Business Commons^™

Plan To Support Grains Industry Development 2009-2012, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Western Australia

Grain and other field crops published reports

The Plan to Support Grains Industry Development (‘the Plan’) recognises that Western Australian agricultural industries are integral to the economic wellbeing of regional and rural communities. The Plan promotes a progressive and profitable grains industry through modern best practice services and research to enhance continuous improvement in farming and supply chain practices.

The Plan has been developed to align with the Government of Western Australia’s initiatives, strategies and tactics for ‘making every hectare count’ (see Appendix 1) and with grains industry needs as identified by industry stakeholders during a series of consultation forums. These industry needs will be addressed in …

Factors And Impacts Of Low Utilization Of Internet: The Case Of Arab Countries, Ali F. Emdad, Muhammed Badamas, Samar Mouakket

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The Arab countries are greatly behind in terms of their levels of Internet usage. The Arab countries are under pressures to adopt and promote digital transformation. Data in Arab countries are hard to get, resulting in paucity of understanding the factors that affect the use of Internet in Arab countries. This paper combines research from academic and major international organizational literature to examine and synthesize the current use of Internet in Arab Countries. The obstacles and the factors that affect the use and growth of Internet are language, government policies, culture, cost and technology. They are discussed with their impacts.

The Moderating Effects Of Technology On Career Success: Can Social Networks Shatter The Glass Ceiling?, Paul Fadil, Cindi Smatt, Sharon L. Segrest, Crystal Owen

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This paper reviews the demographic predictors of career success and proposes that technology plays a critical role in alleviating career success barriers for various demographic groups who have historically encountered barriers. Specifically we propose that technology can act as a moderator allowing minority groups greater participation and acceptance in networks. And, ultimately the greater participation and acceptance in networks will lead to greater career success for groups who have typically encountered “glass ceilings” based on demographic variables such as gender, age, race and ethnicity.

Inference-Guiding On Bayesian Knowledge-Based Systems, Jinchang Wang

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Bayesian network is a robust structure for representing knowledge containing uncertainties in a knowledge-based system. In applications of expert systems and knowledge-based systems, it often happens that initial data are not sufficient to derive a conclusion of high enough certainty. Inference-guiding is in that case to identify the missing information, pursue its value, and lead inference to a conclusion. This paper presents and characterizes a criterion for effectively selecting key missing information, and thereby develops a “smart” inference approach with the inference-guiding function based on the newly developed criterion for uncertain inference in a Bayesian knowledge-based system.

The Cmc Interactivity Model: How Interactivity Enhances Communication Quality And Process Satisfaction In Lean-Media Groups, Paul Benjamin Lowry, Nicholas C. Romano Jr., Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Randy W. Guthrie

Faculty Publications

Process satisfaction is one important determinant of work group collaborative system adoption, continuance, and performance. We explicate the computermediated communication (CMC) interactivity model (CMCIM) to explain and predict how interactivity enhances communication quality that results in increased process satisfaction in CMC-supported work groups. We operationalize this model in the challenging context of very large groups using extremely lean CMC. We tested it with a rigorous field experiment and analyzed the results with the latest structural equation modeling techniques. Interactivity and communication quality dramatically improved for very large groups using highly lean CMC (audience response systems) over faceto- face groups. Moreover, …

Internet Search Statistics As A Source Of Business Intelligence: Searches On Foreclosure As An Estimate Of Actual Home Foreclosures, G. Kent Webb

Faculty Publications, Information Systems & Technology

Historical search data, describing the volume of searches by topic and region, have recently become freely available. This provides a potentially valuable source of data useful for business intelligence about conditions external to the organization where data is sometimes sparse. As an experiment for a business application, Google searches on the keyword “foreclosure” were correlated with actual U.S. home foreclosures over the past 4 years. The resulting regression analysis shows a very good correlation, indicating that searches on “foreclosure” provide a very accurate estimate of trends in actual U.S. home foreclosures and may provide an early warning system. In a …

A Study Into The Use Of Business Process Reengineering In Re-Designing Procurement Processes Within The Southern Health Board, Treasa Dempsey

Theses

Prior to undertaking the implementation of an integrated finance and procurement information system, the Southern Health Board (now know as the Health Service Executive - Southern Area) undertook a Business Process Reengineering project to redesign, standardise, streamline, and document their procurement processes. This study examines how useful Business Process Reengineering can be in a public sector environment, using the project undertaken in the Southern Health Board, as a case study. The literature on BPR, in conjunction with the material from the BPR project, and interviews from relevant project team members, is examined. The case study demonstrates that it may be …

Creating Automated Plans For Semantic Web Applications Through Planning As Model Checking, Bonnie Brinton Anderson, James V. Hansen, Paul Benjamin Lowry

Faculty Publications

The uncertainties of planning engendered by nondeterminism and partial observability have led to a melding of model checking and artificial intelligence. The result is planning as model checking. Because planning as model checking tests sets of states and sets of transitions at once, rather than single states, the method remains robust and viable in domains of large state spaces and varying levels of uncertainty.

