Digital Commons Network^™

Relieving The Overloaded Help Desk: A Knowledge Management Approach, Nelson K.Y. Leung, Sim Kim Lau

Communications of the IIMA

The establishment of an organizational help desk (HD) is to provide technical support to users when they encounter technical problems related to hardware, software and network connections. Due to the lack of resources, users often have to wait for a considerably long time before their enquiries and problems are answered and solved. This paper discusses the background of HD and its existing challenges. The application of Knowledge Management (KM) techniques and Knowledge Management System (KMS) enables HD to manage its knowledge effectively. In addition, the combination is capable of relieving the overloaded HD by shifting some of the troubleshooting responsibilities …

Leaders And Leadership: A Corpus-Based Approach For Evaluating The Evolution Of Leadership, William S. Lightfoot, Mounir Kehal

Communications of the IIMA

Much has been written about leaders and leadership, managers and management. The terms are often used interchangeably, (see http://thesaurus.reference.com). With rapid changes in technology, and the spread of capitalism, networks which use English as the common language are flourishing. Many authors have written about the affects this has had on management and leadership and the differences between the two. This paper reviews common definitions of leadership, explores some of the key concepts associated with the transition from the industrial to the information age, and the evolution of the terminology of leadership, and then reviews the results of a preliminary research …

Exploring Hegemonic Change In China: A Case Of Accounting Evolution, Lina Xu, Corinne Cortese, Eagle Zhang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - This paper provides an understanding of how accounting systems have changed across four distinct periods of hegemonic leadership in China.

Design/methodology/approach - Using Gramsci's concept of hegemony, periods of leadership and accounting change throughout Chinese history are examined, including the Confucian tradition, the rise of the socialist system followed by the Cultural Revolution under the Maoist era, and the move towards the socialist-market system in the Dengist era.

Findings - This paper shows how political leaders in these different time periods effectively achieved leadership by destroying an existing hegemony, creating a new ideology, and implanting this into people's …

Acceptance Of Wireless Internet Via Mobile Technology In China, June Lu, Chang Liu, Chun-Sheng Yu, James E. Yao

Journal of International Information Management

This study explores factors associated with the acceptance of Wireless Internet via Mobile Technology (WIMT) in China. The results indicate that the acceptance of WIMT is related to the factors of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influences, wireless trust environment, and facilitating conditions. It provides diagnostic insight into how different factors influence user intention to accept WIMT in China, and thus help business develop strategy to prompt WIMT communications and mobile commerce there.

Systems Resemblance And Workpractice Evolution: Implications For Work Activity (Re)Design, Rodney J. Clarke

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper is concerned with addressing the question of how apparently disparate and unconnected systems can resemble each other. The question of what counts as a systems resemblance necessitates developing contextual workpractice descriptions associated with the systems features and ultimately entire systems. Using systemic semiotics an apparent ontogenetic convergence between entirely different systems is used to show that systems resemblance can be inferred when the constituent workpractices of information systems consist of comparable register features and especially if they exhibit comparable generic features. The implications of these findings for a new class of work activity (re)design practices are considered.

A Fuzzy Expert System For Small Business Loan Processing, Vipul K. Gupta, Serkan Celtek

Journal of International Information Management

In recent years, managerial applications of artificial intelligence, especially in the area of financial services, has received considerable attention. In this paper, a fiizzy logic expert system is developed for approvals of small business loans. Previous studies have used non-fuzzv expert systems. But the fuzzification of the variables used in a business loan approval decisionmaking promises more efficient results. Furthermore, another distinct feature of this paper is its focus on small business loans. CubiCalc fuzzy expert system shell is used to develop the expert system. Knowledge acquisition is made using the resources and expertise of a Small Business Development Center. …

Describing Intelligent Agent Behaviors, Walt Truszkowski, Jagannathan V. Iyengar, Fred Mills

Journal of International Information Management

The development of new intelligent agents requires an interdisciplinary approach to programming. The initial challenge is to describe the desired agent behaviors and abilities without necessarily committing the agent development project to one particular programming language. What are the appropriate linguistic and logical tools for creating a top level, unambiguous, program-independent, and consistent description of the functions and behaviors of the agent? And how can that description then be translated easily into one of a number of program languages? This article provides a case study of the application of a simple Belief, Desire, and Intention (EDI) first order logic to …

A Hierarchy Fuzzy Mcdm Method For Studying Electronic Marketing Strategies In The Information Service Industry, Michael T. Tang, Gwo-Hshiung Tzeng, Shinn-Wen Wang

