That's So Last Season!

This paper explores Information Technology (IT) adoption behavior in firms as fashion first and a means of leveraging competitive advantage second. In this paper, IT is treated as a product and compared to fashion apparel through a distinct set of characteristics that define the behavior and nature of the apparel market. The underlying questions that are posed by this paper is twofold: (1) Is IT in fashion? (2) If it is, then how does it affect the adoption of IT from a behavioral perspective and what are the results? Through an exploratory study of the topic, this paper seeks to provide further insight to firms on how to go about adopting new innovative technologies. Moreover, by enticing firms to pay special attention to detecting and predicting such fashions and the value they add, this paper sets the ground for future research in the field of emerging technologies and IT adoption.

Psychosocial Health at Work

In today's 24/7 work life, mainly productivity demands and increasing work hours affect negatively employees' health and well-being. The negative qualities are called as psychosocial hazards they are defined as “new” and “increasing” risks of work environment. The job-demand-resources model explains the behavioral interactions at work environment that lead to psychosocial hazards and risks. This study aims to determine the demands of the working environment together with the degree of control given to the employees, the level of social support and how all these related to burnout. The subjects are 144 private security officers in a Turkish bank. Study confirmed the positive relation between job demands and burnout; on the otherhand the mediator role of control and supports are not validated.

Global Governance vs. Regional Governance in Social Policy

Globalization, the much-debated phenomenon of the last decade, has affected the governance of policies. Social policy governance is one of the most affected notions of the globalization process. Context of debates on social policy governance has been transformed from state-centric analysis to the multi-centric analysis. The future of the social policy is highly linked to both global governance and regional governance. In this regard, the aim of this chapter is to draw attention to the multi-centric nature of the social policy governance and to form a framework for the effects of intergovernmental institutions on social policy governance and to discuss their weaknesses and strengths particularly regarding the United Nations, Bretton Woods institutions and the European Union.

Youth Employment

Youth employment has been a challenge with gradual acceleration from beginning of 1990s. It also has been exacerbated by latest global crises. Besides, as a fact mutually having a fostering relation with it, increasing rate of inactive population among the youth has caused to soar worry about the matter. Although youth unemployment is a common problem for developed and developing countries, it differs in these countries in terms of formation, intensity and solution way. In two decades countries around the world have implemented particular policies against the matter accordance to action plans prescribed by international organizations such as ILO, OECD and EU. Even though, there has been some partial improvements as a result of economic and labour market policies, there is a long way to solve the problem significantly and to decrease the anxiety down to reasonable level. Therefore, the countries must continuously monitor and analyze their conditions and create integrated policies suited to socio-economic conjuncture.

Human Resource Management IT and Global Economy Perspective

This chapter consolidates the state of academic research on the relation between information technology, globalization and human resource management. Main conclusions of the literature review can be summarized into several groups. First, there is evident flow of trends linking the development of information technology, business globalization and changes in the ways of doing business. Second, all these trends have caused the emergence of a new economic order that is known in the literature as the New or the Global economy. Third, human resources are the most valuable assets in the Global economy and it is therefore crucial for firms to successfully manage these assets. Fourth, like other functions, HRM function is heavily influenced by information technology. Fifth, the importance of information technology for HRM is evident for firms operating in one country and especially those that operate internationally. Finally, there is a lack of studies on the global HRIS.

Marketing Information System

Increasingly, business leaders are viewing market information not only as an input for making better decisions but also as an important strategic asset. Marketing Information may prove to a business's chief competitive advantage in many business sectors. Competitors can copy each other's products, processes, procedures, and technologies, but they cannot duplicate the marketing information and intellectual capital. Marketing Information System primarily serves the company's marketing and top level managers, but it may also provide information to external partners, such as suppliers, partners, distributors, or marketing services agencies. A good Marketing Information System balances the information users would like to have against what they really need and what is feasible to offer and the cost of obtaining. This chapter explains how a Marketing Information system can be developed in a business? What are the subsystems of a Marketing Information system and their functions?

User Acceptance of Computer Technology at Work in Arabian Culture

User acceptance of computer technology in work environments could differ from that of general consumer contexts. Toward that end, cultural considerations could affect individuals' behaviors, including their technology acceptance. This study analyzes the acceptance of computer technology by 1,088 workers in an Arabian country to reexamine and compare established models and theories to prior studies in the Western, developed countries. The explanatory power of each theory or model seems lower among Arabian workers. The innovation diffusion theory (IDT) appears capable of explaining workers' technology acceptance better than the theory of planned behavior (TPB) or technology acceptance model (TAM) does. Perceived behavioral control and subjective norms constitute more important acceptance determinants than attitude does. Both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use remain significant determinants of attitude and intention; however, considering findings reported by previous research, their total effects are comparable in magnitude and statistical significance. The findings are incongruent with the results of several representative prior studies that examine the same theories and models. The results can be partially explained by the unique socio-cultural characteristics and overall technology development status of the country. In turn, these results offer several implications for studying worker's technology acceptance in developing countries with a unique cultural context.

Applying the User Experience Study of a Virtual Multi-Cultural Community in a Service Re-Design

The aim of the research work presented in this paper is to explore a virtual-user community's influence on the design of a new, multimedia-based Internet service. The virtual communities considered here are the researchers and associated administrative staff, who are working on, or managing, collaboration projects or common tasks in distant laboratories all over the world. The paper reflects the attitudes and the cultural background influence on the technology adoption by the studied community. The user experience were analysed and then applied in the re-design of a new service developed within the Virtual Conference Centre Portal (VCCP) – Global Plaza. The studies were carried out with communities coming from three continents: Africa, South America and Europe. The paper gives a brief presentation of the VCCP's service facilities and an analysis of the results of the performed studies.

An Integrated Framework via the Convergence Phenomenon for the Emergence of Software-as-a-Service

Firms from previously distinct industries are increasingly adopting software-as-a-service (SaaS), allowing for the emergence of new markets at the convergence of these industries. The motivation for this research is to explore what is occurring as a result of the convergence phenomenon. The convergence phenomenon is when a technological evolution occurs where previously separate products or services merge into a single offering and cross-industrial collaboration increases as a result. By reviewing literature on the phenomenon in affected industries, such as the telecommunications, television and computer industries, the main aspects are identified and integrated into one framework to analyze the phenomenon as a whole. The inter-relations of the main aspects are explored through the lens of mobilization of institutional theory. The framework's applicability is then explored against a historical case. Future research suggestions are offered to further corroborate the framework to increase its generalizability for analyzing the convergence phenomenon in other relevant industries.

Making Sense of Information Technology Investment on Type of Supply Chain Governance

This study makes sense of how information technology (IT) investment supports and relates to SCG and its conceptions (transactional and relational). The authors conducted a qualitative research using exploratory case studies in two large Brazilian companies and two major suppliers. Top supply chain executives of these companies were interviewed. We found differences in how these companies invest in IT to govern their supply chain. In the first case, we identified a more relational type of governance that was mainly based on the company's relationship with its suppliers which was driven by the desire to achieve a greater market share. Here IT investments were used to improve sales and enable operations planning projects where all systems were being integrated. In the second case, we identified transactional governance as the predominant form. This reflects the presence of a great number of suppliers, low partnership and low supply on time delivery rate. Thus, investments on e-procurement and ERP are being made to achieve more relational governance through integration with their suppliers.