Electronic Meeting Topic Effects

In the literature of electronic meetings, few studies have investigated the effects of topic-related variables on group processes. This chapter explores the effects of an individual’s perception of topics on process gains or process losses using a sample of 110 students in 14 electronic meetings. The results of the study showed that topic characteristics variables, individual knowledge, and individual self-efficacy had a significant influence on the number of relevant comments generated in an electronic meeting.

Modeling Customer-Related IT Diffusion

This study develops a diffusion model of customer-related IT (CRIT) based on stock market announcements of investments in those technologies. Customer-related IT investments are defined in this work as information technology investments made with the intention of improving or enhancing the customer experience. The diffusion model developed in our study is based on data for the companies of the S&P 500 and S&P MidCap 400 for the years of 1996-2001. We find empirical support for a sigmoid diffusion model. Further, we find that both the size and industry of the company affect the path of CRIT diffusion. Another contribution of this study is to illustrate how data collection techniques typically used for fi- nancial event studies can be used to study information technology diffusion. Finally, the data collected for this study can serve as a Bayesian prior for future diffusion forecasting studies of CRIT.

E-Learning Business Risk Management with Real Options

E-learning markets have been expanding very rapidly. As a result, the involved senior managers are increasingly being confronted with the need to make significant investment decisions related to the elearning business activities. Real options applications to risk management and investment evaluation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have mainly focused on a single and a-priori known option. However, these options are not inherent in any ICT investment. Actually, they must be carefully planned and intentionally embedded in the ICT investment in order to mitigate its risks and increase its return. Moreover, when an ICT investment involves multiple risks, by adopting different series of cascading options we may achieve risk mitigation and enhance investment performance. In this paper, we apply real options to the e-learning investments evaluation. Given the investment’s requirements, assumptions and risks, the goal is to maximize the investment’s value by identifying a good way to structure it using carefully chosen real options.

System-of-Systems Cost Estimation

As organizations strive to expand system capabilities through the development of system-of-systems (SoS) architectures, they want to know “how much effort” and “how long” to implement the SoS. In order to answer these questions, it is important to first understand the types of activities performed in SoS architecture development and integration and how these vary across different SoS implementations. This article provides results of research conducted to determine types of SoS lead system integrator (LSI) activities and how these differ from the more traditional system engineering activities described in Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) 632 (“Processes for Engineering a System”). This research further analyzed effort and schedule issues on “very large” SoS programs to more clearly identify and profile the types of activities performed by the typical LSI and to determine organizational characteristics that significantly impact overall success and productivity of the LSI effort. The results of this effort have been captured in a reduced-parameter version of the constructive SoS integration cost model (COSOSIMO) that estimates LSI SoS engineering (SoSE) effort.

Could the Work System Method Embrace Systems Concepts More Fully?

The work system method was developed iteratively with the overarching goal of helping business professionals understand IT-reliant systems in organizations. It uses general systems concepts selectively, and sometimes implicitly. For example, a work system has a boundary, but its inputs are treated implicitly rather than explicitly. This chapter asks whether the further development of the work system method might benefit from integrating general systems concepts more completely. After summarizing aspects of the work system method, it dissects some of the underlying ideas and questions how thoroughly even basic systems concepts are applied. It also asks whether and how additional systems concepts might be incorporated beneficially. The inquiry about how to use additional system ideas is of potential interest to people who study systems in general and information systems in particular because it deals with bridging the gap between highly abstract concepts and practical applications.

Determining User Satisfaction from the Gaps in Skill Expectations Between IS Employees and their Managers

The skills held by information system professionals clearly impact the outcome of a project. However, the perceptions of just what skills are expected of information systems (IS) employees have not been found to be a reliable predictor of eventual success in the literature. Though relationships to success have been identified, the results broadly reported in the literature are often ambiguous or conflicting, presenting difficulties in developing predictive models of success. We examine the perceptions of IS managers and IS employees for technology management, interpersonal, and business skills to determine if their perceptions can serve to predict user satisfaction. Simple gap measures are dismissed as inadequate because weights on the individual expectations are not equal and predictive properties low. Exploratory results from polynomial regression models indicate that the problems in defining a predictive model extend beyond the weighting difficulties, as results differ by each skill type. Compound this with inherent problems in the selection of a success measure, and we only begin to understand the complexities in the relationships that may be required in an adequate predictive model relating skills to success.

The Impact of Computer Self-Efficacy and System Complexity on Acceptance of Information Technologies

The acceptance and use of information technologies by target users remain a key issue in information systems (IS) research and practice. Building on past research and integrating computer self-efficacy (CSE) and perceived system complexity (SC) as external variables to the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study examines the direct and indirect effects of these two factors on system eventual acceptance and use. Overall, both CSE and SC demonstrated significant direct effects on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use as well as indirect effects on attitude and behavioral intention. With respect to TAM’s variables, perceived ease of use demonstrated a stronger effect on attitude than that of perceived usefulness. Finally, attitude demonstrated a non-significant impact on behavioral intention. Several implications for research and practice can be drawn from the results of this study.

Managing E-Mail Systems

An email system is a critical business tool and an essential part of organisational communication. Many organisations have experienced negative impacts from email and have responded by electronically monitoring and restricting email system use. However, electronic monitoring of email can be contentious. Staff can react to these controls by dissent, protest and potentially transformative action. This chapter presents the results of a single case study investigation of staff reactions to electronic monitoring and control of an email system in a company based in Ireland. The findings highlight the variations in staff reactions through multiple time frames of electronic monitoring and control, and the chapter identifies the key concerns of staff which need to be addressed by management and consultants advocating the implementation of email system monitoring and control.

Mixing Soft Systems Methodology and UML in Business Process Modeling

The chapter provides an action research account of formulating and applying a new business process modeling framework to a manufacturing processes to guide software development. It is based on a mix of soft systems methodology (SSM) and the Unified Modeling Language (UML) business process modeling extensions suggested by Eriksson and Penker. The combination of SSM and UML is justified through the ideas on Multimethodology by Mingers. The Multimethodology framework is used to reason about the combination of methods from different paradigms in a single intervention. The proposed framework was applied to modeling the production process in an aluminum rolling plant as a step in the development of a new information system for it. The reflections on the intervention give details on how actual learning and appreciation is facilitated using SSM leading to better UML models of business processes.

The Impact of Missing Skills on Learning and Project Performance

To improve the performance of software projects, a number of practices are encouraged that serve to control certain risks in the development process, including the risk of limited competences related to the application domain and system development process. A potential mediating variable between this lack of skill and project performance is the ability of an organization to acquire the essential domain knowledge and technology skills through learning, specifically organizational technology learning. However, the same lack of knowledge that hinders good project performance may also inhibit learning since a base of knowledge is essential in developing new skills and retaining lessons learned. This study examines the relationship between information system personnel skills and domain knowledge, organizational technology learning, and software project performance with a sample of professional software developers. Indications are that the relationship between information systems (IS) personnel skills and project performance is partially mediated by organizational technology learning.