Management Information Systems Commons^™

Genuinely Service-Oriented Enterprises: Using Work System Theory To See Beyond The Promise Of Efficient Software, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

The concept of service-oriented enterprise has great potential. Taken literally, however, it raises many issues, including practical difficulties of creating a service-oriented enterprise in the computer science sense and the huge leap from flexible IT infrastructure to an enterprise that is genuinely oriented toward providing services for customers and employees. This paper is a conceptual contribution showing how work system theory can help in seeing analysis and design issues beyond technical architectures that have dominated research to date. After summarizing background concepts related to service, service systems, and the vision of service-oriented enterprises, this paper explains how work system theory …

The Knowledge Cube: Scaffolding For A Body Of Knowledge About Information Systems, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper answers calls for a body of knowledge (BoK) for the IS field. Its new approach for thinking about a BoK provides a path for addressing a longstanding problem in the IS discipline. The paper proposes organizing knowledge as a three dimensional "knowledge cube" that goes beyond compilations of categories of knowledge, sets of generalizations, and sets of documents. The structure of the knowledge cube is based on recognition that "work system in general" is a general case whose subordinate cases include information system in general and project in general. In turn, the special cases have their own special …

A Work System Front End For Object-Oriented Analysis And Des, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper proposes that basic ideas from the work system theory (WST) and the work system method (WSM) might become a front end to object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD). After describing the background motivation and summarizing work system concepts, it uses a hiring system example to show how two tools from WSM can be used as a front end for OOAD, in effect, a step before creating use case diagrams. Potential benefits of this approach stem from a business-oriented question, "how can we improve this work system's performance," rather than an IT-oriented question, "how can we create an IT artifact …

Metamodel For Service Analysis And Design Based On An Operational View Of Service And Service Systems, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper presents a metamodel that addresses service system analysis and design based on an operational view of service that traverses and integrates three essential layers, service activities, service systems, and value constellations. The metamodel's service-in-operation perspective and underlying premises diverge from a view of service systems as systems of economic exchange that has appeared a number of times in the journal Service Science.

In addition to the metamodel itself, this paper's contributions include an explanation of eight premises on which it is based plus clarifications concerning concepts such as service, service system, customer, product/service, co-production and co-creation of value, …

Use And Perceived Value Of Class Forums, Leslie Albert, Nitin Aggarwal

Faculty Publications, Information Systems & Technology

Numerous studies have illustrated the ability of online class discussion forums to support college-level student learning and performance. Yet few instructors incorporate forums into their courses. Many believe that students will fail to find value in or even use class forums or they are concerned about increasing their instructional workloads. Herein we address these concerns via a mixed-methods study of our own students' experiences with class forums.

Predicting Risk For Deer-Vehicle Collisions Using A Social Media Based Geographic Information System, G. Kent Webb

Faculty Publications, Information Systems & Technology

As an experiment investigating social media as a data source for making management decisions, photo sharing websites were searched for data on deer sightings. Data about deer density and location are important factors in decisions related to herd management and transportation safety, but such data are often limited or not available. Results indicate that when combined with simple rules, data from photo sharing websites reliably predicted the location of road segments with high risk for deer-vehicle collisions as reported by volunteers to an internet site tracking roadkill. Use of Google Maps as the GIS platform was helpful in plotting and …

Exploring The Temporal Nature Of Sociomateriality From A Work System Perspective, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper uses work system theory (WST) to explore the temporal nature of sociomateriality. It summarizes concepts related to WST and sociomateriality, and notes sociomaterial aspects of WST. It uses static and dynamic views of a work system toexamine six examples that can be classified in one of three time frames, minutes-to-hours, days-to-weeks, and months-to years. The result is a straightforward interpretation of systems and related events across all of the time frames, which exhibit different types of phenomena related to adaptations, workarounds, emergence of informal work patterns, and sequences of formal projects. After approaching sociomateriality from a perspective not …

The Impacts Of Personality Traits And Goal Commitment On Employees' Job Satisfaction, Wai Kwan (Elaine) Lau

Accounting Faculty Research

The present research investigates the effects of personality traits, such as self-efficacy and locus of control, on job satisfaction. It also examines the mediating impact of goal commitment on relationships between personality and job satisfaction. The results indicate that both self-efficacy and locus of control are positively associated with goal commitment. In addition, locus of control is found positively related to job satisfaction. However, self-efficacy does not have the same positive relationship with job satisfaction. The study further confirms the mediating effect of goal commitment on relationships between personality traits and job satisfaction.

Wisdom From Warren Buffett, Todd A. Finkle, Paul F. Buller

Management Information Systems Faculty Scholarship

This article documents a trip that was made by students from a U.S. University to visit Warren Buffett, a chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and the third richest man in the world at his Global Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Every year, Buffet invites students from a select number of schools to Omaha to visit with him. In 2011, students from Gonzaga University were fortunate to be invited by Buffet based on new products that they created in an entrepreneurship course. This article discusses the strategy that this university used to get invited to visit Buffet, the activities that occurred …

Exclusive Channels And Revenue Sharing In A Complementary Goods Market, Gangshu (George) Cai, Yue Dai, Sean X. Zhou

Information Systems and Analytics

This paper evaluates the joint impact of exclusive channels and revenue sharing on suppliers and retailers in a hybrid duopoly common retailer and exclusive channel model. The model bridges the gap in the literature on hybrid multichannel supply chains with bilateral complementary products and services with or without revenue sharing. The analysis indicates that, without revenue sharing, the suppliers are reluctant to form exclusive deals with the retailers; thus, no equilibrium results. With revenue sharing from the retailers to the suppliers, it can be an equilibrium strategy for the suppliers and retailers to form exclusive deals. Bargaining solutions are provided …

