Evolution and Revolution of Retailing through IT

This chapter examines the impact that IT has had on retailing under two headings–evolutionary and revolutionary changes. The evolutionary changes described focus on the electronic identification of products, the improved communication links between retailers and their suppliers, and the introduction of electronic payment. The revolutionary changes considered are those stemming from e-commerce. The thrust of the discussion is that whilst IT has revolutionised product associated with the physical transfer (delivery or pickup) of goods to customers. This has opened up an opportunity for a new form of retailer that may be the result of an alliance between companies with IT skills (e.g., Microsoft), delivery capability (e.g., DHL) and distributed physical assets (e.g., Exxon).

A Case Study of How Technology and Trust Enable the Projectized Team-Based Organization

The phenomenon of projectized teams operating via teleworking and moving towards the virtual mode of operation is explored. The major developments in the relevant HRM and trust literature are covered prior to the consideration of how IT can enable the development of unconditional trust as part of the formation of projectized teams. The case study company is a small but rapidly growing enterprise in the technology and software industry. A model of its new organizational structure is developed and recommended steps for moving from a flexible work-based organization to a virtual organization are provided based on the case study and the literature. Finally, future challenges and recommendations for organizations using IT-enabled projectized teams are considered.

IT-Based Project Knowledge Management

This chapter presents IT solutions supporting knowledge management initiatives within project organizations. The first section describes the background of the problem, that is the difficulty of managing knowledge in project-based organizations. The second section presents a model of knowledge management as the activity of managing compromises on a number of dimensions, and uses this model to present IT solutions for project knowledge management. The last section discusses future trends and key challenges and focuses on knowledge representation.

Managerial Responsibility and IT

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between management, responsibility and information technology. It is shown that there are structural similarities between the three terms that facilitate addressing normative issues in the management of IT through the use of the concept of responsibility. That means that responsibility seems to be a perfect choice for dealing with ethical, moral, and legal problems arising from IT. However, there is also another aspect, the fact that the use of IT can pose a threat to managerial responsibility ascriptions. The paper aims at clarifying the nature of these threats and opportunities. The knowledge about them should help managers maximise their chances of successfully discharging their responsibilities in IT.

Logistics, Information Technology, and Retail Internationalisation

In the present work we suggest the notion of the strategic information technology competitive advantage and its potential strategic impact upon a retailer’s organisational supply chain coordination. The existence of a logistics strategy and an information technology strategy constitute two functions that offer the platform for retail firms to “internalise” the effective management of the supply chain by converting it to a coordination competitive advantage. The latter depends upon the ability of the retail firms to transform a logistics strategy and an information technology strategy into what the authors call strategic logistics and strategic information technology. We also argue that logistics and information technology can assist a retailer to form a “logistics network” with third-party firms in the supply chain, with the aim to capture and to protect to the full the differential returns generated via the internalisation of the supply chain activities. The coordination competitive advantage owned by the retailer enhances retail change in domestic and in international markets, as the retailer enters foreign markets via a similar network of third party and its own account logistics operations, giving rise to new retail organisation schemes, such as the international strategic retail network.

An IT-Based Heuristic Model for Enterprise Engineering

Around the world complex enterprises are being undertaken in distributed and even virtual environments. Processes, services, infrastructure and so forth must be developed to address these major projects. This article presents an information-technology-based heuristic model to help the enterprises’ integrators in their new responsibilities and duties. This IT-based model conveys to a taxonomy to manage the coordination and transaction among all the partners of a major project, addressing a new discipline named enterprise engineering. This is an issue challenging most companies in the world, as new ways of operating these complex enterprises are being undertaken worldwide by most integrators. The search for a new model is therefore demanded by most of the international companies. Hence, this article intends to present an heuristic model that is able to integrate productive processes, services and information technologies among the players through a huge network of coordination. Conclusions are presented at the end of this article.

Managing the Virtual Corporation Using IT

Virtual organizations are characterized and various types of virtual organizations are described. Factors contributing to the success of virtual organizations are identified. Various technologies for intra-organizational coordination are described and concerns regarding the reliance on technology in virtual organizations are elaborated upon. Issues regarding multilingual Web pages are identified. Finally, the role of the semantic Web in the future of virtual organizations is described.

Strategic Information Systems

Certain contingencies of business environment raise the importance of alignment in the explanation of tactics with strategic implications. Alignment is an important aspect that has to be examined in all multivariate and normative models. In this paper, the Information Technology (IT) alignment is examined along with business strategy and structure, while taking into account environmental contingencies. The concept of alignment raises the strategic role of information technology through the integration of business and IT strategy. Most of the firms nowadays cannot capture the strategic role of IT and underestimating its value as persisting only on financial valuation. In this work, an attempt has been made to fill out this lack of strategic estimation by the use of the alignment model. A taxonomy of strategic information technology applications is presented and an integration of IT with business strategy and structure is attempted in order to create competitive advantage.

Managing Data Quality in Accounting Information Systems

Information is the key resource of today’s organizations, and therefore, quality information is critical to organizations’ success. Accounting information systems (AIS) in particular, requires high quality information. This chapter discusses critical success factors for data quality in accounting information systems. A model for factors that impact on data quality in AIS was proposed, and then examined in seven Australian case studies. The detailed discussion of each factor was included, and it was found that education and training, nature of AIS, and top management commitment are the most critical factors. The findings of the study would help organizations to focus on important factors to obtain better benefit from less effort. Top management, IT and accounting professionals should be able to gain the better understanding of accounting information systems’ data quality management from the discussion of this chapter.

What Can We Do for Corporate Nomads? IT and Facilities Management

This chapter examines the impact of technology on facilities management. By focusing attention on the needs of the “corporate nomad,” individuals who take advantage of technology and new forms of work organization to break out of the 9-5 mentality of corporate life, it suggests that even the virtual office requires a degree of facilities management. It argues that organizations will become increasingly aware of the need to better utilise expensive real estate in real time to ensure a synergy between organizational and individual needs.