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Purpose: Since competitiveness is crucial in international trade, this paper contributes to the literature by interrogating the information and communication technology (ICT)-trade nexus on competitiveness in Eastern and Western European countries. Does ICT usage promote or hinder the impact of trade openness on competitiveness? This study attempts to answer two questions: (1) is the interaction of trade and ICT significant in promoting competitiveness? (2) Is the effect significantly different by European classification? Design/methodology/approach: With data on 17 European countries from 2007 to 2020 and using mobile phones and fixed telephone usage as ICT indicators, the study engages the bootstrapped ordinary least squares (BOLS) and method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR) techniques to probe the discourse. Findings: The empirical findings reveal that (1) the interaction of trade and ICT boost competitiveness; (2) the effect of mobile phone is consistent across the full, East, and West European samples; (3) the interaction effect is also significant across the conditional distribution of competitiveness and (4) mobile phones and fixed broadband usage reveal "leapfrog" effect across the quantiles. Overall, the study submits that ICT usage will enhance the impact of trade, and thus, ICT is a critical enabler of competitiveness in Europe; policy recommendations were discussed. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study examining the interaction effect of trade openness and ICT usage on competitiveness in Europe. In other words, the authors attempt to analyze how ICT usage influences trade-competitiveness dynamics. To fill the gap in the literature, the authors' use a sample of 17 European countries from 2007 to 2020. The variables of interest are the competitiveness index, trade openness, and four ICT indicators (mobile phone, fixed telephone subscriptions, fixed telephone subscriptions, and Internet users). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the users' cross-app behavior characteristics in mobile search and to predict users' cross-app behavior using multi-dimensional information. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a longitudinal user experiment in 15 days. This paper recruited 30 participants and collected their mobile phone log data in the whole experiment. The structured diary method was also used to collect contextual information in mobile search. Findings: This study focused on the users' cross-app behavior in mobile search and described cross-app behavior's basic characteristics. Usage of communication app and tool apps could trigger more cross-app behavior in mobile search. The method of cross-app behavior prediction in the mobile search was proposed. Collecting users' more contextual information, such as search tasks, search motivation and other environmental information, can effectively improve the prediction accuracy of cross-app behavior in mobile search. Practical implications: The future research on cross-app behavior prediction should focus on context information in mobile search. Better prediction of cross-app behavior can reduce the users' interaction burden. Originality/value: This paper contributes to research into cross-app behavior, especially in the mobile search research domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore whether the use of an active learning methodology implemented through a mobile phone can help future teachers to develop more effective reading promotion activities than those based on traditional learning methodologies. Design/methodology/approach: A study was conducted based on the comparison of perceptions of two groups of teacher training students. The experimental group was trained in an active methodology to promote reading on mobile phones, whilst the control group was trained in a classical methodology also using the same devices. Variables were observed using a self-administered questionnaire, and the scores obtained were analysed from their descriptive statistics of the comparison of means of Kruskal–Wallis H test. Findings: The results showed that students perceived significant improvements associated with active learning methodology. The variables with the most remarkable results were those related to better use of the class, participation and satisfaction. However, the ubiquitous variable obtained the fewest differences, maybe because both learning methodologies were applied using mobile devices. Originality/value: The conclusions of this study clearly suggest that combining active learning methodologies and the use of mobile phones to promote reading could lead to better results than applying traditional learning methodologies. The value of this study paves the way for future research to move forward in the discovery of effective teaching strategies based on active methods and mobile devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Mobile phones have become one of the most favored devices to maintain social connections as well as logging digital information about personal lives. The privacy of the metadata being generated in this process has been a topic of intense debate over the last few years, but most of the debate has been focused on stonewalling such data. At the same time, such metadata is already being used to automatically infer a user's preferences for commercial products, media, or political agencies. The purpose of this paper is to understand the predictive power of phone usage features on individual privacy attitudes. Design/methodology/approach: The present study uses a mixed-method approach, involving analysis of mobile phone metadata, self-reported survey on privacy attitudes and semi-structured interviews. This paper analyzes the interconnections between user's social and behavioral data as obtained via their phone with their self-reported privacy attitudes and interprets them based on the semi-structured interviews. Findings: The findings from the study suggest that an analysis of mobile phone metadata reveals vital clues to a person's privacy attitudes. This study finds that multiple phone signals have significant predictive power on an individual's privacy attitudes. The results motivate a newer direction of automatically inferring a user's privacy attitudes by leveraging their phone usage information. Practical implications: An ability to automatically infer a user's privacy attitudes could