Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://192.168.8.146:4000/handle/123456789/9
Browse
57 results
Search Results
Item Dynamics of technology transfer for innovation processes in a constrained resource settings :(Scientific & Academic Publishing Co., 2018) Kiarie, Peter; Mwangi, Henry; Rong, ChunmingAbstract Technology transfer, defined as the movement of scientific inventions from an enterprise to the market place, is often a difficult and frustrating process. Stakeholders in this area of study are usually at different levels of understanding due to many factors involved and speak different languages. There are number of problems associated with technology transfer processes in constrained resource settings such as lack of researchers in specific domains, motivation, bureaucratic climate, inability to make effective public investments, funding and inappropriate infrastructure, culture among many others. This research explores the above problems and others discussed by varies researchers in technology transfer and particularly those in Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework using Data analytics and System Dynamics modeling approaches. Data analytics will facilitate in developing a more promising and data rich System Dynamics model. The study will shed light on technical and social factors that lead to formulation of policies which enable accelerated technology transfers in constrained resource settings.Item Supporting e-learning in computer-poor environments by combining oer, cloud services and mobile learning(ICCE2014, 2014) Mwendia, Simon Nyaga; Hoppe, H. UlrichAbstract Research supervision is an important type of support for advanced students when engaged in study projects or in writing their final theses. One of the most common complaints from research students is erratic or infrequent contact with supervisors, who might be too busy with other responsibilities or are not present frequently enough . High proliferation of mobile phones(i.e. 'mobile-rich') but no computer prevalence (i.e. 'computer-poor') in African countries calls for using mobile technologies to address this challenge. However, limitations of mobile devices (such as usage cost, memory capacity and small screen) are some of the barriers for mobile learning adoption. In this paper, we combine mobile learning with OER and Cloud Computing Services to enhance supervisors’ availability to their research students, who are in 'mobile-rich' but 'computer-poor ' learning settings typical for African universities.Item Environmental risk factors influencing bicycle theft:(PubMed Central, 2016) Mburu, Lucy W.; Helbich, MarcoAbstract Urban authorities are continuously drawing up policies to promote cycling among commuters. However, these initiatives are counterproductive for the targeted objectives because they increase opportunities for bicycle theft. This paper explores Inner London as a case study to address place-specific risk factors for bicycle theft at the street-segment level while controlling for seasonal variation. The presence of certain public amenities (e.g., bicycle stands, railway stations, pawnshops) was evaluated against locations of bicycle theft between 2013 and 2016 and risk effects were estimated using negative binomial regression models. Results showed that a greater level of risk stemmed from land-use facilities than from area-based socioeconomic status. The presence of facilities such as train stations, vacant houses, pawnbrokers and payday lenders increased bicycle theft, but no evidence was found that linked police stations with crime levels. The findings have significant implications for urban crime prevention with respect to non-residential land use.Item Contextual factors and public value of e-government services in kenya(Global Scientific Journals, 2017) Kamau, Gabriel; Wausi, Agnes; Njihia, JamesAbstract E-government research has been skewed towards technological deterministic perspective mainly centering on technological issues. This provides no explicit guidance to the design and practice of e-government programs that result to increased uptake of e-government services. Theoretical discourse reveals undisputed consensus among e-government researchers that e-government uptake may be influenced by others contextual factors such as administrative and political consequences and should not be overlooked as they are valued. This study filled this gap by conducting an empirical investigated of the influence of contextual factors: ICT infrastructure, human capital and governance and the public value of e-government services. The study employed a mixed method exploratory, descriptive cross-sectional approach to realize the research objectives. Structural Equation Modeling was used to conduct statistical analysis of data collected. The study findings demonstrated that ICT infrastructure insignificantly contributed to public value of e-government services. However, the study revealed significantly contribution of human capital as well as governance to public value of e-government services.Item Modeling spatial interactions between areas to assess the burglary risk(MDPI, 2016) Mburu, Lucy W.; Bakillah, MohamedAbstract It is generally acknowledged that the urban environment presents different types of risk factors, but how the structural effects of areas influence the risk levels in neighboring areas has been less widely investigated. This research assesses the local effects of burglary contributory factors on burglary over small areas in a large metropolitan region. A comparative framework is developed for analyzing the effects of geographic dependence on burglary rates, and for assessing how such dependence conditions the community context and the urban land use. A local indicators spatial autocorrelation analysis assesses burglaries over five years (2011–2015) to identify risk clusters. Thereafter, effects of different variables (e.g., unemployment, building density) on burglary frequency