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This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of e-learning adopters in Turkey and examines ways in which cultural factors shape the adoption and use of information technology for online teaching. This research focuses on influential early adopters in the tertiary education sector in Turkey who have become change agents by inspiring small networks of their peers into e-learning. The study examines the operation of trust and inspiration in networking and teamwork in the Asian academic environment. A key finding of this research is that the early adopters of e-learning tend to become change agents in small groups and networks. This research sheds light on the mechanisms by which the process of e-learning adoption relies on social networks and connections.

Purpose: To provide a conceptual model for the discovery and articulation of emergent organizational knowledge, particularly knowledge that develops when people work with new technologies. Design/methodology/approach: The model is based on two widely accepted research methods--action learning and grounded theory--and is illustrated using a case study of virtual team leadership, which investigated how virtual team leaders developed relationships with their virtual team members. Findings: The article demonstrates how action learning and grounded theory--two widely accepted research methods--can be used to discover and articulate new organizational knowledge. Practical implications: The model allows organizations to gain practical and highly current experiential knowledge from employees working in novel situations, including those using new organizational processes and technologies. Such knowledge can provide competitive advantage. Originality/value: The article contributes to the areas of knowledge management and particularly organizational learning by providing a method that maps how organizations can learn from novel situations involving people and technology.

Describes two action research projects undertaken at an Australian university to improve quality of services to foreign students and improve the institution's image through word of mouth, or informal marketing. Each project, although small, facilitated changes or improvements to a targeted service. The role of management in empowering employees and in action research is discussed. (MSE)

Byline: Stuart J. Barnes, Brian Corbitt The internet and the mobile phone - two technological advancements that have profoundly affected human behaviour in the last decade - have started to converge. The products of this association are mobile data services. Using a variety of platforms, services are being created to enable mobile devices to perform many activities of the traditional internet, albeit in a reduced format for mobile devices. One area of activity is mobile (m-) banking (one of the first areas of commercial transaction on the wireless internet). Banking is an area that has extended in many different ways in recent years, including telephone and online banking. M-banking provides yet another channel for banking services, and in emerging markets, provides some possibility for becoming a primary channel. This paper examines the strategic implications of m-banking and the strategic positioning of m-banking services in different markets. The paper concludes with a discussion of the future for m-banking services.

Abell, Angela, and Oxbrow, Nigel. Competing with knowledge: the information professional in the knowledge management age. London: Library Association Publishing and TFPL, 2001. 275p 37.50 [pounds sterling] hard ISBN 1856043398 [...]

