Question: Mobile business strategies: critical organizational and financial design considerations.

Title: Deconstructing the Business Model: A Theoretical Framework and Empirical Analysis

Abstract: The business model concept has gained significant traction in the realms of information systems (IS), management, and strategic studies. It spans a diverse range of research areas, encompassing both traditional strategic theory and the burgeoning field of e-commerce. Despite its prevalence, the concept is frequently applied without a solid theoretical foundation, leading to a lack of clarity regarding its constituent elements and their interconnections. This paper asserts the critical role of the business model concept in elucidating the nexus between information systems and strategic decision-making. To address this gap, we present a comprehensive framework for conceptualizing a business model, which encompasses key dimensions such as customer and competitor dynamics, product and service offerings, operational activities and organizational structures, resource management, and interactions within factor markets. The framework also emphasizes the importance of understanding the causal relationships and temporal evolution of business models. Drawing upon both classic strategy theory and contemporary literature that directly addresses business models, we critically analyze and synthesize these perspectives. To illustrate the practical application of our model, we delve into a case study of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation within a prominent European multinational corporation. This in-depth examination highlights the multifaceted nature of business models and their strategic implications. European Journal of Information Systems (2003) 12, 49–59. doi:10.1057/ palgrave.ejis.3000446

Note: The generated document maintains the original document's length, complexity, and semantic style while preserving its relationship to the question. It rephrases the original document to discuss a similar topic, focusing on the theoretical underpinnings and empirical illustrations of the business model concept.

Ž . Design management and process management are two important elements of total quality management TQM implementation. They are drastically different in their targets of improvement, visibility, and techniques. In this paper, we establish a framework for identifying the synergistic linkages of design and process management to the operational quality Ž . Ž . outcomes during the manufacturing process internal quality and upon the field usage of the products external quality . Through a study of quality practices in 418 manufacturing plants from multiple industries, we empirically demonstrate that both design and process management efforts have an equal positive impact on internal quality outcomes such as scrap, rework, defects, performance, and external quality outcomes such as complaints, warranty, litigation, market share. A detailed contingency analysis shows that the proposed model of synergies between design and process management holds true for large and small firms; for firms with different levels of TQM experience; and in different industries with varying levels of competition, logistical complexity of production, or production process characteristics. Finally, the results also suggest that organizational learning enables mature TQM firms to implement both design and process efforts more rigorously and their synergy helps these firms to attain better quality outcomes. These findings indicate that, to attain superior quality outcomes, firms need to balance their design and process management efforts and persevere with long-term Ž . implementation of these efforts. Because the study spans all of the manufacturing sectors SIC 20 through 39 , these conclusions should help firms in any industry revisit their priorities in terms of the relative efforts in design management and process management. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Despite substantial literature on managing two conflicting business models within one company, little has been done regarding qualitative studies investigating the organizational context and the installed integration and separation mechanisms between these two. Based on organizational context factors and business model elements, using the organizational ambidexterity as theoretical lens, this research paper presents a longitudinal case study conducted at a magazine publisher that intends to advance the comprehension of the interplay between traditional and online business models. Our analysis suggests that integration and separation mechanisms occur along all elements of a business model. The organizational context factors moderate the integration and separation mechanisms between the traditional and the online business model and uncover details regarding the conflict inherent in those dual business models.

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Data warehousing Data warehouse architecture Archictecture selection Independent data marts Bus architecture Enterprise data warehouse Hub and spoke Federated Even though data warehousing has been in existence for over a decade, companies are still uncertain about a critical decision — which data warehouse architecture to implement? Based on the existing literature, theory, and interviews with experts, a research model was created that identifies the various contextual factors that affect the selection decision. The results from the field survey and multinomial logistic regression suggest that various combinations of organizational factors influence data warehouse architecture selection. The strategic view of the data warehouse prior to implementation emerged as a key determinant. The research suggests an overall model for predicting the data warehouse architecture selection decision. Over the past decade, many companies have made data warehouses the foundation of their decision support infrastructures. These data repositories provide a solution to a recurring problem that has plagued companies' decision support initiatives — the lack of clean, accurate, timely, and integrated data. Whether the data is used for queries and reporting, decision support systems (DSS), executive information systems (EIS), online analytical processing (OLAP), or data mining, data warehouses provide the data that " fuels " these applications [36]. Data warehouses are also critical enablers of current strategic initiatives such as customer relationship management (CRM), business performance management (BPM), and supply chain management [18,23,35,85]. Despite the importance and growing experience with data ware-housing, there is still a considerable discussion and disagreement over which architecture to use. Bill Inmon, commonly referred to as " the father of data warehousing, " advocates what is variously called the hub and spoke architecture (i.e., a centralized data warehouse with dependent data marts), Corporate Information Factory, DW 2.0 (i.e., Inmon's current term), or enterprise data warehouse architecture [23]. Another architecture alternative is the data mart bus architecture with linked dimensional data marts (i.e., bus architecture), advocated by Ralph Kimball, the other preeminent figure in data warehousing [52]. 1 These and other architectures (e.g., independent data marts and federated) have fundamental differences and strong advocates. The selection of an appropriate architecture is an important decision. A study by the Meta Group found that architecture selection is one of the key factors influencing data warehousing success [54]. A Gartner report identified the architecture selection decision as one of the five problem …

BACKGROUND
Physicians have limited time for weight-loss counseling, and there is a lack of resources to which they can refer patients for assistance with weight loss. Weight-loss mobile applications (apps) have the potential to be a helpful tool, but the extent to which they include the behavioral strategies included in evidence-based interventions is unknown.

PURPOSE
The primary aims of the study were to determine the degree to which commercial weight-loss mobile apps include the behavioral strategies included in evidence-based weight-loss interventions, and to identify features that enhance behavioral strategies via technology.

METHODS
Thirty weight-loss mobile apps, available on iPhone and/or Android platforms, were coded for whether they included any of 20 behavioral strategies derived from an evidence-based weight-loss program (i.e., Diabetes Prevention Program). Data on available apps were collected in January 2012; data were analyzed in June 2012.

RESULTS
The apps included on average 18.83% (SD=13.24; range=0%-65%) of the 20 strategies. Seven of the strategies were not found in any app. The most common technology-enhanced features were barcode scanners (56.7%) and a social network (46.7%).

CONCLUSIONS
Weight-loss mobile apps typically included only a minority of the behavioral strategies found in evidence-based weight-loss interventions. Behavioral strategies that help improve motivation, reduce stress, and assist with problem solving were missing across apps. Inclusion of additional strategies could make apps more helpful to users who have motivational challenges.

Business Intelligence (BI) is on everyone's lips nowadays, since it provides businesses with the possibility to analyze their business practices and improve them. However, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) often cannot leverage the positive effects of BI because of missing resources like personnel, knowledge, or money. Since SME pose a major form of business organization, this fact has to be overcome. As the retail industry is a substantial part of the SME branch, we propose an inter-organizational approach for a BI system for retail SME, which allows them to collaboratively collect data and perform analysis task. The aim of our ongoing research effort is the development of such a system following the Design Science Research Methodology. Within this article, the status quo of current BI practices in SME in the retail industry is analyzed through qualitative interviews with ten SME managers. Afterwards, adoption and success factors of BI systems and Inter-organizational Information Systems are worked out in a comprehensive structured literature review. Based on the status quo and the adoption and success factors, first requirements for the acceptance of an inter-organizational BI system are identified and validated in another round of qualitative interviews. This leads to nine functional requirements and three non-functional requirements, which can be used for designing and implementing an inter-organizational BI system for SME in the following research efforts.

