Louis Sanzogni

Factors Influencing the Adoption and Usage of Online Services in Saudi Arabia

Advances in electronic service technology have created great opportunities as well as threats to organizations in various business and services sectors. As such businesses, either willingly or reluctantly, are increasingly embracing the Internet as distribution channel in order to remain competitive or gain market share. With particular reference to e‐services, absence of accurate information on factors that have influenced users’ behaviour to adopt or use e‐services could mislead an organization into adopting unhelpful solutions as it strives to accelerate the implementation of e‐services. This study, based on the diffusion of innovations (DOI) theory leveraged into the online environment, investigates factors that influence adoption and usage of e‐service, especially, in Saudi Arabia. Factors were empirically tested against data collected from 651 participants using survey questionnaires. Perceived Complexity was found to be the most significantly related factor affecting e‐service adoption in Saudi Arabia, followed in turn by Privacy and Compatibility. Quality of the Internet and its relative advantage also had a notable affect on e‐service usage and adoption in Saudi Arabia.

Using BPM governance to align systems and practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a business process management (BPM) governance model that sets BPM decision making, along with roles and responsibilities. The setting context of the study is a government‐owned corporation operating in Australia.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative case study examined and analysed organisational documents using a content analysis approach. Results of document analysis are used to inform a series of in‐depth interviews of key stakeholders in the organisation. Interviews are analysed using a constant comparison method to derive themes and build categories of description.Findings – A BPM governance model is proposed. Results of thematic analysis are interpreted against the framework of the BPM governance model, leading to findings that include implications for theory and practice.Practical implications – In practical terms, the research shows how BPM practice can be aligned and integrated with the corporate governance and management systems in the sel...

Milk Production estimates using feed forward artificial neural networks

The accuracy of milk production forecasts on dairy farms using a ffann (feed forward artificial neural network) with polynomial post-processing, is reported. Historical milk production data was used to derive models that are able to predict milk production from farm inputs, using a standard ffann, a ffann with polynomial post-processing and multiple linear regression. Forecasts obtained from the models were then compared with each other. Within the scope of the available data, it was found that the standard ffann did not improve on the multiple regression technique, but the ffann with polynomial post processing did.

Feed-Forward Artificial Neural Network Model For Forecasting Rainfall Run-Off

This paper presents the results of a blind test of the ability of a feed-forward artificial neural network to provide out-of-sample forecasting of rainfall run-off using real data. The results obtained are comparable with the results obtained using best methods currently available. The focus of the paper has been an easily repeatable experiment applied to rainfall and run-off data for a catchment area; which particular catchment was not revealed to the experimenters, i.e. a blind experiment. To this end, a simple model has been specified, and the architecture of the neural network and the data preparation procedures adopted are discussed in detail. The results are presented and discussed in detail and the extent to which the system was found to be non-linear is quantified.

Technology Leapfrogging in Thailand: Issues for the Support of eCommerce Infrastructure

We look at the difficulties and benefits of the implementation of newest technology in Thailand by the method of leapfrogging. In the investigation we find that a variety of issues influence the uptake of a new technology; namely the extent of the cultural shift, Government support and initiatives and the take up of these initiatives by the education and private sector in terms of R&D and training. We also examine and define areas fundamental to the preparedness of a nation for the introduction of electronic commerce; that is, telecommunications, Internet penetration & development, and technology Parks. We conclude with a recommendation to initiate a study of Information Technology education take‐up in universities to support technology leapfrogging initiatives implemented by the Thai Government, identifying a number of questions that need to be addressed. Further, a strategy to encourage small communities and businesses through community education programs is suggested, including a pilot project recommendation to test the successful implementation of this strategy in a community in Chiang Mai Thailand, that would also document the issues identified, including Government and cultural impacts, in order to establish a model that could be replicated and implemented in communities at large throughout developing countries.

Mobile Commerce Adoption in Organizations: A Literature Review and Future Research Directions

The paper comprehensively reviews research conducted on mobile commerce adoption in organizations. From the literature, factors adopted form a number of adoption theories such as the diffusion of innovation theory, the technology acceptance model, etc. are identified, analyzed and tabulated together with a set of research propositions in order to demonstrate areas in need of further research. The paper proposes 15 adoption factors that may affect the intention to adopt mobile commerce in organizations. These factors are categorized into three groups, namely environmental and organizational, technological, and managerial and other factors. We conclude our argument by presenting a proposed adoption model and showing potential areas of interest to future researchers.

Corporate Struggle with ICT in Thailand: A Case Study.

The paper discusses, through a case study, network implementation problems faced by Bangkok Investment Corporation1 (BIC), a foreign corporation in Thailand, following a proposal to adopt a centralized Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database system to support all offices and their mobile workforce. The case study is presented from an internal perspective and illustrates how a variety of elements within Thailand may contribute to inadequate telecommunications infrastructure and underdeveloped skill‐sets. We note that educational reforms, having slowed down in pace, restrict the availability of people with the required knowledge and skill‐sets, affecting the time and cost of implementation considerably. Highlighted in particular, is the dominance of teacher‐lead education, the lack of critical thinking skills development within the formal education system, and how such systems impose a constraint on the problem‐solving skills that are required of people working in the ICT sector. We conclude that it may be difficult to sustain a centralized CRM database accessible over a Wide Area Network in Thailand at this time without ongoing issues.

Evaluating the Impact of ERP Systems in Higher Education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems on user performance (UP) in higher education institutions with a view to better understanding the ERP phenomenon in these institutions, and to determine whether or not these systems work well in such a complex environment. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative methodology was used in this study and data were collected by means of a written questionnaire. Measurement items used in the operationalization of the study instrument were adopted from relevant prior research. Findings – The findings indicated that system quality, task technology fit and information quality are the most important factors that lead to better end UP. The provides evidence of the appropriateness of extending IS models as a useful way to give more powerful insights into user aspects and system impact. Research limitations/implications – Although the study factors explained a large portion of the variance in UP, there is ...

Use of weighting functions for focusing of learning in artificial neural networks

Abstract We present a modification to the standard backpropagation algorithm to enhance local fitting. The modification involves weighting the error more heavily for particular regions of the training set. We show that during training our technique gives closer convergence on the region of interest, while retaining the overall global features of the arbitrary function it trained upon.

A heuristic for the triangulation problem

Abstract This article reports the successful implementation of a heuristic that enables a survey vessel to determine its location, in real time, on an inexpensive PC platform without recourse to satellite position fixing. The heuristic produces a solution to the classic over-constrained triangulation problem in the cartesian plane. It is demonstrated via a Monte Carlo simulation that there is no significant difference between the solutions produced by this heuristic and the solutions produced by an iterative technique based upon a minimization method. The implementation is typically more than two orders of magnitude more run-time efficient in determining locations then an implementation of the iterative technique.