The impact of supply chain applications annoucements on the market value of firms

We show that the announcement of SCM applications have a positive impact on the market value of firms using event study methodology. When SCM applications are disaggregated according to whether they are stand-alone SCM applications, or part of an enterprise system (SCM-ES) implementation, we find that the latter carry a significant value enhancement, while the former do not present a significant market reaction.SCM applications, Event study

Current Trends and Challenges in Electronic Procurement: An Empirical Study

The following paper presents results from a longitudinal study on the use of ICT for B2B-related business processes in large Swiss companies. In an empirical survey, 68 questionnaires were personally collected from procurement heads and sub-sequently analysed. The findings show that reduction of purchase prices is the top priority when goal-setting in procurement. Electronic orders and invoices are the business documents that are most often exchanged electronically between partners. Electronic exchange of invoices (e-invoicing) is a current key topic for over 70 % of the companies. Procurement heads sense a lack of supplier involvement which makes the realisation of balanced B2B solution scenarios difficult. The study shows that IT, without doubt, plays a significant role in everyday procurement, but that the expectations of IT are rarely completely fulfilled

How SMEs Strive to Achieve Competitive Advantage with IT-Supported Business Processes: An Empirical Study

Results from a longitudinal empirical study on the use of information technology (IT) in Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) form the basis of this paper. In the recent survey, 917 questionnaires were collected and analysed. Selected findings are presented in ten conclusions which were drawn from the analysis of the responses. We see that the degree of information integration is very high in Swiss SMEs. Surprisingly, secondary process areas are better integrated across the company than primary process areas. The electronic exchange of data is quite common in SMEs and is performed, in many cases, at an international level. Swiss SMEs see the customer-oriented processes as important for their future competitiveness. On the other hand, they lay great importance on a well-working accounting process and the effective access to a management information system. Most SMEs embrace IT as a way to improve their business. Many of them are open for new technological developments and intend to further improve the interplay between software and processes. There is a strong association between the level of data integration in customer-related process areas and innovation. The integration level in supplier-related processes, on the other hand, has a weak influence on the innovativeness of a company

Investment in Business Software and Perceived Utility: An Empirical Study

Authors have identified many different reasons why companies invest into IT and there has been much discussion of how IT can generate value. This paper adds to the discussion of IT value generation by investigating investments in business software for the support of business processes in Swiss SMEs. In an empirical survey on the future IT investment for process support, 917 questionnaires were collected and analysed. In a first step, using exploratory factor analysis, two factors representing different sets of business software modules were identified: (1) basic modules and (2) specialized modules. In a second step, using cluster analysis, we identified four typical characteristic company profiles regarding investments in business software: (1) the IT convinced, (2) the IT differentiators, (3) the IT sceptics, and (4) the IT pragmatists. To further explore and profile the clusters, we ran several bivariate analyses with selected questions from the questionnaire. This study has both theoretical and managerial relevance as it helps to understand firm attitudes towards investments and business software

Information Technology and Life Expectancy: A Country-Level Analysis

Do countries with higher IT spending have higher life expectancy? Recent policy debate on healthcare in the United States has focused on the role of IT in reducing costs and improving healthcare access and quality. An implicit assumption in this debate has been that greater infusion of IT into healthcare will lead to better health outcomes. We investigate the validity of this assumption by examining the extent to which higher IT expenditures at the country level are associated with higher life expectancy, a key measure of healthcare outcomes. Drawing on the information systems and supply chain management literature, we theorize three mechanisms to explain why IT may be associated with healthcare outcomes at the country level: information integration, workflow coordination, and collaborative planning. We then conduct an empirical analysis relating IT investments with life expectancy and find that higher IT investments at the country level are positively associated with higher life expectancy. We discuss implications of the findings for further research and policy

Psychological Empowerment of Patients with Chronic Diseases: The Role of Digital Integration

Information technology (IT) is enabling better healthcare delivery and care. However, the role of IT in managing chronic diseases is still unclear. Chronic diseases are a challenge today, accounting for a huge cost burden in the United States. This article is focused on addressing the research question that how digital integration can play a role in enhancing patients’ psychological empowerment to manage a chronic disease. Based on existing literature, we develop a conceptual research model that provides antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment for chronic disease treatment, and suggest a mediating role of digital integration through three tenets of digitization, mobilization and personalization. We develop a set of propositions based on the research model, and suggest a set of measurable constructs to test the propositions. A research methodology is introduced with a plan for the empirical analysis. Contributions and implications of this study are discusse

Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?†Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution.supply chain;MAS;multi agent systems

Assimilation of Tracking Technology in the Supply Chain

While tracking technology has become increasingly accessible, firms still struggle with deploying these technologies into the supply chain. Using the complementary perspectives of transaction cost and institutional theory, we develop an understanding of how supply network, product, and environmental characteristics jointly impact tracking technology assimilation. We empirically test our model on a global dataset of 535 supply chain executives and decision makers. The results suggest that assimilation is frequently initiated by an external stakeholder in a firm\u27s supply chain and that firms must develop strong collaborative ties with their partners in order to take full advantage of this technology

The impact of IT–business strategic alignment on firm performance: The evolving role of IT in industries

This study proposes and validates a new industry taxonomy to understand the use of IT that generates superior economic returns based on the specific economic and competitive characteristics of four different industry types and the strategic role of IT in each of these industry environments. Our findings extend the well-established industry taxonomy on the strategic role of IT (Automate, Informate, Transform) by considering how IT is changing the nature of the product/service in industries where transformational logics prevail. We found that in industries where the product/service is digital in nature, the firms that achieve higher economic returns are those where IT is used to support dual strategies based on the integration of cost leadership and differentiation. Conversely, in other industries - with the exception of those producing commodities - the firms that achieve superior returns are those that use IT to support differentiation. The results of this study can help managers make intelligent decisions about competitive strategies and IT investments, depending on the business environment of the sector in which the firm operates and the generative potential of emerging technologies to do new things

Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?” Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution