Organizational hurdles to distributed database management systems (DDBMS) adoption

Organizations adopt new technologies, ultimately, to enhance their competitive position and profitability. A distributed database management system (DDBMS) is an example of a technology that may enhance a company's profitability but is also likely to change the way it does business. Specifically, DDBMS adoption may disturb the locus of power, alter the organizational structure, and change the culture of a company. This exploratory study examines the organizational factors that influence the likelihood of DDBMS adoption. It identifies organizational hurdles to adoption, offers an agenda for research validation, and proposes strategies for overcoming the identified hurdles.     

A preliminary study on the potential use of the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to predict advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) implementation

The implementation of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) requires not only substantial investment in the technology, but also changes in the culture and organizational structure of the organization. It requires careful planning at all levels of the organization to ensure that the implementation will achieve the intended goals. It is a complex process with many factors to be considered before the full benefits of AMT can be realized. A preliminary study on the potential use of the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) has been proposed to help the organizations in planning the AMT implementation process. The AHP method has the ability to structure complex, multi-person, multi-attribute, and multi-period problem hierarchically. Pairwise comparisons of the element (usually, alternatives and attributes) can be established using a scale indicating the strength with which one element dominates another with respect to a higher-level element. This scaling process can then be translated into priority weights (scores). The AMT implementation process has been divided into stages or modules, and each module is independent of the other. Four main modules have been identified—the institutionalization, acceptance, routinization and infusion modules. The factors/elements in each module were identified from the literature and the relative importance for each element established by priority weights. Once the priority weights of the elements/determinants of the module have been calculated, the presence of the corresponding element in the companies will be evaluated. An evaluation rating of these elements multiplied by the established priority weights will determine the prediction weight for the elements and the module. The application of this procedure is described for the institutionalization module, and can be similarly extended to the other AMT implementation modules. By establishing the prediction weight for each module, the companies will be able to evaluate the strength of the corresponding factors present before embarking on the AMT, identify and create awareness of the essential elements in the AMT implementation process and identify the actions necessary before implementing AMT. The AHP can be a useful guide in the decision making process of AMT implementation, especially for small and medium scale industries.     

The impact of micro‐ and macroergonomics considerations on appropriate technology transfer decisions in developing countries: The case of Turkey

The research presented in this paper aims to support the decision process of appropriate technology transfer to industrially developing countries by improving a broader understanding of relationships between the key micro‐ and macroergonomics factors and the technology alternatives. The methodology involves knowledge acquisition, identifying and categorizing a holistic set of key criteria about technology transfer with respect to ergonomics. This work attempts briefly to identify factors affecting the success of technology transfer in order to reduce the potential of incompatibilities with respect to micro‐ and macroergonomics and to optimize the decision process of managers. The objective of the decision model, based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), determines the global priority weights for different technology alternatives and examines the critical factors and benefits, which affect the appropriateness of technology transfer. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 17: 1–19, 2007.     

Consumers’ adoption of information services

This paper reports on a design science research study that seeks to investigate how information service components affect consumers’ potential adoption of such services. More specifically, the paper develops a conceptual model that uses the theory of organizational information services (TOIS) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) as a basis. The results indicate that individual constructs can be linked to service components. In turn, this result can potentially be instrumental in progress toward a deeper understanding of consumers’ adoption of information services and how this affects the development of such services and systems that support them.     

Adoption of software as a service in Indonesia: Examining the influence of organizational factors

In this study, we investigated the organizational factors that influenced Indonesian companies in their decision to adopt software as a service (SaaS). Based on a multiple-case study of 18 Indonesian companies, we identified three patterns: Top management support is an enabler for SaaS adoption; small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are more likely to adopt SaaS than large companies; and organizational readiness is not an enabler for SaaS adoption. The last two patterns contradict existing information technology (IT) innovation adoption research. We explain this by examining the nature of SaaS as an IT innovation and the characteristics of Indonesia as a developing country.     

