Success Factors in the Implementation of a Collaborative Technology and Resulting Productivity Improvements in a Small Business

Practitioners and academics often assume that investments in technology will lead to productivity improvements. While the literature provides many examples of performance improvements resulting from adoption of different technologies, there is little evidence demonstrating specific, generalizable factors that contribute to these improvements. Furthermore, investment in technology does not guarantee effective implementation. This qualitative study examined the relationship between four classes of potential success factors on the adoption of a collaborative technology and whether they were related to performance improvements in a small service company. Users of a newly adopted collaborative technology were interviewed to explore which factors contributed to their initial adoption and subsequent effective use of this technology. The results show that several factors were strongly related to adoption and effective implementation. The impact on performance improvements was further explored. Results showed a qualitative link to several performance improvements including timesavings and improved decision-making. These results are discussed in terms of generalizability as well as suggestions for future research.

The Effect of End User Development on End User Success

End user development of applications forms a significant part of organizational systems development. This study investigates the role that developing an application plays in the eventual success of the application for the user developer. The results of this study suggest that the process of developing an application not only predisposes an end user developer to be more satisfied with the application than they would be if it were developed by another end user, but also leads them to perform better with it. Thus, the results of the study highlight the contribution of the process of application development to user developed application success.

A Blended Approach Learning Strategy for Teacher Development

In-service upgrading has been an accepted avenue for retraining practicing teachers in Singapore to keep abreast of changing curriculum requirements as well as infusion of information technology (IT) in teaching and learning. To cope with the teachers’ busy work schedules and many school commitments, upgrading courses were offered to the teachers primarily asynchronously, using the Internet platform with some integrated synchronous sessions. This chapter analyzes the rationale for the development of such a Web-based teacher-upgrading program and discusses the main issues of professional upgrading addressed in the development. Issues of adult learning in a learner-controlled adaptive learning environment and lifelong learning were addressed through an IT-infused asynchronous mode, providing the much-needed freedom in time management for the course participants. The development also includes delivery of high definition graphics through a customized hybrid system of CD-ROM and Web that addresses image-downloading bottleneck and thereby overcomes a basic problem of distance learning in geospatial education. Finally, reflections on the attending adult learners’ responses to such an upgrading program are discussed.

Supporting the JAD Facilitator with the Nominal Group Technique

Joint Application Development (JAD) was introduced in the late 1970s to solve many of the problems system users experienced with the conventional methods used in systems requirements determination (SRD) and has produced noteworthy improvements over these methods. However, a JAD session is conducted with freely interacting groups, which makes it susceptible to the problems that have curtailed the effectiveness of groups. JAD outcomes are also critically dependent on excellent facilitation for minimizing dysfunctional group behaviors. Many JAD efforts are not contemplated (and some fail) because such a person is often unavailable. The nominal group technique (NGT) was designed to reduce the impact of negative group dynamics. An integration of JAD and NGT is proposed here as a crutch to reduce the burden of the JAD facilitator in controlling group sessions during SRD. This approach, which was tested empirically in a laboratory experiment, appeared to outperform JAD alone in the areas tested and seemed to contribute to excellent group outcomes even without excellent facilitation.

Measurement of Perceived Control in Information Systems

The importance of perceptions of control in explaining human behavior and motivation has been identified, investigated, and found to be significant in several disciplines. This study reports on an exploratory investigation assessing perceived control within the information systems domain. A survey instrument was developed based on the research literature to assess perceived control as a multi-dimensional construct. The survey was administered to 241 subjects. The results were analyzed to produce the following five factors that represent a user’s perceptions of control when working with an interactive information system: (1) timeframe, (2) feedback signal, (3) feedback duration, (4) strategy, and (5) metaphor knowledge.

