Faculty of Science and Technology

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End date: 2019

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 76
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    Business process re-engineering: A panacea for reducing operational cost in service organizations
    (INDEPENDENT JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & PRODUCTION (IJM&P), 2015) Sungau, Joseph; Ndunguru, Philibert C.
    Organizations in today’s business environment struggle on how to reduce operation cost to generate reasonable profit. In order to reduce Operational Costs, service organizations have been working hard to identify techniques that facilitate business processes improvement. In so doing, the global literature indicates that service organizations adopt BPR technique as a panacea of reducing Operational Cost. Despite the documented potentiality of the BPR technique, a mixed empirical results, findings and conclusions regarding the effect of BPR on Operational Cost have been reported. Therefore, this paper aimed at assessing and explaining the effects of BPR on Operational Cost. The study used cross-sectional survey design to investigate the effect of BPR on Operational Cost. Intensive literature review enabled the construction of structural measurement model, formulation of testable hypotheses and operationalization of constructs. To test the model and hypotheses, data were collected from ninety five (95) service organizations in Tanzania. Results of the study reveal that BPR and delivering speed have no direct effects on Operational Cost; they indirectly affect Operational Cost through the mediations of service quality. Therefore, BPR influences first both service quality and delivery speed in affecting Operational Cost of service organizations. It is now recommended that service organizations should use BPR as panacea of reducing Operational Cost.
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    Business process re-engineering: The technique to improve delivering speed of service industry in Tanzania
    (INDEPENDENT JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & PRODUCTION (IJM&P), 2013) Sungau, Joseph; Ndunguru, Philibert C.; Kimeme, Joseph
    Problem statement: Time spent by customers at a service organization is very critical in today’s business environment. Service organizations must change to provide services to customers within the minimum time possible. Business process re-engineering is one technique that improves business processes. However, despite documented advantages, most organizations have not adopted the technique. Purpose: The paper aims to determine and explain the effect of business process re-engineering on delivering speed for enhanced organizational performance. Methodology: The study used a cross-sectional survey design that included a sample of ninety-five (95) service organizations. Focused intensive literature review enabled to construction structural measurement model, formulation of testable hypotheses and operationalization of constructs. Results: From the study, it is revealed that BPR positively improves delivering speed of service organizations. Conclusion: The adoption of the BPR technique for improved business processes enhances delivery speed in service organizations.
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    On IT enabling of business process reengineering in organizations
    (Advanced Materials Research, 2014) Sungau, Joseph; Msanjila, Simon Samwel
    Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a management approach used to improve organizational performance through restructuring production activities of the core services to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. Although BPR improves the efficiency of processes, it can hardly be applied in its own and thus it needs to be complemented with other concepts from other disciplines. Information technology (IT) tools are seen as accurate and effective enablers of the BPR approach in restructuring activities. This paper focuses on analyzing how IT can be an enabler of the BPR approach to restructuring processes in an organization to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of processes. It presents the roles of IT in BPR for organizations. It also presents challenges for organizations when implementing the BPR.
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    Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for industrial development: Challenges and opportunities
    (IGI Global, 2017) Lyakurwa, Felichesmi Selestine; Sungau, Joseph
    The applicability of ICT has gained high research interests in both developed and developing countries due to the perceived social and economic benefits. With the increased benefits of ICTs, many governments have invested heavily in emerging technologies to gain a competitive advantage over others in the business. Despite the high investment by many countries around the world, there are inadequate documentation about the cost-benefits of the massive ICT investment in developing countries, especially Africa. Hence, developing an empirical study to reveal the perceived cost-benefits of ICT investment for industrial development is critical. This chapter presents a comprehensive review of various studies conducted in different countries of the world detailing the extent of ICTs, barriers hindering its use and the potential benefits. To date, there is existing empirical evidence to support the role of ICTs for industrial development in developing countries, while the benefits of ICTs for industrial development in developing countries of Asia and Africa are not well documented.
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    Factors for e-government adoption: Lessons from selected African countries
    (UNISA Press, 2012) Komba, Mercy Mlay; Ngulube, P
    This article discusses various problematic issues of providing access to, and promoting the wider utilisation of government information as important factors in e-government adoption. The Tunisian, Mauritian and Egyptian e-government experiences are examined in this article in order to highlight both good practices and remaining challenges in e-government adoption. Some of the good practices that we can benefit from, may be summarised as: formulating a viable national information and communication technology strategy (ICT-based) for modernising the telecommunications infrastructure, developing a regulatory framework for the deployment of a digital economy, obtaining international cooperation in ICT, developing skilled human resources management in ICT, developing a national digital culture in order to overcome the problems of low individual usage and adoption of ICT, establishing an information infrastructure to connect the various local government authorities, and establishing security standards in order to address threats. The study concludes that overcoming the obstacles of providing access to, and promoting the wider utilisation of government information, remain some of the biggest challenges for any government planning to adopt and implement e-government.
