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1 – 10 of over 1000
Article
Publication date: 16 April 2024

Alex Iddy Nyagango, Alfred Said Sife and Isaac Eliakimu Kazungu

Despite the vast potential of mobile phone use, grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with mobile phone use has attracted insufficient attention among scholars in Tanzania. The…

Abstract

Purpose

Despite the vast potential of mobile phone use, grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with mobile phone use has attracted insufficient attention among scholars in Tanzania. The study examined factors influencing satisfaction with mobile phone use for accessing agricultural marketing information.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a cross-sectional research design and a mixed research method. Structured questionnaire and focus group discussions were used to collect primary data from 400 sampled grape smallholder farmers. Data were analysed inferentially involving two-way analysis of variance, ordinal logistic regression and thematic analysis.

Findings

The findings indicate a statistically significant disparity in grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction across different types of agricultural marketing information. Grape smallholder farmers exhibited higher satisfaction levels concerning information on selling time compared to all other types of agricultural marketing information (price, buyers, quality and quantity). Factors influencing grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with mobile phone use were related to perceived usefulness, ease of use, experience and cost.

Originality/value

This study contributes to scientific knowledge by providing actionable insights for formulating unique strategies for smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with agricultural marketing information.

Details

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9342

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 September 2023

Alex I. Nyagango, Alfred S. Sife and Isaac Kazungu

There is a contradictive debate on factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness among scholars. This study aims to examine factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness for…

Abstract

Purpose

There is a contradictive debate on factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness among scholars. This study aims to examine factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness for accessing agricultural marketing information.

Design/methodology/approach

A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used with 400 smallholder grape farmers. The use of structured questionnaires, focus group discussions and key informant interviews helped to collect primary data. Data analysis was subjected to descriptive, ordinal logistic regression and thematic approaches.

Findings

This study found that farmers were mostly aware of voice calls helping to access buyers and price information. Education, age and sex were the critical factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness among grape smallholder farmers.

Originality/value

This study contributes to scientific knowledge by providing an understanding of the perceived factors on mobile phone usage awareness within the grape subsector to inform policymakers.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 December 2022

Xue Zhang, Yezheng Liu, Xin Li and Jianshan Sun

Leveraging information technology (IT) to improve the treatment and support of patients is a widely studied topic in healthcare. For chronic diseases, such as diabetes, the use of…

Abstract

Purpose

Leveraging information technology (IT) to improve the treatment and support of patients is a widely studied topic in healthcare. For chronic diseases, such as diabetes, the use of information technology is even more important since its effect extends from a clinic environment to patients’ daily life. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of one widely adopted information technology, the mobile phone, on diabetes treatment, specifically on the complicated process of patients’ health, emotions and compliance.

Design/methodology/approach

We leverage a unique longitudinal dataset on diabetes patients’ health status in rural areas of China to study the problem. We also cross-link the dataset with mobile carrier data to further differentiate mobile phone use to phone calls and network use. To address the endogeneity concerns, we apply PSM and a series of instrument variables.

Findings

We identify clear evidence that mobile phone use can significantly improve patients’ emotions and compliance, where the effect is generally larger on patients in worse health conditions. While mobile phone calls clearly benefit diabetes patients, we do notice that mobile phone network use has a negative moderating effect with patients’ health condition on improving compliance.

Originality/value

This study not only enriches our theoretical understanding of the role of mobile phones in diabetes management, it also shows the economic benefit of promoting patients’ use of mobile phones, which should be considered by medical care providers and medical policymakers.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 36 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 February 2024

W. Madushan Fernando, H. Niles Perera, R.M. Chandima Ratnayake and Amila Thibbotuwawa

This study explores digital transformation in the tea supply chain within developing economies, with a focus on smallholder tea producers in Sri Lanka. Tea is one of the most…

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores digital transformation in the tea supply chain within developing economies, with a focus on smallholder tea producers in Sri Lanka. Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. Among the tea producers, smallholder tea producers account for a substantial portion of total tea production in several countries. Mobile phones play a significant role in providing smallholder producers with access to crucial agricultural information, markets and financial services.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a deductive approach, analysing mobile phone ownership, literacy, experience and perception among smallholder tea producers. The chi-squared test of independence and hierarchical clustering methods were used to test the hypotheses and address the research questions.

Findings

The study identifies four clusters of smallholder tea producers as Basic Tech Adopters, Digital Laggards, Skeptical Feature Phone Users and Tech-savvy Adopters based on their characteristics towards mobile-based technologies. Approximately 75% of the surveyed sample, which included both tech-savvy and basic-tech adopters, showed a positive attitude toward adopting mobile-based agricultural technologies.

