By Joan Mann, Associate Editor, Old Dominion University

 

The Associate Editor describes her experiences with Contingency Theory and Alignment

as a Research Perspective, and offers advice to other scholars. She discusses topics such

as: organizational component alignment framework, agreement without acquiescence,

culture and risk, and alignment in developing nations.

 

 

Fredric William Swierczek, Pritam K. Shrestha, and Clemens Bechter

 

This study considers the IT impact on productivity in two groups of Asia-Pacific banks

based on reported profitability during the Asian

financial crisis. The banks perceive increased productivity, and both strategic and

operational benefits from IT. The high costs of IT permit only suboptimal investments, in

both IT capital and IT labor. Better management of IT resources enhances

competitiveness through higher quality service at lower costs, delivered faster through a

variety of channels more convenient to customers. IT investments and their proper

implementation are more relevant when the banks are not performing well.

 

 

 

Nelson Oly Ndubisi, Omprakash K. Gupta, and Gibson C. Ndubisi

 

This research investigates the moderating impact of mogul’s/entrepreneurs’ persona such

as innovativeness, risk-taking propensity, perseverance, and flexibility on the relationship

between users’ ease of use and usefulness perceptions and system usage. Perceived

usefulness and ease of use are important constructs, which have been generally linked to

the usage of technologies-directly and indirectly. However, unique user persona, such as

found among entrepreneurs, may have different implications. The research explores

such implications among the Chinese, the Indians, and the Malay entrepreneurs.

 

 

 

George E. Heilman and Jorge Brusa

 

The effects of computerization in Mexico are receiving growing attention in the U.S. This

study investigates user information satisfaction among employees of organizations in

northern Mexico. Mexican computer users have positive attitudes toward and are

generally satisfied with their employers’ information systems. On a subfactor assessment

level, Mexican computer users are especially satisfied with their IT staff and services and

least satisfied with the level of user training they receive.

 

 

Interview with Mike Willis, CPA and Founding Chairman of XBRL

 

International Steering Committee, conducted by Mahesh S. Raisinghani

XBRL International is a collaborative consortium of currently approximately 170

organizations representing virtually all components of the business reporting supply chain

that have committed to consensus-based data entry interchange formats for sharing. The

interview discusses many aspects of XBRL including its key attributes, benefits,

challenges, opportunities, risks, and limitations.

 

Edited by Nathalie Greenan, Yannick L'Horty, and Jacques Mairesse

Reviewed by Roberto Vinaja

 

The book provides a collection of analytical studies on this perplexing topic of

“productivity paradox” from both the American and the European viewpoints. A major

objective of this edited volume is to explore the economical impact of IT on both an

empirical and theoretical basis. The authors integrate theoretical analyses at the macro

level with findings based on empirical data from field studies and national survey studies.

 

William R. King, Advisory Editor, University of Pittsburgh

 

JGITM Advisory Editor discusses issues related to outsourcing and offshoring of IT, as

more and more firms and IT managers become aware of the 'India price', the analogy to

the 'China price' in manufacturing, as

Indian vendor firms move up the scale of IT capability and as other nations like the

Philippines become more involved, if only as 'backup'sites. He discusses many

management issues as well as implications for IS education.

 

 

Graham Pervan, Deepinder Bajwa, and L. Floyd Lewis

 

This paper assesses the patterns of adoption and utilization of seven CIT clusters in

supporting task-oriented collaboration in organizations in Australia and New Zealand.

Results from one hundred and fifty-six organizations indicates that these patterns vary

considerable among different CITs. An investigation into the antecedents of adoption and

utilization of CITs indicates that promotion of collaboration, decision making pattern,

and IT function size are significant predictors of aggregate adoption status of CITs. While

promotion of collaboration and decision making patterns also influence aggregate

adoption levels, only promotion of collaboration was found to be a significant predictor

of aggregate utilization level of CITs.