We develop a test bench for Semantic Web agents and use model-based planning to derive strong plans, strong cyclic plans, and weak plans. Our results suggest potential robustness and efficacy in devising plans for agent actions …

The Impact On Organizational Performance Of Contextual Factors, Strategy And Management Control Systems, Nazmi Saeb Jarrar

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This dissertation examined antecedents of the use of contemporary management control systems (MCS) by testing the alignment of strategic and contextual variables with variables of contemporary systems of control in the organization. The study further explored the performance consequences of the implementation of these control systems, and the manner in which strategy can influence the organization’s control culture and management accounting practices. The impact of contextual factors, notably size and structural arrangements, such as decentralization and diversification, on management's choice of control systems were also examined. Hence, the study addressed the need for a better understanding of the association between …

When Is It Beneficial For A Firm To Pursue A Unified Procurement Strategy For Enterprise Software Solutions?, Robert J. Kauffman, Juliana Y. Tsai

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The underlying structure of the enterprise software marketplace during the past ten years suggests that the arrangements that firms make with respect to the acquisition of such software capabilities will become increasingly concentrated. This article explores the multiple theoretical rationales and business cases for the move to a unified procurement strategy for enterprise software, reflecting some differences in terms of what might be expected from the predictions of the well known move-to-the-middle hypothesis. Our central argument is that a "move-to-the-middle" with more than just a single vendor is the likely outcome in unconsolidated industry markets. In industries experiencing consolidation, firms …

Offering Rss Feeds: Does It Help To Gain Competitive Advantage?, Dan Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Nowadays, many Websites have adopted the really simple syndication (RSS) technology to deliver online content to visitors. In this paper, I build an analytical model to examine how the offering of RSS feeds impact the number of visitors, total traffic load, and profit of Websites in a competitive setting. I show that although RSS can always attract more visitors, it may reduce the Website's profit. Interestingly, in a competitive market there are cases that the RSS feeds hurt the offering Website but benefit the competing Website instead. The conditions under which these will happen are derived. I also study the …

Defining Value Based Information Security Governance Objectives, Sushma Mishra

Theses and Dissertations

This research argues that the information security governance objectives should be grounded in the values of organizational members. Research literature in decision sciences suggest that individual values play an important role in developing decision objectives. Information security governance objectives, based on values of the stakeholders, are essential for a comprehensive security control program. The study uses Value Theory as a theoretical basis and value focused thinking as a methodology to develop 23 objectives for information security governance. A case study was conducted to reexamine and interpret the significance of the proposed objectives in an organizational context. The results suggest three …

Why Do People Use Or Not Use An Information Technology: An Interpretive Investigation On The Adoption And Use Of An Electronic Medical Records System, Li Long

Theses and Dissertations

In the literature of information technology acceptance, much empirical evidence exists that is inconsistent with Technology Acceptance (TA) Models. The purpose of this study is to find out why the extant TA models fail to predict in reality as they purport to in theory. This research argues that the extant literature has not been able to explain how individuals actually form their perceptions about using an information technology. Since past research attempting to do this has been unsuccessful or empirically refuted, this research uses an interpretive case study to investigate the experiences of professionals’ adoption and use of an information …

Evaluating The Perception Of Technology Project Task Completion Success Based On Task Routineness And Worker Experience, Edward Thomas Paulson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The failure of an information technology (IT) project creates direct and indirect costs, and research suggests that failures are common. Tasks of varying levels of complexity combine to create a project deliverable and personnel with various levels of experience are assigned to complete these tasks. This study used statistical analysis to investigate the relationship between successful task completion, the routineness of the task, and the experience level of the assigned personnel. Detailed task information was collected from professional technology personnel using an anonymous online survey. The findings were that matching task routineness to worker experience was not generally considered when …

Developing A Grounded Theory Model On Collaboration In Learning, Michelle J. Boese, Hong Sheng, Richard H. Hall

