The longitudinal impact of enterprise system users’ pre-adoption expectations and organizational support on post-adoption proficient usage

Although enterprise systems (ES) are ubiquitous, many firms report less than stellar payoffs from these costly investments, with underutilization often attributed to failures in the implementation process. Unfortunately, research has not provided sufficient insights into these failures, in part because it has focused on actual usage, as opposed to proficient usage, as the benchmark for successful implementation. Moreover, research has not generally examined how the adoption process unfolds over time, thus overlooking potential underlying mechanisms that may help explain how adopters achieve proficiency. To begin addressing these shortcomings, we study how adopters’ pre-adoption expectations, enacted over time, can influence their post-adoption proficiency, by shaping how and why they spend time using the system during the adoption period. We analyzed time-lagged survey data from 153 financial analysts, required to adopt new ES-based software, at a multinational bank. We found that adopters who hold pre-adoption expectations reflecting greater internal and external motives to adopt the system as well as systematically integrate it into their work routines are more apt to use the system in ways that enhance their cumulative knowledge of it, and subsequently develop higher levels of proficiency post-adoption. Moreover, greater organizational support enhanced the impact of adopters’ expectations on proficiency, except when their actual use is low in which case organizational support had an adverse effect.     

IT capability and organizational performance: the roles of business process agility and environmental factors

The business value of information technology (IT) has been one of the top concerns of both practitioners and scholars for decades. Numerous studies have documented the positive effects of IT capability on organizational performance but our knowledge of the processes through which such gains are achieved remains limited due to a lack of focus on the business environment. Such a linkage therefore remains the subject of debate in the information systems literature. In this study, we fill this gap by investigating the mediating role of business process agility and the moderating roles of environmental factors. On the basis of matched survey data obtained from 214 IT and business executives from manufacturing firms in China, our analyses show that even though firm-wide IT capability presents the characteristics of rarity, appropriability, non-reproducibility, and non-substitutability, its impact on organizational performance is fully mediated by business process agility. Our results also show that the impact of the environment is multifaceted and nuanced. In particular, environmental hostility weakens the effect of IT capability on business process agility, while environmental complexity strengthens it. The theoretical and practical implications of this study, and its limitations, are also discussed.     

Integrated clinical pathway management for medical quality improvement – based on a semiotically inspired systems architecture

Clinical pathway is an approach to standardise care processes to support the implementations of clinical guidelines and protocols. It is designed to support the management of treatment processes including clinical and non-clinical activities, resources and also financial aspects. It provides detailed guidance for each stage in the management of a patient with the aim of improving the continuity and coordination of care across different disciplines and sectors. However, in the practical treatment process, the lack of knowledge sharing and information accuracy of paper-based clinical pathways burden health-care staff with a large amount of paper work. This will often result in medical errors, inefficient treatment process and thus poor quality medical services. This paper first presents a theoretical underpinning and a co-design research methodology for integrated pathway management by drawing input from organisational semiotics. An approach to integrated clinical pathway management is then proposed, which aims to embed pathway knowledge into treatment processes and existing hospital information systems. The capability of this approach has been demonstrated through the case study in one of the largest hospitals in China. The outcome reveals that medical quality can be improved significantly by the classified clinical pathway knowledge and seamless integration with hospital information systems.     

The removal of hydrogen sulfide with manganic sorbent in a high-temperature fluidized-bed reactor

The removal of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) from simulated gas was carried out in a batch type fluidized-bed reactor using natural manganese ore (NMO), which consists of several metal oxides (MnO_x: 51.85%, FeO_y: 3.86%, CaO: 0.11%). The H₂S breakthrough curves were obtained by changing temperature, gas velocity, initial H₂S concentration, and aspect ratio. Moreover, the effects of the particle size and the particle-mixing fraction on H₂S removal were investigated in a binary system of different particle size. From this study, H₂S removal efficiency increased with increasing temperature but decreased with increasing excess gas velocity. The breakthrough time for H₂S decreased as the gas velocity increased, which leads to reducing gas-solid contacting due to gas bypassing in a fluidized bed reactor. Improvement of H₂S removal efficiency in continuous process can be expected from the results of the binary particle system with different size in a batch experiment. The NMO could be considered as a potential sorbent in H₂S removal.     

