In developing regions of the world such as Sub-Saharan Africa, access to basic financial services... more In developing regions of the world such as Sub-Saharan Africa, access to basic financial services such as funds transfer and bill payments are unavailable to over 70% of the population. Mobile money technologies, which entail the use of mobile technology in facilitating financial transactions, have presented themselves as viable methods of reaching this segment of the population known as the unbanked. However, there is an unfortunate dearth of studies that examine the limitations of mobile money implementations and provide recommendations for improving this important tool for financial inclusion. To this end, this research provides a review of the evolution of mobile money technologies as an example of user centered innovation and identifies the important actors in the mobile money ecosystem. Through a case study of the performance of mobile money deployments in two regions of Africa (Kenya and Nigeria), critical success factors are identified and discussed. Specifically, it is highlighted that : a mobile first approach to designing the ecosystem, balanced regulatory policies, a useable base of distribution agents and alignment with the needs of the unbanked are four important factors for successful mobile money implementations in developing nations.
In turbulent business environments, the survival of firms hinges on their ability to speedily sen... more In turbulent business environments, the survival of firms hinges on their ability to speedily sense and react to environmental changes, which in turn leads to superior competitive positioning and improved firm performance. With the rapid development of digital technologies – such as social media platforms, smart mobile phones, cloud computing, and big data analytics – business and IT leaders are constantly exploring new opportunities that harness advances in digital technologies to transform their firms. In this paper, we investigate this phenomenon, which we call digital transformation. We draw on the organizational agility literature, IT capabilities literature, and the dynamic capabilities theory. Based on the dynamic capabilities theory and the hierarchy of capabilities, we distinguish between two types of processes: capability-building and competitive-action-generating processes. We propose that IT capability, a low-order capability, enables the higher-order capability of organizational agility, which in turn enables the firm to transform its products, processes, or business models radically. Our model also considers the important impact of leadership style on both capability-building and competitive-action-generating processes. More precisely, we argue that the process of successfully developing higher-order capabilities from lower-order capabilities is moderated by the presence of aligned transformational leadership. This paper contributes to the academic literature on IT and business strategy by determining why business organizations pursue and how they can achieve digitally enabled business transformations. Our theory extends the adopted overarching theory, the dynamic capabilities theory, by considering the influence of leadership style on both capability-building and competitive-action-generating processes. The paper provides important practical insights for business and IT leaders regarding how to build and utilize IT capabilities to generate competitive actions that contribute to success in turbulent business environments.
We interviewed adults with mild cognitive impairment working in a sheltered workshop and three su... more We interviewed adults with mild cognitive impairment working in a sheltered workshop and three support professionals about competitive employment in the community, and what concerns or barriers they may have. While individuals were most concerned about managing their health, professionals also described personal safety and productivity challenges. Families' worries about the safety of their family members were reported to be a barrier to competitive employment. Using a smart watch as a technology probe, we identified three potential applications of wearable technology in tackling these challenges: health support, family support, and productivity support.
One trend that rivals and stands to potentially eclipse the transformational effect of the smartp... more One trend that rivals and stands to potentially eclipse the transformational effect of the smartphone, is the rise of wearable computing devices. While wearables have received proliferated adoption in recent times, their uncommon form factor poses challenges to designers and many such devices fail to achieve sustained user engagement. Within the HCI stream of IS related research, there is a limited amount of studies that address theory inspired design of actual IT artifacts, or address the ubiquitous context of technology use. In this research-in-progress work, we adopt an action design research approach and drawing upon theories from the psychology and technology adoption literature, we develop a set of design principles that informs the design of user experiences for wearable computing devices. We come up with 6 specific principles which are derived from 3 main perspectives -- an affective quality perspective, a social norms perspective and a utility accrual perspective.
As the plethora of mobile apps continues to grow, app publishers are increasingly challenged on t... more As the plethora of mobile apps continues to grow, app publishers are increasingly challenged on the appropriate strategies to adopt in order to improve app success. In this report, we adopt theoretical lens from transaction cost theory and economic utility in the development and test of a model that examines the impacts of app diversity and app cohesivity on app success. Using data gathered from the Microsoft Windows Phone App distribution platform, our main conclusions are as follows: app diversity (the number of geographic locales an app is built to support) is of particular significance as a potential driver of app success within platforms and app cohesivity (a measure of integration with the platforms services) is positively associated with app success (its download count/rank within the platform). Interestingly, both relationships appear to be moderated by the pricing scheme adopted by publishers for that app. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as avenues for future research work.
