bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Culture on Email Use
Authors: Frank Jonathan , Toland Janet , Schenk Karen
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines how students from different cultural backgrounds use email to communicate with other students and teachers. The South Pacific region, isolated, vast, and culturally diverse, was selected as an appropriate research environment in which to study the effect of cultural differences and educational technology on distance learning. The context of this research was two competing distance education institutions in Fiji, the University of the South Pacific and Central Queensland University. Three research questions were addressed: Does cultural background affect the extent to which students use email to communicate with educators and other students for academic and social reasons? Does cultural background affect the academic content of email messages? Does cultural background influence students’ preference to ask questions or provide answers using email instead of face-to-face communication? To address these issues, two studies were conducted in parallel. Subjects were drawn from business information systems and computer information technology classes at the University of the South Pacific (USP) and Central Queensland University (CQU).  Four hundred students at USP were surveyed about their email usage. In the CQU study, postings to course discussion lists by 867 students were analyzed. The results of these studies suggest that there are significant differences in the use of email by students from different cultural backgrounds.
Financing Expensive Technologies in an Era of Decreased Funding
Authors: Levy Yair , Ramim Michelle M.
Published: May 2011

The great Greek philosopher Aristotle noted that learning is the outcome of teaching and practice. Clearly, learning is not confined to classroom lectures exclusively. In the past several decades, educators explored the possibilities of providing learning experiences to remote students. With the improvements in technology and the growing popularity of Internet use, online learning caught the attention of both corporations and educational institutions. In this chapter, we will discuss the two common approaches higher education institutions pursue when implementing online learning programs and provide the rationale for their success or failure. Following, we will define, propose, and categorize a set of eight key elements of a successful online learning program implementation in an era of decreased funding. The following chapter also contains a case study about the development of a successful, self-funding, online learning program in the college of business administration at a state university in the Southeast US, followed by a summary and discussion.
Supplemental Web Sites
Authors: Krishnamurthi Malini
Published: May 2011

The population of today’s learners can be described as being more than 25 years old, with a job and/or family responsibilities. The vast student body requires a flexible program that can accommodate job-related travel, need for a more mobile learning environment and a learning method which may be more entertaining and interactive than the traditional “stand and lecture” method. In the process of innovating with technology in the college curriculum, business schools are confronted with the issue of achieving a balance between the issues of “richness” and “reach.” While members of the faculty see an opportunity to enrich education, administrators see an opportunity to realize economies of scale. Results from this empirical study show that students perceive a face-to-face course supported by a web site to be useful in enhancing their academic performance. Almost all the students made use of the classroom lectures and web site resources and did not feel the need to stay away from lectures.
Introduction
Authors: Lehaney Brian , Clarke Steve , Coakes Elayne , Jack Gillian
Published: May 2011

If you want quick-fix solutions, this book is not for you. If you want to “dare to know” how to look at an organisation differently, harness the power of its knowledge, and create innovative and effective systems, then please read on! Knowledge management has been one of the most hyped phrases over the first years of the twenty-first century, and it has been mooted as the way forward for organisations to be dynamic, flexible, competitive, and successful. Despite the hype, and despite some individual successes, western economies and organisations may not have been greatly affected by this ‘all singing, all dancing’ solution to organisations’ problems. Has the impact of knowledge management been less than expected? If so, why? In order to address these questions, there are a number of others that must also be considered, such as: What is knowledge management? Why did it arise in the first place? Can it be simplified or categorised? Is it a fad? Is it theoretical? Is it practical? Why should I care about it? What can it do for my organisation? Does it provide a quick and easy solution?
Quality of Perception in M-Commerce
Authors: Ghinea G. , Angelides M. C.
Published: May 2011

In an m-commerce setting, the underlying communication system will have to provide a quality of service (QoS) in the presence of two competing factors—network bandwidth and, as the pressure to add value to the business-to-consumer (B2C) shopping experience by integrating multimedia applications grows, increasing data sizes. In this chapter, developments in the area of QoS-dependent multimedia perceptual quality are reviewed and are integrated with recent work focusing on QoS for e-commerce. Based on previously identified user perceptual tolerance to varying multimedia QoS, we show that enhancing the m-commerce B2C user experience with multimedia, far from being an idealised scenario, is in fact feasible if perceptual considerations are employed.
Understanding the Mobile Consumer
Authors: Coursaris Constantinos , Hassanein Khaled , Head Milena
Published: May 2011

