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In a converged and smart media environment, it no longer makes sense to talk only of a digital divide based on access to a platform – instead, a new “smartphone divide” is created based on a user’s ability to access and use an array of different services. Although there is an extensive literature on the digital divide in broadband access and use, zero research efforts have addressed the digital divide in mobile phone usage. Therefore, this research study aims to fill the gap in the literature by looking into new dimensions of the smartphone divide.

Data were collected from a college student sample through an online survey and some hypotheses were framed and tested for intergroup (smartphone users vs non-users) and intragroup (active smartphone users vs inactive users) differences based on access, experience and persistence of usage.

Findings are: first, smartphone users were more active online as expected. Although no significant difference was detected in the amount of time spent on social networking sites (SNSs) between smartphone users and non-users, smartphone users had more friends online and more “online-only” friends than non-users. Second, smartphone users seem to participate more actively in social and political issues than non-users do. Third, active users were adopting digital technologies faster than less active users, and active users were inclined to spend longer time on SNSs than less active users. Also, active users used more free and paid applications on their smartphones compared to less active users.

This research study aims to fill the gap in the literature by looking into new dimensions of the smartphone divide and exploring the differential usage of smartphone users in terms of usage level, awareness and usability levels, usage scope and consequential uses controlling for demographics and socioeconomic status. The ensuing pilot study validates some of speculations suggested in the previous literature.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of smartphone use on the internet literacy and use by senior citizens.

Empirical study.

The results indicate that the use of smartphones does significantly impact the internet literacy and use of older individuals. Educational background and the duration of smartphone use enhance the ability of seniors to use the internet.

A similar study can be conducted in other different countries and see the effect (if any) of national cultures and the type/purpose of usage of the internet; an expansion of this research, with a larger sample size, and more variables would shed greater insight on this important topic.

Study provide suggestions to governments, in cooperation with the private sectors, on how to diminish the digital divide for senior citizens not only to improve their well-being, but also because seniors are an important resource that contributes to society financially and intellectually.

Technology is an important factor that can be used to not only alleviate some of the burden and improve the quality of life of senior citizens, but it can also help increase seniors’ contributions to the society.

This study contributes in the digital divide research: (digital divide) for senior citizens, contributing factors, and the importance of decreasing it.

Smartphone multitasking behavior has become prevalent in our daily lives, yet factors influencing smartphone multitasking behavior have not been fully investigated. This study aimed to examine the roles of a set of demographic, personality and motivational factors on smartphone multitasking behavior, and how these factors were related to general and application-specific types of smartphone multitasking behavior.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in which 2,659 smartphone users were invited to complete an online survey on smartphone multitasking behavior. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine the roles of demographic, personality and motivational factors on smartphone multitasking behavior.

The results showed that, in general, demographic factors, such as gender, age, occupation status, education and smartphone usage time significantly predicted smartphone multitasking behavior. People characterized by agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness to experience were more likely to multitask with smartphones. Information seeking, efficiency and habit motivations were identified as major motivational factors for smartphone multitasking behavior. The roles of demographic, personality and motivational factors differed much across varied types of application-specific smartphone multitasking behavior.

This study extends and advances the literature on media multitasking, smartphone multitasking in particular, by identifying a set of demographic, personality and motivational factors as antecedents of smartphone multitasking behavior. In addition, this study revealed the differentiated roles of the above-mentioned factors across varied types of smartphone application usages. The findings provide important implications for practitioners to tailor smartphone applications and services to different target smartphone users and use situations.

Several high street retail banks are extending their brands into digital banking through fully digital, app-only neobanks, which have been described as traditionally-driven neobanks (TDNBs). These TDNBs are considered a form of brand extension, representing the increased complexity of branding banks and financial institutions. This study explicitly addresses the branding strategies employed by TDNBs.

This study has adopted a case study research design, using a multi-stage data collection strategy. Initially, interviews were conducted with bank managers, followed by interviews with customers. Later, user-generated content was extracted through verified reviews from the app store. Subsequently, these three strands of data were thematically analysed and triangulated, in order to gain a holistic understanding of the branding strategies used by TDNBs.

Three key themes emerged regarding the branding strategies of the TDNBs: aligning with the parent brand, reinforcing the digital experience, and enhancing the brand image.

This study contributed to the growing body of research on marketing, branding, and digital transformation of bank services. As more traditional banks are exploring opportunities to pivot and explore other fintech options, this study offers significant insights that will help in managing brand experience and promotion across customer journeys in the banking sector.

