A Systemic Approach of Electronic Commerce

This chapter applies several concepts from classical Systems Theory to the growing area of E-commerce and agents. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how General Systems Theory principles are widely applicable to the state-of-the art field of Electronic Commerce. The Systems Approach can be used as a framework to model interaction in the electronic marketplace. Software agents play an important role in this system. The chapter describes the characteristics of an intelligent agent and its applications in Electronic Commerce from a systemic perspective.

Addressing Organizational and Societal Concerns

Most current information systems (IS) planning methodologies are focused on achieving ‘successful’ plans, i.e., plans that provide competitive advantage, can be implemented in a given period of time, and that solve the problems of information needs by taking advantage of the latest technologies available. Concerns are technology and business driven and focus on how to get the maximum profit for organisations from investing in information systems. However, this relatively narrow focus can be problematic, especially in developing countries, where the social contexts of IS implementation may require a different primary focus. This chapter presents a methodology for IS planning based on critical systems thinking—an approach that encourages the critical analysis of stakeholder understandings of social contexts prior to the selection and/or design of planning methods. The methodology presented in this chapter uses a combination of the systems theories of autopoiesis and boundary critique, which deepen our understanding of what it means to reflect on participation, values, and social concerns during IS planning. In the course of applying the methodology in a project in Colombia, an issue arose of the ethics of the practitioner. To address this issue, following completion of the project, we sought to enhance critical systems thinking with Foucault’s notions of power and ethics, which offer interesting alternatives for practitioner self-reflection. Implications for IS planning are derived from this perspective on ethics and power.

A Validation Test of an Adaptation of the DeLone and McLean's Model in the Spanish EIS Field

This chapter offers a reflection about systems thinking, models and validation tests. In this way, starting from the recognized model of information systems success created by DeLone and McLean, the authors develop an adaptation in the executive information systems (EIS) area. Their research aim is to carry out a validation test of the adapted model applying the Partial Least Squares approach. The study is based on a survey involving 100 managers in 55 Spanish organizations. The results show this model has an adequate predictive power for most implied variables, demonstrating the existence of significant links among information systems success dimensions. The model helps to understand the influence of EIS on both individual and organizational impacts. Finally, as a consequence of the validation process, new ideas for the redesigning of the model are proposed.

The Information System within the Organization

There is considerable evidence that many information systems (IS) projects fail because of organizational, “softer” or “people-related” issues. Considerable effort has been expended in efforts to design improved development methodologies that incorporate these softer aspects. Less attention, however, has been directed towards approaches that increase our understanding of the interaction of the implemented IS with the wider organizational environment. Our thesis is that system dynamics (SD) has much to offer here and, in this chapter, we illustrate the utility of the SD approach in this context through presentation of a field study.

Soft Evaluation

In this chapter, the author describes an alternative approach to evaluating Information Technology (IT) projects, which involves developing a holistic view of IT interventions. The main methodological problem in evaluating any intervention is to choose the right indicators for the measurement of success or lack of it. These indicators will obviously be linked to the aims but will also be relevant to the objectives chosen to achieve these aims. Acknowledging the difficulty of choosing appropriate measures of performance, the author proposes the use of Soft Evaluation. The approach used brings together formal work in evaluation with a qualitative process of investigation based on Soft Systems Methodology in order to allow us to make judgements about the outcomes of an implementation in a systemic manner and from a number of different viewpoints or perspectives.

Extending Checkland's Phenomenological Approach to Information Systems

Recent developments in systems thinking (Fuenmayor & López Garay, 1991; Fuenmayor, 1991a,b,c; Fuenmayor, 1997; López-Garay & Suárez, 1999) linked to the phenomenological perspective, are changing our understanding of systems, and organizations. In this chapter, we will introduce a new image of organizations as holistic practices —an image based on these developments— and examine how this image may enrich Checkland’s phenomenological design of information systems The application of a phenomenological approach to information systems design (ISD) is not a new idea. Boland (1985) and Checkland & Scholes (1990), among others, brought the attention of information systems designers to this fruitful approach years ago. To phenomenology, reality is socially constructed, the product of continuous social interaction. Sense-making becomes then the focus of the systems designer, rather than the positivistic search for the “true” organization and the “true” requirements of the system to be designed (usually the main concern of the classical systems expert in every study). In the phenomenological perspective, organizations are socially constructed. Such systems can be described in relation to different particular world views of the members of the organization (Checkland & Scholes, 1990) and their interpretations. Therefore, information is the meaning that results from an engagement with the different perspectives a human organization handles. In this connection, information systems have to be designed as systems to support the organization’s central meaning-creation processes, and hence, their social construction of organizational reality (Boland 1987).

