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Abstract

The advancements in mobile, wireless and positioning technologies have enabled applications and services such as route guiding and emergency call-out assistance. These and other similar services have become known as 'location-based services' (LBS). The literature on LBS development and deployment addresses technological issues (for example, usability and integration) and issues related to LBS implementation-including LBS business models, adoption and customer concerns and requirements. In the study presented here LBS development and deployment were investigated from a case study perspective and the LBS landscape is explored and analyzed. The study finds that while the regulatory environment has played a critical role as a success factor in the markets investigated some of innovative business approaches may have been equally important as customer demand generators. Economies on the road to deploying LBS should therefore focus on creating a supportive environment encouraging the development of services, which meet the identified needs and requirements of the target customer market.

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This qualitative study aimed to identify the motivating factors and the challenges related to the adoption of mobile payment (mPayment) by small business retailers. Data collected from semi-structured personal interviews with a small group of participants were analyzed applying a content analysis approach. The findings indicate that retailer demand for mPayment was motivated mainly by perceived customer expectations for a convenient (faster) way to pay using the ubiquitous mobile technology, as well as by the perceived efficiency of mPayment leading to revenue increase. Challenges to mPayment adoption included, among others, the need to compete with already established point-of-sale payment technologies and the lack of information about mPayment leading to uncertainty about its comparative advantages. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by developing and exploring a merchant oriented mPayment adoption model. The factors identified as adoption drivers and challenges provide an insight into New Zealand retailer perspectives on mPayment, and the grounds for recommendations to mPayment service providers.

Quick Response (QR) codes are two dimensional (matrix) codes that have been developed in ways that allow companies and individuals to sell or market their products, skills, and events quickly and easily. The code can be used to represent data such as a web address or map location that can be scanned quickly by a mobile device such as a smart phone. Tracking inventories and marketers were some of the first uses and users of QR codes because of the ease of deployment and low development cost. The use has also grown quickly amongst individual users who want to transfer information such as sending an invitation, providing details about an event, or even announcing a baby's birth. While there are many advantages in the use of QR codes, there is a negative side that has resulted in end users discontinuing their use. Our paper discusses both the usefulness of QR codes as well as the inconveniences and dangers that they may pose.

Abstract. Mobile payment normally occurs as a wireless transaction of monetary value and includes the initiation, authorization and the realization of the payment. Such transactions are facilitated by purpose-built mobile payment systems that are part of the service infrastructure supporting the functioning of mobile business applications. A number of stakeholder groups may be involved in concluding a mobile payment transaction, among them customers, mobile operators, financial institutions, merchants, and intermediaries. In this paper, mobile payment systems are characterised from the point of view of the stakeholder groups. Building on existing work, a supply and demand model for the investigation of mPayment services is presented, and applied to a case study.

There is a need for educators of information technology professionals to monitor the demands of the market and to adjust their programmes and curriculum accordingly. A number of universities and colleges have sought opportunities to extend their programmes to incorporate the fast developing area of information security. The School of Computing and Information Sciences at the Auckland University of Technology offers two programmes in information technology -an undergraduate and a postgraduate one. Information security and information assurance concepts are integrated with the learning objectives of individual courses. This paper provides background information about the school and the existing programmes and describes an information security curriculum development process. The strategies and approaches adopted are justified through consultation with major stakeholders (industry and students). Some of the issues arising form the implementation of the information security curriculum such as the need to invest in resourcing are discussed, and possible future information security curriculum developments are briefly outlined.