The possible health hazards of cell phones are a controversial issue that is being debated in var... more The possible health hazards of cell phones are a controversial issue that is being debated in various literatures. This study reports on an empirical investigation of the effect of these hazards on the intention to use third generation (3G) cell phones. A model explicating the relationships between health risk perception and behavioural intention to use cell phones is developed and tested using structural equation modeling techniques. Furthermore, the moderating roles of several demographic variables are examined. To obtain variation in health risk perceptions, the study employs an experimental design in which two groups receive contradictory information from trusted sources on the possible health hazards of cell phones. Overall, this study integrates the perceived health risk concept into the technology acceptance literature.
The Web has been changing the retail market in many ways. Following a newmarket framework, this p... more The Web has been changing the retail market in many ways. Following a newmarket framework, this paper analyzes the unique characteristics of the Web forretail applications, examines its market effects, and presents two perspectivesfor business response strategies. The Web can either be used as a marketing tool,which is integrated into traditional business strategies, or can be viewed as anew marketplace, which demands new business design. Differences betweenthese two views will have strategic and implementation implications for bothtraditional and startup retailers as they adapt to Web marketing. Finally, wepropose some research issues and challenges that should be addressed to betterour understanding and promote the success of this new marketplace.
PurposeOnline dating services have been growing rapidly in recent years. However, adopting these ... more PurposeOnline dating services have been growing rapidly in recent years. However, adopting these services may involve high risk and trust issues among potential users toward both online dating services and the daters they introduce to users. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived benefits vs risks, and trust vs distrust affect user adoption vs non-adoption intentions toward using this rather controversial information and communications technology in the context of online dating.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modeling was used to evaluate the research model using data from a survey of 451 single individuals.FindingsThe results indicated that perceived benefits play more essential roles in adoption, while perceived risks affect non-adoption more. Individuals' trust in online dating service predicts a major portion of the variation in user benefit perceptions, while distrust in online dating service and in daters that users might select significan...
Communications of the Association for Information Systems
This material is brought to you by the Journals at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been ac... more This material is brought to you by the Journals at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been accepted for inclusion in Communications of the Association for Information Systems by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contact [email protected].
In North America, heart failure (HF) is the leading cause for hospital readmission. Supportive te... more In North America, heart failure (HF) is the leading cause for hospital readmission. Supportive technology, such as computers and tablets, could potentially assist patients with self-care to manage their condition after hospital discharge; however, older individuals have difficulties in adopting technology to manage their condition. This study used a mixed methods design to identify barriers to technology use in HF self-care. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 HF patients and 10 informal caregivers or care partners (CP). In the quantitative phase, five questionnaires were administered to 15 patients and 8 CP: Montreal Cognitive Assessment; Short Literacy Survey and Subjective Numeracy Scale; Self-Care of HF Index; Knowledge Assessment Questionnaire; and Patient Activation Measure. In the qualitative phase, five themes emerged regarding engagement in self care and technology use: knowledge level of HF; level of willingness to ask questions related to HF; confidence level in making health-related decisions individually; level of technology usage in daily activities; and self-recording of health measurements. Quantitative analysis found that most HF patients had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), adequate health numeracy levels to understand and manage their health condition, high confidence levels in managing their condition and willingness to engage in self-care. There was variation in willingness to adopt technology. Patients were willing to engage in HF self-care however they relied on CPs who were more willing to ask questions about HF. Technology tools may assist in HF self-care, but they must be tailored for use among older individuals.
This research is an unbiased empirical evaluation of user reasons to accept or resist a mobile in... more This research is an unbiased empirical evaluation of user reasons to accept or resist a mobile information and communication technology (ICT) application for health promotion. This innovative use of mobile ICT consists of developing services that educate people to stay healthy, with clear benefits for both individuals and society. Receiving customized health advice through mobile devices may be an attractive
This paper explores the performance of Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) on Busin... more This paper explores the performance of Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) on Business-to-Business (B2B) electronic marketplaces (EMs). Based on a content analysis of 155 cases of high performing online Chinese vendors, this paper explains the success of SME online B2B vendors within a Motivation-Capability framework. This first generation of SME B2B online vendors proved highly motivated to increase sales and developed a set of Internet leveraged organizational capabilities to compete online, including capabilities for online marketing, product innovation, eCommerce management, etc. This study differs from traditional wisdom that online marketplaces will render Guanxi (a Chinese cultural phenomenon defined as close and pervasive interpersonal relationships, Yang, 1994) irrelevant since online marketplaces are perceived to be impersonal. In fact, Guanxi still matters online, but it takes new forms. This research offers important managerial implications for B2B SME online vendors on how to leverage EMs for higher performance.
