Managers\u27 Perceived Benefits of Using Electronic Procurement in Taiwan

Facing the competitive pressure from new hospitals and new regulations from the Bureau of National Health Insurance, hospital managers in Taiwan are concentrating on reducing the hospital operation costs and improving the healthcare quality. Practitioners and academic researchers agree that reducing the pharmacy cost is one of the best solutions to sustain competitive advantage. As electronic commerce becomes popular in many industry sectors, e- procurement is growing rapidly in the healthcare industry. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the managers\u27 perceptions of benefits of using electronic procurement system. After surveying 152 hospitals in Taiwan, we find that hospital size and adoption status have significant influence on many perceived benefits. Managers in large hospitals show stronger confidence in the perceived benefits of using e-procurement than their counterparts of small hospitals

Using XML Vocabularies to Exploit Changing Business Models: The NewsML Experience

In 1998, Reuters committed resources to exploring the use of XML (Extensible Markup Language) as the foundation for their next-generation news content management system. This was in response to changes in the news industry business model resulting from changing value webs and content delivery methods. The result was ReutersNewsML, an XML vocabulary for wrapping news content items from multiple sources into a single package. In 1999 Reuters submitted the concept to the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), which managed the development of the NewsML specification. NewsML was ratified as an IPTC standard for the entire global news media industry in 2000. This paper explores the development of NewsML as an illustration of how XML standards can be exploited within complex business webs

Complexity, Context, Commoditisation And Cooperation: Exploring Emerging XML-Based Inter-Organisational Systems

Inter-organisational systems (IOS) have traditionally been characterised as EDI-based ‘hub and spoke ’ models such as those connecting grocery retailers or large manufacturers with their suppliers. Increasing environmental complexity and technological innovation have led some organisational networks to explore more dynamic IOS models. This paper investigates emergent IOS models in three data intensive industry sectors (telecommunications, news media, and financial services). The findings illustrate that the complexity of data consumption patterns is driving increased interdependence within value webs requiring the co-operative development of context sensitive value exchanges and commodity-like IOS infrastructures.

Adoption of cross-company RFID: An empirical analysis of perceived influence factors

Although the use of RFID in the supply chain still lags behind expectations, its appeal to practitioners and researchers remains unabated. Apart from technical challenges, the profitability of an RFID deployment is a major concern for potential customers. A promising way to increase an RFID solution’s profitability is to use RFID transponders in several companies along the supply chain and share the cost and implementation effort. This paper represents a first attempt to identify the factors affecting the perceived likelihood that cross-company RFID is adopted. Our empirical results indicate that profitability is a key influence factor in this context. Related important factors are the uncertainty of costs and returns and the possible imbalance of costs and returns among the supply chain participants. The influence of organizational factors, such as power, leadership and experience, is negligible in comparison

Complexity and Context: Emerging Forms of Collaborative Inter-Organizational Systems

The paper analyses the collaborative development of emergent IOS in three data intensive industry sectors (telecommunications, news media, and financial services). The findings reveal that environmental complexities (the complexity of data consumption patterns and increased interdependence within value webs) require context-sensitive value exchanges operationalised within co-operatively developed commodity-like IT infrastructures. The paper concludes by examining the implications of the study findings for developing IOS to support pooled, sequential, and reciprocal inter-organisational interdependencies

Key Issues in Information Systems Management: A Serbiaas Perspective (Delphi study)

Delphi study used by many authors to compile a list of key issues related to information systems (IS) management in the world, i.e. to classify them and display their meaning. A key focus in this paper was put on trial IS managers in all areas, with emphasis on identifying and explaining regional similarities and differences. The results presented and compared with those obtained in similar studies in the U.S. and other European and non-European countries. Our research evidence points to profound differences in IS management between Serbia, the U.S. and other countries. The aim of this study was to identify key issues in organizations for management information systems over the next 3 to 5 years

Determinants of electronic data interchange adoption in international buyer -supplier communications

In spite of the increased interest in supply chain management in recent years, few studies have examined the adoption of the technologies that facilitate information flows along the supply chain. Information flows have been shown to have a positive effect on economic efficiency and supply chain partner satisfaction. The adoption and use of information technologies to communicate with suppliers can also stimulate small business growth and foster regional economic development. This dissertation develops and empirically tests a model of the determinants of the adoption of interorganizational information systems, specifically electronic data interchange (EDI), between buyers and suppliers in international supply chains. Plant level data from the Mexican maquiladora industry allows focusing specifically on international supply chains. EDI use is measured both as a binary variable, and as a set of metric dimensions. As the main determinants of EDI adoption, this study compares economic efficiency, operationalized as the perceived benefits of EDI use, and institutional factors, operationalized as external pressure to adopt EDI. In addition, hypotheses are tested on the impact of plant size, industry, and type of purchase, on EDI adoption. Multivariate statistical analysis is used to test the hypothesized relationships, and logit and tobit models are also used to assess the impact of variables on dichotomous and metric EDI use variables respectively. This study provides valuable insight into the process of technology adoption in multinational corporations and new information on the use of information technology in the maquiladora industry. The conclusions drawn from this study are useful for economic development and planning, supplier development, and the management of multinational firms and supply chains