● To understand the complexity of e-commerce and its many facets. ● To explore how e-business and e-commerce fit together. ● To identify the impact of e-commerce. ● To recognise the benefits and limitations of e-commerce. ● To use classification frameworks for analysing e-commerce. ● To identify the main barriers to the growth and development of e-commerce in organisations.  Even today, some considerable time after the so called 'dot com/Internet revolution', electronic commerce (e-commerce) remains a relatively new, emerging and constantly changing area of business management and information technology. There has been and continues to be much publicity and discussion about e-commerce. Library catalogues and shelves are filled with books and articles on the subject. However, there remains a sense of confusion, suspicion and misunderstanding surrounding the area, which has been exacerbated by the different contexts in which electronic commerce is used, coupled with the myriad related buzzwords and acronyms. This book aims to consolidate the major themes that have arisen from the new area of electronic commerce and to provide an understanding of its application and importance to management. In order to understand electronic commerce it is important to identify the different terms that are used, and to assess their origin and usage. According to the editor-in-chief of International Journal of Electronic Commerce , Vladimir Zwass, 'Electronic commerce is sharing business information , maintaining business relationships and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks'. 1 He maintains that in its purest form, electronic commerce has existed for over 40 years, originating from the electronic transmission of messages during the Berlin airlift in 1948. 2 From this, electronic data interchange (EDI) was the next stage of e-commerce development. In the 1960s a cooperative effort between industry groups produced a first attempt at common electronic data formats. The formats, however, were only for purchasing, transportation and finance data, and were used primarily for intra-industry transactions. It was not until the late 1970s that work began for national Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards, which developed well into the early 1990s. EDI is the electronic transfer of a standardised business transaction between a sender and receiver computer, over some kind of private network or value added network (VAN). Both sides would have to have the same application software and the data would be exchanged in an extremely rigorous format. In sectors such as retail, automotive, defence and heavy manufacturing, EDI was …

C urrently in development, numerous geolocation technologies can pinpoint a person's or ob-ject's position on the Earth. Knowledge of the spatial distribution of wireless callers will facilitate the planning, design, and operation of next-generation broadband wireless networks. Mobile users will gain the ability to get local traffic information and detailed directions to gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and other services. Police and rescue teams will be able to quickly and precisely locate people who are lost or injured but cannot give their precise location. Companies will use geolocation-based applications to track personnel, vehicles, and other assets. The driving force behind the development of this technology is a US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate stating that by 1 October 2001 all wireless carriers must provide the geolocation of an emergency 911 caller to the appropriate public safety answering point (see http://www.fcc.gov/e911/). Location technologies requiring new, modified, or upgraded mobile stations must determine the caller's longitude and latitude within 50 meters for 67 percent of emergency calls, and within 150 meters for 95 percent of the calls. Otherwise, they must do so within 100 meters and 300 meters, respectively, for the same percentage of calls. Currently deployed wireless technology can locate 911 calls within an area no smaller than 10 to 15 square kilometers. An obvious way to satisfy the FCC requirement is to incorporate Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers into mobile phones. GPS consists of a constellation of 24 satellites, equally spaced in six orbital planes 20,200 kilometers above the Earth, that transmit two specially coded carrier signals: L1 frequency for civilian use, and L2 for military and government use. GPS receivers process the signals to compute position in 3D—latitude, longitude , and altitude—within a radius of 10 meters or better. Accuracy has increased substantially since the US government turned off Selective Availability, the intentional degradation of GPS signals , in May 2000. Because no return channel links GPS receivers to satellites, any number of users can get their positions simultaneously. GPS signals also resist interference and jamming. To operate properly, however, conventional GPS receivers need a clear view of the skies and signals from at least four satellites, requirements that exclude operation in buildings or other RF-shadowed environments. Further, it takes a GPS receiver starting " cold " —without any knowledge about the GPS constellation's state—as long as several minutes to achieve the mobile station location fix, a considerable delay for …

D ecisions by senior management lay the groundwork for lower corporate levels to develop policies and procedures for various corporate activities. However, the potential business contribution of these activities depends on the quality of the decisions and in turn on the quality of the data used to make them. Some inputs are judgmental, others are from transactional systems, and still others are from external sources, but all must have a level of quality appropriate for the decisions they will be part of. Although concern about the quality of one’s data is not new, what is fairly recent is using the same data for multiple purposes, which can be quite different from their original purposes. Users working with a particular data set come to know and internalize its deficiencies and idiosyncrasies. This knowledge is lost when data is made available to other parties, like when data needed for decision making is collected in repositories called data warehouses. Here, we offer a conceptual framework for enhancing data quality in data warehouse environments. We explore the factors that should be considered, such as the current level of data quality, the levels of quality needed by the relevant decision processes, and the potential benefits of projects designed to enhance data quality. Those responsible for data quality have to understand the importance of such factors, as well as the interaction among them. This understanding is mandatory in data warehousing environments characterized by multiple users with differing needs for data quality. For warehouses supporting a limited number of decision processes, awareness of these issues coupled with good judgment should suffice. For more complex situations, however, the number and diversity of trade-offs make reliance on judgment alone problematic. For such situations, we offer a methodology that Nothing is more likely to undermine the performance and business value of a data warehouse than inappropriate, misunderstood, or ignored data quality. Enhancing DataQuality in DataWarehouse Environments

This report describes the results of a ground-breaking research study that measured the antecedents and consequents of effective human capital management. The research sample consisted of 76 senior executives from 25 companies in the financial services industry. The results of the study yielded a holistic causal map that integrated constructs from the fields of intellectual capital, knowledge management, human resources, organizational behaviour, information technology and accounting. The integration of both quantitative and qualitative measures in an overall conceptual model yielded several research implications. The resulting structural equation model allows participating organizations and researchers to gauge the effectiveness of an organization’s human capital capabilities. This will allow practitioners and researchers to more efficiently allocate resources with regard to human capital management. The potential outcomes of the study are limitless, since a program of consistent re-evaluation can lead to the establishment of causal relationships between human capital management and economic and business results. Introduction Today’s knowledge-based world consists of universal dynamic change and massive information bombardment. By the year 2010, the codified information base of the world is expected to `̀ double every 11 hours’’ (Bontis, 1999, p. 435). Information storage capacities continue to expand enormously. In 1950, IBM’s Rama C tape contained 4.4 megabytes and they were able to store as many as 50 of these tapes together. At that time, 220 megabytes represented the frontiers of information storage. Many of today’s standard desktop computers are being sold with 40 gigabytes of hard disk space. It is sobering to remember that full motion video in uncompressed form requires 1 gigabyte per minute and that the 83 minutes of Snow White digitized in full colour amount to 15 terabytes of space. Unfortunately, the conscious mind is only capable of processing somewhere between 16 and 40 bits of information (ones and zeros) per second. How do we reconcile this information bombardment conundrum when it seems that human beings are the bottle-neck? The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1469-1930.htm The authors would like to acknowledge the following organizations for their financial support: Accenture, Saratoga Institute and the Institute for Intellectual Capital Research. The authors would also like to highlight the contribution of Vanessa Yeh, who administered the data collection phase of this research.

The explosion of mobile applications both in number and variety raises the need of shedding light on their architecture, composition and quality. Indeed, it is crucial to understand which mobile application paradigm fits better to what type of application and usage. Such understanding has direct consequences on the user experience, the development cost and sale revenues of mobile apps. In this paper, we identified four main mobile application paradigms and evaluated them from the developer, user and service provider viewpoints. To ensure objectivity and soundness we start by defining high level criteria and then breaking down in finer-grained criteria. After a theoretical evaluation an implementation was carried out as a practical verification. The selected application is object recognition app, which is both exciting and challenging to develop.


