This interpretive case study of FoxMeyer Drugs\u27 ERP implementation is based on empirical frame... more This interpretive case study of FoxMeyer Drugs\u27 ERP implementation is based on empirical frameworks and models of software project risks and project escalation. Implications of the study offer suggestions on how to avoid ERP failure
ERP systems have become so widespread that they are difficult to ignore, if academics want their ... more ERP systems have become so widespread that they are difficult to ignore, if academics want their teaching and research to be relevant. Moreover, ERP systems provide a rich environment for classroom learning and students have a high interest in ERP courses because of the strong demand in the marketplace for ERP knowledge and skills. While there are many advantages to using ERP systems in the IS business school curriculum, there are also several pitfalls. In particular, ERP's complexity results in a steep learning curve and high dependence on resources and support. This study assesses the congruence with five theoretical learning models of using SAP R/3 both in training centers and in a business school classroom. Finally, two lessons learned offer a start in capturing best practices for ERP effectiveness in the classroom.
Collaboration between universities and thus the sharing of expertise is of increasing importance ... more Collaboration between universities and thus the sharing of expertise is of increasing importance when teaching complex systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Results from an empirical survey give an overview about current activities in the area of collaborative ERP teaching. This paper presents an international pilot to teach ERP in the form of virtual teams. The learning objectives, the communication infrastructure and the evaluation of this project in the form of students' feedback are described. Planned future activities are discussed.
As many consumer and business decision makers are utilizing Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDS... more As many consumer and business decision makers are utilizing Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS), a thorough understanding of how such decisions are made is crucial for the information systems domain. This dissertation presents six chapters encompassing a comprehensive analysis of the impact of geospatial reasoning ability on decision-performance using SDSS. An introduction to the research is presented in Chapter I. Chapter II provides a literature review and research framework regarding decision-making using geospatial data. Chapter III presents the constructs of geospatial reasoning ability and geospatial schematization. Chapter IV explores the impact of geospatial reasoning ability on the technology acceptance of SDSS. Chapter V presents results of an experiment exploring the impact of geospatial reasoning ability on decisionmaking performance. Finally, Chapter VI presents a conclusion. Together these chapters contribute to a greater understanding of the impact of geospatial reasoning ability in relation to business and consumer decision-making. The form and content of this abstract are approved. I recommend its publication.
Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 2011
Analytics is the most advanced component of business intelligence. An analytic capability enables... more Analytics is the most advanced component of business intelligence. An analytic capability enables fact-based decisions using quantitative models. These models draw on statistical and quantitative analysis of large data repositories. An analytic capability is especially critical in healthcare because lives are at stake and there is intense pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency. This study proposes antecedents and catalysts for developing an analytic capability based on an in-depth study of the cardiac surgical programs of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The VHA has developed an analytic capability for patient treatment and administrative decision-making. The models rely on the input of clinical data from multiple facilities. However, a diversity of standards, infrastructure, staff and patient mix result in misunderstood data definitions, errors in data entry, incomplete data sets, and conflicts between multiple systems. Consequently, data aggregation and data interoperability at both the systemic and semantic levels are challenging. Catalysts for developing an analytic capability, derived from the VHA case study, include a community of practice and patient case reassessment practices. Antecedents of an analytic capability include robust data aggregation and cleaning practices and establishment of data standards followed by judicious tailoring of analytic outputs to decision making needs.
Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links a form of strategic alliance ... more Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links a form of strategic alliance that gives organizations access to the skills and capabilities of their partner and opportunity to create new capabilities together. Using the example of alliances between two universities and SAP AG, the market leader in Enterprise Software, the paper suggests some management practices to improve goal congruence, trust and alignment between different organizational cultures. For example, face-to-face interactions are critical for building a close relationship over time. A theoretical framework of the five phases of partnership development and the three challenges faced by knowledge link partnerships is proposed, along with implications for management, universities and research.
