Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2013 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 4 Articles
The uniqueness of this research lies in its effort of exploring the communication and media adaptation in Small\r\nand Medium tourism Enterprises. Literature is reviewed from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. The\r\nmixed approach was used and on the basis of this review some research hypotheses are formulated. Data for the\r\nqualitative section was collected from semi-structured reviews with 13 managers of tourism companies. The results fill\r\na gap in the literature, particularly in media research and provide evidence and support for hypotheses....
Content is the most prominent aspect of the medium for communication. The trends of the content\r\nnowadays, especially in Malaysia, have shown the lack of local content in, for example, television,\r\nradio, films, the Internet and, in more recent years, mobile phones. In order to understand the\r\nsituation in Malaysia with regards to local content for mobile phones, meetings were carried out\r\nwith Malaysian mobile technology specialists. Given their extensive experience in this industry,\r\nthey are knowledgeable regarding mobile users� needs. The findings show that there is limited local\r\ncontent. On the other hand, the Malaysian government has adopted a pro-active attitude to launch\r\nactivities to motivate students in the universities to produce more local mobile content. Problems\r\nthat need to be addressed include: low numbers of mobile content developers; lack of\r\nstandardization of mobile phones; a limited business for Malaysian mobile content and limitation of\r\nbandwidth coverage in rural areas. The content on the mobile phone is also crucially important for\r\nthe positioning of Malaysian local culture on the world map. One of the areas identified of\r\nimportance for understanding use of mobile content is at the local institutions of higher learning.\r\nThus, it is suggested to investigate mobile content for students and educators further on how it\r\ncould benefit those participants....
In recent years, progress in information and communication technology (ICT) has caused many structural changes such as\r\nreorganizing of economics, globalization, and trade extension, which leads to capital flows and enhancing information\r\navailability. Moreover, ICT plays a significant role in development of each economic sector, especially during liberalization\r\nprocess. Growth economists predict that economic growth is driven by investments in ICT. However, empirical studies on\r\nthis issue have produced mixed results, regarding to different research methodology and geographical configuration of the\r\nstudy. This paper examines the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use on economic growth using\r\nthe Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator within the framework of a dynamic panel data approach and applies\r\nit to 159 countries over the period 2000 to 2009. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between growth\r\nrate of real GDP per capita and ICT use index (as measured by the number of internet users, fixed broadband internet\r\nsubscribers and the number of mobile subscription per 100 inhabitants). We also find that the effect of ICT use on economic\r\ngrowth is higher in high income group rather than other groups. This implies that if these countries seek to enhance their\r\neconomic growth, they need to implement specific policies that facilitate ICT use....
The effect of weather on social interactions has been explored through the analysis of a large mobile phone use dataset.\r\nTime spent on phone calls, numbers of connected social ties, and tie strength were used as proxies for social interactions;\r\nwhile weather conditions were characterized in terms of temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, and wind speed. Our\r\nresults are based on the analysis of a full calendar year of data for 22,696 mobile phone users (53.2 million call logs) in\r\nLisbon, Portugal. The results suggest that different weather parameters have correlations to the level and character of social\r\ninteractions. We found that although weather did not show much influence upon people�s average call duration, the\r\nlikelihood of longer calls was found to increase during periods of colder weather. During periods of weather that were\r\ngenerally considered to be uncomfortable (i.e., very cold/warm, very low/high air pressure, and windy), people were found\r\nto be more likely to communicate with fewer social ties. Despite this tendency, we found that people are more likely to\r\nmaintain their connections with those they have strong ties with much more than those of weak ties. This study sheds new\r\nlight on the influence of weather conditions on social relationships and how mobile phone data can be used to investigate\r\nthe influence of environmental factors on social dynamics....
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