allow users to utilize their own phone metadata to get automatic recommendations for privacy settings appropriate for them. This study offers information scientists, government agencies and mobile app developers, an understanding of user privacy needs, helping them create apps that take these traits into account. Originality/value: The primary value of this paper lies in providing a better understanding of the predictive power of phone usage features on individual privacy attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how people differently create meaning from photos taken by either a lifelogging camera (LC) (i.e. automatic capture) or a mobile phone camera (MC) (i.e. manual capture). Moreover, the paper investigates the different changes in the interpretative stance of lifelog photos and manually captured photos over time to figure out how the LC application could support the users' iconological interpretation of their past. Design/methodology/approach: A 200-day longitudinal study was conducted with two different user groups that took and reviewed photos taken by either a LC or a MC. The study was structured in two phases: a photo collection phase, which lasted for five days (Day 1‒Day 5), and a three-part semi-structured interview phase, which was conducted on Days 8, 50 and 200. Findings: Results revealed that the interpretative stance of the LC group changed greatly compared to the MC group that kept a relatively consistent interpretative stance over time. A significant difference between the two groups was revealed on Day 200 when the lifelog photos provoked a more iconological and less pre-iconographical interpretative stance. This stance allowed the viewers of lifelog photos to systemically interpret the photos and look back upon their past with different viewpoints that were not recognized before. Originality/value: This paper contributes to further understand the dynamic change in interpretative stance of lifelog photos compared to manually captured photos through a longitudinal study. The results of this study can support the design guidelines for a LC application that could give opportunities for users to create rich interpretations from lifelog photos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper aims to present the novel design approach for a low power LC-voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO) design with low phase noise that too targeted at the most sought band of Bluetooth applications. Owing to their crucial role in a wide variety of modern applications, VCO and phase-locked loop (PLL) frequency synthesizers have been the subject of extensive research in recent years. In fact, VCO is one of the key components being used in a modern PLL to provide local frequency signal since a few decades. The complicated synthesizer requirements imposed by cellular phone applications have been a key driver for PLL research. Design/methodology/approach: This paper first opted to present the recent developments on implemented techniques of LC-VCO designs in popular RF bands. An LC-VCO with a differential (cross-coupled) MOS structure is then presented which has aimed to compensate the losses of an on-chip inductor implemented in UMC's 130 nm RF-CMOS process. The LC-VCO is finally targeted to embed onto the synthesizer chip, to address the narrowband (S-Band) applications where Bluetooth has been the most sought one. The stacked inductor topology has been adopted to get the benefit of its on-chip compatibility and low noise. The active differential architecture, which basically is a cross-coupled NMOS structure, has been then envisaged for the gain which counters the losses completely. Three major areas of LC-VCO design are considered and worked upon for the optimum design parameters, which includes Bluetooth coverage range of 2.410 GHz to 2.490 GHz, better linearity and high sensitivity and finally the most sought phase noise performance for an LC-VCO. Findings: The work provides the complete design aspect of a novel LC-VCO design for low phase noise narrowband applications such as Bluetooth. Using tuned MOS varactor, in 130 nm-RF CMOS process, a high gain sensitivity of 194 MHz/Volt was obtained. Thus, the entire frequency range of 2415-2500 MHz for Bluetooth applications, supporting multiple standards from 3G to 5G, was covered by voltage tuning of 0.7-1.0 V. To achieve the low power dissipation, low bias (1.2 V) cross-coupled differential structure was adopted, which completely paid for the losses occurred in the LC resonator. The power dissipation comes out to be 8.56 mW which is a remarkably small value for such a high gain and low noise VCO. For the VCO frequencies in the presented LO-plan, the tank inductor was allowed to have a moderate value of inductance (8 nH), while maintaining a very high Q factor. The LC-VCO of the proposed LO-generator achieved extremely low phase noise of −140 dBc/Hz @ 1 MHz, as compared to the contemporary designs. Research limitations/implications: Though a professional tool for inductor and circuit design (ADS-by Keysight Technologies) has been chosen, actual inductor and circuit implementation on silicon may still lead to various parasitic evolutions; therefore, one must have that margin pre-considered while finalizing the design and testing it. Practical implications: The proposed LC-VCO architecture presented in this work shows low phase noise and wide tuning range with high gain sensitivity in S-Band, low power dissipation and narrowband nature of wireless applications. Originality/value: The on-chip stacked inductor has uniquely been designed with the provided dimensions and other parameters. Though active design is in a conventional manner, its sizing and bias current selection are unique. The pool of results obtained completely preserves the originally to the full extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a miniaturized antenna design for a mobile phone. The second design is 2 × 4 elements multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna with 8 port having a substrate size is 20 × 40 mm2 which fits easier within smartphone handset devices for fifth generation technology. Design/methodology/approach: In this work, the first design is a conventional patch antenna, and its dual-band characteristics are obtained by characteristic mode analysis. In this method, orthogonal modes are carried out for 28 GHz and 38 GHz, and further, both orthogonal modes are excited by finite integration technique full-wave