 

 

 

Scott McCoy, Andrea Everard, and Brian M. Jones

 

This study extends TAM research into Latin America by examining email usage among

two distinct populations and investigating possible moderating effects that Hofstede's

four cultural dimensions have on the TAM constructs. The moderating effects are

examined by using inferential statistics to test several hypotheses. Findings indicate that

TAM functions well across cross-cultural boundaries but in their current form, it is

impossible to test the impact of the individual culture dimensions on the relationships in

the TAM model. To address this obstacle an alternative to Hofstede's measurement is

suggested for future research.

 

 

 

Pnina Shachaf

 

The implementation of global virtual teams presents modern organizations with

significant challenges, such as a multicultural workforce and the use of information and

communication technology. Cultural diversity increases teamwork complexity and may

weaken a team's effectiveness and jeopardize its viability. Selection and implementation

of appropriate information technology may facilitate group processes and overcome

potential barriers. This study illustrates how e-mail mitigates intercultural

miscommunication. Interviews with 41 global virtual team members in nine countries

were transcribed and analyzed. The use of e-mail improves language accuracy, mitigates

intercultural miscommunication resulting from verbal differences among team members,

and eliminates nonverbal differences.

 

 

 

Interview with Richard Cormier, Chief Information Officer, Edwards Lifesciences

conducted by Jaak Jurison

 

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation is a global leader in products and technologies used to

treat advanced cardiovascular disease. The interview explores the CIO roles, the IS

organization structure, applications, outsourcing, and managing an increasingly global

environment.

 

 

James Taylor. Reviewed by Roberto Vinaja

 

Despite the continuous progress in management methods and IT development techniques,

many IT projects still fail. This book explores the causes behind these failures. The first

objective is to provide an understanding of project management in IT environment and

the tools. The second objective is to differentiate and explain the relationships between

project life cycle (PLC) and software development life cycle (SDLC). The third objective

is to demonstrate that IT is not just software development.

 

Barry Shore, Associate Editor, University of New Hampshire

 

JGITM Advisory Editor explores questions like: What do we mean by leadership? What

are the leadership challenges related to IS project management? Are there some

leadership styles that are more likely to be successful than others? How is leadership

affected when IS projects extend across a geographically dispersed enterprise spanning

suppliers to customers? What are the challenges introduced by globally distributed

business units, outsourcing, and cultural differences?

 

 

Kamla Ali Al-Busaidi, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, and Lorne Olfman, Claremont

Graduate University, USA

 

This study investigates the effects of knowledge-culture, organizational infrastructure,

technical infrastructure, management support, vision clarity, reward policy and economic

return on KMS success in Omani organizations. Results show that all investigated

factors contribute to KMS success except for reward policy. Factors such as training and

matching users’ needs are also critical. Results suggest that KMS success factors in

Oman are relatively like those in western countries, and other developing countries.

However, because they operate in developing countries, IT managers in Oman consider

that reward-policy is not feasible to promote KMS use.

 

 

 

Jamshed J. Mistry, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA

 

A conceptual framework based on the virtuous cycle of productivity gains and expanding

markets explains the forces that increase digital divide and bridge it. Using this

framework, India is used as an illustrative case to document attempts to utilize ICT to

enhance the economic circumstances and quality of life for the rural and poor segments

of the Indian population and to argue that government and other public institutions have

an important role in bridging the digital divide in developing countries. Further, the direct

role of government is distinguished from its indirect role.

 

 

 

Kallol Bagchi, The University of Texas at El Paso, U.S.A.

 

The global digital divide is defined as the difference in the value of IT index (comprised

of four IT adoption data: the Internet, PC, Cell phone and telephone) of a nation from the

U.S. A model is proposed that contains several new indicators. The model is tested on

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Economic

Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) over a period of time.

Results indicate that some of these indicators explain the existence of global

digital divide. The study also concludes that the factors that are responsible for such

divide are not all common for OECD and ECLAC set of nations and that significances of

these indicators also vary over time.

 

 

 

Interview with Emilie Harrington, Senior Manager, Accenture’s Business Intelligence

Practice conducted by Hamid R. Nemati, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA.

 

Emilie Harrington is a senior manager with Accenture's Business Intelligence practice

(BI). She has been with Accenture since 1998 and specializes in SAP implementations.

The interview investigates factors impacting business intelligence (BI) at Accenture,

trends in BI, and the impact of outsourcing on the industry.

