Department of Information Technologystudies

The purpose of this study is to understand how institutions shape national biometric identification implementation in developing countries. National biometric identification initiatives have become important because they are being used by governments in developing countries to support socioeconomic development. There is a growing body of research on national biometric identification systems but many lack theoretical grounding to better inform policy, practice and research. Given this gap, this paper employs a qualitative interpretive case study methodology to investigate regulative, normative and cognitive institutional effects on a national biometric identification implementation in a developing country. The findings show how a confluence of some local regulative and cognitive institutions as well as international normative institution enabled implementation while others constrained it. The net effect was the identification initiative becoming stalled. The findings have implication for policy, practice and research.

This paper draws on interpretive case study methodology and e-government enactment framework to understand Ghana's biometric identification initiative implementation and its failure to achieve the intended socioeconomic development impacts. To better understand how such initiatives can be deployed to achieve the desired impacts, the findings on the reasons for the failed Ghana's case are compared with that of a successful developing country's case. The study offers contributions to research, policy and practice.

The objectives of the study were to show the basic differences between Distance, Blended and Online learning, and establish their common challenges from literature. Approximately 35 categories/sets of research results or findings from more than 65 publications were reviewed and used for this work. Articles were obtained from sources such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Google Search Engine, and Elsevier. The key themes used for the search are Distance education, Distance learning, Online learning, Blended learning, Differences between face-to-face and online learning, and the use of the internet for learning. The differences between Distance, Blended, and Online Learning (DBOL) modes were summarized, and 11 challenges of DBOL were realized. These 11 challenges were summarized into six themes namely, lack of infrastructure, low or no IT skills, self-disciplinary problems, content issues, policy issues, and social issues. It was strongly advised that, for effective DBOL...

Transportation by sea routes and seaport container terminals are critical infrastructure that facilitates global trade. Thus, the emerging information systems research on smart container systems is essential. However, these studies lack empirical insights, and there is little on developing country contexts. To address these knowledge gaps, this study employs qualitative interpretive case study approach and technology affordance and constraint theory to investigate how Ghana’s port authority replaced a predominantly paper-based container handling system with smart systems, as well as the consequences of doing so. The study’s findings show that technology affordances are actualized in a developing country seaport smart container system based on management’s perception of the system and the port’s situational context. The study’s findings show significant improvements over the manual paper processes, along with constraints including stakeholder digital unpreparedness, limited data storage capacity, unreliable internet and power supply disruptions, and equipment breakdowns. The findings have implications for research, practice, and policy.

The degree of fuzziness and subjectiveness inherent in buying decision making is complex and difficult to measure. This paper deploys a fuzzy logic approach to petroleum products buying decision making by vehicles' drivers in Ghana. It has been argued that un-strategic petroleum products buying decision in terms of amount to buy, distance to travel and the engine capacity of the car leads to stress and financial loss by drivers. The main objective of this study is to provide a fuzzy logic approach to the petroleum products buying decision to minimize cost and stress among drivers to ensure effective and efficient delivering of their duties. The study uses three input variables as the input membership function and one output variable as the output membership function. The membership functions are triangular with 15 fuzzy rules in the development of an evaluation model.

It is famous that, one of the ways to break even the inequality between richer students and Brilliant but Needy Students(BbNSs) is via scholarships. However, the selection process of brilliant but needy students is often entangle with uncertainty, lack of transparency and unfairness from the experts and the vagueness of the experts' language used linguistically. The fuzziness inherent in human reasoning couple with the biases of human by nature preclude some highly qualified brilliant but needy students from getting selected for scholarships. This study deploys Fuzzy Logic Approach(FLA) to develop an evaluation model for selecting brilliant but needy students for scholarships. The paper uses the Mamdani Inference algorithm with four input variables that constituted the input membership function and the output membership function is made of one output variable. The research concludes that; FLA objectively select the truly qualified brilliant but needy students for scholarships based on degree of membership.

