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An editorial is presented on a thorough examination of how the publication “MIS Quarterly” (MISQ) can evaluate and improve its impact. Topics include the downside to Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and metrics on citations, and ways to instead measure research impact. Also presented are comments from stakeholders including Professor Mark Fuller, Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; Professor Christina Soh, Dean of Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University and Professor Ramayya Krishnan, Dean of H. John Heinz III College at Carnegie Mellon University.

Problem: A Ph.D. is an extended study that requires an initial plan to conceptualize a research project, which is then refined, with results presented in a written dissertation. Diverse entry pathways to research mean that many Ph.D. candidates may experience difficulties in conceptualizing, aligning, and writing up their projects. Thus, there is a need for an effective framework to help students conceptualize their research, as well as a mechanism to transfer it to writing in the required genres. Key concepts: The key concepts for this tutorial center on two fundamental groupings: sociocognitive and sociocultural planning processes, along with genre dissertation writing. Key lessons: We present the Plan, Organize, Write, Research (POWR) framework. POWR proposes a way to link a sociocognitive and sociocultural planning process and the structuring of research communication. The framework has two stages: POWRa and POWRb. POWRa provides a way to conceptualize the iterative planning process underpinning a long-term project, and provides a bridge to POWRb, the more formal genre communication of the project, through the dissertation document. Implications for practice: The tutorial provides a framework to articulate a research project in a supervisory and team environment. It uses terminology and structure relevant to engineering and information technology theses to illustrate the framework. The framework provides an iterative decision-making structure that is systematic, explicit, and equitable for research project planning and transfer into the writing genre of doctoral dissertations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we confront a paradox in the IS literature that even though our field focuses on the rapid pace of technological change and the dramatic scale of technology-enabled organizational and societal changes, we sometimes find ourselves studying these changes using--largely without question--constructs that were developed in a vastly different IT, user, and organizational environment. We provide guidelines to help assess whether an existing construct warrants updating and to structure the updating task if it is undertaken. Our three-step process provides for a theoretically grounded and comprehensive method that ensures we balance the need for construct updating against the need to sustain our cumulative tradition. We illustrate our guidelines using computer self-efficacy (CSE) as a case study. We document each of the steps involved in analyzing, reconceptualizing, and testing the revised construct information technology self-efficacy (ITSE). Our analyses show that the new construct better explains both traditional and contemporary constructs with a traditional (postal survey) and contemporary (online panel) sample. We discuss the implications of our work both for research on self-efficacy and more broadly for future updating of other important constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate the performance of US manufacturing and service operations in the presence of information technology (IT) as measured by technical efficiency, using firm-level data from 133 companies over the period from 1999 to 2009. To gain insight into the phenomenon of the 'IT productivity paradox', or the history of inconsistent findings in the existing literature, we employ a Bayesian stochastic production frontier approach to model the relationship between performance and technical efficiency at the firm, industry and sector levels. Some results are indicative of a slight advantage of the manufacturing sector over the service sector in terms of technical efficiency and a significant positive contribution of IT-investment to firm output. However, other results do suggest the productivity paradox, because of a lack of any definitive association of high IT investment levels with either high- or low-technical efficiency. Indeed, the findings of this study suggest that the origin of some portion of the IT productivity paradox may exist at the industry level, in that the relationship between extreme levels of IT-investment and extreme levels of technical efficiency appear to work differently in sufficiently different industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information technology (IT) is central to the process execution and management of an ongoing relationship in outsourcing, both of which are fraught with challenges, and often lead to poor business outcomes. Thus, it is important for IT groups in organizations to understand how to deal with such difficulties for improved outsourcing performance. We study whether firms learn over time to deal with these two related but distinct issues in IT and business process outsourcing. Does such learning affect financial value appropriation through outsourcing? We build on the literature in information systems and strategy to investigate whether value creation in outsourcing depends on relational learning that results from prior association with the vendor, and procedural learning that results from prior experience in managing interfirm relationships. We estimate value in terms of long-term abnormal stock returns to the client relative to an industry, size, and book-to-market matched sample of control firms following the implementation of the outsourcing contract. We also analyze announcement period returns and allied wealth effects. Using data from the hundred largest outsourcing deals between 1996 and 2005, we find that whereas relational learning influences value creation in both simple and complex outsourcing engagements, procedural learning impacts value only in complex initiatives. Financial markets are slow to price the value of learning. The