Journal of International Information Management

In this paper the impacts of Electronic Commerce {EC) on the international marketing strategies for the information service industries are studied. In seeking to blend humanistic concerns in this research with technological development by addressing challenges for deterministic attitudes, it also examines critical environmental factors relevant to Internet commerce in the changes of the international marketing environment. The needs for a new marketing paradigm for EC, which comes out of new trends of international electronic marketing, are also examined. The impacts of EC for the information service industry are discussed and a hierarchy fuzzy multicriteria decision-making (Fuzzy MCDM) method for …

Managing The Information Technology Help Desk: An International Dimension, Vivek Shah, Roy Martin

Journal of International Information Management

Information Technology continues to change at a fast and furious rate that shows no signs of slowing. Support requirements are increasing, while businesses are becoming global and demanding more support for technology. This paper focuses on the issues and challenges faced by organizations in setting and running a help desk for end users in an international environment.

A Group Decision Support System Idea Consolidation Tool, Chittibabu Govindarajulu, Milan Aiken, Weigi Li

Journal of International Information Management

Manual consolidation of ideas generated in a Group Decision Support System meeting can be a lengthy, inaccurate, and dissatisfying process. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how an automatic idea consolidation program can reduce the time needed by group members to aggregate comments, inaccuracies of these comment groupings, and dissatisfaction with the comment consolidation process. A case study comparing the program's results with those of two human subjects shows a time savings of 98.8%. Although the computer's comment groupings were not identical with those of the subjects, they were logically consistent.

A Decision Support Model For Management Of Fuzziness In Global Risk Assessment, Mirza Murtaza, Faisal Zeidan

Journal of International Information Management

Solving decision-making problems requires efficient handling of uncertainties. This task has been usually performed by means of expert systems which are based on classical logic and, therefore, need special methods such as heuristic approaches, probability theory, possibility theory, and fuzzy theory. The later approach, fuzzy reasoning and logic, offers a more natural way of handling uncertainty since it is similar to human logical reasoning. In this paper, we develop a fuzzy logic model for assessment and prediction of country risk. This fuzzy method provides a systematic approach to analyzing a target country. By its nature, the decision making for global …

Maintaining Computer-Based Information Systems Using Text-Based Intelligent Systems Techniques, Sumali Conlon, Chi Hwang

Journal of International Information Management

In order to incorporate up-to-date quantitative and qualitative information, Computer- Based Information Systems (CBIS) must be able to extract data from unstructured, textual formats such as newspapers and magazines. The process of updating information in a CBIS currently requires large amounts of human effort analyzing and converting data from such sources into formats which information systems can work with. This paper suggests some methods by which the data needs of a CBIS can be handled semi-automatically (Employing both computers and humans) using text-based intelligent systems (TBIS) techniques.

Voice User Interfaces (Vuis) Emerge, Brian D. Lynch

Journal of International Information Management

Human beings use speech as the primary means of communication. Therefore, voice user interfaces (VUIs) represent a natural way for people to interact with computers (Fournier, 1996; Hyde, 1979; Teja and Gonnella, 1983; Witten 1982). Voice input facilitates a much higher computer input rate than keyboard or mouse driven input. Voice output permits computer generated output in devices when output screens are not available (e.g., most phones) or in situations where the user's eyes are busy elsewhere (e.g., driving a car, assembling a product, etc.). Thus, VUIs are viewed as the logical next generation in computer interfaces. Forecasts call for …

Enhancing Menu-Based Executive Information Systems Using A Natural Language-Menu Guide*, Sumali Conlon, Edward Gillenwater, Chi Hwang

Journal of International Information Management

Ufe argue that current Executive Information Systems (BIS), with simple menu-based user interfaces, support an inadequate range of information needs because a menu base which is too large or changes too rapidly becomes prohibitively difficult to use. We consider an alternative approach to increase executives' access to information bases by incorporating a series of component- specific Natural Language Interfaces (NLI) into the various components of the BIS (database, model base, etc.), and adding a "Natural Language-Menu Guide" (NLMG) to the traditional menu and graphics based executive information systems. The various NLI will allow users to get access to information bases …

A Neural Network Driven Fuzzy System Approach To Decision Making, Mirza B. Murtaza, Vipul K. Gupta

Journal of International Information Management

It is necessary to model and manage uncertainties efficiently and effectively in solving decision-making problems. Fuzzy reasoning and logic offers a natural means of handling uncertainty. This paper discus.'ses the development of an architecture that utilizes the advantages of fuzzy logic and neural networks that can be used in decision-making. The present paper outlines the reasons that motivate development of models that integrate fuzzy logic and neural networks. This discussion is followed by a brief overview of fuzzy logic and its concepts that are essential in understanding the application presented in the paper. The paper then describes the classification procedure …