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Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential barriers of telecom services and develop relationships among them using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) in the Indian telecom sector. Further, this paper intends to find the driving and dependence powers of telecom barriers, using MICMAC (Matriced' Impacts Croise′s Multiplication Applique′ea′un Classement) analysis.

A group of experts from telecom sector and academia was consulted and the ISM was used to develop the contextual relationship among identified barriers of telecom services. The results of ISM are used as an input to MICMAC analysis, to further classify identified barriers based on their driving and dependence powers.

This paper has identified 11 barriers of telecom services from the literature review and opinion of experts, and a contextual relationship model was developed using the ISM technique. The paper further studied barriers based on their driving and dependence powers using MICMAC analysis that classifies them into four clusters. The results identified the barriers such as “lack of adequate investment in infrastructure expansion”, “interference of private operators”, “legal and regulatory issues”, “lack of maintenance culture” and “lack of financial resources and high cost” as strategic-level barriers that, if dealt with carefully, can help overcome the effect of other barriers preventing the effective performance of the Indian telecom sector.

Although, there are a number of barriers that affect the performance of telecom services, existing theories, models and frameworks have focused on identification of factors, their implementation and benefits, and thus, these theories lack a holistic view in understanding those barriers which hinder the performance of the telecom sector. Top-managers and policymakers need to be more concerned about these barriers so that the performance of the Indian telecom sector could be improved.

A thorough literature review has revealed that no such study has been undertaken that provides any clear understanding of the barriers of telecom services, linkages between them and hierarchical relationships among the barriers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and occurrence, and peculiarities and dynamics, if any, of perceived challenges to the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) in construction site management; using South Africa as context for empirical study.

Literature on the constraints to technology transfer and ICT adoption in construction is used as basis for the study. A national survey of registered persons in South Africa was used to collect qualitative data. A robust multi-stepped analytical approach was used to derive results.

Findings suggest appreciable similarity between literature and primary data, in types of individual challenges and their categories. Lack of technology and management support, and knowledge and information related issues, are relatively more prevalent in site management. There is a fair level of commonality in perception of technical barriers among the various categories of respondents who are active in site management. However, project managers seem to be more sensitive to some inhibiting factors, more than other respondent groups.

Inherent limitations of survey strategy were experienced, but highly qualitative data were collected at a national level. The study highlights the range of barriers to ICT in site management, and compounding effects of technology-, knowledge- and management-related constraints.

The possibility of knowledge-based factors remotely manifesting in other categories was highlighted. There is need to consider all challenges in planning for ICT in projects, and prioritise technology-, knowledge- and management-related challenges. A classification for exploring challenges to ICT in the site management process is also proposed.

Appreciable paucity remains in research focused on ICT in the site management process, as opposed to the popular operations/application focus of IT/ICT studies. Furthermore, there is still scarcity of ICT research in Africa, with regard to the built environment and specifically site management.

This study contributes to research in ICT innovation adoption in the construction industry, by developing a better understanding of the dynamics of perceived challenges to ICT adoption in the site management process; according to types and classifications of challenges, and roles and age groups of stakeholders. The study further sets a baseline for future studies in this area by proposing a frame of categorisation that is focused on site management.

The paper aims to focus on the University of Glamorgan benchmarking activity aimed at assessing its progress towards the embedding of e‐learning. This activity was part of a wider UK benchmarking exercise managed by the Higher Education Academy and the Joint Information Systems Committee.

The university opted to trial the MIT90s framework; a framework developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that was designed to encourage organisations to understand the dynamics of transformation vis‐à‐vis the acquisition of technology. The MIT90s framework had not previously been associated with the benchmarking of e‐learning and this paper is case study evidence on the experiences of trialling the framework.

Benchmarking e‐learning, and using the MIT90s framework in particular, is not a trivial exercise. Adapting a model with roots in IT/ICT towards more pedagogic‐related activities was a challenging, yet rewarding, process. Applying the framework stimulated strong debate during the project – namely whether it was advisable to benchmark e‐learning as a separate entity to more conventional learning and teaching practices. The framework highlighted some areas of disconnection between activity and institutional vision and strategy related to e‐learning.