This work proposes a cost/benefit analysis for developing mobile healthcare solutions that could ... more This work proposes a cost/benefit analysis for developing mobile healthcare solutions that could improve chronically ill outpatient adherence (also known as compliance) to prescribed medical regimens. The paper begins by briefly discussing the importance and consequences of insufficient patient adherence and the modalities of mobile information technology that could address this critical issue. Medical and non-medical savings are identified that could result from adherence-enhancing initiatives, balanced by investment and operating costs. The work substantiates the importance of business evaluation of any such initiative, and suggests directions for future research.
The aim of this study is to determine the time and financial limitations that people would accept... more The aim of this study is to determine the time and financial limitations that people would accept for using a telehealth service consisting of wireless text messaging reminders to improve adherence to a recommended healthy regimen. An empirical study based on a 1-month trial of a prototype system that studied adherence to a specified healthy behaviour was conducted. Fifty-one participants received daily cell phone text messaging reminders on taking one vitamin C pill daily for preventive reasons. At the end of the trial they answered a survey regarding their willingness to pay for and to stay with such a service, if offered. If usage were free, only 45% of the participants would continue to use it for a long indefinite period of time. If the usage were for a fee, 29% of the participants would use the service just a few weeks; 28% would use it an indefinite period of time if they could see its usefulness and if the cost were reasonable. The median amount indicated by the participants as a reasonable monthly fee for such a service was $5. Although the study did not evaluate perceived usefulness to use the telehealth service explicitly, a benefit perception proved to condition participant willingness to use the service and to pay for it, if necessary. If people perceive usefulness, they want to use the service, even for a fee. A free service would not be used if it is not perceived as beneficial.
Innovative applications of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) include the rece... more Innovative applications of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) include the recent use of mobile services for preventive health interventions. We report on a one-month empirical study of such an intervention to evaluate a model that includes positive user adoption factors, together with user perceptions impeding adoption. Findings revealed intrinsic motivation to be a sufficient reason for adoption, and a multi-faceted perceived overall risk as the main reason for resisting the new mobile health service.
International Conference on the Management of Mobile Business (ICMB 2007), 2007
Abstract The business model for adopting mobile solutions is the economic justification for an or... more Abstract The business model for adopting mobile solutions is the economic justification for an organization's use of the technology, or the means by which the technology generates a value proposition. However, the business model involves considerations of not just ...
Simulation languages develop and evolve over time, and the courses in which modeling and simulati... more Simulation languages develop and evolve over time, and the courses in which modeling and simulation are taught must also evolve to keep pace. In the McMaster University MBA program, a study was undertaken in order to select a new simulation language for a system modeling and simulation course in which GPSS had previously been used, in order to demonstrate a broader possible selection of possible application areas for simulation. The language which was selected was SLAM II, and this selection was confirmed by monitoring the reactions and perceptions of the students to both the old and new languages, which were taught concurrently in two separate sections.
The gamma radiation following thermal neutron capture by vanadium has been studied using a Ge(Li)... more The gamma radiation following thermal neutron capture by vanadium has been studied using a Ge(Li) detector. A separation energy of 7 311 ± 2 keV was determined and the ground-state triplet was observed, confirming levels of 17 and 23 keV. Coincidence measurements were used to assist in the construction of a decay scheme which includes 97% of the total observed intensity. The agreement with (d, p) measurements is very good and permits one to conclude that essentially all of the observed transitions are E1. The lack of any correlation between reduced radiation widths and stripping strengths suggests the absence of direct capture.