This study contributes to the growing body of research on marketing, branding, and digital transformation of bank services. Even as more traditional banks explore opportunities to pivot as well as other fintech options, this study offers significant insights to help manage brand experience and promotion across customer journeys in the banking sector.

While previous studies on banking and financial services have concentrated on traditional retail and high street banks, there is a need for a greater understanding of the brand positioning of digital banks, especially those created by traditional banks.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use patterns and ownership of smartphone apps among students at the Department of Library and Information Science (DLIS) at the South Valley University (SVU), Egypt. This study may help faculty members and students, as well as DLISs in general and SVU’s DLIS, in particular, to understand the nature and purpose of such use.

This study used quantitative research methodology in the form of a survey, which was undertaken from February to March 2015. The survey instrument was a self-administrated questionnaire, with a response rate 82.7 per cent (441/533).

The findings of this study showed that smartphone users (82.7 per cent) at SVU’s DLIS tended to be junior females. Smartphone non-users (17.3 per cent) tended to be also young females but primarily sophomores. The highest percentage of smartphone users had been using smartphones for four to five years, and the largest number of students was described to be advanced users who heard first about these mobile devices through friends and the Web. Most users had 21 to 25 apps. Social apps were the most popular and included Facebook, e-mail and Twitter. For professional purposes, students used smartphones more for communication purposes than learning purposes. Apps related to educational purposes included Google Mobile, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia Mobile. Students perceived most apps to be easy to use and useful to them. There were a number of uses for socializing including messaging, following the news and playing games. Students had mainly positive attitudes towards apps with a few negative concerns. Almost all students confirmed that they trust most apps. Barriers related to the use of apps included training and lack of awareness. Further research may be needed to specify the relationship between the students’ use of these apps and their academic performance. The main tasks done on smartphone devices were mainly for socializing. Students indicated that popular tasks and activities, such as sending and receiving messages, following the news, making communications, making chat, making friends, finding specific information, finding general information, making discussion groups, playing games, completing class assignments, checking materials related to courses, doing business, seeking jobs, watching movies, listening to music and accessing library services are important tasks accomplished by them through the use of these devices. The current study indicated very positive attitudes towards the use of these apps. Student at least agree with the statement that smartphone apps allow for easy dissemination of information, provide too much information, increase the speed of finding information, help communication, convenient, secure, build confident and reduce paper use. However, a large number of students also at least agree with the statement that these apps are time consuming, intimidating, addictive, violate privacy, require high language and technical skills, harmful and frustrating. Almost all students confirmed that they are at least trustful in some apps, such as WhatsApp, e-mail, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Viber. A large number of smartphone users surveyed in this study have been described to make excessive usage of social apps, such as communication apps, messaging/texting apps and social networking sites, which were at the forefront of use. Additionally, a large number of them adopted these devices, especially for communication purposes. The most used apps were Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Viber. For professional purposes, students used smartphones more for communication purposes than learning purposes. However, some of the students were using some of apps related to educational purposes, such as Google mobile, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia mobile but not on a regular basis. Students perceived the use of e-mail app, Google mobile, Facebook app WhatsApp, Kik, Twitter, YouTube, Google maps, Viber, Line, Skype, Tango, Instagram, Flickr and Wikipedia mobile as at least fairly easy to them. Additionally, they perceived the use of e-mail app Google mobile, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Viber, Instagram, Wikipedia mobile, Google maps, Kik, Skype, Line, Tango and Flickr as at least fairly useful to them, especially for the purpose socialization more than learning.

This study focuses only on undergraduate library and information science students belonging to SVU’s DLIS, Egypt. Any findings and conclusions resulting from this study are limited in scope to only SVU’s DLIS’s undergraduate students. The study does not contain a significantly large sample of a population from across Egypt to draw meaningful widespread conclusions indicative of such a larger population.

This study provides valuable insight into the use pattern of smartphones among a very important client group. It may serve as useful input to researchers who are interested in the study of mobile internet technologies (MITs), particularly in the education society.

Being the first study of its kind about university students in Egypt, it is considered a pioneering and a unique study among studies conducted in the field of ICTs and MITs, especially with this category of information users.