Strategic Information Systems outsourcing refers to the long term outsourcing of systems with a m... more Strategic Information Systems outsourcing refers to the long term outsourcing of systems with a major transformational impact on the client's business strategy. Such outsourcing arrangements mitigate risks through closely aligned client and vendor business/IT operational processes and shared strategic vision. Strategic outsourcing arrangements rely on both contractual and relational governance to build inter-firm alignment capability. This research paper defines a multi-item measure of clientvendor alignment capability, and uses that instrument to survey a number of North America based oil and gas exploration and energy producing firms, who have undertaken the outsourcing of strategic information systems to an Indian information systems vendor. The results indicate which elements of contractual and relational outsourcing governance support the building of client-vendor alignment and whether alignment capability improves outsourcing success factors.
Knowledge Management (KM) tools and processes, while established in many industries, are relative... more Knowledge Management (KM) tools and processes, while established in many industries, are relatively new to healthcare. Healthcare organizations resemble virtual organizations that build flexible and dynamic care networks of multiple medical providers and professionals to address a patient’s needs. This research studies the major factors impacting knowledge management strategy and processes in the clinical nursing function in a large metropolitan area hospital. Empirical data has been collected and analyzed to understand what infrastructure components and process capabilities are the most important contributors to KM effectiveness in floor nursing. The results indicate that technology can play a pivotal role in KM initiatives among nurses, provided it supports the processes involved with knowledge acquisition and application to solving new problems. The findings have implications for the selection and deployment of information technology to enable knowledge management.
Training users is a critical success factor in ERP implementations. An important aspect of traini... more Training users is a critical success factor in ERP implementations. An important aspect of training is documentation in the form of training manuals. However, the effectiveness of the training manuals will depend on their perceived usability. In this study, survey items for usability, modeled after the Questionnaire for Usability Evaluation designed by U.S. WEST Information Technologies, assess task support, learnability, navigation, and presentation. This study also investigates the relationship of perceived usability with perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the manuals as well as the user's computer self-efficacy. Data from a survey of over four hundred users of ERP at a large university are used to analyze several related hypotheses. This research extends the Technology Acceptance Model to usability of training materials in an ERP domain. It has implications for practitioners on the design of ERP training materials.
Organizations are pursuing the outsourcing of business processes (BPO) to offshore locations. How... more Organizations are pursuing the outsourcing of business processes (BPO) to offshore locations. However, current research has shown that an organizational learning gap between the client and vendor organizations leads to less than expected benefits. While networking and other distributed technologies provide a foundation for outsourcing, knowledge management (KM) can be used to bridge these gaps in BPO relationships. This exploratory research uses case studies to identify KM practices being used in BPO to build theoretical guidelines for the optimal KM focus area given combinations of BPO strategy and management models. The preliminary results indicate that the KM focus needs to shift from emphasizing structural capital towards a focus on customer or human capital as the BPO strategy becomes more core to the client’s value chain and the management model becomes partnership oriented. The results have implications for applying KM to increase BPO effectiveness.
Tekcal had a problematic ERP implementation. Data from face-to-face interviews are mapped to a th... more Tekcal had a problematic ERP implementation. Data from face-to-face interviews are mapped to a theoretical model adapted from the innovation literature to explain how Tekcal's climate for ERP implementation and ERP-values fit affected its ERP implementation effectiveness. Dimensions of climate include employees' ERP skills, incentives, obstacles and information sharing. Dimensions of ERP-values fit include organizational commitment and alignment of non-homogeneous groups. This research has implications for both practitioners and researchers who are developing theoretical explanations for ERP implementation challenges.
Advances in technology have allowed organizations to expand beyond traditional walls of a central... more Advances in technology have allowed organizations to expand beyond traditional walls of a centralized office. Dispersed locations allow organizations to reduce cost, hire employees where expertise exists, and conduct operations worldwide 24 hours a day 7 days a week. One challenge facing organizations with a dispersed workforce is how knowledge is shared and subsequently applied to decision-making. This paper focuses on how information and communication technology (ICT) facilitates collaborative decision-making among dispersed employees in a customer support organization. While the research is in progress, we propose a model concentrating on social and technical factors that affect ICT usage and in turn affect collaborative decision-making efficiency and decision effectiveness. Results of this research will contribute important findings regarding collaborative decision-making applicable for both practitioners and researchers.
