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ICT projects, especially in the public sector, can have a substantial impact on society but are challenging due to organizational and technological complexities and uncertainties. Collaborative and cooperative project delivery models, namely, the project alliance method, can mitigate such challenges, but, thus far, have not been utilized in information and communication technology (ICT) projects. The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the cross-field transfer process through which the project alliance model was applied to the ICT field from the construction sector.

An inductive case study of the ICT project alliance early stages was performed. Data were collected from the first known ICT alliance project, conducted in the context of the Finnish public sector digitalization.

The findings show how the activities of institutional entrepreneurs impact the cross-field transfer process during the ICT project alliance’s early stages. Furthermore, the results illustrate the characteristics of an ICT project alliance and compare those with more traditional project alliances.

The topic and results of the study are original and contribute to institutional research by identifying and studying the micro-level processes associated with the cross-field transfer process. The study also builds an initial understanding of a new method of organizing ICT projects and contributes to the project alliance literature. The managerial implications of the findings allow project practitioners to understand the emerging characteristics of an ICT project alliance, and enable managers in the ICT field to adjust and prepare their own organizations and processes for the application of the project alliance model.

The purpose of this study is to identify learning barriers in information communication technology (ICT) adoption among working women in Malaysia. Regardless of gender, it would be advantageous for all individuals in today's society to acquire basic ICT skills. Despite significant growth in ICT professionals during the last two decades, there remains a gender imbalance, particularly in developing countries such as Malaysia.

The study uses a self‐developed questionnaire to measure the learning barriers and ICT adoption. The survey instrument was developed from the constructs used in the individual innovativeness theory and theory of perceived attributes. The questionnaires were administered face‐to‐face to a total of 315 working women, who participated as respondents in this study.

The findings revealed that the working women in Malaysia possess only average level of ICT skills. They seldom use the internet and e‐mail at their workplace or at home, they do not face serious learning barriers with respect to ICT, and they have complexity as their innovation characteristics. However, they are innovators in the adopters' categories. The combined variance in the characteristics of learning barriers, ICT skills, and ICT usage amounted to 70 per cent in innovation characteristics.

This study reduces the knowledge gap regarding the identification of learning barriers, ICT skills, and ICT usage as predictors of ICT adoption among working women in Malaysia. These factors have been overlooked by some previous researchers. This study also calls attention to the fact that employers and training agencies that are responsible to provide ICT training to women employees must understand and employ the proper learning approaches and methods that ought to be used in adult training and education. Malaysian women are able to adopt an innovation with a high degree of uncertainty at the time of adoption, and it is believed that with correct and suitable training schemes Malaysian working women can acquire appropriate ICT skills and become competent in using ICT at the workplace. With managerial skills and ICT‐based competencies, the working women would have a lot more knowledge seeking skills, increased access to up‐to‐date information, be effective in decision making, and establish networking and linkages. With this they will stand a better chance for promotion and advancement.

The sample of this study is unique. This study was conducted in a multi‐ethnic, multi‐cultural and multi‐lingual society. Malaysia presents an interesting case study on working women because it is a society undergoing rapid changes from its strong traditional religious and cultural norms to modern values about women.

The purpose of this study is to investigate existing and emerging technology-driven stressors using the transactional model of stress and coping (TMSC).

In-depth semi-structured interviews with 36 professionals were performed to obtain qualitative data to explore emerging techno-stressors. The findings were validated a year into the pandemic with human resource (HR) professionals.

The authors identify a previously unreported techno-stressor, Techno-Isolation (TIS), which arises from a heavy dependence on information communication technologies for professional social interactions. Additionally, several considerations of interaction characteristics are identified that, based on the platform used, affect the experience of TIS, further expanding the TMSC with the addition of medium-interaction compatibility. The authors present a testable model and discuss implications.

This study identifies three new information communication technology (ICT)-based antecedents leading to a new techno-stressor, as well as the importance of medium-interaction compatibility in the experiences of stressors as strains. The authors discuss how these elements fit with and extend the existing stress literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the innovative characteristics, benefits, and barriers influencing internet‐based information and communications technology (ICT) adoption among the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

A questionnaire‐based survey was used to collect data from 406 managers or owners of SMEs in the southern region of Malaysia.

The results suggest that internet‐based ICT adoption provides a low cost yet effective communication tool for customers. However, security continues to be a major barrier. Finding on cost as a barrier is mixed. The inferential statistics reveal that relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability, and security are significant factors influencing internet‐based ICT adoption.

The study focuses only on the SMEs in the southern region of Malaysia.