For a good number of Indians, their smartphone is their first digital computing device. They have less experience in dealing with the Internet-enabled device and hence less experience in handling security threats like malware as compared to users of other countries who have gone through the learning curve of handling such security threats using other Internet-enabled devices such as laptop and desktop. Because of this, the inexperienced Indian smartphone user may be vulnerable to Internet-related security breaches, as compared to the citizens of developed economies. Hence, it is essential to understand the attitude, behaviour and security practices of smartphone users in India. Limited research is available about the security behaviour of smartphone users in India as the majority of research in this domain is done outside India.

In this empirical study, the researchers identified 28 cybersecurity behaviours and practices through a survey of relevant literature. An online survey of identified cybersecurity behaviours and practices was administered to 300 smartphone users. Frequency analysis of the respondent data was done to understand the adoption of recommended cybersecurity behaviours and practices. Pearson’s chi-square with 5% level of significance has been used to test the hypotheses. Post hoc analysis with Bonferroni correction was conducted for statistically significant associations.

Overall, the respondents did not exhibit good cybersecurity behaviour. Respondents have adopted some of the most popular security features of the smartphone such as the use of screen lock. However, respondents have not adopted or are not aware of the technical security controls such as encryption and remote wipe. Statistically significant differences were found between the cybersecurity behaviour and practices and independent variables such as gender, age, mobile operating system (OS) and mother tongue. Respondents reported high level of motivation to protect their device and data, whereas they reported moderate level of threat awareness and the ability to protect to their device and data. Results of the comparative analysis with a similar study in China and the USA are also reported in this study.

The main limitations of this study are as follows: the respondents' perceptions about their cybersecurity behaviours and practices were measured as opposed to their actual behaviours and practices and the generalizability of the study is limited because the sample size is small as compared to the total number of smartphone users in India.

The findings of this study may be useful for the design of effective cybersecurity prevention and intervention programs for general smartphone users of India.

This study provides an insight about cybersecurity behaviour of smartphone users in India. To the knowledge of the researchers, this is the first study to collect such quantitative data of smartphone users in India for a better understanding of the cybersecurity behaviours and practices. This study identified 28 cybersecurity behaviours and practices, which smartphone users should follow to improve cybersecurity.

This paper aims to explore the determinants of citizens’ future use of mobile applications provided by government. Research on citizen-initiated contacts with government has focused on both non-technology and technology related contacts. Existing research, however, has not examined the impact of mobile applications or “apps” on citizen-initiated contacts with government. Furthermore, existing research has not examined satisfaction with mobile government and whether this impacts future use.

The authors examine future use of mobile apps through an empirical analysis of a public opinion survey of citizen users in four of the largest cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen).

Using ordered logistic regression analysis, this study found that the strongest predictors of future use were demand and satisfaction with mobile apps. However, there was no wide-scale evidence of socioeconomic status and age impacting mobile apps future use.

The findings in this study contribute to both theory and practice of the determinants of mobile government adoption.

The results challenge the citizen-initiated contact theory, as socioeconomic status was not a major predictor of mobile apps future use in China. The results further indicate that satisfaction was a good predictor of mobile apps future use.

The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the viablity of a handset‐based research platform in measuring mobile service and application usage through various descriptive empirical studies.

A handset‐based research platform was used in measuring mobile usage in an international panel consisting of more than 500 mobile subscribers. The panel took place in 2005‐2006.

The research paper finds various interesting data points which cannot be derived with any other method. In addition, the paper finds that there are significant differences in certain mobile service and application use cases between different demographic groups.

The main research limitations are the size of the sample and lack of clear business implications. The main idea of the paper was just to demonstrate the type of measurements and studies that can be done with the developed research platform.

3G technology drives packet data usage and 3rd party application usage in smartphones is very promising. Handset‐based research platform can and should be used in the future in various empirical studies on the mobile telecommunication market

A handset‐based research platform has never before been utilized in doing market research, and therefore the process and results discussed in this paper are pioneering ones.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a currently trending e-learning platform that presumably attract thousands of participants because of boundless participation, are open to any person to enroll, are free to begin and are delivered completely online, thus contradicting the spatial limitations of a traditional classroom. This study aims to present the findings of a study among veterinary science students examining their perceptions of MOOCs. In total, 200 participants were randomly selected for the survey, out of which 177 responded, owing to a response rate of 88.7 per cent. Majority of the respondents (93 per cent) opined MOOCs supplement other learning methods and provide lifelong opportunity. A study report established that Coursera is the largest platform by user base (82 per cent), followed by Udemy (70 per cent), and 65 per cent knowledge seekers ranted the enormous propaganda about MOOCs are not because of the technology’s inherent edifying value, but because of the incredible potentials of lower costs. The participants in this survey valued their course and overall MOOC experience pleasing.