results suggest that caution should be exercised when firms without the experience of managing interfirm relationships externalize complex tasks to vendors they have not worked with in the past. Furthermore, IT groups can help improve learning-based outcomes by developing processes and systems that enable a firm to improve outsourcing procedures in a cumulative manner and also to coordinate and collaborate with the vendor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research examined the impacts of organisational decisions’ locus, tasks structure, rules and procedures, organisational actors’ information technology (IT) skills/knowledge and IT department’s or function’s value perceptions on enterprise resource planning (ERP) system success. While such antecedent factors matter in the discourse, research on their impacts on ERP success is rare. To increase understanding in the area, we proposed a research model and developed pertinent hypotheses that included the above-mentioned factors. Using a cross-sectional field survey, we collected data from 165 firms in three European countries. Data analysis was performed using the partial least squares (PLS) technique. Statistical support was found for 11 out of the 17 hypotheses formulated. Organisational design constructs, i.e. tasks structure, rules and procedures, in-house IT personnel skills/knowledge have impacts on ERP success, whereas the perceptions of IT function’s value and business employees’ IT skills/knowledge did not. Contributions and practical implications of the research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Programming is riddled with ethical issues. Although extant literature explains why individuals in IT would act unethically in many situations, we know surprisingly little about what causes them to do so during the creative act of programming. To address this issue, we look at the reuse of Internet-accessible code: software source code legally available for gratis download from the Internet. Specifically, we scrutinize the reasons why individuals would unethically reuse such code by not checking or purposefully violating its accompanying license obligations, thus risking harm for their employer. By integrating teleological and deontological ethical judgments into a theory of planned behavior model—using elements of expected utility, deterrence, and ethical work climate theory—we construct an original theoretical framework to capture individuals’ decision-making process leading to the unethical reuse of Internet-accessible code. We test this framework with a unique survey of 869 professional software developers. Our findings advance the theoretical and practical understanding of ethical behavior in information systems. We show that programmers use consequentialist ethical judgments when carrying out creative tasks and that ethical work climates influence programmers indirectly through their peers’ judgment of what is appropriate behavior. For practice, where code reuse promises substantial efficiency and quality gains, our results highlight that firms can prevent unethical code reuse by informing developers of its negative consequences, building a work climate that fosters compliance with laws and professional codes, and making sure that excessive time pressure is avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Online policy deliberation forums (OPDFs) have been increasingly initiated by governments to allow citizens to provide their input and discuss policy issues. Yet, failure to garner participation, in terms of both quantity and quality, prevents the realization of their benefits. In this regard, prior research has suggested different antecedents for the quantity and quality of participation in online forums, but without systematically considering their differences. To address this research gap, in this study we develop a theoretical model to explain the antecedents of quantity and quality of OPDF participation and test the model using a survey and content analysis of forum logs. The results indicate that quantity of participation is enhanced by the information-technology-enabled resource factor of communality but negatively influenced by collective incentives. In contrast, the antecedents of the quality of participation include both motivational and resource factors. Furthermore, communality accentuates the perceived collective incentives and persuasion benefit of participation. This study contributes to the research by proposing and testing a theoretical model that explains the different antecedents of the quantity and quality of participation in OPDFs. More broadly, the findings inform research and practice on how outcomes of web-enabled cocreation, such as those generated through OPDF participation, can be evaluated and enhanced in these online communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

More companies have realized that information technology (IT) outsourcing, once viewed as a cost reduction tool, could facilitate and even enable the transformation of their core business processes. The benefits from a potential outsourcing relationship expansion have strategic implications for relational incentive provision. Modeling "information poaching" in IT outsourcing as an incentive problem with contractibility constraints, our analysis shows that this problem could be mitigated in a repeated game where the outsourcing client and the service provider agree on a relational contract. When the two partners share the belief that they can potentially benefit from a future relationship expansion, they are more likely to behave cooperatively during the early stages of their relationship. However, when they disagree about the likelihood of the future relationship expansion, they will have different preferences on a set of otherwise equivalent relational bonus contracts. Specifically, they will adopt a relational contract with large but infrequent bonuses when the client is more optimistic than the service provider about the potential of their relationship. Because these results hold even when the sourcing partners' beliefs are very close to each other, our analysis sheds fresh light on the issue of equilibrium selection in relational contract theory. In the context of IT outsourcing, the results of this study suggest that, because salient forms of relational bonuses