Department of Informatics - Masters Degrees

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    Adoption of dynamic capabilities with cloud computing in South African small and medium enterprises.
    (Tshwane University of Technology, 2023-10-25) Nkopodi, M.B.; Dr. Tendani J. Lavhengwa; Dr. Stevens Mamorobela
    Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are becoming a productive driving force for economic growth and development of many developing countries. This is because the SME sector is the driving force for job creation and a significant contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of various countries. Despite contributing to economic development, the failure rate of SMEs in developing countries, such as South Africa, is still at its highest because of many challenges. These challenges include: (1) Imports from foreign countries, (2) lack of access to financial sponsorship, (3) the issue of wage rate, (4) lack of access to technology, (5) lack of management skills and (6) other global challenges. Therefore, to minimize these challenges, SMEs in developing countries need to develop dynamic capabilities that will enable them to achieve competitive advantage. However, dynamic capabilities alone are not sufficient for the organizations’ performance improvement, but their contribution to performance is significant. Therefore, SMEs need to adopt dynamic capabilities with Cloud Computing. This research study developed a model for the adoption dynamic capabilities and cloud computing in South African SMEs. The study was based on UTAUT, DOI and Dynamic capabilities theory and followed a quantitative approach. Creative research systems calculator was used to determine the sample size of 196 from a population of 400. The results indicated that Trialability; Performance Expectancy; Security, Seizing and Reconfiguring, have a positive influence on adoption dynamic capabilities and cloud computing in South African SMEs. While other complexity, social influence, and sensing were found to have a negative influence on the adoption dynamic capabilities and cloud computing in South African SMEs. The study developed a model that provides a guidance on how SMEs can adopt dynamic capabilities with Cloud Computing to achieve competitive advantage in the dynamic business environment. The study concludes with recommendation that future studies may be conducted with the by integrating other factors that influence the adoption of DCs with Cloud Computing within SMEs. This will help improve the model developed in this study. Other theories could be incorporated. Future studies could also look at using a different research methodology and data collection instruments. Data could also be collected from other countries.
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    A model to reduce cybersecurity insider threats in a South African telecommunication organization.
    (Tshwane University of Technology, 2023-03-10) Nkwana, Carol Brenda
    In today’s digital economy, cybersecurity breaches have become a growing challenge. Organizations have the responsibility of protecting their information resources from cybersecurity threats. Some of these threats may originate from within the perimeters of an organization (insider threats). The major objective of this study was to develop a model to reduce cybersecurity insider threats in a South African telecommunication organization. This study was motivated by the fact that cybersecurity insider threats may be a bigger threat than most organizations comprehend. Organizations are investing a lot of financial and human resources to protect themselves from technological vulnerabilities emanating from outside the organization as compared to threats coming from employees. The study used Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) and Social Bond (SB) theories as lenses to develop the model for cybersecurity insider threats reduction. A positivistic research philosophy was selected as being the most appropriate in understanding the challenges of insider threats in organizations. A deductive quantitative approach using a survey research strategy was adopted as the research methodology. Probability sampling based on simple random sampling technique was used to sample participants, and data was collected using a 7-point Likert scale using a close-ended questionnaire. The results indicated that out of 95 respondents, 38.9% were male respondents and 61.1% were female respondents. Most of the participants were between 36 and 45 years at 56.8%, followed by 26–35 years at 30.5%. One respondent was above 55 years. The research model was tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with quantitative data collected from 95 IT professionals in the telecommunication organization. The results revealed that only two of the ten hypothesized relationships between the model variables were accepted. The results indicated that personal norms in the domain of cybersecurity have a positive influence on individuals’ attitude towards engaging in cybersecurity misbehaviour, and the individual reduction of intention to misbehaviour has a significant relationship with the reduction of insider threats. This study suggests that management should give close and thoughtful attention to factors that encourage their employees to engage in cybersecurity misbehaviour. As an efficient and effective approach to mitigate the risk of cybersecurity insider threats, identification and classification of these factors should be followed by proper planning with a goal of reducing their negative effect on employees’ behaviour.
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    Mobile Learning readiness assessment model in South African rural high school: A case of Limpopo province.
    (Tshwane University of Technology, 2023-10-16) Manyadze , Mmbudzeni; Dr. T.S. Adeyelure; Dr. R.C. Mogase
    Mobile learning has become an essential component of online teaching due to the rapid growth of mobile technologies. It is regarded as potentially major learning aid since it has made learning possible at any time and from any location through the use of wireless and mobile devices. However, teachers’ readiness should be considered before building and implementing a new learning system. Despite its obvious benefits, mobile learning remains mostly relatively limited and not researched in South African high schools of Limpopo department of basic education, especially in the rural areas. Therefore, the goal of this quantitative study is to assess the level of readiness of South African high schools of Limpopo department of basic education. A questionnaire was distributed to six randomly selected schools for this purpose and a sample of 250 participants was used. The questionnaire was created to investigate teachers of mobile learning. The findings revealed that the majority of teachers in high schools of Limpopo are ready for the implementation of mobile learning. This research finding has aided the department of Limpopo basic education and teachers with useful information for discovering new approaches to use mobile learning in teaching and learning.