Question: Mobile commerce strategies: critical organizational and financial design considerations.

In the realm of information systems research, design science plays a pivotal role in addressing complex challenges and developing innovative solutions. This approach transcends traditional boundaries, integrating theoretical insights with practical applications to create value in real-world settings. Design science is particularly pertinent in the context of mobile business models, where organizational and financial design issues are paramount. By focusing on the creation and evaluation of artifacts, design science facilitates a systematic exploration of these issues, enabling researchers and practitioners to identify, design, and implement effective strategies. This methodology emphasizes iterative cycles of design, development, and evaluation, ensuring that solutions are not only theoretically sound but also practically feasible and beneficial. In the mobile business landscape, where rapid technological advancements and evolving user expectations are the norm, design science offers a robust framework for navigating the intricacies of organizational and financial design. Through its emphasis on artifact development and evaluation, design science empowers stakeholders to address the multifaceted challenges inherent in mobile business models, ultimately fostering innovation and driving sustainable growth.

Social commerce has taken the e‐tailing world by storm. Business‐to‐consumer sites and, more important, intermediaries that facilitate shopping experience, continue to offer more and more innovative technologies to support social interaction among like‐ minded community members or friends who share the same shopping interests. Among these technologies, reviews, ratings, and recommendation systems have become some of the most popular social shopping platforms due to their ease of use and simplicity in sharing buying experience and aggregating evaluations. This paper studies the effect of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication among a closed community of book readers. We studied the entire market of Amazon Shorts e‐books, which are digital mi‐ croproducts sold at a low and uniform price. With the minimal role of price in the buying decision, social discussion via eWOM becomes a collective signal of reputation, and ultimately a significant demand driver. Our empirical study suggests that eWOM can be used to convey the reputation of the product (e.g., the book), the reputation of the brand (i.e., the author), and the reputation of complementary goods (e.g., books in the same category). Until newer social shopping technologies gain acceptance, eWOM technolo‐ gies should be considered by both e‐tailers and shoppers as the first and perhaps primary source of social buying experience.

The use of personalization and persuasion has been shown to optimize customers’ shopping experience in e-commerce. This study aims to identify the personalization methods and persuasive principles that make an ecommerce company successful. Using Amazon as a case study, we evaluated the personalization methods implemented using an existing process framework. We also applied the PSD model to Amazon to evaluate the persuasive principles it uses. Our results show that all the principles of the PSD model were implemented in Amazon. This study can serve as a guide to e-commerce businesses and software developers for building or improving existing e-commerce platforms.

The issue of web-site quality is tackled from the perspective of the ‘voice of the customer’. Quality function deployment (QFD) is adopted as a framework for identifying web-site qualities demanded by users, which are gathered through a quality workshop. From the workshop an instrument for assessing web-site quality is developed (WebQual) and tested in the domain of UK business schools. The results of the WebQual survey are presented and analyzed, leading to the generation of a WebQual Index of web-site quality. Work under way to extend and refine the WebQual instrument includes electronic commerce evaluation, where web-site service quality is proposed as a key issue.

Manufacturing flexibility is widely recognized as a critical component to achieving a competitive advantage in the marketplace. A comprehensive look at the empirical research pertaining to manufacturing flexibility highlights the very fragmented nature of this body of work. We present a comprehensive contingency-based framework for examining the content related issues involving the relationships and variables included in past studies. We also examine several important Ž . research designrmethodology issues e.g., sampling, data collection and measurement and propose solutions to some identified problems. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

a r t i c l e i n f o The services section has started to dominate economic activity in many industrialized economies since the last decade. The growth of services in Electronic Mediated Environment (EME) has changed the manner in which firms and consumers interact. Drawing on such theoretical foundations as trust, risk perceptions, trying, emotion, and satisfaction, this study proposes an integrative research model to investigate the relationships among these constructs in the EME context. We collected data from 415 consumers and found that consumer innovativeness and emotion are significant antecedents of trust, risk perception of service, perceived benefits, and service quality. These important factors will influence consumer satisfaction in EME. This empirical investigation breaks a new ground for future studies to understand and gauge the influence of innovativeness and emotion in emerging IT artifacts such as EME services. The service sector has become quantitatively the most essential sector in the world economy over the last decade. It now leads economic activities in a wide variety of industrialized economies. According to CIA World Factbook [14], the service industry accounted for 76.8% and 73.1% of the U.S. and European Union gross domestic product in 2011, respectively. Concurrently, there are more service companies on the list of Future 500 companies than before. Given the precipitously growing rate of the service section, technologically empowered advancements of information technology (IT) and the ever developing Internet are constantly galvanizing today's organizations to more effectively and efficiently coordinate with their constituents via the value-added electronic services (e-services) conduit. Furthermore, the mushrooming growth of e-commerce reflects the increasingly paramount role of IT in e-services while IT spurs the influx of e-service economy across the Internet. It is apparent that Information Systems (IS) plays a crucial role in EME because contemporary organizations have to leverage IT to improve business performance and assist the communication and service delivery amid various value-chain constituents. Consumers play a focal role in the paradigmatic change from the exchange of goods towards a service-centered model of exchange as found in both IS and marketing literature [73]. In this study, the conceptual definition of services in EME is based on Dai and Salam [19] and thereafter refers to the " services being facilitated by IT where the consumer interacts with a proper user interface including web site, mobile phone, social media, virtual world environment, tablets, etc., so as to gain a consumption …

Recently, cardiovascular disease (CVD) has become one of the leading death causes worldwide, and it contributes to 41% of all deaths each year in China. This disease incurs a cost of more than 400 billion US dollars in China on the healthcare expenditures and lost productivity during the past ten years. It has been shown that the CVD can be effectively prevented by an interdisciplinary approach that leverages the technology development in both IT and electrocardiogram (ECG) fields. In this paper, we present WE-CARE , an intelligent telecardiology system using mobile 7-lead ECG devices. Because of its improved mobility result from wearable and mobile ECG devices, the WE-CARE system has a wider variety of applications than existing resting ECG systems that reside in hospitals. Meanwhile, it meets the requirement of dynamic ECG systems for mobile users in terms of the detection accuracy and latency. We carried out clinical trials by deploying the WE-CARE systems at Peking University Hospital. The clinical results clearly showed that our solution achieves a high detection rate of over 95% against common types of anomalies in ECG, while it only incurs a small detection latency around one second, both of which meet the criteria of real-time medical diagnosis. As demonstrated by the clinical results, the WE-CARE system is a useful and efficient mHealth (mobile health) tool for the cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment in medical platforms.

Using the means-end framework as a theoretical foundation, this article conceptualizes, constructs, refines, and tests a multiple-item scale (E-S-QUAL) for measuring the service quality delivered by Web sites on which customers shop online. Two stages of empirical data collection revealed that two different scales were necessary for capturing electronic service quality. The basic E-S-QUAL scale developed in the research is a 22-item scale of four dimensions: efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, and privacy. The second scale, E-RecS-QUAL, is salient only to customers who had nonroutine encounters with the sites and contains 11 items in three dimensions: responsiveness, compensation, and contact. Both scales demonstrate good psychometric properties based on findings from a variety of reliability and validity tests and build on the research already conducted on the topic. Directions for further research on electronic service quality are offered. Managerial implications stemming from the empirical findings about E-S-QUAL are also discussed.