Adopting organizational virtualization in B2B firms: An empirical study in Singapore

We empirically tested a parsimonious model that incorporates cost-benefit analysis/transaction cost theory, institutional theory, and organizational capability-based theory to predict organizational adoption of IT-facilitated virtualization in an Asian context. Virtualization implies the use of IT and communication technology by organizations in managing their interactions and key business operations with stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers and employees. Our research extends existing literature by using organizational structure adoption theories. The study should provide insights into the salient adoption issues of Asian firms. A survey was conducted of B2B organizations in Singapore. Results indicated that an increase in the level of net perceived benefits, external influences, and organizational capabilities had a positive effect on organizational decision makers’ intention to use virtualization. In particular, external influences were found to be the most important antecedents of intention to adopt virtualization in B2B organizations in Singapore.     

Supporting international entry decisions for construction firms using fuzzy preference relations and cumulative prospect theory

This paper emphasizes on supporting international entry decisions for construction firms in a three-phase analysis process. Phase I identified significant factors as two categories, namely country and project factor levels. Phase II stuck on identifying a risk of a country market for construction firms with fuzzy preference relations (FPR) and country factors. Of which, FPR helped elicit factor relative weights. Phase III devoted to figuring out which project or projects had the best prospects of success and profitability for assisting decisions of decision makers. Within phase III, project factors were used for project prospects, FPR for project success probability, and cumulative prospect theory (CPT) for decision maker prospects. This paper integrates FPR and CPT to select country markets and identify project prospects for decision makers of construction firms.     

Implementing a Manufacturing Information System

The adoption of a computer-driven technology should lead to cost reduction, improved control, and increased profitability. However, it should not be adopted just because it has worked well in other organizations. The corporate staff groups, in their zeal to please management, often lose objectivity and plunge into the new system adoption process to the detriment of the organizational welt-being. This article discusses the advantages of implementing a manufacturing information system to help MIS managers coordinate a strategy for CIM - computer-integrated manufacturing.     

Why aren’t organizations adopting virtual worlds?

The purpose of this study was to understand why organizational adoption of virtual worlds much has been much slower than expected, by empirically identifying factors that influence organizational intent to adopt virtual worlds. To do so, we developed a model of factors that influence organizational adoption of virtual worlds, based on the Technology–Organization–Environment framework. The model was tested using survey data from organizations, as well as secondary data. Interestingly, mimetic pressures and normative pressures exhibit the strongest effects on organizational intent to adopt virtual worlds. Contrary to expectations, none of the technical factors were to be found significant. These findings provide insights into why the organizational adoption rate of virtual worlds is much slower than expected. First, organizations are intended to adopt virtual worlds if other organizations are adopting virtual worlds. However, organizations are not adopting virtual worlds. Second, because respective competitors that have adopted virtual worlds are not benefiting or succeeding, organizations are not induced to adopt. Last, technological factors, such as relative advantage and compatibility, do not currently have a significant impact on an organization’s intent to adopt virtual worlds.     

A Comprehensive Examination of Internet-EDI Adoption

Abstract

By taking advantage of the Internet, a new generation of Interorganizational Information Systems, i.e., Internet electronic data interchange (I-EDI) provides great efficiency for performing business-to-business transactions and is much more affordable than other network alternatives. Few empirical studies have been conducted to examine the adoption of I-EDI and little guidance has been given to the practitioners in the field. To fill this void, this research investigates the adoption of I-EDI by U.S. enterprises based on a comprehensive framework. Results from an online survey of 219 organizational respondents indicate that the proposed framework is able to help explain organizational adoption of I-EDI. This study provides insights and interesting findings toward technology adoption in Internet era. While some new factors are found to play important roles in IOS adoption, several conventional factors, such as technology compatibility and organization size, are no longer significant in explaining the adoption of I-EDI. Different effects of interorganizational factors such as power, trust, and relationship commitment on I-EDI adoption have been revealed. Implications for researchers and practitioners are provided.     

