Effect of Digital Enablement of Business-to-Business Exchange on Customer Outcomes: The Role of Information Systems Quality and Relationship Characteristics

This study extends our understanding of how information systems impact business value creation by examining the effect of digital enablement of business-to-business exchange on customer outcomes. We shed light on the connection between information technology investment and firm performance by focusing on how information technology is used (Devaraj and Kohli 2003) in an industrial services context and by highlighting the importance of indirect effects (Mittal and Nault 2009). A conceptual model is developed that combines a customer centric perspective (Sheth et al. 2000) with elements from the information systems success framework (DeLone and McLean 1992, DeLone and McLean 2003). Mediating factors are identified in the chain of effects from information technology specific business-to-business service quality characteristics to customer outcomes. In addition, we consider two contextual factors, relationship duration and customer dependence, which are known to alter the nature of buyer-supplier relationships but which have received little attention in research on digital enablement of business-to-business exchange. An empirical test of hypothesized relationships was performed using subjective and objective archival data from business-to-business exchange relationships for a logistics services vendor. All expected main effects were confirmed. Customer satisfaction was found to be a significant mediator in the chain of effects from information technology specific business-to-business service quality characteristics to customer outcomes. In addition, logistics service quality was found to mediate the relationships between system quality and customer satisfaction and between information quality and customer satisfaction. The hypothesized moderating effects, however, were not found to be significant. Robustness of the findings was confirmed by testing model hypotheses using data from exchange relationships with customers in two different industries, manufacturing and wholesale trade. Differences in analysis results are consistent with industry differences. This study contributes to the literatures on interorganizational information systems (Rai et al. 2006) and information technology business value (Melville et al. 2004) by identifying mediating mechanisms in the chain of effects from digital enablement of exchange to customer outcomes. Explication of mediating mechanisms improves our understanding about the indirect nature of impacts from information technology. This study also contributes to the literature on information systems by extending DeLone and McLean\u27s (2003) model of information systems success to the context of business-to-business exchange relationships. In addition, this study contributes to the literature on services marketing (Zeithaml and Bitner 2003, Berry and Parasuraman 1993) by showing how system quality and information quality impact logistics service quality and customer satisfaction in a business-to-business exchange context

Meta-Heuristics Analysis for Technologically Complex Programs: Understanding the Impact of Total Constraints for Schedule, Quality and Cost

Program management data associated with a technically complex radio frequency electronics base communication system has been collected and analyzed to identify heuristics which may be utilized in addition to existing processes and procedures to provide indicators that a program is trending to failure. Analysis of the collected data includes detailed schedule analysis, detailed earned value management analysis and defect analysis within the framework of a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) incentive fee contract. This project develops heuristics and provides recommendations for analysis of complex project management efforts such as those discussed herein. The analysis of the effects of the constraints on management of the program indicate that, unless unambiguous program management controls are applied very early to milestone execution and risk management, then plans, schedules, tasks, and resource allocation will not be successful in controlling the constraints of schedule, quality or cost

Developing an online database of experts for the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce

The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce as part of their mission to attract business to the Worcester area, want to create an online searchable database of industry experts made up of faculty members of the Colleges and Universities in the Worcester area. This online database will be placed on the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce Higher Education – Business Partnership page on their website. The limitations placed on this request are that the Regional Chamber as of this moment have no monetary or Information Technologies resources to provide for the realization of this request. The proliferation of as A Service Information technology offerings provide a number of options for satisfying the request for an online searchable database of individuals, and some services are geared more specifically for this type of need and are intended for the nonprofit sector as well. The recommendation of this report is for the Worcester regional Chamber of Commerce to consider these options even if it requires a small investment of funds on their part

Project Management: IS/IT Research Challenges

A major challenge in Information Systems and Information Technology is to improve the ability to conceptualize, design, develop and deliver information systems that meet customer requirements. Project management is often adopted to create solutions that work and meet customer needs. The principles of project management as defined by the Project Management Institute, can improve project success rates. Researchers in the project management need to help practitioners understanding the impact of different principles on the success of IS development. This study undertakes a survey of project management experts on the state of practice and research to examine the need for improving project management, and suggest areas that can be improved. Research may be the most effective means of defining opportunities for enhancing project success rates by tapping the wealth of literature and complementing it with the expertise of project management practitioners

Prioritizing Offshore Vendor Selection Criteria for the North American Geospatial Industry

The U.S. market for geospatial services totaled US $2.2 billion in 2010, representing 50% of the global market. Data-processing firms subcontract labor-intensive portions of data services to offshore providers in South and East Asia and Eastern Europe. In general, half of all offshore contracts fail within the first 5 years because one or more parties consider the relationship unsuccessful. Despite the high failure rates, no study has examined the offshore vendor selection process in the geospatial industry. The purpose of this study was to determine the list of key offshore vendor selection criteria and the efficacy of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for ranking the criteria that North American geospatial companies consider in the offshore vendor selection process. After the selection of the initial list of factors from the literature and their validation in a pilot study, a final survey instrument was developed and administered to 15 subject matter experts (SMEs) in North America. The SMEs expressed their preferences for one criterion over another by pairwise comparisons, which served as input to the AHP procedure. The results showed that the quality of deliverables was the top ranked (out of 26) factors, instead of the price, which ranked third. Similarly, SMEs considered social and environmental consciousness on the vendor side as irrelevant. More importantly, the findings indicated that the structured AHP process provides a useful and effective methodology whose application may considerably improve the quality of the overall vendor selection process. Last, improved and stabilized business relationships leading to predictable budgets might catalyze social change, supporting stable employment. Consumers could benefit from derivative improvements in product quality and pricing