The degree of noncompliance of filling stations locations with regards to the planning standards is worrying. This paper uses Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyse the locations of filling stations in La-Nkwantanang Madina Municipal Assembly(LANMMA) against the planning standards set by Ghana Town and Country Planning Department. Primary and secondary data sources were used including Global Positioning System (GPS) to capture coordinates of some key features. All the analyses were performed in ArcMap environment of ArcGIS10.4 using spatial statistic (Nearest Neighbour Statistic), spatial analyst and proximity (Buffering) tools. The finding of the study revealed that 37 filling stations are located along major roads in the study area with a cluster pattern of distribution. About 92% of the filling stations complied to the 15m standard distance from buildings while all the filling stations are in compliance to the 10m standard distance between neighbour filling stations. The study recommends that the regulatory bodies should be proactive in the discharge of their duties and ensure total compliance to all the regulations.

It is famous that, one of the ways to break even the inequality between richer students and Brilliant but Needy Students(BbNSs) is via scholarships. However, the selection process of brilliant but needy students is often entangle with uncertainty, lack of transparency and unfairness from the experts and the vagueness of the experts' language used linguistically. The fuzziness inherent in human reasoning couple with the biases of human by nature preclude some highly qualified brilliant but needy students from getting selected for scholarships. This study deploys Fuzzy Logic Approach(FLA) to develop an evaluation model for selecting brilliant but needy students for scholarships. The paper uses the Mamdani Inference algorithm with four input variables that constituted the input membership function and the output membership function is made of one output variable. The research concludes that; FLA objectively select the truly qualified brilliant but needy students for scholarships based on degree of membership.

It is famous that, one of the ways to break even the inequality between richer students and Brilliant but Needy Students(BbNSs) is via scholarships. However, the selection process of brilliant but needy students is often entangle with uncertainty, lack of transparency and unfairness from the experts and the vagueness of the experts' language used linguistically. The fuzziness inherent in human reasoning couple with the biases of human by nature preclude some highly qualified brilliant but needy students from getting selected for scholarships. This study deploys Fuzzy Logic Approach(FLA) to develop an evaluation model for selecting brilliant but needy students for scholarships. The paper uses the Mamdani Inference algorithm with four input variables that constituted the input membership function and the output membership function is made of one output variable. The research concludes that; FLA objectively select the truly qualified brilliant but needy students for scholarships based on degree of membership.

The degree of noncompliance of filling stations locations with regards to the planning standards is worrying. This paper uses Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyse the locations of filling stations in La-Nkwantanang Madina Municipal Assembly(LANMMA) against the planning standards set by Ghana Town and Country Planning Department. Primary and secondary data sources were used including Global Positioning System (GPS) to capture coordinates of some key features. All the analyses were performed in ArcMap environment of ArcGIS10.4 using spatial statistic (Nearest Neighbour Statistic), spatial analyst and proximity (Buffering) tools. The finding of the study revealed that 37 filling stations are located along major roads in the study area with a cluster pattern of distribution. About 92% of the filling stations complied to the 15m standard distance from buildings while all the filling stations are in compliance to the 10m standard distance between neighbour filling stations. The study recommends that the regulatory bodies should be proactive in the discharge of their duties and ensure total compliance to all the regulations.

Every activity must begin or conclude with a choice since decision making has become an essential element of daily life in this world. As a result, the number of contemporary decisions that require numerous considerations to be considered has skyrocketed. On the other hand, because humans are involved in the decision-making process, the multi-criteria decision-making process is burdened with incompleteness, subjectivity, ambiguity, and other fuzziness qualities. As a solution, numerous studies combined Fuzzy Set Theory with Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods to provide effective and efficient judgments while reducing the aforementioned challenges. Regardless, geographical data-required decision making has been one of the key issues confronting the decision-making arena since the advent of multi-criteria decision making, demanding the usage of Geographic Information Systems. The current study attempted to conduct a systematic and critical assessment of around forty-nine (49) prior studies reported in academic publications on GIS-based Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods throughout an eleven-year period (2011-2021). The following themes were specifically addressed: I the issue domains addressed, (ii) the research sites based on continents, (iii) the GIS-based Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods employed and most generally used, and (iv) Sensitivity analysis. The findings indicated that the bulk of the research (30.61 percent) addressed the location analysis issue domain out of the 49 primary papers collected for the evaluation, while the risk assessment problem domain included the fewest studies (16.32 percent). Asia had the largest number of studies (46.93 percent), while Africa had the lowest number of publications (14.28 percent). Among the 18 primary GIS-Based Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods employed, FAHP + GIS was found to be the most commonly used Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods and Geographic Information Systems approaches. The study also indicated that just 17 studies (35% of the total) completed sensitivity analysis, whereas 32 studies (65% of the total) did not. Finally, we summarize the challenges and future research prospects for GIS-based Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods.

