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This article provides a broad overview of telecommunications and network‐related technologies. Topics covered include identification and review of network elements, analog and digital signals, synchronous and asynchronous transmission formats, transmission media and equipment, transmission techniques and characteristics, multiplexing, network types, access technologies, network architectures and topologies, local‐area network technologies and attributes, protocols and protocol issues, gateways, internetworking, local networking alternatives, equipment certification, and various aspects of network management. It is intended to provide the practicing professional in the field of library and information science with a broad, up‐to‐date technical review that might serve to support and facilitate further investigation of current developments in networks and networking. Although the broad range of topics is not treated in depth, numerous references are provided for further investigation.

Switching behavior is predominantly seen in the consumer buying behavior of the mobile industry. This research aims to identify the factors influencing consumers to switch from their present mobile service provider. The consumer of the mobile industry operates in a dynamic and ever-changing environment that is difficult to predict, so this paper aims to focus on these issues.

The selection of factors was made with the help of qualitative study and quantitative research methods for further findings; with the help of a structured questionnaire, a total of 514 valuable responses were collected to get the results. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data.

The finding shows that technology and edge-on-competition (TEC) and pricing have a negative influence on customer switching behavior. The switching cost (SC) is the most significant factor and has a positive impact, while service encounter failure (SEF) also positively impacts switching behavior.

The findings provide important implications for consumers switching brands if they are finding alternative offers that are cost-effective and SEF from service providers

The study of one of the largest mobile markets is learning lessons for other markets around the world. This study will be helpful for mobile service provider companies in their branding and marketing strategies. This study will also be helpful to practitioners, educators and researchers in understanding the consumer behavior of mobile users.

The learning of the largest mobile market will be a great learning lesson for other mobile markets around the world. Consumer behavior will help marketers follow ethical practices and make their strategy so a consumer does not switch brands and remain satisfied with the existing brand.

The study provides unique learning for practitioners, educators and researchers to understand the consumer behavior of mobile users. This will help marketers create factors that stop consumers from switching brands and develop strategies to retain customers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate organizational information technology (IT) deployment from a dual decision-making perspective. This study builds on rational choice theory to characterize how the costs and values of incumbent IT and those of the corresponding new cloud computing influence a company's dual decision of discontinuance and acceptance.

This study chooses cloud computing as the research context, since it is one of the most well-accepted ITs in current practice. By using survey methodology, the data were collected from organizations around the world. Our hypotheses were examined via multimethod analyses, including the partial least squares, the multinomial log it regression and the analysis of variance.

This research reveals that organizations often follow the dual decision-making process in IT deployment regarding a non-cloud, hybrid structure and full-cloud considers incumbent IT discontinuance and new cloud computing acceptance. These results indicate that organizations may embrace cloud computing because of its perceived high system compatibility and low support costs. Meanwhile, security threats remain the primary obstacles to conducting business in the cloud.

Previous studies mainly focus on a single aspect and do not reveal the intricacies of the interactions between the reduction of incumbent IT and the addition of new IT. To address this gap in the body of knowledge, our study proposes a dual decision model based on a dialectical understanding of new and incumbent IT mechanisms instead of a singular IT acceptance model.

The aim of this paper is to explore the historical development of brands and the development of literature on brand switching to define the antecedents that cause switching behavior among consumers and the impact of switching on market share of companies.

The historical development of brands is tracked using different secondary sources. Then an intensive literature review is conducted on brand switching at the consumer and business levels. At each level, studies on brand switching are divided into several categories, such as household products, technological products and service providers, and the common factors behind switching for each category and between categories are determined.

An examination of the historical development of brands shows that brands appeared on products a long time ago and evolved through a number of stages based on the economic and social environment. The literature reveals that no single model can explain brand switching behavior of consumers or businesses across different industries and products. Each study uses a specific set of factors to explain brand switching. However, brand attractiveness can be counted as the most common factor behind brand switching.

There is little understanding of the historical mutations of brand switching behavior and the influence of mutation on branding strategies. The study suggests that continuous exploration of consumer’s preferences is needed to create and sustain attractive brands.

Managers increasingly recognize brands as one of the most valuable assets of an organization, and, therefore, an informed knowledge of the factors underpinning brand switching may help managers build attractive brands and prevent brand switching. This condition imposes significant challenges in a highly innovative environment, where technological changes can quickly make attractive brands obsolete.

This paper highlights that the factors behind brand switching should be monitored constantly, even for the same brand, to define an appropriate strategy that helps sustain brand attractiveness.

The purpose of this study is to identify antecedents of adoption and post-adoption switching of online pharmacy applications (OPA) in Indian society. A push-pull-mooring (PPM) model was formulated to evaluate the impact of various constructs upon “consumers’ switching intention” (CSI).

An online questionnaire was sent to 252 users of OPA in India. Hypotheses were generated to examine the push, pull and mooring effects of constructs developed. The relationships between dependent and independent variables were evaluated using structured equation modeling (SEM).

