Development of an IS change reason–IS change type combinations matrix

Firms change their information systems (IS) for various reasons, ranging from compliance with government regulations to the development of new capabilities. When making these changes a firm can choose between four different IS change types: IS introduction, IS extension, IS replacement, and IS merger. This paper proposes that change reasons and change types are interrelated, and that certain reason-type combinations are more likely than others to result in a successful IS change. To identify these combinations, an IS change reason–IS change type matrix is developed. While the matrix is created from prior IS research, we conducted a focus group study of IS professionals to further explore and refine the matrix. The findings from the focus group study reveal that some IS change reason–IS change type combinations are more appropriate than others to carry out the IS change project successfully. We also present three examples of IS change projects to illustrate the use and value of the matrix in practice.     

信息系统的基础理论初探

信息系统的不断发展直接促进了信息系统基础理论的研究,本文从数学模型的角度出发对信息系统的基础理论进行了探讨,首先,文中给出了基于集合论的信息系统的数学模型,然后就信息系统中信息和属性的完备性和冗余程度两个方面进行了讨论,在介绍了最大的信息系统,可选的信息系统和最简信息系统的定义后,本文提出了理论信息系统的概念,并针对信息系统中信息的不确定性问题,引入不确定性信息系统的概念。     

Elucidating the role of IT/IS assessment and resource allocation in IT/IS performance in hospitals

Although similar to firms in other industries that strive to increase their operational efficiency by implementing IT/IS, hospitals face difficulties in obtaining the corresponding benefits of investing in IT/IS. This study investigates the relations among IT/IS performance, IT maturity, IT/IS assessment, IT/IS resource allocation, and user satisfaction in hospitals. IT/IS performance in hospitals is evaluated using a designed questionnaire, along with a case study undertaken to discuss IT/IS assessment and the effect of IT/IS on hospital procedures. The analysis results indicate that hospitals have a higher IT maturity, stronger intention to implement IT/IS assessment, and better IT/IS resource allocation capabilities than firms in other industries. Moreover, both IT/IS assessment and user satisfaction affect IT/IS performance in hospitals.     

An empirical investigation of the relationship of IS strategy with firm performance

Given the important impact that an IS strategy has on the potential value IS brings to an organization, we develop and test a model of IS Strategy and Firm Performance. Our survey-based study provides strong evidence that firms with defined IS strategies (either IS Innovator or IS Conservative) perform better than those without defined IS strategies. Organizations without a clearly defined IS strategy actually experienced a negative relationship with firm performance. These organizations should realize the potentially negative outcomes of such a lack of strategy and work to extricate themselves before a consistent pattern of investing in IS without clear organizational benefit develops. Furthermore, the study suggests that the IS Innovator strategy is, in particular, associated with more superior firm performance than the IS Conservative strategy under conditions of environmental dynamism. Organizational leaders need to consider the external environments under which their organizations are operating and evaluate the influence those environments may have on their IS strategy’s ability to impact performance. Post hoc analysis results also reveal a fourth potential IS strategy, one that strives for ambidexterity. Ambidextrous firms were found to be associated with the most superior performance, leading to a potential extension of the existing IS strategy typology and a call for future research.     

An empirical analysis of a maturity model to assess information system success: a firm-level perspective

This research investigates the relationship between IS investment and IS success and the moderating effects of IS maturity. We find the moderating role of IS maturity between IS investment and IS success with a contingency perspective. As administering a group survey of about 300 business executives across multiple industries, the results of this study indicate that IS investment is a critical antecedent of IS success, and IS maturity has a positive moderating effect on this relationship. The implication of the findings implies that global companies should consider the maturity of their IS management: as a crucial factor in maximising the effectiveness of IS investment.     

A study of IS assets,IS ambidexterity,and IS alignment: the dynamic managerial capability perspective

This study aims to explore how IT-business alignment can be better achieved. Drawing on the dynamic capability view, information systems (IS) alignment and IS ambidexterity are theorized as IT departments’ ordinary capability and dynamic managerial capability, respectively. Four IS assets are identified as antecedents of both IS ambidexterity and IS alignment. A research model with 14 hypotheses is tested with a sample of 162 manufacturing firms. The PLS analysis shows that IS ambidexterity can increase IS alignment in terms of operational support and that the four IS assets can affect IS alignment directly or indirectly. Implications for research and practice are provided.     