Practical implications

The study suggests developing targeted strategies and policies to enhance the productivity of the smallholder tea production process in developing economies. The study highlights the importance of awareness, access, affordability and availability when implementing digital services for businesses at the base of the pyramid, such as tea smallholdings in developing economies.

Originality/value

The present study aims to address the lack of data-driven empirical studies on the use of mobile phones in smallholder settings. The findings of this study enable the enhancement of entrepreneurship within the tea production supply chain, especially, within stakeholders who deliver digital transformation support services.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 April 2024

Renatus Michael Mushi

This study investigates the acceptance of mobile phone technology in Tanzanian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with a…

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the acceptance of mobile phone technology in Tanzanian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with a special focus on service quality.

Design/methodology/approach

The conceptual framework was designed by extending the TAM with an additional construct, service quality, before testing a model in a survey of 155 respondents and analysing using Smart PLS 4.

Findings

Service quality was found to be among the significant factors in the acceptance of mobile phone technology among SME employees.

Research limitations/implications

This implies that the higher the quality of service offered, the more employees accept and use mobile phone technology in their duties and improve the productivity of SMEs.

Practical implications

The aspects of quality of mobile phone technology usage such as call dropouts, network quality, speed, etc., must be improved significantly.

Social implications

The Mobile Network Operators and Regulators must understand that employees are offered the most accurate and reliable mobile phone services for its usefulness to be realised.

Originality/value

The originality is a modified version of a TAM that accommodates service quality that has been tested in the Tanzanian context.

Details

Journal of Electronic Business & Digital Economics, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-4214

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2022

Minghuan Shou, Xueqi Bao and Jie Yu

Online reviews are regarded as a source of information for decision-making because of the abundance and ready availability of information. Whereas, the sheer volume of online…

503

Abstract

Purpose

Online reviews are regarded as a source of information for decision-making because of the abundance and ready availability of information. Whereas, the sheer volume of online reviews makes it hard for consumers, especially the older adults who perceive more difficulties in reading reviews and obtaining information compared to younger adults, to locate the useful ones. The main objective of this study is to propose an effective method to locate valuable reviews of mobile phones for older adults. Besides, the authors also want to explore what characteristics of the technology older adults prefer. This will benefit both e-retailers and e-commerce platforms.

Design/methodology/approach

After collecting online reviews related to mobile phones designed for older adults from a popular Chinese e-commerce platform (JD Mall), topic modeling, term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF), and linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC) methods were applied to extract latent topics and uncover potential dimensions that consumers frequently referred to in their reviews. According to consumers' attitudes towards different popular topics, seven machine learning models were employed to predict the usefulness and popularity of online reviews due to their excellent performance in prediction. To improve the performance, a weighted model based on the two best-performing models was built and evaluated.

Findings

Based on the TF-IDF, topic modeling, and LIWC methods, the authors find that older adults are more interested in the exterior, sound, and communication functions of mobile phones. Besides, the weighted model (Random Forest: Decision Tree = 2:1) is the best model for predicting the online review popularity, while random forest performs best in predicting the perceived usefulness of online reviews.

Practical implications

This study’s findings can help e-commerce platforms and merchants identify the needs of the targeted consumers, predict reviews that will get more attention, and provide some early responses to some questions.

Originality/value

The results propose that older adults pay more attention to the mobile phones' exterior, sound, and communication function, guiding future research. Besides, this paper also enriches the current studies related to making predictions based on the information contained in the online reviews.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 36 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 November 2022

Rajat Kumar Behera, Pradip Kumar Bala and Nripendra P. Rana

The new ways to complete financial transactions have been developed by setting up mobile payment (m-payment) platforms and such platforms to access banking in the financial…

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Abstract

Purpose

The new ways to complete financial transactions have been developed by setting up mobile payment (m-payment) platforms and such platforms to access banking in the financial mainstream can transact as never before. But, does m-payment have veiled consequences? To seek an answer, the research was undertaken to explore the dark sides of m-payment for consumers by extending the theory of innovation resistance (IR) and by measuring non-adoption intention (NAI).

Design/methodology/approach

Three hundred individuals using popular online m-payment apps such as Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay and Google Pay were surveyed for the primary data. IBM AMOS based structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data.

Findings

Each m-payment transaction leaves a digital record, making some vulnerable consumers concerned about privacy threats. Lack of global standards prevents consumers from participating in the m-payment system properly until common interfaces are established based on up-to-date standards. Self-compassion (SC) characteristics such as anxiety, efficacy, fatigue, wait-and-see tendencies and the excessive choice of technology effect contribute to the non-adoption of m-payment.

