Organizations and governments continue to advance toward using electronic means to interact with their customers. However, the use of this medium presents an access-toservice issue for people across the digital divide who do not have private Internet access from their homes. Publicly-available computers connected to the Internet are an important and expanding source of Internet access for consumers. Still, we do not know if people are willing to engage in e-commerce transactions in such environments. We expand the Facilitating Conditions construct of Triandis' (1980) modified theory of reasoned action to develop a model of transactional Web site use in public environments that incorporates the physical and virtual computer environments associated with publicly accessible computers, moderated by the individual's need for privacy. The model was tested in public libraries, and the results indicate that the virtual and physical facilitating conditions of a public computer are determinants of e-commerce use in a public environment, and the user's need for privacy moderates these relationships.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) provision of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) requires hospitals to increase their investment in information technology (IT) in order to achieve "meaningful use" of electronic health records by 2015 or face reduced Medicare reimbursement. The empirical literature evaluating the impact of IT on hospital costs and quality, however, is inconclusive. Recent work, therefore, explores the importance of complements to a hospital's IT capital investment such as process re-design and user acceptance. We argue that IT support is another crucial complement to IT capital investment and therefore analyze its impact on hospital technical efficiency using data envelopment analysis (DEA). To better understand the path by which IT impacts hospital efficiency, we estimate not only overall technical efficiency, but also its two components: pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency and assess the impact of an increase in the level of IT support on these efficiency measures. While we find limited evidence that IT support does contribute to hospital overall technical efficiency, primarily through an improvement in pure technical efficiency, we do not find evidence that a higher level of IT support leads to improving technical efficiency over time.

No abstract

No abstract

Businesses and governments continue to expand the use of the internet to access and provide a wide range services to consumers. This change in service delivery presents a potential access barrier for people who do not have access to the internet available in their homes. Publicly available computers attempt to bridge this gap; however, it is not clear if people are willing to use computers in these environments to engage in the full range of web-based activities, particularly online transactions. We expand Triandis’ modified TRA model to consider user characteristics and the impact of the physical and virtual environment on public transactional use of websites. Results indicate that people are sensitive to the physical environment surrounding the computer and that Internet self-efficacy supports public transactional use while individual need for privacy deters transactional use in a public environment. In addition, people without personal internet access do complete transactions at other non-public locations and that completing transactions from non-public locations is a strong determinant of public transactional use.

No abstract

Businesses and governments continue to expand the use of the internet to access and provide a wide range services to consumers. This change in service delivery presents a potential access barrier for people who do not have access to the internet available in their homes. Publicly available computers attempt to bridge this gap; however, it is not clear if people are willing to use computers in these environments to engage in the full range of web-based activities, particularly online transactions. We expand Triandis’ modified TRA model to consider user characteristics and the impact of the physical and virtual environment on public transactional use of websites. Results indicate that people are sensitive to the physical environment surrounding the computer and that Internet self-efficacy supports public transactional use while individual need for privacy deters transactional use in a public environment. In addition, people without personal internet access do complete transactions at other non-public locations and that completing transactions from non-public locations is a strong determinant of public transactional use.

No abstract