are often not adopted, relational incentive provision is likely more pervasive than what we can observe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markets can yield significant economic benefits by improving transaction efficiency, but effective design is necessary to achieve these benefits. We compare a physical market to a discrete electronic market in the wholesale used vehicle industry to evaluate how their different designs work for different types of transactions. We find that buyers and sellers balance adverse selection costs and other transaction costs when using the two markets, with the physical market serving as the general exchange and the electronic market serving as a spot market for vehicles with low adverse selection risk. These findings increase our understanding of how sellers and buyers distribute supply and demand between physical and electronic markets in industries in which they coexist. They also increase our understanding of how information technology can improve market function in wholesale environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New e-markets try in a number of ways to attract a critical mass of participation and usage. Two innovative, all-electronic options exchanges, the International Securities Exchange (ISE) and the Boston Options Exchange (BOX), opened for trading in 2000 and 2004. In contrast to rival floor markets, they offer immediate order execution, direct user access, and reduced costs. As a result, ISE and BOX grew trading volumes and won market share from four incumbent exchanges in the United States. We observe significant differences between broker order-routing practices across ISE and BOX, leading to the markets' different growth patterns. We develop and test hypotheses about new market growth using a panel of six years of quarterly disclosures from 24 major brokerage firms. We find that membership affiliations are the dominant force in predicting brokers' order-routing patterns. In contrast to prior research, network externalities, as measured by an exchange's previous quarter market share, are not significant predictors after controlling for temporal heterogeneity. From our results, executives of new electronic exchanges should concentrate on developing broker exchange affiliation and incentive schemes in order to achieve sustainable order levels. Furthermore, keeping a keen eye on the competitive landscape and reacting to changes in current and prospective competitors' affiliation structures may prove the most beneficial way to ensure continued success. Top management must identify the relative advantages of new entrants' affiliation structures and respond accordingly. A new entrant that provides incentives through a novel affiliation structure can be routed significant orders if the incumbent exchange does not react swiftly and effectively. The results are not limited to analyzing electronic exchanges but, we expect, to many situations where competing information technology platforms also benefit from user affiliation and network effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at presenting the Ripple effect in supply chains. It develops different dimensions of the Ripple effect and summarises recent developments in the field of supply chain (SC) disruption management from a multi-disciplinary perspective. It structures and classifies existing research streams and applications areas of different quantitative methods to the Ripple effect analysis as well as identifying gaps in current research and delineating future research avenues. The analysis shows that different frameworks already exist implicitly for tackling the Ripple effect in the SC dynamics, control and disruption management domain. However, quantitative analysis tools are still rarely applied in praxis. We conclude that the Ripple effect can be the phenomenon that is able to consolidate research in SC disruption management and recovery similar to the bullwhip effect regarding demand and lead time fluctuations. This may build the agenda for future research on SC dynamics, control, continuity and disruption management, making supply chains more robust, adaptable and profitable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors describe their Information Technology (IT) Governance Cube, a model for describing research into IT governance in organizations. The cube's three dimensions represent who is governed, what is governed, and the manner of governance. The framework they provide for applying the cube depicts how a core set of antecedents including environmental, IT, and organizational properties lead to assorted consequences, among them specific outcomes, innovative partitioning, and evolutionary dynamics.

This study uses an archival research design to assess the impact of enterprise systems on a firm's internal information environment as reflected in the production of management earnings forecasts. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that, if enterprise systems improve management's access to decision-relevant internal information, higher quality management earnings forecasts should ensue. Consistent with disclosure theory and the purported technical characteristics of enterprise systems, the authors find a positive association between enterprise system implementations and subsequent increases in the likelihood of management forecast issuance and the accuracy of the forecasts. Additional robustness tests support the argument that improvements in management forecasts are due to improvements in the firm's internal information environment rather than to enhancements in management's ability to manage earnings. Beyond accumulating financial reporting information, the authors note that such systems provide management with information to make day-to-day operational decisions. Moreover, the paper provides a basis for considering management forecast qualities as a measurable proxy for improvements in the firm's internal information environment that result from information technology investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented to articles published in this issue including "Consumer Learning and Time-Locked Trials of Software Products, "Network Structure and Observational Learning: Evidence from a Location-Based Social Network" and "Firm Strategy and the Internet in U.S. Commercial Banking."