An auto-ethnography and then analyses of narratives and ethnographies of other construction professionals are used to argue that reproduction of knowledge and expertise development is constrained by both normative professional thinking and a discourse of economic constraint generated by a highly competitive marketplace with a focus on time, cost, and quality trade-offs. The analysis of construction professionals’ narratives suggests that expertise development in construction is essentially an incremental process built on scenarios and influenced mostly by context and people, discourses of practices, legalities and professional expectations. Sometimes that incrementalism is distorted through radical innovation, but that is rare. Construction expertise in these stories is reproduced from base level learning and grows through practice. Practitioners, it is argued, accumulate knowledge and expertise, but the practice that emanates remains bounded within prevailing discourse which itself changes incrementally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a methodology to design a Container Terminal Operation Simulation (CTOS), which simulates the vulnerability of port operations to extreme weather events. In CTOS, an agent based model was built for a container terminal at the Port of Sydney to simulate the operations of port operational assets such as cranes, straddle carriers and trucks to observe the individual and collective behaviour under various extreme weather events using a set of Key Performance Indicators (e.g. crane rates, straddle productivity, truck queue length, yard utilisation). The CTOS results show that the crane throughput loss due to six hours of heavy rain and six hours of high speed wind (separately) is 13 per cent within a 24 hour period. While high speed wind and heavy rain have the highest impact on the crane throughput, high speed wind and flooding in the port area leads to a backlog in servicing trucks. Using a single terminal for the purpose of the simulation, as opposed to the entire Sydney Port, is a limitation. However, the CTOS is designed and coded in a manner that permits its modification such that it can be applied to other port contexts. CTOS offers a versatile tool for port authority to enable estimating performance implications of extreme weather-related disruptions to port operations. CTOS provides an effective proof of concept prototype where the system architecture can be reused in developing an open generic port operations model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore environmental sustainability (eco-sustainability) policy and strategy adoption and implementation in Australian companies. Specifically, it assesses what influences the extent of organizational eco-sustainability strategy implementation. Design/methodology/approach – This research used semi-structured interviews with senior executive from a list of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) 200 companies in banking, materials, real estate and transportation industry groups. A purposive sampling method was used to select the most appropriate participants. The “elite” interviewing method was adopted with persons who are recognized as the expert in the topic under investigation. Finally, an interpretative approach to data analysis was used. Findings – The paper shows the importance of eco-sustainability strategy alignment with the overall business strategy. Similarly, organizational structure and systems are recognized to be equally important. The senior executives also agreed that shared values, passionate skilled and experienced staff, the Board and senior management, as well as governance, are critical in ensuring a successful adoption and implementation of organizational eco-sustainability policy and strategy. Practical implications – This research provides some understanding of how organizations implement their eco-sustainability policy and strategy and what influences the extent of their eco-sustainability strategy implementation, and answers to why each dimension is important for a particular organization was gained through interviews with the senior executives. This paper also facilitates a better understanding of the relative importance placed on each dimension as a factor influencing eco-sustainability adoption and implementation. Originality/value – Drawing on theories from various disciplines and the McKinsey Seven S’s framework, this paper strengthens the foundation for industry practitioners to understand what influences the success of the eco-sustainability strategy adoption and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together two bodies of literature around knowledge management (KM) as enterprise integration (EI) and organisational ontology and epistemology as philosophy, in order to develop an extended KM approach to the development of bushfire preparedness material in the Australian context. Knowledge Management (KM) in enterprise integration (EI) practice manifests as process-centric electronic document and records management solutions. Knowledge creation and organisational epistemology is viewed as a social process, but this is often left unrepresented by KM processes. The body of literature on KM tends to focus on organisational functionality and organisational KM that is based on EI ontology tends to be restricted by organisational functionality and process models. We argue that developing the KM-Model using subjectivist epistemology has a significant role in KM and organisational studies for emergency and disaster agencies. As part of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) 'Effective Communication and Communities' project, bushfire communication materials were collected from all Australian States and Territories and analysed using NVivo, representing a knowledge base. Data sources including semi-structured interviews with bushfire agency staff and residents in bushfire-prone localities. Interview data was analysed using thematic analysis, and emergent themes were represented using UML as a platform independent representation of the extended knowledge domain that is capable of representation in a digital space. This work unites organisational ontology, organisational epistemology and EI; the different manifestations of KM. We theorise about how organisational epistemology itself forms as part of the knowledge, where currently there is a lacking of a satisfactory end-to-end framework. The KM lifecycle, therefore, is extended by incorporating the social research processes as part of organisational epistemology to include external audiences through the themes of locality types, place and roles of individuals as volunteers and agency staff. The practical implications are that qualitative methods and toolsets can be included as part of KM to improve the development and deployment of bushfire preparedness material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Since little research has been done on e-government initiatives in developing countries from a government perspective, this study aims to contribute towards filling this empirical gap. It also comes at a time when Oman, like many other countries in the region are tackling issues related to transformation of public services and transparent government. E-government is one of the tools in the process of transition. