Are we ready? The state of wireless e-business in the USA

Recent evidence shows that in the United States, electronics and information technology (IT) businesses generate nearly one-third of their revenues from e-business, yet spend less than 5% on IT. While there have been many published studies on the adoption of e-business using wired Internet technologies, the adoption of wireless e-business by US firms remains relatively unexplored. The purpose of this study is to report on the current state of adoption of wireless e-business technologies in the US Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector and the factors likely to affect the utilization of these technologies in the future Survey results show that the US ICT sector is not very far along in its use and application of wireless e-business technologies.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from TBRC, Lappeenranta University of Technology and the College of Business at San Francisco State University for this study. The helpful comments of Dr. Richard Beer, Assistant Professor, Department of Information Systems at the University of San Francisco and former Executive Director, Fisher Center for Information Technology at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley are greatly appreciated.     

Organizational software piracy: an empirical assessment

Application of Information Technology (IT) has had a significant impact on all aspects of business. Due to technology, the ease with which software can be pirated is increasing and is leading to increased concern for copyright protection. This paper reviews and discusses software piracy issues from a global perspective and reports the findings of a survey concerning the impact of sectors like government, private and academic in Turkey. Although software piracy has long been attracting the interest of academics, no quantitative research has ever been realized in this field in the country. Elsewhere also, most of the software piracy-related studies are from individuals' perspectives and are limited to students, academics, cost, and attitudes. Very few have reported findings related to IT professionals and organizations. The survey was conducted among IT managers of large-scale organizations from different sectors such as the government, private and academic community. Based on the survey of 162 IT managers, the results indicated that sectors have significant impact on software piracy to some extent.     

Organizational software piracy: an empirical assessment

Application of Information Technology (IT) has had a significant impact on all aspects of business. Due to technology, the ease with which software can be pirated is increasing and is leading to increased concern for copyright protection. This paper reviews and discusses software piracy issues from a global perspective and reports the findings of a survey concerning the impact of sectors like government, private and academic in Turkey. Although software piracy has long been attracting the interest of academics, no quantitative research has ever been realized in this field in the country. Elsewhere also, most of the software piracy-related studies are from individuals' perspectives and are limited to students, academics, cost, and attitudes. Very few have reported findings related to IT professionals and organizations. The survey was conducted among IT managers of large-scale organizations from different sectors such as the government, private and academic community. Based on the survey of 162 IT managers, the results indicated that sectors have significant impact on software piracy to some extent.     

Creating value through governing IT deployment in a public/private-sector inter-organisational context: a human agency perspective

Harnessing value from Information Technology (IT) has long been a focus of research, but evidence is lacking about how effective practice of Information Technology Governance (ITG) contributes to creating value for stakeholders in inter-organisational contexts. This is especially so for public/private sector partnerships. In this study we used ISO/IEC 38500:2008, the corporate governance of IT standard, to direct analysis of how ITG was practised in deployment of a large IT project in an inter-organisational public/private sector context. The findings demonstrate that ITG strategies related to human agency contribute to the realisation of value for participating stakeholders, particularly through pre-emptive stakeholder participation in evaluating IT functionality of the old system and iteratively in deployment of the new system. Further, our investigation shows that ISO/IEC 38500:2008 has merit as an analytical framework to objectively evaluate corporate governance of IT, although there is need for some enhancement.     

It's not only what I think but what they think! The moderating effect of social norms

The current research extends our knowledge of the main effects of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived control over the individual's technology adoption. We propose a critical buffering role of social influence on the collectivistic culture in the relationship between attitude, perceived behavioral control, and Information Technology (IT) adoption. Adoption behavior was studied among 132 college students being introduced to a new virtual learning system. While past research mainly treated these three variables as being in parallel relationships, we found a moderating role for subjective norm on technology attitude and perceived control on adoption intent. Implications and limitations for understating the role of social influence in the collectivistic society are discussed.     

Psychological Contract and Turnover Intention in the Information Technology Profession

The recruitment and retention of Information Technology (IT) professionals continue to concern organizations and researchers. We employ psychological contract theory to examine how unmet expectations may influence psychological contract breach and turnover intention. The results of a survey of IT professionals indicate four factors contributing to IT workers’ perceptions of psychological contract breach including perceived supervisor support, emotional dissonance, work exhaustion, and salary. Further, autonomy moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and turnover intention.     