Mobile supply chain management (SCM) is gaining recognition as a major source of cost reduction and supply chain performance improvement. The current literature related to mobile SCM needs to be extended further in order to provide insights into how manufacturing firms can implement mobile SCM successfully. Specifically, there is a need to provide empirical and systematic analysis of the variables that can explain the various stages of mobile SCM diffusion. A review of recent literature suggests that existing e-supply chain technology adoption literature is not strongly grounded in theory. A theoretical model with six hypotheses was proposed based on the technology–organisation–environment (TOE) framework and innovation diffusion theory (IDT). This study draws its survey responses from a group of manufacturing firms in order to investigate the factors that affect the diffusion of mobile SCM. The results show that the variables derived from TOE and IDT can explain mobile SCM diffusion well. However, interorganisational relationships (IORs) play a crucial role in determining the success of mobile SCM routinisation. This is one of the first known empirical studies on the factors influencing the diffusion of mobile SCM. The results of this study will help decision makers better understand the implementation process of mobile SCM and formulate strategies for successful diffusion of mobile SCM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Implementing an enterprise resource planning system is a sophisticated, lengthy, and costly process which tends to face serious failure. Thus, it is essential to perform a success assessment at the post-implementation stage of an ERP project to evaluate how much the system has succeeded in achieving its predetermined objectives. This paper proposes a practical framework for assessing a firm's ERP post-implementation success utilising current models through a fuzzy analytic network process. The construct of ERP success is broken down into three main parts, including managerial success, organisational success, and individual success. Using this framework, the firm's ERP system success can be determined and the required improvement projects can be proposed to promote the success level. The proposed framework has been applied to a real international company, in the field of manufacturing and supplying turbines, to measure the firm's ERP post-implementation success. Finally, the advantages of the model are illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports evidence from a survey, aimed at testing whether and how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which enable the adoption of product-service systems, can contribute to value creation. This analysis builds on previous contributions, according to which companies that are enriching their product offering through value-added services (the so-called servitisation strategy) often report lower levels of profitability, owing to the poor performance of their operating process. A wide stream of research claims that companies that invest in ICTs can enjoy valuable outcomes, since the adoption of such technologies results in processes that are more efficient and more responsive. Our hypothesis concerns the possibility of leveraging ICTs at operating process level so as to pursue a servitisation strategy. The in-field analysis presented in this paper concerns a sample of 109 companies located in Italy; data collected through the survey have been analysed using the structural equation modelling approach. The evidence presented demonstrates that ICTs can have a relevant impact on value creation because they lead to superior responsiveness of operating processes and to sound improvements in the product offering. In particular, companies that are able to embed such superior responsiveness into their product offering can further boost value creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociomateriality (or sociomaterialism) allows us to approach the information technology (IT) capability research from an angle that has been rarely visited by information systems scholars. While relevant studies presume that humans and materials are distinct and largely independent, sociomateriality emphasizes agency that represents the relational, emergent, and shifting capacity realized through the association of actors (both humans and materials). The objective of this paper is to explore the value of conducting IT capability research through the theoretical lens of sociomaterialism. For this, we expand the imbrication metaphor introduced in an early study to explain the formation and advancement of a firm's IT capability from the sociomaterial perspective. Then, the key building blocks of IT capability of an organization are conceptualized based on the combination of existing studies and the expanded imbrication metaphor. Lastly, the effectiveness of formulating IT capability as a third-order construct that substantiates the entanglement concept of sociomaterialism is examined in comparison with that of traditional modeling approaches. We confirm the value of sociomaterialism in conceptualizing IT capability and subsequently in unraveling the true contribution of IT capability toward strengthening business performance. The findings also have practical implications in which IT capability is a function of IT management capability as well as IT personnel capability and IT infrastructure capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Team network structure has been shown to be an important determinant of both team and individual performance outcomes, yet few studies have investigated the relationship between team network structure and technology usage behaviors. Drawing from social network and technology use literature, we examine how the structure of a team's advice-seeking network affects individual use of a newly implemented information technology. We develop cross-level hypotheses related to the effects of the structure of mutually interconnected ties within the team (i.e., internal closure) as well as the structure of nonredundant ties outside the team boundaries (i.e., external bridging). The hypotheses are tested in a field study of 265 employees working in 44 teams in a large financial services institution. Results show that internal closure has a U-shaped effect on individual use such that individual usage of the system is higher when the number of internal advice-seeking ties within the team is low or high, suggesting that medium levels of internal closure are the least desirable network configurations because in such instances teams neither realize the benefits of high closure information sharing nor are they able to avoid in-group biases associated with low closure conditions. Our results also reveal that in addition to having a direct positive effect on individual use, external bridging interacts with internal closure in a complex manner. The U-shaped effect of closure is dominant when bridging is high but assumes an inverted U-shaped pattern when bridging is low. Several implications for managers follow from these findings. First, in order to increase