Enterprise Systems for Organizational Decision Support: A Research Agenda

In recent years, most major organizations have implemented enterprise systems from such vendors as SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft, Baan, and J. D. Edwards. Historically, the emphasis of these systems has been on enhancing transaction-oriented business processes. Using the integrated, enterprise-wide knowledge store within enterprise systems for decision support is garnering an increased attention from enterprise system vendors and from third party software developers. Despite the recent interest in decision support from enterprise system practitioners, little research exists that connects enterprise systems to the field of decision support systems. This paper outlines the foundations of this connection along with an agenda to advance this line of research

A REVIEW AND CRITIQUE OF DSS

Information Systems Working Papers Serie

The Impact of GSS on an Organization\u27s Information Accessibility

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in groups in business and other organizations. Concepts such as interactive meetings, empowered work teams, participative management, and total quality management have altered the dynamics and significance of group work within organizations (Finley 1992; Hunt 1993). Most managers agree that both formal and ad hoc groups significantly influence the behavior of individuals in larger organizations in which they work. The impactof groups on the organization is so pervasive that rarely will managers spend an entire day without attending at least one group meeting (White and Bednar 1991). Drucker (1988) suggested that the new organization would consist of groups of knowledge specialists and that the traditional command and control organization was on the way out. According to Finley (1992), the new ethic for success in business is that every person has to contribute to team decisions. This focus on teams has provided a challenge to information system (IS) specialists as far as providing necessary facilitative technology to fulfill the needs of companies focusing on groups and group work. George, Nunamaker, and Valacich (1992) suggested that one of the most promising trends for the IS field was this focus on groups and group work. The technology that supports the group decision making process has been referred to as group support systems. Most of the research in the GSS area has focused on decision room technology and most of this research has focused on theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research concerned with the design, implementation, and impact on the group process and outcomes (cf, Jelassi and Beauclair 1987, Gray 1987, DeSanctis and Gallupe 1985, Gallupe and McKeen 1990). Little research has been conducted concerning the impact of decision room use on the organization; specifically how the use of decision room use impacts the organization\u27s design, its nature, and its decision making process. In 1993, Huber, Valacich,and Jessup, proposed a theory for the impact of GSS on an organization. Their theory consisted of four concepts: a) availability of GSS leads to use of GSS;b) use of GSS leads to increased information accessibility;c) increased information accessibility leads to changes in organizational design;d) increased information accessibility and changes in organizational design lead to improvements in the effectiveness of intelligence development and decision makin

Knowledge-based flexible workflow to support decision follow-ups

The importance of improving the quality of decisions in organizations has been a subject for several years in computer, management and decision sciences. Some results were reached, but still a lot of questions remain open. From the perspective of computer science, systems like DSS, GDSS and ODSS are examples of those results. This research proposes another approach, which is based on the concept of a post-decision phase and the technological support that could bring contributions for the decisionmaking process. Through this technological support we aim that part of the process that takes place during a post- decision implementation can contribute to improve the quality of decisions made within an organization. Some innovative aspects include the timing where it is supposed to be used, i.e., after a decision is made and also, it considers news perspectives as a combination of a flexible workflow system integrated to a knowledge repository

Value Characteristics of Cloud Computing and Big Data Attributes

This study attempted to investigate and explore the nature of relations between cloud computing value characteristics and big data attributes. The telecommunication industry was chosen as the research population and the study sample covered the main leading telecommunication companies in Jordan. The study investigated number of the proposed value characteristics of cloud computing and the 3Vs attributes of big data as described by the main stream of IT literature on the subject matter, and the possible impact relationship.  The study adopted structural equation modeling and PLS bootstrapping techniques to test and validated the hypothesised model of the study. The results showed and strong significant causal effect between the two measurement models; cloud computing and big data. The results also revels interesting insights on the possible structure of the study factors. Keywords: Cloud computing characteristics, big data attributes, confirmatory factor analysis, PLS Method

Corporate Codes of Conduct: Is Common Environmental Content Feasible?