Using the theory of the professions to understand the IS identity crisis

Academic information systems (IS) is struggling with an identity crisis that is grounded in limited consensus about the discipline's core concepts, its important research questions and its boundaries. The result is a pluralistic discipline that has triggered an ongoing debate about whether the ‘liquidity’ characteristic of IS is a natural consequence of rapidly changing technologies or if it is indicative of a chaotic state that is unsustainable. This paper looks at IS through a new and different lens by using the theory of the professions to gain insight into current and heretofore unidentified problems facing the discipline. Casting IS as a profession presents an integrated view of academic IS, IS practice and IS education grounded in a framework that explores connections among these three elements. The paper concludes with a discussion of the processes by which professions evolve and likely consequences for IS research, practice and education.     

Adopting IS process innovations in organizations: the role of IS leaders’ individual factors and technology perceptions in decision making

While there is a rich body of literature on information system (IS) innovations, there is a limited understanding of the role IS leaders’ individual factors and their appraisals of technological factors play in organizations’ adoption of IS innovations. We address these gaps in the IS literature by focusing on an IS process innovation – namely, computer-aided software engineering (CASE) – which is targeted at the core activities of systems development/maintenance in IS departments. We specifically examine how organizations’ CASE adoption decision is impacted by (1) two individual factors of IS leaders (i.e., leaders’ hierarchical position and job tenure) and (2) their perceptions of technological factors (i.e., relative advantage and technological complexity of CASE). Data were gathered from IS leaders at 350 organizations in the United States using a national cross-sectional survey. The findings suggest that IS leaders’ hierarchical position and their job tenure significantly differentiate CASE adopters from non-adopters. IS leaders at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy and with shorter job tenure made the adoption decisions in adopter organizations, while IS leaders at higher levels of the organizational hierarchy and with longer job tenure made the adoption decisions in non-adopter organizations. The findings also reveal that relative advantage has two dimensions – namely, perceived efficacy advantage and perceived efficiency advantage – and IS leaders’ evaluation of the perceived efficacy advantage of CASE differentiates adopters from non-adopters. The study has important implications for our theoretical and practical understanding of the factors related to IS leaders that are influential in the organizational adoption of IS innovations.     

Perception gaps between IS academics and IS practitioners: an exploratory study

It has long been recognized that there are significant perception gaps between information systems (IS) academics and IS practitioners with regards to the required IS knowledge/skills to perform their professional jobs successfully. Unfortunately, there is no consensus about which knowledge/skills are more important in the IS profession. With the rapidly changing IS technology and IS industry, a study was urgently needed to find and understand the gaps between these two groups. We report here on a study to measure the gap.     

From information systems resources to effective use: Moderating effect of network embeddedness

This research examines how organizations can achieve effective information systems (IS) use by aligning internal IS resources with embeddedness in the IS outsourcing network. Leveraging the empirical opportunity of large-scale organization-wide meaningful use attestation of electronic health records, we conducted a longitudinal analysis of US hospitals from 2013 to 2017. We found that an organization’s network embeddedness amplifies the positive relationship between IS resources and effective IS use. We also identify different impacts depending on network embeddedness types and organization sizes. We found positive moderating effects of structural and positional embeddedness. However, junctional embeddedness has no direct or moderating effect on IS use. In addition, the moderating effects manifest differently for different-sized organizations – i.e., structural embeddedness has a stronger positive moderating effect for large organizations, while positional embeddedness’ positive moderating effect is stronger for small organizations. We also found heterogeneous direct effects of structural and positional embeddedness on organizational IS use. Solely depending on structural embeddedness will result in lower IS use, which is more prominent for small organizations. Positional embeddedness has a negative direct effect on small organizations’ IS use but positively relates to large organizations’ IS use. This research highlights the role of network embeddedness in facilitating IS use and offers a nuanced understanding of its impacts. Our findings also provide practical implications for organizational IS use through strategic IS outsourcing.     

