Business Commons^™

India’S It Services Industry: A Comparative Analysis, Pratyush Bharati

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

No abstract provided.

Information System Development Methodologies As Learning Systems, Anand Jeyaraj, Vicki L. Sauter

Management Information Systems Faculty Publications

Although information system development methodologies supposedly improve development processes and end-products, information systems have continued to fail. In practice, methodologies have not been universally accepted, and even when accepted, not consistently used. Often development teams adapt methodologies to respond to perceived problems in past applications and/or specifics of the project under consideration. While it is possible that a combination of these factors contributed to less-than-effective system development processes or final end-products, we believe that there may be a subtler explanation for such failures. Although methodologies recommend best practices for system development, they rarely prescribe mechanisms to capture or evaluate problems …

Being There Versus Being Wired: The Effect Of Colocation On Social Capital In Distributed Teams, Priscilla Arling, Mani Subramani

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Advancement in communication technologies continues to fuel the growth of geographically distributed teams. Managers and team members have expressed concerns about negative impacts when individuals work at a distance from each other since such changes in work structure can affect social interactions among individuals in teams. The social relationships, shared experiences, and ongoing interpersonal interactions that often arise from colocation are recognized as contributing to the social capital of individuals. In this paper, we examine how working in a distributed team, a feature that influences the extent to which team members are colocated, affects the level of individual social capital. …

Using A Web-Based Supply Chain Management Simulation As An Experiential Learning Tool Across The Business Curriculum, Russell Haines, Jill Hough, Douglas Haines, Scott Metlen

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

A web based version of the common "Beer Distribution Game" that facilitates experiential learning was developed and tested for use across the business curriculum. While the fundamental elements of the original paper based game were preserved, the web-based on-line multiplayer version offers refinements to game play, administration and debriefing that allow more focus on the learning experience and open possible applications beyond the traditional one-time demonstration of the bullwhip effect. The web-based supply chain management simulation was tested and refined in Strategic Management courses and Integrated Business Curriculum courses at two widely separated universities. Students responded favorably to the on-line …

A Dialectical Methodology For Decision Support Systems Design, Wafa Elgarah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As organizations continue to grow in size, reaching global proportions, they have ever increasing impacts on their environments. Some believe that a much broader array of concerns should be brought into organizational decision-making processes, including greater consideration of social, political, ethical and aesthetic factors (Mitroff and Linstone, 1993; Courtney, 2001). Decision environments such as these are decidedly "wicked" (Rittel and Webber, 1973). Designing decision support systems in such environments where there is a high level of interconnectedness, issues are overlapping and a multiplicity of stakeholders is involved, is a very complex task. In this dissertation a methodology for the development …

Supply Chain Contracts And Food Safety, S. Andrew Starbird

Information Systems and Analytics

In this article, I examine how supply chain contracts can be designed to improve the safety of purchased inputs. Contracts are frequently used to govern the exchange of goods, services, information, and money between supply chain participants. Even when sellers have more information about the product safety than buyers do, contracts can be used to enhance food safety.

Online Privacy Policies: An Assessment Of The Fortune Global 100, Randy Ryker, M. Khurrum S. Bhutta

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Both industry leaders and government officials around the globe are struggling with how to address online privacy. One solution suggested by both groups within the United States is for companies to voluntarily comply with the fair information practices of Notice, Choice, Access, and Security. A content analysis of the online privacy policies of the firms in the Fortune Global 100 was conducted to determine the extent to which the most successful global companies comply with fair information practices. The results indicate that 1.2% fully complies, 87.2% partially comply and 11.6% fail to comply with one or more fair information practice.

Leveraging Information Technology To Gain Competitive Advantage: A Case Study On General Electric Consumer Products, Bih-Ru Lea

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of merging General Electric Lighting (GEL) and General Electric Appliance (GEA) into General Electric Consumer Products (GECP) and how IT strategies are used to gain competitive advantages in its industry. This study will analyze major IT projects being developed and implemented in relation to their impact on major information flows, organizational structure, IT architecture, control systems, and the labor characteristics of the IT function. Alternatives to achieve integration will then be discussed and recommendations will be proposed.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of U.S. And Chinese Website Customers, Eleanor T. Loiacono, Huiping Lin

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Website quality has been given much attention as of late. In particular the factors that impact a consumer’s perception of website quality is of great interest. This paper takes a currently validated measure of business-to-consumer website quality (WebQualTM) and applies it to Chinese Web users in order to study the cross-cultural differences and similarities of U.S. and Chinese customers. Several cultural differences between U.S. and Chinese customers are revealed.