method with 50 Ohm single port coaxial feed line. Findings: In this configuration, better return loss, high gain, larger bandwidths and low envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) are evaluated by the full-wave simulation computer simulation technology (CST) studio suite. Originality/value: In this arrangement, the performance metrics of the antenna are analyzed using electromagnetic simulator CST Studio suite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Mobile phones are radically transforming micro-finance in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Kenya, in particular. The introduction of the micro-financial transaction mobile phone application, “MPesa,” created a means to facilitate micro-transactions without the need for an intermediary, such as a banking system. The purpose of this paper is to posit an econophysics model to predict the value of Mpesa for Kenyan and South African consumers. The econophysics framework posits several fitness matrices and a distance measure that can account for the concepts of mass, distance, momentum, velocity, action, and force. The authors begin with a table of the match between the physics concepts and the economic concepts followed by the vector model that utilizes these concepts for the MPesa application case. In this paper, the authors will argue that MPesa succeeded in Sub-Saharan African countries, such as Kenya, because the fit between what this group of customers needed and the solutions Safaricom’s MPesa offered was a better fit with a smaller distance to adoption than in the South African case.Design/methodology/approach The research develops an econophysics approach to the assessment of micro-finance development in Sub-Saharan countries.Findings The research shows clearly the reasons of the success of MPesa in Kenya in comparison of its relative failure in South Africa: the distance between customers’ expectations and the system supply.Research limitations/implications The research is limited to two case studies and needs to be extended to other contexts, in order to demonstrate its robustness, especially with regard to the intangible dimension, e.g., the distance between a system potential and what it really offers.Practical implications The research shows the importance of system’s characteristics in its success.Social implications The social implications are very high, especially in this case, where micro-finance is a high stake for developing societies.Originality/value This is one of the first works to develop an econophysics approach for the evaluation of the key characteristics of a system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to find an approach that achieves constant output power and transfer efficiency in an open space, such as charging pads. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, a topology of the five-coil system including two transmitting coils is presented. Also, in a fixed-frequency mode and an open space, this study focuses on the two transmitting coils to achieve the uniform magnetic field and ultimately, attain the constant output power and transfer efficiency. Findings: In a fixed-frequency mode and an open space, the constant output power and transfer efficiency is then achieved in experiments by inserting the relay loop into the uniform magnetic field. Practical implications: An approach that achieves constant output power and transfer efficiency in an open space. The topology of the five-coil magnetically coupled resonant-wireless power transfer (MCR-WPT) system shows prospective value for various applications, which could be used at designing of wireless battery charger dedicated for cars or mobile phones. Originality/value: By comparing the simulation and experimental results, the topology can be optimized in the transmission performance by itself. By doing so, the constant output power and transfer ef?ciency are achieved in the constant frequency mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper relayed an important line of Mark Hepworth’s work, which engages with information technologies and development. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a subfield of library and information science (LIS) for development to reclaim the role of information services and systems for social change in rural areas. The paper looked at the extent of development gained with the advent of mobile phones.Design/methodology/approach Rather than undertaking traditional large-scale, quantitative, context-independent and survey-type research, the paper employed capability approach and semi-structured interviews to ascertain the experiences that mobile phone kiosk vendors in the rural Congo had of mobile phones.Findings It was found that mobile phones should be geared towards the liberation, and not utilization or commodification of humans and their needs and that mobile phones were not a catalyst of human basic capabilities.Research limitations/implications Since the method employed is an in-depth qualitative analysis of mobile phone kiosk vendors, obtained results can be used to enrich or inform mobile phone experiences in other settings and groups.Practical implications This paper provided empirical evidence as to how an important group of mobile phone users could harness development with their mobiles.Originality/value Most LIS literature has presented mobile phones along the lines of information freedom or access, mass subscription, adoption rates, technological and entrepreneurial innovation, micro-credits, etc. However, the paper placed the topic development at the heart of LIS debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Web search is more and more moving into mobile contexts. However, screen size of mobile devices is limited and search engine result pages face a trade-off between offering informative snippets and optimal use of space. One factor clearly influencing this trade-off is snippet length. The purpose of this paper is to find out what snippet size to use in mobile web search. Design/methodology/approach: For this purpose, an eye-tracking experiment was conducted showing participants search interfaces with snippets of one, three or five lines on a mobile device to analyze 17 dependent variables. In total, 31 participants took part in the study. Each of the participants solved informational and navigational tasks. Findings: Results indicate a strong influence of page fold on scrolling behavior and attention distribution across search