Infusion Of Information Technology Research Articles

Mapping Healthcare Data Sources in India

Healthcare data sources collect and report various kinds of health data related to routine service delivery, patient-based care, resources related to infrastructure, human resources and finance. Typically, in developing countries, multiple sources are used for the provision of healthcare data, and these include national health surveys, census and civil registration systems, and routine reporting systems. In addition, rapid infusion of information technology has increased adoption of management information systems in public health programs. During the last decade, India has witnessed a sharp rise in the number of healthcare data sources as identified in this review. These sources have increased data availability in multiple data deficient areas. However, the careful appraisal indicates data gaps in numerous important areas. These sources also suffer from inherent quality, coverage and standardisation issues. To overcome these challenges, remedial measures include the development of a national healthcare data plan, a survey calendar, designation of a nodal survey agency, adoption of indicator dictionary, adequate capacity building, and increased coordination among stakeholders.

Empiric research related to information technologies application in professional English learning process for tourism specialty students

In this paper the role of globalization on society has been discussed and in particular, the consequences of globalization’s direct impact on the process of learning English by tourism graduates in higher education. Also, during the conducted survey, it was emphasized that over the past few decades advancements in information technology have had a profound on the global landscape as well as on the progression of globalization. The goal of this research is to investigate the positive effects of the application of information technologies in the professional English learning process for tourism specialty students. The research is focused on defining the benefits of incorporating them into the way of acquiring necessary language skills and abilities by tourism specialty students. The data used is collected from official documents, articles, reports, and the sources of organizations in the field of education. The findings of this research draw attention to the speedy infusion of information technologies into the field of education. Some of these outcomes are as follows: firstly, it has been discovered at this point that the active usage of information technology has become an integral part of the tourism students’ preparation in the frame of tertiary education; secondly, it has been revealed and justified on the developed structural-functional model that the technology provides the means by which the English learning efficiency can be increased assisting tourism specialty students in competing and maintaining a completive professional advantage in the global environment and marketplace as well. Furthermore, the present article is an attempt to understand, analyze and provide an overall picture on basic aspects of English for Specific Purposes (English for Tourism): its definition, scope, characteristics and aims. Despite the English for Tourism teaching objectives, it also discusses the structural-functional model of modern information technologies usage in the educational process on the example of studying the module "Global tourism: International Benefits and Threats". Broadly speaking, the designed investigation related to information technologies application in professional English learning process for tourism specialty students has vividly witnessed its unbiased value and beneficial implementation in the higher education system. Our statement can be supported with a plenty of persuasive facts, such as follows: modern tools make English for Tourism learning process much more interesting, flexible, available; newest technologies are supposed to shape “soft skills” in tourism specialty students making them more competitive on the tourism global marketplace. To summarize, information technology benefits both traditional education institutions and online educational models of learning English for Tourism in fundamental ways.

Smart Sensing, Communication, and Control in Perishable Food Supply Chain

Transportation and distribution (T8D) of fresh food products is a substantial and increasing part of the economic activities throughout the world. Unfortunately, fresh food T8D not only suffers from significant spoilage and waste, but also from dismal efficiency due to tight transit timing constraints between the availability of harvested food until its delivery to the retailer. Fresh food is also easily contaminated, and together with deteriorated fresh food is responsible for much of food-borne illnesses. The logistics operations are undergoing rapid transformation on multiple fronts, including infusion of information technology in the logistics operations, automation in the physical product handling, standardization of labeling, addressing and packaging, and shared logistics operations under 3rd party logistics (3PL) and related models. In this article, we discuss how these developments can be exploited to turn fresh food logistics into an intelligent cyberphysical system driven by online monitoring and associated operational control to enhance food freshness and safety, reduce food waste, and increase T8D efficiency. Some of the issues discussed in this context are fresh food quality deterioration processes, food quality/contamination sensing technologies, communication technologies for transmitting sensed data through the challenging fresh food media, intelligent management of the T8D pipeline, and various other operational issues. The purpose of this article is to stimulate further research in this important emerging area that lies at the intersection of computing and logistics.