usage of technology, in teams characterized by low internal closure, managers should encourage the development of ties across team boundaries. Second, managers should maximize within-team interconnections in order to facilitate the circulation of external knowledge within team boundaries. Finally, managers should be aware that maximizing internal closure by facilitating interconnections among team members could be dangerous if not accompanied by mechanisms for external bridging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in information technologies enable firms to collect detailed consumer data and target individual consumers with tailored ads. Consumer data are among the most valuable assets that firms own. An interesting phenomenon is that competing firms often trade their consumer data with each other. Based on a common-value all-pay auction framework, this paper studies the advertising competition between two firms that target the same consumer but are asymmetrically informed about the consumer value. We characterize firms' equilibrium competition strategies. The results show that better consumer information does not help the better-informed firm save the advertising expenditure but does enable it to reap a higher expected profit in competition. Sharing individual-level consumer data may soften the competition even though firms compete head-to-head for the same consumer. We also find that the better-informed firm may sell its data to its competitor but never voluntarily shares it with its competitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research emphasizing the need for more business knowledge in information technology (IT) units and more technical knowledge in line functions largely overlooks the question of when maintaining either form of such "peripheral" knowledge-a costly endeavor-is valuable. Further application and process novelty are increasingly unavoidable in systems development projects but remain largely overlooked in theory. It is plausible that one type of peripheral knowledge is valuable under one type of novelty but not the other.I develop the idea that discriminating alignment between project novelty and peripheral knowledge is needed for them to enhance systems development performance. Thus, the valuable type of peripheral knowledge depends on whether a project involves novelty in the project concept or in its development processes. Further, we lack an explanation for how such discriminating alignment translates into improved project performance. I develop and test a middle-range theory built around two ideas to address these gaps. First, alignment between project novelty and peripheral knowledge must be discriminating to enhance systems development performance. Second, such discriminating alignment accelerates design convergence, which in turn enhances systems development performance. Tests using data from 159 projects support the proposed ideas. The primary contribution of this paper is therefore explaining when and how alignment between project novelty and peripheral knowledge in IT and client departments enhances systems development performance. The key implication is that greater application domain knowledge in the IT unit (technical knowledge in the client department) enhances performance in projects involving greater application novelty (process novelty). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effect that investments in information technology (IT) have on downside risk profiles of companies that made public announcements of their investments in technology. Given the limitations of financial and decision theory perspectives on risk, we adopt the strategic management perspective that stresses downside risk as an important alternative measure of firm performance. We examine whether different types of IT investments have a differential impact on firm downside risk. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm and the real options perspective, we find evidence that IT investments and their timing influence organizational downside risk. Transformational and informational IT investments lead to a reduction in downside risk only if they lead to strategic IT investments in the industry. For competitive necessities such as IT investments that automate business functions, a reduction in downside risk is realized by investing in parity with industry participants. Our study contributes to the literature by offering an alternative perspective on the benefits of IT investments, particularly where no apparent incremental financial results may be evident. It also generates insights on IT investment strategies that may help firms keep up with or stay ahead of the competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory paper presents a conceptual model of the factors of governmental support and openness, business and technology investment, and socioeconomic level that are posited to influence technological utilization. The conceptual model and conjectures are developed inductively based on logic and prior research about the relationship among variables related to the factors. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to operationalize and test the model. The SEM analysis tests five points of investigation on a large sample of country data from the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. Findings indicate a critical pathway of associations between the factors of government support and openness, investment in business and technology, socioeconomic level, and technology utilization. The paper presents two country case examples of the model and suggests policy steps for national governments of developed and developing countries to prioritize information and communications technology, create openness, strengthen research and development and technology investment, and enhance education and information technology training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the extensive research on information technology (IT) outsourcing, our knowledge and understanding of how industry characteristics impact the use of IT outsourcing remain limited. Drawing upon theories from organization behavior and industrial economics, this study identifies four major industry characteristics (i.e., munificence, dynamism, concentration, and capital intensity) and investigates how each of these factors affects the use of IT outsourcing. Specifically, we postulate that the extent of industry munificence is positively related to the utilization of IT outsourcing. Since timely strategic actions are the crucial aspects of leveraging munificent resources, IT outsourcing, which can be implemented in short periods of time, is considered to be a preferred option in such environments. Furthermore, industry dynamism is also positively associated with IT outsourcing, given that firms in dynamically evolving industries tend to look for flexibility and avoid a large amount of fixed investments (e.g., IT development in-house). In contrast to these hypotheses, we predict that industry concentration is negatively related to IT outsourcing. Firms in concentrated industries are likely to develop their own