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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.

While educational infrastructure is consistently identified as a key lever for educational change, it is often overlooked in research and practice and specifically in relation to technology in schools. By using educational infrastructure as a lens to examine a group of districts' implementation of 1:1 programs, this work provides opportunities for understanding and approaching technology programs in new, and potentially more effective, ways.

Using the concept of educational infrastructure (Mehta and Fine, 2015; Peurach and Neumerski, 2015), this multiple-case study explores the ways superintendents and district technology leaders understand and enact 1:1 technology initiatives to support educational change.

The authors find these leaders see 1:1 technology as both embedded in, and engaged in changing, the physical, cultural, instructional and leadership infrastructures. This suggests that 1:1 technology can act as an infrastructure itself and has the potential to support changes to teaching and learning across the system.

This study offers a new perspective to understand and enact the opportunities of 1:1 technology. Specifically, it helps to reframe technology programs away from discrete classroom or school-based interventions to consider and attend to the system-level resources they require and thus increase benefits they can produce. While always useful, such considerations are particularly important in the current context and the proliferation of online learning for so many.

As the size of the population is growing and the capacity of the planet Earth is limited, human beings are searching for sustainable and technology-enabled solutions to support society, ecology and economy. One of the solutions has been developing smart sustainable cities. Smart sustainable cities are cities as systems, where their infrastructure, different subsystems and different functional domains are virtually connected to the information and communication technologies (ICT) and internet via sensors and devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), to collect and process real-time Big Data and make efficient, effective and sustainable solutions for a democratic and liveable city for its various stakeholders. This chapter explores the concepts and practices of sustainable smart cities across the globe and explores the use of technologies such as IoT, Blockchain technology and Cloud computing, etc. their challenges and then presents a view on business models for sustainable smart cities.

The demand for energy infrastructure projects has increased steadily over the last few decades and has come at a high cost. Disruptive technologies (DTs) have the inherent capability to affect the performance of energy infrastructure projects. Therefore, this research aims to explore the implications of DTs on the performance of energy infrastructure projects.

This research adopts a positivist philosophical position. A quantitative strategy and deductive approach (based on a survey design) guided this study. Sixty-six respondents participated in the study. The study’s population comprised of experts in energy infrastructure projects who possessed a high level of industrial experience including top- and middle-level management of power generation companies. Cochran’s formula was used to select a sufficient sample for the study. Linear regression, one sample test and Cronbach’s alpha were the analytical tools adopted.

This study established that there is an 18.4% increase in the performance of energy infrastructure projects in Ghana when DTs are applied. In order of importance, DTs improve speed of operations in energy projects; reduce operating cost and enhance efficiency of energy projects; drive sustainable economic development; enhance security in energy projects; and improve environmental sustainability of projects. The study also revealed that e-commerce technologies, renewable energy technologies, three-dimensional printing, bar code technology, photogrammetry, global positioning systems, geographic information systems and nanotechnologies were the topmost ranked DTs with the most impact on the performance of energy infrastructure projects.

This is a novel investigation on the implications of DTs on the performance of Ghanaian energy infrastructure projects. This study’s practical implication is evident in both policy and practice. Energy sector policymakers should endeavour to adopt DTs in their operations to enhance sustainability and performance.

The internet of things (IoT) is becoming an increasingly inescapable part of society. IoT paradigm cannot function without the networking infrastructure. High-speed data networks are essential to enable the IoT future. Thus, the purpose of this study is on the identification of risks that influence the development, installation and operation of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure network project cost outcomes. So far, there has been little attention has been paid to risks problems in these types of IoT enabling projects.

This research follows a quantitative analysis approach. Data for this study were collected by a survey from 209 professionals. Multiple regression analysis was used to model the relationship between risks and outturn cost of infrastructure needed to enable the operation of IoT technologies.

The main risk factors that were identified were planning and development, people and management, operations, technology and hardware.

This research has expanded the existing literature by documenting and clustering ICT infrastructure network project risks into themes, and has developed a scale (risk statements) for measuring such risks. Further, the research has advanced the understanding by identifying the most likely risks that will contribute to the overrun of these projects.

This research establishes a reliable regression method for the assessment of the risks that influence the development, installation and operation of ICT infrastructure network projects outturn cost. No other research has measured or studied the risks in this type of project.

The recent managerial literature on the development of corporate infrastructures to deliver sophisticated and flexible IT capabilities is based on a set of assumptions concerning the role of management in strategy formulation, planning and control; the role of IT as a tool; the linkages between infrastructure and business processes; the implementation process. This paper deconstructs such assumptions by gradually enriching the conventional management agenda with new priorities stemming from other styles of taking care of infrastructures. The original, straightforward management agenda appears to be lacking: its foundations are irremediably shaken. The paper finally evokes a philosophy‐based agenda, the only one valuable in the uncharted territory where the usual foundations do not deliver any longer. Such an agenda speaks a language of weak agency: releasement; dwelling with mystery; capacity to drop the tools; valuing marginal practices. Will the last agenda play a key role in coping with the information infrastructures of the next millennium?

This paper examines the use of intelligent technologies in buildings and whether the use of smart technologies impacts the circular economy performance of buildings in terms of energy and water consumption, their marginal cost and the management decision time and quality, for building management companies.