The recent surge of interest in mobile commerce (m-commerce) is fueled by consumer interest in being able to access business services or to communicate with other consumers anytime and anywhere. It is also motivated by the interest of the business community to extend their reach to customers at all times and all places. Businesses that aspire to succeed in this market must have a deep understanding of the interests and concerns of the mobile consumers in using wireless applications. With this in mind, this chapter provides an analysis of this emerging market from a consumer’s perspective. A consumer-centric m-commerce model outlining the various wireless interaction modes of the mobile consumer (m-consumer) is presented, followed by a discussion of the needs and concerns of the m-consumer. An m-commerce value network is then presented, outlining the roles of the different players within this industry. The various business applications developed to address m-consumer needs are then presented. Finally, a global m-commerce market overview is provided, and some future trends are outlined.
Directions in Wireless Telecommunications
Authors: Nugent John H.
Published: May 2011

Presented in this chapter are high-level analytical and operational tools and models that assist the wireless telecommunications professional in understanding the telecommunications’ market characteristics, life cycles, trends, directions, limits, and drivers. These tools demonstrate that wireless communications will follow the same life cycle characteristics as wire-line communications. Tools are also presented that provide important and timely insight for gaining competitive advantage based upon early detection of critical inflection points.
Comparing the Security Architectures of Sun ONE and Microsoft .NET
Authors: Fernandez Eduardo B. , Thomsen Michael , Fernandez Minjie H.
Published: May 2011

Platforms for web services have been reduced to two basic approaches: Microsoft .NET and Sun ONE (J2EE). We compare here these two platforms with respect to the security they provide to the web services that use them. We arrive to the conclusion that although the basic security architectures are fairly similar, their actual implementations differ. Microsoft’s approach appears weaker because of their self-contained approach, and a failure to follow good principles of software and secure systems design.
Implementing ERP-What Happens to Competitive Advantages?
Authors: Sammon David , Adam Frédéric , Higgins Kevin , Synnott Mark
Published: May 2011

Over the last 30 years, the enterprise-wide systems movement has been gathering momentum and has now reached a global dimension, with companies across the world and, more importantly, across very different industries jumping on the ERP/SCM/CRM bandwagon. The pace of implementations has been such that SAP alone have now implemented their software in 30,000 sites and have a user population well in excess of 10 million. However, studies carried out since the ERP epidemic broke out have revealed that the rationale pursued by managers in acquiring ERP packages has sometimes been weak and not well informed. Moreover, the track record of ERP implementations has not been good with many examples of implementation failures. It is our contention that the problems reported in ERP projects are due to a failure to link the business model underlying ERP packages and the unique assets of organisations. In this research study, we carried out two in-depth case studies of organisations having just implemented ERP packages and focused on the preparation stage of their projects. We also carried out a survey of organisations having implemented ERP to confirm quantitatively how well managers prepare themselves for ERP. Based on these, we uncover patterns of ERP project preparation which may explain the low success rate of ERP projects and put forward some proposals which should help managers and researchers to increase the likelihood that ERP projects are successful.
Service-Oriented Human Computer Interaction and Scripting
Authors: McBride Neil , Elbeltagi Ibrahim
Published: May 2011

The emphasis of human-computer interaction (HCI) design on the technology and computer action tends to obscure consideration of the contribution of the computer interface to the service interaction. This chapter suggests that since a majority of commercial information systems support or provide services, the nature and progression of the service encounter should be a key concern of human computer interface designers. The chapter proposes the concept of service-oriented HCI in which HCI design is derived from service design, dialog is driven by customer needs and perceptions, activities that have led up to the service encounter are considered, and the service interaction dialog is aligned with the computer dialog. As part of service-oriented HCI, the chapter illustrates the use of scripting to examine ex-post the role of a computer interaction in a service encounter. It demonstrates that the computer dialog can drive the service interaction in such a way that the quality of the interaction is reduced and customer satisfaction affected. It concludes that the role of the computer system in a service interaction is an area for further research. Furthermore, script analysis may enable the development of human-computer dialogs that meet some of the criteria of service-oriented HCI.
User Acceptance of Online Computer Games
Authors: Gao Yuan
Published: May 2011

User interface design makes an important contribution to the effective presentation of online entertainment products. In this chapter, we examine two models in predicting user acceptance of online computer games. The first is the technology acceptance model (TAM) from the information systems field, while the second is a consumer behavior model based on marketing and advertising research. A field study was conducted to empirically test the two models. Results indicate that both models explain a significant amount of variance in our dependent variables: attitude toward the game and intention to return to the game, with TAM a more consistent predictor of both result variables. This study sheds light on research of Web-based product presentation in general and that of entertainment products such as online computer games in particular.
Employee Perceptions of Outsourcing of Information Technology Operations
Authors: Louis Lynda R.
Published: May 2011