Originality/value

This study proposes a threat model and empirically explores the dark sides of m-payment. In addition, it also unveils the moderator's role of SC in building the structural relationship between IR and NAI.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 36 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 March 2024

Njod Aljabr, Dimitra Petrakaki and Petros Chamakiotis

Existing research on how professionals manage after-hours connectivity to work has been dominated by studies on the strategies/practices individuals develop. In these studies…

Abstract

Purpose

Existing research on how professionals manage after-hours connectivity to work has been dominated by studies on the strategies/practices individuals develop. In these studies, mobile technology is perceived as a tool or an enabler that supports otherwise human-centric connectivity decisions. This view sees technology as separate or external to the organisation, missing out on its nuanced role in shaping connectivity decisions. Our study aims to bring technology back into the sociomaterially imbricated context of connectivity and to unpack its parameters.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on data collected from documents and semi-structured interviews, we adopt the framework of “sociomaterial imbrications” (Leonardi, 2011) to understand the social and material parameters that influence connectivity management practices at two different academic institutions in Saudi Arabia.

Findings

The study identifies a set of social and material parameters (organisational, individual, technological and situational) that imbricate to shape, collectively and not individually, professionals’ connectivity management practices. Connectivity decisions to change practice (such as decisions of where, when or why to connect) or technology (how to connect) are not as distinct as they appear but originate from, and are founded on, imbricated sociomaterial parameters. Our study further suggests that connectivity decisions are shaped by individuals’ perceptions of sociomaterial imbrications, but decisions are not solely idiosyncratic. The context within which connectivity decisions are taken influences the type of decisions made.

Originality/value

Connectivity management emerged from sociomaterial imbrications within a context constitutive of four interacting parameters: organisational, technological, situational and individual. Decisions around the “how” and the “what” of connectivity – i.e. the practice of connectivity and its underpinning technology – originate from how people perceive sociomaterial imbrications as enabling or constraining within a context. Individual perceptions account for changes in practice and in technology, but the context they find themselves in is also important. For instance, we show that professionals may perceive a certain technology as affording, but eventually they may use another technology for communications due to social norms.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 July 2022

Roseline Misati, Jared Osoro, Maureen Odongo and Farida Abdul

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of digital financial innovation on financial depth and economic growth in Kenya.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of digital financial innovation on financial depth and economic growth in Kenya.

Design/methodology/approach

The study utilized autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, which is preferable over other time series methods as the model allows application of co-integration tests to time series with different integration orders and is flexible to the sample size including small and finite.

Findings

The main findings of this paper are as follows: first, there is evidence of a positive relationship between digital financial innovation and financial depth with the strongest impact emanating from Internet usage and mobile financial services and the lowest impact from bank branches; second, the results reveal a significant positive impact of financial depth on economic growth consistent with the supply-leading finance theory.

Practical implications

The results of the study imply a need for investment in technology-enabling infrastructure for digital financial services (DFS) and a redesign of strategies to avoid further financial exclusion of low-income earners due to the unaffordability of digital devices and financial and digital illiteracy.

Originality/value

The study is original and important for policymakers as the study provides insights on the components of financial innovation that are growth-enhancing in Kenya, considering that some aspects of innovation can be growth-retarding as was demonstrated during the global financial crisis.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 19 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 August 2023

P.S. JosephNg

This study aims to highlight that security and flexibilities remain the main points of contention in the cordiality business. This research points to planning a framework that…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to highlight that security and flexibilities remain the main points of contention in the cordiality business. This research points to planning a framework that empowers hotel users to get to the room using a mobile access key. Advancing secured facilities, mobile phone “Near Field Communication” (NFC) innovation as the entrance device by carrying out an application containing an imitated mobile key for explicit verification access is used.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed system is evaluated by triangulation of experimental, numerical and rational evaluation using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with Malaysian hotel guests and employees.

Findings

The discoveries with the hypothesis supported validated that the suggested solution can eliminate physical cards, boost protection and encourage a contactless ecosystem. Theoretical, management and societal contributions are discussed here.

Research limitations/implications

This experiment comes with the constraints that it was conducted in only two hotels and does not fully reflect the choices of a wider range of travellers. Secondly, the cost of existing NFC smart locks is still relatively high, and along with the development of technology, the price will decrease when supply exceeds demand.

Practical implications

To promote high-security attributes, NFC technology as the access system by implementing an application containing an emulated smart key for specific authentication access is used. The host-card emulation enables cost-effectiveness profit and initiating a defence system in the pandemic era.

Social implications

To promote high-security attributes, NFC technology is used as the access system by implementing an application containing an emulated smart key for specific authentication access. The host-card emulation enables cost-effectiveness profit and initiating a defence system in the pandemic era.

Originality/value

The novelty of this study comes from the use of commonly available smartphone NFC features that are yet to be applied in the tourism ecosystem. The research provokes the applied concept of mobile smartkeys.

Details

Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4620

Keywords

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