The findings offer valuable insights to policy makers in general and to the SMEs in particular on the significance of the measured characteristics and the associated benefits and barriers of internet‐based ICT adoption.

The study is perhaps one of the first to comprehensively address internet‐based ICT adoption among the SMEs through the use of a wide range of variables.

This article focuses on the Spanish labour market, and its primary objectives are to analyse the factors determining the ICTs usage at workplace, and examine how the workers' e-skills match with the job tasks requiring ICTs. Furthermore, it will explore whether doing ICTs training activities has a positive effect on the probability of carrying out appropriately the ICTs at work.

The methodology applied is an ordered response model analysing how the workers' e-skills match with the knowledge required to the ICTs usage at the job. This econometric specification will control by the selection bias generated because not all employees use ICTs to perform the job tasks. Data are obtained from the Survey on Equipment and Use of ICTs in Households (ICTS-H Survey).

Educational attainment and the type of ICTs training are the most relevant variables to explain the ICTs usage and the quality of the job match.

Data used are cross-sectional, and it excludes the possibility of observing how the workers' careers evolve depending on their ICTs training.

The methodology applied allows the authors to obtain the marginal effects to the variables explaining the probability of using ICTs at job, and how the workers' knowledge match with the e-skill required by the employers.

The results are a source of information to policymakers about how workers face the introduction of ICTs in the labour market.

To the best of author's knowledge, the article's topic and its methodology are unprecedented in the economic literature and, specially, in the Spanish case.

This paper aims to provide a framework for benchmarking the eTourism capability of a destination’s tourism industry, understanding the eTourism capability of a destination’s industry as the contribution that the information and communication technologies (ICT) uptake of that industry makes to its own performance. The impact of ICT in tourism has been suggested through extensive research. Previous work has urged the development of wide-angle studies to enable benchmarking of destinations and their industries. However, relevant research is limited. Macro-level studies in the area tend to focus on a single aspect of technology to evaluate adoption, are not sector-specific nor take into consideration the different levels of contribution that systems may bring to performance.

A review of the literature on tourism, eTourism, benchmarking and technology adoption provided the baseline for developing this benchmarking tool.

The literature supported the selection of key tourism industry sectors, i.e. accommodation establishments, visitor attractions and food and beverage; the most suitable methodology, i.e. intermediary performance measures; and the business characteristics that need being taken into consideration when assessing ICT adoption by tourism businesses, e.g. size, type of establishment and area of location.

The framework has not been tested yet. It is based on a review of the literature and needs to be validated through primary research. The framework was developed based on the context of Scotland. Further work should be done to adjust the framework to other destinations worldwide.

The framework enables destinations to benchmark the eTourism capability of their industries.

It provides a comprehensive framework for benchmarking tourism destinations’ industries, which takes into consideration elements of technology adoption, the characteristics of the tourism industry and the particularities of the different ICT elements.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between characteristics of information communication technology (ICT, adoption, confidence, competency and training) and auditing practices. The paper further explained the significance of the auditing practices, evaluated the relationship between ICT characteristics (adoption, confidence, competency, training) and auditing practices.

The study adopts a quantitative approach, where a set of questionnaires was developed by making necessary adaptations to available scales/items. Data were collected from practicing chartered accountants in Kerala targeting 89 respondents from various professional auditing firms. The results were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and structural equation modelling-partial least squares statistical tools.

The findings confirmed that there is a positive relationship between three components of ICT factors on audit practice, namely, ICT adoption, ICT competency and ICT training, whereas the factor, ICT confidence has a negative relationship with audit practice. Thus, the availability of ICT-competent staff, their practical ICT knowledge, sufficient and adequate ICT training assist audit firms from doing audit by implementing customized audit software for audit practice.

A limitation of the study is that limited variables of ICT on audit practice are taken in the model. Refinement of the model and the variables (such as ICT challenges), ICT perceived benefits and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model used provide an opportunity for future research.

The barriers facing by non-big four audit firms (especially sole proprietorship and limited liability partnership firms) faces ICT challenges requires intense management interventions to be self-equipped for the current information technology (IT) world and to facilitate and to ensure fairness of financial statements to the stakeholders that strongly links auditors advance IT skills and available firms resources to investment and adopt audit software for the benefits of the audit firms.

The paper upstretched some of the ICT challenges that will assist as points, which have been helpful for future researchers, and have provided accounting and auditing professionals, auditing professional institutions and their management, government, tax officials, policy makers, auditing software vendors and other stakeholders the bases for encouraging ICT adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to study the characteristics and impacts of information‐communication technology (ICT) investments as perceived by ICT managers.