The study explicated the effect of PPM constructs on CSI in the context of OPA adoption. “Perceived usefulness,” “perceived ease of use” and “alternative attractiveness” had a significant “pull” effect on CSI. “Switching cost” had a “mooring” effect on CSI, whereas the degree of “customer involvement in decision-making” was found to have a “push” effect upon CSI.

This study theoretically established that the constructs of “perceived usefulness,” “perceived ease of use” and “alternative attractiveness” had significant “pull” effect on “consumers’ switching intention.” The construct of “switching cost” had a “mooring” effect on CSI, whereas the degree of “customer involvement in decision-making” was found to have a “push” effect upon CSI.

The study provided valuable insights regarding consumer behavior regarding OPAs. These findings could be applied by managers in framing effective strategies to grow and retain the customer base of OPAs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was one of the first empirical investigative studies to assess precursors of adoption and post-adoption characteristics of consumer behavior through the PPM model, in the context of Indian OPAs.

The purpose of this study is to explore a theoretical model using the push-pull-mooring framework which adopts both direct and moderating effects, in relation to building antecedents of Muslim switching intention (SI) from using cash to mobile payment (m-payment).

The data collected were 317 respondents, then processed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach (SEM-PLS). Furthermore, advanced PLS techniques such as PLS predict, blindfolding and importance-performance map analysis are used to verify the statistical analysis of findings.

This research underlines the importance of religious commitment factor when talking about Muslims SI to use m-payment. Moreover, the features of m-payment, such as enjoyment, efficiency, security and convenience, have contributed to the driving and attracting factors for Muslim individuals to switch from cash to m-payment.

Fundamentally it is highly recommended that the highest concentration of service provider strategies is always obeying the principles of Islamic finance, with regard to the Muslim community as their target market. Specific to the government, the distribution of supporting infrastructure and literacy of new technologies such as m-payment are still important points in an effort to create a cashless society.

The model in this study emphasizes the internal and external construction of a Muslim in relation to the behavior of SI from using cash to m-payment. Thus, the construction of the model that has been built is considered to bring more relevant factors to explain the m-payment adoption behavior of a Muslim from various perspectives.

Technology upgrade has been adopted as a strategy for technology vendors to modify and improve their incumbent technologies. However, user resistance is widespread in practice. In order to understand user technology upgrade behavior, this study integrates the retrospective and prospective sides of actions and proposes an inertia-mindfulness ambidexterity perspective to explore the antecedents of technology upgrade.

An online survey was conducted to collect data from 520 Microsoft Windows users to test this research model. Structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to evaluate measurement model and structural model.

Inertia can induce individuals' psychological reactance and thus reduce their intention to upgrade. In contrast, mindfulness can decrease users' psychological reactance and then motivate them to upgrade to a new version of technology. Finally, individuals' dissatisfaction with the current version of technology would weaken the negative impact of psychological reactance on upgrade intention.

This study generates an inertia-mindfulness ambidexterity perspective to investigate the factors that influence user technology upgrade intention from both retrospective and prospective sides and then identifies psychological reactance as underlying mechanism to explain how inertia and mindfulness work. Finally, this study posits that user dissatisfaction with current version of technology can moderate the relationship between psychological reactance and technology upgrade intention.

The world of data networks is developing quickly. This article reviews the reasons for the new public services, and indicates some of the differences between them. The effect on the terminal user, and the need for communications standards and/or conversion facilities to deal with increasingly widespread communications between incompatible equipment, are commented upon. It is also noted that future developments will need to meet the needs of not only data terminals but other related devices such as word processors and facsimile.

In dynamic environments, employees should respond to changing demands carrying out actions to achieve proper knowledge of the information systems (IS) that they use (individual adaptation). However, few studies have investigated the determinants of this behaviour. This study proposes and empirically evaluates a cognitive-attitudinal model grounded in migration theory, which considers push, pull and mooring factors.

Data collected from ERP users were analysed using partial least squares.

Coherent with migration theory, the results show that the individual adapts influenced by push factors (dissatisfaction with their current command of the IS), pull factors (expected benefits from improving their command) and mooring factors (attitude to the adaptation process). Also, inertia and cost of adaption impact on attitude.

This study introduces migration theory to the IS literature as a basis for comprehensively explaining adaptation in organisational settings.

The results suggest that management should: exhibit the instrumental benefits of a solid command of the IS; show the current gap in employee knowledge to revert it and, introduce changes to move employees out of their comfort zone to encourage ongoing learning and reduce resistance.

While previous studies have focused on the implementation stage and the emotional factors to explain adaptation, this study intends to bridge this gap by investigating cognitive-attitudinal factors that trigger the intention to adapt in the post-adoption stage. The findings of this study are useful to researchers in adaptation behaviour, and to managers to promote IS learning for their staff.