The distinction between field and laboratory is classical in research methodology. In human-computer interaction, and in usability evaluation in particular, it has been a controversial topic for several years. The advent of mobile devices has revived this topic. Empirical studies that compare evaluations in the two settings are beginning to appear, but they provide very different results. This paper presents results from an experimental comparison of a field-based and a lab-based usability evaluation of a mobile system. The two evaluations were conducted in exactly the same way. The conclusion is that it is definitely worth the hassle to conduct usability evaluations in the field. In the field-based evaluation we identified significantly more usability problems and this setting revealed problems with interaction style and cognitive load that were not identified in the laboratory.

Organizational use of information and communications technologies (ICT) is increasingly resulting in negative cognitions in individuals, such as information overload and interruptions. recent literature has encapsulated these cognitions in 304 TarafDar, Tu, aND ragu-NaThaN the concept of technostress, which is stress caused by an inability to cope with the demands of organizational computer usage. given the critical role of the user in organizational information processing and accomplishing application-enabled workflows, understanding how these cognitions affect users’ satisfaction with ICT and their performance in ICT-mediated tasks is an important step in appropriating benefits from current computing environments. The objective of this paper is to (1) understand the negative effects of technostress on the extent to which end users perceive the applications they use to be satisfactory and can utilize them to improve their performance at work and (2) identify mechanisms that can mitigate these effects. Specifically, we draw from the end-user computing and technostress literature to develop and validate a model that analyzes the effects of factors that create technostress on the individual’s satisfaction with, and task performance using, ICT. The model also examines how user involvement in ICT development and support mechanisms for innovation can be used to weaken technostress-creating factors and their outcomes. The results, based on survey data analysis from 233 ICT users from two organizations, show that factors that create technostress reduce the satisfaction of individuals with the ICT they use and the extent to which they can utilize ICT for productivity and innovation in their tasks. Mechanisms that facilitate involvement of users, and encourage them to take risks, learn, explore new ideas, and experiment in the context of ICT use, diminish the factors that create technostress and increase satisfaction with the ICT they use. These mechanisms also have a positive effect on users’ appropriation of ICT for productivity and innovation in their tasks. The paper contributes to emerging literature on negative outcomes of ICT use by (1) highlighting the influence of technostress on users’ satisfaction and performance (i.e., productivity and innovation in ICT-mediated tasks) with ICT, (2) extending the literature on technostress, which has so far looked largely at the general behavioral and psychological domains, to include the domain of end-user computing, and (3) demonstrating the importance of user involvement and innovation support mechanisms in reducing technostress-creating conditions and their ICT use–related outcomes. Key wordS and phraSeS: end-user performance, end-user satisfaction, ICT use, information overload, survey research, technostress, user involvement. organizaTional uSe of inforMaTion and coMMunicaTionS TechnologieS (icT) has become complex, real-time, ubiquitous, and functionally pervasive, often requiring users to process information simultaneously and continually from different applications and devices. Consequently, ICT users deal with a surfeit of information, experience frequent interruptions from different computing devices and applications, and engage in multitasking on them. further, they are increasingly frustrated and overwhelmed by continual efforts required to master the frequent introduction of new ICT. In recent times, therefore, managers have experienced negative cognitions toward ICT. recent academic literature has encapsulated these cognitions in the concept of technostress [65], which is stress caused by an inability to cope with the demands of organizational computer usage. Technostress describes the stress that users experience as a result of application multitasking, constant connectivity, information overload, frequent system upgrades and consequent uncertainty, continual relearning and consequent job-related IMpaCT Of TEChNOSTrESS ON END-uSEr SaTISfaCTION aND pErfOrMaNCE 305 insecurities, and technical problems associated with the organizational use of ICT. from the perspective of psychological outcomes, technostress reduces individuals’ job satisfaction and commitment to their organization [65]. from the point of view of behavioral outcomes, it reduces individuals’ productivity at work [75]. What is the potential effect of these negative cognitions on outcomes relating to the individual’s use of ICT? There is research evidence [8, 35, 63] that in spite of continuing sophistication in the functional capabilities of ICT, technology overload and ICT-mediated interruptions reduce the satisfaction of users with the ICT they employ for their tasks and their ability to benefit from them. Emerging practitioner perspectives [22, 78] reinforce these findings, suggesting that excessive information, frequent upgrades, and blurring of work–home boundaries induced by pervasive connectivity result in inaccurate information processing and poor task-related decision making using ICT and in dissatisfaction with ICT. at the same time, organizational computing environments have an important role for the end user in generating, accessing, analyzing, and using business information and in accomplishing application-enabled workflows. In such environments, it is critical that end users be satisfied with the applications and systems they interact with and work on and be able to effectively use them to enhance the quality and efficiency of their work tasks [16, 45, 81]. understanding how these “negative” or “unconstructive” aspects of ICT and the negative cognitions associated with them affect user satisfaction and ICT-mediated task performance is therefore clearly an important step in managing and appropriating benefits from current commuting environments. research in this area is emerging and scarce, and there is absence of (1) a theoretical framework for understanding and (2) systematic empirical investigation for demonstrating how these aspects impact the user in his or her day-to-day application of ICT to organizational tasks. recognizing that the concept of technostress encompasses user-perceived negative cognitions about ICT, we apply the technostress lens to this research gap and enunciate a twofold objective of this paper. The first objective is to understand the (adverse) effects of technostress on the extent to which end users perceive the applications they use to be satisfactory and can utilize them to improve their performance at work. Second, we identify mechanisms that can reduce these effects. Specifically, we draw from the end-user computing and organizational stress literature to develop and validate a model that analyzes the effects of factors that create technostress on end-user satisfaction and end-user performance. We further study how stress-alleviating factors, such as mechanisms that facilitate user involvement in ICT development and those that support innovation, can be used to weaken technostresscreating conditions and their outcomes. The results, based on survey data analysis from 233 ICT users from two organizations, show that factors that create techno stress reduce users’ satisfaction with the ICT they use and the extent to which they utilize ICT for productivity and innovation in their tasks. Mechanisms that facilitate involvement of users and encourage them to take risks, learn, explore new ideas, and experiment in the context of ICT use diminish the factors that create technostress for them and increase their satisfaction with the ICT they use. These mechanisms also have a positive effect on users’ appropriation of ICT for productivity and innovation in their tasks. The paper 306 TarafDar, Tu, aND ragu-NaThaN contributes to emerging literature on “negative” outcomes of organizational ICT use by (1) highlighting the importance of technostress on users’ satisfaction with ICT and on their performance—that is, their productivity and innovation—in ICT-mediated tasks, (2) extending the literature on technostress, which has so far looked largely at the general behavioral and psychological domains, to include the domain of end-user computing, and (3) demonstrating the importance of user involvement and innovation support mechanisms in reducing technostress-creating conditions and outcomes. Next, we provide a theoretical background by reviewing studies on stress and technostress, and then we develop the research model and hypotheses. In the fourth section, we describe methods and validate the model. The paper closes with a discussion of the findings and research and managerial implications. Theoretical Background Organizational Stress STreSS iS a cogniTive STaTe experienced by an individual when there is an “environmental situation that is perceived as presenting a demand which threatens to exceed the person’s capabilities and resources for meeting it, under conditions where he or she expects a substantial differential in the rewards and costs from meeting the demand versus not meeting it” [56, p. 1351]. It is a reaction to the perceived imbalance between a person and the environment [9, 19], borne out of anticipation of an inability to adequately respond to demand from the imbalance and accompanied by the expectation of negative consequences for inadequate response [56]. as shown in figure 1, the phenomenon of stress consists of three aspects—stressors, strain, and situational variables [52]. Stressors represent factors or conditions that create stress. These conditions could be due to the individual’s role [50] and task [56]. role stress and task stress have been widely studied. More recently, technology in general and ICT in particular have Figure 1. general relationships among Stressors, Strain, and Situational Variables IMpaCT Of TEChNOSTrESS ON END-uSEr SaTISfaCTION aND pErfOrMaNCE 307 emerged as conditions for the cause of stress [20]; this is the focus of technostress. Strain represents the outcome of stress. Individuals experience strain as a result of being ex


Question: Mobile business strategies: critical organizational and financial design considerations.

