A study of how ICT capabilities can influence dynamic capabilities

Information and communication technology (ICT) use has been associated with well-being among older adults. This link is often attributed to the fact that ICT use facilitates connecting with others. The purpose of this study is to assess how contact frequency and social tie strength impact the relationship between ICT use and depressive symptoms among older adults. Using data from the Detroit-based Social Relations Study collected in 2015, we use Bayesian analyses to examine the extent to which contact frequency with social network members moderates and the strength of these social tie (strong, moderate, and weak) mediate the link between ICT use and depressive symptoms among adults age 60 + (n = 483). ICT use was found to be associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Furthermore, ICT use was associated with more moderate and weak ties which were, in turn, associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Finally, a moderating effect was also found as ICT use was associated with fewer depressive symptoms only among those with lower contact frequency. Our findings suggest that for older adults who communicate with others less frequently, ICT use can prove beneficial to mental health (i.e., fewer depressive symptoms). Furthermore ICT use may be especially meaningful to connect with weaker social ties. These findings may be due in part to ICTs capabilities which enable older adults to maintain connection to a diverse array of social ties and bridge social and physical distance.

This paper presents a study on the perceptions of primary school teachers regarding their knowledge, usefulness, and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education. Likewise, the relationship between sex, age, working time and the educational center in which it is found with the perceptions about ICT is obtained. To answer these questions, a battery of 14 categorical closed questions is designed, divided into four blocks: socio-demographic information; knowledge of ICT; usefulness of ICT; and use of ICT. In the context of measuring the knowledge, usefulness and use of ICT in education, the novelty of this work relies on the design of an indicator for each of the ICT-related blocks following the methodology of Human Development Indicators created by the United Nations Development Program. In this research, 119 teachers from Spanish primary schools were chosen as the study sample to answer the questions’ battery. The results show a direct relationship between knowledge, usefulness, and use, although not significant. Although teachers are aware of the usefulness of ICT, and the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the use of technological tools for planning teaching in blended or distance learning lessons, this does not mean teachers have a greater knowledge of ICT. In addition, the findings indicate a greater knowledge by teachers in public schools, which contrasts with the finding that teachers in grant-assisted schools make the most use of ICT and find it the most useful. Finally, it is also suggested that the study's methodology and approach could be applied to other contexts or countries.

An area of increasing attention for policymakers is the potential for growth as small businesses take up new information and communication technologies (ICTs), This interest has added to the broad discussion on small firms which use information technology (IT) and the take-up of IT by small firms, Often it is an implicit assumption that benefits for the business will accrue as new information-processing technologies are adopted and, accordingly, there has been a flurry of concern over the take-up of ICTs by small firms. Much less attention has been paid within small-firms research to the policy mechanisms and programmes which are enabling take-up, and the reasons why small firms should use ICTs. It is not our intention in this paper to question the rights or wrongs of policy of this nature; rather we seek to make three main points. The first is that there is a scattered and piecemeal approach to this area, consistent with many other small-firm policy issues. We indicate the type of ICT programmes taking place, initiated by UK and European governments, and suggest that an important rationale to this rests with the notion of increasing economic competitiveness. A second point is that there is a clear distinction between the aims and ideals of ICT programmes and the perspectives of owner/managers in small firms. We suggest that policy has not been grounded in the experience of the small firm. The third is that there needs to be further work by small-firm researchers to develop a more rigorous conceptual base for small firms and ICTs. This needs to go beyond notions of use and towards thinking about the ways in which small firms do business in an informational economy. We draw on our previous and current work on small firms, local economic policy, and ICTs and the raison d’être for this paper is that there is a place on the policy agenda for further discussion on the way small firms are being encouraged to use ICTs.