Internet of Perishable Logistics: Building Smart Fresh Food Supply Chain Networks

Computer networks and logistics systems are two very rich fields of study that have grown almost entirely separately since they deal with entirely different entities–information packets versus packages. However, driven by extensive automation and infusion of information technology into distribution logistics and need to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the operations, the logistics have attempted to adopt the cyber Internet principles. In this paper, we specifically consider the distribution of perishable commodities, such as fresh food, perishable pharmaceuticals, blood, and so on, in this context and thereby introduce the notion of the Internet of Perishable Logistics (IoPL). We propose a layered architecture model for IoPL modeled after the cyber Internet and show how it can be useful in systematic and hierarchical modeling of perishable logistics operations, which are extremely complex. We also show the synergies between IoPL and the cyber Internet and discuss a number of research issues inspired by such synergies. We also show how the layered model can be exploited to construct a simplified analytical framework for studying some basic tradeoffs between the delivered quality of the perishable product, transportation efficiency (in terms of unused carrier space), and the number of active carriers (which translates into cost and carbon footprint of the transportation service). This paper also points out a number of future research challenges and directions for a smarter IoPL.

The impact of transformational leadership on employees’ acceptance to change

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically examine the association between transformational leadership and employee acceptance to change while establishing the mediating effects of innovative behaviour and the moderating effect of the use of information technology (IT) on this association.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 378 employees of ten banks from Uttarakhand, India, participated in a questionnaire-based survey. The proposed hypotheses and the proposed conceptual model were tested using macro process (Hayes, 2013).FindingsThe results indicated that there exists a positive association between transformational leadership and employee acceptance to change. Furthermore, it was found that this association was mediated by employee innovative behaviour and moderated by the use of IT.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study will help managers to comprehend the significance of the innovative behaviour of employees in moulding their acceptance towards change. This paper should encourage bank managers to perceive the significance of the working practice and the infusion of IT. Furthermore, this study accentuates the significance of an effective leadership style, i.e. transformational leadership, as an essential phenomenon to positively impinge on employee acceptance to change in a service-oriented industry, namely banking.Originality/valueThe present study enriches the extant research on transformational leadership and employee acceptance to change by demonstrating the use of IT and innovative behaviour as vital and the important factors that influence the level of persuasion that transformational leadership has on employee acceptance to change.

Mathematical Model for Information Technology Infusion for Healthcare Sector in Nigeria

In this article, an IT infusion model was developed for the Nigerian health sector using teaching hospitals in Nigeria. The different IT technologies used by medical practitioners were identified. Structured questionnaires were used to elicit knowledge from respondents selected from teaching hospitals located in Nigeria. The results showed that the nurses and doctors with less than 5 years working experience were common users of IT. The results for the IT infusion showed that the earliest IT component in the health sector was the personal computer since the year 1994 followed by mobile phone and search engines by the year 1996 with the projector infused by the year 2001. The infusion model for the total number of users for each IT component was formulated using polynomial functions of degree, n with respect to t – the number of years after the base year of infusion of IT device. The IT infusion model developed in this paper can be used to forecast the future growth of IT within the healthcare sectors.

E‐Procurement Infusion and Operational Process Impacts in MRO Procurement: Complementary or Substitutive Effects?

The procurement of maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) goods has remained a relatively understudied topic in the literature. Though vital cost efficiencies can be extracted from procurement processes through investments in e‐procurement systems, there is little empirical work that addresses how such systems should be deployed within organizations. In this study, we focus on the role of e‐procurement systems in MRO procurement and study two critical aspects of infusion. The first dimension captures the depth of e‐procurement use within the procurement function, while the second dimension depicts the breadth of use. We argue that these two dimensions of e‐procurement use, and their interaction, will be related to the performance of the MRO procurement process. Using survey data from 193 service organizations and structural equation modeling techniques, we show that the two infusion dimensions are significantly associated with improved process performance. Additionally, we show a substantial substitutive effect between the two use dimensions on performance. Our work has significant implications for managers who seek to gain efficiencies by the deployment of Internet‐based technologies within operational processes. Our conceptualization of e‐procurement infusion along two dimensions provides a more fine‐grained analysis of performance benefits accruing from the infusion of information technologies within organizations.