Consumers usually prefer to touch and feel, smell, and try on products before purchasing. Consequ... more Consumers usually prefer to touch and feel, smell, and try on products before purchasing. Consequently products with high sensory requirements are likely to be perceived as more risky to buy online. Products with variable functionality, such as electronics, are also difficult to evaluate prior to purchase and fragile items run the risk of being damaged during delivery. Furthermore, while commodities
International Conference on Information Systems, 1997
Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links—a form of strategic alliance th... more Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links—a form of strategic alliance that gives organizations access to the skills and capabilities of their partner and opportunity to create new capabilities together. Using the example of alliances between two universities and SAP AG, the market leader in Enterprise Software, the paper suggests some management practices to improve goal congruence, trust, and alignment
2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2011
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is an enterprise wide integrated approach to managing an orga... more Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is an enterprise wide integrated approach to managing an organization's unstructured information such as documents, email, web pages, portals and other digital assets. ECM systems potentially leverage a knowledge repository to prevent information overload, as well as enable (1) better decisionmaking and increased efficiencies from enriched information sharing and collaboration; (2) compliance control; (3) lower web publishing costs; and (4) 're-usability' of the content for multiple media. However, these benefits rely on an appropriate corporate taxonomy and relevant metadata that will facilitate search in the repository. Users' perceptions of the ECM system are important since they will determine acceptance of the technology. This study assesses the factors that lead to user acceptance of an ECM system. Findings reveal the importance of cognitive engagement with the technology. The paper's main contribution is to show how a document perspective provides insights on the surprising results and highlight the importance of including the cognitive engagement construct in technology acceptance studies.
Increasingly organizations are outsourcing their business processes to offshore locations. The go... more Increasingly organizations are outsourcing their business processes to offshore locations. The goals cited include cost savings, achieving strategic focus, alleviating skills shortages and seeking to implement best practices. Current reports from actual outsourcing case studies indicate that many organizational goals remain unfulfilled. This paper proposes to study the impacts of BPO on the client organization using Coordination Theory. A case study of an organization, which outsourced its service delivery process and subsequently insourced parts of it, is presented. The case study supports the existence of strategic and operational gaps between the client and vendor organizations, which negatively impact the BPO. A follow up empirical study is being pursued to quantitatively measure the success of BPO using three costs - vulnerability, coordination and production for different categories of processes. The results of this study will have implications for the selection of business pr...
Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 2013
Social network sites (SNSs) have attracted millions of users who interact with each other and wit... more Social network sites (SNSs) have attracted millions of users who interact with each other and with companies. However, few studies have examined the impact of knowledge sharing through electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in the context of SNSs. This paper investigates the relationship among the use of SNSs, users' social capital, knowledge sharing, and eWOM. The results show that the intensity of use of SNSs is positively related to trust and identification which have a positive effect on eWOM quality. In addition, eWOM quality has a positive effect on knowledge sharing. Female users feel more strongly about eWOM quality when they trust others, or when they perceive that they belong to their SNS community when they use their SNS. Furthermore, female users feel more strongly about knowledge sharing when they perceive that eWOM quality is good. This study provides the theoretical framework of the relationship between eWOM and knowledge sharing on SNSs from the perspective of social capital. Practitioners could use this study as a rationale to utilize SNSs internally for organizational use, and externally for marketing purposes.
Cognitive engagement with a multimedia ERP training tool: Assessing computer self-efficacy and technology acceptance
Information & Management, 2009
Computer self-efficacy (CSE) is a person's judgment of his or her ability to use a computer ... more Computer self-efficacy (CSE) is a person's judgment of his or her ability to use a computer system. We investigated cognitive engagement, prior experience, computer anxiety, and organizational support as determinants of CSE in the use of a multimedia ERP system's ...
