Framework for teachers' acceptance of information and communication technology in Pakistan: Application of the extended UTAUT model

The motive of this research paper is to investigate the teachers' adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) in Pakistan and the application of extended UTAUT model in a new context. A number of factors can cause changes in intention towards the usage of ICT including social, behavioral, and psychological factors, but this study, using the UTAUT model, is limited to examining the behavioral determinants of teachers' acceptance of ICT. To achieve the objective, a quantitative approach was adopted where questionnaire‐based data were obtained for analysis. The analyses were conducted on 341 valid responses that were collected from the teachers of high secondary schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. Getting the data analyzed through SPSS and AMOS, our results show that performance expectancy, efforts expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and information technology capabilities play a significant role in shaping teachers' adoption of ICT. Moreover, behavioral intentions mediate the relationship between the predictors and ICT usage. Based on the findings of this paper, administrators and government are recommended to spend additional efforts and money by launching programs for their teachers to increase the usage of ICT in their teaching and schools. The study provides numerous insights for teachers, school administrators, and government ICT‐based smart teaching and learning institutions.     

Are Green Vehicles Worth the Extra Cost? The Case of Diesel‐Electric Hybrid Technology for Urban Delivery Vehicles

A central question for environmental policy is whether the long‐term benefits of energy‐saving technologies are sufficient to justify their short‐term costs, and if so, whether financial incentives are needed to stimulate adoption. The fiscal effects of incentivizing new technologies, and the revenue effects of using the technology, are also policy relevant, given current fiscal constraints. This study evaluates the economic and fiscal effects of promoting diesel‐electric hybrid technology in urban delivery vehicles, an application supported by U.S. policymakers. An economic model is used to simulate the conditional probability density functions of the net present values (NPVs) of diesel electric hybrids annually from 2012 to 2030. The NPV time paths, which reflect fuel price, environmental, and technology trends, show the expected dates that hybrids become economically viable, and allow an evaluation of the net benefits of hybrid technology as an investment over the entire simulation horizon. The NPV distributions are computed for five stakeholder classes, including transportation firms, parties benefiting from reduced externality damages, state and local governments, and the larger society. The analysis shows that hybrid technology investment does not appear to be justified from a societal perspective at a 7 percent discount rate, but the probability for positive net returns increases substantially at a 3 percent rate.     

民营资本主动融资方式阻碍因素的初步分析

中央政府各部门近年来出台了一系列"引入民间资本进入基础设施领域"特许经营政策法规,来推动新一轮的基础设施建设的浪潮。虽然PFI方式(主要是BOT模式)有很多的优点,然而其运作结果和过程都存在着颇多争议的问题。对若干阻碍PFI的因素进行比较分析,确定其重要性程度,以期对今后政府出台相关保证PFI运作的政策起到一定的借鉴作用。从国内对PFI和民间资本在基础设施建设的有关文献中识别出23个阻碍因素,这23个因素按归属划分为现存体制、政府行为和企业素质三个方面,并通过问卷调查和运用数理统计方法得出":缺乏权益保障"和"阻碍融资渠道的畅通"是两个最关键的风险因素;被调查者的工作性质,如政府部门或民营企业,对阻碍因素的关键性程度没有产生明显差别的影响。     

Choosing among fuels and technologies for cleaning up the air

One of the central elements in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments is the regulation of emissions from motor vehicles. This legislation will have a dramatic impact on the type of cars people drive over the coming decades. Given the high cost of achieving further reductions from automobiles, there has been increasing interest in exploring new technologies and alternative fuels that improve environmental quality. The purpose of this study is to provide an integrated framework for assessing the cost effectiveness of control options that involve a combination of vehicle changes and fuel changes. This study demonstrates the importance of doing an integrated analysis in selecting an appropriate combination of technologies and fuels; it also highlights the need to consider decentralized regulatory approaches, such as effluent taxes and marketable permits, when the data are characterized by large uncertainties. The analysis suggests that a modest improvement in vehicle control technology is probably a cost effective strategy for reducing ozone; however, using a severely reformulated gasoline or an advanced technology, such as the electric vehicle, is unlikely to be cost effective compared with other available options for improving air quality. The cost savings from introducing a market-based approach in place of a vehicle mandate in California and the Northeast are estimated to range from $7 to $29 billion.     