IT infrastructures, as they are not constrained by institutional pressures or cost-driven strategic actions. Finally, because firms in capital-intensive industries tend to conform to long-standing traditional practices, and do not highly value novel and risky practices, they will be less likely to use IT outsourcing than firms in industries with low capital intensity. The data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis along with Compustat empirically validated all of the proposed hypotheses; however, only marginal support was found for the association between industry concentration and IT outsourcing. Our findings offer business executives and IT service providers strategic and managerial insights into the dynamics and complexities involved in the diverse aspects of industry environments and IT outsourcing decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article determines the weakest failure detectors to implement shared atomic objects in a distributed system with crash-prone processes. We first determine the weakest failure detector for the basic register object. We then use that to determine the weakest failure detector for all popular atomic objects including test-and-set, fetch-and-add, queue, consensus and compare-and-swap, which we show is the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an information technology services outsourcing arrangement, variance in demand volume and individual user preferences pose significant challenges to the provider organization in making resource allocation decisions. Such variations affect service levels, especially under fixed resource constraints. We explore the possible role of periodic demand information sharing and subsequent resource-level adjustments as a means of addressing issues arising from demand variation. As information exchange alters the dynamics of the relationship between the customer and provider organizations, incorporating information sharing in service-level agreements requires modifying current pricing schemes. A pricing heuristic is developed and tested under varying levels of information accuracy and granularity. The heuristic is shown to provide better economic welfare for both participants in comparison to the baseline pricing strategies considered. Also, it is shown that information, even at a coarse level of granularity, is very effective in providing stable service levels--a finding that is encouraging for enhanced collaborations between customer and provider organizations in outsourcing arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an introduction to the issue and cites several reports contained in it including "An Interdisciplinary Perspective of IT Service Management and Service Science," by Indranil Bardhan, Haluk Demirkan, P. K. Kannan, Robert J. Kauffman and Ryan Sougstad; "Connecting IT Services Operations to Service Marketing Practices," by Mitzi M. Montoya, Anne P. Massey and Vijay Khatri; and "Multitask Agency, Modular Architecture and Task Disaggregation in SaaS," by Anjana Susarla, Anitesh Barua and Andrew B. Whinston.

We investigate the assimilation of electronic procurement innovations (EPIs) and its impact on procurement productivity in buyer organizations. We identify online reverse auctions, electronic catalog management, electronic order fulfillment, and electronic payment and settlement as moderate complements for the performance of the procurement process. We develop a theoretical model that is informed by the literature on innovation assimilation and by structuration theory to explain the aggregated assimilation of EPIs. Our empirical study is based on survey data collected about EPIs from 166 buyer firms. Based on our analysis, we isolate the organizational, technological, and interorganizational factors that shape the meta-structures for the aggregated assimilation of EPIs. Our results also provide evidence of a substantial impact of the assimilation of these innovations on procurement productivity. Our post hoc analysis provides insights on differences across stages and across EPIs on the factors and meta-structures that enable assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ideas competitions appear to be a promising tool for crowdsourcing and open innovation processes, especially for business-to-business software companies. Active participation of potential lead users is the key to success. Yet a look at existing ideas competitions in the software field leads to the conclusion that many information technology (IT)--based ideas competitions fail to meet requirements upon which active participation is established. The paper describes how activation-enabling functionalities can be systematically designed and implemented in an IT-based ideas competition for enterprise resource planning software. We proceeded to evaluate the outcomes of these design measures and found that participation can be supported using a two-step model. The components of the model support incentives and motives of users. Incentives and motives of the users then support the process of activation and consequently participation throughout the ideas competition. This contributes to the successful implementation and maintenance of the ideas competition, thereby providing support for the development of promising innovative ideas. The paper concludes with a discussion of further activation-supporting components yet to be implemented and points to rich possibilities for future research in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Senior executives continue to be concerned about factors influencing the business effect of information technology (IT). Prior research has argued that business--IT strategic alignment facilitates business effect of IT and that contextual factors affect business--IT alignment. However, the role of knowledge considerations in the relationship between contextual factors and alignment, and the role of IT projects in the relationship between alignment and business effects of IT, have not been explicitly examined. Therefore, this paper pursues the following two research questions: (1) Based on knowledge considerations, how do planning behaviors (specifically, IT managers' participation in business planning and business managers' participation in IT planning) and top management knowledge of IT mediate the effects of two contextual factors--organizational emphasis on knowledge management and centralization of IT decisions--on business--IT strategic alignment? (2) How do aspects of IT projects (specifically, quality of IT project planning and implementation problems in IT projects) mediate the relationship between business--IT strategic alignment and business effects of IT? Results from a survey of 274 senior information officers indicate that organizational emphasis on knowledge management and centralization of IT decisions affect top managers' knowledge of IT, which facilitates business managers' participation in strategic IT planning and IT managers' participation in business planning, and both of these planning behaviors affect business--IT strategic alignment. Moreover, the results indicate that quality of IT project planning and implementation problems in IT projects mediate the relationship between business--IT strategic alignment and business effect of IT. These findings highlight the importance of considering the planning and implementation of IT projects when examining the effects of business--IT strategic alignment, and highlight the importance of considering... