Business Commons^™

Foreign Institutional Investment, Ownership And Liquidity: Real And Information Frictions, Mingfa Ding, Birger Nilsson, Sandy Suardi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The literature widely documents the negative liquidity impact of foreign participation in firms that permit high foreign institutional ownership. This paper employs a unique setting for the limited participation of qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) in China’s A-share market and examines how this impacts on stock liquidity in emerging markets. Contrary to the findings in the literature, foreign investor participation helps enhance the liquidity of affected stocks by promoting trade activities and price discovery. The improvement in liquidity does not occur through the information friction channel, but rather the real friction channel. Our results are robust to endogeneity issue and …

Guest Editorial: Information Technology-Enabled Supply Chain Management, Samuel Fosso Wamba, Shahriar Akter, Tim Coltman, Eric W. T Ngai

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

It is widely accepted that advances in information technology (IT) will generate new opportunities when suppliers, business partners and customers work together to co-create and co-produce value. However, results from prior studies show that the mere possession of IT is unlikely to generate business value. Rather, IT creates value when information - frequently produced by IT infrastructure - is used to support complementary organizational and human resources. Still, the hypothesis that greater investment in IT will generate business value requires caution. The focus of this special issue is to extend our understanding of how firms in a supply chain create …

Barriers To The Integration Of Information Technology Within Early Childhood Education And Care Organisations: A Review Of The Literature, Melinda Plumb, Karlheinz Kautz

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Employees of early childhood education and care (ECEC) organisations may experience a wide range of barriers as they attempt to integrate information technology (IT) into their work practices. However, studies within the ECEC organisational literature which attempt to identify and understand these barriers are scant. This literature review is the first to present consolidated findings from the body of knowledge on barriers to the integration of IT within ECEC organisations. In addition to highlighting limitations and gaps in the literature, it proposes a tri-perspective framework to provide for future research to develop a deeper understanding of not only what barriers …

Connecting Isolated Senior Citizens: Illustrating The Complexity Of Social Information Systems Development, Carole Alcock, Lois Burgess, Helen Hasan

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In Australia, complex issues relating to an ageing population are confronting governments, communities and individuals (APC 2011). This is a common concern in most developed countries and one where IS can play a significant role. Some studies have suggested that social well-being could be enhanced by participation in online activities (ADHA 2011). Reports in aged care research literature indicate that loneliness and isolation are among the main problems encountered by people living well into their 80s and 90s (Coughlan 2011). Those still in their home receive basic medical and support services, sometimes via the Internet, but their lack of mobility …

What Happens When Digital Information Systems Are Brought Into Health And Social Care? Comparing Approaches To Social Policy In England And Australia, Susan Baines, Penelope Hill, Karin Garrety

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This review article offers a brief comparative overview of approaches to the application of public sector information systems in England and Australia, with particular reference to health and social care. Since the 1990s, reforms to the public sector in both countries have looked to information and communication technologies (ICTs) from the private sector as the key to modern, citizen-centred services. These efforts have been conducted in the wider context of New Public Management, with the emphasis on the marketisation of government services, reducing the size of the state, and improvements in efficiency. Both countries are typically seen as being at, …

Reframing Success And Failure Of Information Systems: A Performative Perspective, Dubravka Cecez-Kecmanovic, Karlheinz Kautz, Rebecca Abrahall

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The paper questions common assumptions in the dominant representational framings of information systems success and failure and proposes a performative perspective that conceives IS success and failure as relational effects performed by sociomaterial practices of IS project actor-networks of developers, managers, technologies, project documents, methodologies, and other actors. Drawing from a controversial case of a highly innovative information system in an insurance company-considered a success and failure at the same time- the paper reveals the inherent indeterminacy of IS success and failure and describes the mechanisms by which success and failure become performed and thus determined by sociomaterial practices. This …

Visitor At-Destination Information Search: A Preliminary Study, Nina Mistilis, Ulrike Gretzel

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

A pilot study involving 38 qualitative interviews of domestic and international visitors to New South Wales was conducted to gain preliminary, in-depth insights into the way visitors search for information when they are at the destination and the impact of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) on their search patterns, including their use of visitor information centres (VICs). The findings suggest that search patterns are very complex, combining many online and offline sources and much of the search indeed happens while at the destination. Visitors bring along a variety of technologies but still rely on printed materials, maps and VICs …

The Perceived Impact Of The Agile Development And Project Management Method Scrum On Information Systems And Software Development Productivity, Karlheinz Kautz, Thomas Heide Johansen, Andreas Uldahl