An empirical investigation of the key determinants of data warehouse adoption

Data warehousing (DW) has emerged as one of the most powerful decision support technologies during the last decade. However, despite the fact that it has been around for some time, DW has experienced limited spread/use and relatively high failure rates. Treating DW as a major IT infrastructural innovation, we propose a comprehensive research model – grounded in IT adoption and organizational theories – that examines the impact of various organizational and technological (innovation) factors on DW adoption. Seven factors – five organizational and two technological – are tested in the model. The study employed rigorous measurement scales of the research variables to develop a survey instrument and targeted 2500 organizations in both manufacturing and services segments within two major states in the United States. A total of 196 firms (276 executives), of which nearly 55% were adopters, responded to the survey. The results from a logistic regression model, initially conceptualizing a direct effect of each of the seven variables on adoption, indicate that five of the seven variables (three organizational factors – commitment, size, and absorptive capacity – and two innovation characteristics — relative advantage and low complexity) are key determinants of DW adoption. Although scope for DW and preexisting data environment within the organization were favorable for adopter firms, they did not emerge as key determinants. However, the study provided an opportunity to explore a more complex set of relationships. This alternative structural model (using LISREL) provides a much richer explanation of the relationships among the antecedent variables and with adoption, the dependent variable. The study, especially the revised conceptualization, contributes to existing research by proposing and empirically testing a fairly comprehensive model of organizational adoption of an information technology (IT) innovation, more specifically a DSS technology. The findings of the study have interesting implications with respect to IT/DW adoption, both for researchers and practitioners.     

The initiation and adoption of client–server technology in organizations

A large number of companies are adopting client–server systems. We investigated the relationship between several contextual factors and the initiation and adoption process of this important technology. The contextual factors included: (a) environmental, such as market position; (b) internal factors, namely organizational structure/culture, size, and migration strategy; and (c) technological, such as scope, scale, and cost of a system. An analysis of data from 350 companies revealed that a company's market position, its migration strategy, and the system's scope and scale have a significant effect on the initiation and adoption process.     

Business-to-business e-commerce adoption: An empirical investigation of business factors

We develop an overarching model to explain the adoption of business-to-business e-commerce using five business factors: external environment, organizational context, decision-maker’s characteristics, technology context, and organizational learning. Data collected from IS executives was analyzed using logistic regression. Our model has a good fit with over 77 % variance explained. Findings indicate that the existence of informal interest groups, and the tolerant attitude of decision makers towards negative information about business-to-business e-commerce have significant influence on the adoption decision. In addition, our results indicate that price intensity and perceived barriers negatively affect the adoption decision.     

Text me when it becomes dangerous: Exploring the determinants of college students’ adoption of mobile-based text alerts short message service

Guided by Davis’ (1986) technology acceptance model (TAM) and Brehm’s (1989) reactance theory, this study sought to explore the determinants of college students’ adoption of mobile-based text alert short message service (SMS). The findings of the study supported the primary argument of the model that individuals’ adoption of text alert SMS for emergency preparedness and response should be largely determined by social psychological factors, such as attitude toward, subjective norm associated with, and perceived intrusiveness of the SMS. In addition, the findings demonstrated that subjective norm of and attitude toward the service prompted individuals’ actual adoption whereas intrusiveness of the service served as a distinctive barrier to the actual adoption behavior. Finally, the findings also showed that the probability of adopting the text alert SMS was not directly increased by perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the service, but was indirectly affected by the two antecedents through ones’ attitude toward the use of the SMS. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

A meta-analysis of relationships between organizational characteristics and IT innovation adoption in organizations

Adoption of IT in organizations is influenced by a wide range of factors in technology, organization, environment, and individuals. Researchers have identified several factors that either facilitate or hinder innovation adoption. Studies have produced inconsistent and contradictory outcomes. We performed a meta-analysis of ten organizational factors to determine their relative impact and strength. We aggregated their findings to determine the magnitude and direction of the relationship between organizational factors and IT innovation adoption. We found organizational readiness to be the most significant attribute and also found a moderately significant relationship between IT adoption and IS department size. Our study found weak significance of IS infrastructure, top management support, IT expertise, resources, and organizational size on IT adoption of technology while formalization, centralization, and product champion were found to be insignificant attributes. We also examined stage of innovation, type of innovation, type of organization, and size of organization as moderator conditions affecting the relationship between the organizational variables and IT adoption.     

