Search

Enterprise ontologies (EOs), introduced in the mid 1990s, were expected to have a significant impact on enterprise computing, especially integration. However, despite a great deal of academic research on EOs, the actual use of EOs in real-life integration and planning projects is almost nonexisting. This paper describes an approach to build and use EOs for information system (IS) planning and integration projects with particular focus on real-life eBusiness applications. The approach is based on firsthand practical insights gained through construction and use of an IS planning and integration environment that needs to capture business processes, enterprise applications, integration technologies, and computer-communication platforms. The planning model with the aforementioned information is based on an EO and is populated by a set of intelligent advisors while they guide the users through various stages of the planning process. This ontology has been used to support over 40 real-life business scenarios in the telecom, manufacturing, financial services, retail, healthcare, and insurance industries. The practical contribution of this paper is that it connects ontologies to the practice of IS planning and integration, links ontologies to decisions such as enterprise application selection, and provides tools for automatically creating and maintaining ontology repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the upper echelon theory, this paper studies the relationship between the individual characteristics of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and organizational innovative usage of information technology (IT) by examining both the CIO's demographic characteristics and personality traits. Survey results from 89 CIOs strongly support our proposition. A CIO's personality traits of openness and extraversion and CIO's demographic characteristics of educational level have strong impact on the organizational innovative usage of IT even after controlling for organizational variables such as the organization's business strategy, outsourcing of IT operations, IT department age, and IT budget relative to revenue. This paper contributes to the age-old debate on whether managers matter in deciding an organization's strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-business successes in traditional organizations have prompted much interest among researchers in many disciplines such as strategic management, information systems, and economics. However, the complexity of e-business implementation process has been overlooked, and it remains unclear. This paper investigates causal relationships among strategic initiative, information technology (IT)-related resources, and e-business capabilities; and their roles in the implementation process. From the resource-based view (RBV) of a firm and e-business strategic stand-point, we propose a model of e-business implementation process. We divide the process into four stages, and 11 hypotheses are developed in seeking relationships among six proposed constructs. Drawing from a sample of 56 enterprises within Hubei Province in China, we provide theoretical support for a critical causal link from e-business strategic initiatives to utilization of IT-related resources, and consequently, creating distinctive e-business capabilities. We find that information sharing capabilities are intermediate and transferable forces that help translating IT-related organizational resources into the collaborative process capabilities. The causal relationships expand our understanding of the dynamics of organizational transformation enabled by the Internet. The practical implications offer managers guidelines to the roles played by strategy, resource, and capabilities for e-business success. It helps in recognizing the value of their potential contributions to the organization as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of knowledge management (KM) efforts is well recognized in the popular and academic press. However, KM efforts do not always lead to improved firm performance. This paper argues that different kinds of KM efforts may be appropriate for firms pursuing different business strategies, and the impact of a KM effort on firm performance would depend on whether the effort is aligned with the firm's business strategy. Prior literature on organizational learning, KM, and business strategy is used to develop these arguments, and also to identify the nature of KM efforts that would be most appropriate for firms pursuing Defender, Analyzer, and Prospector business strategies. An event study is used to evaluate the stock market reaction to a firm's public announcement of the KM effort. The empirical results, based on 103 KM announcements from 1995 to 2002, are consistent with the theory-based expectations, showing alignment between the KM effort and business strategy to be positively associated with impact on firm value. Some of the implications of these results for practice and future research are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information system (IS) leadership is a critical area for many organizations because of their increasing dependence on ISs both for operational stability and for enablement of process innovation and business strategy. IS Leadership is distinctive from leadership in general because the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is expected to combine IS technical skills with an in-depth understanding of the organization across all functions from operational to strategic. Thus, unique leadership challenges arise due to the technology/business interface. The breadth of the IS Leadership role implies that IS Leadership research needs to cover a wide range of topics concerning the role and characteristics of the CIO, the CIO's interface with the top management team, and the CIO's organizational impact. This essay discusses the distinctive aspects of IS Leadership, identifies the dominant themes in prior IS Leadership research, and introduces five papers on IS Leadership in this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key issue in enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation is how to find a match between the ERP system and an organization's business processes by appropriately customizing both the system and the organization. In this paper, we advance a framework for supporting management decision-making about customization choices and the capabilities required to accomplish them. In this framework, we identify various customization possibilities for business processes as well as ERP systems. We also identify technical and process change capabilities required for system and process customization. Combining customization options with change capabilities, we present a useful way for managers to identify feasible customization options for their particular organization. Such a framework also helps managers to recognize the gap between desired customization options and change capabilities. A case study is used to illustrate the application of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]