis were performed to examine the associations between the independent variables (individual and institutional variables, and motives, opportunities, and threats), and principals’ satisfaction with aspects of the EDRs.

Participants reported opportunities in the areas of pedagogy, learning excellence, teacher growth, and school climate. Threats were moderate-low and related to school faculty resistance, principals’ dependence on stakeholders, and difficulties in implementing EDRs. Of the political and the pedagogic motives, the latter was the sole motive associated with principals’ satisfaction with the EDRs. Findings fit within Herzberg’s two-factor theory and Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory.

Studies on the factors motivating adoption of EDRs are scarce; this is the first to explore motivators’ effects on principals’ satisfaction. It is likely to help principals and decision makers in educational institutions construe the varied factors that affect the adoption of EDRs from senior officials’ viewpoints. Understanding these factors is highly important to the field worldwide because of the growing need to adopt EDRs.

The importance of robotics and automation (R&A) in delivering a safe built environment cannot be overemphasised. This is because R&A systems can execute a hazardous job function that the construction workforce may not execute. Based on this knowledge, this study aims to present the result of an assessment of the impediments to the deployment of R&A for a safe and healthy construction environment.

This study adopted a post-positivist philosophical stance, using a quantitative research approach and a questionnaire administered to construction professionals in South Africa. The data gathered were analysed using frequency, percentage, mean item score, Kruskal–Wallis H-test, exploratory factor analysis and partial least square structural equation modelling (SEM).

This study revealed that the impediments to the deployment of R&A could be grouped into: industry, technology, human and cost-related factors. However, SEM assessment showed that only the industry, human and cost-related factors would significantly impact attaining specific health and safety-related outcomes.

The findings offer valuable benefits to construction organisations as the careful understanding of the identified impeding factors can help lead to better deployment of R&A and the attainment of its inherent safety benefits.

This study attempts to fill the gap in the shortage of literature exploring the deployment of R&A for a safe construction environment, particularly in developing countries like South Africa, where such studies are non-existent. This paper, therefore, offers a theoretical backdrop for future works on R&A deployment, particularly in developing countries where such a study has not been explored.

This study aims to examine the determinants of accountability and transparency of Indonesian village government(s), namely, the competence and organisational commitment of village government staff, and the consequences of accountability and transparency for village community trust.

This research was conducted in village governments in the province of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, covering four regencies: Sleman, Bantul, Kulon Progo and Gunung Kidul. A total of 128 village governments participated in this research. Data were collected by distributing a questionnaire survey, and a partial least squares technique was used to test the research hypotheses.

The study revealed that village government staff's competence and organisational commitment are positively associated with accountability. However, organisational commitment and accountability are not associated with transparency. In addition, it was discovered that transparency is positively associated with village community trust but accountability is not.

By testing the determinants and consequences of accountability and transparency following the ratification of the new village law regulating village government governance, this study is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, pioneering research.

This paper aims to provide a systematic review of the specific roles information professionals have adopted in the past 14 years. It aims to identify the roles reported in the literature concerning developments in the Library and Information Science (LIS) profession.

This study adopted the method of systematic review. Searches were conducted in February and March 2014 on different LIS databases. From a total of 600 papers, 114 were selected, based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. A thorough full-text analysis of the papers revealed six roles that librarians have adopted: teachers, technology specialists, embedded librarians, information consultants, knowledge managers and subject librarians.

New and evolving roles were identified, mainly in the context of academic libraries. Librarians’ educational responsibilities and their active involvement in the learning and research process were highlighted in all role categories identified. Collaboration among faculty and librarians was reported as a way of ensuring successful instruction. Librarians’ personal views of their new and emerging roles were more frequently reported; further research is needed to shed light on academics, students and other users’ perceptions of librarians’ engagement in the learning process.

The study considered only peer-reviewed papers published between 2000 and 2014 in English. It focused on information professionals’ roles and not on librarians’ skills and their changing professional responsibilities.

This review paper considers the development of the LIS profession in a changing environment and offers an understanding of the future direction of the LIS profession.

Government is the biggest spender on cloud computing technology but a very limited study and data sets are available to assess the cloud adoption trends in government organizations in India. As India is ushering towards “Digital India” it becomes essential for the government to embrace the cloud to enhance governance and meet the citizen expectations. This paper aims to discuss the evolution of cloud computing (Meghraj) in government organizations by examining the various information technology (IT) and cloud policies, thereby focusing on the policy gaps. The second part of this study assesses the cloud adoption trend by analyzing adopted cloud services, deployments models, leading sectors in cloud adoption and cloud approach. Eventually, in consultation with experts, a conceptual framework for cloud adoption in the government organizations of India is developed for wider cloud adoption.

The authors reviewed various IT/cloud policies and related literature to find the policy gaps for slow cloud adoption in government organizations. Authors have researched to collect the data from the various government procurement portals and analysed the tender and contracts of 500 organizations for cloud requirements to infer the cloud adoption trends. Based on the review of policy gaps, adoption trends and by consulting the experts a conceptual cloud adoption framework has been developed for wider cloud adoption in government organizations.