This interpretive case study of FoxMeyer Drugs\u27 ERP implementation is based on empirical frame... more This interpretive case study of FoxMeyer Drugs\u27 ERP implementation is based on empirical frameworks and models of software project risks and project escalation. Implications of the study offer suggestions on how to avoid ERP failure
ERP systems have become so widespread that they are difficult to ignore, if academics want their ... more ERP systems have become so widespread that they are difficult to ignore, if academics want their teaching and research to be relevant. Moreover, ERP systems provide a rich environment for classroom learning and students have a high interest in ERP courses because of the strong demand in the marketplace for ERP knowledge and skills. While there are many advantages to using ERP systems in the IS business school curriculum, there are also several pitfalls. In particular, ERP's complexity results in a steep learning curve and high dependence on resources and support. This study assesses the congruence with five theoretical learning models of using SAP R/3 both in training centers and in a business school classroom. Finally, two lessons learned offer a start in capturing best practices for ERP effectiveness in the classroom.
Collaboration between universities and thus the sharing of expertise is of increasing importance ... more Collaboration between universities and thus the sharing of expertise is of increasing importance when teaching complex systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Results from an empirical survey give an overview about current activities in the area of collaborative ERP teaching. This paper presents an international pilot to teach ERP in the form of virtual teams. The learning objectives, the communication infrastructure and the evaluation of this project in the form of students' feedback are described. Planned future activities are discussed.
As many consumer and business decision makers are utilizing Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDS... more As many consumer and business decision makers are utilizing Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS), a thorough understanding of how such decisions are made is crucial for the information systems domain. This dissertation presents six chapters encompassing a comprehensive analysis of the impact of geospatial reasoning ability on decision-performance using SDSS. An introduction to the research is presented in Chapter I. Chapter II provides a literature review and research framework regarding decision-making using geospatial data. Chapter III presents the constructs of geospatial reasoning ability and geospatial schematization. Chapter IV explores the impact of geospatial reasoning ability on the technology acceptance of SDSS. Chapter V presents results of an experiment exploring the impact of geospatial reasoning ability on decisionmaking performance. Finally, Chapter VI presents a conclusion. Together these chapters contribute to a greater understanding of the impact of geospatial reasoning ability in relation to business and consumer decision-making. The form and content of this abstract are approved. I recommend its publication.
Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 2011
Analytics is the most advanced component of business intelligence. An analytic capability enables... more Analytics is the most advanced component of business intelligence. An analytic capability enables fact-based decisions using quantitative models. These models draw on statistical and quantitative analysis of large data repositories. An analytic capability is especially critical in healthcare because lives are at stake and there is intense pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency. This study proposes antecedents and catalysts for developing an analytic capability based on an in-depth study of the cardiac surgical programs of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The VHA has developed an analytic capability for patient treatment and administrative decision-making. The models rely on the input of clinical data from multiple facilities. However, a diversity of standards, infrastructure, staff and patient mix result in misunderstood data definitions, errors in data entry, incomplete data sets, and conflicts between multiple systems. Consequently, data aggregation and data interoperability at both the systemic and semantic levels are challenging. Catalysts for developing an analytic capability, derived from the VHA case study, include a community of practice and patient case reassessment practices. Antecedents of an analytic capability include robust data aggregation and cleaning practices and establishment of data standards followed by judicious tailoring of analytic outputs to decision making needs.
Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links a form of strategic alliance ... more Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links a form of strategic alliance that gives organizations access to the skills and capabilities of their partner and opportunity to create new capabilities together. Using the example of alliances between two universities and SAP AG, the market leader in Enterprise Software, the paper suggests some management practices to improve goal congruence, trust and alignment between different organizational cultures. For example, face-to-face interactions are critical for building a close relationship over time. A theoretical framework of the five phases of partnership development and the three challenges faced by knowledge link partnerships is proposed, along with implications for management, universities and research.
