David C. Yen

An exploratory study to understand the critical factors affecting the decision to adopt cloud computing in Taiwan hospital

The purpose of this study is to investigate the critical factors that will affect the decision to adopt cloud computing technology in developing countries, specifically in Taiwans hospital industry. This study mainly integrates the TOE (Technology-Organization-Environment) framework and HOT-fit (Human-Organization-Technology fit) model to understand this issue. Information was collected by employing a questionnaire research design to hospital CIOs in Taiwan. The obtained results indicate that the 5 most critical factors are data security, perceived technical competence, cost, top manager support, and complexity. Further, among the proposed four dimensions the most important one is technology followed by human, organizational, and environmental factors. Finally, the results show that significant differences exist in CIO innovativeness, data security, compatibility, top manager support, adequate resource, and perceived industry pressure across different adopting groups. For practitioners, this study identifies key factors for hospitals to make an adoption decision toward cloud computing technology. As for academia, this study can be provided as a useful reference for future studies in this subject field.

Online shopping drivers and barriers for older adults

To increase a better understanding of the drivers and barriers affecting older consumers intention to shop online.The major factors driving older adults toward online shopping are performance expectation and social influence.The major barriers that keep older adults away from shopping online include value and tradition. The use of the Internet by older adults is growing at a substantial rate. They are becoming an increasingly important potential market for electronic commerce. However, previous researchers and practitioners have focused mainly on the youth market and paid less attention to issues related to the online behaviors of older consumers. To bridge the gap, the purpose of this study is to increase a better understanding of the drivers and barriers affecting older consumers intention to shop online. To this end, this study is developed by integrating the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and innovation resistance theory. By comparing younger consumers with their older counterparts, in terms of gender the findings indicate that the major factors driving older adults toward online shopping are performance expectation and social influence which is the same with younger. On the other hand, the major barriers include value, risk, and tradition which is different from younger. Consequently, it is notable that older adults show no gender differences in regards to the drivers and barriers.

How to facilitate inter-organizational knowledge sharing: The impact of trust

In this era of the network economy, inter-organizational knowledge sharing is one key driving force required to streamline value chain activities and maximize operational benefits. Knowledge sharing can be realized when the involved business partners successfully develop trust and build long-term partnerships. In this study, a model of knowledge sharing across the supply chain is constructed. Factors such as shared goals, social relational embeddedness, and influence strategy are investigated to determine whether they act as major driving forces to develop inter-organizational trust among the various supply chain members. The survey is based on 226 managers located in major industrial parks in Taiwan; the results suggest that trust is enforced when organizations develop shared goals, form social relational embeddedness, and initiate influence strategies. In addition, inter-organizational trust leads to better inter-organizational collaboration and knowledge sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Exploring consumer perceived risk and trust for online payments

Consumers have built up trust first as an antecedent of their perceived risks.The perceived total risk is negatively related to trust.The perceived risks can be classified as system dependent risk and transactional risk. The uncertainties of transaction handling and consumer perception toward risk have been identified as some of the major problems causing consumers hesitance toward taking advantage of online payments. With the ever-growing implementation of trusting mechanisms for online payments, consumer confidence has greatly increased. This research explores the elements of perceived risk and trust - the two most vital factors influencing consumer behavior of online payment - in the relatively mature stage of Chinas online payment environment. It also analyzes and classifies perceived risks of different nature into two categories: systematic perceived risk and transactional perceived risk according to their different roles in affecting consumer trust. Specifically, we propose a conceptual model of trust and specific risk facets as well as two new constructs of comparison and evaluation, based on the framework of TRA, TPB, TAM and DTPB. The proposed model was empirically tested using data gathered from 870 respondents in Shanghai and Macao, China, most of whom belong to the younger generation. The results show that in the current stage of Chinas online payment, consumers have built up trust first as an antecedent of their perceived risks. Moreover, perceived total risk is negatively related to trust while perceived risks can be classified into two types: system dependent risk which is positively related to trust and transactional risk which is negatively related to trust. This article concludes with implications for academia and practitioners.

A comparative study of classifier ensembles for bankruptcy prediction

This paper examines the construction issues of classifier ensembles for bankruptcy prediction.The first issue focuses on the classification techniques, which are based on MLP, SVM, and DT.The second issue is the combination method, which is based on bagging and boosting.The third issue is based on examining different numbers of combined classifiers.We show that DT ensembles composed of 80-100 classifiers using the boosting method perform best. The aim of bankruptcy prediction in the areas of data mining and machine learning is to develop an effective model which can provide the higher prediction accuracy. In the prior literature, various classification techniques have been developed and studied, in/with which classifier ensembles by combining multiple classifiers approach have shown their outperformance over many single classifiers. However, in terms of constructing classifier ensembles, there are three critical issues which can affect their performance. The first one is the classification technique actually used/adopted, and the other two are the combination method to combine multiple classifiers and the number of classifiers to be combined, respectively. Since there are limited, relevant studies examining these aforementioned disuses, this paper conducts a comprehensive study of comparing classifier ensembles by three widely used classification techniques including multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks, support vector machines (SVM), and decision trees (DT) based on two well-known combination methods including bagging and boosting and different numbers of combined classifiers. Our experimental results by three public datasets show that DT ensembles composed of 80-100 classifiers using the boosting method perform best. The Wilcoxon signed ranked test also demonstrates that DT ensembles by boosting perform significantly different from the other classifier ensembles. Moreover, a further study over a real-world case by a Taiwan bankruptcy dataset was conducted, which also demonstrates the superiority of DT ensembles by boosting over the others.