A TAM Analysis of an Alternative High-Security User Authentication Procedure

The objective of information system security management is information assurance, which means to maintain confidentiality (privacy), integrity, and availability of information resources for authorized organizational end users. User authentication is a foundation procedure in the overall pursuit of these objectives, and password procedures historically have been the primary method of user authentication. There is an inverse relationship between the level of security provided by a password procedure and ease of recall for users. The longer the password and the more variability in its characters, the higher the level of security is that is provided by the password, because it is more difficult to violate or crack. However, such a password tends to be more difficult for an end user to remember, particularly when the password does not spell a recognizable word or when it includes non-alphanumeric characters such as punctuation marks or other symbols. Conversely, when end users select their own more easily remembered passwords, the passwords also may be cracked more easily. This study presents a new approach to entering passwords that combines a high level of security with easy recall for the end user. The Check-Off Password System (COPS) is more secure than self-selected passwords and high-protection, assigned-password procedures. The present study investigates tradeoffs between using COPS and three traditional password procedures, and provides a preliminary assessment of the efficacy of COPS. The study offers evidence that COPS is a valid alternative to current user authentication systems. End users perceive all tested password procedures to have equal usefulness, but the perceived ease of use of COPS passwords equals that of an established high-security password, and the new interface does not negatively affect user performance compared to a high-security password. Further research will be conducted to investigate long-term benefits.

Electronic Banking and Information Assurance Issues

Information assurance is a key component in e-banking services. This article investigates the information assurance issues and tenets of e-banking security that would be needed for design, development, and assessment of an adequate electronic security infrastructure. The technology terminology and frameworks presented in the article are with the view to equip the reader with a glimpse of the state-of-art technologies that may help toward learning and better decisions regarding electronic security.

Organizational Knowledge Sharing in ERP Implementation

This study examines organizational knowledge sharing in enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation. Knowledge sharing in ERP implementation is somewhat unique, because ERP requires end users to have more divergent knowledge than is required in the use of traditional systems. Because of the length of time and commitment that ERP implementation requires, end users also are often more involved in ERP implementations than they are in more traditional ERP implementations. They must understand how their tasks fit into the overall process, and they must understand how their process fits with other organizational processes. Knowledge sharing among organizational members is one critical piece of ERP implementation, yet it is challenging to achieve. There is often a large gap in knowledge among ERP implementation personnel, and people do not easily share what they know. This study presents findings about organizational knowledge sharing during ERP implementation in three firms. Data were collected through interviews using a multi-site case study methodology. Findings are analyzed in an effort to provide a basis on which practitioners can facilitate knowledge sharing more effectively during ERP implementation.

Responsibility for Information Assurance and Privacy

Decisions regarding information assurance and IT security can affect individuals’ rights and obligations and thereby acquire a moral quality. The same can be said for questions of privacy. This chapter starts by showing how and why information assurance and privacy can become problems worthy of ethical consideration. It demonstrates that there is no simple and linear relationship between ethics and information assurance or between ethics and privacy. Many decisions in the area of IT, however, affect not only one, but both of these subjects. The ethical evaluation of decisions and actions in the area of privacy and security, therefore, is highly complex. This chapter explores the question whether individual responsibility is a useful construct to address ethical issues of this complexity. After introducing a theory of responsibility, this chapter discusses the conditions that a subject of responsibility typically is assumed to fulfill. This chapter will argue that individual human beings lack some of the essential preconditions necessary to be ascribed responsibility. Individuals have neither the power, the knowledge, nor the intellectual capacities to deal successfully with the ethical challenges in the tension of privacy and information assurance. This chapter ends by suggesting that the concept of responsibility, nevertheless, may be useful in this setting, but it would have to be expanded to allow collective entities as subjects.

The Technology Acceptance Model

The technology acceptance model proposes that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness predict the acceptance of information technology. Since its inception, the model has been tested with various applications in tens of studies and has become a most widely applied model of user acceptance and usage. Nevertheless, the reported findings on the model are mixed in terms of statistical significance, direction, and magnitude. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis based on 26 selected empirical studies in order to synthesize the empirical evidence. The results suggest that both the correlation between usefulness and acceptance and between usefulness and ease of use are somewhat strong. However, the relationship between ease of use and acceptance is weak, and its significance does not pass the fail-safe test.