Investigating the Key Factors Influencing the Use of Online Social Networks in Public Sector Context in the UAE (original) (raw)
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Springer Nature Switzerland, 2019
Recently, there has been a rising concern over technology dependency, especially with the revolution of online social networking, which becomes the biggest phenomenon. It harnesses a web application to build social relations with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. There is a lot of research, which have been done in the field of Online Social Network Usage, but studies indicate the lack of research has been conducted for determining underlying factors that influence online social network usage among public sector employees in the UAE. This study employs structural equation modeling via AMOS to analyze 401 valid questionnaires for the assessment of the proposed model that is based on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology to identify the factors that affect the use of online social networks (OSN). The current research focused in one of Abu Dhabi’s public organizations, the Tourism Development and Investment Company. The main independent constructs in the model are related to performance, effort, social influence, and facilitating conditions about the use of OSN. The dependent constructs cover actual utilization of OSN. This paper describes the relations among the various constructs. Our work improved our insights on the online social networking model. Results indicated all four independent variables significantly predicted the actual usage of OSN with various percentages. The proposed model explained 50% of the variance in actual usage.
Antecedents And Outcomes of Online Social Networks (OSN) Usage among Public Sector Employees
International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 2020
The new technologies are enabling organizations to be flatter, networked, and more flexible. Organizations in the 21st century inevitably make substantial investments in Information Technology (IT) in order to achieve competitive advantage, by spending enormous sums of money on computer hardware, software, communication networks, databases and specialized personnel. Consequently, Information Technology is not exclusive to the workplace but has also become widespread in public areas and houses. The main objective of this study is to determine factors influencing the adoption and impact of online social networks use in terms of performance among employees within Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) in Abu Dhabi. This study collected data through quota nonprobability sampling, and 401 valid responses were received. Structural Equation Modelling-Variance based (SEM-VB) through partial least squares (PLS) method to analyse the research model using the software of SmartPLS 3.0. Although various limitations exist, the findings have been encouraging, as it has managed to shed some lights on new variables affecting the use of online social networks. This study proposed an extended model of the Unified Theory of Acceptance & use of Technology (UTAUT) and found that three variables play an important role to determine the performance impact of online social networks namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and actual usage. The findings of this study can provide policymakers with important insights on how to more successfully incorporate online social networks to improve performance and the services of public sector, and how to encourage top managers to ensure that employees are more likely to utilize new technologies and thereby enabling better work outcome, wider reach of services, gives employees more control over their daily tasks and enhances their performance.
Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 2017
Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to investigate those factors that are associated with the adoption of social networking sites from the perspective of Muslim users residing in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach-A complete self-administered questionnaire was collected from 223 Muslim users of social networking sites in Malaysia. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to sort the significant items for the constructs and to check the validity. Structural equation modelling was applied in testing the hypotheses and the fitness of the proposed model. Findings-The results of full structural model attest that technological and social factors are the most significant factors behind the adoption of social networking sites. However, this is followed by an educational factor. Among Muslim users in Malaysia, the study does not find significant influence of brand or product communication behind this adoption. Originality/value-The paper investigates those factors that are considered inevitable in the adoption of social networking sites. Invaluable findings were offered in the form of a structural model for the stakeholders of social networking sties. These findings can be used in planning and making decisions that may benefit all parties associated with it.
Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems, 2019
Abstract: The current research uses structural equations modeling (SEM) via PLS software in order to evaluate the 533 valid questionnaires. This is done for assessing the proposed model based on human capital variables for determining its impact on organizational performance in the UAE's public sector. The main independent constructs are knowledge, skills and competency. The dependent construct covers organizational performance. The research shall define the relationship between the various constructs. This work has improved our insight into the importance of human capital. The study results have shown prediction of organizational performance by independent variables stating a 32.8% of variance. The results have the potential to give further insights into enhancing public organizations' performance.
Factors Impacting Social Media Adoption in Public Sector Organizations: Case of Oman
International Journal of Computing and Information Sciences, 2016
Millions of people around the globe are daily interacting with each other and with organizations through social media platforms, which is a very convenient way of communication. Accordingly, public sector organizations around the world realized the importance of social media and thus are increasingly using it for communicating with their citizens. Although social media provides various benefits but risks also exist that are not only related to time, money, and effort losses; but also extends to include risks such as reputation and trust losses. Hence, it is critical for organizations to understand which factors impact the social media adoption most. Based on the literature review, this study initially identifies 20 factors that are important for social media adoption. We short-listed the identified factors to nine, based on the criteria that three or more researchers identified them as important in their studies. Then we asked experts in social media in Oman to rank those factors in the context of their importance. We used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to rank those nine factors. Results of the AHP show that some factors such as Social Media Strategy, Training and experience of Staff, Community Influence and Top Management Support are more important in a developing country as compared to developed countries.