Statistical Process Control For The Engineering It Support Incident Life Cycle, Binay Anand, Christopher A. Chung

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This paper describes a new Statistical Process Control technique to better manage the engineering Information Technology life cycle process. This includes the identification of the activities in the engineering IT support lifecycle initiation, reproduction, analysis and resolution phases. The performance of these lifecycle activities are analyzed using a highly modified Chart of Individuals, Statistical Process Control approach. This new type of SPC system can help engineering IT management to determine whether or not a support incident is in control. Out of control support incidents can then be investigated for special causes so that corrective action may be taken.

Inference-Guiding For Intelligent Agents, Jinchang Wang

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

In many applications of intelligent agents, initially given facts are not sufficient to reach a decision, and more data are needed. In that case, Inference-guiding is needed to identify the missing information and lead inference to a conclusion. This paper presents a new inference- guiding strategy that selects the key pieces of missing information in such a way that the total cost of acquiring additional information for reaching a conclusion is the lowest. The computational experiments show that the new strategy is more effective and economical than the inference-guiding strategies currently available for the intelligent systems.

Non-Response Error Within Internet Surveys: A Cautionary Note, Carl S. Bozman, Donald E. Stem Jr

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The use of the internet as a method to conduct survey research has expanded rapidly over the past decade. High speeds of response and lower expenses have driven this rapid growth. Relatively low response rates, however, suggest online surveys may be compromised by high levels of non-sampling error. This paper examines a major component of non-sampling error and the consequences that may be associated with internet survey non-response. Known population parameters are compared to point estimates from a census as well as a random sample of non-respondents in order to provide insight on the magnitude and direction of non- response …

Acceptance Of Wireless Internet Via Mobile Technology In China, June Lu, Chang Liu, Chun-Sheng Yu, James E. Yao

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This study explores factors associated with the acceptance of Wireless Internet via Mobile Technology (WIMT) in China. The results indicate that the acceptance of WIMT is related to the factors of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influences, wireless trust environment, and facilitating conditions. It provides diagnostic insight into how different factors influence user intention to accept WIMT in China, and thus help business develop strategy to prompt WIMT communications and mobile commerce there.

Analyzing The Effect Of Top Management Support On Information System (Is) Performance Across Organizations And Industries Using Hierarchical, Thawatchai Jitpaiboon, Sema A. Kalaian

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Top management support has long been conceivable as an important factor for the success of IS projects. Due to the hierarchical nature of an organization, a cross-level interaction can occur among nested levels. Thus, using inappropriate statistical analysis can cause misleading results and lost of information. This study provides two contributions to the IS research. First, Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to explain the cross-level interaction between organizational level and industry level. Second, unlike other studies focusing on an organizational level, this study considers top management support at the industry level and examines the mediating role of top management …

Contextual Analysis Of Enterprise Mobile Services Requirements, Radhika Jain

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This article presents a framework to classify various types of mobile services implemented in organizational settings. Based on the objectives of wireless information systems (WIS), we identify three categories viz. enterprise mobile services, enterprise-advantage mobile services, and consumer mobile services. While the last two categories of mobile services have received broader attention, there has not been much work done in analyzing the role of mobile services in the organizational settings specific to various industries. In this article, we attempt to fill this void by synthesizing the extant literature in this area. Based on the degree of user’s mobility in their …

Information View Of Organization, Bob Travica

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This article proposes an information view of organization that brings the information systems field closer to organization theory. Although voluminous bodies of literature have been developed within each of these disciplines and links between them do exist, their mutual informing is still insufficient. The proposed view of organization is intended to help convey results of information systems research to organizational scholars, while broadening theoretical horizons of the former. This article discusses the premises, conceptual framework, examples, and preliminary evidence of the information view of organization.