Little research exists that address employee perceptions of information technology (IT) outsourcing, and its effects on IT employees. This chapter examines a study that investigated perceptions of employees directly involved in IT outsourcing and correlated these perceptions with factors identified in earlier studies. The following human resource factors associated with outsourcing were evaluated: job security, benefits and compensation, morale, productivity, training and skills, and career opportunities. The study evaluated four hypotheses that contended transitioned employees benefited more from IT outsourcing. Results substantiated those of two previous studies of employee perception of IT outsourcing. However, there was no statistical evidence to support the contention that transitioned professionals benefit more from outsourcing than retained professionals. To assist management with addressing these issues, a Modified Management Outsourcing Adoption Model, based on an earlier study, is presented as a tool for use in management action plans to incorporate employee perspectives into the outsourcing process and potentially lead to more successful outsourcing ventures.
Audio Watermarking
Authors: Acevedo Andrés G.
Published: May 2011

The recent explosion of the Internet as a collaborative medium has opened the door for people who want to share their work. Nonetheless, the advantages of such an open medium can pose very serious problems for authors who do not want their works to be distributed without their consent. As new methods for copyright protection are devised, expectations around them are formed and sometimes improvable claims are made. This chapter covers one such technology: audio watermarking. First, the field is introduced, and its properties and applications are discussed. Then, the most common techniques for audio watermarking are reviewed, and the framework is set for the objective measurement of such techniques. The last part of the chapter proposes a novel test and a set of metrics for thorough benchmarking of audio watermarking schemes. The development of such a benchmark constitutes a first step towards the standardization of the requirements and properties that such systems should display.
Agent-Mediated Knowledge Acquisition for User Profiling
Authors: Andreevskaia A. , Abi-Aad R. , Radhakrishnan T.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a tool for knowledge acquisition for user profiling in electronic commerce. The knowledge acquisition in e-commerce is a challenging task that requires specific tools in order to facilitate the knowledge transfer from the user to the system. The proposed tool is based on a hierarchical user model and is agent-based. The architecture of the tool incorporates four software agents: processing agent maintaining the user profile, validating agent interacting with the user when information validation is needed, monitoring agent monitoring the effects of the changes made to the user profile, and a filtering agent ensuring the safe information exchange with other software.
Networking E-Learning Hosts Using Mobile Agents
Authors: Quah Jon T.S. , Chen Y. M. , Leow Winnie C.H.
Published: May 2011

With the rapid evolution of the Internet, information overload is becoming a common phenomenon. It is necessary to have a tool to help users extract useful information. A similar problem is faced by e-learning applications. At present, commercialized e-learning systems lack the information search tools needed to help users search for course information, and few of them have explored the power of mobile agent. Mobile agent is a suitable tool, particularly for Internet information retrieval. This chapter presents a mobile agent-based e-learning tool which can help the e-learning user search for course materials on the Web. A prototype system of cluster-nodes has been implemented, and experiment results are presented.
Evaluating Graph Drawing Aesthetics
Authors: Purchase Helen C.
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes a long-term project that investigates the validity of the design principles — not from the perspective of computational efficiency, but from the perspective of human comprehension — upon which many automatic graph layout algorithms are based. It describes a framework for experimentation in this area, the overall methodology used throughout, as well as the details of the experiments themselves. It shows the development of the empirical ideas and methods as the project matured and provides reflections on each experiment, demonstrating the difficulty of initiating a new experimental research area. The chapter suggests how the current results should best be interpreted, as well as ideas for future work in this area.
Everything That Can Communicate Will
Authors: Davis Ben Howell
Published: May 2011

The concept of aligning and managing digital assets is a reaction to the evolution of digital production and digital networks. The understanding of this evolution is rooted in experiences in library and museum communities, the digital solutions and design disciplines, the communications and entertainment industries, and law. Aligning and managing digital assets is predicated upon the notion that everything that can communicate will and, in a sense, begins to approach what neuroscience has been telling us for quite some time — that everything actually does communicate in some way or other. There are a number of levels of digital assets. Digital assets are created and maintained in support systems architecture, in digital production tools, in digital content development, in taxonomy development, in user destination designs, in audience interactions, and in legal monitoring. Being digital means everything can be accounted for, everything can communicate, everything has value, and everything can last. Acquiring, merging, or divesting a digital enterprise requires comprehensive digital asset management at every level.
User Networks as Sources of Innovation
Authors: Lundkvist Anders
Published: May 2011