Hospitality Industry Web-Based Self-Service Technology Adoption Model

Technology advancement induces information technology infusion in business processes and service encounter. The airline industry employs web-based self-service technology (SST), namely, airline online check-in system, to provide more choice, control, and convenience to passengers. Customer adoption intention of web-based SST is particularly momentous, since customer adoption highly drives the service development. Technology acceptance model (TAM), a robust framework measuring factors affecting technology acceptance intention, has been broadly examined in numerous settings. However, inconsistent results are noted in Western and non-Western countries, and the model is challenged from limited cultural orientation. In response to this criticism, this research aims to identify culturally unique dimensions for TAM and construct a framework for hospitality web-based SST adoption from Westerns’ and Asians’ perspectives. Etic–emic approach, incorporating literature search and focus group interviews with Asian respondents, was employed to provide a thoughtful review of examined factors and generate new factors from an Asian perspective.

Slow Infusion of Information Technology in Master Bank of Pakistan – A Case Study

E-Banking is now a well know phenomenon in the industry and amongst the banking users in Pakistan. This paper addresses the issues encountered and lessons derived by largest Pakistani bank while developing its e-banking capabilities. The paper explores some burning issues hindering key decisions of shifting to e-banking, e-banking delivery channel choice, enticing customers, and managing e-channel conflict to be made by bank. The findings indicated that the obstacles related to e banking customer location, customer satisfaction and the Bank’s software’s and communication infrastructure capabilities are influential factors in motivating the decision for shifting to a high-tech bank. The bank's E-channel choice is influenced by competence of application and software technologies that the bank acquires and the nature of diffusion of information and communications among its stakeholders. Technological development in Banking practices and awareness in customers due to presence of foreign and domestic banks in Pakistani financial market influenced the Master Bank to switch over to complete automated banking system. The sophistication of ebanking services and the further rapid improvement appears to influence strategies to entice E-channel conflict issues. The paper concludes by suggesting the Bank to optimally utilize its resources by deploying efficient applications and software’s and third party alliances and partnerships required to offer customized technology enabled banking services and develop appropriate e-banking risk mitigation strategies that bring the bank into a win-win position.

A Tale of Two Journals: A Bibliometric Study of the Evolution of Journal of Service Management and Journal of Service Research (1998-2010)

The aim of this project is to explore the evolution of service research in two leading service journals – Journal of Service Management and Journal of Service Research. Using bibliometric techniques such as citation and co-citation analysis, this paper study a 13-year period, from 1998 (i.e. the start of JSR) to 2010. The overall period is then further broken down into the First (1998-2005) and the Second (2006-2010) period, in order to observe the changes that the journals have gone through over time. Firstly, this paper studied the changes in influence of the top citations in JOSM and JSR. Overall, the research of service quality and customer satisfaction decreases in influences, while topics such as service-dominant logic, customer relationship management and information technology infusion in service gain popularity from the First to Second period. Co-citation analysis is then conducted to reveal the relationships between the citations and the interaction within the service field. In addition, factor analyses of the co-citations are conducted for both JOSM and JSR, to reveal the knowledge groups for the overall period as well as the sub-periods. The co-citations are also presented graphically; colour-coded by the factors they belong in. Lastly, after studying the ideas (i.e. citations) that went into JOSM and JSR, an additional study is also carried out to find out the influences of JOSM and JSR on other journals. The journals citing JOSM are diverse; from service journals, quality management journals and tourism management journals, to operation management journals. The journals citing JSR, on the hand, are mostly marketing journals. In conclusion, the main contribution of this paper is to employ the combination of factor analysis and network analysis to visualize the intellectual structure for two of the top journals in service research. Through this, we are able to analyze the relationships between each area of service research and observe how they evolve over time. This paper also hopes to provide service scholars ideas of potential areas of research in service.