This study can be a pathfinder where the most innovative findings are about the cloud adoption trends in the government organizations in the time frame from 2013 till 2020. Several key findings are – the public cloud are the most widely adopted, infrastructure as a service model is the most used services, the majority of the applications migrating to the cloud are legacy applications, the leading sector in cloud adoption are – IT, transport and education. It is observed that the pandemic Covid-19 has acted as a catalyst and accelerated cloud adoption in government organizations. Eventually, a conceptual cloud adoption framework has been suggested addressing the policy gaps, deficiencies, overcoming the gaps and their related outcomes for the wider cloud adoption in the government organizations.

The findings of this work highlight the cloud adoption trends in government organizations which can prove vital to the policymakers. This work will assist policymakers, government organizations, researchers, IT professionals and others interested in analyzing the state of cloud adoption. The conceptual cloud adoption framework developed endeavours to uncover the policy gaps, suggest the gap resolution mechanism and outcomes which may assist the organization for wider cloud adoption. This research work effectively connects the policies to practice by stimulating the interest in understanding the policies, strategies and thereby creating the enabling environment for cloud adoption. This study provides feedback on cloud adoption trends which can assist in policy refinement and further strengthen policy/strategies.

As of date, there is limited data available for cloud adoption in government organizations. This work uniquely presents the cloud projections which helps to gain insights on cloud adoption trends in government organizations. This study is the first of its kind, focusing on cloud adoption in the unexplored government sector. This study provides a comprehensive summary of adoption statistics, policy analysis and practice in government organizations of India.

The Indian context is marked with weak anti-discrimination laws and patchy implementation of protection of civil rights of women at workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to unearth the rationales of the adoption of gender diversity management policies and practices in India, in the absence of laws and regulations.

Inspiration is drawn from previous studies on diversity management in other national contexts, and a survey methodology was adopted. The lead researcher administered the questionnaires personally to all respondents to ensure that the understanding of the questions is uniform across respondents as gender diversity management is a relatively new concept in India.

Size of the organisation (number of full-time employees), the influence of external organisations and perceived enhanced organisational flexibility were found to explain the adoption of gender diversity management policies and practices in the Indian IT/ITeS industry. Findings also indicate that Indian subsidiaries of foreign multinationals tend to adopt more gender diversity management policies and practices as compared to Indian-owned organisations.

This study provides evidence that organisations do not always enact structures or behaviours in the pursuit of normative rationality and also consider the economic value of them, establishing an organisational agency in adopting legitimated norms or practices. The study also shows that gender diversity management policies and practices are not only dependent on the enactment of laws but also are adopted because of the economic benefit perceived.

Diversity management policies and practices have been mostly studied in national contexts with anti-discrimination laws or affirmative action programs and have been claimed to be a successor of equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies. In the absence of stringent laws to reduce or eliminate discrimination against women employees in Indian workplaces, this study contributes to the literature by determining whether the business case for gender diversity drives the adoption of gender diversity management in the Indian context.

The purpose of this paper is to combine translation theory with aspects of socio‐technology and systems theory to study the adoption of shared services in a public‐sector organization. The paper aims to involve the process of translating the shared‐services idea in concert with people and policies, both in terms of inputs and outputs.

An interpretive case‐study strategy was applied.

The mutual impact of process, people, and policies shed light on what influences the adoption of the shared‐services idea. The translation process considers different people and policy aspects, transforming the idea into a specific configuration that reflects the organization's individual conditions.

The in‐depth case study enables better understanding of the adoption of shared services at an organizational level. The paper enriches previous research on the translation of management ideas. It is limited to the extent that it focuses on one particular case, which restricts the possibilities for a wider generalization.

The paper indicates a lack of national policies to embrace the shared‐services idea fully at the studied organization. The paper can aid governments in paving the way for the adoption of management ideas in public‐sector organizations.

The paper extends previous research on the adoption of management ideas and, especially, how the idea of shared services is adopted. It illustrates the translation process, how this process shapes personal and factual outcomes, and what this means for the adoption of the shared services idea at an organizational level.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing e‐procurement adoption in the United Nations (UN) system of organizations are examined.

This paper reports on an extended multi‐method case study of e‐procurement in the UN. A three stage methodology is adopted – a questionnaire survey of UN organizations, case studies of e‐procurement issues in three UN organizations, and an interactive workshop with the heads of purchasing of UN organizations.

The paper finds that e‐procurement is being used in the UN for transactions of routine, non‐strategic purchases. UN development agencies are more likely to adopt e‐procurement than humanitarian aid agencies as their operations are more predictable. The intention of the majority of UN organizations to adopt e‐procurement within three years has been reversed following the workshop, which revealed that adoption of e‐procurement would run counter to UN policies of supporting less developed nations, regions and organizations. A more cautious, “wait and see” approach has been taken rather than to unilaterally promote e‐procurement across the UN system.

This research focuses on the UN, yet could have implications for other complex systems of organizations such as the public sector, or multinational companies considering implementing e‐procurement with suppliers in developing countries.

E‐procurement needs to be considered in the context of other procurement policy objectives. What may be good e‐procurement practice in a profit‐making firm may be viewed as competing with broader policy objectives of not‐for‐profit organizations. The digital divide is a salient contextual factor for the UN, and brings about unforeseen issues regarding e‐procurement adoption which may have resonance for other organisations.

Much research on e‐procurement has been conducted in the private sector and this paper contributes to the small but growing number of studies of e‐procurement in the context of the public and not‐for‐profit sectors by studying e‐procurement in the UN.