E.T.G. Wang, Information and incentives in computing services supply: The effect of limited system choices, European Journal of Operational Research, 125, 2000, pp 503-518
Abstract
Every organization has only limited computing resources that need to be shared by members of the organization. Rationing mechanisms, such as pricing, usually are used to regulate the demands for such resources. However, to derive an e"ective mechanism for determining the usage or the scale of an organization's computing service is di cult, since there are many informational and incentive problems that need to be overcome. By incorporating these problems into a game-theoretic model, this study analyzes the e"ects of limited system choices on an organization's net value generated from computing service. Based on the mechanism design approach, the optimal incentive compatible mechanism is derived and contrasted with the case where the IS department is evaluated as a proŽt center. The results show that limited system choices can have significant e"ects on the value generated by an organization's computing service. Also, depending on whether the IS department is governed by the optimal mechanism or is evaluated as a profit center, the effects of limited system choices can be different. Managerial implications derived from the study are provided.
Pamela Hinds, Sara Kiesler, Communication across Bounaries: Work, Structure, and Use of Communication TEchnologies in a large organisation, Organization Science, 6(4), Jul-Aug, 1995, pp 373-393
Peter Keen, Information Systems and Organizational Change, Communications of the ACM, 24(1), 1981
Abstract
This paper discusses long-term change in organizations in relation to information systems. It reviews causes of social inertia, resistance and counterimplementations. It stresses the pluralistic nature of organizations. Tactics for managing change rely on incremental, facilitative approaches. These limit strategic change which requires coalition-building and careful attential to political mechanisms.
Mark Turnquist, Linda Nozick, Allocating Time and Resources in Project Management Under Uncertaintity, Proceedings of the 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
We define and develop a solution approach for planning, scheduling and managing project efforts where there is significant uncertainty in the duration, resource requirements and outcomes of individual tasks. Our approach yields a nonlinear optimization model for allocation of resources and available time to tasks. This formulation represents a significantly different view of project planning from the one implied by traditional project scheduling, and focuses attention on important resource allocation decisions faced by project managers. The model can be used to maximize any of several possible performance measures for the project as a whole. We include a small computational example that focuses on maximizing the probability of successful completion of a project whose tasks have uncertain outcomes. The resource allocation problem formulated here has importance and direct application to the management of a wide variety of project-structured efforts where there is significant uncertainty.
Magnus Holmqvist, Hakan Enquist, Enterprise Wide Development: A survey of critical factors for co-ordinated development in complex organisations: What development managers consider, Proceedings of the 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
This paper describes critical factors for co-ordinated enterprise and IS/IT development and change in complex organizations in Sweden. These factors represent an answer on the crucial question: Why is co-ordinated development of enterprise and IS/IT difficult today? The survey is based upon in-depth interviews and concentrated workshops which present a current and qualitative view upon this area. 20 persons representing different development management roles from 6 large organizations with complex operations have participated. Responses relate to two main questions, which concern the problem generating factors and to what degree these are critical. The factors have been categorised into nine subject areas and certain factor groups within each area. A vast number of statements are included in the material.
In workshops, with invited experienced development managers, the responses were prioritised individually with regard to critical factors for co-ordinated enterprise and IS/IT development.
The result is a set of critical factors reflecting priorities of development managers in Sweden today, which can guide us in further research in management of co-ordinated enterprise and IS/IT development.
Yoris Au, Robert Kauffman, IT Investment and Adoption: A Rational Expectations Perspective, Proceedings of 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
This study examines the potential applications of the Rational Expectations Hypothesis (REH) in information technology (IT) investment and adoption decision-making. Although REH has been widely used in other areas of microeconomics and macroeconomics, we have not yet seen common use of the related theory in the Information Systems (IS) field. In this paper, we introduce REH theory together with some of its applications in non-IS/IT areas. Despite the fact that rationality is commonly assumed in economic analyses, the REH s rather strong assumptions make it a unique theory and allow us to offer new perspectives on IS/IT adoption and investment decisionmaking. We discuss how the theory can potentially be applied in IS/IT cases by presenting several illustrative examples. We then examine issues in the evaluation of adoption and investments of new and emerging ITs. Based on the theory, we argue that managers that are risk-averse are most likely to wait and adopt or invest in new and emerging technologies later than managers that are risk-takers. We suggest that for the earlier adoption or investments, the conventional method for estimating investment value may not be appropriate. We also suggest research directions with regard to the application of REH in the IS field.