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    Government information seeking behaviour of citizens in selected districts of Tanzania
    (Journal of Library & Information Science, 2016) Komba Mercy Mlay; Lwoga Edda Tandi
    The study assessed the information needs and information-seeking patterns of citizens in Tanzania, focusing on three districts: Morogoro town, Njombe and Kinondoni districts. A questionnaire survey was self-administered to 450 citizens in selected districts, with a rate of return of 99.6 per cent. Findings revealed that citizens mainly required information on national examination results, followed by information on birth, death and marriage certificates, land, and health. Citizens relied on electronic sources and interpersonal communication with neighbours and friends more than explicit sources of information. Certain demographic factors related to education level and respondent’s age determined the use of various types of information sources. Common barriers of citizens’ information seeking behaviour were related to poor ICT infrastructure, difficulty in retrieving information, distant location and high costs of information sources. This is a comprehensive study that provides findings which might help the government in Tanzania and other countries with similar conditions to provide effective government information and services to their citizens.
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    Factors that influence eBusiness adoption in selected districs in Tanzania
    (International Conference on eBusiness, eCommerce, eManagement, eLearning and eGovernance (2015): 1-19. Print., 2015) Komba, Mercy Mlay; Ngulube, P
    Purpose-Tanzania government has been making efforts to provide its information and services through internet. However, e-government adoption has been quite slow. Few publications explore e-government adoption in the Tanzanian context; therefore, this paper aims to assess factors that influence citizen adoption of e-government in Tanzania.Design/methodology/approach- A survey was administered to elicit factors for e-government adoption in Tanzania. Findings- The results of multiple linear regressions indicate that social influence and system quality significantly influence e-government adoption in Tanzania. Research limitation/implications- In light of these findings, researchers should conduct a similar study using other different e-government adoption models to identify more factors that influence e-government adoption in Tanzania. Practical implications- Policymakers and e-government project teams should consider these factors to facilitate e-government adoption within the
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    Antecedents of continued usage intentions of web-based learning management system in Tanzania
    (Education + Training, 2015) Komba Mercy; Tandi Luoga
    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that predict students’ continued usage intention of web-based learning management systems (LMS) in Tanzania, with a specific focus on the School of Business of Mzumbe University. Specifically, the study investigated major predictors of actual usage and continued usage intentions of e-learning system, and challenges of using the e-learning system. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 300 third year undergraduate students, with a rate of return of 77 per cent. A total of 20 faculty members were also interviewed. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) was utilized in the study. Findings – The results show that actual usage was determined by self-efficacy, while continued usage intentions of web-based learning system was predicted by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, self-efficacy, and actual usage. Challenges for using web-based LMS were related to information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure barrier, LMS user interface was not user friendly, weak ICT policies, management and technical support, limited skills, lack of awareness, resistance to change, and lack of time to prepare e-content and use the e-learning system. Practical implications – The study findings are useful to e-learning managers and university management to identify important factors and develop appropriate policies and strategies to encourage long-term usage of e-learning systems for future studies and lifelong learning. Originality/value – By using UTAUT in the context of continued usage intentions and the integration of an additional construct (“self-efficacy”), the extended UTAUT model fits very well in the web-based learning systems in Tanzania, in particular where such studies are scant. The findings can be used in other institutions with similar conditions in investigating the continued usage intentions of e-learning systems.
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    E-government adoption in developing countries: Trends in the use of models
    (ESARBICA Journal, 2011) Komba, Mercy Mlay; Ngulube, P.
    Like the evaluation of all other information systems initiatives, the evaluation of e-government in both theory and practice has proven to be important and complex. The importance of e-government evaluation is due to the enormous investment put in by governments for delivering e-government services and to the considerable pace of growth in the field of e-government. However, despite the importance of the evaluation of e-government services, the literature shows that e-government evaluation is still an immature area in terms of development and management. The main aim of this article is to explore various theories and models which have been used in the developing countries context to evaluate e-government adoption. Developing countries suffer from poor citizen utilization of e-government initiatives. An assessment of various theories and models for e-government adoption in developing countries may positively contribute to enhancing government understanding of the factors that influence citizen utilization of e-government systems. Moreover, the understanding of these models can be used as means for providing valuable feedback for the planning of future e-government initiatives in the developing countries.
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    Influence of information sharing behavior on trust in collaborative logistics
    (Springer International Publishing, 2017) Daudi, Morice; Hauge, Jannicke; Thoben, Klaus-Dieter
    Collaborations are based on mutual trust to strengthen confidence in the sharing of various resources such as information. Particularly in logistics, collaborations benefit emerged rich-data environments to successfully manage demand fluctuation and visibility of in-store logistics; as well as the sharing of physical assets. Shared information is gathered from various sources and manipulated by specific partner to match or maximize individual payoff. Such information may become vulnerable to information sharing behavior of the partner to henceforth affect trust. This paper investigates the influence of the information sharing behavior on trust. It focuses on a dimension of information accuracy to answer a research question: how do information sharing behaviors of partner affect trust in logistics collaboration? A framework of information behavior is established, and subsequently a trust model specified. Afterwards, simulation experiments are conducted to observe resulting impacts. Results unveil that both, the positively and negatively manipulated information influence trust in similar magnitudes. It is further argued that partner’s deceitful behavior underlying information sharing can be reduced although it might be difficult to eliminate.