A Framework for Building Learning Organizations

The concept of the learning organization that strives continually to develop its people and processes will be an accepted philosophy of all competitive organizations in the future. Organizations are increasingly being challenged to leverage learning, as it has been widely articulated that knowledge creation and continuous learning at the individual, team, and organizational levels may be the only source of sustainable competitive advantage. Continuous learning is essential for surviving, let alone prospering, in dynamic and competitive environments. Because of this increased emphasis on learning, there has been a tremendous interest in the concept of learning organizations and the capabilities required to build learning organizations. Organizations of the future will not be able to expand into new markets and win market share unless they have a framework (technologies, people, processes, and methodologies) to use their past knowledge to gain a competitive advantage. Organizations of the 21st century have to use the latest information technology and methodologies that can enable them to be cost effective, faster, flexible, and more competitive. Despite the growing interest in learning organizations, there are knowledge gaps in understanding about how to exploit technologies to create a suitable framework for learning organization. Our chapter attempts to suggest a framework for building learning organizations and shows the use of systemic approach to implement our proposed framework to create learning organizations.

The SoSM Revisited-A Critical Realist Perspective

The chapter revisits the System of System Methodologies (SoSM) and suggests that use of the SoSM as a framework for defining methodological assumptions is difficult when the concerned methodologies have significantly different meanings for one axis of the framework—“system” complexity. It is suggested that the purpose of the underlying system can provide a more appropriate frame for defining system approaches—such purpose being defined as interaction or transformation (Mathiassen & Nielsen, 2000). The chapter also uses aspects of critical realism to provide insights into the SoSM and the critical theory underpinning the framework. The SoSM helped to highlight the neglect of coercive situations and ultimately helped prompt the development of critical systems theory which is focused on three basic commitments, critical awareness, methodological pluralism, and emancipation. Maru and Woodford (2001) recently argue that the focus on emancipation has been relegated due to a concentration on pluralism. This chapter suggests that this is a logical outcome of the epistemological focus of the underlying critical theory of Habermas. The Habermas focus on the epistemological or knowledge-based aspects of the development process must necessarily relegate the importance of ontological matters such as the conditions necessary for emancipatory practice. This chapter proposes that the philosophy of critical realism has insights to offer through its highlighting of the ontological issues in more detail and in arguing for a recognition of the deep structures and mechanisms involved in social situations.

A Systemic Approach for the Formalization of the Information Systems Concept

In the new economic context, based on Information and Knowledge resources, the concepts of Information Systems and Information Technology (IS&IT) are fundamental to understand the organizational and managerial process in all levels: strategic, tactic and operational. From an academic and practitioner perspective, we pose that the correct use of the concept of IS&IT, and in specific of Information Systems, is critical. First ones need to study the same object and second ones need to use the same common conceptual knowledge about what are Information Systems. Nevertheless, uniquely informal and semiformal definitions of Information Systems have been reported in the literature and thus a formal definition based on core systemic foundations is missing. For these reasons, the conceptualization and formal definition of what are Information Systems acquires a relevant research and praxis status. This chapter addresses this problematic situation posing a formal definition of the term Information Systems based on core theoretical principles of the Systems Approach. For that, we firstly review the foundations of Systems Approach to establish the basis for our conceptual development. Then, an updated formal definition of the core concept System originally developed by Gelman and Garcia (1989) and that incorporates new insights from other systemic researchers is presented. With these theoretical bases, we proceed to review the contributions and limitations of main informal and semiformal definitions of the term Information Systems reported at the literature. Then the new formal definition of this term is developed using the updated formal definition of the term System. We continue with a discussion of how the definition posed formalizes systemic concepts of previous definitions, of how these are partial cases of the new definition and of how it can be used to model and study Information Systems in organizations. Finally, we conclude with main remarks and implications of this definition and with directions for further research.

Technological Frames Recursive Construction Approach

Information Technology, during the last few years, has turned into a determining factor of modern organization development. In this line, a lot of studies have been conducted aimed at explaining the possible relations to company’s productivity and competitiveness, which to some extent, leads to causal conclusions, casting structural individual relationships into a background in the organizational tasks. In this direction, social researchers have incorporated valuable elements to understand the individuals’ position in the construction of technological artifacts and the comprehension thereof in the organization scope. Such research led to the statement of the concept of so-called technological frames, which explicitly incorporate an individual’s social and cognitive distinctions around the technological context in a community. Subsequent studies, however, fail to delve into the way such frames are constructed or influenced in a significant extent by the companies’s tasks or technology incorporations. For such reasons, this paper, based on the assumption that Information Technology is the result of individuals’ social interaction, is intended to explore the benefits of individuals’ structural relations understanding in Information Technology incorporation to integrate the findings of causal research and systemic elements (the study of relations), focusing on information technology understanding in the organizational tasks.