Global Conferences on Health Promotion underscore the need for reorientation of services as a field of action in the area. In particular the Bangkok Charter mentions the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In this sense, ICT-based teaching emerges as a way to strengthen learning how to learn, also in the area of health promotion, theme still latent into graduation´s health course. Objective: To describe the use of ICT in post-graduate focusing on health promotion. Method: This is a descriptive analysis of teaching approaches supported by ICT in three experiments. The first, in the form of update / specialization (sensu lato), is part of the activities of the department of internal medicine and has been incorporating ICT throughout its 10 years of existence. The second experiment deals with a post-graduate course in the strict sense of the public health program, under theresponsibility of the preventive medicine department. Finally, we present the discipline graduate also strict sense of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Costa Rica. Results: We present summary tables on the use of different ICT as well as the desired educational objectives and the nature of the activity. Conclusion: The current use of ICT highlights the opportunity and incentive for space construction and re-construction of knowledge in Health Promotion. Recognize the potential and limits of the use of ICT contributes to interprofessional education of health promoters with emphasis in a transformative education.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming a part of everyday life for many adults with learning disabilities. However, there is scant information available about what factors are important for using ICT in post-formal educational contexts with adults with learning disabilities. Eight Day Services within one organisation were visited to observe activities and interview staff and service users about ICT, which included use of personal computers, digital cameras and the Internet. Three main levels of ICT use and implementation were identified as well as a number of organisational factors associated with the regular use of ICT resources. Staff beliefs about ICT, the management and organisation of staffing and clear ideas about the purpose of ICT were important factors in addition to the basic requirements of providing resources and training. These factors are useful in guiding practitioners towards implementing and using ICT and highlight the importance of the context within which ICT use takes place. The provision of hardware, software and training are not sufficient by themselves to guarantee good use of ICT and careful attention needs to be paid to wider influential factors. Sharing of ideas about using ICT resources with adults with learning disabilities is timely in relation to the current policy context of social inclusion, but future development depends on the availability of sustained funding to adequately maintain and update equipment; without this the factors supporting regular ICT use described here will remain isolated and largely irrelevant to many people who could otherwise benefit from the use of ICT resources.

BackgroundSelf-rated health is associated with information and communications technology (ICT) use among older adults. Non–US born, older Asian American individuals are more inclined to rate their health as fair or poor compared to individuals from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. This population is also less likely to use ICTs as compared to White older Americans. Furthermore, cognitive decline may impact technology acceptance. In a previous adaptation of the technology acceptance model for low-income, Asian American older adults, perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), age, educational attainment, ethnicity, and English proficiency were significant predictors of ICT use. However, the association between health and technology acceptance has not been explored among Asian American older adults.ObjectiveThis study examined the role of self-rated health and subjective cognitive decline in the acceptance and use of ICTs among low-income, Asian American older adults.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey included Asian American individuals aged ≥62 years living in affordable housing for older adults (N=392). Using hierarchical multiple regression, we explored the association between self-rated health and ICT use and technology acceptance model mediators (PU and PEOU) while adjusting for demographics, English proficiency, and subjective cognitive decline. Contrast statements were used to estimate contrasts of interest. To further examine the separate and joint association between age and subjective cognitive decline and the dependent variables, we examined scatterplots with locally estimated scatterplot smoothing lines, revealing that the relationship between subjective cognitive decline and ICT use varied in 3 age segments, which led to updating our analysis to estimate differences in ICT use among age categories with and without subjective cognitive decline.ResultsSelf-rated health was not significantly associated with ICT use (β=.087; P=.13), PU (β=.106; P=.10), or PEOU (β=.062; P=.31). However, the interaction terms of subjective cognitive decline and age significantly improved the model fit for ICT use (ΔR2=0.011; P=.04). In reviewing scatterplots, we determined that, in the youngest age group (62-74 years), ICT use increased with subjective cognitive decline, whereas in the older age groups (75-84 and ≥85 years), ICT use decreased with subjective cognitive decline, more so in the oldest age category. Through regression analysis, among participants with subjective cognitive decline, ICT use significantly decreased in the middle and older age groups as compared to the youngest age group. However, among participants without subjective cognitive decline, the difference in use among age groups was not significant.ConclusionsThis study contributes to the understanding of the complex relationship between health and ICT acceptance among low-income, Asian American older adults and suggests the need for tailored interventions to promote digital engagement and quality of life for this population.

