Ibrahim Elbeltagi

Evaluating the factors affecting DSS usage by senior managers in local authorities in Egypt

The study of factors influencing the adoption and use of information systems in less-developed countries is an important area to address since differences in culture, social structure, and business approaches may have significant effects on the benefits derived from importing Western-influenced IT technology, concepts, and management approaches. This study examines the usage of a decision support system (DSS) in Egyptian local authorities using an adapted Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The centrally-developed DSS had been rolled out to 27 governorates in Egypt for use by chief executive officers. The results demonstrated that TAM could be applied to a specific system within a developing country. Both perceived ease of use (PEU) and perceived usefulness (PU) had a significant direct effect on DSS usage. PEU dominated over PU whose effect on DSS usage was negative.

E-retailing ethics and its impact on customer satisfaction and repurchase intention

Purpose – The theoretical understanding of online shopping behaviour has received much attention. Less focus has been given to online retailing ethics. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a comprehensive model of online retailing ethics. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a survey amongst a sample representative of universities across Egypt. In total, 310 questionnaire were collected and analysed using structure equation modelling using WarpPLS. Findings – The results indicate that the consumer perceptions of online retailing ethics (CPORE) as a second-order construct is composed of five constructs (security, privacy, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, and service recovery) and strongly predictive of online consumer satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors find a significant mediating effect of trust, and commitment on the relationship between CPORE and customer satisfaction. The results also show that individualism had moderate effects on the relationship between CPORE...

Knowledge Sharing Practices as a Basis of Product Innovation: A Case of Higher Education in Iraq

Knowledge is recognised the most significant resource for competitive advantage and the key to enhancing innovation. Knowledge sharing (KS) is considered to be a building block of efficient performance within higher education environments and to play a key role in enhancing the innovation of universities. The aim of this paper is to explore the effect of knowledge sharing on product innovation in Iraqi public higher education institutions. Structural equation modelling (SEM) with AMOS 20 was used, the results found that knowledge sharing play a pivotal role in enhancing product innovation within higher education environment.

Transformational leadership and innovation: a comparison study between Iraq's public and private higher education

With globalisation and a rapidly changing environment, the higher education sector in developing countries is facing challenges that require extraordinary leaders. Innovation is important for organisations, particularly in learning environments. Transformational leadership (TL) has been found to have an important influence on innovation, leading to increased goal-directed behaviour on the part of followers, promoting organisational change, and a spirit of trust, and helping followers to exceed their performance expectations. This research aimed to examine the impact of TL on product and process innovation, and the differences between these impacts in public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) in Iraq. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to 439 teaching staff and 10 leaders from private and public HEIs. Employing multi-group structural equation modelling (SEM) with AMOS 20, the research showed that TL plays a pivotal role in enhancing product and process innovation and that the style would be ideal in an Iraqi educational context as it would promote strategies for developing innovation in both sectors. The interviews revealed that there are similarities and differences between public and private HEIs in Iraq regarding the relationship between TL and both product and process innovation. Guidelines are developed for researchers as well as leaders, and evidence is provided in support of the use of TL to increase product and process innovation within higher education in developing countries, particularly Iraq. The implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The Role of the Owner-Manager in SMEs’ Adoption of Information and Communication Technology in the United Arab Emirates

This study evaluates the factors that lead small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt information and communication technology (ICT). Our research proposes an ICT adoption model using structural equation modelling that examines the role of SMEs’ owner-managers as mediators in the adoption of ICT. The model is focused on the investigation of the direct and indirect influences of technological, cultural, environmental and organisational factors on the SME’s adoption process. The results indicate the validity of these adoption factors and their applicability to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) environment. The main focus of the research was to develop a new framework that develops further the research of Rashid and Al-Qirim (2001). The present paper identifies the critical mediating role of the owner-manager’s decision to adopt ICT in SMEs in the UAE, and confirm the importance of technological, organisational and environmental factors in the adoption process. Although there is cultural diversity in the UAE, culture is not found to be a significant factor, either directly or indirectly, in SMEs’ ICT adoption in the country.