A theory-grounded framework of Open Source Software adoption in SMEs

The increasing popularity and use of Open Source Software (OSS) has led to significant interest from research communities and enterprise practitioners, notably in the small business sector where this type of software offers particular benefits given the financial and human capital constraints faced. However, there has been little focus on developing valid frameworks that enable critical evaluation and common understanding of factors influencing OSS adoption. This paper seeks to address this shortcoming by presenting a theory-grounded framework for exploring these factors and explaining their influence on OSS adoption, with the context of study being small- to medium-sized Information Technology (IT) businesses in the U.K. The framework has implications for this type of business – and, we will suggest, more widely – as a frame of reference for understanding, and as tool for evaluating benefits and challenges in, OSS adoption. It also offers researchers a structured way of investigating adoption issues and a base from which to develop models of OSS adoption. The study reported in this paper used the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) as a basis for the research propositions, with the aim of: (i) developing a framework of empirical factors that influence OSS adoption; and (ii) appraising it through case study evaluation with 10 U.K. Small- to medium-sized enterprises in the IT sector. The demonstration of the capabilities of the framework suggests that it is able to provide a reliable explanation of the complex and subjective factors that influence attitudes, subjective norms and control over the use of OSS. The paper further argues that the DTPB proved useful in this research area and that it can provide a variety of situation-specific insights related to factors that influence the adoption of OSS.     

The impact of enterprise risk management on competitive advantage by moderating role of information technology

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) on Competitive Advantage (CA) by moderating role of information technology dimensions including Information Technology (IT) strategy and Information Technology (IT) structure. A total of 84 valid questionnaires were obtained through self-administered survey conducted at Iranian financial institutions. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was conducted for the analysis of data and hypotheses testing. The findings of this study showed that ERM had a positive relationship with the firms’ competitive advantage. The results also showed that IT strategy and IT structure had a direct effect on the competitive advantage as a well as moderating effect on ERM-competitive advantage relationship. This study extends on previous ERM studies by considering Iran as a developing country which is neglected among previous empirical researches. It also extends previous ERM works by empirically evaluating ERM, IT, competitive advantage and relationships among them. This paper provides insights into the value of implementation of ERM among organizations which could lead to improve competitive advantage. In addition, this study provides implication in terms of manager's planning and decision making to consider IT as one of the critical success factors of ERM practices.     

Career transition antecedents in the information technology area

The more organizations invest in information technology (IT), the more the concern with IT personnel management has increased, namely the hiring, training and retaining of IT professionals needed to deal with such investments. In this context, two issues related to these professionals have often been observed, namely ‘turnover’ – in which the IT professional changes job but still remains in the IT area – and ‘turnaway’ – in which the IT professional abandons the IT area and assumes a job in another area in the same organization or another, usually rising to a managerial position. This work addresses the turnaway of IT professionals in Brazil. The relevance of this research is supported by the shortage of adequately trained IT professionals to work in the productive sector in this country. Therefore, by using and adapting the extant scientific literature, research hypotheses associated with the IT professional turnaway phenomenon are developed and tested via structural equation modelling. It was then concluded that exhaustion with work in the IT area, job dissatisfaction, the need to acquire further experience to remain attractive in the job market, the need for professional growth and prior and conscious managerial capacity development for career transition are the main antecedents of the career transition of IT professionals to other functional areas.     

Industrial cluster innovation based on 5 G network and internet of things

An important model for the nation's development and the innovation of the concept and its cluster has been studied together. The most prominent feature of the industry is Information technology. Industry clusters, success factors within the scope of the determined IT. industry clusters generally are discussed. The mostly true in the IT. industry cluster. Success attributes to support the industrial cluster's baseline at all levels, and it is possible to establish by identifying both the I.T. industry groups and decision-making. The creation of employment for IT. skills and civic thousands of people, excessive emphasis infrastructure, real estate costs soaring, and IT. Investment in the absence of the challenges of typical IT. companies, professionals. I.T. sector is based on the 5 G network services, is moving towards the provision of value-added services of high-end, value proposition structure of the sector. Still, industrial innovation clusters rise because of the most convincing of industry innovation clusters with development.For this reason, industry growth is not a duplication. It seems to be growth by innovation. The low combination is one of the most compelling reasons for the large supply of I.T. costs, and high-quality human resources are still the proposed value of the sector.     