Time Dimension For Business News In The Knowledge Warehouse, Pawel J. Kalczynski

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This paper proposes a data structure to support the integration of business news and data in the knowledge warehouse using the Temporal Document Retrieval Model (TDRM). Temporal document retrieval takes into account the time context expressed as temporal phrases in the document content. The maintenance and scalability of the proposed data cluster is discussed. The results of temporal document retrieval experiments based on typical and ad-hoc time constraints, performed on a large corpus of business news are reported. The experiments showed that the instantaneous TDRM-based retrieval using the proposed cluster is possible with the currently available database technology and confirmed …

A Framework For Describing And Classifying Multicriteria Portfolio Selection Problems: An Object-Oriented Approach, Heinz Roland Weistroffer, Charles H. Smith

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Many decisions require not a single solution alternative, but a set or portfolio of alternatives. For example, a business generally produces not a single product, but a portfolio of products, and a project is tackled not by a single individual, but by a team of individuals. Unfortunately, the portfolio selection problem has been largely neglected in the literature. Though many specific problem environments have been discussed using heuristic, ad hoc methods, no general methodology or theory has been developed. This paper proposes an object-oriented framework to provide a theoretical foundation for future research on the portfolio selection problem.

Uml Activity Diagram Semantics And Automated Gui Prototyping, Nancy Winniford Ashley, Timothy E. Meehan, Norman Carr

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Extended Activity Semantics (XAS) is a notation which can be used with Unified Modeling Language (UML) activity diagrams to specify user interactions with a system and to automatically generate a prototype of the graphical user interface (GUI) that would be used in these interactions. XAS has been incorporated in a CASE tool, Guibot, which has been developed as a plug-in for Rational Rose, a leading UML tool. The notation and tool address a specific gap in UML – the inability to model user interaction.

Internet Technology In 2010: The Issue Of Ipv6 Adoption In The U.S.A., Garry L. White, Jaymeen R. Shah, James R. Cook

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Computer industry literature suggests that IPv4 Internet addresses are likely to have been depleted by the year 2010, and at least Asia and Europe will be using the new IPv6 Internet addresses. Literature also suggests that the U.S.A. is lagging behind Asia and Europe with the implementation of IPv6. Empirical data supporting the fact that the U.S.A. is lagging behind is not available in the literature. This paper presents the issues regarding IPv6, reasons why Asia and Europe are implementing IPv6, and why the U.S.A. is lagging behind. Empirical data is presented to support the literature’s suggestion that the U.S.A. …

A Critical Time For Ultra-Wide Band, Gary F. Templeton, Mark B. Schmidt

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a promising class of high-speed wireless communications applications that is projected to significantly change local and wide area network architectures. This article describes the technology, its probable application areas, the environmental forces that are constraining and enabling commercialization, and the prospects for short-term growth for UWB services. Commercial sale and distribution of UWB products has been approved, and widespread sale is expected by 2007.

The Road To Erp Success: Understanding End-User Perceptions, Asli Yagmur Akbulut, Jaideep Motwani

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Even though there is a growing body of literature that focuses on improving the success rate of enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects, there is a lack of research aimed at understanding end- users perceptions of ERP systems. Given that employee expectations and attitudes play an important role in the success of ERP projects, the purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of end-user perceptions of ERP systems. In order to achieve this objective, we provide empirical evidence from two companies that have recently implemented ERP systems. We also offer strategies that could be utilized by managers, project …

A Methodology For Evaluating Data And Output Misfits In Commercial Off-The-Shelf Erp Systems, Jen-Her Wu, Chang-Tseh Hsieh, Shin-Shing Shin, Chi-Cheng Wu

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This paper presents a methodology based on the task-technology fit theory to identify data and output misfits in the ex-ante evaluation of an off-the shelf enterprise resources planning (ERP) package. The proposed methodology consists of two stages: output misfit analysis and data misfit analysis. The purpose of the first stage is to identify corresponding field (output misfits) and data glossary for data misfit analysis. The latter stage identifies data misfits for every corresponding activity in the business process sequence. The proposed methodology provides a systematic approach to alleviate the difficulty and complexity in identifying data and output misfits. The identification …