Strategic Information Systems outsourcing refers to the long term outsourcing of systems with a m... more Strategic Information Systems outsourcing refers to the long term outsourcing of systems with a major transformational impact on the client's business strategy. Such outsourcing arrangements mitigate risks through closely aligned client and vendor business/IT operational processes and shared strategic vision. Strategic outsourcing arrangements rely on both contractual and relational governance to build inter-firm alignment capability. This research paper defines a multi-item measure of clientvendor alignment capability, and uses that instrument to survey a number of North America based oil and gas exploration and energy producing firms, who have undertaken the outsourcing of strategic information systems to an Indian information systems vendor. The results indicate which elements of contractual and relational outsourcing governance support the building of client-vendor alignment and whether alignment capability improves outsourcing success factors.
Knowledge Management (KM) tools and processes, while established in many industries, are relative... more Knowledge Management (KM) tools and processes, while established in many industries, are relatively new to healthcare. Healthcare organizations resemble virtual organizations that build flexible and dynamic care networks of multiple medical providers and professionals to address a patient’s needs. This research studies the major factors impacting knowledge management strategy and processes in the clinical nursing function in a large metropolitan area hospital. Empirical data has been collected and analyzed to understand what infrastructure components and process capabilities are the most important contributors to KM effectiveness in floor nursing. The results indicate that technology can play a pivotal role in KM initiatives among nurses, provided it supports the processes involved with knowledge acquisition and application to solving new problems. The findings have implications for the selection and deployment of information technology to enable knowledge management.
Training users is a critical success factor in ERP implementations. An important aspect of traini... more Training users is a critical success factor in ERP implementations. An important aspect of training is documentation in the form of training manuals. However, the effectiveness of the training manuals will depend on their perceived usability. In this study, survey items for usability, modeled after the Questionnaire for Usability Evaluation designed by U.S. WEST Information Technologies, assess task support, learnability, navigation, and presentation. This study also investigates the relationship of perceived usability with perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the manuals as well as the user's computer self-efficacy. Data from a survey of over four hundred users of ERP at a large university are used to analyze several related hypotheses. This research extends the Technology Acceptance Model to usability of training materials in an ERP domain. It has implications for practitioners on the design of ERP training materials.
Organizations are pursuing the outsourcing of business processes (BPO) to offshore locations. How... more Organizations are pursuing the outsourcing of business processes (BPO) to offshore locations. However, current research has shown that an organizational learning gap between the client and vendor organizations leads to less than expected benefits. While networking and other distributed technologies provide a foundation for outsourcing, knowledge management (KM) can be used to bridge these gaps in BPO relationships. This exploratory research uses case studies to identify KM practices being used in BPO to build theoretical guidelines for the optimal KM focus area given combinations of BPO strategy and management models. The preliminary results indicate that the KM focus needs to shift from emphasizing structural capital towards a focus on customer or human capital as the BPO strategy becomes more core to the client’s value chain and the management model becomes partnership oriented. The results have implications for applying KM to increase BPO effectiveness.
Tekcal had a problematic ERP implementation. Data from face-to-face interviews are mapped to a th... more Tekcal had a problematic ERP implementation. Data from face-to-face interviews are mapped to a theoretical model adapted from the innovation literature to explain how Tekcal's climate for ERP implementation and ERP-values fit affected its ERP implementation effectiveness. Dimensions of climate include employees' ERP skills, incentives, obstacles and information sharing. Dimensions of ERP-values fit include organizational commitment and alignment of non-homogeneous groups. This research has implications for both practitioners and researchers who are developing theoretical explanations for ERP implementation challenges.
Advances in technology have allowed organizations to expand beyond traditional walls of a central... more Advances in technology have allowed organizations to expand beyond traditional walls of a centralized office. Dispersed locations allow organizations to reduce cost, hire employees where expertise exists, and conduct operations worldwide 24 hours a day 7 days a week. One challenge facing organizations with a dispersed workforce is how knowledge is shared and subsequently applied to decision-making. This paper focuses on how information and communication technology (ICT) facilitates collaborative decision-making among dispersed employees in a customer support organization. While the research is in progress, we propose a model concentrating on social and technical factors that affect ICT usage and in turn affect collaborative decision-making efficiency and decision effectiveness. Results of this research will contribute important findings regarding collaborative decision-making applicable for both practitioners and researchers.
