Public sector reforms and the notion of 'public value': implications for egovernment deployment

Governments are increasingly investing in information and communication technologies (ICT) as tool to foster the rationalization of public administration. This paper discusses e-government within the context of governmental reforms heavily influenced by the New Public Management (NPM), which suggests that the use of ICT within the public sector will enhance efficiency, effectiveness and accountability. Based on the concept of ‘public value’ developed by Moore (1995), we propose to question the overall impact e-government initiatives may have on governments’ ability to deliver social and economic outcomes that correspond to citizens’ expectations. Our central argument is presented as follows: while ICT can help to achieve the main NPM values, e-government initiatives do not guarantee to have a positive effect on broader public values. Even when this argument is not new, in this paper we aim to strengthen the need for a deeper discussion of the implications of e-government programs in the context of public values. To do so, we propose a framework that distinguishes between clusters of public values: those that are related to managerial practices and those related to democratic values. We draw on descriptive examples to illustrate our main arguments

Adoption and Use of Information Technology in Mandatory Settings: Preliminary Insights from Saudi Arabia

Many large Enterprise Systems are adopted in mandatory settings where potential users do not have much choice but to embrace the new technology. The objective of this study is to examine the adoption and use of information technology (IT) in mandatory settings where the option of rejecting the new technology does not exist. Based on a literature review, a framework that explains the adoption and use of information technology in mandatory settings is proposed. This framework highlights that acceptance of a new technology is affected, among other factors, by a system’s contribution to organizational transparency. To further this argument, users who directly benefit from organizational transparency are more likely to accept the technology, such as a new Enterprise Systems. The study expands our body of knowledge about the adoption and use of information technology in mandatory settings, and is expected to help business management and system providers during technology implementation projects. Moreover, the proposed framework may benefit Enterprise System providers when formulating their business models and lead them towards financial success

Automatic Summarization of Customer Reviews: An Integrated Approach

The proliferation of interactivity between Web content producers and consumers underscores the development of the Internet in recent years. In particular, customer reviews posted on the Web have grown significantly. Because customers represent the primary stakeholder group of a company, understanding customers’ concerns expressed in these reviews could help marketers and business analysts to identify market trends and to provide better products and services. However, the large volume of textual reviews written in informal language makes it difficult to understand customers’ concerns. This paper describes an integrated approach to summarizing customer reviews. The approach consists of the steps of sentence extraction, aspect identification, sentiment classification, and review summarization. We report preliminary results of using our approach to summarize product reviews extracted from Amazon.com. Our work augments existing work by considering nonstandard input and by incorporating linguistic resources and clustering in automatic summarization

A structural model of information system quality: an empirical research

Assessing the quality of a delivered system has been one of the major challenges for researchers as well as for the practitioners (organizations). There is the need of a multidimensional instrument capable of measuring the quality of an information system, that instrument would provide valid information that helps an organization to take decisions in order to improve and assure the quality of its information systems. On the other hand, the majority of IS researchers are still not sufficient validating their instruments and there is the need of empirical findings. This research-in-progress paper proposes a model to measure the quality of an information system and uses the statistical approach Partial Least Squares (PLS) for its validation

A Conceptual Model for Measuring the Effectiveness of Employee Portals

Employee portals are utilized by many companies to improve information exchange and communication between their employees as well as to better support business processes. Assessing the benefits of employee portals has become important, owing to limited IT budgets and the need to justify investments in portals. In this paper, we propose a conceptual model for measuring the effectiveness of employee portals on the basis of the DeLone and McLean IS Success Model as well as an extensive review of employee portal success measurement literature. The resulting model is presented as the basis for future empirical work in this area. The development of the survey instrument is described and further validation steps are proposed

Process Modeling in Brazilian Public Administrations: The domain-specific PICTURE approach

This paper discusses a process modeling case, which applies a semantic building block-based approach as a means for business process modeling in Brazilian municipal public administrations (MPA). It derives a set of distinctive requirements to process modeling methods that are refined to the specific demands of Brazilian MPAs. We introduce the modeling method PICTURE and discuss whether and why its application in Brazilian MPAs is appropriate. We evaluate it against the before mentioned set of requirements. It could be shown that PICTURE delivers valuable support for Brazilian MPA process modeling projects

A Reclassification of IS Security Analysis Approaches

The role of security management in the development and operation of information systems has a long tradition of research in computer science, information systems and management science. Integrating the economic, organizational, and technical aspects of information systems security analysis and assessment requires a bridging of these different research streams. We examined major articles published concerning IS security using a new classification scheme for IS security analysis and assessment approaches. We looked at approaches discussed in recent publications as well those examined as in past articles that have attempted to classify various approaches to IS security. This paper therefore organizes a diverse collection of literature into a cohesive whole with the aim of providing IS management with an overview of current security analysis approaches, thereby offering management an effective aide for selecting the methods best suited to their needs. Furthermore, this work structures IS security research into a classification scheme that can also be used in future research and practice

A Conceptual Framework for Investigating Suppliers’ Participation in Business-to-Government (B2G) Electronic Auction Markets in the Thai Context

Business-to-government (B2G) electronic auction (e-auction) markets are increasingly being used to create opportunities for suppliers to expand their market as well as trading activities. However, little has been done to understand the behaviour of suppliers participating in these markets. In this paper, we propose a framework to explain suppliers’ intention to participate, and the level of participation in B2G e-auction markets, which will be tested in the Thai B2G e-auction markets. Low supplier participation has been a major problem in the Thai e-auction markets. We posit that suppliers’ participation depends on organisational motivation, environmental uncertainty, and their capabilities. The conceptual framework draws from the Motivation-Ability Framework, Transaction Cost Theory, Institutional Theory, and Resource-Based Theory. It proposes that four key constructs - efficiency motive, legitimacy motive, environmental uncertainty, and organisational capabilities influence suppliers’ intention to participate as well as their participation level in B2G e-auction markets

Assessment of Ubiquitous Healthcare Information Systems Benefits

Health is a fully individualized concern, and is therefore inherently mobile. Thus, Ubiquitous Healthcare Information Systems can enable a much-needed patient-centered care environment. This paper presents a decision support system that makes use of system dynamics methodologies in order to assess the improved health benefits that may be realized within the context of ubiquitous healthcare information systems in support of managing diabetes

Industry-Specificity of Employee Portal Success: A Multi-Group Comparison

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of employee portal success and to investigate the industry differences with regard to the success factors. We introduce a theoretical model for this that is based on the DeLone and McLean IS Success Model, which considers the specific requirements of employee portals. We tested the associations between our model’s different success dimensions by using more than 6,000 employees’ responses that were collected in a survey of 22 companies across different industries participating in an international benchmarking study. Furthermore, we analyzed potential industry differences by means of a multi-group comparison. We applied structural equation modeling to carry out the data analysis. The study’s results indicate that, besides the factors contributing to the success of IS in general, other success dimensions – like the quality of the collaboration and process support – have to be considered when aiming for a successful employee portal. The results of the multi-group comparison further indicate that the impacts of the success factors differ in intensity and significance between the industries in our sample. The study’s findings make it possible for practitioners to understand the industry-specific levers with which to improve their employee portals and to prioritize their investments accordingly. By empirically validating a comprehensive success model for employee portals, the study\u27s results advance the theoretical development in this area and present a basis for further research in this field