Applying Theoretical Frameworks To Explicate Physician Acceptance Of Computerized Physician Order Entry (Cpoe), David Rosenthal, Elaine Seeman, Shanan Gibson

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This paper reports the findings of a pilot study undertaken to ascertain the feasibility of incorporating the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Taxonomy of Work Values into the explanation of physician technology acceptance of a new organizational technology – Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE). While Davis’s Technology Acceptance Model has received much empirical support, we posit that certain complexities associated with the physician population and the hospital environment warrant the inclusion of other theoretical models as a means of furthering our understanding of technology acceptance. Although preliminary in nature, this study finds support for the inclusion of both the …

Dependability Auditing With Model Checking, Bonnie Anderson, James Hansen, Paul Benjamin Lowry

Faculty Publications

Model checking offers a methodology for determining whether a model satisfies a list of correctness requirements. We propose a theory of dependability auditing with model checking based on four principles: (1) The modeling process should be partitioned into computational components and behavioral components as an aid to system understanding; (2) The complex system will be abstracted to create a model; (3) A language must be available that can represent and evaluate states and processes that evolve over time; (4) Given an adequate model and temporal specifications, a model checker can verify whether or not the input model is a model …

Erp Implementation Planning : A Critical Success Factors (Csfs) Approach, Jia Hui Kong

Lingnan Theses

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an integrated set of software modules which are linked to a common database to handle basic corporate functions such as planning, manufacturing, sales, marketing, accounting, distribution, human resource and inventory. When ERP is implemented successfully, it can reduce operating costs, increase productivity, and improve customer services. However, ERP fails to deliver the promised benefits in many companies due to the poor implementation planning. A successful ERP implementation requires a careful thinking, good planning from a strategic perspective.

It is difficult to measure the success of an extremely complex information system such as ERP as it …

What Do Physicians Want? Information Technology Acceptance And Usage By Healthcare Professionals, Virginia Ilie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study builds on the theory of planned behavior, institutional and innovation diffusion theories to investigate physicians' responses to introduction of electronic medical records (EMR) in large healthcare organizations. Using a case study methodology, we show that physicians' attitudes towards using EMR are influenced by their perceptions of EMR complexity, relative advantage, compatibility with professional beliefs and individual predisposition to change. Specifically, we found that EMR usability characteristics such as system interface, "navigation," "search" and "speed" are major dimensions underlying physicians' perceptions of EMR complexity. To the extent that navigating and searching for clinical results are seen as difficult, physicians' …

An Inclusive Guide To Assessing Web Site Effectiveness, Janna Arney, Paul J. Lazarony

Management Faculty Publications

This study presents the results of a literature review of the well-established literatures on readability, usability, and Web design. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on readability, usability, and Web design and to propose a three-step evaluation process to assess Web sites in each of these three areas. We recommend that this process be used to evaluate existing Web documents and those still in the design phase. This evaluation process can be utilized as an educational tool in a classroom setting. Using this process in a classroom provides students with much needed …

Technology Competition And Optimal Investment Timing: A Real Options Perspective, Robert J. Kauffman, X. Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Companies often choose to defer irreversible investments to maintain valuable managerial flexibility in an uncertain world. For some technology-intensive projects, technology uncertainty plays a dominant role in affecting investment timing. This article analyzes the investment timing strategy for a firm that is deciding about whether to adopt one or the other of two incompatible and competing technologies.We develop a continuous-time stochastic model that aids in the determination of optimal timing for managerial adoption within the framework of real options theory. The model captures the elements of the decision-making process in such a way so as to provide managerial guidance in …

A Semantic Web Data Retrieval Implementation With An Adaptive Model For Supporting Agent Decision Structures, James V. Hansen, James B. Mcdonald, Conan C. Albrecht, Douglas L. Dean, Bonnie B. Anderson

Faculty Publications

This paper proposes an adaptive learning approach that yields decision models that can be applied by a transactions agent. This model can learn effectively with a variety of data distributions. This research used the Semantic Web as a data access approach. The Semantic Web is a method that sellers can use to publish semantically meaningful information on Websites so that automated applications can reliably access that information. We implemented a Semantic Web composed of 30 vendors’ Web pages and a spider to search those pages to obtain product and vendor information. This information was used to train a learning agent, …