results. Regardless of query type, short snippets seem to provide too little information about the result, so that search performance and subjective measures are negatively affected. Long snippets of five lines lead to better performance than medium snippets for navigational queries, but to worse performance for informational queries. Originality/value: Although space in mobile search is limited, this study shows that longer snippets improve usability and user experience. It further emphasizes that page fold plays a stronger role in mobile than in desktop search for attention distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how linkages between information and communication technology (ICT) and remittances affect the doing of business.Design/methodology/approach The focus is on a panel of 49 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries for the period 2000–2012. The empirical evidence is based on the generalized method of moments.Findings While the authors establish some appealing results in terms of net negative effects on constraints to the doing of business (i.e. time to start a business and time to pay taxes), some positive net effects are also apparent (i.e. number of start-up procedures, time to build a warehouse and time to register a property). The authors also establish ICT penetration thresholds at which the unconditional effect of remittances can be changed from positive to negative, notably: for the number of start-up procedures, an internet level of 9.00 penetration per 100 people is required, while for the time to build a warehouse, a mobile phone penetration level of 32.33 penetration per 100 people is essential. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to assess linkages between ICT, remittances and doing business in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- Research has shown that when presenting large amounts of social media information on small devices, design should consider multiple contexts which include user preferences, time, location, environment and so on. It should also take into account the purpose of use, for example, the kind of tasks undertaken by users. However, little research has been done on the organization of social media information by multiple context and tasks. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach -- Using tourism as a domain, the authors conducted a user evaluation study with a prototype to investigate users' preferred ways of organizing different types of social media information based on multiple contexts. Findings -- In this paper, the authors present a sequence of context types for organizing four types of social media information (recommendations, events, friends and media elements). The study revealed that users preferred to view recommendations by location and environment context, events by location and temporal context, contacts by location and identity context and finally, list of media elements by environment and identity context. Research limitations/implications -- There may be different sequences of context types for organizing social media information in domains other than tourism. Researchers are encouraged to analyze users' needs in other domains so as to find their preferred ways of organizing social media information. Practical implications -- This paper includes implications for the design and development of user interface, in particular, for mobile applications presenting large amount of social media information. Originality/value -- It presents a new way of organizing social media information using multiple context types and with consideration of users' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach of using mobile phones with Bluetooth technology to enter/exit restricted area. Design/methodology/approach – Applied Bluetooth technology implemented in mobile phones enables the user to perform the identification and the state of presence while entering/exiting the parking space without stopping the vehicle. For the successful implementation of this method for presence detection and proper identification, it is necessary to determine the values of the Bluetooth signal. Findings – This paper discuses a case study that has been done at entry/exit of parking lots. The obtained experimental results show that mobile phones with the Bluetooth technology can be successfully applied as presence detection sensors, as well as in processes for the identification of the user/object in the move. Practical implications – The paper gives a primer how mobile phones with Bluetooth technology, in addition to their basic purpose, can be used as identification devices to enter/exit restricted area. Originality/value – The users have possibilities to access restricted area using a common device – a mobile phone with Bluetooth technology. Successful implementation of developed access control system is based on determining the proper value of the Bluetooth signal strength field that extends around the control cabinet in which the Bluetooth devices are situated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of information literacy (IL) in food logging, the activity of recording food intake and monitoring weight and other health conditions that may be affected by diet, using applications (apps) accessed through mobile devices and personal computers.Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from a small group of food logging app users through a focus group and interviews. Analysis was informed by practice theory and the growing interest in IL outside educational settings.Findings Food logging revolves around the epistemic modality of information, but it is the user who creates information and it is not textual. Food logging is associated with a discourse of focussing on data and downplaying the corporeal information associated with eating and its effect on the body. Social information was an important source for choosing an app, but data were rarely shared with others. Food loggers are very concerned with data quality at the point of data entry. They have a strong sense of learning about healthy eating. They were not well informed about the data privacy and access issues.Practical implications Food loggers need to be better informed about data risks around food logging.Originality/value This is the first study of food logging from an IL perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a balanced study group consisting of 152 participants interact with, operate, customize, and