Strategic Analysis for the Open Source Institute at Simon Fraser University

Over the last decades, Open Source Software (OSS) has become increasingly popular and moved into the mainstream software industry. Our project\u27s goal is to investigate the need for an Open Source Institute (OSI) within Simon Fraser University (SFU). We performed a literature review and interviewed IT specialists from various local companies. We identified some barriers to the adoption of OSS, including lack of working knowledge of OSS, lack of multi-tier technical support, and legal concerns. Our analysis confirmed the need for this institute to promote OSS. We recommend that the SFU-OSI should broker technical support for OSS, to increase the level of awareness by organizing events and incubator-type initiatives, to offer various levels of training, to create standards and frameworks for user-friendly and well-documented OSS, to mine the undocumented innovations embedded in mature OSS, and to work with governments to leverage OSS for the betterment of society

Understanding Shared Familiarity and Team Performance through Network Analytics

In this article, we propose a network approach to understanding team knowledge with archival data, offering conceptual and methodological advantages. Often, the degree to which team members’ possess shared knowledge has been conceptualized and measured as an aggregate property of a team as a whole. Rather than an aggregate property, however, we argue that shared team knowledge is more appropriately conceptualized as a network of knowledge overlaps or linkages between sets of team members. We created shared knowledge networks for a sample of 1,942 software teams based on members’ prior experiences working with one another on different tasks and teams. We included metrics representing topological features of team shared knowledge networks within predictive models of team performance. Our results suggest that network patterning provides additional predictive power for explaining software development team performance over and above the effects of average level of knowledge similarity within a team

Active security vulnerability notification and resolution

The early version of the Internet was designed for connectivity only, without the consideration of security, and the Internet is consequently an open structure. Networked systems are vulnerable for a number of reasons; design error, implementation, and management. A vulnerability is a hole or weak point that can be exploited to compromise the security of the system. Operating systems and applications are often vulnerable because of design errors. Software vendors release patches for discovered vulnerabilities, and rely upon system administrators to accept and install patches on their systems. Many system administrators fail to install patches on time, and consequently leave their systems vulnerable to exploitation by hackers. This exploitation can result in various security breaches, including website defacement, denial of service, or malware attacks. The overall problem is significant with an average of 115 vulnerabilities per week being documented during 2005. This thesis considers the problem of vulnerabilities in IT networked systems, and maps the vulnerability types into a technical taxonomy. The thesis presents a thorough analysis of the existing methods of vulnerability management which determine that these methods have failed to mange the problem in a comprehensive way, and show the need for a comprehensive management system, capable of addressing the awareness and patch deploymentp roblems. A critical examination of vulnerability databasess tatistics over the past few years is provided, together with a benchmarking of the problem in a reference environment with a discussion of why a new approach is needed. The research examined and compared different vulnerability advisories, and proposed a generic vulnerability format towards automating the notification process. The thesis identifies the standard process of addressing vulnerabilities and the over reliance upon the manual method. An automated management system must take into account new vulnerabilities and patch deploymentt o provide a comprehensives olution. The overall aim of the research has therefore been to design a new framework to address these flaws in the networked systems harmonised with the standard system administrator process. The approach, known as AVMS (Automated Vulnerability Management System), is capable of filtering and prioritising the relevant messages, and then downloading the associated patches and deploying them to the required machines. The framework is validated through a proof-of-concept prototype system. A series of tests involving different advisories are used to illustrate how AVMS would behave. This helped to prove that the automated vulnerability management system prototype is indeed viable, and that the research has provided a suitable contribution to knowledge in this important domain.The Saudi Government and the Network Research Group at the University of Plymouth

Key Decision-making Phases And Tasks For Outsourcing Information Technology

Outsourcing has become an attractive option for today\u27s organisation. Since outsourcing Information Technology (IT) is a relatively new phenomenon in Australia, little research has been conducted as to IT management strategies needed when considering outsourcing. To guide management in the decision whether or not to outsource IT, the study developed and tested a decision-making model comprising the phases of intelligence, analysis and planning, strategy selection, action, and evaluation and monitoring. The significance of decision phases and tasks contained in the model was established through a survey of major Australian organisations. The sample included Australia\u27s top 390 companies. Such organisations would be likely to have large IT installation and therefore would have greater knowledge of IT outsourcing. The model was also applied in four major case studies to contribute to the survey and to help in interpreting the survey results. Respondent experiences in making IT outsourcing decisions were discussed. The study found that the \u27action\u27 phase of IT outsourcing is the most important decision-making phase. It is largely determined by the track record and the ability of the potential vendor to provide high service levels for the client. The need for an acceptable level of service is also strongly apparent when management evaluates and monitors the outcome of IT outsourcing. In recognition of the importance of the action phase the study presented an expanded model. It shows an expanded representation of the activities, presented in life eyrie form, related to selecting a suitable vendor and entering into an outsourcing contract. The study concluded that the proposed model was sufficiently comprehensive and structured to be a useful guide for IS outsourcing decision making. It enabled decision makers to consider complex, wide ranging and interrelated decision criteria concerning IS outsourcing for their particular circumstances and needs. Knowledge of the above findings should provide the following benefits: *The identification and description of phases, tasks and subtasks provides a checklist of what needs to be taken into account during IT outsourcing decision-making; *The identification of key phases, tasks and sub tasks will help management and others to focus on critical areas that need to be managed well in order for IT outsourcing to be successful; *The identification of the action phase as the most important phase enables management attention to be particularly focussed; *The framework can be used on a \u27as needed\u27 basis thereby making it useful for different outsourcing decision scenarios and situations. The study concludes with the research limitations and suggestions for future research