The paper starts with an overview and a conceptualisation. The empirical part is based on a national RIS 2005 representative telephone survey (n=727) of companies in Slovenia. With respect to ICT developments the Republic of Slovenia, situated between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, is a typical (median) country of the European Union.

The size of ICT investments strongly determined the perception of ICT investments, but it had surprisingly little impact on its structure (i.e. hardware, software, education …). Satisfaction with ICT investments was relatively low, particular in small companies. One reason for this was the suboptimal implementation, particularly the lack of accompanying measures (e.g. education, organisational changes). The ICT investments brought considerable changes for the internal organisation and communication, but much less for the management. The clearest effect of ICT investments was the greater need to educate the employees.

More attention is needed to the accompanying managerial, communication, education and organisational measures of ICT investments, particularly in small companies.

The paper sheds light on the structure of seven components (hardware, software, telecommunications, education …) of an ICT investment (as perceived by ICT managers). Hardware is diminishing as a stand‐alone ICT component. The paper also exposes the problem of a relatively low level of satisfaction with ICT investments. It analysed the link between the size of ICT investments and the evaluation rating given by ICT managers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderated effect of family involvement on the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) and firm performance.

According to agency and transaction cost theories, distinctive family business characteristics provide a unique context that favours a more efficient use of ICT. The authors perform a multivariate analysis that includes the moderating effect of family involvement and considers the possible endogeneity of the ICT variable.

The results, using a large panel of Spanish manufacturing firms, confirm the importance of family involvement for explaining differences in terms of the impact of this technology in family and non-family businesses. The relationship between ICT and performance is stronger for family firms than for non-family firms.

The paper provides new evidence for the academic literature on ICT impact and family firms. It corroborates the importance of using an organizational perspective to explain differences in the effect of ICT on performance.

Family firms should understand the opportunities that family involvement offers regarding ICT impact on performance, and exploit this moderating effect to achieve competitive advantages.

No previous studies deal with the impact of family involvement on ICT-performance analysis. This study fills this gap and increases the understanding of how family business involvement moderates the ICT-performance relationship.

Este trabajo explora el efecto moderador de la participación familiar en la relación entre las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) y resultados de la empresa.

De acuerdo con la teoría de Agencia y la teoría de los costes de transacción, las características distintivas de las empresas familiares proporcionan un contexto único que favorece un uso más eficiente de las TIC. Se lleva a cabo un análisis multivariante que incluye el efecto moderador de la participación de la familia y recoge la posible endogeneidad de la variable TIC.

Los resultados, obtenidos a partir de un gran panel de empresas manufactureras españolas, confirman la importancia de la participación de la familia para explicar las diferencias en términos del impacto de esta tecnología en las empresas familiares y no familiares. La relación entre las TIC y el rendimiento es más fuerte en las empresas familiares que en las no familiares.

El artículo proporciona nueva evidencia sobre el impacto de las TIC y sobre las particularidades de las empresas familiares. Se corrobora la importancia de utilizar un punto de vista organizativo para explicar las diferencias en el efecto de las TIC en el rendimiento.

Las empresas familiares deben entender las oportunidades que ofrece la participación de la familia en relación con el impacto de las TIC en el rendimiento, y explotar este efecto moderador para lograr ventajas competitivas.

No hay estudios previos sobre el efecto de la participación de la familia en el análisis del impacto de las TIC en el rendimiento. Este estudio ofrece evidencia al respecto y una mayor comprensión del papel moderador de la participación familiar en la relación TIC-rendimiento.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of patterns that combine innovation and information and communication technologies (ICT) use, and the factors explaining them in the European Union.

The authors use data for firms and households at the regional level in the EU-27. Factorial and cluster analyses are used to the determine combined patterns for both dimensions and to elaborate a taxonomy of the European regions, respectively. Finally, the multiple discriminant analysis serves to identify the factors that characterize the patterns detected.

The results show the existence of three regional clusters that capture different combinations of patenting and ICT use. Research and development (R&D) expenditure in the business sector, government quality, gross domestic product per capita, the number of researchers, and employment by the highest level of education attained are the key variables explaining the disparities in innovation and ICT use in the European regions.

The conclusions point to the key role played by business R&D and knowledge resources within an institutional framework that facilitates actions oriented to benefiting regions through both knowledge creation and knowledge diffusion derived from the combined activities of innovation and ICT use.

The paper provides for the first time a characterization of the European regions that jointly considers innovation and ICT use. It also contributes to the literature by exploring differences in ICT use by households and firms, and the factors explaining them. The study can provide new insights into the design of public policies that may consider the common factors that explain combinations of innovation and technology use.