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether and how information technology (IT) is linked to a firm's ability to understand and fulfil customer needs, i.e. customer orientation. IT alone or in tandem with other strategic resources may enable businesses to process market intelligence and coordinate organisational responses to meet evolving buyer preferences. Based on a survey of senior marketing managers and PLS path model analyses, we learned that greater IT capabilities are associated with higher customer orientation but in mediated and interactive ways with marketing information quality and organisational trust. These and other findings largely supported the conceptual model. An implication is that while IT capabilities can help firms be more customer-focused, other critical resources must also be present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a series of two-stage duopoly models of quality-price competition and a series of monopoly models of quality-price choice in order to examine the impact of information technology (IT) investments on firm profit, firm productivity, and consumer welfare. We solve the duopoly and monopoly models for four cost functions, where each function makes a different assumption about the form of the marginal cost of production. These models are used to conduct a two-by-four comparison [(monopoly, duopoly) x (four cost functions)] of the impact of IT investments on economic performance. The analysis reveals that together market structure and cost structure play a critical role in determining the form of the relationship between IT investment and economic measures. Specifically, moving from monopoly to duopoly and moving from zero marginal cost to marginal cost as a function of quality increase the number of economic measures for which the directional effects of IT investment are ambiguous, or depend on model parameter values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the use of real options for valuation of information technology (IT) investments has been documented, little research has been conducted to examine its relevance for valuing and prioritizing a portfolio of projects. Complexities of IT projects along with the effect of project interdependencies raise several challenges in applying real options for prioritization of IT investments. We examine a large U.S.-based energy utility firm in a deregulated environment that is considering investment in a portfolio of 31 projects to provide a range of Internet-enabled energy services to customers. Using real data on expected project benefits and costs for different competitive scenarios, we develop a nested options model that extends prior research by incorporating the impact of project interdependencies to calculate the option value of all projects. Our nested options model provides a better understanding of project interdependencies on valuation and prioritization decisions, and provides insights into the business value of IT infrastructure projects that provide the managerial flexibility to launch future projects. We present a real options portfolio optimization algorithm for dynamic multiperiod portfolio optimization by incorporating the project values based on real options analysis in a portfolio management model with budget constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to assess the business value of e-commerce capability and information technology (IT) infrastructure in the context of electronic business at the firm level. Grounded in the IT business-value literature and enhanced by the resource-based theory of the firm, we developed a research framework in which both the main effects and the interaction effects of e-commerce and IT on firm performance were tested. Within this theoretical framework, we formulated several hypotheses. We then developed a multidimensional e-commerce capability construct, and after establishing its validity and reliability, tested the hypotheses with empirical data from 114 companies in the retail industry. Controlling for variations of firm size and subindustry effects, our empirical analysis found a strong positive interaction effect between IT infrastructure and e-commerce capability. This suggests that their complementarity positively contributes to firm performance in terms of sales per employee, inventory turnover, and cost reduction. The results are consistent with the resource-based theory, and provide empirical evidence to the complementary synergy between front-end e-commerce capability and back-end IT infrastructure. Combined together, they become more effective in producing business value. Yet the value of this synergy has not been recognized in the IT payoff literature. The "productivity paradox" observed in various studies has been attributed to variation in methods and measures, yet we offer an additional explanation: ignoring complementarities in business value measurement implies that the impact of IT was seriously underestimated. Our results emphasized the integration of resources as a feasible path to e-commerce value--companies need to enhance the integration between front-end e-commerce capability and back-end IT infrastructure in order to reap the benefits of e-commerce investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, information technology has been posited to have a major impact on firm performance. Investigations into this line of inquiry have almost always used constructs related to individual firm performance as their dependent measures, an approach that made sense under historical economic conditions. In recent years, however, value chains are giving way to digital supply networks with electronic interactions between tiers in the flow of goods and services. Such an environment makes it imperative to develop sophisticated measures of the performance of entire networks of firms, as opposed to individual firm performance. Using game-theoretic concepts, this paper explores several dimensions of networked organizational performance as a construct, as a set of measures, and as a construct within a nomology. It describes a program of research in which some empirical validation has already been completed and other work is now underway. We first validate measures for a dyadic view of network performance, followed by an n-firm perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework, we develop a research model for assessing the value of e-business at the firm level. Based on this framework, we formulate six hypotheses and identify six factors (technology readiness, firm size, global scope, financial resources, competition intensity, and regulatory environment) that may affect value creation of e-business. Survey data from 612 firms across 10 countries in the financial services industry were collected and used