RESOLVING PARADOXES OF CHANGE

How can IS be decentralized and In control? This is one of the many paradoxes the typical IS organization faces pertaining to the management of people. This article considers eight specific and daunting examples of IS paradoxes. Each is a potential roadblock to success, yet each offers an opportunity for IS managers and points the way for IS to make effective and significant change. Additional commentary on managing information technology change is provided in the sidebar by Robert A. Zawacki and Carol A. Norman.     

Information systems assimilation in Indian organizations: An examination of strategic and organizational imperatives

IT investment by organizations in India has increased significantly over the last 10 years, as Indian firms have deployed IS for modernizing and reengineering their processes. This paper analyzes, in an exploratory vein, organizational and strategic imperatives that have influenced IS assimilation and evolution of the IS application portfolio in Indian firms. It first identifies three categories of organizations with respect to IS assimilation, and describes strategic and organizational factors characteristic of each group. Next, it traces the evolution of the IS application portfolio in each of the studied firms and analyses accompanying changes in strategic and organizational factors. The paper builds on IS assimilation studies in organizations from developed societies, and describes issues unique to IS assimilation in Indian firms. It is based on data collected from case studies of IS deployment in nine Indian organizations.     

Convergence and divergence in information systems and knowledge based systems development methodologies: a case for integrated strategic planning

There is a need to integrate knowledge based systems (KBS) with information systems (IS) technical solutions, which implies that KBS and IS development methodologies should be less isolated from each other. KBS and IS development methodologies are generally examined in terms of their similarities and differences. There is divergence at the feasibility and analysis stages, convergence at the design and coding stages, divergence during testing, convergence at the implementation stage, and divergence during maintenance. There are more similarities than there are differences between IS and KBS methodologies, particularly during the strategic planning stage. It is argued that linking KBS strategic planning to the planning element of an IS methodology will go further towards ensuring that the whole of the business is considered, leading to better integrated IS/KBS solutions. Application selection activities of two well-known KBS methodologies are briefly analysed. We show that these activities, which precede the feasibility study, do not consider the strategic aspects of the use of KBS (and IS in general) in business organizations. It is argued that a KBS strategy should be formulated in relation to the IS strategy and the business strategy, therefore increasing the convergence between IS and KBS methodologies.     

Interpretation,intervention, and reduction in the organizational laboratory: a framework for in-context information system research

Understanding how technical artefacts are created and used within organizations is a central aspect of the IS research discipline. The conduct of research in an organizational setting is thus a major issue for the IS community. A research framework for in-context IS research is presented and used to position purified and hybrid forms of research method. From the framework theoretical support for an `action case' research method is presented. Two IS research cases are presented and analyzed using the IS research framework, leading to a practice-based rationale for an action case method. Characteristics of the action case method, a hybrid of interpretation and intervention, are described. Learning at three levels of analysis—concrete, general, and meta—is proposed and used as a way of reflecting on IS research methods and IS research frameworks.     

Some empirical evidence on IS Strategy Alignment in banking

Recent research amongst North-American and European IS managers shows that for both groups the alignment of IS strategy and corporate strategy is a top priority. IS alignment approaches do, however, exist, describing a generic process, independent of the characteristics of any particular industry or company. Here, an attempt is made to apply IS Strategy Alignment to banking, with the aim to identify major issues and to attempt to determine the relationships between these issues, based on a research project in a number of European banks. This work suggests that the main problem in generating improved IS Strategy Alignment is a lack of overall sector knowledge (not skills) amongst banking managers. Awareness of IS issues (even the softer ones) does not cause problems, but the application of these issues in the banking world does. The influence of mind sets on IS Strategy Alignment awareness proved to be important. Based on an experience with the analytical methods used and the results obtained, other methods of empirical investigation are suggested, including new issues in IS Strategy Alignment.     