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This research contributes to the body of knowledge in information systems development (ISD) with an empirical investigation in form of a case study that demonstrates the positive impact of the agile development and project management method Scrum on information systems and software development productivity and it provides a useful operationalization of the concept through seven identified indicators for productivity. Despite the fact that the case unit had challenges with the use of Scrum, the indicators identified the areas where the company had managed to exploit the potential of Scrum and its practices with regard to increasing productivity. The research results …

Reorienting The Information Systems Function To Support Increasing Levels Of Business Service, Magno J. Queiroz, Tim Coltman

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Business scholars and practitioners are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities that exist when service is added to traditional product offerings. However, the literature has not previously explored the question of how the IS function is responding to greater emphasis on service. In this paper, we employ a multi-case research design to investigate the role of the IS function in supporting increasing levels of service. Our study contributes to the literature by showing that differences in IS service orientation and collaborative capabilities affect the ability of firms to support service. The implications for IS and managerial practice are discussed by …

Creating Business Value Through Agile Project Management And Information Systems Development: The Perceived Impact Of Scrum, Karlheinz Kautz, Thomas H. Johansen, Andreas Uldahl

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Value creation through information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) is a major IS research topic. However there still exists an ambiguity and fuzziness of the 'IS business value' concept and a lack of clarity surrounding the value creation process. This also true for organizations that develop IS/IT and for development technologies like information systems development and project management methods that are applied in the production of IS/IT. The agile method Scrum is one such technology. In the research presented here we studied productivity, quality and employee satisfaction as supported by Scrum as value creating measures. Our positive assessment is …

The Impact Of Information Opacity On The Relation Between Founding-Family Control And Cost Of Debt, Liangbo Ma, Shiguang Ma, Gary Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The literature finds mixed empirical evidence for systematic relations between founding - family ownership and cost of debt. Using a sample of 3380 privately (non-state) controlled but publicly listed firms in China between 2004 and 2010, we find that, on average, founding-family controlled firms pay significantly lower cost of debt, relative to non-founding-family controlled firms. Further investigation reveals that the negative relation between founding-family control and cost of debt exists mainly in firms that are relatively less opaque. Our results are robust to different measures of cost of debt and information opacity. We further generate evidence that in regions with …

Mutual Fund Ownership, Firm Specific Information, And Firm Performance: Evidence From China, Wenhua Sharpe, Gary Tian, Hong Feng Zhang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper shows empirically that the positive association between mutual fund ownership and firm value in China is mainly driven by the informed trading of mutual funds. Utilizing the unique short term feature of mutual fund holdings for the period from 2001 to 2010, we provide an informational link between a decomposed component of market-to-book ratio (firm specific valuation component) and mutual fund holdings. Specifically, we find that firms with a higher level of mutual fund ownership are associated with a higher specific value. Moreover, the positive association between the specific value of a firm and mutual fund ownership is …

On The Conceptualization Of Strategic Information Technology Alignment: Development And Validation Of A Multidimensional Construct, Magno J. Queiroz, Tim Coltman

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In this study we conceptualize strategic information technology (IT) alignment as a two-way relationship where business strategy influences IT, and IT influences business strategy. This implies that a multidimensional rather than the traditional unidimensional conceptualization of strategic IT alignment is appropriate. To validate this approach we develop and test a new multidimensional measure that captures the first-order effects of IT alignment at the process-level, where they are expected to be realized. We test the model using survey data from 94 companies that span three countries ─ US, Australia and Germany. Results reveal that the multidimensional measure of strategic IT alignment …

Security Without Secrecy? Counter-Terrorism, Asio And Access To Information, Mark Rix

Sydney Business School - Papers

The Foreign Office declined to disclose the reasons for deciding that specific files should be withheld, with the result that the reason for the continuing secrecy is itself ... a secret.

Sociomateriality And Information Systems Success And Failure, Karlheinz Kautz, Dubravka Cecez-Kecmanovic

Sydney Business School - Papers

The aim of this essay is to put forward a performative, sociomaterial perspective on Information Systems (IS) success and failure in organisations by focusing intently upon the discursive-material nature of IS development and use in practice. Through the application of Actor Network Theory (ANT) to the case of an IS that transacts insurance products we demonstrate the contribution of such a perspective to the understanding of how IS success and failure occur in practice. The manuscript puts our argument forward by first critiquing the existing perspectives on IS success and failure in the literature for their inadequate consideration of the …

Are Value Of Information Methods Ready For Prime Time? An Application To Alternative Treatment Strategies For Nstemi Patients, Seamus Kent, Andrew Briggs, Simon Eckermann, Colin Berry

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Objectives: The use of value of information methods to inform trial design has been widely advocated but there have been few empirical applications of these methods and there is little evidence they are widely used in decision making. This study considers the usefulness of value of information models in the context of a real clinical decision problem relating to alternative diagnostic strategies for patients with a recent non-ST elevated myocardial infarction.