Applying the MIT90s framework to benchmark e‐learning needs to be continuous and over a longer period than the six months described in this paper.

The greatest advantage of the MIT90s framework is that it allowed the project team to benchmark progress against the institutional strategy for teaching and learning, rather than against other institutions' activity. It also enabled the senior management of the university make better sense of the interconnections between strategy, vision and practice.

The paper outlines the MIT90s framework which had never previously been used as a tool to benchmark e‐learning.

Despite many technically sophisticated solutions, managing information security has remained a persistent challenge for organizations. Emerging IT/ICT media have posed new security challenges to business information and information assets. It is felt that technical solutions alone are not sufficient to address the information security challenge. It has been argued that organizations also need to consider the management aspects of information security. Consequently, literature, especially in the last decade, has witnessed various scholarly works in this direction. Therefore, a synthesis exercise is required to bring clarity on categorizing the issues of organizational information security management (ISM) to take the research forward. The purpose of this paper is to identify management factors that address organizational information security challenges.

Using a mix method approach, the paper adopts the qualitative (keyword analysis and experts’ opinion) and quantitative (questionnaire survey) research routes. Exploratory factor analysis is conducted to find out the key factors of organizational ISM.

The paper categorizes various organizational ISM functions into ten factors. Spanning across three levels (strategic, tactical and operational), these factors cover various management issues of organizational ISM.

The paper takes the ISM literature forward by statistically validating the key management factors of organizational ISM. The study outcome should help to draw the attention of organizations toward the managerial challenges of organizational ISM.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the focal points of “research styles” which emerge from segmenting previous studies above all on the (continental) geographic basis of the empirical evidence employed and in particular according to their European, American or Asiatic origin. These three areas account for 88 percent of the articles identified. Geographic importance is primarily related to contextual differences and consequently to diverse research designs, in terms both of the dependent and independent variables used.

The paper proposes a meta‐analysis of the literature. The databases for the observations proposed are made up of the main studies published in international journals in the last 20 years dealing with hospitality management, tourism and service management, despite having strategic management or special business functions as their focus, and using the hotel industry as their empirical basis. Bibliographical research made it possible to identify 180 articles.

The findings confirm the relevance of context in order to understand the research streams. 88 percent of the papers use evidence drawn from European (37 percent), Asian (32 percent), and North and Central American (19 percent) countries; five nations were taken as the basis for 67 percent of the articles examined. The present paper shows the strong link existing between the type of evidence used, research design (sample, kind of data, number of years), the choice of dependent and independent variables, thereby identifying three different research styles: European, American and Asiatic.

The conclusions show the strong influence which the source of evidence brings to bear on research design and hence on the factors characterizing the choice of dependent and independent variables. The conclusions also describe some evolutionary lines in the research which might reveal new perspectives in the studies of performance determinants.

Identity management (IdM) not only improves the process of creating and maintaining digital identities across business systems; it can, if implemented successfully, contribute to the strengthening and positioning of the business for success. In order to have a successful IdM implementation, an organisation must step back to determine a course of action that solves enterprise‐wide issues. Short‐sighted actions can lead to confusion, unnecessary expenses and the delay of beneficial results. The purpose of this paper is to deliver guidelines for the application of strategic management principles regarding IdM implementation, and propose a holistic model incorporating business strategy formulation with IdM strategy formulation.

A total of ten senior managers involved in IdM implementation projects were interviewed. Face‐to face interviews were conducted, with 30 minutes allocated per participant, and an assistant present to administer the proceedings. Primary data was collected using a semi‐structured questionnaire. Part A of the questionnaire collected the respondent's details and provided definitions of IdM to clarify the concept. Part B consisted of descriptive questions which dealt with the following three categories: IdM as part of the business strategy, IdM challenges in the company, IdM implementation approach used by the company and strategic framework used.