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    A model for cloud-based hospital management systems for South African public health sector.
    (Tshwane University of Technology, 2023-02-16) Magudulela, Thembokuhle; Prof. Billy M Kalema; Dr Mmatshuene A Segooa
    Real-time access of information in the Healthcare environment is essential as it not only helps medical personnel to have adequate and timely information, but it also assists patients to be served more easily. This can only be achieved if hospital management systems and their sub functionalities are easily accessible just-on-time. This necessitates the Hospital Management System (HMS) to be deployed in the cloud environment so as to reduce the limitations of poor and intermittent networks, low bandwidth, as well as insufficient information technology (IT) human resources. When successfully implemented, the cloud-based HMS increases efficiency, scalability, and overall performance of the health system by sharing resources with many devices used by different personnel within the healthcare sector - especially in developing countries such as South Africa that are widely challenged by poor technological infrastructure. Much as this is so, literature indicates that there is still lack of appropriate models customised to the South Africa context to inform the deployment of HMS into the cloud. Hospitals, especially those in rural areas, are operating at a low bandwidth, and have poor IT infrastructure that causes intermittent networks leading to disruptions and slow service delivery. The goal of this study was to develop a model for cloud-based HMS for the South African public health sector. Data for this study was collected using a close-ended questionnaire from district municipality hospitals in Gauteng Province, South Africa, and analysed quantitatively. Results indicated that social aspects, followed by risk analysis and control as well as organizational aspects are highly significant antecedents in developing a cloud-based HMS model. However, the results also indicated that environment aspects’ contribution too is valid, but not significant. This study contributes to the ongoing call to have seamless healthcare provision systems, especially after the challenges of Covid-19 that saw many countries struggling to provide healthcare services due to lockdowns. The model developed in this study is expected to extend the research of modernizing healthcare provision by leveraging technological innovations. This study recommends that future research should involve the analysis of interacting effects of individual users’ demographics in order to have a better forecast for future consistent usage of cloud-based services.
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    A data security model for Software-as-a-Service cloud computing environment: A case of financial institutions in South Africa.
    (Tshwane University of Technology, 2022-08-15) Dibetle, Masego Prudence; Prof Billy M. Kalema; Dr M.N. Moeti
    Cloud computing (CC) presents several vulnerabilities, threats, and risks of the data that is being deployed in the cloud environment. Data is the most important asset of all organizations, hence its security and integrity should be preserved in all organizations especially those dealing with voluminous and highly generated data from various sources. Financial institutions work with many customers’ information. Such institutions must ensure that their data is safe if deployed in the cloud, thus gaining customers’ trust. Failure to put necessary safety measures and security governance protocols and standards in place could result in destructive attacks that could lead to huge financial losses, legal implications, and undermining of reputation. This implies that data governance is essential for any organization more especially for those who seeks to migrate their data in the cloud environment. Much as this is so, literature indicates that there are few standardized approaches for providing data security in the cloud computing environment, especially with financial institutions that are interdisciplinary, cross-sectorial, multinational, multi-site complex operational environments, and that deal with huge data and depend on information for their day-to-day operations. This study sought to design a data security governance model for the Software-as-a-Service cloud computing environment in the South African financial institutions. Four theories of the technology-organization-environment (TOE) model − information security theory, risk management theory, and control and audit theory were discussed and formed a basis on which the conceptual model of the study was designed. Based on the conceptual model and the reviewed literature a close-ended questionnaire was designed and used to collect data from South African financial institutions that analysed quantitatively. Simple random sampling was used to collect data from 308 respondents that had been determined by Krejcie and Morgan's technique from a finite population of 845. Being that the questionnaire was to be distributed online using Google form link, an inclusive criteria was used to determine the respondents that were to be selected for the simple random sampling of the distribution of the questionnaire. Collected data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results of the study indicated that technological aspects and top management support are essential for data governance in the SaaS cloud computing as their contribution towards the overall model’s prediction was highly significant. The results shown of the study indicate that the overall prediction of the conceptual model for the SaaS cloud DSG to improve competitiveness in financial institutions is 67.4% (R2 =.674). When the SaaS cloud DSG is properly analysed, the combination of the TOE framework, information security framework, risk management framework, and control and audit framework contributes 67.4% to the forecast of competitiveness. This study contributes to the theoretical ongoing debate of data governance in the cloud computing environment. This implies that future researchers can leverage the empirical findings of this study to extend research in data governance in cloud environment. Further still, the designed model for the study when evaluated and validated will be used for the implementation of data governance practices in the cloud environment. By doing so, this study will be making a significant practical contribution. Due to the Covid-19 constraints of lockdown in which situation this study was conducted, data collection only focused on financial institutions that were mostly banks whereas financial institutions also include those that provide services such as insurance, credit unions and loan associations. Therefore, this study recommends that future research to widen the scope of data collection to include credit unions, loan associations, medical aid associated and/or other financial institutions dealing with voluminous data on a day-to-day basis in order to have a good generalization of the study’s findings.