 

 

Marc J. Schniederjans, Jamie L. Hamaker, and Ashlyn M. Schniederjans,

Reviewed by: Roberto Vinaja, Texas A&M University—Commerce, USA

 

The objective of this book is to apply a broad array of methodologies to the IT investment

decision-making process. For most methodologies, the authors have provided a

definition, described the applications in IT investment decision-making, discussed the

informational value, explained the data requirements and methodological procedures,

included computer-based solutions, provided sample problems to illustrate different

decision situations, identified limitations and suggested ideas for dealing with

the limitations.

 

 

 

Hugh J. Watson, University of Georgia and Dave Donkin, Absa Bank

 

JGITM Advisory Editor Hugh Watson and Dave Donkin provide evidence of global IT

excellence from recent competitions. Absa Bank is a leading bank in South Africa.

Absa’s work illustrates some of the outstanding BI and data warehousing practice that is

taking place internationally. After discusrring Absa’s practices, the authors highlight

some of the differences in BI and data warehousing in South Africa compared to North

America and Europe, and conclude by exploring why it is not surprising that world-class

work is being done at Absa Bank.

 

 

En Mao, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Mark Srite, University of Wisconsin –

Milwaukee, Jason Bennett Thatcher, Clemson University, and Onur Yaprak, Clemson

University

 

Mobile phone services’ adoption and acceptance issues may have a significant impact on

business and personal communication practices at the regional and global levels. An

extended technology acceptance model (TAM)is tested in the U.S. and Turkey. Explored

are key factors that influence usefulness, ease of use, and intentions to use, such as

mobile Internet access, E-Mail, and payments. The results provide support for TAM from

both samples and for the importance of variables such as efficacy and personal

innovativeness. Differences between the two samples are observed and culture-based

implications are made.

 

 

 

D. Veena Parboteeah, Washington State University, K. Praveen Parboteeah, University of

Wisconsin – Whitewater, John B. Cullen, Washington State University, and Choton

Basu, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater

 

In this paper, the authors use a combined social institutions and national culture approach

to examine how these are related to one component of the technology acceptance model.

Specifically, they hypothesize that three social institutions degree of industrialization,

degree of social inequality, and religiosity) and three national culture dimensions

(uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and individualism) are related to the perceived

usefulness of information technology. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to test

hypotheses on 26,999 individuals from 24 nations. Results support four of the six

hypotheses (degree of industrialization, degree of social inequality, uncertainty

avoidance, and masculinity).

 

 

 

Changsu Kim, Yeungnam University, Korea, Robert D. Galliers, Bentley College, USA

and London School of Economics, UK, and Kyung Hoon Yang, University of Wisconsin

- LaCrosse, USA

 

Web-Based Shopping Systems (WBSS) are at the heart of the major issues surrounding

electronic commerce growth. Despite the importance of WBSS, empirical examination

has been sparse. This article offers an exploratory analysis of the processes in WBSS

usage in different national contexts. A research model is proposed that emphasizes

organizational and managerial aspects. Based upon the model, firms were surveyed in the

UK and Korea. Results show that the major differences in the two countries are in

marketing, customer related and strategy factors. Many of the factors in organizational

dimensions and technology are similar across the two nations.

 

 

 

An interview with Doris Hall, Senior Vice President and CIO, Bax Global, Inc.

conducted by Jaak Jurison, Fordham University and University of California Irvine,

USA

 

BAX Global, subsidiary of The Brink's Company, is a $2.4 billion supply chain

management and transportation solutions company. Many issues are explored in this

interview: current challenges, IT infrastructure, distributed operations, software

development methods, and cross-cultural issues.

 

 

Frank Banister, Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, 2004

Reviewed by Roberto Vinaja, Texas A&M University—Commerce, USA.

 

This book provides a thorough guide for planning, managing and, controlling IT

purchasing and finance. In times of shrinking budgets and limited resources, a wise

financial management of the IT function becomes even more critical. A major

characteristic of this volume is that many of its principles are based on practical

experience and observation. The book contains a considerable number of short ‘case

histories’ from real organizations.