Socio‐Economic and political empowerment through self help groups intervention: A study from Bilaspur,Chhattisgarh, India

The paper presents a study on the socio‐economic, and political empowerment of rural women, through the Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Bilaspur Division, Chhattisgarh, India. The various factors involved as empowerment indicators were individually discussed based on the data collected from the women SHG members (by random sampling). The detailed data analysis of individual factors and their impact on aforesaid empowerment have been discussed. Its level of significance has been evaluated using Chi‐Square Test and P‐value using statistical data analysis software tool SPSS. Subsequently, the degree of empowerment and the ranking of the factors, its contribution to all three dimensions of empowerment have been evaluated using the Garret Ranking Method. It is found from the study that, there is significant empowerment in all three dimensions. It is also estimated from the Garret Ranking Method, that women after associating with SHG were found economically empowered most significantly, then the socially and politically. The work will be useful for the policymakers to frame the policy and enhance the degree of women empowerment for the selected area of the study as well as other rural areas.     

Decision-making for Urban Technology

This article describes the decision-making process that is involved in introducing innovations to local public organizations. It defines six stages of the process of innovating in the public sector, as well as the four sets of actors involved in the process. The article is based on the findings of a study conducted for the National Science Foundation, entitled Adoption and Utilization of Urban Technology: A Decision-Making Process (1976). In this study, twenty case histories of urban innovation in Syracuse and Rochester, New York, provided an in-depth data base on decision-making with respect to new technology in the local public sector. The findings in these twenty cases are cited, together with an analysis of the factors that lead to success or failure. The role of urban entrepreneurship and coalition-building and its vital impact on the introduction of new technology is also examined. Some previous misconceptions regarding innovation in urban government are revealed in the conclusions. Also, the skills of key actors, especially bureaucratic entrepreneurs, that are necessary for succesful local innovation are depicted.     

How capital technologies affect municipal service outcomes: The case of police mobile digital terminals and stolen vehicle recoveries

Mobile digital terminals (MDTs) are two-way computers, installed inside police vehicles, that provide officers with remote data base prospecting capabilities. Proponents argue that MDTs help officers recover stolen property. Several Texas police departments implemented MDT systems in the 1980s. This article assesses how MDTs in Dallas and Fort Worth affected vehicle theft recoveries, in comparison to a city with no MDTs, Austin. Five hypotheses are evaluated in a multiple interrupted time series design using ANOVA, response surface analysis, and pooled time series regression. The analysis of recoveries before and after intervention in two MDT cities and one non-MDT control city suggests that the technology is linked with increases in vehicle theft recoveries. The magnitude of improvement in recoveries associated with MDTs is more significant at lower levels of vehicle thefts. Austin showed some improvement in recovery rates without using MDTs, so other factors besides the technology are likely to be important.     

Leading the Implementation of ICT Innovations

This article analyzes the associations between leadership, the implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) innovations, and performance. After reviewing theories and empirical evidence from the literature on leading change, ICT innovations, and performance, the authors elaborate hypotheses and test them in an analysis of the implementation of an ICT innovation in a Danish multisite hospital. In a quasi‐experimental research design using panel data, survey responses from more than 2,000 employees before and after the implementation were generated, in addition to qualitative interviews with change agents. Findings indicate how differences in leadership during the ICT implementation process have an important impact on performance after the implementation. Mobilization of initial support, directive leadership through information and technical assistance, participative leadership through employee involvement, and locally adapted implementation processes are important leadership factors associated with performance. The article concludes by discussing broader perspectives of the study and implications for practice, theory, and future research.     

Cognitive Biases in Governing: Technology Preferences in Election Administration

Cognitive biases are heuristics that shape individual preferences and decisions in a way that is at odds with means‐end rationality. The effects of cognitive biases on governing are underexplored. The authors study how election administrators’ cognitive biases shape their preferences for e‐voting technology using data from a national survey of local election officials. The technology acceptance model, which employs a rational, means‐end perspective, suggests that the perceived benefits of e‐voting machines explain their popularity. But findings indicate that cognitive biases also play a role, even after controlling for the perceived benefits and costs of the technology. The findings point to a novel cognitive bias that is of particular interest to research on e‐government: officials who have a general faith in technology are attracted to more innovative alternatives. The authors also find that local election officials who prefer e‐voting machines do so in part because they overvalue the technology they already possess and because they are overly confident in their own judgment.     

The distribution of income in a despotic society

A distribution of income between rulers and subjects can be derived as an equilibrium of violence, rather than from considerations of marginal products of owned factors of production. Society is organized in ranks, and the occupants of each rank are provided with incomes just sufficient that obedience is preferable to rebellion. To incorporate such considerations into a model, it is necessary to recognize phenomena that are normally excluded from economic analysis: combat, the mortality rate (from natural causes and from violence) as a component of the utility function, and a rudimentary technology of control.     

