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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivation, influences, and perceived effect of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in Botswana organizations. While a conceptual model of the adoption process in developed countries has been studied, not much empirical studies have been undertaken. This paper is an attempt to bridge this gap. Specifically, the paper addresses five questions: What motivated organizations in Botswana in their decision to adopt ICT in their operations? What factors, internal and external, influenced the adoption decision? Which sources did the organizations contact for information on the adoption of ICT? What is the relative importance of those influencing/motivating factors and information sources? What are the perceived effects of adoption? Design/methodology/approach -The study was carried out using a survey method. The main instrument is a personally administered questionnaire that was based on items obtained and adapted from literature. Data were collected from a judgment sample of 29 business and public sector establishments, drawn from nine towns and cities of Botswana. The respondent in each organization was either the IT manager or the chief executive. The initial stage of the adoption process is examined by identifying, in the sample Botswana organizations, the internal and external proponents of the ICT adoption process, the sources from which organizations seek technical information, their perceived relative importance in the process, and the effect of adoption on organizations' activities.Findings -The study found that ICT application in Botswana was still at an elementary stage, mainly communications and recordkeeping. In terms of motivation and influence, the competitive motive and internal sources of information and influence were dominant and that the overall effect of ICT adoption on several organizational activities was moderately positive. Originality/value -The identification of the key sources of influence and information for the adoption of ICT helps ICT marketing companies to target their marketing efforts more specifically, and services offered limited to basic needs that are relevant to the use to which ICT is currently applied in Botswana. Widespread adoption of ICT has turned it into a kind of "hygiene" factor rather than a "motivator". In spite of the positive effect adoption has on various activities of adopting organizations, adoption benefits are matched by similar benefits of competing organizations, thus conferring no competitive advantages. It is only in the absence of adoption that those organizations adopting enjoy such competitive advantage.

This paper demonstrates how image content can be used to realize a location-based shopping recommender system for intuitively supporting mobile users in decision making. Generic Fourier Descriptors (GFD) image content of an item was extracted to exploit knowledge contained in item and user profile databases for learning to rank recommendations. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to automatically select a query item from a user profile. Single Criterion Decision Ranking (SCDR) and Multiple-Criteria Decision-Ranking (MCDR) techniques were compared to study the effect of multidimensional ratings of items on recommendations effectiveness. The SCDR and MCDR techniques are, respectively, based on Image Content Similarity Score (ICSS) and Relative Ratio (RR) aggregating function. Experimental results of a real user study showed that an MCDR system increases user satisfaction and improves recommendations effectiveness better than an SCDR system.

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Purpose – The objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive literature survey on dyslexic learners and to propose a model for integrated assistive technology of dyslexic learners. Design/methodology/approach – The use of the proposed model through real-life scenarios categorized as “phonological, reading and writing scenarios”. We have also surveyed some systems for use with dyslexic learners currently in use and have compared them on the basis of number of barriers, technological innovation, age group and fostering. Findings – Dyslexic learners are characterized by slow learning, poor handwriting, poor spelling skills and difficulties in planning, organizing, revising and editing texts; technology plays a major role in the educational environment; it has become crucial in impacting knowledge across the globe; and open research issues and challenges that have to be addressed in the design of the current dyslexic system have been presented in detail. Research limitations/implications – Full implementation of the proposed model and its application in developing countries. Practical implications – The system improves the phonological awareness, reading and writing skills of dyslexic learners and it provides a solution for children as well as adults with dyslexia. Social implications – This survey can be used as a reference guide to understand learning barriers and intelligent systems for dyslexic learners and to promote the use of these in schools for those with learning disabilities who need assistive technologies. Originality/value – Development of a newly proposed integrated intelligent assistive system for dyslexic learners; knowledge generation as a reference guide to understand dyslexic learning ability in general and an intelligent assistive dyslexic system in particular; and survey of open research issues and challenges to further research in intelligent dyslexic systems.