The quantified self-movement encourages a continuous tracking of data points regarding a person’s... more The quantified self-movement encourages a continuous tracking of data points regarding a person’s daily activities through wearable sensors, and thus has important implications for health and wellness. With the advent of sophisticated low-cost wearable computing devices, online communities that facilitate social interaction and exchange of wearable data (Quantified Self 2.0 platforms) have also emerged. Although security and privacy disclosure has been studied within online social networks and online health communities, little has been done to understand how individual and group characteristics influence the disclosure behaviour regarding highly sensitive personal information gathered from wearable sensors (e.g., sleep, nutrition, mood, performance, ambient conditions). Using data collected from 43 Fitbit groups which consist of 5300 Asian users within the Fitbit online community, we examine the influence of group characteristics (size, posts, average steps) and individual attributes on privacy disclosure behaviour. Results from our hierarchical linear modelling analysis suggests that attributes such as group size and individual posts are associated with increased privacy data disclosure, whilst we surprisingly find that when other group members have higher health performance or are more active, individuals are more likely to disclose less healthcare information. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
In developing regions of the world such as Sub-Saharan Africa, access to basic financial services... more In developing regions of the world such as Sub-Saharan Africa, access to basic financial services such as funds transfer and bill payments are unavailable to over 70% of the population. Mobile money technologies, which entail the use of mobile technology in facilitating financial transactions, have presented themselves as viable methods of reaching this segment of the population known as the unbanked. However, there is an unfortunate dearth of studies that examine the limitations of mobile money implementations and provide recommendations for improving this important tool for financial inclusion. To this end, this research provides a review of the evolution of mobile money technologies as an example of user centered innovation and identifies the important actors in the mobile money ecosystem. Through a case study of the performance of mobile money deployments in two regions of Africa (Kenya and Nigeria), critical success factors are identified and discussed. Specifically, it is highlighted that : a mobile first approach to designing the ecosystem, balanced regulatory policies, a useable base of distribution agents and alignment with the needs of the unbanked are four important factors for successful mobile money implementations in developing nations.
In turbulent business environments, the survival of firms hinges on their ability to speedily sen... more In turbulent business environments, the survival of firms hinges on their ability to speedily sense and react to environmental changes, which in turn leads to superior competitive positioning and improved firm performance. With the rapid development of digital technologies – such as social media platforms, smart mobile phones, cloud computing, and big data analytics – business and IT leaders are constantly exploring new opportunities that harness advances in digital technologies to transform their firms. In this paper, we investigate this phenomenon, which we call digital transformation. We draw on the organizational agility literature, IT capabilities literature, and the dynamic capabilities theory. Based on the dynamic capabilities theory and the hierarchy of capabilities, we distinguish between two types of processes: capability-building and competitive-action-generating processes. We propose that IT capability, a low-order capability, enables the higher-order capability of organizational agility, which in turn enables the firm to transform its products, processes, or business models radically. Our model also considers the important impact of leadership style on both capability-building and competitive-action-generating processes. More precisely, we argue that the process of successfully developing higher-order capabilities from lower-order capabilities is moderated by the presence of aligned transformational leadership. This paper contributes to the academic literature on IT and business strategy by determining why business organizations pursue and how they can achieve digitally enabled business transformations. Our theory extends the adopted overarching theory, the dynamic capabilities theory, by considering the influence of leadership style on both capability-building and competitive-action-generating processes. The paper provides important practical insights for business and IT leaders regarding how to build and utilize IT capabilities to generate competitive actions that contribute to success in turbulent business environments.
We interviewed adults with mild cognitive impairment working in a sheltered workshop and three su... more We interviewed adults with mild cognitive impairment working in a sheltered workshop and three support professionals about competitive employment in the community, and what concerns or barriers they may have. While individuals were most concerned about managing their health, professionals also described personal safety and productivity challenges. Families' worries about the safety of their family members were reported to be a barrier to competitive employment. Using a smart watch as a technology probe, we identified three potential applications of wearable technology in tackling these challenges: health support, family support, and productivity support.