Methods: A pretrial economic model is constructed to consider the cost-effectiveness of two competing strategies: coronary angiography alone or in conjunction with fractional flow reserve measurement. A …

Value Of Information And Pricing New Health Care Interventions, Andrew R. Willan, Simon Eckermann

Sydney Business School - Papers

Previous application of value-of-information methods to optimal clinical trial design have predominantly taken a societal decision-making perspective, implicitly assuming that healthcare costs are covered through public expenditure and trial research is funded by government or donation-based philanthropic agencies. In this paper, we consider the interaction between interrelated perspectives of a societal decision maker (e.g. the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence [NICE] in the UK) charged with the responsibility for approving new health interventions for reimbursement and the company that holds the patent for a new intervention. We establish optimal decision making from societal and company perspectives, allowing for …

Australian Online Public Information Systems: A User-Centred Study Of An Evolving Public Health Website, Helen Hasan, Joseph Meloche, Sumayya Banna

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The strategic, transformational nature of many information systems projects is now widely understood. Large-scale implementations of systems are known to require significant management of organisational change in order to be successful. Moreover, projects are rarely executed in isolation - most organisations have a large programme of projects being implemented at any one time. However, project and value management methodologies provide ad hoc definitions of the relationship between a project and its environment. This limits the ability of an organisation to manage the larger dynamics between projects and organisations, over time, and between projects. The contribution of this paper, therefore, is …

Trustworthiness In Mhealth Information Services: An Assessment Of A Hierarchical Model With Mediating And Moderating Effects Using Partial Least Squares (Pls), Shahriar Akter, John D'Ambra, Pradeep Ray

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The aim of this research is to advance both the theoretical conceptualization and the empirical validation of trustworthiness in mHealth (mobile health) information services research. Conceptually, it extends this line of research by reframing trustworthiness as a hierarchical, reflective construct, incorporating ability, benevolence, integrity, and predictability. Empirically, it confirms that partial least squares path modeling can be used to estimate the parameters of a hierarchical, reflective model with moderating and mediating effects in a nomological network. The model shows that trustworthiness is a second-order, reflective construct that has a significant direct and indirect impact on continuance intentions in the context …

Counting Acute Inpatient Care. Abf Information Series No. 5, Kathy Eagar

Sydney Business School - Papers

As outlined in ABF Information Paper Number 1, a critical element of Activity Based Funding (ABF) is the need to define, classify, count, cost and pay for each health care activity in a consistent manner. For acute patients who stay in hospital for more than a day, this is not an issue. These patients are classified as acute ‘overnight admitted patients’ and are counted by Diagnosis Related Group (DRG).

What Is Activity-Based Funding? Abf Information Series No. 1, Kathy Eagar

Sydney Business School - Papers

Activity-Based Funding (ABF) is a central feature of the Rudd hospital reform plan (‘A National Health and Hospitals Network for Australia’s Future’). ABF is not a new idea, either to the health sector or to other industries. Indeed, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed in November 2008 to introduce a nationally consistent ABF approach as part of its National Partnership Agreement on Hospital and Health Workforce Reform. The Rudd hospital reform plan proposes to accelerate the ABF work program that has already been agreed with the States and Territories.

The Impact Of Mobile Amusement Information On Use Behavior, Satisfaction, And Loyalty, Fumiyo N. Kondo, Jiro Hirata, Shahriar Akter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The relationship between satisfaction and loyalty has been well explored in services marketing or customer relationship management. In this study, the authors studied the relationship of 7 types of service variables under “amusement” factor. Amusement is one of the three factors extracted from 21 mobile information services. Among many different frameworks of satisfaction-loyalty, we used the framework of “past use behavior” on “satisfaction”, and then of “satisfaction” on “continued use intention” (or loyalty), resulting in a strong support of the existing model with positive significant influence on the both paths. Further, our research reveals that, on the both paths, there …

Exchange Of Information Agreements With Tax Havens: How Will This Affect The Rights Of Non-Resident Taxpayers And Investors?, John Mclaren