A process model for analyzing and managing flexibility in information systems

Competitive pressures are forcing organizations to be flexible. Being responsive to changing environmental conditions is an important factor in determining corporate performance. Earlier research, focusing primarily on IT infrastructure, has shown that organizational flexibility is closely related to IT infrastructure flexibility. Using real-world cases, this paper explores flexibility in the broader context of the IS function. An empirically derived framework for better understanding and managing IS flexibility is developed using grounded theory and content analysis. A process model for managing flexibility is presented; it includes steps for understanding contextual factors, recognizing reasons why flexibility is important, evaluating what needs to be flexible, identifying flexibility categories and stakeholders, diagnosing types of flexibility needed, understanding synergies and tradeoffs between them, and prescribing strategies for proactively managing IS flexibility. Three major flexibility categories, flexibility in IS operations, flexibility in IS systems & services development and deployment, and flexibility in IS management, containing 10 IS flexibility types are identified and described.     

Reconsidering deconstruction in information systems research

Deconstruction, a post-structuralist approach to examining language in texts, is most often associated with the philosophical works of Jacque Derrida. After a flurry of interest among management and information systems (IS) scholars, this qualitative approach to exploring organizational texts has received little attention in the IS literature. We suggest deconstruction could help our field explore how IS texts describe the social and technical past and also prescribe and circumscribe the future of IS practice. Thus, we suggest the IS field reconsider how deconstruction might contribute to language-based approaches in IS research and practice. In this paper, we discuss deconstruction in light of the linguistic turn in social science research and the support and criticism for its use in management research. We consider IS research publications that have employed deconstruction explicitly, examine a well-known IS publication as an example of the deconstruction of IS texts, and suggest ways in which deconstruction might be applied to various genres of IS texts to inspire insights and creativity. To conclude, we highlight considerations for researchers who might adopt this approach and for the editors and reviewers who would evaluate qualitative research papers that employ deconstruction.     

Value-focused assessment of information system security in organizations

Abstract.  Information system (IS) security continues to present a challenge for executives and professionals. A large part of IS security research is technical in nature with limited consideration of people and organizational issues. The study presented in this paper adopts a broader perspective and presents an understanding of IS security in terms of the values of people from an organizational perspective. It uses the value-focused thinking approach to identify 'fundamental' objectives for IS security and 'means' of achieving them in an organization. Data for the study were collected through in-depth interviews with 103 managers about their values in managing IS security. Interview results suggest 86 objectives that are essential in managing IS security. The 86 objectives are organized into 25 clusters of nine fundamental and 16 means categories. These results are validated by a panel of seven IS security experts. The findings suggest that for maintaining IS security in organizations, it is necessary to go beyond technical considerations and adopt organizationally grounded principles and values.     

A review of the factors which influence the use and usefulness of information systems

The potential usefulness of different kinds of Information System (IS) for environmental management is well recognised. However, concerns have been raised about the translation of this potential into actual use and benefit to policy and planning organisations and outcomes. The aims of this paper are to identify those factors which have been found to influence the use and usefulness of IS and in doing so to provide advice for managing development and implementation processes. There is no body of empirical work on the topic for environmental application. However a substantial literature on non-environmental IS has been developed and is used as source material. A classification of IS life cycle processes is developed and the best, worst and possible predicting factors for each process identified. The best predicting factors for IS usefulness across the life cycle were found to be user participation, user perceptions and intentions, user computer experience, top management support, support and training, external pressure, IS unit professionalism and the availability of external information sources. The state of knowledge about the determinants of IS usefulness is discussed and priorities for future research are identified. The factors identified are then discussed in terms of what they mean for managing IS development and for overcoming concerns about environmental IS development and use.     

Understanding IS evaluation as a complex social process: a case study of a UK local authority

The increasing concern from both IS practitioners and academics about the lack of confidence in the returns on IS investment is evidenced in the IS literature and is further illustrated by the growing number of methods and initiatives in this area. This is particularly evident in the UK public sector where national and local government have a duty to ensure that public money is spent appropriately. In this paper the authors explore the area of IS evaluation by categorising the methods available for use and considering the underlying assumptions of these categories. Building on recent research work with interpretative IS evaluation in the private sector, the authors specifically consider UK local government initiatives and use an in-depth case study of one UK Local Authority to elicit lessons for IS practice. The authors contend that there is currently a prevailing paradigm for understanding IS evaluation based on mechanistic and functional principles that are flawed in practice. On the basis of the case material and from the literature, the authors argue that a complementary approach to this paradigm based on situated practice provides a richer view and a more practically oriented approach to IS evaluation.