IT-ENABLED BUSINESS INNOVATION: DOES CIO CAPABILITY MATTER? A PERSPECTIVE FROM INSTITUTIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY

Today IT has evolved from a mere efficiency tool to enabling business innovation and providing strategic value. As the highest level IT leader in organizations, CIO should be largely responsible for the success of IT-enabled business innovation. CIO must possess necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities to lead IT staff, business partners, and even high-level executives in IT-enabled business innovation. However, as IT innovation researchers have just begun to look at business transformation and innovation resulted from the application of new IT, insights on how CIO can leverage IT to enable business innovation are still scant. We aim to address the question of whether and how CIO capability impact on the success of IT-enabled business innovation. Anchoring on the theory of institutional entrepreneurship, we propose a conceptual model describing that CIO’s political savvy, communicative ability, strategic IT and business knowledge have positive impact on the success of ITenabled business innovation, through the mediating role of innovation legitimacy. The findings are expected to provide several theoretical implications for the areas of IT innovation and CIO effectiveness

Information technology and marketing performance within international market-entry alliances: a review and an integrated conceptual framework

The purpose of our paper is to engage in a comprehensive review of the research on Information Technology (IT)-mediated international market-entry alliances.This paper provides a theory-informed conceptual framework of IT-enabled cross-border interfirm relationships and performance outcomes. It integrates perspectives of Resource-based View (RBV) and Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) to argue that the establishment of interfirm IT capabilities enhances the marketing performance of the foreign partner in the host location by improving interfirm relationship governance. Furthermore, IT-related risks and contextual restrictions are identified as important moderators. Conceptualisations of IT capabilities, IT-enhanced interfirm governance, and IT-led marketing performance improvement are suggested. Drawing on RBV and TCE, IT resources, related human resources, and IT integration between partner firms in combination enhances the ability of firms to manage the relationship more effectively through shared control, interfirm coordination, cross-firm formalisation, and hybrid centralisation. These benefits then bring about better upstream and downstream marketing performance in the host location. Additionally, IT capabilities help to mitigate possible contextual limitations and risks. The paper offers a number of theory- and literature- informed research propositions which can be empirically tested in future studies.Top managers of firms currently in or planning to enter international alliances for market entry should carefully consider effective development of interfirm IT capabilities in terms of readiness of hardware and software, human resources, and organisational resources. Our paper provides an integrated framework and propositions which contribute to limited understanding and appreciation of IT value in international market-entry alliances

Information technology and marketing performance within international market-entry alliances: a review and an integrated conceptual framework

The purpose of our paper is to engage in a comprehensive review of the research on Information Technology (IT)-mediated international market-entry alliances.This paper provides a theory-informed conceptual framework of IT-enabled cross-border interfirm relationships and performance outcomes. It integrates perspectives of Resource-based View (RBV) and Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) to argue that the establishment of interfirm IT capabilities enhances the marketing performance of the foreign partner in the host location by improving interfirm relationship governance. Furthermore, IT-related risks and contextual restrictions are identified as important moderators. Conceptualisations of IT capabilities, IT-enhanced interfirm governance, and IT-led marketing performance improvement are suggested. Drawing on RBV and TCE, IT resources, related human resources, and IT integration between partner firms in combination enhances the ability of firms to manage the relationship more effectively through shared control, interfirm coordination, cross-firm formalisation, and hybrid centralisation. These benefits then bring about better upstream and downstream marketing performance in the host location. Additionally, IT capabilities help to mitigate possible contextual limitations and risks. The paper offers a number of theory- and literature- informed research propositions which can be empirically tested in future studies.Top managers of firms currently in or planning to enter international alliances for market entry should carefully consider effective development of interfirm IT capabilities in terms of readiness of hardware and software, human resources, and organisational resources. Our paper provides an integrated framework and propositions which contribute to limited understanding and appreciation of IT value in international market-entry alliances