Consumers usually prefer to touch and feel, smell, and try on products before purchasing. Consequ... more Consumers usually prefer to touch and feel, smell, and try on products before purchasing. Consequently products with high sensory requirements are likely to be perceived as more risky to buy online. Products with variable functionality, such as electronics, are also difficult to evaluate prior to purchase and fragile items run the risk of being damaged during delivery. Furthermore, while commodities
International Conference on Information Systems, 1997
Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links—a form of strategic alliance th... more Collaboration between organizations benefits from knowledge links—a form of strategic alliance that gives organizations access to the skills and capabilities of their partner and opportunity to create new capabilities together. Using the example of alliances between two universities and SAP AG, the market leader in Enterprise Software, the paper suggests some management practices to improve goal congruence, trust, and alignment
2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2011
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is an enterprise wide integrated approach to managing an orga... more Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is an enterprise wide integrated approach to managing an organization's unstructured information such as documents, email, web pages, portals and other digital assets. ECM systems potentially leverage a knowledge repository to prevent information overload, as well as enable (1) better decisionmaking and increased efficiencies from enriched information sharing and collaboration; (2) compliance control; (3) lower web publishing costs; and (4) 're-usability' of the content for multiple media. However, these benefits rely on an appropriate corporate taxonomy and relevant metadata that will facilitate search in the repository. Users' perceptions of the ECM system are important since they will determine acceptance of the technology. This study assesses the factors that lead to user acceptance of an ECM system. Findings reveal the importance of cognitive engagement with the technology. The paper's main contribution is to show how a document perspective provides insights on the surprising results and highlight the importance of including the cognitive engagement construct in technology acceptance studies.
Increasingly organizations are outsourcing their business processes to offshore locations. The go... more Increasingly organizations are outsourcing their business processes to offshore locations. The goals cited include cost savings, achieving strategic focus, alleviating skills shortages and seeking to implement best practices. Current reports from actual outsourcing case studies indicate that many organizational goals remain unfulfilled. This paper proposes to study the impacts of BPO on the client organization using Coordination Theory. A case study of an organization, which outsourced its service delivery process and subsequently insourced parts of it, is presented. The case study supports the existence of strategic and operational gaps between the client and vendor organizations, which negatively impact the BPO. A follow up empirical study is being pursued to quantitatively measure the success of BPO using three costs - vulnerability, coordination and production for different categories of processes. The results of this study will have implications for the selection of business pr...
Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 2013
Social network sites (SNSs) have attracted millions of users who interact with each other and wit... more Social network sites (SNSs) have attracted millions of users who interact with each other and with companies. However, few studies have examined the impact of knowledge sharing through electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in the context of SNSs. This paper investigates the relationship among the use of SNSs, users' social capital, knowledge sharing, and eWOM. The results show that the intensity of use of SNSs is positively related to trust and identification which have a positive effect on eWOM quality. In addition, eWOM quality has a positive effect on knowledge sharing. Female users feel more strongly about eWOM quality when they trust others, or when they perceive that they belong to their SNS community when they use their SNS. Furthermore, female users feel more strongly about knowledge sharing when they perceive that eWOM quality is good. This study provides the theoretical framework of the relationship between eWOM and knowledge sharing on SNSs from the perspective of social capital. Practitioners could use this study as a rationale to utilize SNSs internally for organizational use, and externally for marketing purposes.
Cognitive engagement with a multimedia ERP training tool: Assessing computer self-efficacy and technology acceptance
Information & Management, 2009
Computer self-efficacy (CSE) is a person's judgment of his or her ability to use a computer ... more Computer self-efficacy (CSE) is a person's judgment of his or her ability to use a computer system. We investigated cognitive engagement, prior experience, computer anxiety, and organizational support as determinants of CSE in the use of a multimedia ERP system's ...
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Papers by Judy Scott