Browsing by Author "Lusinga, Shallen"

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    The readiness of the agricultural sector to adopt the internet of things: a case of Western Cape, South Africa
    (2025) Soeker, Inaam; Chigona, Wallace; Lusinga, Shallen
    Background: Food scarcity arising from climate change has garnered widespread recognition as a critical global concern, necessitating serious attention. Far-reaching impacts of climate change extend across dimensions such as the environment, technology, policy, and societal progress. Among these dimensions, the implications for food production within the agricultural sector is significant. With the expanding global population, the demand for agricultural output intensifies, exerting unprecedented pressure on the industry to meet this growing need. As a result, the agricultural sector is confronted with the imperative to transition towards sustainable farming practices to enhance overall productivity. Amid this imperative, the integration of technology, particularly the Internet of Things (IoT), emerges as an indispensable solution. Extensive research demonstrates that IoT implementation in agriculture yields manifold benefits, including enhanced food production, increased productivity, and bolstered sustainability. Moreover, IoT equips farmers with tools to navigate the complex challenges posed by climate change and food scarcity, ensuring their competitiveness and profitability. However, a pivotal consideration is the readiness of the agricultural sector to implement IoT. Purpose of the Research: Despite the considerable potential gains, the readiness of the South African agricultural sector to adopt IoT remains a less-explored area. This study aims to address this gap by examining the landscape of IoT adoption readiness within the context of the South African agricultural sector. Design/Methodology/Approach: To evaluate readiness to adopt IoT, a qualitative research method was adopted in this research and an analysis was methodically employed. This multifaceted analysis approach encompassed distinct dimensions— political, environmental, social, and technological (PEST). Each dimension was assessed to ascertain its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), in the context of IoT integration within the agricultural sector. This systematic PEST-SWOT analysis culminated in positioning the readiness of the agricultural sector in South Africa. Findings: The findings of this study unveil a notable duality in South Africa's developmental landscape. This dichotomy becomes apparent through the coexistence of both developed and developing facets. This division manifests in distinct states. On the one hand, the developed portion of the agricultural sector exhibit a tangible readiness for IoT adoption. On the other hand, the developing portion encounter barriers that necessitate comprehensive mitigation of inherent weaknesses and threats resulting in its unpreparedness for adopting IoT. This division closely mirrors the distinction between the commercial and SME sectors, embodying the readiness of the developed state and lack of readiness in the developing state, respectively. This inherent dichotomy, rooted in historical challenges, underscores the urgency for holistic resolutions. Overall, the findings suggest that the South African agricultural sector is not ready for IoT adoption. Practical Implications: The practical implication of this research underscores the vital need for tailored strategies that bridge the readiness gap between the developed and developing portion of the agricultural sector. Addressing the distinctive challenges faced by each portion, particularly considering their historical contexts, will be instrumental in fostering a cohesive and synchronised path towards embracing IoT. Originality/Contribution: The contribution of this study lies in its comprehensive examination of readiness to adopt IoT within the South African agricultural sector. By employing a multi-dimensional PEST-SWOT analysis, this research not only sheds light on the nuanced landscape of IoT adoption but also positions the readiness of the Western Cape's agricultural sector in a holistic context. This approach offers a unique lens through which to understand the intricate challenges and opportunities that IoT adoption presents in this critical sector.
