Using bricolage to facilitate emergent collectives in SMEs

Starting a new business is often done in a realm of improvisation if resources are scarce and the business horizon is far from clear. Strategic improvisation occurs when the design of novel activities unite. We conducted an investigation of so called ‘emergent collectives’ in the context of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Emergent collectives are networks of information nodes with minimal central control and largely controlled by a protocol specification where people can add nodes to the network and have a social incentive to do so. We considered here emergent collectives around an enterprise resources planning (ERP) software and a customer relation management (CRM) software in two open source software (OSS) communities. We investigated how the use of bricolage in the context of a start-up microenterprise can facilitate the adoption of an information system (IS) based on emergent collectives. Bricolage is an improvisational approach that allows learning form concrete experience. In our case study we followed the inception of a new business initiative up to the implementation of an IS, during a period of two years. The case study covers both the usefulness of bricolage for strategic improvisation and for entrepreneurial activity in a knowledge-intensive new business. We adopted an interpretative research strategy and used participatory action research to conduct our inquiry. Our findings lead to the suggestion that emergent collectives can be moulded into a usable set of IS resources applicable in a microenterprise. However the success depends heavily on the ICT managerial and technological capabilities of the CEO and his individual commitment to the process of bricolage. Our findings also show that open ERP and CRM software are not passing delusions. These emergent collectives will not take over proprietary ERP and CRM software all of a sudden, but clearly the rules of the game are slowly changing due to the introduction of new business models. The study contributes to the research of OSS as emergent collectives, bricolage and IS adoption in SMEs

GOAL ASSESSMENT DECISION JUDGEMENTS IN IS/IT PROJECTS (3)

This development paper sets out proposals to examine how project management practitioners articulate their decision judgements (project goal assessment) of failure of information systems and information technology (IS/IT) projects. It is intended that to undertake the study, data from interviews with practitioners from seven countries will be employed. Data analysis will undertaken utilising NVivo (V10). The study is likely to find that while some project management practitioners perceive IS/IT project failures as measureable along a goal assessment continuum, others may consider failure categorically by explicitly conceptualising either its presence or absence

A Case For Using the Cost of Quality Approach To Improve ERP Implementations

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems implementation failures continue to incur high failure rates and costs. This paper advocates a greater focus on the quality management dimension of IT project management. Specifically, understanding the Cost of Quality (CoQ) has been identified as one important issue involved in improving the quality of information technology projects and reducing the cost of failure. A review of CoQ models suggests that process models are particularly appropriate for analyzing quality costs in ERP implementations. An example of building a process model of quality costs is provided using the Markus and Tanis (2000) enterprise system experience life cycle. Models such as the one delineated can be used to identify and target areas where gaining significant cost reductions from process improvement are possible

Typology and Portfolio of Net-enabled Organizational Capabilities and Competitive Advantages: The Case Study of Travel and Hospitality Industry

Electronic business (e-business) is evolving from its technological tool towards a strategic role, supporting new business strategies. Prior studies explained e-business value creation from net-enabled organizational capabilities perspective, and delivered many insights at firm level with individual-level analysis of capability. In this paper, we posit that competitive advantages under e-business environment will be dependent upon the deployment of multiple types of net-enabled organizational capabilities and their appropriate portfolios. Further, we use Wade and Hulland (2004)’s capabilities taxonomies and multiple cases-based data in Chinese travel and hospitality industry to understand the effect of appropriate portfolios of net-enabled organizational capabilities on competitive advantages

IT Risk Factor Disclosure and Stock Price Crashes

As firms are increasingly more dependent on Information Technology (IT) for their business strategies and value creation activities, risks associated with IT become one of the top concerns for corporate boards and managers. This study examines the impact of IT-related risk factor disclosure in Item 1A of the 10-K annual report on stock price crashes. We use Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling to identify risk categories in risk disclosures between 2006 and 2017. IT risk emerged as one of the key risk categories. We find that IT risk disclosure is positively correlated with a firm’s future stock price crash risk. We further separate IT risk factor disclosures into two categories: IT value risk that relates to a firm’s use of and reliance on information technology for its operations to reach its goals and objectives, and cybersecurity risk that could lead to a loss or leak of data. We find that while the correlation between cyber security risk disclosure and a firm’s future crash risk is significant, IT value risk disclosures do not have a significant correlation

