Business Commons^™

The “Right” Recipes For Security Culture: A Competing Values Model Perspective, Hwee-Joo Kam, Thoma Mattson, Dan J. Kim

Management Faculty Publications

This study argues that the effect of perceived organizational culture on the formation of security-related subjective norms and the level of compliance pressure will vary based on how the employees perceive their organization’s cultural values. These perceptions reflect on the assumptions and principles that organizations use to guide their security-related behaviors. To make these arguments, we adopt the competing values model (CVM), which is a model used to understand the range of organizational values and resulting cultural archetypes.

Chronic Disease Management: How It And Analytics Create Healthcare Value Through The Temporal Displacement Of Care, Steve M. Thompson, Johnathan Whitaker, Rajiv Kohli, Craig Jones

Finance Faculty Publications

The treatment of chronic diseases consumes 86% of U.S. healthcare costs. While healthcare organizations have traditionally focused on treating the complications of chronic diseases, advances in information technology (IT) and analytics can help clinicians and patients manage and slow the progression of chronic diseases to result in higher quality of life for patients and lower healthcare costs.

We build on prior research to introduce the notion of temporal displacement of care (TDC), in which IT and analytics create healthcare value by displacing the time at which providers and patients make interventions to improve healthcare outcomes and reduce costs. We propose …

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: Toward A Contextual Understanding Of Compensation Of It Professionals Within And Across Geographies, Jonathan W. Whitaker, Sunil Mithas, Chewei Liu

Management Faculty Publications

How do multinational corporations (MNCs) and domestic firms compensate technical and managerial skills of knowledge workers within and across geographies? This paper answers this question by examining how developed economy MNCs and emerging economy firms value MBA education and firm-specific IT experience of IT professionals in India; and how developed economy MNCs value MBA education and firm-specific IT experience differently across India and the U.S. Our analyses of archival data on more than 20,000 IT professionals reveal two important findings. First, for IT professionals in India, the marginal effect of firm-specific IT experience on compensation is greater for developed economy …

Information Technology, Revenues, And Profits: Exploring The Role Of Foreign And Domestic Operations, Sunil Mithas, Jonathan W. Whitaker, Ali Tafti

Management Faculty Publications

How does information technology (IT) enable firms to globalize their operations and achieve higher foreign profits? We use archival data for multinational firms publicly-traded in the United States for the years 1999 – 2006, and find indirect evidence for the role of IT to help firms achieve higher foreign profits through revenue growth rather than cost reduction. Our findings suggest that foreign responsiveness plays a more important role in generating foreign profits than does value chain structure. Our exploratory analyses for the effect of IT on domestic revenues and profits suggest some evidence for equalization of returns across foreign and …

How Multinational Corporations Use Information Technology To Manage Global Operations, Jonathan W. Whitaker, Peter Ekman, Steven M. Thompson

Management Faculty Publications

Despite a generally-acknowledged importance of information technology (IT) in enabling global strategy and a broad understanding of the manner in which IT enhances coordination and reduces cost, few studies have focused precisely on how multinational corporations (MNCs) use IT to facilitate globalization. To address this gap in the literature, we conduct a case study across four large MNCs, and use primary data to develop theoretical propositions on the characteristics of products, processes and customers that impact the ways in which MNCs use IT to manage their global operations.

Salesforce.Com, Sean Bielawski, Charles Kempe, Austin Mcdaniel, Adam Tate, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Robins Case Network

Innovation! One of the most innovative companies, and also one of the best companies to work for, is losing money. This case traces the meteoric rise of the number one customer relationship management service provider against huge rivals such as Microsoft and Oracle. Detail regarding their highly innovative Scrum system is provided, along with detail regarding their marketing approach. How can Salesforce.com regain profitability while continuing to grow in a highly competitive industry?

A Model To Support It Infrastructure Planning And The Allocation Of It Governance Authority, Steven M. Thompson, Peter Ekman, Daniel Selby, Jonathan W. Whitaker

Management Faculty Publications

Information technology (IT) requires a significant investment, involving up to 10.5% of revenue for some firms. Managers responsible for aligning IT investments with their firm's strategy seek to minimize technology costs, while ensuring that the IT infrastructure can accommodate increasing utilization, new software applications, and modifications to existing software applications. It becomes more challenging to align IT infrastructure and IT investments with firm strategy when firms operate in multiple geographic markets, because the firm faces different competitive positions and unique challenges in each market.