IT and geography teaching in Hong Kong secondary schools: a critical review of possibilities, trends and implications

Many countries have invested heavily in facilities and teacher training for the infusion of information technology (IT) into various school subjects. The background besetting this innovation and how far learning has improved thereby are important concerns for the education sector. They are examined here with respect to Hong Kong, which is a mixed Chinese–western society now seeking to promote independent learning in all areas of the school curriculum. Geography is chosen for study because IT makes possible numerous changes and benefits to teaching and learning the subject. Among others, IT can help in testing hypotheses and solving problems of an environmental and spatial nature. Literature reviews, however, suggest that the frequency, extent and level of use are limited. This discrepancy between expectation and reality suggests that many necessary teacher and organisational conditions for implementation are not present, including the lack of appropriate hardware and software, technical support and teacher training and confidence. To address the problem, teachers need to take up constructivist approaches and the role of learning facilitators, while the curriculum authority should be more humanistic and considerate of reality in making decisions on policy.

Data Warehousing Infusion and Organizational Effectiveness

Data warehousing (DW) has emerged as one of the most powerful technology innovations in recent years to support organization-wide decision making and has become a key component in the information technology (IT) infrastructure. Proponents of DW claim that its infusion can dramatically enhance the ability of businesses to improve the access, distribution, and sharing of information and provide managerial decision support for complex business questions. DW is also an enabling technology for data mining, customer-relationship management, and other business-intelligence applications. Although data warehouses have been around for quite some time, they have been plagued by high failure rates and limited spread or use. Drawing upon past research on the adoption and diffusion of innovations and on the implementation of information systems (IS), we examine the key organizational and innovation factors that influence the infusion (diffusion) of DW within organizations and also examine if more extensive infusion leads to improved organizational outcomes. In this paper, we conducted a field study, where two senior managers (one from IS and the other from a line function) from 117 companies participated, and developed a structural model to test the research hypotheses. The results indicate that four of the seven variables examined in this paper-organizational support, quality of the project management process, compatibility, and complexity-significantly influence the degree of infusion of DW and that the infusion, in turn, significantly influences organization-level benefits and stakeholder satisfaction. The findings of this paper have interesting implications for both research and practice in IT and DW infusion, as well as in the organization-level impact of the infusion of enterprise-wide infrastructural and decision support technologies such as DW.

Information technology infusion model for health sector in a developing country: Nigeria as a case

To date, information technology (IT) has not been widely adopted in the health sector in the developing countries. Information Technology may bring an improvement on health care delivery systems. It is one of the prime movers of globalization. Information technology infusion is the degree to which a different information technology tools are integrated into organizational activities. This study aimed to know the degree and the extent of incorporation of Information Technology in the Nigerian health sector and derive an IT infusion models for popular IT indicators that are in use in Nigeria (Personal computers, Mobile phones, and the Internet) and subsequently investigates their impacts on the health care delivery system in Nigerian teaching hospitals. In this study, data were collected through the use of questionnaires. Also, oral interviews were conducted and subsequently, the data gathered were analyzed. The results of the analysis revealed that out of the three IT indicators considered, mobile phones are spreading fastest. It also revealed that computers and mobile phones are in use in all the teaching hospitals. Finally in this research, IT infusion models were developed for health sector in Nigeria from the data gathered through the questionnaire and oral interview.

Teaching and Leading in the Global Marketplace

Education and leadership as an interdisciplinary and collaborative enterprise can further be enhanced by the use of integrated learning methods and the infusion of information technology. A teacher as a leader must work as a catalyst to facilitate the learning process. The creation of democratic environment has become increasingly easier with the use of information technology and the World Wide Web (WWW) and the Internet. Yet the right attitudes in leadership and the adaptive challenges are as equally important as the infusion of technology into classroom learning and teaching for greater democratic transformation in the knowledge society. A teacher then becomes a noble master and technology is a revolutionary servant in a more democratic learning environment for greater societal benefits.