Asia Pacific Management Review, 2019
In the past few years, the increasing use of the internet in many countries has changed the manner in the people socialise, learn, govern or do their business. However, there are countries such as Yemen which has a very low internet usage rate and sees little economic, social and cultural progress as a result. A significant volume of theoretical studies have already undertaken, seeking to understand ambiguities in technology usage, with a number of models being proposed. In this study, the researcher has focused on extending the UTAUT using an antecedent variable for the actual internet use (i.e., task-technology fit) and 4 outcome variables (i.e., decision quality, communication quality, knowledge acquisition, and user satisfaction). Survey questionnaires were distributed among the employees working in the various Yemeni governmental institutions and ministries, and primary data was collected from 520 different internet users. The data analysis was carried out using 2-stage procedures, wherein a measurement model was initially used, followed by a structural model for the assessment of the data, with the help of the SmartPLS 3.0. The multivariate data analysis yielded 2 results: 1) The different antecedent variables (like effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, and the task-technology fit) positively affected the internet usage, and 2) The outcome variables (decision quality, communication quality, knowledge acquisition, and user satisfaction) were positively affected by internet usage. The proposed model could explain 29% of variance noted in the actual internet use. Finally, the researchers investigated the different practical and theoretical implications of the study.
Psychology, 2013
Usage of online social business networks like LinkedIn and XING have become commonplace in today's workplace. This research addresses the question of what factors drive the intention to use online social business networks. Theoretical frame of the study is the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and its extensions, most importantly the TAM2 model. Data has been collected via a Web Survey among users of LinkedIn and XING from January to April 2010. Of 541 initial responders 321 finished the questionnaire. Operationalization was tested using confirmatory factor analyses and causal hypotheses were evaluated by means of structural equation modeling. Core result is that the TAM2 model generally holds in the case of online social business network usage behavior, explaining 73% of the observed usage intention. This intention is most importantly driven by perceived usefulness, attitude towards usage and social norm, with the latter effecting both directly and indirectly over perceived usefulness. However, perceived ease of use has-contrary to hypothesis-no direct effect on the attitude towards usage of online social business networks. Social norm has a strong indirect influence via perceived usefulness on attitude and intention, creating a network effect for peer users. The results of this research provide implications for online social business network design and marketing. Customers seem to evaluate ease of use as an integral part of the usefulness of such a service which leads to a situation where it cannot be dealt with separately by a service provider. Furthermore, the strong direct impact of social norm implies application of viral and peerto-peer marketing techniques while it's also strong indirect effect implies the presence of a network effect which stabilizes the ecosystem of online social business service vendors.
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies
In order to evaluate the problem of employees using social networking technology for business purposes, the technology acceptance model will be applied. The purpose of the study is to establish the levels of impact exerted by the elements that influence the intentions of individuals working in the university to utilize social media. Employees in the university’s connections between “organizational support,” “colleague support,” “self-efficacy,” “technology capacity,” “perceived usefulness,” “perceived ease of use,” and “behavior intention” are acknowledged as factors in this study. It was possible to get a total of 247 copies that were legitimate. For the purpose of inferential statistics, the partial least squares structural equation modeling method was applied. The data indicate that colleague support and technological capabilities do not have any impact on how easily something may be used or how valuable it is thought to be. On the other hand, organizational support and self-effi...
Science International, 2017
With the Internet being one of the most significant modern inventions, impacting every part of daily life and every facet of an organization's operations, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedent variables that affect internet usage and examine its impact on employee performance within government institutions, focusing particularly on Yemen. This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) with one antecedent variable to internet usage (internet self-efficacy) and one output variable (performance impact) and proposes a second-order model performance impact which contains three first-order constructs (knowledge acquisition, communication quality, and decision quality) in order to increase the power of explaining the output. A survey questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 530 internet users among employees within government ministries-institutions in Yemen. The subsequent analysis examined the relationship between the variables of the proposed model, which includes confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) via AMOS. The results showed that the data fit the extended TAM model well, and the findings of the multivariate analysis demonstrated four main results. (1) Internet self-efficacy has a positive impact on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness; (2) Perceived ease of use has great influence on perceived usefulness and actual usage of internet; (3) Perceived usefulness has a strong positive impact on actual usage of internet; and (4) Actual usage positively influences performance impact. The proposed model explains 60% of the variance in performance impact, and the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Intentions to Use Social Networking Sites (SNS) Using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
Paradigm, 2018
This article intends to empirically test and analyse Social Networking Sites (SNS) usage pattern applying Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and predict user’s intention to use SNS. This information would help in understanding better its remarkable marketing potential in India to practice and to create user value. The researchers explored intentions to use SNS using Davis (1985) TAM in Indian context and applied confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling (SEM) technique to check the model fitness. To commensurate this, a survey was carried out through a well-structured questionnaire of 172 respondents of North India, particularly from western UP covering different age groups, income level, educational background and professions. To explore the degree of fitness of TAM factors in SNS, six hypotheses were formulated and tested, where four were accepted and two were rejected. Findings revealed that the TAM fits with the data to interpret and analyse intentions to u...