Title: Exploring the organisational impact and perceived benefits of wireless Personal Digital Assistants in restaurants

Authors: Eusebio Scornavacca, Mishul Prasad, Hans Lehmann

Addresses: School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington NZ, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand. ' School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington NZ, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand. ' School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington NZ, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract: The hospitality industry, more specifically restaurants, has recently started to exploit the benefits of mobile technologies. This research explores the perceived benefits of using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in a restaurant in a B2E context. The findings indicated that the most common perceptions are increased efficiency, speedier service, better usability and ease of use, enhanced reputation/image and increased accuracy. Most of the negative perceptions were related to the technical shortcomings of the technology such as unreliable transmission of data, system crashes, short battery life and limited durability of the devices. The paper concludes with recommendations for future practice and research.

Keywords: wireless PDAs; mobile technology; personal digital assistants; handheld devices; business-to-employee; B2E; perceived benefits; New Zealand; mobile communications; hospitality industry; restaurants; efficiency; technical shortcomings.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2006.009259

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2006 Vol.4 No.5, pp.558 - 567

Published online: 14 Mar 2006 *

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