Essays on cooperation and/or competition within R&D communities

This dissertation attempts to contribute to our understanding of how firms can manage and benefit from its research and development (R&D) communities. In the first essay, we examine how established firms can leverage a broad R&D community to invent successfully during the early stage of a technological change. We find significant inventions by incumbents outside the existing dominant designs and relate their success to their willingness to search novel areas, explore scientific knowledge in the public domain, and form alliances with a balanced portfolio of partners. We find support for the hypotheses using data from the global semiconductor industry between 1989 and 2002. In the second essay, we examine a classical choice within an R&D community: cooperation or competition with other firms along a technology supply chain. We find that the answer depends not just on the transaction costs, strength of intellectual property protection rights, and asset cospecialization in the buyers' industries, but also the supplier's knowledge transfer capability and a typical buyer's productivity in developing licensed inventions. For instance, the effect of asset cospecialization on licensing is moderated by the factors that affect the buyers' productivity in developing external technology. Additionally, factors that reduce the buyers' development productivity can be mitigated by the supplier's knowledge transfer capability. We find empirical supports for these predictions using a cross-industry panel dataset of a sample of 345 U.S. small technology-based firms for the 1996-2007 period. In the third essay, I develop two game theoretical models to address how research competition from academic researchers affects firms' openness in disclosing intermediate R&D outcomes. Both models predict that such competition increases the firm's incentive to publish research findings, even though the firm would not have had such an incentive without the presence of the competition. The models also suggest several conditions under which the effect takes place. I further discuss the implications of ownership fragmentation for research materials within the scientific community and academic researchers' engagement in entrepreneurial activities. As implied by my models, these phenomena might instigate withholding of research findings by firms.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Thursby, Marie; Committee Member: Ceccagnoli, Marco; Committee Member: Forman, Chris; Committee Member: Tan, Justin; Committee Member: Thursby, Jerr

A literature analysis of the use of Absorptive Capacity construct in IS research

Since the seminal inception of Absorptive Capacity (ACAP) by Cohen and Levinthal (1990), it has been adopted widely in information systems (IS) research. This paper analyzes the use of ACAP in IS research through a literature analysis of ACAP-related papers published in 52 reputable IS journals from 1990 to 2015. Drawing on a review of the evolution of ACAP, the analyses conducted include: (1) descriptive analysis of ACAP in IS papers; (2) domains of ACAP usage; (3) analysis of hypotheses and propositions to show how ACAP is being used to explain various organizational phenomena in IS research; and (4) analysis of the measures to provide insights into the operationalization of ACAP in IS research. Our findings suggest that while the majority of the research correctly conceptualizes ACAP as a capability, various misalignments between ACAP conceptualization, operationalization and measurement, and the level of analysis in the literature continue to do a disservice to the accumulated research in ACAP. The findings and recommendations should help IS researchers to conceptualize and operationalize ACAP appropriately

BUSINESS VALUE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN NETWORK ENVIRONMENTS

Information Technology (IT) business value research is suggested as fundamental to the contribution of the IS discipline. The IS research community has accumulated a critical mass of IT business value studies, but only limited or mixed results have been found on the direct relationship between IT and firm performance. Extant studies mostly focus on whether IT creates business value and demonstrate indirect relationships between IT and some aspects of firm value; however, the question of why and how IT can do so remains understudied. These limitations lead to the challenge where existing IT business value studies have not done enough on providing feasible, practical guidance for IT practitioners and have had lacking relevance to the business world. In this study I propose the concept of dynamic IT capability (DIC), defined as the ability of a firm to build, integrate, and upgrade IT resources to improve, enhance, and reengineer business processes as responses to rapidly changing environments, and apply it in network environments. Using data of 26 companies over a span of 8 years from a number of secondary sources, I examined the direct link between DIC and firm performance and the indirect link through the mediation of firm innovation, both moderated by network structures. The results of data analysis indicate that DIC is an important indicator of IT business value in network environments. DIC contributes to firm performance directly or indirectly through firm innovation. Also, DIC complements network structures to positively influence firm performance. These findings have important implications for both researchers and practitioners

International Vertical Alliances within the International Business Field : A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Trading-up on unmet expectations? Evaluating consumers’ expectations in online premium grocery shopping logistics

Geography and retail store locations are inherently bound together; this study links food retail changes to systemic logistics changes in an emerging market. The later include raising income and education, access to a wide range of technologies, traffic and transport difficulties, lagging retail provision, changing family structure and roles, as well as changing food culture and taste. The study incorporates demand for premium products defined by Kapferer and Bastien [2009b. The Luxury Strategy. London: Kogan Page] as comprising a broad variety of higher quality and unique or distinctive products and brands including in grocery organic ranges, healthy options, allergy free selections, and international and gourmet/specialty products through an online grocery model (n = 356) that integrates a novel view of home delivery in Istanbul. More importantly from a logistic perspective our model incorporates any products from any online vendors broadening the range beyond listed items found in any traditional online supermarkets. Data collected via phone survey and analysed via structural equation modelling suggest that the offer of online premium products significantly affects consumers’ delivery logistics expectations. We discuss logistics operations and business management implications, identifying the emerging geography of logistic models which respond to consumers’ unmet expectations using multiple sourcing and consolidation points