Information Technology Investment, Environmental Hostility, and Firm Performance: The Roles of Family Ownership in an Emerging Economy

This study examines the influence of family owner-ship on information technology (IT) investment and its impact on the moderating effect of environmental hostility on the relationship between a firm’s IT in-vestment and its performance in an emerging econ-omy context. We theorize that the roles of family ownership can be bi-directional under varying co-ningencies; thus comprehensive studies on family ownership are much needed. This study aims to ad-dress this research gap. A panel dataset of more than 3,000 large Indian publicly traded firms is used to test our theory. The results suggest that on the one hand, family ownership has a negative effect on IT investment, and on the other hand, when the external environment is hostile, family ownership can help to reduce the negative moderating impact of environ-mental hostility on the IT investment-firm perfor-mance relationship. Contributions and implications of our research are discussed

Is Virtualization an Appropriate Method of Disaster Recovery for the Hospitality Industry?

Organisations across all business sectors are making increasing use of IT today. While other industries have understood the consequences of this dependence in the event of IT disasters and placed a large emphasis on disaster recovery plans and technology, the hospitality industry is lagging behind. One of the reasons why the hospitality industry does not place as much of an importance to disaster recovery is the cost. However, IT disaster is a very damaging occurrence, and measures should be taken to mitigate the event. Loss of a property\u27s information technology (IT) functions can cause chaos in a hotel’s operations leading to revenue losses and negative publicity that may take years to overcome. Virtualization is a relatively new technology, which is easier to manage, and it is said to be cost effective, and ideal for disaster recovery purposes. However, it may not be suitable to every industry. The purpose of this study is to examine virtualization as a method of disaster recovery for the hospitality industry

IT Investments under Earnings Pressure

Recent research has shown managers’ tendency to cut discretionary investments to meet short-term earnings targets. However, how these aspirational levels of performance and associated conflicts of interest between managers and shareholders influence information technology (IT) investments has hardly been examined. Drawing on behavioral agency theory, we analyze how earnings pressure – the pressure managers feel to meet or beat analysts’ consensus earnings forecast – influences IT investments. We find that earnings pressure is associated with a reduction in firms’ IT investment commitment, based on the frequency of sentences within 10-K filings emphasizing IT investment. This finding points towards a hitherto unconsidered influence of capital markets on IT investments in literature on IT investment determinants. Further, we plan to analyze if this reduction entails negative or positive stock market performance consequences. Understanding the performance consequences will allow us to lay the foundation towards effectively addressing this issue within corporate governance

The role of technology-ethical leadership interaction in minimising unethical acts:implications for research and practice

Various historical events and attitudes have demonstrated that ethical leaders might intentionally or unintentionally make unethical decisions. History suggests that ethical leaders relying on strong technology alone could make unforgivable mistakes, but their interaction can limit such mistakes. In this study, we suggest that the interaction between technology and ethical leadership is proposed as a key factor in precluding or minimising unethical decisions by providing checks and balances capable of reducing the potential for unethical acts. A conceptual model is offered, along with propositions to help guide future research and practice. The degree to which technology and ethical leadership interact represents one of the key factors in understanding the potential for ethical/unethical acts. This conceptual study does not contain empirical data. This study is the first attempt that proposes the need of technology-leadership interaction to minimise unethical acts

The role of technology-ethical leadership interaction in minimising unethical acts:implications for research and practice

Various historical events and attitudes have demonstrated that ethical leaders might intentionally or unintentionally make unethical decisions. History suggests that ethical leaders relying on strong technology alone could make unforgivable mistakes, but their interaction can limit such mistakes. In this study, we suggest that the interaction between technology and ethical leadership is proposed as a key factor in precluding or minimising unethical decisions by providing checks and balances capable of reducing the potential for unethical acts. A conceptual model is offered, along with propositions to help guide future research and practice. The degree to which technology and ethical leadership interact represents one of the key factors in understanding the potential for ethical/unethical acts. This conceptual study does not contain empirical data. This study is the first attempt that proposes the need of technology-leadership interaction to minimise unethical acts