This paper explores the funding issues at the early stages of development of small biotechnology and software firms in the UK. The paper reviews theory and evidence on firms in these two sectors and presents empirical evidence for the UK derived from an extensive on-line questionnaire survey. The sample consists of 41 small biotechnology firms and 42 software firms representing a sub-sample of a larger sample of 133 high technology small firms (HTSFs) or technology-based small firms (TBSFs). As a subgroup of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), HTSFs face a number of obstacles to their business development. Finance is believed to be one of the main problems particularly at the early stages of their development. HTSFs encounter financing problems mainly because of their embryonic nature, young age, lack of collateral, lack of business skills, lack of market presence, high technical area and other factors. The main findings from this study suggest that entrepreneurs in the biotechnology sector reported higher academic qualifications than the other group. The founders of software firms are younger than the biotechnology firms. Firms in both groups have grown in terms of full-time employees. In terms of funding problems, software firms reports more funding problems than the biotechnology firms. Software firms are fastest growing firms and goes through the early stages of development quickly than the biotechnology group. With regards to the sources of funding the evidence shows that biotechnology small firms mainly use venture capital finance whilst the main source of funding for the software firms is personal savings and bank finance. However, biotechnology small firms report difficulties in securing equity finance. Software firms seem to be constraining their growth by the demand side financial constraints. The two groups of HTSFs in this study suggest that high technology small firms may have particular needs for finance and that these may change as they develop through early stages of business development. The paper present evidence on these issues and suggest differences in the experience of biotechnology and software firms in terms of financing.

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is increasingly becoming prevalent among students, both at home and school. While inconsistent results were found for student ICT use and reading literacy, this study attempted to explain these ambiguous links with the moderation of ICT use intensity and mediation of metacognition. Three moderated mediation models for each type of ICT use (at home for entertainment activities and for schoolwork, as well as at school) were analyzed using a Hong Kong sample taken from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data pertaining to 5180 15-year-old students from 152 schools. A dynamic effect pattern was found for the links of all ICT use types and reading literacy with the increasing intensity of ICT use, which begins with a positive effect followed by a decrease to less positive, then turns to fluctuating negative and finally ends up with a stable negative effect. But the dominant effect varies across ICT use intensity, which result in different overall effects of three ICT use types. In addition, all three aspects of metacognition showed a profound negative mediation on links of intensive and excessive ICT use with reading literacy, and a less positive mediation for limited ICT use. The metacognition of assessing credibility showed a more important role than summarizing, which was followed by understanding and remembering. In light of the findings, the study recommended that more metacognitive scaffolds should be developed for students with intensive or excessive ICT use, so as to alleviate the side effects of ICT use on their reading literacy.

This special issue has described a number of excellent initiatives for the implementation of information and communications technology (ICT) into teacher training which achieve more than functional digital literacy. This article is a synthesis of these 26 cases of good practice and reveals that there are many examples of good practice which can be used as models for calibration and/or modelling of ICT teacher training across the world. The results show that top priorities for both pre-service and in-service programmes for teacher training are that teachers become sufficiently competent to make personal use of ICT, competent to make use of ICT as a mindtool, become masters of a range of educational paradigms that make use of ICT, and sufficiently competent to make use of ICT as a tool for teaching. These characteristics are found in almost all of the programmes that the experts in this research project chose as good practice. Aspects which were considered to be important, but which are not always present in the programmes evaluated, are that teachers master a range of assessment paradigms which make use of ICT and understand the policy dimension of the use of ICT for teaching and learning. All of this needs to take place in an environment that not only talks of modern constructivist thinking and pedagogy, but adopts and models those practices. The days of teaching aboutthe use of ICT are over and directed teaching of ICT skills is not recommended. The article provides evidence that it is possible to catalyse and model appropriate practice for teacher education with ICT in ways that promote educational renewal for the twenty-first century.