Can proactively induced organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) foster positive work attitudes? Theorising the mediating role of ‘meaning of work’ for IT professionals

Given the high employee turnover rates among information technology (IT) professionals, firms are on the lookout for ways to retain them. With this end in view, to keep their professionals committed and satisfied, many IT firms are making proactive efforts to induce a favourable organisational environment by encouraging employees towards extra-role organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). However, there is scant evidence as to whether orchestrating proactively induced OCB results in positive work attitudes. Our study contributes by theorising the mechanisms through which OCB fosters positive work attitudes among IT professionals, which is expected to lower their turnover rates. Grounding our research in self-perception and self-determination theories, we hypothesize the relationships between IT professionals' OCB and their affective attitudes towards their organisation and job, as being mediated by their cognitive evaluations of the ‘meaning of their IT work’. We test the theorised model with data collected through a large-scale two-wave survey design from a multinational IT-services company. The results offer a nuanced understanding of the relationship between OCB and positive work attitudes for IT professionals, which have significant implications for research and practice.     

IT direction in Thailand: cultivating an e-society

For decades, advances in information technology have enhanced lives and economics around the world. Attempting to ride this wave, Thailand has worked since the late 1980s to develop a nationwide IT infrastructure that could serve government and the private sector. In 2002, dissatisfied with the limited success of earlier efforts, Thailand's current government established the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), charged with developing and supporting completely electronic processes for government, commerce, industry, and education. The new ICT policies aim to bring IT to bear on every aspect of Thai society and, ultimately, transform the economy.     

Information technology in Nigeria: Problems and prospects

Abstract

Information Technology has revolutionised Information Management and tremendously increased the value of even the smallest piece of data. All over the world, effects of IT are noticeable in almost all aspects of life. In developing countries, the impact of IT is yet to be felt to any appreciable extent, yet the need is strong and the awareness, in certain sectors, high. The Nigerian situation is critically examined and a possible re‐orientation strategy suggested.     

From a resource rich country to an information rich society: An evaluation of information technology policies in Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysia is a resource rich country and a major socio‐economic force in the Asia‐Pacific region. Historically, the economy of Malaysia was based on agriculture and natural resources. In its efforts to transform Malaysia to a developed and industrialized country, the government started to focus on industry and high technology in the 1980s. A key area of focus was Information Technology (IT). The government chose to adopt several policies with respect to the supply and demand sides of IT instead of a national IT plan¹. The policies addressed IT infrastructure, education and training, research and development, use of IT in the public sector, and fiscal incentives. These IT policies and the broad economic and industrial policies implemented during this period had a positive influence on demand for IT products and services, number of IT professionals, number of telephones per 100 population, and IT production and use. This experience has laid a firm foundation for formulating more definitive national IT policies for the 1990s and in achieving the government's objective of transforming Malaysia into a developed and information rich society by 2020.     

PROPOSED ANALYTICAL PROCEDURE FOR THE CUSTOMIZATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF COBIT 5, AN AUDITING TOOL: AN ACTION DESIGN RESEARCH APPROACH

Customization is part of an audit planning exercise that addresses the issue of implementation of a broad audit framework for the achievement of the most desired audit outcomes for the audit client. Leading frameworks such as Control OBjectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) that have successfully been used as an audit framework have changed focus from audit to complex governance and management framework, leaving audit professionals with the challenge to figure out how to configure it into an auditing tool. The framers of COBIT 5 recommend to Information Technology (IT) auditors to apply professional judgment, experience, and IT skills for the customization of the framework for their desired audit goals. This, however, has been controversial in theory and cumbersome in practice and no solution has yet been found for the problem. In this research, we use an Action Design Research approach to design a model for performing objective customization of COBIT 5 for better outcomes as the solution. We found that the Viable Systems Model’s Indices from the cybernetics science paradigm and the Process Assessment Model were relevant to achieve this goal. The resulting solution designed provides a more efficient, teachable, and simpler technique in the selection of substantive procedures for desired audit outcomes. The model can be very cost effective, save audit time, and reduce audit failure exposure.     