In the computer and software business, it is common practice to involve users in problem solving and sharing of experiences, not only between a company and individual users but also between groups of users. Although customer support has gained some attention in recent years, a more intriguing thought would address users as a source of innovation. What if users themselves, or in interaction with other users, would, in addition to solving specific problems, also develop and share new knowledge that influences products within companies? In connection with this notion is the question as to how companies can come to relate to these networks of users. The empirical case study in this chapter was generated from a long-term study during 1998-1999 with Cisco Systems and the company’s groups of users. Of particular interest to this study was the use of the Cisco newsgroup, which is available on the Internet. The conceptual framework was generated from the emerging theory of Communities of Practice (CoPs). By using this framework, user networks were recognised as peripheral and yet vital sites of innovation. This implies new strategies for management of innovation as the creation of spaces for interaction with and between users and addressing networks rather than individual users.
Building Customer Communities of Practice for Business Value
Authors: Manville Brook
Published: May 2011

Most discussions of Communities of Practice (CoP) place them in the context of a primarily internal-to-the-organization approach to managing knowledge. The construct, however, has application across the entire value chain of an organization, including the domain of a company’s customers. This article explores the strategic value of building Customer Communities of Practice (CCoPs), learning networks among customers of a company whose win-win value proposition helps customers gain valuable insights from other peers while also providing the sponsoring company with a means to further innovation, loyalty and deeper insights into the markets they serve. The analysis suggests three types of CCoPs, including business to consumer, business to business, and communities of channel distributors. Case studies of each are presented and an especially extensive treatment is offered of the second type based on the author’s experience of building a CCoP for his own software company. The discussion concludes with several lessons learned and practical guidelines for building successful CCoPs in any industry.
Viable Communities within Organizational Contexts
Authors: Frost Benjamin , Schoen Stefan
Published: May 2011

This chapter is about the question of what creates and sustains viability in Communities of Practice (CoPs) embedded in an organizational context. Experience with successful CoPs at Siemens AG has shown that even though most of them differ greatly from each other in many aspects, they all share five common factors that are necessary for the viability of a CoP. These five factors are introduced in the following pages. They represent an approach that can be used to analyse and improve CoPs that do not seem to be viable and as a guide for CoP members and moderators to maintain viability in their own CoPs.
Where Did That Community Go? Communities of Practice That "Disappear"
Authors: Gongla Patricia , Rizzuto Christine R.
Published: May 2011

Experience has been gained and a body of literature is building about how Communities of Practice (CoPs) within organizations are formed. We are learning about the progression of communities over time, how they evolve and mature, and about the factors that contribute to their sustainability. However, communities, being “living systems”, do not live forever, or even very long. That said, exactly why and how does any particular Community of Practice (CoP) disappear? This chapter will discuss the factors related to the ending of individual communities. Specifically, it will address three basic questions: 1) In what ways do CoPs disappear; what are the different paths and patterns? 2) Why do communities disappear? 3) What are ways to help a community transition? The material for this chapter is drawn primarily from observations of and experiences with CoPs in IBM Global Services. A number of these communities over the past years have “disappeared”, but they have not all “disappeared” in the same way. The authors will discuss patterns and variations that have emerged as these communities vanished from the organizational scene. In working with these communities, they have also developed a general guide to aid in the communities’ transitioning. The authors will very briefly describe the steps in this guide.
The Government and eGovernance
Authors: Al-Qirim Nabeel A.Y. , Corbitt Brian J.
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews e-Commerce research in Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand. The chapter then attempts to review the Government’s e-Commerce strategy highlighting commonalities and gaps with respect to e-Commerce adoption and diffusion research in SMEs in New Zealand. The chapter found the strategy emphasising the role of the Government in providing leadership, in building the capability of New Zealanders and in providing an enabling regulatory environment. The strategy is set out to be a complete partnership between Government, business, and the broader community to achieve these objectives. Recent progress on this strategy is reviewed and its significance to SMEs is discussed. This chapter points to the importance of prioritising the implementation of certain strategies by the New Zealand Government in order for e-Commerce to succeed in SMEs.
Building Infrastructure for SME Adoption of E-Business
Authors: Jutla Dawn N.
Published: May 2011