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretically derived and empirically confirmed framework of government motives for implementing e-government is proposed. This study used a qualitative case study approach with semi-structured interviews as the main tool of data collection and hermeneutics as the technique for data analysis. Empirical investigation was preceded by a content analysis of research and public official artefacts relating to motivation for engagement with e-government in 70 developing countries. Identified motives were categorised through the lenses of institutional theory, information quality, and quality of service models and incorporated in a single framework to guide the empirical investigation while keeping it flexible to accommodate for country-specific factors specific to Oman. Findings – Findings suggest that Oman is motivated by driving forces similar to other developing countries. Specifically, the Government of Oman implemented e-government projects due to international coercive, mimetic, and normative dynamics of conformance to international standards. Similarly, the government employed e-government to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of government operations by improving public service quality and quality of information shared between different agencies. Motivating factors were, first, the compelling need to effectively respond to a specific economic crisis of anticipated depletion of oil reserves and, second, institutional dynamics inflicted by the global discourse on e-government and knowledge-based economy. Practical implications – The framework proposed in this paper represents a view of e-government objectives conceptualised in a theoretical context. It can be used to assist policy-makers in formulating successful e-government implementation strategies. In addition, dimensions of service quality and information quality could form a systematic basis for successful provision of electronic public services. Originality/value – The research in e-government lacks a clear definition and theoretical linkage of the different adoption motives from a government perspective especially during the pre-implementation stage. The proposed framework strives to be both comprehensive and integrative, based on interrelated theoretical elements, as compared to existing frameworks which mostly focus on the end-user adoption of e-government services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hajj & Umrah religious tourism accounts for seven million visitors each year in Saudi Arabia. The government has recently taken initiatives to promote the use of Information Systems (IS) in the religious tourism industry, encouraging firms to adopt IS innovations like e-commerce and enforcing the use of the Makha'a information system in Umrah for external pilgrims and the Yosr information system in Hajj for internal pilgrims. This study outlines the motivations and challenges that affect the utilisation of various IS services in the Saudi religious tourism industry through a qualitative analysis of the views and perceptions of senior executives and owners of travel firms. The findings suggest that while government initiatives and industry competitiveness were two positive factors promoting IS use, there are some major barriers preventing private firms from fully utilising the advantages of information systems. These include external factors such as lack of support from the IT industry and access to IT resources as well as internal factors within an organisation such as lack of commitment or the need for professional IT expertise. The study finds that relative advantage is a critical contributor to IS utilisation which depends on information systems characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical investigation of the critical determinants for the adoption of e-market in Australian small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) within the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual model is proposed for better understanding the adoption of e-market in Australian SMEs. Structural equation modelling is used for testing and validating the proposed conceptual model based on the survey data collected from Australian SMEs. A logistic regression analysis is conducted for identifying the relationship between the critical determinants and the adoption of e-market in Australian SMEs. Findings – A positive relationship is identified between the perceived direct benefit, top management support, external pressure, trust and the adoption of e-market in Australian SMEs. The top management support emerges as the most critical determinant. The perceived indirect benefit, size and organization readiness, however, do not show a significant influence on the adoption of e-market in Australian SMEs. Research limitations/implications – This study focuses on the investigation of the critical determinants in the adoption of e-market in Australian SMEs. In order to gain an holistic understanding of the e-market adoption in Australian SMEs, the impact of adopting e-market on the performance of SMEs should be examined. Furthermore, this study does not distinguish the adoption of e-market in SMEs between Australian metropolitan and rural areas. SMEs located in rural areas by the nature and location own specific characteristics such as a limited access to resources and less influenced by external pressure. The issues of their concern in the adoption of e-market might be different from those located in metropolitan areas. Originality/value – This study contributes to the e-market adoption research in proposing and validating a research model for the e-market adoption within the TOE framework, and by highlighting the criticality of the determinants of adopting e-market in Australian SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an ontology-based conceptual framework for effectively managing exploratory e-learning resources. The proposed framework has five significant novel features including authentication of retrieved resources, automatic ontology-based query refinement, reuse-oriented management of retrieved resources, adaptive retrieval of learning resources based on the style and preference of individual learners, and synthesisation of retrieval and management activities for creating reusable learning repositories. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated using a sample fragment of an ontology developed in the database domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the critical success factors for sustainable e-learning in an e-learning ecosystem framework. Three critical components of the e-learning ecosystem including principles and methods, processes and systems, and substance and content are considered based on a comprehensive review of the relevant literature in e-learning. Design/methodology/approach – Systematic interviews are conducted with experts in e-learning for identifying the critical success factors to sustainable e-learning within an e-learning ecosystem framework. This leads to the development of an e-learning success model that describes the underlying relationship between and among the identified critical success factors. Findings – A comprehensive analysis of the interview results shows that there are several barriers to the effective adoption of the proposed e-learning success model for improving the effectiveness of e-learning. These barriers include a lack of understanding of the technologies behind various pedagogies, insufficiencies of the popular learning management systems, and the sustainability of the learning objects repositories. Research limitations/implications – The paper highlights the criticality of synergizing the three components of e-learning ecosystems namely pedagogies, technologies and management of learning resources for achieving a sustainable e-learning success. Practical implications – A better understanding of these barriers would help e-learning stakeholders develop appropriate strategies and policies for the implementation of the proposed e-learning success model towards creating a sustainable e-learning environment. Originality/value – Specific contributions of this research to the entire e-learning community are discussed with recommendations for concerted policy measures to eliminate the identified barriers in the process of adopting the developed e-learning success model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]