Proceedings of the 4th ACM MobiHoc workshop on Pervasive wireless healthcare - MobileHealth '14, 2014
ABSTRACT In recent years, with the explosive adoption of smart phone devices, mobile health and f... more ABSTRACT In recent years, with the explosive adoption of smart phone devices, mobile health and fitness applications have been increasingly used by healthcare practitioners and the general public to manage electronic health records, chronic medical conditions, dietary references etc. Despite the rapid growth in the number of mobile and fitness applications on various platforms, very little work has been done to quantitatively and qualitatively assess these applications to guide users in the selection process. Automatic categorization of mobile health and fitness applications is the first step in this direction. In this paper, we report results from crawling 1,430 Android and 62,286 iOS apps in Nov. 2013. Among them, 1,399 apps were manually classified to one or multiple categories out of a total of 11 categories. Text mining tools were applied to the description section of the apps for keyword extraction, feature selection and automatic categorization. The classifiers we experimented with have comparable performance with Linear SVC achieving the highest precision, recall and f1 scores of 0.89, 0.79 and 0.88, respectively.
The possible health hazards of cell phones are a controversial issue that is being debated in var... more The possible health hazards of cell phones are a controversial issue that is being debated in various literatures. This study reports on an empirical investigation of the effect of these hazards on the intention to use third generation (3G) cell phones. A model explicating the relationships between health risk perception and behavioural intention to use cell phones is developed and tested using structural equation modeling techniques. Furthermore, the moderating roles of several demographic variables are examined. To obtain variation in health risk perceptions, the study employs an experimental design in which two groups receive contradictory information from trusted sources on the possible health hazards of cell phones. Overall, this study integrates the perceived health risk concept into the technology acceptance literature.
The Web has been changing the retail market in many ways. Following a newmarket framework, this p... more The Web has been changing the retail market in many ways. Following a newmarket framework, this paper analyzes the unique characteristics of the Web forretail applications, examines its market effects, and presents two perspectivesfor business response strategies. The Web can either be used as a marketing tool,which is integrated into traditional business strategies, or can be viewed as anew marketplace, which demands new business design. Differences betweenthese two views will have strategic and implementation implications for bothtraditional and startup retailers as they adapt to Web marketing. Finally, wepropose some research issues and challenges that should be addressed to betterour understanding and promote the success of this new marketplace.
PurposeOnline dating services have been growing rapidly in recent years. However, adopting these ... more PurposeOnline dating services have been growing rapidly in recent years. However, adopting these services may involve high risk and trust issues among potential users toward both online dating services and the daters they introduce to users. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived benefits vs risks, and trust vs distrust affect user adoption vs non-adoption intentions toward using this rather controversial information and communications technology in the context of online dating.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modeling was used to evaluate the research model using data from a survey of 451 single individuals.FindingsThe results indicated that perceived benefits play more essential roles in adoption, while perceived risks affect non-adoption more. Individuals' trust in online dating service predicts a major portion of the variation in user benefit perceptions, while distrust in online dating service and in daters that users might select significan...
Communications of the Association for Information Systems
This material is brought to you by the Journals at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been ac... more This material is brought to you by the Journals at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been accepted for inclusion in Communications of the Association for Information Systems by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contact [email protected].
In North America, heart failure (HF) is the leading cause for hospital readmission. Supportive te... more In North America, heart failure (HF) is the leading cause for hospital readmission. Supportive technology, such as computers and tablets, could potentially assist patients with self-care to manage their condition after hospital discharge; however, older individuals have difficulties in adopting technology to manage their condition. This study used a mixed methods design to identify barriers to technology use in HF self-care. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 HF patients and 10 informal caregivers or care partners (CP). In the quantitative phase, five questionnaires were administered to 15 patients and 8 CP: Montreal Cognitive Assessment; Short Literacy Survey and Subjective Numeracy Scale; Self-Care of HF Index; Knowledge Assessment Questionnaire; and Patient Activation Measure. In the qualitative phase, five themes emerged regarding engagement in self care and technology use: knowledge level of HF; level of willingness to ask questions related to HF; confidence level in making health-related decisions individually; level of technology usage in daily activities; and self-recording of health measurements. Quantitative analysis found that most HF patients had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), adequate health numeracy levels to understand and manage their health condition, high confidence levels in managing their condition and willingness to engage in self-care. There was variation in willingness to adopt technology. Patients were willing to engage in HF self-care however they relied on CPs who were more willing to ask questions about HF. Technology tools may assist in HF self-care, but they must be tailored for use among older individuals.