Challenged to increase the country’s productivity, the Canadian government issued a 10-year innovation strategy agenda in January 2001. Canada’s innovation strategy identifies goals, targets, and government priorities in four key areas: knowledge performance, skills, innovation environment, and community clusters. Complementing the government’s agenda, Porter (2002) similarly recommends that businesses in Canada: “(1) collaborate with competitors/government to create specialized infrastructure and education, (2) invest in cluster development, (3) serve sophisticated and global markets with demanding customers, and create unique products/services, and (4) encourage local suppliers to meet global standards.” The Canadian government has explicitly stated that e-business is part of its innovation strategy (Innovation, 2001). Here we describe a model to guide governments in building infrastructure for a knowledge-based economy. Using specific Canadian initiatives, we will make an empirical case to illustrate the model that countries around the world can use to facilitate SME e-business adoption.
An SME Experience of E-Commerce
Authors: Chau Stephen B. , Tuner Paul
Published: May 2011

Previous research has identified that small business faces additional barriers to e-commerce adoption compared with large business. More recently it has emerged that the adoption of e-commerce technology has often not translated into the active utilisation and conduct of e-commerce by small business. The factors and problems that account for this apparent lack of benefit derived from e-commerce activity forms the focus of this chapter. This chapter identifies and critically analyses the range of factors impacting on small businesses conducting e-commerce. A framework is developed to explore potential problem areas for e-commerce implementation and utilisation. This framework is based upon a qualitative analysis of 34 Australian SMEs utilising e-commerce and from findings in a report conducted by Ernst & Young of an additional 34 Australian small businesses implementing e-commerce. The chapter endeavours to provide an outline of the issues that policymakers need to consider in developing e-commerce policy to motivate and support ongoing e-commerce initiatives among SMEs.
Virtual Teams as Sociotechnical Systems
Authors: Cuevas Haydee M. , Fiore Stephen M. , Salas Eduardo , Bowers Clint A.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we adopt a sociotechnical systems approach to understand the challenges faced by members of an organizational unit that is not constrained by geographical, temporal, organizational, or national boundaries. Specifically, we examine virtual team performance within the context of an open sociotechnical system, highlighting the effects that the technological subsystem (e.g., collaborative information technology) and external environmental factors (e.g., lack of colocation) have on the personnel subsystem (i.e., virtual team members) within the organization. The organizational psychology literature on group productivity, motivation, and shared mental models is reviewed to, first, better understand team performance within the context of distributed environments, and second, offer guidelines and interventions for organizational practice.
Management Factors for Strategic BI Success
Authors: Chaudhary Somya
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on the factors necessary for strategic Business Intelligence (BI) success from a managerial point of view. BI results from the various information and human knowledge source systems, as well as the holistic view of the business processes within an organization. However, for the BI process to be synergetic within an organization, the management of the organization should be responsible for providing an environment that is conducive to yielding optimum BI generation and utilization. The goal should be to maximize the resources and minimize the inefficiencies that are systematic within an organization. Open lines of communication, with shared goals and objectives, and organization-wide standards are crucial for overall success. The factors for BI success are all interrelated and non-sequential. However, each needs to be executed and communicated with complete diligence on part of the management for overall strategic success. Lastly, to accommodate a healthy and ethical BI environment, the corporate philosophy and work methodologies may warrant necessary modification.
Story Boarding for Web-Based Information Systems
Authors: Kascek Roland , Schewe Klaus-Dieter , Wallace Catherine , Matthews Claire
Published: May 2011

The present chapter is about story boarding for web information systems (WIS). It is a holistic usage-centered approach for analyzing requirements and conceptual modeling of WIS. We conceptualize web information systems as open information systems and discuss them from a business point of view, including their linguistic, communicational and methodological foundations. To illustrate story boarding, we discuss a simple application example.
Sales Force Management in the Consumer Product Industry
Authors: Sharma Navin
Published: May 2011

One of the largest direct-selling companies in the world, with sales forces in the U.S. and abroad, sells a line of beauty, health, and fitness products through a network of independent sales representatives. Currently in the United States alone, the representative population has grown to several hundred thousand individuals. Representatives purchase products from the company at a discount, and in turn, sell them to their own customers, earning revenue through volume discounts. Customers order their products from catalogs that contain a mix of seasonally appropriate items along with core and new products, and special promotions to choose from. To assist its field sales force, this consumer products organization provides incentives, sales recognition awards, and training programs in beauty consultation and sales effectiveness.
Taking a Close Look at the Evolving Utilities Industry
Authors: Galletti Nicholas
Published: May 2011

