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Full-Text Articles in Business

Accuracy In Spreadsheet Modelling Systems, Thomas A. Grossman Jr. Jan 2003

Accuracy In Spreadsheet Modelling Systems, Thomas A. Grossman Jr.

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Accuracy in spreadsheet modelling systems can be reduced due to difficulties with the inputs, the model itself, or the spreadsheet implementation of the model. When the "true" outputs from the system are unknowable, accuracy is evaluated subjectively. Less than perfect accuracy can be acceptable depending on the purpose of the model, problems with inputs, or resource constraints. Users build modelling systems iteratively, and choose to allocate limited resources to the inputs, the model, the spreadsheet implementation, and to employing the system for business analysis. When making these choices, users can suffer from expectation bias and diagnosis bias. Existing research results …


Research Strategy And Scoping Survey On Spreadsheet Practices, Thomas A. Grossman Jr., O Ozluk Jan 2003

Research Strategy And Scoping Survey On Spreadsheet Practices, Thomas A. Grossman Jr., O Ozluk

Business Analytics and Information Systems

We propose a research strategy for creating and deploying prescriptive recommendations for spreadsheet practice. Empirical data on usage can be used to create a taxonomy of spreadsheet classes. Within each class, existing practices and ideal practices can he combined into proposed best practices for deployment. As a first step we propose a scoping survey to gather non-anecdotal data on spreadsheet usage. The scoping survey will interview people who develop spreadsheets. We will investigate the determinants of spreadsheet importance, identify current industry practices, and document existing standards for creation and use of spreadsheets. The survey will provide insight into user attributes, …


The Is Core - Xi: Sorting Out Issues About The Core, Scope, And Identity Of The Is Field, Steven Alter Jan 2003

The Is Core - Xi: Sorting Out Issues About The Core, Scope, And Identity Of The Is Field, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Debates about the core and the scope of the IS field and about whether the core and scope are related to a crisis in the field have smoldered for many years. This article is a response to ten articles submitted by members of the CAIS Editorial Board who accepted an invitation to contribute to a debate about the core and scope of the IS field. Those articles were written as responses to Benbasat and Zmud’s [2003] article “The Identity Crisis Within the IS Discipline: Defining and Communicating the Discipline’s Core Properties” and my rebuttal [Alter 2003b] entitled “Sidestepping the IT …


Sidestepping The It Artifact, Scrapping The Is Silo, And Laying Claim To 'Systems In Organizations, Steven Alter Jan 2003

Sidestepping The It Artifact, Scrapping The Is Silo, And Laying Claim To 'Systems In Organizations, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

The “IT artifact” and debates about the core of the IS field received a lot of attention in the last several years. This paper is a response to Benbasat and Zmud’s June 2003 MISQ paper “The Identity Crisis within the IS Discipline: Defining and Communicating the Discipline’s Core Properties,” which argues that “the IT artifact and its immediate nomological net”1 constitutes “a natural ensemble of entities, structures, and processes” that “serves to bind together the IS subdisciplines and to communicate the distinctive nature of the IS discipline.” This paper starts by examining the meaning of “IT artifact” and concluding that …


Customer Service, Responsibility, And Systems In International E-Commerce: Should A Major Airline Reissue A Stolen Ticket?, Steven Alter Jan 2003

Customer Service, Responsibility, And Systems In International E-Commerce: Should A Major Airline Reissue A Stolen Ticket?, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This case is about customer service and responsibility in international e-commerce. A prominent e-commerce web site sells a ticket on a nonexistent flight, a human reservations agent fails to inform a customer about a well-known problem he is likely to encounter, an international airline’s telephone agents in Spain and the United States provide contradictory information, the airline’s office in Spain seems unaware of policies on the airline’s web site, and later its policies seem unhelpful. The case raises questions related to customer service, trust, responsibility, ethics, and business practices in international ecommerce.