公共科技政策分析的理论进路：评述与比较

公共科技政策分析是一个颇具多样性的领域。新古典经济学、演化经济学、科学技术与社会研究、政策科学4种理论进路各有特点。新古典经济学的政策分析非常清晰,可提供直接的政策工具;演化经济学给予科技发展一种系统的理解,可得到科技发展的结构性制度安排;STS以宽阔的视野,在政策导向、科技行为的规范、政策对科技的建构等方面具有丰富的思想和措施含义;政策科学的分析关注政策系统,为改进政策过程提供认识基础。基于对4种理论进路共性与差异的比较,提出了一个公共科技政策分析的整合的概念框架。     

New rôles of government in supporting manufacturing: the capabilities of support agencies in Ghana and Zimbabwe

This study examines the roles and capabilities of executive agencies in providing support services to manufacturing in Ghana and Zimbabwe. It asserts that the new roles of government during and after adjustment have not been clearly defined and are in fact more complex than running state‐owned productive enterprises. The basic shift is said to be from direct provision of goods and services to the provision of an enabling environment through support in areas such as training, information, finance, export and investment promotion and technology. Economic development is stimulated when there is a harmonious relationship between entrepreneurs and their institutional environment, much of which is provided by the state. This article concentrates upon the role of meso‐level agencies in changing incentives faced by entrepreneurs and shifting them out of unproductive activity and into productive entrepreneurship, and outlines some of the preliminary results from related research. There are several factors which influence the capabilities of agencies providing these services. Essentially they may be divided into internal and external factors. This allows the analysis to consider not only budgeting and incentive systems but also the impact of external pressures experienced by any given agency. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The rational behavior theory of voting participation: Evidence from the 1970 and 1982 elections

In recent years a substantial literature on the determinants of voting participation has been developed. In many of these studies voting is assumed to be an expression of rational behavior. That is, people vote when they expect that the benefits will exceed the related costs. Voting is largely an act of consumption based upon the widely held belief that one should vote to fulfill a civic duty or upon some combination of personal characteristics which is sufficiently vague to make precise measurement impossible. The rational behavior theory, however, holds that voting is influenced at the margin by personal and environmental factors which incrementally affect expected benefits and costs, making the act of voting more or less rational. Those factors which increase expected benefits will, ceteris paribus, enhance the probability that one will vote. Those factors which increase expected costs will, of course, have the opposite effect. This study is presented as a primarily empirical contribution to the literature which assumes that, since voting is an expression of rational behavior, it can be modeled and tested using standard economic analysis and methodology. The study is designed to fulfill several purposes. First, we update previous empirical work using data from the 1980 census and from the 1982 congressional elections. The results of our regressions strongly support the rational behavior theory. In addition, we test to determine whether it is less rational for southern blacks to vote as compared to their white counterparts. Our results suggest that the answer is affirmative. Tests of parameter equivalency between the 1970 and 1982 congressional elections are performed with some interesting results. Finally, tests for specification error provide evidence that the rational behavior model and congressional district data generate statistically valid estimates of the determinants of voting participation.     

Health awareness of rural households towards COVID-19 pandemic in India: Evidence from Rural Impact Survey of the World Bank

This paper aims at analysing the level of awareness of the symptoms and the methods of protection from COVID-19 based on the Rural Impact Survey of the World Bank, collected from 5200 households belonging to six states in India that is, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Data has been analysed using chi-square test and regression analysis. Results of the analysis indicate that about 70.8% rural households are aware of the symptom of coronavirus, and 81.9% are aware of the preventive measures for controlling the spread of COVID-19. Analysis indicates a significant association between awareness level on symptoms and prevention of COVID-19 and socio-demographics and location. The study further analyses the key determinants of awareness of COVID-19 symptoms and preventive measures using the logistics regression model, indicating that age, gender, education, income, poverty status, access to information, cash relief and medical services are the determining factors of health awareness on COVID-19 pandemic among rural households in India. Considering the importance of self-protecting measures in fighting the pandemic, this paper highlights the importance of strengthening public awareness for containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.     

2007年国际风险投资研究特征及前沿动态综述

中国风险投资研究尚处于起步阶段,需要了解国际风险投资研究的现状和发展趋势。沿用作者2006年风险投资研究综述所创建的分析框架,将风险投资研究分为经济学和管理学两个维度、11个研究领域,使用Excel分析了2007年国际风险投资研究的特征,重点介绍了风险投资研究的前沿动态,给出了可能的研究方向。通过对检索到的87篇文献的梳理和分析,发现2007年国际风险投资文献仍然以实证研究为主,欧美学者仍然占据主流位置,美国仍然是研究焦点所在,其成功经验正被包括发达国家在内的世界各国所借鉴以促进创新经济的发展。从期刊来源分析发现,关注风险投资的期刊愈来愈多,其中包括顶级经济学和管理学学术期刊。对文献的内容分析表明,经济学维度的研究除了关注法律和公共政策因素对风险投资的影响这类传统热点之外,开始关注资本市场以及技术水平这类因素,此外,风险投资集群被特别关注;管理学维度研究的热点基本保持不变,但是观点出现分歧,新的动向是对风险投资网络的关注。     

