Information technology networks and small business : impact, strategies and changing industry structure

Focuses on the impact of information technology networks on small businesses acting as intermediaries between large enterprises and customers. Explores whether disintermediation is a threat for these small business intermediaries. Investigated factors affecting the use of information technology by small businesses to gain positive outcomes.

Democratic deliberation, citizenship, and networked computers

This study offers a multi-faceted response to the question of whether or not network computers can improve citizen power from the perspective of deliberative democratic theory. It concludes that in particular circumstances, computers can enhance citizens' power, and improve deliberation in liberal-democratic forums.

Barriers to the adoption of health information technology

Information Technology (IT) is successfully applied in a diverse range of fields. Though, the field of Medical Informatics is more than three decades old, it shows a very slow progress compared to many other fields in which the application of IT is growing rapidly. The spending on IT in health care is shooting up but the road to successful use of IT in health care has not been easy. This paper discusses about the barriers to the successful adoption of information technology in clinical environments and outlines the different approaches used by various countries and organisations to tackle the issues successfully. Investing financial and other resources to overcome the barriers for successful adoption of HIT is highly important to realise the dream of a future healthcare system with each customer having secure, private Electronic Health Record (EHR) that is available whenever and wherever needed, enabling the highest degree of coordinated medical care based on the latest medical knowledge and evidence. Arguably, the paper reviews barriers to HIT from organisations’ alignment in respect to the leadership; with their stated values when accepting or willingness to consider the HIT as a determinant factor on their decision-making processes. However, the review concludes that there are many aspects of the organisational accountability and readiness to agree to the technology implementation.

Health informatics domain knowledge analysis : an information technology perspective

Health Informatics is an intersection of information technology, several disciplines of medicine and health care. It sits at the common frontiers of health care services including patient centric, processes driven and procedural centric care. From the information technology perspective it can be viewed as computer application in medical and/or health processes for delivering better health care solutions. In spite of the exaggerated hype, this field is having a major impact in health care solutions, in particular health care deliveries, decision making, medical devices and allied health care industries. It also affords enormous research opportunities for new methodological development. Despite the obvious connections between Medical Informatics, Nursing Informatics and Health Informatics, most of the methodologies and approaches used in Health Informatics have so far originated from health system management, care aspects and medical diagnostic. This paper explores reasoning for domain knowledge analysis that would establish Health Informatics as a domain and recognised as an intellectual discipline in its own right.

Phenomenography in the Centre for Information Technology Innovation (CITI)

Phenomenography has its roots in educational research (Marton and Booth, 1997), but has since been adopted in other domains including business (Sandberg, 1994), health (Barnard, McCosker and Gerber, 1999), information science (Bruce, 1999a,b) and information technology (Bruce and Pham, 2001) as well as information systems. Emerging phenomenographic research in areas other than education, has been interdisciplinary, often bringing together technology, education and a host discipline such as health or business. In Australia, phenomenography has been used in information technology (IT) related research primarily in Victoria and Queensland. These studies have pursued the latter two of three established lines of phenomenographic research: 1) the study of conceptions of learning; 2) the study of conceptions in specific disciplines of study and 3) the study of how people conceive of various aspects of their everyday world that have not, for them, been the object of formal studies (Marton 1988, p.189). Information Technology researchers have predominantly pursued the latter two lines of research.

Automatic post-adoptive information technology use: The role of innovativeness goal

The business value of information technology (IT) is realized through the continuous use of IT subsequent to users’ adoption. Understanding post-adoptive IT usage is useful in realizing potential IT business value. Most previous research on post-adoptive IT usage, however, dismisses the unintentional and unconscious aspects of usage behavior. This paper advances understanding of the unintentional, unconscious, and thereby automatic usage of IT features during the post-adoptive stage. Drawing from Social Psychology literature, we argue human behaviors can be triggered by environmental cues and directed by the person’s mental goals, thereby operating without a person’s consciousness and intentional will. On this basis, we theorize the role of a user’s innovativeness goal, as the desired state of an act to innovate, in directing the user’s unintentional, unconscious, and automatic post-adoptive IT feature usage behavior. To test the hypothesized mechanisms, a human experiment employing a priming technique, is described.

Knowledge transfer in enterprise information technology support using web-based self-service systems

This paper explores Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in the transfer
of after-sales support-oriented knowledge from Information Technology (IT)
support organisations to enterprise customers, using Web-based self-service Systems (WSS). As it appears that best-in-class companies are ahead of the academic work in this area, we approached the topic through an exploratory CSF study of a best-in-class multinational IT services firm and identified 26 CSFs. Key findings from the study indicate that best-in-class IT service organisations may be cognisant of a range of factors relating to supporting customers, but are less aware of what is needed to support their own frontline support agents. Such organisations also lack an understanding of what is needed to provide enterprise support in the later stages of knowledge transfer, where enterprise customers can experience problems attempting to integrate resolutions. The study further showed that many aspects that might be characterised as encompassing socio-technical issues relating to the provision of web-based self-service are still poorly understood.

Using information and communications technology in higher education

A folio-based doctoral study comprising a dissertation, a major literature review, and a website. The dissertation identified key dimensions of blended learning environments created by the teachers in the study. These environments were characterised by different media blends and learning activities underpinned by resource-based learning approaches to teaching and learning.

Potential of information technology in dental education

The use of information technology (IT) in dentistry is far ranging. In order to produce a working document for the dental educator, this paper focuses on those methods where IT can assist in the education and competence development of dental students and dentists (e.g. e-learning, distance learning, simulations and computer-based assessment). Web pages and other information-gathering devices have become an essential part of our daily life, as they provide extensive information on all aspects of our society. This is mirrored in dental education where there are many different tools available, as listed in this report. IT offers added value to traditional teaching methods and examples are provided. In spite of the continuing debate on the learning effectiveness of e-learning applications, students request such approaches as an adjunct to the traditional delivery of learning materials. Faculty require support to enable them to effectively use the technology to the benefit of their students. This support should be provided by the institution and it is suggested that, where possible, institutions should appoint an e-learning champion with good interpersonal skills to support and encourage faculty change. From a global prospective, all students and faculty should have access to e-learning tools. This report encourages open access to e-learning material, platforms and programs. The quality of such learning materials must have well defined learning objectives and involve peer review to ensure content validity, accuracy, currency, the use of evidence-based data and the use of best practices. To ensure that the developers' intellectual rights are protected, the original content needs to be secure from unauthorized changes. Strategies and recommendations on how to improve the quality of e-learning are outlined. In the area of assessment, traditional examination schemes can be enriched by IT, whilst the Internet can provide many innovative approaches. Future trends in IT will evolve around improved uptake and access facilitated by the technology (hardware and software). The use of Web 2.0 shows considerable promise and this may have implications on a global level. For example, the one-laptop-per-child project is the best example of what Web 2.0 can do: minimal use of hardware to maximize use of the Internet structure. In essence, simple technology can overcome many of the barriers to learning. IT will always remain exciting, as it is always changing and the users, whether dental students, educators or patients are like chameleons adapting to the ever-changing landscape.