The implications of a connectivist learning blog model and the changing role of teaching and learning

While the use of Web 2.0 tools and specifically blogs is becoming increasingly popular within higher education ( HE) and has been shown to promote learning, relatively little is known about the manner in which such tools may affect how teaching and learning may change as a result of the use of such tools. It is within this context that a connectivist learning model was created and has been further developed within this paper in order to consider the implications of how the use of blogs may change the manner in which teaching and learning occurs. Within this research, a JOUR study of the use of collective student blogs utilized as part of a formally assessed module, undertaken within an HE institution, is utilized to explore the manner in which teaching and learning can be seen to change through a connectivist learning model of blog usage. From this JOUR study, it appears that connectivism does provide a theoretical model for the way in which teaching and learning may change as a result of the use of blogs by learners. However, the experience of staff and students who undertook the project suggests that while a number of elements of the connectivist model can be identified, these are not seen universally among all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intellectual Capital And Innovations: Is Organisational Capital A Missing Link In The Service Sector?

This paper analyses the direct and indirect effects of social capital (SC), human capital (HC) and customer capital (CC) on the different types of innovations via organisational capital (OC) in the service sector. The study gathered data from 198 managers in the Egyptian banks (54% response rate). The research findings indicate that product, process and organisational innovations are positively associated with OC, SC and HC have direct and indirect positive effects on both product and organisational innovation via OC. It seems that SC and HC do not have a direct influence on process innovation because OC fully mediates the relationship between SC, HC and process innovation. This study explored the direct and indirect positive effects of CC on three types of innovation through OC. Additionally, all organisational, process and product innovations are found to be inter-correlated. The most significant influence of intellectual capital (IC) is on product innovation, followed by organisational innovation, whereas the least significant influence is on process innovation.

The Face of Digital Literacy for Muslim Teenage Girls: A Comparative Study of Bradford Muslim Girl Schools.

This paper is grounded in a qualitative approach, to call forth the views of Muslim teenage girls on their access and use of learning technologies for inclusive educational practice. The 45 Muslim teenage girls, aged 14–19 years old, from three British Muslim girls schools participated in this empirical study. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection and the data were analysed using template analysis, matrix analysis, and cross-case analysis. The pupils had strong aspirations that learning technologies and computers should support their learning and attainment, but their access and use to supporting technologies was mixed. It was found through a comparative analysis of the data that all the Muslim teenage girls that entered Muslim schools felt secure and performed competently. Furthermore, the educational success of School A was attributable to educational norms and values relative to the provision of digital resources and skilled teaching staff. The educational experiences of School B and School C were more variable due to access to digital technologies, provision of digital contents and skilled teaching staff. Furthermore, this research study seems to highlight a marked difference between the Muslim School environment and the social context of teenage girls outside the educational setting.

Pareto-principle application in non-IT supported CRM processes: A case study of a Dutch manufacturing SME

Purpose – This research covers a rather unexplored area of customer relationship management (CRM) by questioning the mechanism between on the one hand the Pareto-principle and on the other hand traditional non-IT supported operational CRM processes. Thus, the paper aims to explore whether a minority of processes and process-aspects deserves credit for achieving a majority of CRM goals. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach is the most appropriate due to the assumption that access to the reality of a situation is only possible through social construction. A qualitative approach seeks to answer questions posed by studying different social settings. As noted by Berg, qualitative techniques make it possible for researchers to participate in understanding and perceiving others, as well as permitting them to discover how people structure their daily lives to make them more meaningful. Findings – The questioned mechanism of on the one hand traditional non-IT supported operational CRM process-aspec...

Evaluating the effect of transformational leadership on knowledge sharing using structural equation modelling: the case of Iraqi higher education

Abstract Leadership style has been suggested as an important factor affecting knowledge management in organizations. Transformational leadership has been acknowledged as having a positive general influence on knowledge management. However, there is a lack of empirical studies examining the relationship between transformational leadership and knowledge sharing in higher education within developing countries such as Iraq. This research seeks to evaluate the impact of the four components of transformational leadership, namely idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, on knowledge sharing (both donating and collecting). Two hundred and fifty usable questionnaires were collected from public higher education institutions in Iraq. Structural equation modelling with AMOS 22 confirms the importance of transformational leadership in encouraging knowledge-sharing culture in higher education. The results reveal that, of the four components of transformational leadership, intellectual stimulation has the strongest effect on both the donating and collecting of knowledge. Guidelines are developed for academics as well as leaders, and evidence is provided in support of the use of transformational leadership to promote knowledge sharing within higher education in developing countries, particularly Iraq. The implications of the findings, along with some potential applications and suggestions for future research, are discussed.