Somasundaram Ramanathan, Jeremy Rose, Rationalizing, Probing, Understanding: the Evolution of the Inter-Organisation Systems Adoption Field, Proceedings of 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
Previous surveys of the Inter-Organizational Systems (IOS) adoption field have developed taxonomic schemes to improve general understanding of the field. This paper instead studies the historical development of the field and describes its evolution in a stage model. In the rationalizing stage researchers tried to discover and communicate reasons for some apparently successful adoptions of IOS. However it soon became clear that IOS adoption was relatively limited and in the probing stage the focus changed to investigating the failure of the promised seamless integration. No unified coherent theoretical account emerged from these studies, so in the understanding stage researchers widened the focus of study to try to develop a richer account of the many complex influences on IOS adoption. The three stages are associated with different objectives, assumptions, theoretical backgrounds and research approaches.
Russell Purvis, Gordon McCray, Tom Roberts, The Impact of Project Management Heuristics to IS Projects, Proceedings of HICSS'36, 2003.
Abstract
Formal Project management is vital to the effective application of organizational resources to competing demands within and across projects. The use of project management, however, is predicated upon valid and accurate project specifications. The introduction of biases into the formulation of these specifications can lead to compromised or even failed projects. In many cases, biases arise from the application of heuristics by project personnel. Project personnel can in many cases offset the impact of biases by recognizing and understanding these heuristics and their potential effects. This study surveys project personnel to attempt to identify heuristics and their use in actual IS projects.
Joseph Weiss, Don Anderson, CIOs and IT Professionals as Change Agents, Risk and Stakeholder Managemers: A Field Study, Proceedings of the 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
This paper summarizes findings on project and organizational roles and responsibilities of eight CIOs, eleven VPs, and seventy-five IT staff members in seven Fortune 500 companies from the manufacturing, defense, financial services, biotechnology and utilities industries. Results confirm studies that show CIOs and IT leaders are increasingly assuming change management, information, and strategic roles in organizations. Our findings also indicate that IT leaders are required to manage and share business risks while orchestrating cultural and political interests of multiple stakeholders to effectively accomplish project and organizational work. Other observed roles and skills of IT professionals are also presented. We conclude by identifying implications from research and our findings for effective IT project leadership.
Roberto Zanoni, Jorge Luis Nicolas Audy, Project Management Model for a physically distributed software development environment, Proceedings of the 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
The objective of this study is to propose a project management model which includes the unified process (UP) and UML language, for e-business software development in a physically distributed environment. The research is a qualitative study, aiming to develop new methods and models. The main research method is the case study, according to Yin (1992). Initial results point towards a model, which includes the spiral life cycle type, the development process of object-oriented systems (using UML specification language and the unified process as proposed by RUP), and the incorporation of the procedural approach proposed by PMBOK. The proposed model is divided into 6 phases, where each one of these phases contains a set of associated activities. In the future, the intention is to develop a support software for the model and apply this software into the environment in study. This extremely important study line demonstrates that the business world and business practices in the software development area are moving ahead of existent theories and conceptual models in this area. This study, yet in its initial phases, starts to bring significant results that contribute to meet market expectations nowadays.
Fred Lohman, Henk Sol, Gert-Jan de Vreede, The Illusion of Effective Management Information: A Critical Perspective, Proceedings of the 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
The availability of effective management information is essential when coping with today s complexity and dynamism, both within and around organizations. Information technology can be used to derive such information. The enormous amount of electronic data currently available, and the development of new technologies like data warehousing and data mining, have intensified efforts to support organizational control. However, the contribution of the management information generated is disappointing. Many projects do not produce the results that organizations expect and the added value of the implemented technology seems to be limited. This paper examines the effectiveness of management information for organizational control. Through literature research and field experiences, we identify important shortcomings of current methods, techniques, and supporting technologies. On this basis, four design guidelines for the specification of effective management information are presented. Their application is illustrated in a case study at the Dutch Internal Revenue Service.
Jintae Lee, Emilio Collar, Information Technology Fashions: Lifecycle Phase Analysis, Proceedings of the 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
Over the last decade, studies of management fashions have shown that the rise and fall of the fashions can be seen as a reflection of a knowledge enterprise, where knowledge of new management techniques is selectively proposed, promoted, and propagated by different stakeholders. This research on management fashions has yielded a number of insightful research questions and a set of methods for investigating them. Like management fashions, there are many IT fashions. Testing the extent to which the theory of management fashions apply to IT fashions help us better understand not only IT fashions but also what is generic to the fashion phenomenon and what is unique to particular fashions. This study contributes to this goal by building on an earlier work that tested three hypotheses that illuminate the similarities and differences between IT fashions and management fashions: the duration of its ascent period is (1) shortening over time, (2) shortening at a rate faster than that for management fashions, (3) but yet longer in absolute magnitude than that for management fashions. The earlier work provided confirmation of these hypotheses. In this paper, we go further by first providing operational definitions of the latency and growth phases that make up the ascent phase in the fashion lifecycle and using a bibliometric study to test whether the hypotheses still hold for each of the individual phases. The result does show phase-specific differences: in particular, the hypotheses hold for the growth phase but not the latency phase. We explore explanations and implications for this finding. We also underscore the usefulness of the theoretical framework by identifying areas for future research.