Understanding the perceived community value of Facebook users

Abstract With the growing popularity of social networking services (SNSs) such as Facebook, it has raised important interests about the perceived value implications of such usage. This study examines the usage by combining marketing and IS perspectives through an empirical survey of Facebook users. It was hypothesized that perceived value would be a key multidimensional determinant of behavioral intentions in SNSs. The study holds that the facets of social capital—social interaction ties, trust, and shared vision—and social network information sharing can create a perceived value (i.e., social, experiential, information, and transaction) in SNSs. Analyses conducted on results from a survey of university students ( n xa0=xa0402) suggest that trust, an element of the relational cluster, holds the strongest correlation with the sharing and pooling of resources by users over Facebook. Experiential value is found to be most significant, indicating that the interactions between users on Facebook occur mostly to fulfill a psychological need, such as sharing the useful information and receiving enthusiastic replies or praise. In addition, thanks to the emerging development of F-commerce, transaction value is positively affected.

Factors affecting online tax filing - An application of the IS Success Model and trust theory

The study proposes a model showing how trust influences the IS Success Model.The proposed model was applied in the context of e-government.The proposed model was used to examine the Philippine online tax system.Trust is a significant influence towards IS Success.Information quality is most influential among the quality dimensions. This study examines citizens propensity to use e-governmental website services through the lens of the IS Success Model in general, and in the context of the Philippine online tax filing system. Additionally, attributes such as trust in technology, trust in government, trust in e-government websites, and prior experience with government services which act as important antecedents to the model are analyzed in this study. The results show that trust in technology, trust in government, and prior experience directly affected the trust in e-government websites, which in turn directly influenced all three IS quality dimensions. Of these three dimensions, information quality was found to be the most consistently and significantly influence perceptions of usefulness and satisfaction, implying that this dimension is the most critical one beyond the service quality and system quality for taxpayers to use the system. Generally speaking, Philippine taxpayers do value the online system, indicating the fact that the current system does have some potential to elicit favorable perceptions on usefulness, satisfaction, and subsequent net benefits. Other theoretical and managerial implications are further discussed.

Understanding the Mediating Effects of Relationship Quality on Technology Acceptance: An Empirical Study of E-Appointment System

This study extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by incorporating relationship quality as a mediator to construct a comprehensive framework for understanding the influence on continuance intention in the hospital e-appointment system. A survey of 334 Taiwanese citizens who were contacted via phone or the Internet and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used for path analysis and hypothesis tests. The study shows that perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) have significant influence on continuance intention through the mediation of relationship quality, consisting of satisfaction and trust. The direct impact of relationship quality on continuance intention is also significant. The analytical results reveal that the relationship between the hospital, patients and e-appointment users can be improved via enhancing the continued usage of e-appointment. This paper also proposes a general model to synthesize the essence of PEOU, PU, and relationship quality for explaining users’ continuous intention of e-appointment.

Smart supply chain management: a review and implications for future research

Purpose n n n n– As traditional supply chains are increasingly becoming intelligent with more objects embedded with sensors and better communication, intelligent decision making and automation capabilities, the new smart supply chain presents unprecedented opportunities for achieving cost reduction and enhancing efficiency improvement. The purpose of this paper is to study and explore the currents status and remaining issues of smart supply chain management. n n n n nDesign/methodology/approach n n n n– A literature review is conducted to synthesize the earlier work in this area, and to conceptualize and discuss the smart supply chain characteristics. Further, the authors formulate and investigate five key research topics including information management, IT infrastructure, process automation, advanced analytics, and supply chain integration. n n n n nFindings n n n n– Studies in those aforementioned subject fields are reviewed, categorized, and analyzed based on the review questions defined in the study. It is notable that while the topics of converging atoms with digits are increasingly attracting attention from researchers and practitioners alike, there are many more interesting research questions needing to be addressed. n n n n nOriginality/value n n n n– The paper provides original and relevant guidance for supply chain management researchers and practitioners on developing smart supply chains.

E-commerce web site loyalty: A cross cultural comparison

This study investigates the factors that affect e-loyalty in e-commerce websites. The e-loyalty model proposed in this study is based on DeLone and McLean’s IS Success Model. E-loyalty is explained using three independent factors (information quality, system quality, and service quality), and two mediating factors (trust and customer satisfaction). The proposed model was tested with Thai and Taiwanese samples using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) data analysis. The study yielded different results when Thai and Taiwanese samples were tested using SEM multi-group moderation data analysis. This study incorporated the concepts of national identity (NATID) and Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions to better explain cultural differences between the two countries and how culture can affect the e-commerce environment.