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A Soft Landing, Steady Growth, And Accelerating Farm Income, John Austin, Chris Decker, Tom Doering, Ernie Goss, Nick Hernandez, Bruce Johnson, Ken Lemke, Franz Schwarz, Scott Strain, Eric Thompson, Keith Turner

Economics Faculty Publications

After years of accelerating growth, the U.S. economy achieved a soft landing in 2006. The rate of economic growth remained positive but slowed sufficiently to reduce inflation pressures and the need for further interest rate increases. At the same time the economy remained strong enough to continue the current expansion which has been in place since late 2001. Such a soft landing is vital because it should allow the economy to continue to expand for years to come, but with moderate inflation.

Pillars Of Growth In Nebraska's Non-Metropolitan Economy, Eric Thompson, Ernie Goss, Chris Decker, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bruce Johnson, Ben Schmitz, Julian Neira, Pavel Jeutang

Economics Faculty Publications

Agriculture is a critical part of Nebraska’s economy, and changes in the fortunes of agriculture play an important role in the success of the state’s non-metropolitan regions. Trends toward consolidation and rising productivity in agriculture, however, have raised concerns about the future of non-metropolitan Nebraska. Some citizens and policymakers have begun to wonder if the economy can create sufficient job opportunities for non-metropolitan residents. The answer to this question depends not only upon the relative strength of the agricultural sector, but also upon the presence of other industries that can join agriculture as pillars for employment growth in non-metropolitan Nebraska. …

Manufacturing Rebounds, John Austin, Chris Decker, Tom Doering, Ernie Goss, Nick Hernandez, Bruce Johnson, Ken Lemke, Donis Petersan, Franz Schwarz, Eric Thompson, Keith Turner

Economics Faculty Publications

National economic conditions will continue to favor growth over the next three years, including sustained increases in manufacturing employment. Higher energy prices, particularly for oil, gasoline, and natural gas, will impact the economy, but probably only will moderate economic growth rather than cause a significant slowdown.

After rapid growth in 2004 and 2005, growth in real gross domestic product is expected to moderate in 2006-2008, due to higher long-term interest rates as well as higher energy prices. Real gross domestic product will grow 3 percent in 2006 and fall to 2.5 percent growth in later years. The housing market will …

An Empirically Derived Taxonomy Of Information Systems Integration, Thawatchai Jitpaiboon, T.S. Ragu-Nathan, Mark A. Vonderembse

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Information systems integration (ISI) represents the degree of cooperation in information system practices between business functions within a firm and between a firm and its trading partners. Although the establishment of information systems integration objective has been reported as one of the key concerns of top management because ISI enhances the firms’ competitiveness and growth, the classification of the information system practices and its managerial implications are still vaguely developed. The two objectives of this paper are: (1) to develop a taxonomy of information systems integration (ISI) called ISI-Matrix, and (2) to report managerial implications for matching each information system …

Determining Information Requirements For E-Business Systems From Activity Space To Information Space, Kecheng Liu, Lily Sun

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The study of information requirements for e-business systems reveals that the level of detail, granularity, format of presentation, and a broad range of information types are required for the applications. The provision of relevant information affects how e-business systems can efficiently support the business goals and processes. This paper presents an approach for determining information requirements for e-business systems (DIRES) which will allow the user to describe the core business processes, whose specification maps onto a business activity space. It further aids a configuration of information requirements into an information space. A case study of a logistics company in China …

Cross-Border It-Support For The Management Of International Subsidiary Operations: The Diffusion Of Innovations-Based Conceptual Model, Arto Ojala, Nazmun Nahar

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Rapid and effective internationalization has increasingly become important for high-tech companies. Establishing a foreign subsidiary can facilitate effective internationalization for a high-tech company. This study investigates how IT can provide cross-border support to manage international subsidiary operations and makes important theoretical contributions. The research results exhibit how companies can use cross-border IT-support to effectively share and utilize information from the target country environment for international subsidiary operations. This paper also introduces the diffusion of innovations-based conceptual model which deals with various factors that should be taken into account while operating a foreign subsidiary through IT support. The findings are useful …

Use Of Advanced Technologies And Information Solutions For North Sea Offshore Assets: Ambitious Changes And Socio-Technical Dimensions, Jayantha P. Liyanage, Eirik Bjerkebaek