The electric industry has undergone a radical transformation over the last five years. Prior to the late 1990s, the industry was heavily regulated. Investor-owned utility companies operated in franchise areas, under an agreement with local regulators that no competitors would be allowed, in exchange for the utility to pass through all prudently incurred costs of serving its customers as well as an allowed rate of return for required capital investments. This system worked reasonably well for decades.
Internet Shopping Model and Customer Perceptions
Authors: Xu Xianzhong M. , Roberts Martyn
Published: May 2011

A major growth area in electronic commerce (EC) is organisations that directly interact with their customers (Business to Consumer EC). The supermarket sector is at the forefront of this development. However, it has been widely reported that e-retailing for grocery shopping, for example, Webvan, particularly in the U.S., has not been successful. Little empirical evidence is documented to reveal whether customers shopping patterns have significantly changed toward Internet shopping. By using a case study approach and a questionnaire survey, this study reports the Internet shopping models adopted by the major UK supermarkets, and examines consumer shopping behaviour and their attitudes toward the Internet for grocery shopping.
Technology Trust in Internet-Based Interorganizational Electronic Commerce
Authors: Ratnasingam Pauline , Pavlou Paul A.
Published: May 2011

Trust in Internet-based Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce is an important issue for both practitioners and academicians. Whereas the traditional notion of dyadic interfirm trust primarily focuses on trust in a trading partner firm, trust in e-commerce also implicitly incorporates the notion of trust in the transaction infrastructure and underlying control mechanisms (technology trust), which deals with transaction integrity, authentication, confidentiality, non-repudiation, and best business practices. This research explicitly examines this new institutional character of trust in B2B e-commerce, arguing that business value realization is heavily dependent on the dimension of technology trust, captured as perceived benefits and actual organizational performance, even after controlling for the positive effects of partner trust. Given the absence of adequate metrics to capture the notion of technology trust in B2B e-commerce, this research develops and validates a measure for technology trust and tests its effect on benefits and performance. This chapter contributes to theory by bridging the gap between technological solutions (technology trust) from an institutional trust perspective, trading partner trust (relationship trust) and business value (perceived benefits and organizational performance). The proposed theoretical model is tested in organizations actively involved in B2B e-commerce using survey methodology. The findings from 288 firms validated the importance of technology trust for organizational success in B2B e-commerce.
Information Systems Expenditures and Firm Value
Authors: Sriram Ram S. , Krishnan Gopal V. , Lai Kam-Wah
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the value relevance of disclosures about IT expenditures. Using information about the amount of consulting fees paid to the incumbent auditor by their clients for designing and developing a financial information system (FIS), the study examines whether there is an association between market value of equity and IT expenditures. Since the financial services industry is an intensive user of IT and often relies on IT as a source of competitive advantage, the study uses a sample of firms from the financial services sector. This chapter contributes to our understanding of the importance of disclosures about IT expenditures in assessment of firm value. The results show positive association between investments in IT and market value of equity. Overall, the findings support the notion that investors perceive investments in IT as value-relevant.
A Qualitative Study of Small Business Internet Commerce
Authors: Chen Lei-da , Haney Steve , Pandzik Alex , Spigarelli John , Jesseman Chris
Published: May 2011

While more small to medium size enterprises begin to conduct business over the Internet, the degrees of success in these endeavors vary. There is an urgent need for an understanding of the issues that uniquely contribute to the successes and failures of small business Internet commerce. This chapter takes a qualitative approach to study the case of a small traditional retailer, Getz’s Incorporated, transforming itself to take advantage of Internet commerce. The study examines the company’s e-commerce strategies, experiences and transformation from a 100-year-old traditional retailer to a successful brick-and-click store. The overall goal was to provide a meaningful contribution to an area of research sorely lacking in relevant cases — small business Internet commerce. Founded in 1898, Getz’s is a Michigan-based retailer that made its first attempt in Internet commerce in 1997. The company specializes in marketing rugged outdoor clothing to local customers. The success of Getz’s Internet commerce effort was remarkable. By studying the company, the authors of this chapter have developed a list of six critical success factors attributing to the positive impact that Internet commerce has upon the company. Despite its success, the company and other small business e-commerce firms everywhere, face many challenges. The conclusions gathered from this chapter will be applicable to the broad universe of small businesses that seek to use the Internet to expand their target market, serve their customers, reduce costs and increase revenue.
Collaborative Decision Making in Web-Based GIS
Authors: Sikder Iftikhar U. , Gangopadhyay Aryya
Published: May 2011