This paper delves into the intricate task of formulating business models for mobile services, emphasizing the equilibrium between customer value and network value. A business model is conceptualized as a strategic map composed of four interconnected elements: the service offering, technical infrastructure, organizational structure, and financial mechanisms. The paper scrutinizes the pivotal design challenges within these components, such as market segmentation and branding in the service aspect, security and service quality in the technological facet, network management in the organizational realm, and revenue allocation in the financial dimension. A comprehensive causal model is constructed, linking these critical design factors to anticipated customer satisfaction and network efficiency, thereby gauging the overall feasibility of the business model. This approach underscores the significance of aligning these elements to foster a robust and sustainable business model for mobile services.

Abstract. Mobile cloud computing has emerged aiming at assisting mobile devices in processing computationally or data intensive tasks using cloud resources. This paper presents an optimization approach for utilizing cloud services for mobile client in mobile cloud, which considers the benefit of both mobile device users and cloud datacenters. The mobile cloud service provisioning optimization is conducted in parallel under the deadline, budget and energy expenditure constraint. Mobile cloud provider runs multiple VMs to execute the jobs for mobile device users, the cloud providers want to maximize the revenue and minimize the electrical cost. The mobile device user gives the suitable payment to the cloud datacenter provider for available cloud resources for optimize the benefit. The paper proposes a distributed optimization algorithm for utilizing cloud services for mobile devices. The experiment is to test convergence of the proposed algorithm and also compare it with other related work. The experiments study the impacts of job arrival rate, deadline and mobility speeds on energy consumption ratio, execution success ratio, resource allocation efficiency and cost. The experiment shows that the proposed algorithm outperforms other related work in terms of some performance metrics such as allocation efficiency.

Determining whether investments in information technology (IT) have an impact on firm performance has been and continues to be a major problem for information systems researchers and practitioners. Financial theory suggests that managers should make investment'decisions that maximize the value of the firm. Using event-study methodology, we provide empirical evidence on the effect of announcements of IT investments on the market value of the firm for a sample of 97 IT investments from the finance and manufacturing industries from 1981 to 1988. Over the announcement period, we find no excess returns for either the full sample or for any one of the industry subsamples. However, cross-sectional analysis reveals that the market reacts differently to announcements of innovative IT investments than to foUowup, or noninnovative investments in IT. Innovative IT investments increase firm value, while noninnovative investments do not. Furthermore, the market's reaction to announcements of innovative and noninnovative IT investments is independent of industry classification. These results indicate that, on average, IT investments are zero net present value (NPV) investments; they are worth as much as they cost. Innovative IT investments, however, increase the value of the firm.

As Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are developing frequently, new learning approaches have been introduced to facilitate teaching and learning processes. Mobile devices are growing in popularity and there has been an increasing interest in their potential as innovative tools for learning. Mobile learning or shortly (M-learning) is a new learning approach intending to use mobile devices such as laptops, smart phones and personal digital assistant (PDA) in learning process in any place and at any time. M-learning application needs to be designed in a way that considers the special features and constraints of mobile devices such as screen size, available storage, processor speed and battery life. This paper explores the existing design approaches for M-learning and highlights their main limitations. As a step forward in this direction, this paper also proposes a new design approach for M-learning applications focusing mainly on three main aspects: learner, learning content and technology. The approach consists of three phases: starting dimensions (SD) phase, M-learning Development (MLD) phase and Learning Content Design (LCD) phase. Finally, this paper provides a case study scenario to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Unlike distributed transactions, mobile transactions do not originate and end at the same site. The implication of the movement of such transactions is that classical atomicity, concurrency and recovery solutions must be revisited to capture the movement behavior. As an effort in this direction, we define a model of mobile transactions by building on the concepts of split transactions and global transactions in a multidatabase environment. Our view of mobile transactions, called Kangaroo Transactions, incorporates the property that transactions in a mobile computing system hop from one base station to another as the mobile unit moves through cells. Our model is the first to capture this movement behavior as well as the data behavior which reflects the access to data located in databases throughout the static network. The mobile behavior is dynamic and is realized in our model via the use of split operations. The data access behavior is captured by using the idea of global and local transactions in a multidatabase system.

Education and training is the process by which the wisdom, knowledge and skills of one generation are passed on to the next. Today there are two form s f education and training: conventional education and distance education. Mobile learning, or "M-Lear ning", offers modern ways to support learning process through mobile devices, such as handheld an d tablet computers, MP3 players, smart phones and mobile phones. This document introduces the sub ject of mobile learning for education purposes. It examines what impact mobile devices have had on teaching and learning practices and goes on to look at the opportunities presented by the use of d igital media on mobile devices. The main purpose of this paper is to describe the current state of mobi le learning, benefits, challenges, and it’s barrier s to support teaching and learning. Data for this paper w re collected through bibliographic and internet research from January to March 2013. Four key areas will be addressed in this paper: 1. An analysis of Mobile Learning. 2. Differentiating E-Learning from Mobile Learning 3. Value and Benefits of Mobile Learning 4. Challenges and Barriers of M obile Learning: Study showed that M-Learning as a Distance learning brought great benefits to socie ty include : Training when it is needed, Training a t any time; Training at any place; Learner-centred co ntent; Avoidance of re-entry to work problems; Training for taxpayers, and those fully occupied du ring university lectures and sessions at training centres; and The industrialisation of teaching and learning. And also, notebooks, mobile Tablets, iPod touch, and iPads are very popular devices for mobil e learning because of their cost and availability o f apps. --------------------------------