One trend that rivals and stands to potentially eclipse the transformational effect of the smartp... more One trend that rivals and stands to potentially eclipse the transformational effect of the smartphone, is the rise of wearable computing devices. While wearables have received proliferated adoption in recent times, their uncommon form factor poses challenges to designers and many such devices fail to achieve sustained user engagement. Within the HCI stream of IS related research, there is a limited amount of studies that address theory inspired design of actual IT artifacts, or address the ubiquitous context of technology use. In this research-in-progress work, we adopt an action design research approach and drawing upon theories from the psychology and technology adoption literature, we develop a set of design principles that informs the design of user experiences for wearable computing devices. We come up with 6 specific principles which are derived from 3 main perspectives -- an affective quality perspective, a social norms perspective and a utility accrual perspective.
As the plethora of mobile apps continues to grow, app publishers are increasingly challenged on t... more As the plethora of mobile apps continues to grow, app publishers are increasingly challenged on the appropriate strategies to adopt in order to improve app success. In this report, we adopt theoretical lens from transaction cost theory and economic utility in the development and test of a model that examines the impacts of app diversity and app cohesivity on app success. Using data gathered from the Microsoft Windows Phone App distribution platform, our main conclusions are as follows: app diversity (the number of geographic locales an app is built to support) is of particular significance as a potential driver of app success within platforms and app cohesivity (a measure of integration with the platforms services) is positively associated with app success (its download count/rank within the platform). Interestingly, both relationships appear to be moderated by the pricing scheme adopted by publishers for that app. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as avenues for future research work.
The quantified self-movement encourages a continuous tracking of data points regarding a person’s... more The quantified self-movement encourages a continuous tracking of data points regarding a person’s daily activities through wearable sensors, and thus has important implications for health and wellness. With the advent of sophisticated low-cost wearable computing devices, online communities that facilitate social interaction and exchange of wearable data (Quantified Self 2.0 platforms) have also emerged. Although security and privacy disclosure has been studied within online social networks and online health communities, little has been done to understand how individual and group characteristics influence the disclosure behaviour regarding highly sensitive personal information gathered from wearable sensors (e.g., sleep, nutrition, mood, performance, ambient conditions). Using data collected from 43 Fitbit groups which consist of 5300 Asian users within the Fitbit online community, we examine the influence of group characteristics (size, posts, average steps) and individual attributes on privacy disclosure behaviour. Results from our hierarchical linear modelling analysis suggests that attributes such as group size and individual posts are associated with increased privacy data disclosure, whilst we surprisingly find that when other group members have higher health performance or are more active, individuals are more likely to disclose less healthcare information. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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Papers by Victor Dibia
funds transfer and bill payments are unavailable to over 70% of the population. Mobile money
technologies, which entail the use of mobile technology in facilitating financial transactions, have
presented themselves as viable methods of reaching this segment of the population known as the
unbanked. However, there is an unfortunate dearth of studies that examine the limitations of mobile
money implementations and provide recommendations for improving this important tool for financial
inclusion. To this end, this research provides a review of the evolution of mobile money technologies as an
example of user centered innovation and identifies the important actors in the mobile money ecosystem.
Through a case study of the performance of mobile money deployments in two regions of Africa (Kenya
and Nigeria), critical success factors are identified and discussed. Specifically, it is highlighted that : a
mobile first approach to designing the ecosystem, balanced regulatory policies, a useable base of
distribution agents and alignment with the needs of the unbanked are four important factors for
successful mobile money implementations in developing nations.
Peer-reviewed conference papers by Victor Dibia
funds transfer and bill payments are unavailable to over 70% of the population. Mobile money
technologies, which entail the use of mobile technology in facilitating financial transactions, have
presented themselves as viable methods of reaching this segment of the population known as the
unbanked. However, there is an unfortunate dearth of studies that examine the limitations of mobile
money implementations and provide recommendations for improving this important tool for financial
inclusion. To this end, this research provides a review of the evolution of mobile money technologies as an
example of user centered innovation and identifies the important actors in the mobile money ecosystem.
Through a case study of the performance of mobile money deployments in two regions of Africa (Kenya
and Nigeria), critical success factors are identified and discussed. Specifically, it is highlighted that : a
mobile first approach to designing the ecosystem, balanced regulatory policies, a useable base of
distribution agents and alignment with the needs of the unbanked are four important factors for
successful mobile money implementations in developing nations.