control their smartphone applications. Design/methodology/approach – This work uses a qualitative research methodology involving an online user study questionnaire, supported by e-mailed user screenshots and online conversations. Findings – In terms of smartphone age, 72 per cent of the participants’ smartphones were less than two years old. This high level of churn rate was anticipated and will please retailers and marketers alike. This study found that the majority of smartphone users regularly arrange their app icons and that their categorization principle was based primarily on application associated functionality and frequency of use. This group of users seemed less concerned about the risks of privacy and security, and even when they had lost or had their smartphone stolen, few (5.2 per cent) had suffered from fraud, in contrast to the general perception of risk. Originality/value – This is one of the few studies to have investigated the area of smartphone use from the users’ perspective, leading to important insights into application user behaviour and icon arrangement, and as well as alternative possible implications for launcher design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for statistical inference on data from power law distributions in order to explain behavior and social phenomena associated with web-based social spaces such as discussion forums, question-and-answer sites, web 2.0 applications and the like. Design/methodology/approach - The paper starts by highlighting the importance of explaining behavior in social networks. Next, the power law nature of social interactions is described and a hypothetical example is used to explain why analyzing sub-sets of data might misrepresent the relationship between variables having power law distributions. Analysis requires the use of the complete distribution. The paper proposes logarithmic transformation prior to correlation and regression analysis and shows why it works using the hypothetical example and field data retrieved from Microsoft's Netscan project. Findings - The hypothetical example emphasizes the importance of analyzing complete datasets harvested from social spaces. The Netscan example shows the importance of the logarithmic transformation for enabling the development of a predictive regression model based on the power law distributed data. Specifically, it shows that the number of new and returning participants are the main predictors of discussion forum activity. Originality/value - This paper offers a useful analysis tool for anyone interested in social aspects of the Internet as well as corporate intra-net systems, knowledge management systems or other systems that support social interaction such as cellular phones and mobile devices. It also explains how to avoid errors by paying attention to assumptions and range restriction issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test the conditions that describe adjustment velocities to reach equilibrium under Cournot's duopoly model. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a vector error correction (VEC) framework as the basis for determining and testing adjustment velocities using data about cellphone service in Colombia in the time period from 1995 to 2001. Findings – Empirical evidence suggests the following: first of all, companies operating in the cellphone market behave as cournot's competitors and have constant marginal costs; secondly, cellphone companies operating in the eastern zone of Colombia are in long-term equilibrium; and lastly, equilibrium adjustment velocities are statistically significant. As predicted by theory, in terms of welfare, the existence of equilibrium in Cournot's model implies that cellphone users in the eastern zone of Colombia enjoy a small consumer surplus. Originality/value – Testing the microeconomic implications of the equilibrium dynamics of Cournot's model, using a VEC framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence people to play socially interactive games on mobile devices. Based on network externalities and theory of uses and gratifications (U&G), it seeks to provide direction for further academic research on this timely topic. Design/methodology/approach – Based on 237 valid responses collected from online questionnaires, structural equation modeling technology was employed to examine the research model. Findings – The results reveal that both network externalities and individual gratifications significantly influence the intention to play social games on mobile devices. Time flexibility, however, which is one of the mobile device features, appears to contribute relatively little to the intention to play mobile social games. Originality/value – This research successfully applies a combination of network externalities theory and U&G theory to investigate the antecedents of players’ intentions to play mobile social games. This study is able to provide a better understanding of how two dimensions – perceived number of users/peers and individual gratification – influence mobile game playing, an insight that has not been examined previously in the mobile apps literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to present a design of a single power supply, low voltage (1.2) high performance operational amplifier using 0.13?µm technology whose characteristics are superior compared to the other designs available in the literature. Design/methodology/approach - The authors set out to design an operational amplifier whose characteristics will be superior to the current available designs in the literature. Because of potential applications, a single 1.2?V supply was used. The layout was obtained using Microwind 0.13?µm technology. The design was tested using PSPICE Version 10.0. Various amplifier parameters were obtained and are compared with the other single supply, low voltage amplifiers available in the literature. Findings - The presented amplifier has better characteristics such as open loop gain, power supply rejection ratio, common mode rejection ratio, etc. Practical implications - Since, 0.13?µm, 1.2?V technology has become standard in digital VLSI design, there is a great need for high performance operational amplifiers that operate off of 1.2?V for mixed signal applications in such areas as mobile phones. Originality/value - The presented amplifier has better characteristics compared to few 1.2?V supply voltage amplifiers available in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]