The aim of the study is to explore veterinary students’ perception of MOOCs featuring in their subject of interest. The questionnaire was written in English because it is the teaching language for undergraduates and postgraduates in most Indian higher education institutes, including the one used as a context for this study. The online questionnaires were electronically mailed to a sample of veterinary students (undergraduate and postgraduate) with a consent form seeking their permission for participation in this study and swearing them the confidentiality of their responses. The e-mail included information about the purpose of the study as well as the URL to the survey site, demographic questions on age, gender and education. This part was followed by an important research question asking if the student had heard about the new open online educational system (MOOCs) provided in websites, including Coursera, Edx, Udacity and FutureLearn, among others. Based on respondents’ answers, they were directed to different sections. Students who knew about MOOCs were asked various mode of getting enrolled in MOOCs. If they were not enrolled in any course, the respondents were asked about the limitations to their use. Enrolled students were questioned on their perspectives and experiences with MOOCs. For students who gained certificates, were enquired for their level of satisfaction, opinions about the integration of MOOCs into the veterinary field and hindrances encountered during accessing the course. Out of a total of 200 students who initially agreed to take part, 177 responses were received, with a response rate of 88.50 per cent, with no cases of missing data. The data were stored automatically in the hosted online survey service into a separate database after the submission of the responses. The descriptive data analyses (such as average) were led using the data analysis tool provided.

Even though most MOOCs do not provide academic credit or result in a degree, some of the biggest beneficiaries of MOOCs are students formally enrolled in an academic program, are provided a free mode to obtain additional academic assistance that would not otherwise be available (Parke Muth, 2018)15. Correspondingly, 93 per cent of the students opined MOOCs supplement other learning methods and provide lifelong opportunity. Learning has traditionally cost both money and time. With MOOCs, it now just costs time. In total, 24 per cent of the participants have discoursed free of cost as one of the intentions to choose their course. Almost every respondent (99 per cent) was interested toward online discussion forum, and 91 per cent preferred course materials containing video and audio files were pretty beneficial, while 88 per cent felt teaching through electronic whiteboard was the most advantageous criterion in their course. The study findings indicated that Coursera is the largest platform by user base (82 per cent), followed by Udemy (70 per cent).

The study considered veterinary science undergraduate (BVSc) and postgraduate (MVSc) students alone, veterinary faculties are not included for the survey. There was comparatively less participation of respondents who enrolled or successfully completed a MOOC, which makes the analysis of limitations and satisfaction less reliable. Hence, the study results cannot be generalized as a comprehensive report of veterinary science scholars’ perceptiveness.

Animal health involves household pets and their care, in addition to livestock health and protection from diseases like bovine babesiosis, bovine tuberculosis and heartwater. There are numerous MOOCs offering online, contact or blended interventions in veterinary science and animal health that afford professionals quick and easy options to obtain credentials, including courses in pharmacology and toxicology, practice management, veterinary and para-veterinary studies, veterinary tropical diseases, radiology and wildlife management. As it is necessary to gain an understanding of the veterinary students’ level of familiarity and their insight toward the MOOC concept, the study attempts to explore their knowledge through an online survey.

Selecting an appropriate theory has always remained a critical task for the digital policy researchers. The literature seems to miss providing theoretical accounts of policy view of the digital platforms governance and offering tools for measuring the effectiveness of policies. To this end, this paper aims to provide a critical review and comparison of dominant information systems (IS) theories used. It highlights the weaknesses of these theories to explain technology features and actor- technology interactions with the rising trend of digital platforms. The main argument of this research is that the policymakers will not have adequate tools for policymaking of digital platforms by following the assumptions of theories used dominantly in the IS field.

This paper analyzes the assumptions of dominant IS theories and their applications in the digital policy literature. Then, it shows to what extent these theories are incapable of conceptualizing features of technology and actors’ role in policymaking and governance of digital platforms.

This paper identifies three aspects of digital platforms, including layered architecture, multisided (“side” means “participants”) and user interaction based, that dominant IS theories have shortcomings in explaining them.

The findings of this research can help authorities to take a more realistic view in defining digital platform policy objectives and applying more appropriate tools in policy implementation.

Discussing insights into the shortcomings of theories helps to define the theoretical requirements for studying policymaking and governance of digital platforms. It also suggests opportunities and recommendations for future studies.