There are numerous technical and organizational challenges in the design and implementation of spatial decision support systems. Part of the problem stems from the distributed and uncoordinated land management practices of individual decision-makers. For example, in environmental planning, multiple decision makers with conflicting goals may need to make collective decisions. This requires collaborative decision-making tools and conflict resolution capabilities. In this chapter, we identify the research issues related to the design and implementation of Web- based collaborative spatial decision-making support systems in the context of distributed environmental planning. We implemented a Web-based Spatial Decision Support System called GEO-ELCA (Exploratory Land Use Change Assessment) for typical decision-making tasks by urban or municipal planning agencies where resource managers or stakeholders of different interest groups can express their options for future land use changes and assess the resulting hydrological impacts in a collaborative environment.
Information Technology Support for Interorganizational Knowledge Transfer
Authors: Khandelwal V.K. , Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores some important and contemporary issues concerning the knowledge-based view of the firm. Law firms represent an industry that seems very well suited to knowledge management investigation. Law firms are knowledge intensive, and the use of advanced technology may well transform these organizations in the future. This chapter reports empirical results from Norwegian and Australian law firms on their use of IT to support their knowledge management practice. IT plays a critical role in inter firm knowledge management efforts. This interorganizational study documents that the extent of knowledge cooperation had a significant impact on the use of IT to support interorganizational knowledge management. The extent of interorganizational trust did not have any significant impact.
Knowledge Sharing Infrastructure and Methods for Virtual Enterprises
Authors: Daneshgar Farhad , Ray Pradeep , Rabhi Fethi , Skaf-Molli Hala , Molli Pascal , Godart Claude
Published: May 2011

The world is witnessing a dramatic increase in the availability of knowledge and information due to the proliferation of the Internet. Virtual enterprises are new collaboration models, which enable the sharing of knowledge within and across organizations over the Internet. The chapter is concerned with both providing a knowledge-sharing infrastructure to facilitate collaborative work in virtual enterprises, as well as introducing a methodology for designing groupware for enhancing collaboration in virtual enterprises. The chapter reviews a number of existing Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) techniques, such as groupware and workflow and their role in supporting such an infrastructure. It then introduces a methodology for the analysis and design of collaborative information systems with a specific objective of maintaining a shared awareness among knowledge workers in virtual enterprises. This methodology includes as its main analytical tool a conceptual model called Collaborative Process Model for analyzing knowledge-sharing requirements of the actors in enterprise environments. Finally, the chapter presents an application of the methodology to a network management/trouble-shooting case study and discusses a NOTES prototype implementation.
Staff Detection and Removal
Authors: Fujinaga Ichiro
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the issues involved in the detection and removal of stavelines of musical scores. This removal process is an important step for many Optical Music Recognition systems and facilitates the segmentation and recognition of musical symbols. The process is complicated by the fact that most music symbols are placed on top of stavelines and these lines are often neither straight nor parallel to each other. The challenge here is to remove as much of stavelines as possible while preserving the shapes of the musical symbols, which are superimposed on stavelines. Various problematic examples are illustrated and a detailed explanation of an algorithm is presented. Image processing techniques used in the algorithm include: run-length coding, connected-component analysis, and projections.
Issues in Clinical Knowledge Management
Authors: Bali Rajeev K. , Dwivedi Ashish , Raouf Raouf
Published: May 2011

The objective of this chapter is to examine some of the key issues surrounding the incorporation of the Knowledge Management (KM) paradigm in healthcare. We discuss whether it would it be beneficial for healthcare organizations to adopt the KM paradigm so as to facilitate effective decision-making in the context of healthcare delivery. Alternative healthcare management concepts with respect to their ability in providing a solution to the above-mentioned issue are reviewed. This chapter concludes that the KM paradigm can transform the healthcare sector.
It's High Time for Application Frameworks for Healthcare
Authors: Marinos Efstathios , Marinos George , Kordatzakis Antonios , Pragmatefteli Maria , Georgoulas Aggelos , Koutsouris Dimitris
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the impact of adopting application frameworks in the healthcare (HC) domain. It argues the shortcomings of existing HC applications and systems, examines the benefits of application frameworks use during and after the software development, and presents such an application framework. The authors hope that this chapter will put on the table the discussion about the necessity of application frameworks in HC because they strongly believe that the software industry can tremendously benefit from the work done so far in the area of the HC standardization, in order to provide HC-specific application frameworks that will make software development easier and more efficient.
Feasibility of Joint Working in Exchange and Sharing of Caller Information Between Ambulance, Fire and Police Services of Barfordshire
Authors: Clarke Steve , Lehaney Brian , Evans Huw
Published: May 2011

