The number of student enrolments in computer-related courses remains a serious concern worldwide with far reaching consequences. This paper reports on an extensive survey about career choice and associated motivational factors amongst new students, only some of whom intend to major in computer-related courses, at two South African universities. The data were analyzed using some components of Social Cognitive Career Theory, namely external influences, self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations. The research suggests the need for new strategies for marketing computerrelated courses and the avenues through which they are marketed. This can to some extent be achieved by studying strategies used by other (non-computer) university courses, and their professional bodies.However, there are also distinct differences, related to self-efficacy and career outcomes, between the computer majors and the "other" group and these need to be explored further in order to find strategies that work well for this group. It is not entirely clear what the underlying reasons are for these differences but it is noteworthy that the perceived importance of "Interest in the career field" when choosing a career remains very high for both groups of students.

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The introduction of mobile money systems in emerging economies has enabled the would-be unbanked population to gain access to financial services. The number of mobile money users and value of transactions is on the increase. This rapid growth of mobile money services and value transactions in emerging economies is attributed to the light-touch regulatory framework which allows minimal limitations on who should operate mobile money system and few restrictions on who can function as an agent. These increases both in services and transactions indicate that mobile money systems hold a lot of valuable customer financial information that needs to be jealously protected against information breaches and abuse by the various stakeholders in the mobile money ecosystem.Taking an interpretive qualitative approach, Activity Theory (AT) has been used to analyse the mobile money management activities focusing on information security policies, regulations and procedures. In order to comprehend the aspects revealed by the Activity Theory analysis that raise information security management concerns in mobile money operations, Mobile Network Operator (MNO) management issues, in terms of the security of mobile money operations, are detailed.Our findings look at the reasons given by various stakeholders for information security management gaps in mobile money operations in emerging economies. Our findings disclose the roles of MNO staff, who are not information security experts, in the development and compliance monitoring of policies, regulations and procedures related to the safety of financial information in mobile money systems.

Purpose – Actor-network theory (ANT) is considered to be both a theoretical position and a methodology. ANT has been the centre of vigorous debates regarding its ontological viewpoint but has also been found to have some drawbacks as a methodology. The purpose of this paper is to use a graphical syntax for ANT to describe the development and implementation of a health information system (IS) in order to assess whether the graphical syntax improves the use of ANT as a methodology. Design/methodology/approach – An extensive example derived from a case study, describing the development and implementation of an electronic patients’ records system, is illustrated using this graphical syntax. This serves to makes the actors, translations and black boxes in the case visible. Findings – The syntax is found to help the researcher to conceptualise the research, to highlight assumptions as black boxes and to follow the actor but above all it encourages the researcher to understand the translations being made between actors and to make them explicit. Hence the syntax is found to assist at the analytical phases of a research project. The graphic syntax found to address the criticisms identified for ANT as an IS research methodology. Research limitations/implications – The proposed graphical syntax assists researchers who use ANT as a methodology. Use of the syntax in education is also foreseen to be practical. The evaluation of ANT-gs in the paper provides an argument for its use but a more reliable argument would be made by collating and analysing feedback from independent modellers who actually use the graphical syntax. This is an important part of future research. Practical implications – The visualisation of the actor-network provided by ANT-gs provides a relatively simple representation while at the same time it makes key ANT concepts explicit. This is expected to address the issue of superficial understanding of ANT and selective use of its constructs; it makes the actor-network boundaries immediately visible. Thus the paper proposes that ANT-gs will be useful both by IS researchers and as an educational tool but future research is required to verify both these practical implications. The development of a computer-based modelling tool based on this syntax is proposed to facilitate effective and efficient modelling. Originality/value – This paper proposes a unique tool to support ANT as a methodology. Its use encourages the researcher to focus on constructs that are essential elements of ANT and, by making each of the translation instances explicit, it strengthens the analysis in a way that is true to the view of ANT as a sociology of translation.