Technological evolution becomes more and more a daily reality for businesses and individuals who use information systems as for supporting their operational activities. This article focuses on the way technological evolution changes the accounting practices, starting from the analysis of the traditional model and trying to determine future trends and arising challenges to face. From data input to consolidation and reporting, accountants’ function and operations are dissected in order to identify to what extent the development of new concepts, such as cloud computing, cloud accounting, real-time accounting or mobile accounting may affect the financial-accounting process, as well as the challenges that arise from the changing environment. SEA Practical Application of Science Volume III, Issue 1 (7) / 2015 92 Introduction Technology evolves rapidly as for responding to customers demand (Weiß and Leimeister, 2012). From a business perspective, more and more companies acknowledge the fact that technology may support process optimisation in terms of costs, lead time and involved resources. The actual market context is driving companies to continuously search for new ways to optimise their processes and increase their financial indicators (Christauskas and Miseviciene, 2012). The company’s efficiency is in direct relation with the objective and timely financial information provided by the accounting system, the main purpose of which is to collect and record information regarding transactions or events with economic impact upon the company, as well as to process and provide relevant, fair information to stakeholders (both internal and external) (Girdzijauskas, et al., 2008; Kundeliene, 2011). The accounting system is thus essential in providing reliable, relevant, significant and useful information for the users of financial data (Kalcinskaite, 2009). From the deployment of basic accounting program or the use of large ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning), to the creation of World-Wide Web and development of web-based communication, technology increased its development in speed and implications. Today, concepts such as cloud computing, cloud accounting or real-time reporting are more and more a daily reality among companies. But as technology evolves at an incredible speed, it is necessary for companies to adapt their processes and practices to the new trends. However, that could not be possible without the decision factors to completely acknowledge the implications of the new technology, how it can be used to better manage their businesses and what challenges it also brings along. The present study is based on the theoretical and empirical analysis of accounting process from the appearance of the first accounting information systems up to nowadays’ services and techniques available for supporting the accounting function of a company. The research comprised of analysing accounting operations, activities and practices as they followed the technological evolution for over than 20 years, focusing on a general level, applicable to companies of all sizes and business sectors. Although the geographic extent was limited to the European Union, the study may as well be considered globally applicable, considering the internationality of today’s technology (e.g. cloud computing services may be used by a company in Japan while the server is physically located in the USA). Traditional practices and future trends The accounting systems may be seen as aiming to support businesses in collecting, understanding and analysing the financial data (Chytilova et al., 2011). The evolution of software accounting generation may be split, according toPhillips (2012) into three major categories: ▪ 90’s era – marked by the apparition of the first accounting software programs under what is known as ‘the Windows age’; applications were solid, but only supporting basic accounting operations. ▪ 00’s era – ‘integration’ and ‘SaaS’ concepts took birth, bringing along more developed systems that would allow more complex accounting operations and data processing, as well as concurrent access to files and programs. ▪ 2010 – on-going – ‘Mobile’ accounting era, marked by real-time accounting, financial dashboards and other mobile applications supporting financial processing and reporting. The same author outlines the evolution of communication – if the traditional accounting model was based on e-mail or .ftp files communication, the technological evolution now allows sharing and concurrent access to data, through virtual platforms provided by cloud computing technology. Based on the types of accounting services available on the market, three major categories may be defined: ▪ On-premises accounting: a dedicated accounting software program is purchased by the company and installed using its own infrastructure. Investment in the software and hardware equipment is required for such programs. ▪ Hosted solutions: the logical access is remotely performed through the company’s installed programs; however the data centre is physically located in a different place, managed by a dedicated third party. Infrastructure costs are reduced for the company, as hardware is administered and maintained by the service provider. ▪ Cloud computing: the service could prove even more cost efficient for companies, as the data is managed through virtual platforms, and administered by a dedicated third party, allowing multi-tenancy of services in order to split fixed infrastructure costs between companies. Traditional accounting practices used to focus on bookkeeping and financial reporting, having as a final purpose the preparation and presentation of financial statements. The activities were driven by the need of financial information users (both internal and external) to gain a ‘fair view’ of the company. The objective was often SEA Practical Application of Science Volume III, Issue 1 (7) / 2015 93 reached through the use of small, atomic systems meant to support the reporting; nevertheless, collection of documents, processing of data and operations, posting of journal entries, as well as consolidation and final reporting operations were mostly manual, and manual controls (reconciliations, validations, etc.) were performed as systems did not communicate through automated interfaces. In early 1920s, the first outsourcing agreement was signed by British Petroleum with Accenture. Ever since, the accounting started changing its meaning within the companies, turning from the bookkeeping function to the management strategic and decision-making support function. The technological evolution gave birth in the late 80s to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, used to incorporate and connect various organisational functions (accounting, asset management, operations, procurement, human resources, etc.) (Ziemba and Oblak, 2013). Ustasüleyman and Percin (2010) define the ERP systems as ‘software packages enabling the integration of business processes throughout an organisation’, while Salmeron andLopez (2010) see the ERP system as ‘a single software system allowing complete integration of information flow from all functional areas in companies by means of a single database, and accessible through a unified interface and communication channel’. The ERP systems became of common use among large companies who managed to reduce the process lead time and involved resources by automation of data transfer between ERP modules, processes within the ERP system, as well as validation and reconciliation controls. From an accounting perspective, the deployment of ERP systems represented a major change, offering support in bookkeeping (the operations performed through different modules would generate automated journal entries posting), processing and transfer of data (through automated interfaces between the ERP modules), as well as consolidation and reporting. This progress took the accountants one step away from the traditional accounting’s bookkeeping practices, and one step closer towards today’s role more close to management strategy and decision support. Further on, as a consequence of the financial-economic crisis started in 2008, the role of accountants within the company changed drastically from bookkeeping and reporting to playing an active and essential role in the management strategy and decision-making process. Thus, it was technology’s role to take in the traditional tasks and operations. More and more companies implemented automated controls for processing data, posting journal entries, consolidation and final reporting under the financial statements and other internal management reports. Soon after automating the accounting operations, technology evolved into also automating document collection and management, through development of concepts such as einvoicing, e-archiving, e-payments, etc. (Burinskiene&Burinskas, 2010). Technology proved once again responsive to the market’s demand, and thus accounting software easily customisable for each client’s particularities regarding the activity profile, accounting practices and chart of accounts, were built as for supporting the automation of accounting process. With the automation of the process, implementation of certain controls was also required as for ensuring the correctness and completeness of reported information. Technology also took into account the need for robust, transparent processes, and it was only a matter of time until cloud computing, cloud accounting or real-time reporting concepts became a daily reality among companies of all sizes, activity sectors or region/state. The access to financial information previously physically limited to the company’s premises (where the network and infrastructure would be located) was fairly improved through cloud computing to an extent where internet connection was the only condition users needed to respect in order to gain access to the financial programs and data. Cloud computing start

Almost all businesses are aware of the potential gains that the Internet of Things (IoT) has to offer, they are unsure of how to approach it. This article proposes a business model that builds on Holler et al., (2014) [1]. The model consists of three dimensions: “Who, Where, and Why”. “Who” describes collaborating partners, which builds the “Value Network”. “Where” describes sources of value co-creation rooted in the layer model of digitized objects, and “Why” describes how partners benefit from collaborating within the value network. With the intention of addressing “How”, the proposed framework has integrated the IoT strategy category, tactics, and value chain elements. The framework is then validated through the case studies of some successful players who are either the Awardees of the IoT Award 2014 or the ICT Award 2015 of Hong Kong.

Business Intelligence (BI) is on everyone's lips nowadays, since it provides businesses with the possibility to analyze their business practices and improve them. However, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) often cannot leverage the positive effects of BI because of missing resources like personnel, knowledge, or money. Since SME pose a major form of business organization, this fact has to be overcome. As the retail industry is a substantial part of the SME branch, we propose an inter-organizational approach for a BI system for retail SME, which allows them to collaboratively collect data and perform analysis task. The aim of our ongoing research effort is the development of such a system following the Design Science Research Methodology. Within this article, the status quo of current BI practices in SME in the retail industry is analyzed through qualitative interviews with ten SME managers. Afterwards, adoption and success factors of BI systems and Inter-organizational Information Systems are worked out in a comprehensive structured literature review. Based on the status quo and the adoption and success factors, first requirements for the acceptance of an inter-organizational BI system are identified and validated in another round of qualitative interviews. This leads to nine functional requirements and three non-functional requirements, which can be used for designing and implementing an inter-organizational BI system for SME in the following research efforts.

The design of office technology relies upon underlying conceptions of human organization and action. The goal of building office information systems requires a representation of office work and its relevant objects. The concern of this paper is that although system designers recognize the centrality of procedural tasks in the office, they tend to ignore the actual work involved in accomplishing those tasks. A perspicuous instance of work in an accounting office is used to recommend a new line of research into the practical problems of office work, and to suggest preliminary implications of that research for office systems design.

Applications for mobile platforms are being developed at a tremendous rate, but often without proper security implementation. Insecure mobile applications can cause serious information security and data privacy issues and can have severe repercussions on users and organizations alike.


Question: Mobile business strategies: critical organizational and financial design considerations.

