Problem Statement
The main issue under research is made very clear right on the first page of the article – in the abstract. In this short passage, the authors summarized the problems related to mobile security that occur due to the lack of training among the new workers and the unawareness of their responsibilities and threats to which they expose the company. In the introduction, the research question is presented in an analytical manner because the authors provided substantial evidence to support the problem statement.
Jones and Aiken also explained why the question is relevant to the contemporary companies by stating the risks that result from the impaired security or the employees’ inability to follow the rules designed to protect the data from malicious programs and misuse (73).
Scholarly Contribution
The study builds upon the previous research, and it is made visible in the introduction where the authors referred to the findings of many different studies concerning the issues or mobile security, their prevalence, the threats they create, and due to which causes they appear. The studies quoted by Jones and Aiken in the introduction are recent (3 or 4 years old only) and reliable due to being scholarly and explorative.
The study will make a contribution to the field via investigating a sample of students who are the owners and regular users of smartphones about their attitudes towards the devices and their purposes, as well as their awareness of the security concerns and ways to address or prevent them.
Theoretical Background
In the literature review, Jones and Aiken stated that “Today’s students are tomorrow’s employees — with responsibilities for protecting both personal and enterprise data” (75); this statement indicates that the theory behind the research is that the youth who do not know or care about the security concerns are likely to make very irresponsible employees creating multiple risks to their organizations. This theory guides the research.
The review of the literature, as well as the introduction, provides evidence from the previous research that supports the authors’ theory thus indicating its relevance.
The theory is explained in a comprehensible manner. The reader does not require any specialized education to understand the information. The authors used evidence for better persuasion.
The method used in the study is a survey with a questionnaire. The questions are presented in a table. The variables are justified as the authors provided an explanation of why they are important.
Research Design
The sample involves 347 respondents who are college students and regular users of smartphones. The sample is appropriate and adequate for the researched issue.
The questionnaire assesses sample demographics and their attitudes towards mobile devices and security experiences, so they are relevant and appropriate.
Each variable was separately run through ordinal regression to find the relationships between the numbers. Overall each variable’s significance and coefficient were calculated. The qualitative and quantitative techniques used by the authors were appropriate for the data collected. However, the reliability and validity of the user survey tool were not established, and this is marked as one of the study limitations.
Concluding Remarks
The conclusion is based on the analysis of the data and the research findings that showed that many smartphone users do not adhere to appropriate security practices. The answers to the research questions were not provided in conclusion but presented in the discussion and Ordinal Regression sections.
The conclusion includes the study limitation (unestablished reliability and validity of the survey tool) and recommendations for future research – the investigation of student behavior in terms of mobile security and learning why the students who had an understanding of the security threats were still reluctant to protect their devices.
Work Cited
Jones, Beth H. and Peter Aiken. “Risky business: Students and smartphones.” TechTrends 58.6 (2014): 73-83. Print.