This research is an unbiased empirical evaluation of user reasons to accept or resist a mobile in... more This research is an unbiased empirical evaluation of user reasons to accept or resist a mobile information and communication technology (ICT) application for health promotion. This innovative use of mobile ICT consists of developing services that educate people to stay healthy, with clear benefits for both individuals and society. Receiving customized health advice through mobile devices may be an attractive
This paper explores the performance of Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) on Busin... more This paper explores the performance of Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) on Business-to-Business (B2B) electronic marketplaces (EMs). Based on a content analysis of 155 cases of high performing online Chinese vendors, this paper explains the success of SME online B2B vendors within a Motivation-Capability framework. This first generation of SME B2B online vendors proved highly motivated to increase sales and developed a set of Internet leveraged organizational capabilities to compete online, including capabilities for online marketing, product innovation, eCommerce management, etc. This study differs from traditional wisdom that online marketplaces will render Guanxi (a Chinese cultural phenomenon defined as close and pervasive interpersonal relationships, Yang, 1994) irrelevant since online marketplaces are perceived to be impersonal. In fact, Guanxi still matters online, but it takes new forms. This research offers important managerial implications for B2B SME online vendors on how to leverage EMs for higher performance.
This work proposes a cost/benefit analysis for developing mobile healthcare solutions that could ... more This work proposes a cost/benefit analysis for developing mobile healthcare solutions that could improve chronically ill outpatient adherence (also known as compliance) to prescribed medical regimens. The paper begins by briefly discussing the importance and consequences of insufficient patient adherence and the modalities of mobile information technology that could address this critical issue. Medical and non-medical savings are identified that could result from adherence-enhancing initiatives, balanced by investment and operating costs. The work substantiates the importance of business evaluation of any such initiative, and suggests directions for future research.
The aim of this study is to determine the time and financial limitations that people would accept... more The aim of this study is to determine the time and financial limitations that people would accept for using a telehealth service consisting of wireless text messaging reminders to improve adherence to a recommended healthy regimen. An empirical study based on a 1-month trial of a prototype system that studied adherence to a specified healthy behaviour was conducted. Fifty-one participants received daily cell phone text messaging reminders on taking one vitamin C pill daily for preventive reasons. At the end of the trial they answered a survey regarding their willingness to pay for and to stay with such a service, if offered. If usage were free, only 45% of the participants would continue to use it for a long indefinite period of time. If the usage were for a fee, 29% of the participants would use the service just a few weeks; 28% would use it an indefinite period of time if they could see its usefulness and if the cost were reasonable. The median amount indicated by the participants as a reasonable monthly fee for such a service was $5. Although the study did not evaluate perceived usefulness to use the telehealth service explicitly, a benefit perception proved to condition participant willingness to use the service and to pay for it, if necessary. If people perceive usefulness, they want to use the service, even for a fee. A free service would not be used if it is not perceived as beneficial.
Innovative applications of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) include the rece... more Innovative applications of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) include the recent use of mobile services for preventive health interventions. We report on a one-month empirical study of such an intervention to evaluate a model that includes positive user adoption factors, together with user perceptions impeding adoption. Findings revealed intrinsic motivation to be a sufficient reason for adoption, and a multi-faceted perceived overall risk as the main reason for resisting the new mobile health service.
International Conference on the Management of Mobile Business (ICMB 2007), 2007
Abstract The business model for adopting mobile solutions is the economic justification for an or... more Abstract The business model for adopting mobile solutions is the economic justification for an organization's use of the technology, or the means by which the technology generates a value proposition. However, the business model involves considerations of not just ...
Simulation languages develop and evolve over time, and the courses in which modeling and simulati... more Simulation languages develop and evolve over time, and the courses in which modeling and simulation are taught must also evolve to keep pace. In the McMaster University MBA program, a study was undertaken in order to select a new simulation language for a system modeling and simulation course in which GPSS had previously been used, in order to demonstrate a broader possible selection of possible application areas for simulation. The language which was selected was SLAM II, and this selection was confirmed by monitoring the reactions and perceptions of the students to both the old and new languages, which were taught concurrently in two separate sections.
The gamma radiation following thermal neutron capture by vanadium has been studied using a Ge(Li)... more The gamma radiation following thermal neutron capture by vanadium has been studied using a Ge(Li) detector. A separation energy of 7 311 ± 2 keV was determined and the ground-state triplet was observed, confirming levels of 17 and 23 keV. Coincidence measurements were used to assist in the construction of a decay scheme which includes 97% of the total observed intensity. The agreement with (d, p) measurements is very good and permits one to conclude that essentially all of the observed transitions are E1. The lack of any correlation between reduced radiation widths and stripping strengths suggests the absence of direct capture.