are estimated in a series of regression models while controlling for changes in the risk levels of nearby surrounding areas. Results uncover strong evidence that the configuration of the surroundings influences risk. After controlling for area-based interaction, patterns are identified that contrast with the previous literature, such as lower burglary frequency in areas with higher tenancy in social housing units. Together the findings demonstrate that the spatial arrangement of areas is as crucial as contextual crime factors, particularly when assessing the risk for small areas.Item Directing attention through gaze hints improves task solving in human-humanoid interaction(pubMed, 2018) Mwangi, Eunice; Barakova, Emilia I; Díaz-Boladeras, Marta; Català Mallofré, Andreu; Rauterberg, MatthiasAbstract In this paper, we report an experimental study designed to examine how participants perceive and interpret social hints from gaze exhibited by either a robot or a human tutor when carrying out a matching task. The underlying notion is that knowing where an agent is looking at provides cues that can direct attention to an object of interest during the activity. In this regard, we asked human participants to play a card matching game in the presence of either a human or a robotic tutor under two conditions. In one case, the tutor gave hints to help the participant find the matching cards by gazing toward the correct match, in the other case, the tutor only looked at the participants and did not give them any help. The performance was measured based on the time and the number of tries taken to complete the game. Results show that gaze hints (helping tutor) made the matching task significantly easier (fewer tries) with the robot tutor. Furthermore, we found out that the robots' gaze hints were recognized significantly more often than the human tutor gaze hints, and consequently, the participants performed significantly better with the robot tutor. The reported study provides new findings towards the use of non-verbal gaze hints in human-robot interaction, and lays out new design implications, especially for robot-based educative interventions.Item Influence of Twitter Hashtags on the Formation of Public Opinion on Socio-political Issues in Kenya(JKUAT, 2019) Munuku, Anne W.Using hashtags, an in-text tag symbolized as #, has become a common feature in social media discourse globally. The study investigated the influence of the hashtag revolution on the formation of public opinion on socio-political issues in Kenya. The study examined how the public is using Twitter to disseminate information on various social and political issues by incorporating hashtags in their tweets. The research focused on how hashtags are influencing public opinion formation in social and political issues among Kenyans through a discourse analysis of the Twitter conversations (tweets) and interviews. Hashtags in Kenya are formulated by ordinary citizens and other groups like bloggers and activists besides the media practitioners, to direct public debate on issues of national importance. The main objective of the research was to examine the influence of the hashtag revolution in Kenya on the formation of public opinion on socio-political issues. This study was guided by four specific objectives, which include: to establish the influence of the framing of the hashtag on the formation of public opinion, to explain the influence of the actors of the hashtag on formation of public opinion, to determine the influence of the context in which a hashtag is formed on the formation of public opinion and to find out the influence of the nature of the hashtag discourse on the formation of public opinion. The study was guided by two theories, the framing theory and the participatory communication theory. The study adopted the mixed method research design. The study population consisted of an indefinite number of hashtags generated by Kenyans in the period between January 2014 and March 2017, media practitioners from the local television stations and members of public involved in hashtag development. Purposive sampling was used to select Kenyans on Twitter and 35 hashtags, while snowball sampling was used to select two independent hashtag developers. Five television stations were investigated. A total of 22 journalists from the five stations involved in digital/online journalism were interviewed. The researcher also interviewed 4 independent hashtag developers and ten Kenyans on Twitter (KOT). Qualitative data for the research was collected through interviews and the streaming of tweets under the selected hashtags. Data from interviews was transcribed and organized using content analysis. Analysis and interpretation was done using critical discourse analysis. The quantitative and qualitative data mined from Twitter was coded using determined themes and organized using content analysis. Description and narration of the results was done. Findings indicated that the four independent variables, that is, framing, context, actors and nature of hashtag discourse had significant influence on the formation of public opinion on sociopolitical issues in Kenya. A regression analysis of the four variables was done and the results indicated that framing of a hashtag was the most influential variable in public opinion formation. The conclusion of the study was that framing, context, nature of discourse and the actors in the hashtag discourse influenced formation of public opinion on socio-political issues in Kenya. A key finding of the study was that the Kenyans were using the hashtag as a form of discursive resistance where the ordinary citizens get to dialogue, diagnose problems, suggest solutions and even organize protests guided by a single hashtag. The research concluded that there is indeed a paradigm shift as far as gatekeeping, agenda setting, priming and framing of news is concerned with the ordinary citizen taking up this traditional role of the media by creating, disseminating and gate watching news in online platforms. The media have adopted the use of hashtags to keep up with citizens online in almost all TV programmes. The online community has become a major source of news for the media. For media practitioners and policy makers, the study recommends that hashtags continue being used as a genre of communication as they appeal to the public and formulators should emphasize more the framing of the hashtag.Item Influence of the Hashtag Context on Public Opinion Formation on Sociopolitical Issues in Kenya(Journal of Public Policy and Administration, 2017) Munuku, Anne W.; Mberia, Hellen; Ndavula, John O.Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine how the context in which a hashtag is formulated the influences public opinion formation on sociopolitical issues in Kenya Methodology: The study adopted descriptive and qualitative research design. The study population consisted of the hashtags generated by Kenyans in the period between January 2014 and December 2016 and the local television stations and members of public involved in hashtag development outside the media fraternity. The sampling frame was obtained from the Communication Authority 2015 report, the Kenya Advertisers Association website and the Twitter database. Purposive sampling was used to select the 35 hashtags and snowball sampling was used to select the hashtag developers. Results: The study found that hash tag context has a significant relationship with public opinion formation. The study found that all hashtags formulated by Kenyans were context bound as they were formed whenever an issue rose. The wording of the hashtag (frame of communication) communicated the issue regime and the opinion of the formulator. The findings revealed that hashtags based on political contexts were more and trended longer. The political hashtags were 51% while social based ones stand at 40%. The rest were from security and economic contexts. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The research draws on public opinion theory, the theory participatory communication theory and the Critical Discourse Analysis approach by Fairclough. The formulation and dissemination of news using hashtags is a growing and fast changing phenomenon that requires a new approach in its analysis. The use of these three approaches indicates the complexity of the nature of hashtags and the connection between the hashtag, the context that surrounds its formation and the opinion formed in relation to that context. The concept of citizen journalism must be looked at afresh.Item Influence of Framing of the Hashtag on Public Opinion Formation on Socio-political Issues in Kenya(International Journal of Communication and Public Relation, 2017) Munuku, Anne W.; Mberia, Hellen; Ndavula, John O.Purpose: The purpose of the study was to establish the influence of framing of the hashtag on public opinion formation on socio-political issues in Kenya. Methodology: The study adopted the descriptive qualitative research design. The study population consisted of the hashtags generated by Kenyans in the period between January 2014 and December 2016, journalists from 5 local television stations and members of public involved in hashtag development outside the media fraternity. Purposive sampling was used to select the 35 hashtags and snowball sampling was used to select the hashtag developers and respondents from the public and selected media houses. Results: The findings that the framing of the hashtag is done by both the media and the public and the higher percentage of hashtags are done by the public. The study found that 60% of the hash tags were non-ordered in terms of the grammatical structure. Findings revealed that the English language dominates the hashtags formulated with a few having a mixture of Kiswahili and English. Internet lingo was preferred to normal grammar. The selection of words was a key factor in the framing of hashtags. The wording of the hashtag mattered while the syntax did not. In conclusion, the framing of a hashtag was found to have a significant influence on public opinion formation but the grammatical structure of the hashtag did not matter. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The media framing theory describes faming as the process of the media packaging information in a way that tells the public how to think about it. The study concurs with the framing theory’s argument that the way a message is framed will have an influence on the opinion formed by the respondent. Most of the respondents prefer short, concise hashtags that address immediate issues in the society. The results reveal that there is a paradigm shift in the framing theory in this form of synchronous computer mediated discourse. The ordinary citizens in Kenya frame 80% of the hashtags and only a small percentage of trending hashtags are formulated by media practitioners.Item The Effect of Financial Leverageas a Financial Distress Factor on Financial Performance on Commercial Banks in Kenya(European Journal of Business and Management, 2017) Sporta, Fred O.; Ngugi, Patrick K.; Ngumi, Patrick; Nanjala, Christine S.This study attempted to determine the effect of financial leverage as a financial distress factor on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. Secondary data was used in a census commercial banks from 2005 to 2015 was extracted from financial statements of 38 commercial banks out of the possible 44 commercial banks in operation as at 31st December, 2015 in accordance to CBK as a regulatory body. Data was collected from 2005 to 2015.descriptive and analytical design was adopted. The results show perfect positive correlation between debt equity ratio with return on equity and return on assets as well return on equity. The study was limited to the commercial banks in Kenya, the findings were only interpreted to commercial banks in Kenya and they will not be generalized for all financial institutions.