Who controls the wealth? Electoral system design and ethnic war in resource-rich countries

Both natural resource wealth and electoral system design are frequently investigated factors in the civil wars literature. So far, however, there is no well-known study which explicitly considers the interaction effect between these two factors on the risk of violent ethnic conflict. We argue that resource-rich countries with a proportional electoral system for the legislature are less prone to ethnic civil war than resource-rich countries with a majoritarian or mixed electoral system, as proportional electoral systems tend to increase the effective number of parliamentary parties and thus the number of groups who can share state control over resource wealth. We find empirical support for this argument using binary time-series-cross-section analysis covering 83 to 140 countries between 1984 and 2007.     

农民工城市融合概念及对城市感知关系的影响——基于上海农民工的调查研究

数以亿计的农民工和谐融入城市是当前以及未来中国社会发展中的重大问题。为了研究文化融合、经济融合、政治融合和社会融合等诸方面的因素是如何影响农民工对城市的感知关系水平的,基于2010年在沪农民工的问卷调查数据,考察了农民工城市融合诸因素对城市感知关系(生活满意度、认同度、未来发展意愿)的影响。发现:文化融合程度越高,农民工对上海的认同程度就越高,也会更愿意留在上海发展,但其生活满意度未必越高;经济融合程度越高,城市生活满意度、城市认同度和未来留在上海发展的意愿都越高;政治融合只对未来发展意愿有影响;社会融合越高,农民工对城市的认同度越高,对生活也越满意。研究为政府引导和促进农民工和谐融入城市提供了新的视角。     

Asset quality determinants of Indian banks: Empirical evidence and policy issues

The Indian banking industry has been suffering from a huge number of nonperforming loans, and the loan asset quality has been deteriorated over the years. This has led to significant capital erosion of many banks in India. The surge in corporate defaults leading to an enormous rise in nonperforming loan assets has been impairing the performance of Indian banking industry in particular and economic growth in general. Hence, it is intuitive to ask what are the determinants of poor asset quality of Indian banks. To answer this question, using a sample of 47 commercial banks over a sample period of 2000 to 2014, our study examines the bank‐, industry‐, and macroeconomic‐specific determinants of asset quality of Indian banks. Our empirical analysis also accommodates the impact of different ownership structures (public and private sector) and the impact of financial crisis while analysing the determinants of poor asset quality of Indian commercial banks. Results reveal that bank‐, industry‐, and macroeconomic‐specific factors are responsible for the burgeoning nonperforming loan assets of Indian commercial banks. The results are qualitatively similar across different ownership structures. The findings suggest that forecasting models for nonperforming assets should also consider macroecomomic‐ and industry‐specific factors along with the bank‐ specific factors.     

Efficiency,Incentives, and Transformational Leadership: Understanding Collaboration Preferences in the Public Sector

In the public sector, participant attitudes are an important determinant of the success of inter-organizational collaboration initiatives. In this study, a model of employee willingness to collaborate is proposed in which the influence of transformational leadership is determined in part by the performance orientation of the organizational context in which it is enacted. The theoretical model is tested empirically using survey data collected from public employees in South Korea and regression-based Monte Carlo simulation. The analysis suggests that the effect of transformational leadership is amplified by an organization’s emphasis on internal efficiency and its use of performance-based incentives, factors that themselves have independent positive and negative effects, respectively, on attitudes about collaboration. This study links transformational leadership to an increasingly necessary process in the public sector and highlights its context-dependent influence. Implications of the findings are discussed, including the notion that the efficacy of tactics adopted to support inter-organizational collaboration may be a function of their consistency with the realities of established organizational policies and processes.     

A Closer Look at Reporting Bias in Conflict Event Data

Recent data collections about political violence are frequently based on media reports, which can lead to reporting bias. This is an issue in particular for the emergent literature on communication technology and conflict, since this technology may not only affect violence, but also the reporting about it. Using the effect of cellphones on violence as an example, this article presents a quantitative assessment of reporting bias in a micro‐level analysis. Comparing media‐based event reports and those from military sources, the results show that the purported violence‐increasing effect of cellphone coverage is partly due to higher reporting rates of violence in cellphone‐covered areas. A simple diagnostic procedure for this problem is implemented. Applied to the analysis of cellphones and violence in Africa, it produces a pattern that is consistent with reporting bias driving much of the effect found in the Pierskalla and Hollenbach (2013) study about this topic.