Customer Enquiry Management in a Global Competitive Context: A Comparative Multi-Case Study Analysis

Business-to-Business (B2B) relationships, such as between a manufacturer and a customer, are increasingly important during the Customer Enquiry Management (CEM) process, particularly so for non-Make-To-Stock (non-MTS) companies operating in industrial markets. Few empirical studies have explored the CEM practices adopted by firms in practice. A study of the Italian capital goods sector by Zorzini et al. (2007) is a recent exception. Moreover, most studies have approached CEM from a cross-department integrated perspective but in the digital economy, and with globalization, outsourcing and extended supply chains, CEM needs to be approached from a broader supply chain-oriented perspective, incorporating B2B exchanges. This paper builds on the study by Zorzini et al. (2007) by conducting multi-case study research with seven UK-based companies in the capital goods sector, including three sales and support companies with offshore manufacturing. By adopting a cross-national research perspective, it assesses whether the proposed theory applies to other capital goods firms outside Italy. By also adopting a supply chain perspective of CEM it investigates current industry practice in B2B markets and explores whether cross-functional coordination and formalization issues can be extended into a global context. Evidence from the UK generally supports prior theory, confirming links between high levels of coordination, formalization of the CEM process and improved performance. Some refinements are proposed, for example, in order to make the theory suitable for a global context. The characteristics of a supply chain are important factors that affect CEM. This research has managerial implications for improving the CEM process in non-Make-To-Stock (non-MTS) capital goods companies from both an intra and an inter-organisational (B2B) perspective. Coordination with partners along the supply chain is needed at the enquiry stage and constraints linked to global customers should be considered when structuring the

Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology: A Synthesis and the Road Ahead

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is a little over a decade old and has been used extensively in information systems (IS) and other fields, as the large number of citations to the original paper that introduced the theory evidences. In this paper, we review and synthesize the IS literature on UTAUT from September 2003 until December 2014, perform a theoretical analysis of UTAUT and its extensions, and chart an agenda for research going forward. Based on Weber’s (2012) framework of theory evaluation, we examined UTAUT and its extensions along two sets of quality dimensions; namely, the parts of a theory and the theory as a whole. While our review identifies many merits to UTAUT, we also found that the progress related to this theory has hampered further theoretical development in research into technology acceptance and use. To chart an agenda for research that will enable significant future work, we analyze the theoretical contributions of UTAUT using Whetten’s (2009) notion of cross-context theorizing. Our analysis reveals several limitations that lead us to propose a multi-level framework that can serve as the theoretical foundation for future research. Specifically, this framework integrates the notion of research context and cross-context theorizing with the theory evaluation framework to: 1) synthesize the existing UTAUT extensions across both the dimensions and the levels of the research context and 2) highlight promising research directions. We conclude with recommendations for future UTAUT-related research using the proposed framework

Breaking organizational barriers for greening Australian campuses

Sustainability is an issue for everyone. For instance, the higher education sector is being asked to take an active part in creating a sustainable future, due to their moral responsibility, social obligation, and their own need to adapt to the changing higher education environment. By either signing declarations or making public statements, many universities are expressing their desire to become role models for enhancing sustainability. However, too often they have not delivered as much as they had intended. This is particularly evident in the lack of physical implementation of sustainable practices in the campus environment. Real projects such as green technologies on campus have the potential to rectify the problem in addition to improving building performance. Despite being relatively recent innovations, Green Roof and Living Wall have been widely recognized because of their substantial benefits, such as runoff water reduction, noise insulation, and the promotion of biodiversity. While they can be found in commercial and residential buildings, they only appear infrequently on campuses as universities have been very slow to implement sustainability innovations. There has been very little research examining the fundamental problems from the organizational perspective. To address this deficiency, the researchers designed and carried out 24 semi-structured interviews to investigate the general organizational environment of Australian universities with the intention to identify organizational obstacles to the delivery of Green Roof and Living Wall projects. This research revealed that the organizational environment of Australian universities still has a lot of room to be improved in order to accommodate sustainability practices. Some of the main organizational barriers to the adoption of sustainable innovations were identified including lack of awareness and knowledge, the absence of strong supportive leadership, a weak sustainability-rooted culture and several management challenges. This led to the development of a set of strategies to help optimize the organizational environment for the purpose of better decision making for Green Roof and Living Wall implementation

Cross-cultural impact on the budgeting cycle: a preliminary analysis of Anglo-American and Libyan companies operating in Libyan oil sector

[Abstract]: Globalization is causing the rapid integration of markets, nations, and technology, which facilitates faster contact between people, corporations, and nations. However, there is a failure to notice cultural differences that exist between workforces across nations. Thus all staff needs to have cultural sensitivity, which could be helped by studying cross-cultural differences. Current understanding of how and why specific budget aspects and budgeting processes are different could be attributed to cultural differences. This study utilizes societal cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede to identify differences in budgets and budgeting process between Libyan and Anglo-American companies operating in Libyan oil sector. Some preliminary analysis is discussed

Safety in maritime oil sector: Content analysis of machinery space fire hazards

An in-depth study of the practice within the maritime oil industry was undertaken to ascertain safety issues in seafaring vessels. It was more concentrated on the type of accidents that occur in machine spaces of seafaring vessels in this industry. The main focus of the research was streamlined to fire in machinery spaces. The literature review later concentrated on two of such incidences, they are oil spill and fire events. An investigation was done to assess those factors which actually contribute or are in association to fire outbreak. A content analysis methodology was used to investigate the associative relationships to fire outbreak with the aid of NVivo 9.0 software. The investigation focused on 15 key in-depth reports on machinery space incidences which were uploaded into the software. The results indicate that leakages on hot surfaces were the major causes of fire hazards in seafaring vessels. The results from using this methodology also highlighted two more fire hazards that were not so apparent in previous studies. They are generator fire and compressors fire. The results supported other studies about leakages on hot surfaces as a major contributor, but also clearly show that there are other hazardous factors of fire in machinery spaces that require further investigation

Contextuality and Information Systems: how the interplay between paradigms can help

Through this paper, we theorize on the meanings and roles of context in the study of information systems. The literatures of information systems and information science both explicitly conceptualize information systems (and there are multiple overlapping definitions). These literatures also grapple with the situated and generalizable natures of an information system. Given these shared interests and common concerns, this paper is used as a vehicle to explore the roles of context and suggests how multi-paradigmatic research ??? another shared feature of both information science and information systems scholarship ??? provides a means to carry forward more fruitful studies of information systems. We discuss the processes of reconstructed logic and logic-in-use in terms of studying information systems. We argue that what goes on in the practice of researchers, or the logic-in-practice, is typified by what we are calling the contextuality problem. In response, we envision a reconstructed logic, which is an idealization of academic practices regarding context. The logic-in-use of the field is then further explained based on two different views on context. The paper concludes by proposing a model for improving the logic-in-use for the study of information systems