to test the theoretical model. To examine how e-business value is influenced by economic environments, we compare two subsamples from developed and developing countries. Based on structural equation modeling, our empirical analysis demonstrates several key findings: (1) Within the TOE framework, technology readiness emerges as the strongest factor for e-business value, while financial resources, global scope, and regulatory environment also significantly contribute to e-business value. (2) Firm size is negatively related to e-business value, suggesting that structural inertia associated with large firms tends to retard e-business value. (3) Competitive pressure often drives firms to adopt e-business, but e-business value is associated more with internal organizational resources (e.g., technological readiness) than with external pressure to adopt. (4) While financial resources are an important factor in developing countries, technological capabilities become far more important in developed countries. This suggests that as firms move into deeper stages of e-business transformation, the key determinant of e-business value shifts from monetary spending to higher dimensions of organizational capabilities. (5) Government regulation plays a much more important role in developing countries than in developed countries. These findings indicate the usefulness of the proposed research model and theoretical framework for studying e-business value. They also provide insight [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, numerous empirical studies have been conducted on the contribution of information technology (IT) to productivity and other measures of firm performance. However, few theoretical studies have attempted to explain the contingencies under which IT investments may or may not be valuable to a firm in a competitive market. This research proposes a duopoly competition model to study the impacts of IT investments on firm performance and productivity. We show that the extent to which a profit-maximizing firm benefits from IT investments is a function of, among other things, market sensitivities to the price and quality of the products and services offered by the firm and its competitor. We demonstrate that, under duopolistic competition, the effects of IT investments are not as deterministic as under monopolistic competition. We further show that the effect of IT investments on productivity, in a duopoly market, are contingent on market sensitivities to changes in the price and quality of products and services offered by the firm and its competitor, as well as on fixed and overhead costs being sufficiently large in relation to market size--an important condition in a monopoly market. Especially, the price sensitivity has a positive effect on the impact of IT investments on productivity and quality sensitivity has a negative effect. We submit that firms are better off making efficiency-enhancing IT investments if the market in which they operate is more price sensitive than quality sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the feasibility of IT investment in hospitality and determine the value and tangible/ intangible benefits from IT implementation. Problem arises from high investment without knowing the real impact and future investment to IT development. The scope of this research is information technology investment in five star hotel in Jakarta. The data were collected by distributing questionnaires to the research samples, are Grand Hyatt Hotel, Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Ayana Midplaza Hotel Jakarta. The analysis uses the information economics (IE) approach that combines financially and non-financial calculations to determine the feasibility of IT investment and the benefits of IT for 5-star hotels in Jakarta. From the analysis result, it can be concluded that five star hotel in Jakarta is feasible to make IT investment with ROI score more than 1 and scorecard value 28 which shows that IT investment in 5-star hotel is quite beneficial for hotel business process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Massive scientific literature not only have provided plentiful information resources for science and technology information research, but also formulate heavy burdens for researchers and managers of science and technology. It is valuable and urgent to help users understand the knowledge and intelligence implied in scientific literature quickly by using machine reading method. In this paper, we propose an event-centric machine reading approach to construct the semantic link network of scientific research events. Scientific research event network has provide a novel perspective for scientific literature based information search, information analysis and intelligence studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, an in-depth analysis is provided for seven of the most advanced malware evasion behaviors that are both pervasive in the wild and continue to pose a serious challenge to detection tools. The analysis is a summary of the information gained in our malware research labs where we have continually observed new evasion techniques being implemented. The results of the analysis show that in the race between malware, the most dynamic opponent will win. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key information processing building blocks for yesterday's organizations were typewriters, carbon paper, filing cabinets, and a government mail service. The constraints of these crude information processing technologies often required workers to be located under one roof and organizations to arrange themselves as efficient, but relatively change-resistant, management hierarchies. Those legacy organization designs have persisted despite fundamental changes in information processing technology. Tomorrow's successful organizations will be designed around the building blocks of advanced computer and communications technology. The success of these organizations will come from the ability to couple to, and decouple from, the networks of knowledge nodes. These networked organizations will link, on an as-needed basis, teams of empowered employees, consultants, suppliers, and customers. These ad hoc teams will solve one-time problems, provide personalized customer service, and then, as lubricant for subsequent interactions, evaluate one another's performance. In the network organization, structure will dominate strategy, credentials will give way to performance and knowledge, and human resources will be the only sustainable advantage. Despite the promise, networked organizations present difficult information management challenges. Among these are developing a flexible and efficient information architecture, establishing new values, attitudes, and behaviors concerning information sharing, building databases that can provide integrated customer support on a worldwide basis, and protecting personal freedoms and privacy. Here, we explore the opportunities and challenges that networked organizations will present for information technology management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]