Background: Service selection refers to the process of picking services that best fulfill the user's functional and non-functional requirements. It is possible to pick a web service or a cloud service. Researchers examined a large number of service selection assessments that utilized different services based on Quality of Service (QoS) variables utilizing Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods. Despite its positive outcomes, earlier research has shown that Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods alone cannot handle the incompleteness, ambiguity, uncertainty, and, most importantly the fuzziness inherent in decision-making processes due to human involvement. To circumvent these constraints, the usage of Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods is a growing study topic.

Quality of service (QoS) is a very important concept in service-oriented architecture (SOA). While there is a growing body of study on QoS-based service selection based on SOA, there is little research on analyzing QoS factors from the viewpoints of IT workers and researchers. As a result, the purpose of the current study aims to offer an integrated fuzzy VIKOR-TOPSIS-DEMATEL approach framework for evaluating QoS factors of online services from the viewpoint of experts in a fuzzy environment. A numerical assessment of the QoS factors for a case firm in Ghana indicated that the suggested technique is appropriate for the problem. Furthermore, the technique outcomes divided QoS factors into cause-effect variables, ranked QoS factors, and lastly, suggested conflicting QoS factors. The results from the Fuzzy DEMATEL aspect of the proposed approach found integrity, availability, accessibility, compliance, documentation, latency, and adaptability as causal variables. While response time, cost/price, reliability, performance, security, reputation, throughput, best practices, success ability, encryption, portability, storage, and consistency are regarded as influential variables. The Fuzzy TOPSIS aspect of the technique found adaptability, documentation, consistency, transaction, and accessibility are the most ranked QoS factors of online services. The fuzzy VIKOR side of the proposed method discovers integrity, cost, and latency as incommensurable QoS factors. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was carried out, and the results show the model is robust. This study confirms the position of existing knowledge on sensitivity analysis in the QoS literature. In the issue of QoS factor evaluation, this work effectively blended three MCDM techniques. The study's shortcoming stems from its reliance on data from QoS specialists from only one developing nation (i.e. Ghana).

Quality of service (QoS) is a very important concept in service-oriented architecture (SOA). While there is a growing body of study on QoS-based service selection based on SOA, there is little research on analyzing QoS factors from the viewpoints of IT workers and researchers. As a result, the purpose of the current study aims to offer an integrated fuzzy VIKOR-TOPSIS-DEMATEL approach framework for evaluating QoS factors of online services from the viewpoint of experts in a fuzzy environment. A numerical assessment of the QoS factors for a case firm in Ghana indicated that the suggested technique is appropriate for the problem. Furthermore, the technique outcomes divided QoS factors into cause-effect variables, ranked QoS factors, and lastly, suggested conflicting QoS factors. The results from the Fuzzy DEMATEL aspect of the proposed approach found integrity, availability, accessibility, compliance, documentation, latency, and adaptability as causal variables. While response time, c...

There are many methods for managing the complexity and challenges of new product development (NPD) under faster emerging technology. Most firms use them to collaborate with external organisations for their co-design on new products. This study purposes to provide a measurement model by applying multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach to evaluate suppliers' co-design capabilities in NPD in terms of product structural design and engineering, product concept and functional design, and process design. This MCDM includes fuzzy step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) to determine the relative weights of criteria and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) to rank the results of suppliers' capabilities regarding to their co-design in NPD. Given the result, supplier with the highest collaboration performance rating is selected at first. The evaluation of suppliers' collaboration is regarded as an essential starting point for management challenge to develop suppliers' capabilities.