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) appears to have been successful in convincing tax havens and countries with strict bank secrecy laws to exchange information on non-resident taxpayers, investors and businesses using their financial services. As at 18 August 2010, the OECD have confirmed that more than 320 Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) and 150 Double Taxation Conventions that incorporate the new transparency standards have been signed between OECD member countries and non-OECD member states since 2006.531 While this situation may be good for tax administrators in the pursuit of their goal of maximising the collection of tax …

Usability Testing Of Public Health Web-Based Information Systems, Sumayya Banna, Kholoud Alkayid, Helen M. Hasan, Joseph A. Meloche

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

While the Internet provides many opportunities for increased levels of care and access to information services in the area of public health, many web designers are not yet taking full advantage of its potential. This study looks at Intensive Care and Palliative Care, as important instances where health informatics could improve public web-based services, in meeting the particular information needs of family members of critically and chronically ill patients. This study is significant in adopting an approach to the usability testing of websites based on concepts from Activity Theory. This takes a realistic and practical approach, which identifies the purpose …

Association Between Corporate Disclosure And Information Needs Of Company Annual Report Users In Sri Lanka, Anura De Zoysa

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the extent of disclosures in company annual reports of Sri Lankan listedcompanies and the user perceptions on the importance of information disclosed in company annualreports. For this purpose, annul reports of 65 Sri Lankan listed companies were analysed using adisclosure index. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was conducted covering seven user groups toexamine the importance they attached to various information items disclosed in company annualreports. The results of the study revealed a fairly high level of overall disclosure (69.8%) in Sri Lankancompany annual reports with 90 per cent of the sample companies disclosing 43 per cent ofinformation items …

Simulating Information Exchanges In Order To Investigate The Utility Of Public Health Websites, Kholoud Alkayid, Helen M. Hasan, Joseph A. Meloche

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores the nature of communication and information flows in critical medicalenvironments to inform the design of public website support. Results are presented of a study ofcommunication in Intensive Care Units (ICU), where data was collected from the website owners,public users of the site and ICU clinicians who traditionally find communication with families ofpatients difficult. The paper presents the results of this research aimed at understanding the situationand needs of potential website users. The study has provided a greater understanding of howinformation technologies can help to resolve problems that arise with the ad-hoc, face-to-facecommunication that currently occurs in this …

Disruptions In Information Flow: A Revenue Costing Supply Chain Dilemma, Albert Munoz, Michael D. Clements

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The integration of supply chains as a mechanism for value creation is largely dependent on continuous flowof real time accurate information from the customer back upstream to the manufacturer. This ideal is oftenunachievable when disruptions in the flow of information and materials are known to regularly occur in somemanufacturing supply chains. This paper focuses on quantifying the potential lost sales revenue attributed toinformation and material delays in a supply chain using discrete event simulation of the Beer Distribution Game.Results indicate a direct relationship between lost sales revenue and delay times. When exposed to severallevels of delay such disruptions will cause …

Ict Devices As Ubiquitous Tools For Information Seeking Activity, Joseph A. Meloche, Helen M. Hasan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the use of current and developing ubiquitous digital devices and the way that they impact on, and are integrated into, use by groups within the community for information seeking. Three cases are presented involving ubiquitous use of the mobile phone, USB memory devices, and a wireless groupware system. The study considers the need for ongoing research to inform, direct and study the innovative use, appropriation and development of such tools. The primary methodological framework that is applied is activity theory, as it allows dasiatoolpsila to be examined in light of purposeful activity in the context of their …

Mobile Information Services Marketing To Serve The Bop Market, Md. Shahriar Akter, Fumiyo N. Kondo

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Wireless technologies have created an unprecedented opportunity for direct marketing to communicate with customers in an instantaneous, interactive and customized way. At present the number of mobile customers in the world have already exceeded 3 billion and among them two third of the customers are coming from the developing countries where there is high growth of mobile penetration and mobile service consumption. Our study has focused on this developing segment to market mobile information services to the unconnected and deprived customers to solve their problems at the robust pace. The paper has recommended some basic information needs as well as …

Explaining Intention To Use An Information Technology Innovation: An Empirical Comparison Of The Perceived Characteristics Of Innovating And Technology Acceptance Models, Sam Jebeile, Robert Reeve

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study examines the issue of technology acceptance in a multi-campus secondary college in Sydney, Australia. Seventy-five teachers across two campuses were surveyed as to their perceptions regarding technology acceptance. Regression analysis was used to compare the explanatory power of the perceived characteristics of innovating model (PCIM), and the technology acceptance model (TAM). Both models explained a substantial amount of variation in technology acceptance. However, our findings suggest that it is preferable to use the PCIM, rather than the TAM, to explain intention to use an information technology innovation. Implications for both future research and practice are discussed.