Ethical behavior issues in software use: An analysis of public and private sectors

Ethical issues related to information systems are important to the information technology (IT) professionals. These issues are also significant for organizations and societies. Although considerable literature on IT and related ethical issues exists, a review of this literature has found little empirical research on ethical practices within the government and private sector organizations. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to draw inferences regarding such practices currently in these sectors. The research results indicate a significant correlation between the code of ethics and the attitude of professionals towards the unethical use of software in government and private sector organizations. These also indicate significant differences in government and private sectors.     

Transforming healthcare: policy discourses of IT and patient-centred care

Information Technology (IT) is increasingly seen in policy and academic literature as key to the modernization of healthcare provision and to making healthcare patient-centred. However, the concept of Patient-Centred Care (PCC) and the role of IT in the transformation of healthcare are not straightforward. Their meanings need unpacking in order to reveal assumptions behind different visions and their implications for IT-enabled healthcare transformation. To this end, this paper reviews literature on PCC and IT and analyses England’s health policy between 1989 and 2013. English policy has set out to transform healthcare from organization-centric to patient-centred and has placed IT as central to this process. This policy vision is based on contested conceptualizations of PCC. IT implementation is problematic and this is at least partly because of the underpinning goals and visions of healthcare policy. If this misalignment is not addressed then producing technologically superior systems, or better IT implementation strategies, is unlikely to result in widespread and substantial changes to the way healthcare is delivered and experienced. For IT to support a healthcare service that is truly patient-centred, patients’ needs and wants need to be identified and designed into IT-enabled services rather than simply added on afterwards.     

Organizational determinants of IT adoption in the pharmaceutical distribution sector

The aim of this paper is to propose new organizational factors that might explain the differences in the extent and the speed of IT adoption. With this in mind, we carried out an analysis of 16 cases in the pharmaceutical distribution sector in Spain. The results indicate that there are certain intangible assets that favour the introduction and development of IT. Among these are a frank and fluid communication between departments and members of the organization, low levels of conflict, the explicit support of top management towards IT adoption and learning and creative skills of IT-staff. In addition to these factors, we found others that we propose as catalysts of IT adoption. Among these we might mention the special relationship between the member-clients and the company in the case of cooperative firms.     

An exploratory examination of the relationship between flexible IT infrastructure and competitive advantage

Information technology (IT) professionals have discussed the potential value of an organization’s IT infrastructure. Unique characteristics of this infrastructure determine its value to the organization. One characteristic, flexibility, has captured the attention of managers in organizations. A flexible IT infrastructure has even been touted by some as the next competitive weapon. Despite this suggestion, empirical evidence has been sparse. The purpose of this paper is to offer an exploratory analysis into the relationship between flexible IT infrastructure and competitive advantage. A canonical correlation analysis is used to explore this relationship. The findings support the view that there is a positive relationship between flexible IT infrastructure and competitive advantage.     

Toward an ‘IT Conflict-Resistance Theory’: action research during IT pre-implementation

Most empirical research on users’ resistance toward Information Technology (IT) has been conducted after implementation of IT in organisations. Little research has been done on the way individual and group resistance emerges and evolves during prior stages of projects. This focus on pre-implementation phases is important since Information Systems (IS) managers need to anticipate potential conflicts and users’ resistance that can involve project failure. While IS literature has separately developed theories on resistance and conflicts, we conceptualise a whole theoretic-system we call ‘IT Conflict-Resistance Theory’ (IT-CRT). This theory is used as driver for a 2-year action research project conducted at Netia Corporation (a worldwide leader in video and audio broadcasting) during preliminary phases of its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project. According to our findings, while conflicts toward IT implementation are often considered to have negative effects and require being actively managed by top managers, the case study delivers an alternative observation: a passive-like attitude of managers during the IT pre-implantation phase does not prevent the resolution of a socio-political oriented conflict between two groups of employees. Our observations illustrate how the avoidance management style invites team members to cope with conflict situations and to express tacit causes of resistance. While most Management Information System methods tend naturally to maximise users’ satisfaction and to reduce potential resistance, the IT-CRT theory developed in this article supports an alternative approach: enhancing resistance in order to anticipate and resolve latent conflicts that are directly or indirectly related to the project. The underlying message of this article for researchers and practitioners is to consider users’ resistance toward IT as a key process embedded into IT choices and IS design.