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The use of various forms of advanced technologies and information solutions are in common place to manage industrial assets today. This is widely seen as the way forward in various industrial sectors owing to range of commercial benefits offered by new technologies and its importance to gain competitive advantage. The objective of this paper is to describe such an ongoing major technology-dependent re- engineering process termed Integrated eOperations in oil and gas exploration and production business in North Sea since 2004-2005, and to highlight the nature of ambitious techno-managerial changes and its critical socio-technical dimensions. The change process focuses on …

Development Of A Risk Assessment Model For Global Information Technology Outsourcing, June Wei, Brian Peach

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Global Information Technology (IT) outsourcing has been recognized to have important potential benefits. However, researchers and practitioners also recognize potential risks involved in global IT outsourcing, which sometimes lead to undesirable consequences. This paper develops a model to assess risks in global IT outsourcing. Specifically, this paper begins by identifying global IT outsourcing risk factors by considering the national infrastructure, organizational infrastructure, and project environment. Second, a Global IT Outsourcing (GITO) engagement model for risk assessment is developed to logically link all these risk factors together. Third, one quantifiable approach based on a relative-weighted assessment model is presented to demonstrate …

Mobile Information Access And Diffusion In Ambulatory Care Service Settings, Jason P. Sargent, Peter W. Eklund, Amanda Ryan, Lois Burgess, Joan Cooper, Carole Alcock, Damien Ryan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Clinical information systems for Ambulatory Care are predominantly paper-based. This paper represents a preliminary overview (work-in-progress) of the electronic Point of Care (ePOC) Personal Digital Assistant Project- a mobile e-Health research and development project and the intrinsic considerations which arise when designing alternative electronic patient data management systems tailored to Ambulatory Care. Its purpose is to address issues which allow technological enablement of electronic patient data management in the delivery of home-based medical care. We present the methodological considerations for document management within this e-Health setting and proposed rollout of an electronic Point-Of-Care (ePOC) system. While the replacement of more …

Do Information Privacy Concerns Affect Students’ Feeling Of Alienation?, Joseph S. Mollick, John Michael Pearson

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Organizations such as universities collect and use personal data about customers such as students. How do students feel about their university’s practices related to the collection and use of personal data? Using data collected via a survey of 187 students at a large U.S. university, we investigate the effects of these two privacy concerns on students’ feeling of alienation. Implications of the results are discussed in light of ethics, strategy, design, control and administration of personal information management systems.

A Collaborative Project Management Approach And A Framework For Its Supporting Systems, Fang Chen, Nicholas C. Romano Jr, Jay F. Nunamaker Jr

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The project management (PM) paradigm has changed during the past decade due to the globalization of business and advancement of information technology (IT). Increasingly, projects involve members from different geographical locations more than at any other time in history. Traditional PM methods may be inadequate to manage distributed projects, and new information systems are needed to support distributed PM. This article provides the rationale for a collaborative PM approach to manage distributed projects and proposes a conceptual framework for the collaborative PM software development. The objective is to present a collaborative PM framework that can guide further research and development …

The Role Of Convergence In Information Systems And Business Planning, Sharath Sasidharan, Jiming Wu, Dennis Pearce, Grover S. Kearns, Albert L. Lederer

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

A key challenge to top management is the alignment of IS and business plans for the purpose of producing an IT-based competitive advantage. This study uses a well known communication theory to provide new insight into the impact of CEO and CIO planning participation on IS and business alignment via the convergence of views between the CEO and CIO regarding the current and future strategic impact of IT on the firm’s success. One hundred and nine matched pairs of questionnaire responses from CIOs and CEOs were collected using a postal survey. Results indicated that CIO participation in business planning predicted …

Grey Situation Decision-Making Algorithm To Optimize Silicon Wafer Slicing, Che-Wei Chang, William Yu Chung Wang

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The slicing of Silicon wafer is a complex manufacturing process in producing the raw materials for electronic chips and requires the efforts to effectively monitor the stability in production line and ensure the quality for the products composed of different shapes and materials. Human decision failure and other analytical errors are the most common source of management problems in such manufacturing stage. This paper presents a case regarding the silicon wafer manufacturing to examine the response to quality errors. The study has adopted the approach of grey situation decision-making algorithm for problem detection that suggests a technique to attain the …