Findings indicate that IdM is seen as part of strategy and as such IdM implementations consist of a strategic thinking process accompanied by an incremental tactical implementation. Challenges facing IdM centred not on technological issues, but on implementing IdM as a competitive tool. Unfortunately, lack of commitment and external environment analysis; relegate IdM planning to remain on a tactical, rather than a strategic level.

A strategic planning process is presented in this article to model the interdependence between IdM implementation planning and strategic management (business strategy formulation). This model enables the organisation to develop and communicate its vision for IdM, to link IdM and business plans, and to gain the support of the whole enterprise in this endeavour. By leveraging the proposed model, organisations can gain a bird's eye view of IdM as an integral part of the business strategy, and ensure an IdM implementation that has enterprise‐wide support and benefits.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how internal audit function (IAF) activities differ, depending on the impact of executive boards (EBs) and audit committees (ACs).

This study is based on data collected from the Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) study conducted by the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation in 2010. Using 524 responses from US Chief audit executives the authors examine the direct and interaction effects of ACs and EBs on the probability to perform specific activities with a logistic regression model.

This manuscript shows that ACs and EBs have different direct and interaction effects on the portfolio of activities performed by the IAF. Furthermore, a varying prevalence among activities was identified, which pinpoints to the maturity of IAFs. All findings contribute to the prior and recent discussion about the position of IAFs between the stakeholders’ AC and EB.

When the CBOK study was designed by the Institute of Internal Auditors, the investigators did not have the research questions in mind. The authors are therefore limited to those variables that have been collected as part of a larger questionnaire. Nevertheless, the new approach tries to open a new research direction, analyzing different activities performed by IAFs.

The identified portfolio of IAF activities can help practitioners to double-check their own work and to evaluate the impact of the EB and the AC on their activities.

This study provides the first empirical evidence of the influence of ACs and EBs on IAF activities.

This paper explored the ways through which entrepreneurial leadership practices of chief executive officers (CEOs) enhance their employees' innovation at workplace in knowledge-based firms. Building on social cognitive theory and resource-based view of firms, this paper argues that entrepreneurial leadership fosters employees' innovation work behavior by enhancing their individual and team creativity self-efficacy.

The sample was selected from knowledge-based firms in Iran using the simple random sampling method. Two mediation models were tested using data from 41 CEOs and 207 employees in two separate phases.

The analysis supported that CEOs' entrepreneurial leadership improves their employees' innovation work behavior through enhancing their individual and team creativity self-efficacy.

The research contributes motivational and enabling mechanisms at both individual and team levels that entrepreneurial leaders use to improve employees' innovation work behavior in the context of knowledge-based firms. The findings may assist managers and business leaders in effectively leading innovation process.

The purpose of this paper is to study factors that affect adults' acceptance of instant messaging (IM) for social and entertainment purposes in an Arab country

An expanded version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to test the impact of four factors (subjective norms, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived enjoyment) and a new construct, curiosity about other people, on the level of IM usage by 191 adults in Kuwait. Survey questions from prior studies were adopted and customized, and the model analyzing using Structural Equation Model with LISREL.

IM usage is a different type of technology usage than work‐related forms of ICT since it is employed for social and recreational usage. Unlike prior studies that employed TAM in a work‐related setting, perceived usefulness was not a significant antecedent of usage; however, perceived enjoyment, social norms, curiosity about other people, and perceived ease of use were all important antecedents of IM usage.

This study focused on IM usage outside the workplace for social purposes and was restricted to adults within one country (Kuwait). Additional studies across Arab countries are encouraged as well as comparatives studies about IM usage for different contexts (work‐related use of IM from home and IM usage in the workplace).

This study is useful for researchers willing to highlight the factors that motivate users' ICT adoption outside the workplace and for social purposes. It also has implications for managers and software vendors seeking to enhance the adoption of communication‐oriented forms of ICT in the Arab world

The study highlights motives of ICT usage among Arab adults, which has not been widely studied. It also describes Arab culture and shows how certain aspects of culture affect ICT usage.