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The dominance of national culture in organisational environments has been widely acknowledged. This study aims to explore the impact of national culture on information security awareness by examining cultural characteristics in the public sector. Drawing on Hofstede's model, a literature review was conducted to analyze existing knowledge and identify cultural traits in selected countries. Empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted in Sweden, France, and Tunisia. The data were analyzed using the Human Aspects of Information Security (HAIS) model, revealing distinct patterns and emphasising the role of culture in shaping behaviours. The findings underscore the importance of involving Swedish employees in the policy design process to effectively enhance information security awareness. For French employees, it was found that learning from past experiences and respecting hierarchical structures are crucial factors in raising awareness. Conversely, in Tunisia, information security initiatives should take into account the social and relational aspects to promote awareness effectively. These insights provide valuable guidance to managers in multinational organisations, enabling them to comprehend the underlying forces and dynamics in countries with similar characteristics.

Nontarget mass spectrometry has great potential to reveal patterns of water contamination globally through community science, but few studies are conducted in low-income countries, nor with open-source workflows, and few datasets are FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Water was collected from urban and rural rivers around Dhaka, Bangladesh, and analyzed by liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry in four ionization modes (electrospray ionization +/-, atmospheric pressure chemical ionization +/-) with data -independent MS2 acquisition. The acquisition strategy was complementary: 19,427 and 7365 features were unique to ESI and APCI, respectively. The complexity of water pollution was revealed by >26,000 unique molecular features resolved by MS-DIAL, among which >20,000 correlated with urban sources in Dhaka. A major wastewater treatment plant was not a dominant pollution source, consistent with major contributions from uncontrolled urban drainage, a result that encourages development of further wastewater infrastructures. Matching of deconvoluted MS2 spectra to public libraries resulted in 62 confident annotations (i.e., Level 1-2a) and allowed semiquantification of 42 analytes including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and personal care products. In silico structure prediction for the top 100 unknown molecular features associated with an urban source allowed 15 additional chemicals of anthropogenic origin to be annotated (i.e., Level 3). The authentic MS2 spectra were uploaded to MassBank Europe, mass spectral data were openly shared on the MassIVE repository, a tool (i.e., MASST) that could be used for community science environmental surveillance was demonstrated, and current limitations were discussed.

This paper aims at investigating the issues and challenges experienced by remote learning among the students of higher education in the context of Sweden during COVID-19. The pandemic situation influenced the emergence of a new learning context and the effectiveness of the computer-mediated remote learning from the sudden transition of traditional approaches poised many interesting issues. The empirical part of the study was based on a web-based survey conducted among 1767 anonymous students studied at 30 higher educational institutions in Sweden during the pandemic period in mid-2020. The results are presented in line with Zimmerman’s (2000) triadic (personal, environmental and behavioural) forms of self-regulation. The survey indicated that the perceived worries students experienced were oriented towards the students’ own personal situation, and future possibilities rather than the general state and welfare of the global society. The fast transition to online classes and seminars led to a lot of students being worried about their abilities to maintain efficiency in their studies. The findings of this study could provide refined insights into the issues that we should have in mind while formulating strategies for effective remote learning in such a changing environment during a crisis period not only in Sweden but also in some international contexts.

The interplay between finance and technology with the use of the internet triggered the emergence of digital payment technologies. Such technological innovation in the payment industry is the foundation for financial inclusion. However, despite the continuous progress and potential of moving the payment landscape towards digital payments and connecting the population to the ubiquitous digital environment, some critical issues need to be addressed to achieve a more harmonious inclusive and sustainable cashless society. The study aims to provide a comprehensive literature review on the emerging digital payment technologies and associated challenges. By systematically reviewing existing empirical studies, this study puts forward the state-of-the-art classification of digital payment technologies and presents four categories of digital payment technologies: card payment, e-payment, mobile payment and cryptocurrencies. Subsequently, the paper presents the key challenges in digital payment technologies categorized into broad themes: social, economic, technical, awareness and legal. The classification and categorization of payment technologies and associated challenges can be useful to both researchers and practitioners to understand, elucidate and develop a coherent digital payment strategy.

Cashless payments have become increasingly popular around the world because of their numerous advantages. Moreso, the cashless payment adoption has been escalated during the theCovid-19 pandemic. However, there is a lack of holistic studies on the adoption and contemporary practices of cashless payments. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to provide a comprehensive understanding by identifying the participating actors and their crucial role in the payment ecosystem. Thus, the paper aims to address two research questions: i) Who are the participating actors in the cashless payment ecosystem? and ii)What are the determinant factors for the actors to adopt the cashless payment ecosystem? Through scoping literature review of 63 articles published in the last seven years (2015-2021), six participating ecosystem actors are identified with their determinant factors. The study contributes toward addressing adoption issues and serves as a basis for future empirical investigation.