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    Towards a digital tool for monitoring and reporting mobile victimisation among South African high school students
    (2019) Lusinga, Shallen; Kyobe, Michael
    Mobile victimisation is one form of cyber aggression that is increasing and affecting many young people in the developing world today. However, the focus on mobile victimisation in developing nations is limited. There is also limited theoretical work to enhance the conceptualisation of mobile victimisation. Understanding this phenomenon in developing countries is particularly critical as mobile phone usage and crime in these countries are among the highest in the world. Literature shows that in addition to these challenges, schools that have adopted paper or program-based interventions have not been very successful in combating victimisation. Research from other disciplines, however, suggests that digital interventions effectively address health and psychological challenges by offering digital self-intervention. Research shows that reporting bullying incidents is a form of intervention whose challenges in developing and maintaining mechanisms persist. Schools particularly lack systems for reporting and students do not trust some of the reporting mechanisms. Similar problems have been identified in cyberbullying literature. Reporting violence in schools is particularly important in a country like South Africa, where the rate of crime remains the highest in the world. Understanding the circumstances under which victims decide to report (or not report) is important for effective development and implementation of appropriate interventions. Studies on crime reporting provide mechanisms for predicting reporting behaviour that are mainly based on sociological, economic or psychological models. Given that this study investigated reporting behaviour from a technological perspective, technological models were also considered. However, focusing on one theoretical model may fail to capture the complexity of the factors influencing a victim's decision whether or not to report aggression. A broader theoretical perspective would allow for the identification of the various motivating factors which generally do not operate exclusively. In addition, most existing studies have focused on traditional forms of violence. Victimisation in schools is increasingly committed using mobile technology, making it imperative to examine the problem of reporting in a mobile environment. Reporting practices in a digital context may, however, differ in some aspects from reporting in a non-technological environment and these may vary across cultural groupings. Applying a design science research (DSR) process within a pragmatic paradigm and being informed by literature, this study developed an integrative framework for understanding the under-reporting of mobile victimisation by students so as to inform the development of a mobile-based intervention. Findings from the study confirmed that students do not report their victimisation because of economic, psychological, cultural-sociological and technological factors as predicted by the integrative theoretical framework. This confirmed the complexity of the factors influencing students decision whether or not to report aggression. This, therefore, implied that the proposed framework is not only valuable in explaining the broad socialcultural context of victimisation reporting, but also in reporting behaviours at the individual level. The proposed framework, therefore, informed the design, development and evaluation of a mobile application for reporting mobile victimisation faced by high school students in South Africa. An application named the Mobile Victimisation Monitoring and Reporting (MVMR) application was then developed and evaluated among high school students. The MVMR application (app) provides useful features that enable: reflection by students; empathy from adult figures; empowerment for the students; consequence for the bullies. It also mitigates students’ fear and provides them with the ability to control their reporting. Of the features engrained in the MVMR app to capture these themes, students found the option to report anonymously, the option to identify the bully and the display of their frequency of mobile phone use to be the most relevant and useful. The study makes significant contribution to knowledge by providing insights into the reporting behaviours of high school students, which is an understudied research area. One essential theoretical contribution was the development of an integrative theoretical framework that provides the theoretical and social-ecological underpinnings to reporting behaviour which have previously been broad-brush approaches given to a whole class or whole school. Concerning the contribution to practice, the study produced an IT artefact that is based on the proposed integrative theoretical framework. With this tool, high school students will have a means by which to report their victimisation and have the report addressed by an administrator who has a social-ecological understanding of that student. This creates a shift from generalised interventions and creates a more personalised approach to intervening mobile victimisation. Further discussions on the theoretical, practical and methodological contributions are made in this thesis, along with the limitations of the study and recommendations for future research.
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    Towards a Typology for Understanding Mobile Phone Victimisation in South African High Schools
    (2015) Lusinga, Shallen; Kyobe, Michael
    Mobile victimisation is one form of cyber aggression that is increasing and affecting many young people today. While several studies on cyberbullying and cyber victimisation have been done, the focus on mobile victimisation has been limited. In addition, findings presented in earlier studies have been inconclusive, and there is limited theory development to enhance conceptualisation and general understanding of this form of aggression. Calls have, therefore, been made to investigate mobile aggression and victimisation further. The present study aims to create better understanding of the nature of mobile victimisation in South African high schools. This study will also identify significant factors that influence mobile victimisation. Through an extensive review of the literature and theoretical works on victimisation, the researcher was able to develop a mobile victimisation typology that would guide this research. This typology is based on the premise that the frequency of mobile phone use, the technological advancement of a mobile phone and the emotional attachment to a mobile phone are key predictors of mobile victimisation. In addition, it predicts that the extent to which victims contribute to their victimisation is dependent on the extent to which the victim engages in these predictors. The typology divides victims into three categories: (i) innocent victims (victims who do not contribute to their own victimisation), (ii) victims with low contribution (those who make limited contribution to their own victimisation), and (iii) victims with moderate to high contribution (those who contribute largely to their victimisation).