In a developing country context, a policy to promote adoption of common environmental content for corporate codes of conduct (COCs) aspires to meaningful results on two fronts. First, adherence to COC provisions should offer economic benefits that exceed the costs of compliance; i.e., companies must receive a price premium, market expansion, efficiency gains, subsidized technical assistance, or some combination of these benefits in return for meeting the requirements. Second, compliance should produce significant improvements in environmental outcomes; i.e., the code must impose real requirements, and monitoring and enforcement must offer sufficient incentives to prevent evasion. With those goals in mind, we explore options for establishing common environmental content in voluntary COCs. Because the benefits of a COC rest on its ability to signal information, we ground our analysis in a review of experiences with a broad range of voluntary (and involuntary) information-based programs: not only existing corporate COCs, but also the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) family of standards, ecolabels, and information disclosure programs. We find some important tradeoffs between harmonization, applicability, feasibility, and efficacy.corporate social responsibility, codes of conduct, environmental management

Understanding The Role Of Social Capital In Expertise Coordination In Information Systems Development (isd) Teams

Information system development (ISD) project is a knowledge-intensive teamwork process which requires members to coordinate their expertise to generate the final outcome. Breakdown or coordination and insufficient knowledge integration have been reported as critical factors which lead to ISD project failure. Most existing coordination literature focus on the effect of administrative coordination mechanisms toward project performance which hints that more efforts are needed to understand expertise coordination and explore ways to improve it. Addressing the above issues, two studies in this dissertation attempt to understand expertise coordination within the IS development team based on social capital perspective. The first study, based on intention-behavior literature, knowledge management research, and Gerwin\u27s (2004) coordination model, investigates relationships among willingness, competence, and actual expertise coordination. The relationships between expertise coordination and teamwork outcomes are also examined. The second study incorporates social capital theory and examines (1) dependencies among three dimensions of social capital and (2) linkage between social capital and expertise coordination. Data collected from more than five hundred information systems project team members was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The analysis results confirmed most of the hypotheses. This dissertation contributes to coordination, project management, and team mental model research through many perspectives. In each study, directions for management practice and future research are discussed

Implementation Success of Clinician Information Systems in Healthcare Contexts

The success of information systems in healthcare contexts is becoming increasingly important as the healthcare profession continues to adopt information systems for its internal operations. Using the DeLone and McLean model of information systems success that has found traction in a variety of research contexts, we develop a model for examining the success of clinician information systems. Our research model, while grounded in prior literature on information systems success, also benefits from insights gained from preliminary interviews and surveys of healthcare professionals and clinicians. The pilot round of data collection is planned for next month and actual data collection for summer; we will present preliminary findings at the conference

A New Look at the Relationship between User Involvement in Systems Development and System Success

The relationship of user involvement to successful systems development has been the focus of much attention for information systems researchers for some time. Common understanding has been that extensive user involvement is not only important, but absolutely essential to system success. However, earlier studies trying to link user involvement to system success have shown mixed results. In this paper we review 28 empirical research studies that investigate the significance of user involvement. From our results we conclude that user involvement in the systems development process is indeed important to system success. We further identify several key points pertinent to making user involvement effective

Use and effectiveness of decision support systems (DSS): Study of the Saudi private sector

In the industrialized world today, management is characterized by extensive use of computers to manage rapid change, information overload, and complex decision-making. Literature suggests that Decision Support Systems, computer packages offering information retrieval, problem-structuring models, decision alternatives, and other types of decision support, are effective extensions of human decision-making and offer substantial benefits to organizations utilizing them. In spite of overwhelmingly positive reviews for DSS, empirical literature has produced inconsistent results regarding DSS effectiveness, and definitions of “effectiveness” and of DSS itself are varied and sometimes contradictory. Distinguishing DSS from MIS (management information systems) and other types of managerial computer support has proven to be an essential part of DSS research. An additional gap in DSS research to date is that little is known about DSS use in developing countries and the potential of DSS to improve decision-making and overall organizational effectiveness. The present empirical study surveyed one member from each of Saudi Arabia\u27s largest corporations to determine to what extent DSS has been incorporated into the companies\u27 decision-making procedures. A second purpose was to determine decision-makers\u27 perceptions of the effectiveness of DSS in terms of their decision processes (time savings, availability of more alternatives, cognitive effort) as well as decision outcomes (decision accuracy and overall quality). The research revealed a high degree of use and enthusiasm for DSS, but revealed gaps in Saudi utilization of the systems. The research identified specific obstacles to more pervasive adaptation and enjoyment of benefits, including a lack of research stemming from researchers\u27 misperceptions of the private sector\u27s interest in and ability to understand Decision Support Systems