Identifying organizational requirements for the implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT)

AMT selection and adoption processes have been extensively studied. Topics that include financial and human factors, productivity, and coordination of the AMT implementation establish a substantial content of the present research agenda. The purpose of this paper is to study the organizational factors that influence the AMT implementation, considering a manufacturing strategy context and an analysis based on an organizational design framework. The research strategy is based on ‘empirical iterations’ using survey secondary data, experts’ interviews information and multiple case studies. The results show that there is a set of recommendations, which strongly influence the AMT implementation. Companies require a structured and integrative approach for the AMT implementation in order to take advantage of all their individual and systemic benefits. The set of proposed AMT recommendations for integrating these technologies to the organizational design are framed by structural, process and contextual aspects.     

Determinants of EDI adoption in the transportation industry

This study examines the impact of various environmental, organizational, and technological factors on the adoption of innovation in the context of electronic data interchange (EDI). Based on research in information technology (IT) adoption, organizational studies and marketing a comprehensive research model is developed. The model identifies eleven variables, under three broad categories (environmental, organizational, and innovation characteristics), that could potentially influence the adoption of EDI. The research variables are operationalised using multi-item indicators and data collected from a large scale field survey of 950 firms in the trucking industry. A total of 181 firms responded to the survey with near equal number of adopters and non-adopters. Multivariate discriminant analysis is used to determine the impact of each of these variables on EDI adoption. The results of data analysis indicate that four factors are important to discriminate adopters from non-adopters of EDI in the transportation industry. They are: size of the firm, competitive pressure, customer support, and top management support.     

An exploratory study of radio frequency identification (RFID) adoption in the healthcare industry

This study examines the radio frequency identification (RFID) adoption decision process and proposes a model predicting the likelihood of adopting RFID within organizations in the healthcare industry. A considerable number of studies have been conducted regarding organizational information technology (IT) adoption, but the nature of the organizational IT adoption process is still not well understood. Especially, although there are a number of variables and categories that have been found empirically to be related to adoption behavior, there is little in the way of evidence to suggest the origin or motivation behind the adoption. Thus, this study investigates the underlying motivations and driving forces behind the adoption of RFID using the theory of technology-push and need-pull. In this study, an organizational RFID adoption model is proposed and empirically tested by a survey using a sample of 126 senior executives in U.S. hospitals. The model posits that three categories of factors, technology push, need pull, and presence of champions, determine the likelihood of adopting RFID within organizations. This study also found that the relationships between those three categories and the likelihood of adopting RFID are strengthened or weakened by organizational readiness.     

Construction of an instrument to measure student information and communication technology skills,experience and attitudes to e-learning

Over the past 20 years self-report measures of healthcare students’ information and communication technology skills have been developed with limited validation. Furthermore, measures of student experience of e-learning emerged but were not repeatedly used with diverse populations. A psychometric approach with five phases was used to develop and test a new self-report measure of skills and experience with information and communication technology and attitudes to computers in education. Phase 1: Literature review and identification of key items. Phase 2: Development and refinement of items with expert panel (n = 16) and students (n = 3) to establish face and content validity. Phase 3: Pilot testing of draft instrument with graduate pre-registration nursing students (n = 60) to assess administration procedures and acceptability of the instrument. Phase 4: Test–retest with further sample of graduate pre-registration nursing students (n = 70) tested stability and internal consistency. Phase 5: Main study with pre-registration nursing students (n = 458), further testing of internal consistency. The instrument proved to have moderate test–retest stability and the sub-scales had acceptable internal consistency. When used with a larger, more diverse population the psychometric properties were more variable. Further work is needed to refine the instrument with specific reference to possible cultural and linguistic response patterns and technological advances.     

A cross-country comparison of the adoption of ubiquitous supply chain management

The objective of this paper is to explore the adoption of ubiquitous supply chain management system (USCM) in different national contexts: the UK and South Korea. In order to achieve this objective, this paper proposes a research model that consists of factors related to organizational, information technology and environmental aspects. Data were collected in the UK and South Korea to conduct a cross-country comparison analysis. The findings indicate that the major differences between the two countries were found in industry type, USCM adoption type and USCM benefits. Many of the organizational, information technology and environment factors are similar across the two nations. Because there has been little empirical research on this subject, the findings provide valuable insights for both academics and practitioners. Further research is required to examine the application of USCM in the various industrial contexts.