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Purpose of This Research is to Develop a Grounded Theory Model to Explain the Factors Influencing Collaborative Learning in Higher Education, the Role of Technology in Facilitating Collaboration, and the Outcome of Collaboration. We Assigned 28 Participants to Small Groups to Work on Course-Related Questions; Half of the Groups Were Face-To-Face Groups and the Other Half Groups Were Collaborating in a Simulated Virtual Environment with the Aid of Information Technology. Interview Data Was Collected and Analyzed Following the Grounded Theory Approach. Congruent with Distributed Cognition Theories, the Results of Our Study Suggest that Both Social and Technological Factors Were …

Making Sense Of Technology Trends In The Information Technology Landscape, Gediminas Adomavicius, Jesse C. Bockstedt, Alok Gupta, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A major problem for firms making information technology investment decisions is predicting and understanding the effects of future technological developments on the value of present technologies. Failure to adequately address this problem can result in wasted organization resources in acquiring, developing, managing, and training employees in the use of technologies that are short-lived and fail to produce adequate return on investment. The sheer number of available technologies and the complex set of relationships among them make IT landscape analysis extremely challenging. Most IT-consuming firms rely on third parties and suppliers for strategic recommendations on IT investments, which can lead to …

Taxonomy Of Knowedge Management Research In Hospitality And Tourism, Henner Nehles

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The hospitality industry is operating in an ever increasing knowledge-based economy, where hotels have to increase customer satisfaction and retention levels, lower employees turnover rates and operating expenses, maximize profits and strive to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. “Knowledge management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival, and competence in the face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combinations of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings” (Civi, 2000, p.166). Knowledge Management (KM) is not a new concept. It has its …

Evaluating Online Health Information: Beyond Readability Formulas, Gondy Leroy, Stephen Helmreich, James Cowie, Trudi Miller '08, Wei Zheng '08

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Although understanding health information is important, the texts provided are often difficult to understand. There are formulas to measure readability levels, but there is little understanding of how linguistic structures contribute to these difficulties. We are developing a toolkit of linguistic metrics that are validated with representative users and can be measured automatically. In this study, we provide an overview of our corpus and how readability differs by topic and source. We compare two documents for three groups of linguistic metrics. We report on a user study evaluating one of the differentiating metrics: the percentage of function words in a …

Market Liquidity Provision For On-Demand Computing, Zhiling Guo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper focuses on a market intermediary’s role of liquidity provision to support on-demand computing in a dynamic market trading environment. We outline a framework in which a number of distributed agents sell and buy assets based on their changing utilities over time and a service provider acts as a market maker performing market intervention. We present benchmark models based on socially optimal liquidity provision and a brokerage framework. We then examine the benefits and the dealer’s incentives to provide market liquidity.

Factors Influencing Purchase Preferences Of Store Brands: Examples From Hypermarkets In Malaysia, Norbani Che Ha, Sharifah Latifah Syed Abdul Kadir

The South East Asian Journal of Management

This study is to investigate factors that describe consumers' perceptions towards store brands, and important factors that influence consumers towards purchasing store brands. The factor, such as, price, product quality, product risk, familiarity, involvement, intrinsic and extrinsic cues, and familiarity are used to gauge the purchase preferences. The study is carried out in Klang Valley involving two most popular hypermarkets in Malaysia that are Tesco and Giant. Out of 444 consumers that were intercepted and asked to participate only 300 accepted to participate and completed the questionnaire, resulting to 68% response rate. Results of the study indicate that factors such …

Perceived Boundarylessness In Relation To Success Factors: A Descriptive Study Of Nine Bangalore Organizations In The It Sector, Mary Mathew, Randhir Reghunath Pushpa

The South East Asian Journal of Management

The importance of organization boundaries and their nature of permeability is of special concern in a globalized world. The role of systems theorists and that of boudary management intervention theorists show the need to study the people sub system more. Managerial perceptions are critical in this context. Sensing and perceiving boundarylessness will lead to a better consciousness of boundary management. This paper describes the way nine HR managers perceive their boundaries in the IT sector of Bangalore. The managers are asked about various types of boundaries namely, vertical, horizontal, external, geographic, and psychological boundaries. The boundaries are also understood in …

Control And Organizational Learning In Mncs: An Analysis Through The Subsdiaries Sector, Olivier De La Villarmois, Christophe Benavent, Firmanzah Firmanzah

The South East Asian Journal of Management

For any large complex organization the problem of ensuring its constituent activity in accordance with overall policy and, at the same time adopt to its environment, is a central and continuing concern. Thus, the fundamental question which must be answered is 'what control mechanism can facilitate the adaptation process in the local market?' In multinational corporations (MNCs), the control mechanism, imposed by headquarters, has an objective to integrate the subsidiaries' activities to the global strategy. however, the presents on the local market necessitates the adaptation to the local environment characteristics. The objective of this paper is to contribute solving the …

Negative Attitudes Toward U.S. Products: Malaysian Muslim Consumers' Perspective, Khairul Anuar Bin Mohammad Shah, Md Nor Othman Prof. Dr.