James Senn, Do managers and IT professionals view the business value of IT differently?, Proceedings of the 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
Even as firms continue to invest substantially to develop and maintain their information technology assets, the means of judging the impact of those investments remain highly fragmented. The focus of scholars and their assessment methods varies substantially. To gain better insight into the business value returned from the spending of companies for information technology, an investigation involving 146 executives and managers and 61 IT professionals was conducted. The investigation explored factors associated with eleven business-value related themes and thirty-five individual factors identified in advance by independent group of senior IT directors. The findings clearly show a large number of areas where both managers and IT professionals agree on contributors and detractors from business value. Where differences were identified, it was clear that expectations related to the development and use of IT assets varied
H. James Nelson, Kay Nelson, IT: What's It Good For?, Proceedings of the 36th of HICSS, 2003
Abstract
Demonstrating the business value of information technology (IT) strategies is a major concern for most organizations. Previous research in this area has yielded mixed results, further confounding the issue. Much of the previous literature has focused on the return on investment in hardware and software as the definition of business value. We take a different approach to the IT business value problem by examining whether organizations that deploy IT with differing strategies enjoy better business value efficiencies. This paper describes an eight-year longitudinal study of a homogeneous set of credit unions to determine if different IT deployment strategies (interactive web site, informational web site, or no web site) result in greater credit union efficiency. Data Envelopment Analysis [1, 2] was used to calculate efficiency scores. Our results indicate that credit unions who use the strategy of interactive web sites have greater overall and asset efficiency than credit unions with informational or no web sites. Credit unions with informational web sites have greater asset efficiency than those without web sites, but do not show a difference in overall efficiency. Our analysis shows no statistical difference in personnel and operational cost efficiencies between the three different groups of credit unions. This result contradicts conventional wisdom that a business benefit of IT is cost reduction.
Effy Oz, The 'Vanishing' IT Productivity: A Simple Theory, Proceedings of the 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
The perceived phenomenon that huge investments in information technology (IT) over the past four decades have yielded a very small gain in productivity has been dubbed the IT paradox. Researchers have tried various methods to prove or disprove the paradox. This article highlights the challenges researchers have faced and proposes a simple theory to explain what seems to be a vanishing contribution of IT to productivity growth.
Rick Hefner, Aligning Strategies: Organizational, Project, Individual, Proceedings of the 36th HICSS, 2003
Abstract
Current IT literature emphasizes the importance of adopting a governance strategy based on an organization s customer market, and inherent technology and personnel capabilities. However, practical experience has shown that many organizations with sound strategies fail, often because the strategies are not aligned with IT project tactics or individual priorities. This paper explores the idea of aligning organizational, project, and individual strategies, using the Capability Maturity Model, an industry best-practices model, as a reference. Key points are illustrated with an industrial example.
Anitesh Barua, C-H, Sopher Lee, Andrew Whinston, Incentives and Computing Systems for Team-Based Organisations, Organisation Science, 6(4), 1995, pp 487-504
Rafael Andreu, Claudio Ciborra, Organisational learning and core capabilities development: the role of IT, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 5, 1996, pp 111-127
Abstract
The resource-based view of the firm (RBVF) focuses on the firm s resources and capabilities to understand business strategy and to provide direction to strategy formulation. This paper emphasizes the learning aspects of capability development and explores how information tech- nology (IT) can contribute to it. As a standardized resource widely available, IT can participate in the fundamental process that transforms resources into capabilities and eventually into core capabilities. In this way, IT can become - embedded in core capabilities - an active component of the firm s competitive advantages. The process by which resources end up being components of core capabilities in firms is a learning process that can be described and understood using RBVF concepts. Furthermore, the development of IT strategic applications (also called strategic information systems , or SIS) follows patterns that closely parallel the structure of that learning process. For this reason we propose an organizational learning model based on the RBVF, and use it to derive guidelines for management action aimed at improving IT effectiveness in organizations. The paper is organized as follows: the RBVF framework is summarized, including the con- cepts of capabilities and core capabilities and the organizational processes that lead to them. Next, an organizational learning model is presented: an interpretation of capability develop- ment that emphasizes situated learning and knowledge accumulation. The model is then used to show how IT can contribute to core capability formation in a firm: management action can mold the process to some extent, although it often unfolds naturally embedded in an organi- zational context that is both determined by and determinant of learning. Finally, guidelines are discussed to come up and build strategic IT applications, based on the previous analysis. Short conclusions follow.