Reengineering higher education: the case of an African institution

Strong tertiary education is seen as a critical success factor in the development of society at large in the developing world, of which most nations of Africa feature prominently. Although several countries embark on educational reforms and promise access to higher education for all, various problems, including distance, lack of resources and the complexity of delivery, are major hindrances to the process itself. The lack of enabling technologies has denied the potential fruits of higher education to some deserving and qualified citizens of developing countries. The problem can be alleviated by a more effective use of current educational assets coupled with distance education knowledge diffusion. Distance education (DE) is one such use of current educational assets through the infusion of information technology. Implementing DE in an effective manner relies on the process itself, the methodologies, techniques and tools. The various centres of delivery and classrooms must be connected: via radio, telephone, computer or other electronic means. This study explores the process of reengineering higher education through DE and proposes a Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) approach that addresses the major technological, political and economic issues faced during implementation.

Asynchronous Learning Using a Hybrid Learning Package

This article analyses the rationale for the development of a Web-based teacher-upgrading programme and discusses the main issues of in-service professional upgrading of working adults using the WWW. In-service upgrading has been an accepted avenue for retraining practising teachers in Singapore to keep abreast of changing curriculum requirements as well as infusion of information technology in teaching and learning. To cope with the teachers’ busy work schedule and many school commitments upgrading courses were offered to the teachers primarily asynchronously, using the Internet platform with some integrated synchronous sessions. Issues of adult learning in a learner-controlled adaptive learning environment, and life-long learning were addressed through an IT-infused asynchronous mode, providing the much-needed freedom in time management for the course participants. The development also includes delivery of high definition graphics through a customized hybrid system of CD-ROM and Web that addresses image-downloading bottleneck and thereby overcomes a basic problem of distance learning in geo-spatial education. Finally reflections on the attending adult learners’ responses to such an upgrading programme are discussed.

Defining the Internet-based supply chain system for mass customized markets

The infusion of information technology into business operations is drastically changing the way businesses operate. In addition, the universal availability of the Internet is accelerating mass customization of products--from PCs to automobiles. Managing supply chain relationships in this new environment, therefore, necessitates the adoption of a new production paradigm characterized by: • A centralized strategy but decentralized operation • A synchronized supply chain management system • A collaborative partnership among selected suppliers • A new interoperable, open information system infrastructure • A 'broker' and an intelligent, mobile, agent-based trading system. This paper describes a software system that satisfies these properties and one that can support business operations of a massively customized production system and its supporting supply chain partners.

Information Systems as a Reference Discipline for New Product Development

Baskerville and Myers (2002) recently suggested that the information systems (IS) field has "come of age" and that it can now serve as a reference discipline for other fields. In this article, the discourse about their vision is extended by considering the potential for the IS field to contribute to new product development (NPD) research. It is argued that the rapid infusion of information technology (IT) along four dimensions of product development process management, project management, information and knowledge management, and collaboration and communication raises several important NPD research issues. These issues could be addressed by drawing from extant theories and models in the IS field. By employing NPD as the context, other issues that underlie the new role envisioned for the IS field are also identified.

The effect of information technology on global business

This study investigates the dynamic effect of information technology infusion into global business. The information technology industry is growing at a rapid pace. Information Technology [IT] is playing an ever-increasing role in supporting business strategies and transformation, with e-business lending new visibility to technology's strategic role. Information technology is a vital part of today's global economy. Indicators show that it will continue to increase in importance during the next decade. IT already impacts almost all aspects of the workplace and most of everyday life. This study will illustrate the effect of digital technology on global business.

Predictors of Teachers' Confidence in Their Ability to Implement Computer-Based Instruction

The purpose of the research was to investigate the effect of selected personal, school, and district factors on K-3 teachers' confidence in their ability to implement computer-based instruction in two conditions: before ( N = 128 teachers) and after an infusion of Information Technology (IT) ( N = 135 teachers). Increased IT resources changed the strength and structure of teachers' confidence: Confidence in teaching various student uses of the computer increased and the sources of information that teachers used to determine their expectations changed as teachers used the technology. The strongest predictors of teaching confidence were teacher cognitions, especially confidence in personal computing skills. Other personal variables (frequency of personal computer use, gender, teaching experience, and computer ownership) dropped out of the regression equations when teacher cognitions were introduced. After the IT infusion, but not before, self-reported instructional practice and contextual factors (shared sense of purpose of the school with its community and experience with district amalgamation) also contributed to variance in confidence about teaching with computers.