Aim and background This study investigated the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) use patterns, moderated by socioeconomic status (SES), on science and mathematics achievements. This investigation aims to address the issue of whether ICT use has ‘conditioned’ (linear and quadratic) effects on achievements with SES as social conditions, based on a posited Conditioned Ecological Techno-process (CET) model. Method Data from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment for Taiwan were analyzed using regression analysis focusing on the effect of three ICT use patterns (leisure, educational, and school). Results The results support the CET model in the quadratic effects of all the three ICT use patterns on both achievements in addition to the positive linear effects of educational ICT use and the negative linear effects of leisure and school ICT use patterns. The moderation effect of SES only occurs with leisure ICT use on science achievement. Discussion The findings suggest that moderate frequent ICT use predicts the highest achievements. SES may aggravate the negative effect of leisure ICT use on science achievement.

<p style="text-align: justify;">With Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) impacting the way we learn; information and communication technologies (ICTs) play an ever-increasing role in young children’s learning making it crucial to understand the importance and challenges of using ICTs in kindergartens from teachers’ perspectives. The present study, therefore explored the perspectives of teachers in remote areas of Jordan regarding the degree of ICT use, its importance in kindergartens, and potential challenges. To achieve the objective of the study, a quantitative questionnaire was developed and distributed to 263 female kindergarten teachers in remote areas of Jordan. Results indicated that the degree of use and importance of ICTs from teachers’ perspectives was “average”. Further, the study identified several challenges that appeared to hinder teachers’ use of ICTs in kindergartens. Teachers who held a bachelor degree were significantly more likely to employ ICTs in their teaching than those who did not. Yet, there were no significant differences according to the number of training courses in ICTs and experience teachers had. Recommendations and implications for facilitating the use of ICTs in kindergarten education concluded this paper.</p>

Digital development for a progressive networked society

Given reported high rates of transience and service disengagement among youth experiencing homelessness (YEH), new forms of information and communication technologies (ICT) may represent a novel avenue for intervention. Although studies suggest that ICT use is surprisingly high among YEH, less is known about the factors associated with ICT use and the association between ICT use and online health information seeking behavior (OHISB) among YEH. Using Andersen's behavioral model of healthcare utilization as a theoretical framework, this study examined the prevalence of ICT use and its association with OHISB among YEH. Data were drawn from the cross-sectional study collected from YEH living in multi-sites (N = 1,426; Mage = 20.9). Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the factors associated with ICT use (i.e., access to a smartphone, mobile phone, and social media profile ownership) and the association between each ICT use and OHISB. The results showed that differences in ICT use among YEH based on different predisposing factors including YEH’s gender, race/ethnicity, employment status, and involvement in the public system. Analysis also revealed that access to mobile and smart phones are significantly associated with OHISB among YEH. Results from this study underscore the capacity of ICT use to efficiently address the health-related requirements of YEH and enhance their health outcomes. The creation of technology-driven interventions, specifically utilizing ICTs, has the potential to assist YEH in accessing diverse information and resources related to their health, thereby fostering improvements in their OHISB.

“Sore eyes and distracted” or “excited and confident”? – The role of perceived negative consequences of using ICT for perceived usefulness and self-efficacy

Microfinance has been a significant means of reducing poverty since the mid-1970s. With the economic, social, and demographic characteristics, Bangladesh has been one of the countries where microfinance interventions are notable. In Bangladesh, hundreds of microfinance organisations have been implementing microfinance programs covering almost one-third of the rural population of the country. Studies show that the proper use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) may help microfinance intervention in different ways. It may help increase operational performance, organisational upsizing, and poverty outreach, and decrease interest rate with many other organisational and social implications. This chapter looks into the Information Systems (IS) of microfinance of Bangladesh, the extent and intensity of the use of ICT, the factors that hinder the use of ICT in microfinance, the approaches to ICT management, and the emerging mobile technology-based operational model of microfinance and perceived implications of the changing landscape of ICT on this development program.