The South East Asian Journal of Management

Consumer attitudes toward foreign products from various countries can vary significantly from one country to another. Consumer attitudes and behavioural intentions in a country can also vary overtime due to a change in the country's level of industrialization, marketing development, and lifestyle. Therefore, it is beneficial for this study to identify the attitudes of the consumers towards foreign products in a particular market. The sources of negative attitudes such as country of origin effects (Han, 1988), consumer ethnocentrism (Shimp and Sharma, 1987), and consumer animosity (Klein, Etteson, and Morries, 1998), are the factors that can influence the willingness of the …

Tqm In Small And Medium Scale Manufacturers: Development Of Measurement Instruments, Deepak Subedi, Uday S. Tate, Suneel K. Maheshwari

Management Faculty Research

The objective of our paper is to identify factors and develop constructs that could be used to develop a conceptual Total Quality Management (TQM) model that is applicable to small and medium scale manufacturers in the United States. The data for this study was collected from a mail survey targeted to managers in the manufacturing plants. Responses were analyzed and factor analysis was used to develop measurement instruments.

Raj Soin College Of Business Offers Enterprise Systems Consultation For Smes In The Dayton Region, Anand Jeyaraj

Management Information Systems Faculty Publications

Small- and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Dayton region can benefit from a program at Wright State University that offers consultation and evaluation services for those who are considering or planning to implement enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Understanding Evolution In Technology Ecosystems, Gediminas Adomavicius, Jesse Bockstedt, Alok Gupta, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The current environment of information technology can be a complex place for analysts and firms to navigate, especially when making decisions about new product development, technology investment, and technology planning. Many industry analysts recognize that it is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately predict future technological advances. However, successful firms need to understand the nature of technological change and evolution in order to accurately forecast and take advantage of investment and market opportunities. For example, although RFID has been in the news for the past decade as the potential distribution and retail "killer technology", uncertainties about its future technical capabilities, …

An Integrated Knowledge Discovery And Data Mining Process Model, Sumana Sharma

Theses and Dissertations

Enterprise decision making is continuously transforming in the wake of ever increasing amounts of data. Organizations are collecting massive amounts of data in their quest for knowledge nuggets in form of novel, interesting, understandable patterns that underlie these data. The search for knowledge is a multi-step process comprising of various phases including development of domain (business) understanding, data understanding, data preparation, modeling, evaluation and ultimately, the deployment of the discovered knowledge. These phases are represented in form of Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDDM) Process Models that are meant to provide explicit support towards execution of the complex and iterative …

Acceptance Of Systems Development Methodologies: Testing A Theoretically Integrated Model, Nancy A. Bonner

Information Systems & Operations Management Dissertations - Archive

Industry reports continue to portray a dismal picture of software development project success. Software projects continue to be over budget, overdue and lacking in quality and desired functionality. A variety of innovative methodologies and tools have been introduced to aid in improving the software development process. However, there has been reluctance to commit to their usage. The goal of this research is to examine the reasons a software developer makes a commitment to use a given development methodology. We used a theoretically integrated approach to study this phenomenon, drawing on theories from the fields of marketing as well as psychology. …

The Influence Of Instant Messaging Usage Behavior On Organizational Communication Satisfaction, Shih Ming Pi, Yi Chih Liu, Tsang Yao Chen, Shih Hua Li

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

In recent years, instant messaging (IM) has become a popular medium of online communication. While IM is expanding into the enterprise beyond personal use, it brings the convenience and also doubts. IM possesses the instant feature which is even faster than email so to potentially reduce the cost of communication and increase the effectiveness of communication, while the doubts being surrounding the employees' use of IM for personal chatting purpose which might reduce productivity. In the past, however, research on IM has been mostly on users such students or general Internet users with few addressing enterprise employees. This study focuses …

Relative Importance, Specific Investment And Ownership In Interorganizational Systems., Kunsoo Han, Robert J. Kauffman, Barrie R. Nault

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Implementation and maintenance of interorganizational systems (IOS) require investments by all the participating firms. Compared with intraorganizational systems, however, there are additional uncertainties and risks. This is because the benefits of IOS investment depend not only on a firm's own decisions, but also on those of its business partners. Without appropriate levels of investment by all the firms participating in an IOS, they cannot reap the full benefits. Drawing upon the literature in institutional economics, we examine IOS ownership as a means to induce value-maximizing noncontractible investments. We model the impact of two factors derived from the theory of incomplete …