We discussed these challenges with IT executives at four Forbes Global 2000 firms headquartered in Northern …

Amazon.Com: Offering Everything From A To Z, Stephanie Lang, Logan Tinder, Jarett Zimmerman, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Robins Case Network

Amazon’s focus on customer service has led to an impressive record of growth and profitability. However, late in 2012, the company posted a quarterly loss. This asks whether the company may be sacrificing profits in the interest of growing rapidly. It also explores the incredibly competitive environment Amazon faces.

The Influence Of Irrelevant Information On Is Auditor Key Risk Factor Predictions, Daniel D. Selby

Accounting Faculty Publications

Can information systems (IS) auditors ignore irrelevant information when they assess key risk factors (KRFs)? Irrelevant information is information that is of little or no value to a specific task or predicted future outcome. When assessing a KRF, IS auditors sift through numerous pieces of information to target items that are relevant to understanding the KRF. Some items encountered by IS auditors may be relevant to understanding the KRF, while other items encountered may be irrelevant. IS auditors should ignore irrelevant information when they assess KRFs.

An example of irrelevant information that an IS auditor may encounter during a financial …

Do Auditors Adjust Their Audit Plans Accordingly When They Encounter Material Automated Control Weaknesses?, Daniel D. Selby

Accounting Faculty Publications

Automated control weaknesses are associated with defects in computer hardware or computer applications. AU 319 does not require auditors to add professionals with specialized skills in automated controls (or IT audit specialists) to the audit engagement. Auditors may encounter a material automated control weakness and adjust their audit plan without the assistance of an IT audit specialist. Thus, auditors may not adjust their audit plan enough to gain an understanding of the material automated control weakness. This is an important problem for auditors because this problem may result in misstated financial statements and incorrect internal control opinions if auditors fail …

A Field Study Of Rfid Deployment And Return Expectations, Jonathan W. Whitaker, Sunil Mithas, M. S. Krishnan

Management Faculty Publications

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology promises to transform supply chain management. Building on previous research in information systems and supply chain management, this paper proposes a theoretical framework for RFID adoption and benefits, and tests the framework using data on U.S. firms. Our analysis suggests that there is a positive association between information technology (IT) application deployment and RFID adoption. We find that RFID implementation spending and partner mandate are associated with an expectation of early return on RFID investment, and a perceived lack of industry-wide standards is associated with an expectation of delayed return on RFID investment. These results …

Releasing Individually Identifiable Microdata With Privacy Protection Against Stochastic Threat: An Application To Health Information, Robert Garfinkel, Ram Gopal, Steven M. Thompson

Management Faculty Publications

The ability to collect and disseminate individually identifiable microdata is becoming increasingly important in a number of arenas. This is especially true in health care and national security, where this data is considered vital for a number of public health and safety initiatives. In some cases legislation has been used to establish some standards for limiting the collection of and access to such data. However, all such legislative efforts contain many provisions that allow for access to individually identifiable microdata without the consent of the data subject. Furthermore, although legislation is useful in that penalties are levied for violating the …

Information Technology, Production Process Outsourcing, And Manufacturing Plant Performance, Indranil Bardhan, Jonathan W. Whitaker, Sunil Mithas

Management Faculty Publications

What is the role of information technology (IT) in enabling the outsourcing of manufacturing plant production processes? Do plant strategies influence production outsourcing? Does production process outsourcing influence plant performance? This research addresses these questions by investigating the role of IT and plant strategies as antecedents of production outsourcing, and evaluating the impact of production outsourcing and IT investments on plant cost and quality. We develop a theoretical framework for the antecedents and performance outcomes of production outsourcing at the plant level. We validate this theoretical framework using cross-sectional survey data from U.S. manufacturing plants. Our analysis suggests that plants …

Improving Disaster Response Efforts With Decision Support Systems, Steven M. Thompson, Nezih Altay, Walter G. Green Iii, Joanne Lapetina

Management Faculty Publications

As evidenced by Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005, disaster response efforts are hindered by a lack of coordination, poor information flows, and the inability of disaster response managers to validate and process relevant information and make decisions in a timely fashion. A number of factors contribute to current lackluster response efforts. Some are inherent to the complex, rapidly changing decision-making environments that characterize most disaster response settings. Others reflect systematic flaws in how decisions are made within the organizational hierarchies of the many agencies involved in a disaster response. Slow, ineffective strategies for gathering, processing, and analyzing data can also …