The study is initiated through the detailed build-up of the proposition that employs a systematic literature review and adopts the case study research design to make a cross-case analysis of the information extracted from data. The data are derived from the operating costs of two buildings in which most advanced smart technologies are used in Cape Town and interviews with their facility managers. These data provide two research case studies. The results of the investigation are then analysed and linked back to the literature.

The results of the research suggest that the implementation of smart technologies to create intelligent infrastructure is beneficial to the circular economy performance of buildings and the time taken for management decisions. The results of the study have proven that the impact of smart technologies on the circular economy performance of buildings is positive, as it lowers the cost of utilities and decreases the time required for management decisions.

The research reported in this paper is exploratory, and due to its limited sample size, its findings may not be statistically generalizable to the population of high-occupancy buildings in Cape Town, which incorporate smart infrastructure technologies within their building management systems (BMSs). Also, the empirical data collected were limited to the views and opinions of the interviewees, and the secondary data were obtained from the selected buildings.

The findings suggest that investment in smart technologies within buildings is of significant value and will improve the circular economy performance of buildings in terms of low energy and water use, and effective management decisions.

The results imply that there would be more effective maintenance decisions taken by facilities managers, which will enable the maintenance of equipment to be properly monitored, problems with the building services and equipment to be identified in good time and in improved well-being and user satisfaction.

The study provides evidence to support the concept that advanced smart technologies boost performance, the time required for management decisions and that they enable circularity in buildings. It supports the proposition that investment in the more advanced smart technologies in buildings has more positive rewards.

The chapter analyses the role of smart grid technology in the German energy transition. Information technologies promise to help integrate volatile renewable energies (wind and solar power) into the grid. Yet, the promise of intelligent infrastructures does not only extend to technological infrastructures, but also to market infrastructures. Smart grid technologies underpin and foster the design of a “smart” electricity market, where dispersed energy prosumers can adapt, in real time, to fluctuating price signals that register changes in electricity generation. This could neutralize fluctuations resulting from the increased share of renewables. To critically “think” the promise of smart infrastructure, it is not enough to just focus on digital devices. Rather, it becomes necessary to scrutinize economic assumptions about the “intelligence” of markets and the technopolitics of electricity market design. This chapter will first show the historical trajectory of the technopolitical promise of renewable energy as not only a more sustainable, but also a more democratic alternative to fossil and nuclear power, by looking at the affinities between market liberal and ecological critiques of centralized fossil and nuclear based energy systems. It will then elucidate the co-construction of smart grids and smart markets in the governmental plans for an “electricity market 2.0.” Finally, the chapter will show how smart grid and smart metering technology fosters new forms of economic agency like the domo oeconomicus. Such an economic formatting of smart grid technology, however, forecloses other ecologically prudent and politically progressive ways of constructing and engaging with intelligent infrastructures.

The purpose of this study is to explore how digital construction policy (DCP) drives enterprise green innovation (EGI) from an information processing theory (IPT) perspective, including the mediating mechanisms of market information accessibility and operational risk, the moderating role of intellectual property protection (IPP) and product market competition (PMC) and the heterogeneous effects of ownership, Internet development and managerial ability.

Based on the matched panel data of A-share listed enterprises from 2011 to 2019 and the Broadband China policy as a quasinatural experiment, this study investigates the impact of DCP on EGI by constructing a multi-time point difference-indifferences (DID) model.

Digital construction policies can significantly promote EGI. DCP works in two fundamental ways, namely by increasing market information accessibility and reducing operational risk. IPP and PMC significantly increased the contribution of digital construction policies to EGI. Heterogeneity analysis found that digital technology has a stronger promotion effect for SOEs, high-managerial-ability enterprises and enterprises in regions with low Internet development levels.

The study provides new insights about the antecedents of EGI from a DCP perspective. It also enlightens emerging economies to actualize green innovation under the digital wave.

From the perspective of IPT, this study explains the mechanism of DCP-driven EGI. It enhances understanding of the relationship between DCP and EGI.

This paper aims to examine how organizational culture, structure and technology infrastructure influence knowledge sharing.

This study is based on quantitative research, administered on 90 managerial staff in multinational corporations (MNCs) based in Malaysia.

The paper explains the role of organizational cultural and structure on knowledge-sharing processes in MNCs, with the moderating effect of technology infrastructure. Learning and development, top management support and centralization are positively related to knowledge sharing, using technology infrastructure as a moderator.

The findings will help MNCs to create an appropriate environment of knowledge sharing. However, the research is limited to MNC’s in Penang, Malaysia, only. Furthermore, similar research can be extended to MNCs in other Asian countries with a larger sample which may bring more statistical power and, thereby, increases generalizability.

The outcome of this research provides useful indications of how organizations can work to ensure knowledge sharing within their work place.

While the links between organizational culture and knowledge sharing and between organizational structure and knowledge sharing have been examined independently, few studies have investigated the association between the three concepts. This paper examines the nature of this relationship and presents empirical evidence, which suggests that the relationship between organizational culture, organizational structure and knowledge sharing is moderated by the technology infrastructure.