Proceedings of the 4th ACM MobiHoc workshop on Pervasive wireless healthcare - MobileHealth '14, 2014
ABSTRACT In recent years, with the explosive adoption of smart phone devices, mobile health and f... more ABSTRACT In recent years, with the explosive adoption of smart phone devices, mobile health and fitness applications have been increasingly used by healthcare practitioners and the general public to manage electronic health records, chronic medical conditions, dietary references etc. Despite the rapid growth in the number of mobile and fitness applications on various platforms, very little work has been done to quantitatively and qualitatively assess these applications to guide users in the selection process. Automatic categorization of mobile health and fitness applications is the first step in this direction. In this paper, we report results from crawling 1,430 Android and 62,286 iOS apps in Nov. 2013. Among them, 1,399 apps were manually classified to one or multiple categories out of a total of 11 categories. Text mining tools were applied to the description section of the apps for keyword extraction, feature selection and automatic categorization. The classifiers we experimented with have comparable performance with Linear SVC achieving the highest precision, recall and f1 scores of 0.89, 0.79 and 0.88, respectively.
Background: Healthcare stakeholders have a great interest in the adoption and use of electronic p... more Background: Healthcare stakeholders have a great interest in the adoption and use of electronic personal health records (ePHRs) because of the potential benefits associated with them. Little is known, however, about the level of adoption of ePHRs in Canada and there is limited evidence concerning their benefits and implications for the healthcare system. This study aimed to describe the current situation of ePHRs in Canada and explore stakeholder perceptions regarding barriers and facilitators to their adoption. Methods:Using a qualitative descriptive study design, we conducted semi-structured phone interviews between October 2013 and February 2014 with 35 individuals from seven Canadian provinces. The participants represented six stakeholder groups (patients, ePHR administrators, healthcare professionals, organizations interested in health technology development, government agencies, and researchers). A detailed summary of each interview was created and thematic analysis was conducted. Results:We observed that there was no consensual definition of ePHR in Canada. Factors that could influence ePHR adoption were related to knowledge (confusion with other electronic medical records [EMRs] and lack of awareness), system design (usability and relevance), user capacities and attitudes (patient health literacy, education and interest, support for professionals), environmental factors (government commitment, targeted populations) and legal and ethical issues (information control and custody, confidentiality, privacy and security). Conclusion:ePHRs are slowly entering the Canadian healthcare landscape but provinces do not seem wellprepared for the implementation of this type of record. Guidance is needed on critical issues regarding ePHRs, such as ePHR definition, data ownership, access to information and interoperability with other electronic health records (EHRs). Better guidance on these issues would provide a greater awareness of ePHRs and inform stakeholders including clinicians, decision-makers, patients and the public. In turn, it may facilitate their adoption in the country.
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Papers by Norm Archer
health records (ePHRs) because of the potential benefits associated with them. Little is known, however,
about the level of adoption of ePHRs in Canada and there is limited evidence concerning their benefits
and implications for the healthcare system. This study aimed to describe the current situation of ePHRs in
Canada and explore stakeholder perceptions regarding barriers and facilitators to their adoption.
Methods:Using a qualitative descriptive study design, we conducted semi-structured phone interviews
between October 2013 and February 2014 with 35 individuals from seven Canadian provinces. The
participants represented six stakeholder groups (patients, ePHR administrators, healthcare professionals,
organizations interested in health technology development, government agencies, and researchers). A
detailed summary of each interview was created and thematic analysis was conducted.
Results:We observed that there was no consensual definition of ePHR in Canada. Factors that could influence
ePHR adoption were related to knowledge (confusion with other electronic medical records [EMRs] and
lack of awareness), system design (usability and relevance), user capacities and attitudes (patient health
literacy, education and interest, support for professionals), environmental factors (government commitment,
targeted populations) and legal and ethical issues (information control and custody, confidentiality, privacy
and security).
Conclusion:ePHRs are slowly entering the Canadian healthcare landscape but provinces do not seem wellprepared for the implementation of this type of record. Guidance is needed on critical issues regarding ePHRs,
such as ePHR definition, data ownership, access to information and interoperability with other electronic
health records (EHRs). Better guidance on these issues would provide a greater awareness of ePHRs and
inform stakeholders including clinicians, decision-makers, patients and the public. In turn, it may facilitate
their adoption in the country.