Factors influencing individuals' intention to adopt mobile banking in China and Pakistan: The moderating role of cultural values

Rapid development of smartphone technologies in Asian countries has increased the demand of mobile banking in financial services and mobile commerce. Current research is conducted for mobile banking adoption in China and Pakistan. The social influence was added with technology acceptance model to investigate the direct effect on individuals' intention. Moderating role of cultural values was explored in the proposed model. Empirical study was performed for the data received from both countries to examine the developed model. Multiple and hierarchical regression analyses (IBM SPSS software) were carried out to test the proposed hypotheses. We have observed that perceived usefulness, social influence, and perceived ease of use are significant predictors of individuals' intentions to adopt m‐banking in Pakistan, whereas the perceived usefulness is an important predictor in China. The moderating role of cultural values was observed as dampening factor in positive relationship between social influence and individuals' intentions.     

Injustice and the New World Order: an anthropological perspective on “terrorism” in India

This article presents biographies of three activists of the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Following 9/11, the Indian state banned SIMI for fomenting “terrorism”, “sedition” and “destroying Indian nationalism”. Of the three SIMI activists, Qasim Omar had spent 30 months in prison and Samin Patel, a US citizen of Indian origin, 27 months. Both these prominent SIMI leaders were charged with denigrating the photo of India’s flag and making provocative speeches. I interviewed them after their release. The third was an ordinary (non-office bearer) activist. Drawing on their biographies, I argue that Islamist radicalism or “terrorism” should be construed politically. Contrary to the prevalent politics, the pivot of which is bare rationality of profit and loss and ruthless pursuit of national interests, the kind of politics SIMI actors enact is best understood as a profound act of ethics manifest in the quest for justice. As such, they are not enemies of freedom, democracy and human rights; on the contrary, activists such as those in SIMI strive to rescue freedom and human rights from being monopolised and molested by the mighty few and thereby truly universalise them. Against methodological nationalism, I take the post-World War II global order as the human condition in which to situate the radical politics of these young SIMI activists.