This was a practical intervention in the UK, the objective of which was to undertake an examination of the current arrangements between Barfordshire Fire, Police and Ambulance Services for the sharing and exchange of caller information, taking into account technological potential and constraints, organisational issues, and geographical factors. The process followed was highly participative. The initial event was an open space session followed by later sessions exploring information technologyand human resource issues. For these two later events, interactive planning and critical systems heuristics were used. The most important outcome was that, whilst the extent to which the five organisations involved shared information and knowledge was very variable, there were no perceived barriers to this happening. Such sharing, despite considerable structural and cultural barriers, was seen to be feasible both organisationally and technically. The study further highlighted a need to more closely integrate operational and strategic planning in this area and to make more explicit use of known and tested methodologies to better enable participative dialogue.
A Co-Ordinated Single-Vendor Multi-Buyer Supply Chain Model
Authors: Chan Chi Kin , Kingsman Brian G.
Published: May 2011

his chapter considers the co-ordination in a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain by synchronising ordering and production cycles. The synchronisation is achieved by scheduling the actual ordering days of the buyers and co-ordinating it with the vendor’s production cycle whilst allowing the buyers to choose their own lot sizes and order cycle. A mathematical model for our proposed co-ordination is developed and analysed. Our results show that the synchronised cycles policy works better than independent optimisation or restricting buyers to adopt a common order cycle. Some illustrative examples demonstrate that there are circumstances where both the vendor and the buyers gain from such synchronisation without the need for price and quantity discount incentives.
The Taxonomy of Information Societies
Authors: Targowski Andrew S.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the taxonomy of 14 information societies from the data society to the self-sustainable society: surviving members. Their essence and role in civilization is characterized and their paradigms and measurements are defined. The information society is considered as the force of change and a question is raised: is it a new tool of thought or a new way of life? The future trends of the information society are reviewed, and in conclusion there is a hope that the information society will make humankind more aware of its being.
The Organizational Transformation Process to Globalization
Authors: Serour Magdy K.
Published: May 2011

The topic of globalization is increasingly attracting the attention of software engineers, system researchers, and, most interestingly, business practitioners. In recent years there has been a perceptible increase in demand from business companies, services, and non-profit organizations and even from government bodies around the world to adopt and utilize Internet-based technologies in order to transform their traditional business/service activities into an electronic business environment. Such a transformation empowers organizations to expand their business processes beyond their local borders and move the entire business from localization to globalization. This chapter introduces and investigates the entire organizational transformation process to globalization. It starts with emphasizing the necessity of moving local businesses’ practices to a global market with the highlight of the major driving forces for globalization. Furthermore this chapter examines a number of vital issues that may strongly impact the final outcomes of the entire transformation process. These issues include main obstacles, resistance to change, and risk factors associated with the transformation process. Moreover this chapter proposes a conceptual framework with the objective of providing a good comprehension of the involved factors in transformation with their relationships. The last section of this chapter focuses on examining and exploring the foremost transformation maturity stages, readiness, adoption, diffusion, and retrospective.
The Design and Evolution of Singerian Inquiring Organizations
Authors: Kienholz Alice
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, Singerian inquiring organizations are further developed as the most appropriate type of inquiring organization for moving from knowledge management to wisdom by elaborating on the original knowledge management concepts and framework proposed by Croasdell, Courtney, and Paradice (1998). In moving from knowledge management to wisdom, the author has integrated some of the most classic and substantive thinking, research, and practices in the leadership and wisdom literature into the design of Singerian inquiring organizations.
Email and Knowledge Creation
Authors: Lichtenstein Sharman , Parker Craig M. , Cybulski Margaret
Published: May 2011

The real promise of organizational communication technologies may lie in their potential to facilitate participative discourse between knowledge workers at all levels in distributed locations and time zones. Such discourse enables the exchange of sometimes conflicting viewpoints through which resolution and symbiosis, organizational knowledge can be built. This chapter presents a case study of a Singerian inquiring organization which illustrates how a fluid dynamic community of employees can use email to build knowledge, learn, make decisions, and enhance wisdom through a cycle of knowledge combination (divergence) and knowledge qualification (convergence). The chapter offers new theoretical perspectives on the enhancement of wisdom in inquiring organizations and provides practical insights into the use of email for supporting effective knowledge creation in inquiring organizations.