A Survey of IS/IT Investment Evaluation Practices in Australia: Some Preliminary Results

In modern organizations a large portion of senior management's time is now being spent on finding ways to measure the contribution of their organizations IS/IT investments to business performance. It has been shown that IS/IT investments in many organizations are huge and increasing rapidly every year and yet there is still a lack of understanding of the impact of the proper IS/IT investment evaluation processes and practices in these organizations. At the same time, the issue of expected and actual benefits realized from IS/IT investments has also generated a significant amount of debate in the IS/IT literature amongst researchers and practitioners, though most of the published research comes from the USA and UK. This study has addressed that issue through a survey of the CIOs of Australia's largest 500 organisations. The results indicate that a variety of formal IS/IT investment evaluation processes and techniques are used, costs and budgets are of great concern, there is a strong emphasis on cost reduction and other benefits, and a reasonable level of confidence in the delivery of these benefits. Most organizations used a formal methodology or process for IS/IT investment evaluation, and financially based evaluation techniques such as NPV and ROI which, though not perfect, often do try to incorporate intangible benefits into the process. These and other results are presented in the paper, and suggestions for further work included

Managing Intellectual Property to Foster Agricultural Development

Over the past decades, consideration of IPRs has become increasingly important in many areas of agricultural development, including foreign direct investment, technology transfer, trade, investment in innovation, access to genetic resources, and the protection of traditional knowledge. The widening role of IPRs in governing the ownership of—and access to—innovation, information, and knowledge makes them particularly critical in ensuring that developing countries benefit from the introduction of new technologies that could radically alter the welfare of the poor. Failing to improve IPR policies and practices to support the needs of developing countries will eliminate significant development opportunities. The discussion in this note moves away from policy prescriptions to focus on investments to improve how IPRs are used in practice in agricultural development. These investments must be seen as complementary to other investments in agricultural development. IPRs are woven into the context of innovation and R&D. They can enable entrepreneurship and allow the leveraging of private resources for resolving the problems of poverty. Conversely, IPRs issues can delay important scientific advancements, deter investment in products for the poor, and impose crippling transaction costs on organizations if the wrong tools are used or tools are badly applied. The central benefit of pursuing the investments outlined in this note is to build into the system a more robust capacity for strategic and flexible use of IPRs tailored to development goals

IT investments and firm performance: an analytic and empirical investigation.

1Dottorato di ricerca in Sistemi informativi aziendali (XX ciclo), Luiss Guido Carli, Roma, 2008. Relatore: Prof. G. Fiori.openThe very first problem: defying IT and Performance. Information systems in the firm system. Information systems and value creation. The research model. Methods. Results. Conclusions and managerial implication. Limitation of the study and further implementation.openDottorato di ricerca in Sistemi informativi aziendaliIzzo, Maria FedericaIzzo, Maria Federic

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation's Tropical Disease Research Program: A 25-Year Retrospective Review 1976-1999

Documents and details the foundation's commitment to the program from its inception, and provides an analysis of its successes until the completion of the program in 1999

Mission Effectiveness and Social Entrepreneurship: Theoretical insights and case-study evidence from three Christian charities in England

This research thesis examines mission effectiveness within three cases of Christian charities in England. It does so within the context of social entrepreneurship, and is occasioned by an attempt to facilitate social service capacity building in order to meet increasing social needs during a period of decreasing government funding. The research evaluates mission effectiveness through the lens of two managerial theories – Resource Based Theory (RBT) and Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT). Accordingly, three key objectives underpin this research: to evaluate RBT and DCT for social entrepreneurship in charities, to evaluate the relevant case study evidence and, consequent to an analysis and evaluation of that evidence, to develop/present an appropriately customised theory of mission effectiveness primarily for application within Christian social action charities. RBT and DCT theoretical and empirical literatures provide several insights into the optimisation of organisational resources and capabilities. An analysis of this literature enables two dimensions to emerge - performance and scalability. These dimensions are explored through six themes: business services, governance, resource investment, collaboration, social enterprise and growth. However, little engagement of these two theories (both developed for and within the For-Profit sector) in the charities (Not-for-Profit) sector is observed. This gap in the literature both provokes and justifies the research. Given that a key objective of the research is to develop a sectorally customised theory, methodologically it adopts an inductive approach to building theory from relevant theoretical-empirical data, empirical literature, their analyses and emergent evidence-based arguments. Appropriate meaningfully-linked RBT and DCT case-specific data are ethically collected using standard methods including questionnaires, interviews, observation, and evaluation of some internal case documentation and public records. Thereupon, the data are evidentially analysed and customised by reference to the relevant mission statement and categorised across the six themes. They are then analysed using traditional case study analytical techniques including pattern matching, explanation building and synthesis in order to enable key findings to emerge. Finally, the emergent research findings are evaluated-interpreted in terms of mission effectiveness, so as to assert causal and/or associated links between relevant theoretical constructs and the findings. The empirical findings suggest that all six identified themes varyingly affect performance and scalability. Further, they indicate that mission effectiveness is enhanced when resource based and dynamic capabilities are exercised within strategic management disciplines, especially where entrepreneurial means are deployed. This would suggest that Christian social action charities have potential to play a more positive and impactful role in providing social services in England, by systematically improving mission effectiveness via strategic use of RBT and DCT, combined suitably with entrepreneurial means. Overall, drawing on the empirically identified deficiencies and/or inadequacies of RBT and DCT when applied to the effective accomplishments of social enterprise missions, the findings suggest a hybrid theory of both of them, tentatively named ‘Dynamic Resource Theory’ (DRT). This argues that social action practitioners are more effective when optimising key resources and capabilities using SE means in order to achieve missional impact results. Such a tentative theory will likely influence policies to incentivise improvements in governance, inter-firm collaboration and capacity building. Such policies would be of real practical benefit to practitioners. This theory makes an original contribution to knowledge in terms of social entrepreneurial mission effectiveness - probably most applicable within faith-based charities