Oxidation behavior and protection of carbon/carbon composites prepared using rapid directional diffused CVI techniques

The oxidation kinetics of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites prepared using a rapid directional diffused (RDD) CVI process were studied. The results showed that the Arrhenius curve for the RDD CVI C/C composites consists of two straight lines, the intercept of which is at about 700 °C at the linear oxidation stage. The oxidation rates are controlled by the surface reaction at 600-700 °C, and the corresponding activation energy is 121 kJ/mol. Between 700 and 800 °C, the oxidation rates are dominated by chemical reaction and diffusion, and the relevant activation energy is 80 kJ/mol. SEM investigation showed that the oxidation starts with original pores on the C/C composite surface with the carbon fiber and matrix oxidized simultaneously. An inexpensive and easily pasted coating containing epoxy organic silicon resin, borates, refractory particulates, etc. was developed. After isothermal temperature, thermal cycle and immersion water oxidation tests, the coating was demonstrated to exhibit good oxidation-resistance properties. The oxidation-resistant mechanism of the coating is discussed.     

Random Copolymers with 2,2′-Dioxy-1,1′-biphenyl-phosphazene and Chiral 2,2′-dioxy-1,1′-binaphthylphosphazene Units Functionalized in the 6,6′-Positions with PPh<Subscript>2</Subscript> Groups as Precursors for Ru(arene) Catalysts

The chiral phosphazene copolymers {[NP(O₂C₁₂H₈)]_0.9[NP(O₂C₂₀H₁₂)]_0.1} (1) and {[NP(O₂C₁₂H₈)]_0.9[NP(O₂C₂₀H₁₀Br₂)]_0.1} _n (2) [(O₂C₁₂H₈) = 2,2′-dioxy-1,1′-biphenyl; (O₂C₂₀H₁₂) = R-2,2′-dioxy-1,1′-binaphthyl and (O₂C₂₀H₁₀Br₂) = R-6,6′-dibromo-2,2′-dioxy-1,1′-binaphthyl] were prepared by sequential substitution from [NPCl₂] _n and the corresponding dihydroxy-biphenyl or binaphthyl reagents in the presence of Cs₂CO₃ and K₂CO₃. The reaction of (2) with ^tBuLi in THF, followed by addition of PPh₂Cl and a treatment with SiHCl₃/PPh₃ to eliminate any oxidized OC₆H₄P(O)Ph₂ groups, gave the phosphine containing copolymer {[NP(O₂C₁₂H₈)]_0.9[NP(O₂C₂₀H₁₀[PPh₂]₂)]_0.1} _n (3), that was used as a chiral ligand to support [Ru(p-cymene)Cl] complexes. The resulting catalyst was active for hydrogen transfer from isopropyl alcohol to acetophenone but the placement of the Ru centers in the 6,6′-positions of the binaphthoxyphosphazene units induced no enantioselectivity. Dedicated to Professor Christopher Allen.     

αMS改性高抗冲聚苯乙烯的研制

以α-甲基苯乙烯(αMS)取代高抗冲聚苯乙烯(HIPS)中15—20％的苯乙烯,经此改性的HIPS马丁耐热可达72℃、缺口抗冲强度为25.0kgcm/cm~2,在提高HIPS耐热性的同时可降低生产原料成本。采用乳液法聚合以获得较高的反应速率。实验确定了各种配方对聚合转化率、接枝率、特性粘数[η]及树脂相Tg的影响。     

基于日志的客户感知问题辅助分析系统的应用研究

智能手机的移动业务和移动互联网应用直接影响客户感知,通过挖掘网络日志与手机日志对客户感知问题分析的支撑作用,提出基于日志的客户感知问题辅助分析系统。该系统通过采集、分类和统计,提供异常事件告警和智能分析。通过对上网和彩倩业务的应用实践表明,该系统能提供准确、有效的日志信息,为分析和定位问题提供端到端的数据支持。该系统和思路可扩展应用于长期演进网络的客户感知问题辅助分析。     

火电厂输灰系统在线化学清洗用溶垢缓蚀剂的研制和应用

针对火电厂输灰系统在线化学清洗工艺，研制出一种新型溶垢缓蚀剂。在清洗中，这种溶垢缓蚀剂既能促进灰垢的溶解，又能防止电厂输灰系统及其它有关设备的腐蚀。现场应用结果表明，溶垢缓蚀效果良好。     

基于有向复杂网络模型的形状描述与识别

针对传统复杂网络方法对形状的非刚性变形较为敏感等问题,在形状内部距离的基础上利用有向复杂网络进行形状分析.首先提取形状边界点作为复杂网络的节点,以形状边界点之间的内部距离作为复杂网络中节点之间的边权值构建初始网络;然后对初始复杂网络进行k近邻演化,得到不同演化时刻的有向子网络;最后提取各有向子网络的特征来实现复杂网络的特征描述,进而实现形状的特征表示.实验结果表明,该方法对常见的形状变形具有更强的鲁棒性;与传统的无向网络模型相比,具有更高的检索和分类精度.