Purpose: This research, therefore, examines internal as well as external factors that may influence ICO’s return on investment (ROI) by collecting data from 100 ICO companies with positive ROI between 2018 and 2020. Design/Methodology/Approach: Overall, this is mixed-method research. Based on a literature review a conceptual research model has been proposed which includes internal and external factors ( incl. 9 hypotheses) that affect ICO ROI. A multiple regression analysis was employed to examine the causal relationships in the proposed research model. Findings: The results indicate that internal factors such as publication of source codes on GitHub, relevant ICO expert ratings, ETH platform usage, and pre-ICO processes and external factors such as Google search data and number of tweets positively influence ICO ROI. The findings reveal that expert ratings and the number of tweets are the most critical internal and external factors. Practical Implications & value: The findings and suggestions provided in this study will help the relevant investors for increasing public trust in the ICO market and enhancing investors' interest in this are areas of investment.

This paper investigates the use of cloud services in the public sector and management of information security challenges in the procurement of such services. The findings are based on an exploratory approach that included a systematic literature review and a survey among the public agencies and municipalities in Sweden. The literature review is used to derive a conceptual framework that structures our empirical results into the three groups: 1) contractual and legal, 2) operational, and 3) managerial competency. The survey explored all these three groups. The findings show that the information security challenges are mostly related to the potential breaching of national security and laws applicable to cross-border cloud services. Most of the cloud contracts of public organizations are found to be supplier driven. In this case, lack of knowledge and awareness in managing procurement are mostly raised compared to technical risks., Funding agency:Örebro University, Sweden

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher educational institutions worldwide switched to emergency distance learning in early 2020. The less structured environment of distance learning forced students to regulate their learning and motivation more independently. According to self-determination theory (SDT), satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and social relatedness affects intrinsic motivation, which in turn relates to more active or passive learning behavior. As the social context plays a major role for basic need satisfaction, distance learning may impair basic need satisfaction and thus intrinsic motivation and learning behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between basic need satisfaction and procrastination and persistence in the context of emergency distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in a cross-sectional study. We also investigated the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in this relationship. Furthermore, to test the universal importance of SDT for intrinsic motivation and learning behavior under these circumstances in different countries, we collected data in Europe, Asia and North America. A total of N = 15,462 participants from Albania, Austria, China, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Poland, Malta, North Macedonia, Romania, Sweden, and the US answered questions regarding perceived competence, autonomy, social relatedness, intrinsic motivation, procrastination, persistence, and sociodemographic background. Our results support SDT's claim of universality regarding the relation between basic psychological need fulfilment, intrinsic motivation, procrastination, and persistence. However, whereas perceived competence had the highest direct effect on procrastination and persistence, social relatedness was mainly influential via intrinsic motivation., Funding agencies:Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF)MEGA Bildungsstiftung COV20-025University of Vienna

Preserving the confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) of an organisation's sensitive information systems assets against attacks and threats is a challenge in this digital age. Or-ganisations worldwide make huge investments in information security technological coun-termeasures. Nonetheless, organisations in many cases fail to protect their information as-sets as they rely mainly on technical solutions which are not contextually compatible and sufficient. As a matter of fact, a significant number of organisational information security in-cidents are due to the exploitation of human elements that directly and/or indirectly cause the majority of security incidents. Therefore, employees' information security awareness (ISA) becomes one of the critical aspects of protection against undesirable information se-curity behaviours. However, to date, there is limited synthesised knowledge about methods for enhancing ISA and integrated insights on factors affecting employees' ISA levels. This study, therefore, provides a systematic review of the literature on ISA and puts forward a state-of-the-art collection of ISA methods and factors for enhancing employees' ISA within both private and public sector organisations. The results indicate that various methods and factors are used to enhance employees' ISA in organisations. Theoretical models and gami-fication are the methods widely used in both private and public organisations, whereas the constructivist approach and violation detections are some of the methods used only in pri-vate organisations. Furthermore, this study offers some insights into the latest trends in ISA content development methods and factors, and fosters good ISA practice by disseminating information and knowledge amongst Information Security professionals to help them build an overarching ISA development programme in their organisations.

