Behavioral Aspects and Collaboration Technologies for Process Innovation: A Grounded Theory Approach

The objective of this paper is to develop a framework for an understanding of process innovation (PI) in teams with collaborative technologies (CT’s) using a grounded theory (GT) approach. The scope of this paper is limited to teams within firms where goals are clearly mandated and constraints explicitly defined. Critical team functions such as communication, coordination and awareness are facilitated by the CT. A GT approach is proposed as a means of formulating a framework of behavioral aspects of such teams in order to capture the full range of interaction issues of people and information systems. The framework that is generated as a result of this study will contribute to an understating of team use of CTs as well as clarify the strategic value of information systems as a vehicle for constant improvement

Social Capital and Technological Literacy in Taiwan

The burgeoning interest in social capital within the technology community represents a welcome move towards a concern for the social elements of technological adaptation and capacity. Since technology plays an ever larger role in our daily life, it is necessary to articulate social capital and its relationship to technological literacy. A nationwide data was collected by area sampling, and position generator was used to measure social capital. Regression model was constructed for technological literacy. Age, gender, education, income, web access, and social capital were included as independent variables. The results show that age, gender, education, web access, and social capital were good predictors of technological literacy. It is concluded that social capital is helpful in coping with rapid technological change. Theoretical and empirical implications and future research are discussed

THE LOST DIMENSION OF STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

This paper starts from the IS existing literature about Strategic Alignment that is mainly built on Henderson and Venkatraman‟s founding article (1993). Numerous models of alignment have been developed to guide managers‟ daily practices. These models prescribe the alignment of dimensions through measure instruments. Other studies investigate several of the antecedents of strategic alignment such as the intellectual and social dimensions. However we argue that most existing literature on strategic alignment is technically and managerially focused. It neglects an essential dimension in organizations: the „true‟ social dimension that takes all stakeholders into account, including users, and not only management. Using well-established Translation Theory, we develop three principles of method that aim at opening the models existing in the literature to this forgotten social dimension that is essential for practitioners. Our approach tends to suggest that strategic alignment needs to be constructed from a managerial, technical and stakeholders‟ perspective in order to be effective. We illustrate our argument through two case vignettes

MOBILE PHONES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL: A PRELIMINARY STUDY IN SOUTH KOREA

Social capital is one of the influential concepts in social science to understand contemporary societies. It has been found to influence many aspects of social life, directly or indirectly. It is also increasingly explored in relation to Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Nevertheless, social capital is a challenging variable to research, in part because of its multiple divergent definitions and measures. This paper presents and conducts a preliminary test of a model for understanding how ICT affects social capital. The model hypothesizes that the changes in social capital caused by ICT result from some degree of mobility in social interaction obtainable by using ICT over time. Principally, three types of mobility - temporal mobility, spatial mobility and contextual mobility - are identified. The preliminary test, using mobile phones as an example of ICT, was conducted in South Korea, which is one of the leading countries in mobile technology development. All three types of mobility are found to be important in explaining the impacts of mobile phones on social capital

Managing Acquired Knowledge from Different Network Partners: The Role of Knowledge Management Systems

One key asset of a firm is its knowledge stock comprising different knowledge domains (e.g., market, technological knowledge, etc.). This stock results from firm internal and/or external resources such as exchange partners (e.g. customers and R&D partners). The paper focuses on external partners and explores for which knowledge domain the usage of knowledge management systems (KMS) regarding the management of acquired knowledge from them is beneficial or detrimental to the organization. Further, the importance of each type of partner for knowledge creation is demonstrated. Using data from 154 firms, the results show that (1) each type of partner contributes to most of the knowledge domains, (2) KMS facilitate the management of the knowledge stock of a firm excluding the domain of product knowledge, and (3) the usage of KMS for managing acquired knowledge has two faces depending on the type of knowledge and on the type of exchange partner

SUSTAINABLE IT-SPECIFIC HUMAN CAPITAL: COPING WITH THE THREAT OF PROFESSIONAL OBSOLESCENCE

This study contributes to research examining how IT professionals cope with the threat of professional obsolescence. In answering this question, this study draws on theories of occupational stress, specifically the theory of conservation of resources (Hobfoll 2002; Hobfoll and Freedy 1993), to relate the threat of professional obsolescence with IT professionals’ coping behaviors. This study extends the theory of conservation of resources in several directions such as theorizing and testing the job mobility intentions of turnover and turnaway as consequences; and by proposing organizational updating climate as a proximal contextual moderating factor. The results obtained from a large sample of IT professionals are both consistent with and contrary to theorized relationships. We also uncover several new findings pertaining to the role played by organization updating climate and its potential limit in supporting updating activities of IT professionals. We conclude this study with a discussion of the results and propose future research directions

A Social Linkage View on the Business Value of IT

Our research intends to explore whether a social perspective on IT business alignment can help shed light on the IT value creation process by considering different facets of interpersonal linkage. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model which could be discussed at the JAIS workshop. Further, we use some empirical data from 149 US banks in order to find first empirical evidence whether our research focus represents a promising direction. We find initial support for our main hypotheses that communication, cross-domain knowledge and mutuality among and between IT and business staff significantly impact IT usage and business process outcomes. The final results of our research could contribute to our understanding of how the IT resource should be understood and used to measurably contribute to firm goals. The initial findings support the caveat of recent studies suggesting that informal aspects of alignment might be quite notable (e.g. Chan, 2002) and show that our theoretical understanding of alignment should be extended to better incorporate social aspects of daily work life

The Intellectual Capital and Technology Innovation Performance—Empirical Study Based on Universities Affiliated with Ministry of Education

This paper aims to explore the mechanism of university intellectual capital on the performance of technology innovation of university by empirical research. On the base of theoretical analysis between the human capital, structure capital and relationship capital of university intellectual capital as well as its role on the performance of technology innovation, six hypotheses were proposed and a conceptual model was build. 19 indicators data from 2009 to 2013 of 64 universities was selected. It concluded that human capital has a positive impact on both structure capital and relationship capital, meanwhile, structure capital also has a significant effect on the relationship capital. It also found that human capital and relationship capital could positively affect the performance of university technology innovation directly, both structure capital and human capital have positive impact on innovation performance by relationship capital as mediator. Key words: University; Intellectual capital; Innovation performanc

Knowledge Management: A Primer

Knowledge Management is an expanding field of study. In this paper we clarify and explain some of the terms and concepts that underlie this field. In particular we discuss knowledge and its related philosophies; how the sociotechnical aspects of organizations can assist in knowledge management and how communities of practice can thus be supported; how knowledge can be valued in an organization; and the idea of intellectual capital. We conclude that knowledge management is not an easy \u27fix\u27 to an organisation\u27s problems. Implemented well it can increase productivity, improve worker collaboration, and shorten product development times. Implemented badly it may incur significant costs without delivering these benefits