An investigation of the centrality of competing institutional logics for social enterprises.

Social enterprises have recently been recognized as organizations located in the field where two competing institutional logics co-exist preeminently. My dissertation attempts to examine the conditions under which the centrality of competing institutional logics, referring to the degree to which two competing institutional logics are both important to organizational functioning, is higher or lower in social enterprises. Using hand-collected data from the survey of 190 social enterprises in South Korea, this dissertation not only presents a validated and reliable measure for the centrality of competing logics, but also identifies the factors associated with variation in a social enterprise’s centrality of competing logics. Building on the perspective of heterogeneity in intra-stakeholder group, the Study 1 reveals that the heterogeneity within stakeholders can play a role in shaping the degree of centrality of competing logics. Specifically, ethical investors within investor stakeholders and cross-workers within employee stakeholder may enhance the centrality of competing logics. Drawing on imprinting perspective, Study 2 shows that there is the curvilinear effect of social entrepreneurs’ non-profit experience on the centrality of competing logics. Social entrepreneurs’ non-profit experience has a positive influence on the centrality of competing logics until reaching a certain point, beyond which that point is likely to be negative. Moreover, the effect of social entrepreneurs’ non-profit experience on the centrality of competing logics is less profound in the social enterprises with a highly ambivalent founder. This dissertation contributes to connect distinct research areas together, which are: (1) social entrepreneurship, (2) institutional logics, (3) stakeholder theory, and (4) imprinting perspective

An interactive learning approach to accounting classes

This working paper explores the use of interactive learning tools, such as business simulations, to facilitate the active learning process in accounting classes. Although business simulations were firstly introduced in the United States in the 1950s, the vast majority of accounting professors still use traditional teaching methods, based in end-of-chapter exercises and written cases. Moreover, the current students’ generation brings new challenges to the classroom related with their video, game, internet and mobile culture. Thus, a survey and an experimentation were conducted to understand, on one hand, if accounting professors are willing to adjust their teaching methods with the adoption of interactive learning tools and, on the other hand, if the adoption of interactive learning tools in accounting classes yield better academic results and levels of satisfaction among students. Students using more interactive learning approaches scored significantly higher means than others that did not. Accounting professors are clearly willing to try, at least once, the use of an accounting simulator in classes

3dways internationalization project - Sme competitiveness field lab 2019/2020

3DWaysisa3Dprintingservice-providingcompany.Currently,thecompanywantstointernationalizeitsremotelymanagednetworkof3Dprintingfactories,specificallytargetingatthehealthcaresector.Therefore,thisprojectanalysesthecurrentandfuturestateofthe3DPrintingindustry,beforeassessingpotentialtargetmarkets.Subsequently,fivecountries,headlinedbytheUnitedKingdom,weredeterminedtobethemostsuitableforthecompany’sinternationalizationthatwillrelyondirectexportingasanentrystrategybecauseoftheuniquenatureofthenetwork.Complementary,amarketingplanandafinancialevaluationweredevelopedfor3DWaysintheUK

Internationalization of business angel investments: The role of investor experience

In this study, we examine business angels (BAs)’ appetite for investing abroad and the role played by investment and entrepreneurial experience. To investigate BAs’ propensity to internationalize their investments, we study cross-border deals and culturally distant investments. Using an international sample of US and European BA deals, we find that both individual investment and entrepreneurial experience foster the internationalization of BAs’ investments, consistent with the predictions based upon the local bias theory. When splitting experience into domestic and foreign, we find that the former increases while the latter decreases local bias. When we separate US and European BAs, we find that the experiential background of BAs does not matter in the same way in Europe and in the US: while the general results are confirmed in Europe, both investment and entrepreneurial experience have a reduced impact in the US. We interpret these results in light of the reduced risk aversion of US BAs that lowers transaction costs