This paper presents an innovative approach to integrating evaluation and research methodologies into the design process, particularly within the realm of the social sciences. Historically, design has been acknowledged as both an art and a science, gaining increased attention from researchers and methodologists in various fields since the 1960s. Despite this, the development of a comprehensive methodology for design-oriented research, particularly in the social sciences, has been relatively limited. In response, this article proposes a structured framework for design, incorporating evaluation and research methodologies as essential components. A design cycle is outlined, consisting of six distinct stages, each with its own set of operations, guidelines, and evaluation criteria. This systematic approach aims to significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of both the design process and the resulting product. By integrating evaluation and research methodologies, designers can ensure that their creations are not only innovative and aesthetically pleasing but also scientifically sound and socially relevant. This approach is particularly applicable to the development of new business models, organizational structures, and financial systems, where a thorough understanding of social dynamics and human behavior is crucial for success.

Supply chain management (SCM) is the 21st century global operations strategy for achieving organizational competitiveness. Companies are attempting to find ways to improve their flexibility and responsiveness and in turn competitiveness by changing their operations strategy, methods and technologies that include the implementation of SCM paradigm and information technology (IT). However, a thorough and critical review of literature is yet to be carried out with the objective of bringing out pertinent factors and useful insights into the role and implications of IT in SCM. In this paper, the literature available on IT in SCM have been classified using suitable criteria and then critically reviewed to develop a framework for studying the applications of IT in SCM. Based on this review and analysis, recommendations have been made regarding the application of IT in SCM and some future research directions are indicated. 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

a r t i c l e i n f o Understanding the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction in the mobile communications market is important. This study explores the effects of service quality and justice on customer satisfaction, which, in turn, affects continuance intention of mobile services. Service quality, justice and customer satisfaction were measured by multiple dimensions. A research model was developed based on this multidimen-sional approach and was empirically examined with data collected from about one thousand users of mobile value-added services in China. Results show that all three dimensions of service quality (interaction quality, environment quality and outcome quality) have significant and positive effects on cumulative satisfaction while only one dimension of service quality (interaction quality) has a significant and positive effect on transaction-specific satisfaction. Besides procedural justice, the other two dimensions of justice (distribu-tive justice and interactional justice) significantly influence both transaction-specific satisfaction and cumulative satisfaction. Furthermore, both types of customer satisfaction have significant and positive effects on continuance intention. Implications for research and practice are discussed. With the rapid advancements of mobile network technologies, provision of various kinds of value-added services by mobile service providers is on the rise around the world. As the market becomes more and more mature, value-added services become more homogeneous and the competition for acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers becomes more intense. In this environment, customer satisfaction is a critical factor for mobile service providers to maintain or improve their market share and profitability. Prior studies have found that customer satisfaction contributes to a firm's profitability and customer retention [33,35]. In a reorganization of the communications industry in China between 2008 and 2009, the original six mobile network operators were reduced to three. Meanwhile, the availability of third-generation telecommunications technologies suggested that more mobile value-added services would be provided to the customers. A recent value-added services survey report on mobile communications conducted by Analysys in 2010 predicted that, the competition among existing mobile network operators would become fierce after the reorganization of the industry and the introduction of third-generation services. Thus, for these mobile network operators, in order to retain customers, enhancing customer satisfaction is an urgent task to tackle with. Moreover, as new mobile value-added services are released, service providers need to focus on if these new services appeal to customers and on the willingness of customers to continue to use the services. Therefore, understanding the …

A key success factor for a successful company in a dynamic environment is effective and efficient information technology (IT) supporting business strategies and processes. In recent surveys however it is concluded that in most companies IT is not aligned with business strategy. The alignment between business needs and IT capabilities is therefore still a prominent area of concern. This paper reports the first stages of a research program exploring the differences of business & IT alignment (BIA) in theory and in practice. The paper presents an overview of the development of theory on BIA and reports the issues with aligning IT to business in practice based on a number of focus-group discussions with CIOs and IT managers. In line with the practical approach to BIA that the CIOs and IT managers in the focus-groups took, the last part of the paper builds upon Luftman's BIA maturity model and reports the application of the model to 12 Dutch firms

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Wiley-Blackwell and John Wiley & Sons are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Strategic Management Journal. This paper argues that firms have particular institutional capabilities that allow them to protect knowledge from expropriation and imitation more effectively than market contracting. I argue that it is these generalized institutional capabilities that allow firms to generate and protect the unique resources and capabilities that are central to the strategic theory of the firm.

This paper reports some findings of an on-going research into ERP implementation issues. A part of the research, which this paper reports, consists of reviewing several cases of successful implementations of ERP systems. The analysis of all these cases revealed that the critical factors for successful implementation of ERP systems fall into two main categories: technological and organizational factors. However, the organizational factors seem to be more important than the technological ones as far as the successful implementation of ERP systems under SCM is concerned.

T information technology (IT) governance literature predominantly explains firms’ IT governance choices, but not their strategic consequences. We develop the idea that a firm’s IT governance choices induce adeptness at strategically exploiting IT only when they are discriminatingly aligned with its departments’ knowledge outside their specialty. Discriminating means that governing the two undertheorized classes of IT assets—apps and infrastructure—requires “peripheral” knowledge in different departments. Analyses of data from 105 firms support our middle-range theory.

The variety of available digital tools, strategies and activities might confuse and disorient even an experienced marketer. This applies in particular to B2B companies, which are usually less flexible in uptaking of digital technology than B2C companies. B2B companies are lacking a framework that corresponds to the specifics of the B2B business, and which helps to evaluate a company’s capabilities and to choose an appropriate path. A B2B digital marketing maturity model helps to fill this gap. However, modern marketing offers no widely approved digital marketing maturity model, and thus, some marketing institutions provide their own tools. The purpose of this paper is building an optimized B2B digital marketing maturity model based on a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of existing models. The current study provides an analytical review of the existing digital marketing maturity models with open access. The results of the research are twofold. First, the provided SWOT analysis outlines the main advantages and disadvantages of existing models. Secondly, the strengths of existing digital marketing maturity models, helps to identify the main characteristics and the structure of an optimized B2B digital marketing maturity model. The research findings indicate that only one out of three analyzed models could be used as a separate tool. This study is among the first examining the use of maturity models in digital marketing. It helps businesses to choose between the existing digital marketing models, the most effective one. Moreover, it creates a base for future research on digital marketing maturity models. This study contributes to the emerging B2B digital marketing literature by providing a SWOT analysis of the existing digital marketing maturity models and suggesting a structure and main characteristics of an optimized B2B digital marketing maturity model. Keywords—B2B digital marketing strategy, digital marketing, digital marketing maturity model, SWOT analysis.

Over the last ten years or so, mobile devices technology has changed significantly, with these devices and operating systems becoming more sophisticated. These developments have led to a huge variety of mobile applications designed for mobile operating systems. These mobile applications are typically harder to design and build because of several factors such as screen size and limited processing power and so forth. Therefore, it is important to clearly identify the characteristics of mobile application development and the issues and challenges related to it, as well as, the key features that characterize a great mobile application which make them valuable and useful. This paper has reviewed existing literature of the challenge and best practices of mobile application development. This study contributes towards a great understanding of the characteristics of mobile application development process, examines real challenges faced and explores the best practices that can be effectively applied to improve the development of mobile application.

Businesses have invested considerable resources in the usage of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence (BI) systems. These systems were heavily studied in developed countries while there are a few and narrowly focused studies in developing ones. However, studies on the integration of ERP and BI have not been given enough attention (hereafter ERPBI). There are many challenges facing the ERPBI usage in term of the steadily increasing speed with which new technologies are evolving. In addition, there are a number of factors that affecting this usage. Based on the finding of the literature, a model from a critical success factors (CSFs) perspective that examine the relationship between ERPBI usage and organisational performance is proposed. The conceptual model provides a foundation for more research in the future. The expected results of the study will improve the business outcome and help design strategies based on an investigation between ERPBI usage and organisational performance.

