Matching Items (3)
Description
The microfinance industry provides financial services to the world's poor in hopes of moving individuals and families out of poverty. This dissertation document suggests that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are changing the microfinance industry, especially given recent advancements in mobile banking, Internet usage and connectivity, and a decreasing digital divide. These impacts are discussed in three essays. First, ICTs impact intermediation among various players in the microfinance industry. Second, ICTs impact the extent to which microfinance institutions (MFIs) extend their outreach to poorer or more geographically remote borrowers. Finally, ICTs impact the location of decision rights given newly forming peer-to-peer (P2P) social microlending organizations. As the microfinance industry increases its adoption and reliance on ICTs, new and interesting opportunities abound for researchers in the information systems discipline.
ContributorsWeber, David Michael (Author) / Riggins, Frederick J. (Thesis advisor) / Kulkarni, Uday R. (Thesis advisor) / Carey, Jane M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation studied the feasibility and acceptability of Through Alzheimer's Eyes, an easy-to-access psychoeducational and skill-building intervention that incorporates information and communication technologies (ICT) that can help to prepare caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s and related dementias to improve communication skills and manage behavioral issues. Using a Modular Dissertation format, the dissertation includes three manuscripts covering the intervention underpinnings, results, and environmental impact. The first manuscript describes the rationale, protocol, and design of the intervention Through Alzheimer's Eyes. The second manuscript explores the feasibility and acceptability of study results from a mixed-methods approach. The third manuscript offers the impact of a virtual intervention on carbon emissions and potential savings for caregivers of people with dementia. Together, the three manuscripts describe the intervention design, results, and future directions for research and practice.
ContributorsGómez Morales, Abigail (Author) / Coon, David W (Thesis advisor) / Pipe, Teri (Committee member) / Joseph, Rodney P (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
In this dissertation i argue that the internet has a positive impact on the likelihood of ethnic riots. To make this argument I put forward three major claims. First, ethnic riots are best understood as performances that aim to clarify ambiguities in the social order. Second, communication technologies structurally constrain the flow of information passing through them. Third, the internet is unique among modern Information Communication Technologies in its capacity for inducing ethnic riots. I provide two types of empirical evidence to support these claims: a cross-national analysis of internet penetration and a case study of India. The former provides evidence for the central claim, finding that the internet has a positive effect on the likelihood of ethnic conflict after a threshold of internet penetration is met. The latter sketches the limits of the proposed theory, finding that internet penetration decreased the likelihood of ethnic riots in India. I argue this is a result of welfare contextualization of the internet.
ContributorsAtcha, Haroon (Author) / Siroky, David (Thesis advisor) / Kittilson, Miki (Committee member) / Thomas, George (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020