Ko-Entwicklungsprojekte im B2B: Eine Untersuchung von strategischen Einflussfaktoren sowie Auswirkungen auf die Häufigkeit von Markteinführungen

Innerhalb der letzten 15 Jahre kann ein Wandel bei Unternehmen festgestellt werden, sich bei der Entwicklung von innovativen Sachgütern und Dienstleistungen nicht mehr auf eine reaktive sondern auf eine proaktive Marktorientierung zu fokussieren. Vorausdenkende Unternehmen haben in diesem Zusammenhang verstärkt damit begonnen, Ko-Entwicklungsprojekte in ihr Geschäftsmodell zu integrieren. Aufgrund dieses Wandels, während der verschiedenen Phasen des Neuproduktentwicklungsprozesses gemeinsam mit Kunden zu interagieren, haben sich für Unternehmen neue Herausforderungen ergeben. So ist oftmals innerhalb von Unternehmen kein Wissen darüber vorhanden, wie eine effektive Steuerung und Förderung von Ko-Entwicklungsprojekten innerhalb des Unternehmens möglich ist, welche verschiedenen Rollen Kunden in diesen Projekten übernehmen können und innerhalb welcher Entwicklungsphasen sie an einer gemeinsamen Produktentwicklung beteiligt werden sollten. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht Ko-Entwicklungsprojekte im Hinblick auf mögliche strategische Einflussfaktoren, mit deren Hilfe es Top- und Senior Managern in einem Business-to-Business-Kontext ermöglicht wird Ko-Entwicklungsprojekte aus einer top-down Perspektive zu steuern. Auf Grundlage einer ausführlichen Literaturrecherche sowie Erkenntnissen aus der Innovations- und Führungsforschung wird im Rahmen der Arbeit argumentiert, dass eine innovationsorientierte Strategie sowie ein transaktionales und transformationales Führungsverhalten effektive Top- und Senior-Manager-Instrumente darstellen, innerhalb des Unternehmens eine generelle Offenheit und strategische Orientierung für die Innovationsentwicklung bereitzustellen. Weiterhin wird tiefgreifender auf mögliche Ausgangsgrößen von Ko-Entwicklungsprojekten eingegangen, mit deren Hilfe es möglich ist die Innovationsfähigkeit der ko-entwickelnden Unternehmen feinkörniger zu analysieren. Die Erkenntnisse der Arbeit basieren auf einer empirischen Studie, die in einer der weltweit führenden Zeitschriften im Bereich der Marketing- und Innovationsforschung, dem Journal of Product Innovation Management, veröffentlicht werden konnte. Der Datensatz wurde bei insgesamt 135 Top- und Senior Managern sowie 415 ihrer Mitarbeiter erhoben. Die Datengrundlage wird dazu genutzt, um neben den Haupteffekten der identifizierten strategischen Top- und Senior-Manager-Instrumente auf die Ko-Entwicklung auch deren Interaktionsbeziehung miteinander zu analysieren. Die Ergebnisse der hierarchischen Regressionsanalyse bestätigen die hypothetisierten positiven Wirkungsbeziehungen der innovationsorientierten Strategie sowie dem transformationalen Führungsverhalten mit Ko-Entwicklung. Ebenfalls deuten die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass ein transformationales Führungsverhalten die Implementierung einer innovationsorientierten Strategie begünstigt, was für ein transaktionales Führungsverhalten nicht der Fall ist. Im Hinblick auf mögliche Ausgangsgrößen von Ko-Entwicklungsprojekten kann im Rahmen der empirischen Analyse eine umgekehrt U-förmige Wirkungsbeziehung zwischen der Ko-Entwicklung und der Häufigkeit von Markteinführungen eines Unternehmens festgestellt werden, was darauf hindeutet, dass Ko-Entwicklungsprojekte nicht prinzipiell in einem besonders hohen Ausmaß betrieben werden sollten. Abschließend werden anhand der gewonnenen empirischen Erkenntnisse konkrete Implikationen und Handlungsempfehlungen für die Wissenschaft und Unternehmenspraxis abgeleitet. Zudem wird näher auf mögliche Limitationen der Untersuchung sowie Anknüpfungspunkte für die zukünftige Forschung eingegangen