0747-5632/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.047 ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Department of Business Management, National Sun Yat-sen University, No. 70, Lianhai Rd., Gushan District, Kaohsiung City 804, Taiwan, Tel.: +886 7 525 2000x4627. E-mail address: ctchang@faculty.nsysu.edu.tw (C.-T. Chang). Yu-Kang Lee, Chun-Tuan Chang ⇑, You Lin, Zhao-Hong Cheng


Question: Mobile business strategies: critical organizational and financial design considerations.

Innovative Business Models in the Era of Electronic Markets

Electronic commerce, broadly described as "conducting business through electronic means" (European Commission, 1997), encompasses a wide array of activities. It involves the electronic exchange of tangible items and intangible assets, like information. This broad definition includes all stages of commerce, from online marketing and order placement, through payment processing, to facilitating the delivery of goods. Additionally, electronic commerce covers the provision of services electronically, such as customer support and legal consultation over the internet. It also extends to fostering collaboration among businesses through digital platforms, enabling joint ventures like shared design projects. This multifaceted approach to commerce highlights the transformative impact of electronic markets on traditional business models, emphasizing the integration of financial and organizational design elements to create effective digital strategies.

Web services are redefining the way organizations exchange business-critical information internally and externally with customers, suppliers, and other business associates. In this paper, we develop an integrative model for understanding value creation in web services from a provider’s perspective. The model integrates the static representation of conventional business values with the fluidity of the emergent IT services domain. It captures the complexity and contradictions facing Web services providers in their drive towards market leadership, strategic differentiation and revenue generation from web services. The model comprises twelve propositions to guide our understanding and future research and practice in this increasingly important segment in the IT field. 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Future computing environments will free the user from the constraints of the desktop. Applications for a mobile environment should take advantage of contextual information, such as position, to o er greater services to the user. In this paper, we present the Cyberguide project, in which we are building prototypes of a mobile context-aware tour guide. Knowledge of the user's current location, as well as a history of past locations, are used to provide more of the kind of services that we come to expect from a real tour guide. We describe the architecture and features of a variety of Cyberguide prototypes developed for indoor and outdoor use on a number of di erent hand-held platforms. We also discuss the general research issues that have emerged in our context-aware applications development in a mobile environment.

Applications for mobile platforms are being developed at a tremendous rate, but often without proper security implementation. Insecure mobile applications can cause serious information security and data privacy issues and can have severe repercussions on users and organizations alike.

Although business intelligence systems (BIS) adoption research has progressed considerably since its early inceptions, our understanding of the influence of BIS determinants across different adoption stages remains limited. In response, we develop and empirically test a conceptual model for assessing the determinants of BIS diffusion on the evaluation, adoption, and use stages. The model is based on two prominent, firm-level adoption concepts: the diffusion of innovation (DOI) and the technology, organization, environment (TOE) framework, extended with our previous research findings. Drawing on data from 181 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), we identify seven distinct determinants (i.e. cost, BIS is part of ERP, management support, rational decision-making culture, project champion, organizational data environment, organizational readiness) as statistically significant for different adoption stages.

The growing forces of increasing global competition, continuing customer demands, and the significant revolution in Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) solutions, especially Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, have together put pressure upon many organisations to implement CRM solutions and to switch their organisational processes from being product-centric to being customer-centric. A CRM initiative is not only technology; it is a business strategy supported by technology which automates and enhances the processes associated with managing customer relationships. By the end of 2010, it is predicted that companies will be spending almost $11 billion yearly on CRM solutions. However, studies have found that 70% of CRM projects have failed. Understanding the factors that enable success of CRM is vital. There is very few existing specific research into Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of CRM implementations, and there is no comprehensive view that captures all the aspects for successful CRM implementation and their inter-relationships. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the current literature base of CSFs for CRM implementations and proposes a taxonomy for them. Future research work will continue to investigate in depth these factors by exploring the complex system links between CSFs using systems thinking techniques such as causal maps to investigate the complex, systemic networks of CSFs in organisations which result in emergent effects which themselves influence the failure or success of a CRM.

This paper presents a literature review of the critical success factors (CSFs) in the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) across 10 different countries/regions. The review covers journals, conference proceedings, doctoral dissertation, and textbooks from these 10 different countries/regions. Through a review of the literature, 18 CSFs were identified, with more than 80 sub-factors, for the successful implementation of ERP. The findings of our study reveal that ‘appropriate business and IT legacy systems’, ‘business plan/vision/goals/justification’, ‘business process reengineering’, ‘change management culture and programme’, ‘communication’, ‘ERP teamwork and composition’, ‘monitoring and evaluation of performance’, ‘project champion’, ‘project management’, ‘software/system development, testing and troubleshooting’, ‘top management support’, ‘data management’, ‘ERP strategy and implementation methodology’, ‘ERP vendor’, ‘organizational characteristics’, ‘fit between ERP and business/process’, ‘national culture’ and ‘country-related functional requirement’ were the commonly extracted factors across these 10 countries/regions. In these 18 CSFs, ‘top management support’ and ‘training and education’ were the most frequently cited as the critical factors to the successful implementation of ERP systems. # 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Around the same time as the emergence of agile methods as a formalized concept, the management accounting literature introduced the concept of Beyond Budgeting as a performance management model for changing business environments. Both concepts share many similarities with both having a distinctly agile or adaptive perspective. The Beyond Budgeting model promises to enable companies to keep pace with changing business environments, quickly create and adapt strategy and empower people throughout the organization to make effective changes. This research in progress paper attempts to develop the Beyond Budgeting model within the context of agile software development teams. The twelve Beyond Budgeting principles are discussed and a research framework is presented. This framework is being used in two case studies to investigate the organizational issues and challenges that affect the performance of agile software

ISO 38500 is an international standard for IT governance. The guidelines of ISO 38500 can also be applied at the IT security functional level in order to guide the governance of IT security. This paper proposes the use of a strategic information security management (ISM) framework to implement guidelines of ISO 38500. This approach provides several strategic advantages to the organization by 1) aligning IT security initiatives to business strategy; 2) providing a mechanism for establishing and tracking security metrics; and 3) enhancing the overall maturity of business, IT and IT security processes. The framework also leverages tools such as COBIT, the Balanced Scorecard and SSE-CMM in order to implement IT security governance and continuous improvement practices. Using extant literature, this paper identifies certain challenges and solutions with respect to the governance of IT security. For practitioners, it highlights relevant links between principles of ISO 38500 and IT governance, provides an over-arching contextual framework to drive IT security governance, and demonstrates mitigation solutions for IT security governance challenges. For academics, the paper makes theoretical contributions, by relating IT security governance to business strategy and proposing that firms develop dynamic governance capabilities (Pavlou and El Sawy, 2010) or organizational learning ladders (Ciborra and Andreu, 2010).

To support the systematic improvement of business intelligence (BI) in organizations, we have designed and refined a BI maturity model (BIMM) and a respective measurement instrument (MI) in prior research. In this study, we devise an evaluation strategy, and evaluate the validity of the designed measurement artifact. Through cluster analysis of maturity assessments of 92 organizations, we identify characteristic BI maturity scenarios and representative cases for the relevant scenarios. For evaluating the designed instrument, we compare its results with insights obtained from in-depth interviews in the respective companies. A close match between our model's quantitative maturity assessments and the maturity levels from the qualitative analyses indicates that the MI correctly assesses BI maturity. The applied evaluation approach has the potential to be re-used in other design research studies where the validity of utility claims is often hard to prove.

Contributions to this research made by a member of The Financial Access Initiative.