Using The Work System Method With Freshman Information System Students, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

To date, the use of the work system method in information systems curricula has demonstrated that postgraduate students can benefit from this approach when examining a business situation involving an information system. To contrast the experiences of post-graduate students with work experiences, in this paper we report on use of a simplified version of the Work System Method in a freshman Information Systems course and study how students without work or technical knowl-edge performed when analyzing IT-reliant work systems in business settings. We reflect on an introductory information systems course that included a work system analysis assignment, and we examine …

Challenges For Service Science, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Service science is still in a formative stage, with many basic ideas still in flux and significant disagreements about definitions and implications of basic concepts. This paper suggests directions for progress in relation to eight problematic areas within service science. It uses five typical medical services to question typical definitions of service and service system. It suggests that service science should not privilege servitizing over productizing; that a series of design dimensions whose end-points are often associated with products or with services are more useful than yes/no distinctions between products and services; that the concept of "the customer" should be …

The Impact Of A Secondary Market On A Consumer's Intention To Buy New Video Games, Nicole Forsgen-Velasquez

Data Analytics & Information Systems Faculty Publications

The secondary market for video game purchases is a multi-billion dollar industry that some believe is unfair to video game developers. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), we investigated user attitudes and subjective norms and their affect on a consumer’s intention to buy new video games. While TRA has been used to study purchase intentions of material goods and digital goods, our study extends this work to investigate video games, which have both a physical and digital component. Based on a survey of 118 undergraduate students, two of the hypothesized relationships are significant predictors of intention to purchase: previous …

Organizing For Post-Implementation Erp, Kevin P. Gallagher, Vickie C. Gallagher

Business Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: The importance of involving subject matter experts (SMEs) in ERP implementations is well established. SMEs' knowledge of business and system processes are critical to conducting gap analyses and configuring enterprise systems. But what happens to SMEs on completion of the implementation phase? Prior qualitative research found that some organizations return SMEs to their old department, which can contribute to knowledge transfer; while other organizations retain the services of SMEs, to assist in ongoing efforts with support and enhancement of the systems. The purpose of this study is to understand post-implementation organizational choices - when SMEs are retained and returned. …

Forensic Disciplines For Objective Global Strategic Analysis, Dale H. Shao, Lawrence P. Shao, Ralph E. Mckinney Jr.

Management Faculty Research

The global nature of investing requires a thorough analysis of the firm to determine the strategic viability of the firm for investment purposes. In addition, businesses are being held more accountable for the statements they make and the actions they take concerning their business. Several forensic disciplines have recently emerged that may supply subjective and objective data that can assist investors in making their final investment decisions and determining if ongoing businesses are truly doing what is in the best interest of their shareholders. Another factor influencing the increase forensic analyses of national and multinational corporations is the increase in …

Consolidating Findings From Business Process Change Case Studies Using System Dynamics: The Example Of Employee Morale, Zuzana Kristekova, Marlen Christin Jurisch, Michael Schermann, Helmut Krcmar

Information Systems and Analytics

In this paper, we explore system dynamics as a useful approach to consolidate findings from case studies on business process change (BPC) projects. We compile data from 65 BPC case studies to develop a system dynamics simulation model that helps us to investigate ‘employee morale’ as an important construct in BPC projects. We show that such simulation models consolidate the complex and often non-linear findings from BPC case studies in a way that makes it available to discourse among researchers, lecturers and students as well as BPC professionals. Thus, this paper contributes to knowledge management and learning by suggesting system …

The Struggle For 'Appropriateness'-New Sources Of (Techno-) Stress, Stefan Schellhammer, Russell Haines, Stefan Klein

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

Information and communication technologies are employed in every aspect of contemporary life. Facilitated by ICT, many innovations in the organization of work have taken hold. The effects of these developments on the quality of life are disputed. By referring to the phenomenon of ‘technostress,’ scholars’ caution against potentially harmful effects of ICT on workers’ health. This relatively new line of research roots the sources of stress for the individual in features of ICT. The present paper is motivated by the observation that ICT is also rooted in social relations. The way it is used is heavily influenced by social norms …

The Information Technology Workforce: A Comparision Of Critical Skills Of Clients And Service Providers, Stephen Hawk, Kate M. Kaiser, Tim Goles, Christine V. Bullen

Business Faculty Publications

In this article the authors explore similarities and differences in skill needs of IT service providers and the firms that providers service (clients). The results show that providers and clients are more similar than different with regard to desired skills. Client firms emphasize technical skills for new hires more than providers do despite saying that these are the skills they would outsource to providers. The results have implications for organizations’ recruiting and retention, for individuals’ career development, and for educational programs.

The Impact Of Analyst-Induced Misinformation On The Requirements Elicitation Process, Radha Appan, Glenn J. Browne

Business Faculty Publications

Information requirements determination (IRD) is concerned with developing accurate requirements for a proposed system, primarily by eliciting information from users and other organizational stakeholders. In this paper we build and test theory concerning a significant threat to the accuracy of information requirements, termed the misinformation effect. Misinformation is distorted, false, or other erroneous or misleading information that does not reflect the true state of the world or state of mind of the person communicating the information. The misinformation effect refers to the tendency of people to recall misleading or false information introduced to them following an event instead of original …

Responding To State Sales Tax Laws For Online Retailers - A Case Study Of Amazon And The States, Ross Malaga

Department of Information Management and Business Analytics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

As state budgets have come under increasing pressure, many states have enacted so called "Amazon taxes" that seek to have large online retailers collect state sales tax. States are attempting to expand the concept of nexus to include marketing affiliates and corporate subsidiaries. Amazon and other large retailers have reacted in different ways depending on the state and the specific legislation. This paper discusses the potential impact of these new laws and how both states and online retailers have dealt with the issues involved.