Technology is universal, but use contexts differ widely. Technology develops rapidly but social contexts are slow to change, hence digitalization efforts must go hand in hand with process innovation. This research aims at designing an improved process for evaluating e-government services in Rwanda, a least developed country pursuing ambitious digitalization. The research draws on the information systems artifact (ISA) model, which considers alignment between technology, information, and social context as the key to successful technology-based innovation, and all three aspects as artifacts, subject to design. We build a prototype technical artifact and suggest information and a social one. The ambition is to make the currently control-based summative evaluation process more cooperative and inclusive of both service providers and users. The new design uses feedback from users to allow service providers and monitoring organizations to conduct also formative evaluations in order to be able to better align service processes with user needs and behavior and thereby make them more attractive and more used. The prototype “Rwanda Online Service Evaluation”(ROSE) was tested through semi-structured interviews with senior managers in six Rwandan organizations, and through an online user survey (n= 60). The findings can guide decision-makers and practitioners involved with e-government design and evaluation. As a contribution to research, the research shows the usefulness of the ISA model for communicating the design of technology aiming at comprehensive process change

This paper investigates green consumer behavior by analyzing women's attitudes towards purchasing organic cosmetics in Sweden in order to determine the factors that influence their purchasing behavior. The study is based on the modified Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) explained with primary data collected through an online survey of 220 women who live in Sweden. The findings are in line with the previous studies, which confirm that consumers' attitudes towards green products have a positive influence on purchase intention. Moreover, this study has found that the individual's education and income level have a positive relationship with attitude and future purchase intention.

Electronic government (e-government) faces challenges impeding its successful implementation. In the least developed countries, where e-government initiatives are developing but little research is done, it is difficult to know how to move forward with the development. As a contribution to increased knowledge, this study identifies e-government challenges in Rwanda. To this end, the study takes an interpretive approach and, from interviews and document analysis, identifies key e-government challenges. Those challenges include lack of a change management strategy, limited cooperation, language and literacy barriers, incomplete automation, difficulties with system integration, and a lack of intermediaries' management mechanisms. This paper analyses the challenges service providers would have to manage for e-government to improve and informs policymakers of the areas that need their attention for Rwanda to evolve towards the desired e-government. The study contributes to the yet scarce literature of e-government in Rwanda.

E‐government implementation is growing worldwide. In the context of developed countries, as well as some developing ones, research provides tools to evaluate e‐government services and reflect on e‐government performance. However, in the least developed countries (LDCs), where the preconditions are in many ways more challenging, little is known about those services. While information technology can be imported, social, organizational, and infrastructural arrangements conducive to high‐quality service delivery must be developed locally. In contributing to understanding the challenges as well as opportunities involved, this paper explores the qualities of e‐government services in Rwanda, an East African LDC. The investigation focuses on service providers' views of the qualities, as it is only through their understanding of the situation that service quality can be improved. This is a qualitative study based on interviews with employees of government organizations and document analysis. We identify and discuss 28 e‐government service quality factors, which are grouped into nine quality dimensions—accessibility, availability, awareness, responsiveness, information quality, information security, ease of use, support, and cost. This research contributes to raising awareness about the qualities of e‐government services in Rwanda in particular but may also have relevance for other LDCs.

Taking the case of the “one‐stop” e‐government initiative in Rwanda, the present study aims to find out how the “one‐stop” e‐government initiative is monitored at different government levels and stages and the extent to which the initiative is monitored. Furthermore, the study also aims to identify potential areas for improvement in the monitoring process. An exploratory qualitative study was undertaken in Rwandana gencies. The findings show that the monitoring of the process of implementing and improving one‐stop e‐government is partly formal at central government level and informal at local government level. Furthermore, the focus of the monitoring at the stage of use and maintenance leans more towards the benefits of end users as service consumers than those of the service providers. Incorporating formal methodological approaches at local government level and in all stages of the implementation and improvement process at central government level, as well as paying increased attention to back‐end process performance aspects, could introduce additional improvements into the monitoring practice and, in turn, increase project benefits., Funding Agency:University of Rwanda-Sweden Capacity Building Programme

Background: Failures in e-government projects to deliver expected results are frequent in the context of developing countries. These are partly attributed to the lack of balanced attention to both technical and social aspects in the implementation. However, there has been limited research on these aspects in the least Developed Countries. Objectives: Taking a socio-technical perspective, this study aims at exploring the extent of changes and effects in the implementation of e-government service-oriented initiatives in Rwanda, one of the Least Developed Countries. Methods/Approach: An empirical investigation was conducted, via interviews at 8 agencies during the period from January 2017 to May 2018. This involved two case projects, an Enterprise Content Management System and a One-Stop e-government system. Furthermore, government documents and online material were analyzed. Results: A number of changes in technology, processes and people aspects were faced in both projects. However, those changes are coupled with secondary effects; there is a need for a better fit between technical systems and social systems of organizations implementing e-government; a larger gap was identified in the first case project. Conclusions: Addressing the issues as a socio-technical system would contribute to improved work systems of agencies and better services., Rwanda e-government project