Examination of Corporate Investments in Privacy: An Event Study

The primary objective of any corporate entity is generating as much wealth as possible. Investing financially in technology domains has historically been a successful strategy for generating increased corporate and shareholder wealth. However, investments in Information Technology (IT), Information Systems (IS) and Information Security (InfoSec) to specifically generate increased wealth must be implemented carefully. Shareholders reacting to corporate investments perceive financial value from individual investments. The investment’s perceived value is then reflected in the corporation’s updated stock market value. IS, IT, and InfoSec investments perceived to possess positive financial value, indicating strong potential for increased wealth, are rewarded by shareholders through increased stock market value; conversely, investments perceived to possess negative financial value, likely to decrease corporate wealth, are punished by shareholders through decreased stock market value. Previous research utilizing Event Study Methodology (ESM) determined financial impact that investments had on corporate stock market value after press release announcements identifying the investment. Based on early success across various domains, additional Event Study Research (ESR) was further conducted within IS, IT, and InfoSec. Most studies aligned into one of three categories: 1) Investments in IT, 2) Information Security Breaches, and 3) IT Outsourcing, and similarly measured changes in market value from corporate investments in related IS, IT, and InfoSec products and services. Examination of the extant body of literature identified a gap within the Privacy domain; minimal ESR examining privacy and the financial impact from corporate investments in privacy. While financial loss associated with a breach incident is identified as the motivating force driving increased corporate investments in defensive measures, “privacy” is identified as a singular construct with little concern for the associated invasion of privacy. As such, little is known about privacy, potential financial risks associated with a privacy breach, nor an understanding of why corporations are not investing in privacy. This research extends the body of literature and makes an academic contribution by: 1) using ESM to identify the financial and overall stock market implications from corporate investments in privacy, 2) identifying the economic incentives motivating corporate investments in privacy, and 3) gaining a better overall understating of corporate investments in privacy, and why corporations are not investing in privacy

Justifying health IT investments: a process model of framing practices and reputational value

Despite important research contributions on the financial and operational dimensions of information technology (IT) value, justifying health IT (HIT) investments remains a difficult and enduring issue for IT managers. Recent work has expanded our understanding of HIT value, by focusing on the initial resource allocation stage, and through conceptualizations of value across multiple dimensions. Building on these developments, we adopt a performative perspective to examine the research question of how practitioners justify early stage HIT investments, with a focus on reputational value. We explored this question through a comparative field study of two hospital organizations in the English National Health Service (NHS). We found that practitioners' temporally orientated framing practices matter in justifying HIT investments, enacting different possibilities for reputational value. We develop a process model to explain these dynamics and highlight the mutability of reputational value, which can lead to different possibilities for restoring, enhancing, or maintaining reputation. We conclude by discussing the implications for justifying HIT investments.Stavros was supported by a scholarship from the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant Number: 1491536). Eivor Oborn was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West Midlands

Value Chain Creation in Business Analytics

Firms are awash in big data and analytical technology as part of deriving values in the turbulent environment. The literature has somewhat reached a consensus that investments in technology only may not reap benefits from business analytics (BA). The main purpose of BA is not about how to install technical capabilities, but about how to make a process whereby a firm builds a value chain converting data into insights, leading to quality decisions. Drawing upon the theory of the information value chain, this study develops a BA value chain model and tests it with 268 data scientists. Results show that organizational resilience, absorptive capacity, and analytical IT capabilities are critical antecedents to analytical decision-making quality which in turn influences BA net benefits. Particularly, results illustrate that organizational resilience is a more significant variable impacting analytical decision-making quality than the influence of people and technology. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed

A strategic theoretical framework to safeguard business value for information systems

The phenomenon of business value dissipation in mature organisations as an unintended by-product of the adoption and use of information systems has been a highly debated topic in the corporate boardroom awakening the interest of practitioners and academics alike. Much of the discourse tends to focus on the inability of organisations to unlock and realise the intended benefits to be harvested through large information systems investments. While the business case for investing in large technology programmes has been thoroughly investigated, the human agent that causes value erosion through his interaction with information systems (IS), has not received the studied attention it deserves. This study examines the use of technology in organisations by considering the dichotomy inherent in IS where its introduction for the purposes of creating new or sustaining existing business value subsequently also inadvertently dissipates value. The study proceeds to investigate the root people-induced causes resulting in the unintentional dissipation of value and presents an empirically validated model suggesting that human agents do not only create value for organisations through their use of IS, but at the same time, deliberately or inadvertently, dissipate value. The root people-induced causes resulting in the unintentional dissipation of value is delineated within a Theoretical Technology Value Framework that is constructed from a review of the extant literature, and delineates the overall unintentional value destroying causes and effects of IS on organisations. The Theoretical Technology Value Framework is forthwith applied as a basis for the development of a set of questions to support both qualitative and quantitative investigations from which an Archetypical Technology Value Model was derived. Finally, an Archetypical Technology Value Model is presented as a benchmark and basis to identify, investigate, mitigate and minimise or eliminate the unintentional value destroying effects of IS on Information Technology driven organisations. The study concludes with implications for both theory and practice and suggestions on how value erosion through the activities of the human agent may be identified, modeled and mitigated. Ultimately, recommendations are offered towards the crafting of more effective IS.School of ComputingPh. D. (Information Systems

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE OF IT PROJECT VALUE REALISATION: UNDERSTANDING BENEFITS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES – DO INCENTIVES AND MANAGEMENT SUPPORT REALLY HELP?

Although organisations continue to make substantial investments in information systems and information technology (IS/IT), the successful realisation of value (i.e. benefits) from such investments has consistently been reported as a major organisational challenge. From a project perspective, this paper examines whether benefits management (BM) practices can be considered a viable approach to achieve such anticipated value. Drawing on a field study conducted by investigating BM practices in 29 organisations as well as the BM literature, we derive a structural equation model that is tested using data collected from 456 individuals. Our data analysis, by means of partial least squares, finds that specific BM competencies positively impact benefits realisation success (BRS). Furthermore, the findings suggest that the development of effective BM competencies are facilitated by an alignment of business and IT processes reflected in the constructs a) business process knowledge, and b) business- IT communication. We also find that incentives negatively influence the positive effect of benefits review practices in realising project benefits. Collectively, the results have important theoretical and practical implications, as they provide quantitative evidence of how IS/IT investments should be managed to successfully realise benefits. We expect our research to spur organisations to instil a shared understanding of how IS/IT relates to the business and vice versa within their project teams, which will intensify BM’s positive effect on BRS

The Influence of Industry Growth and Firm Market Share on Firm-Level IT Value

Market-dominant firms traditionally have an advantage in growing markets because they operate with larger average plant sizes and are better able to reap the rewards of economies of scale. We present evidence that with information technology (IT), the effect is precisely the opposite: firms with less market power enjoy the benefits in a growing market. The influence of firm-level attributes on the economic value of information technology (IT) to firms has been the predominant focus of much prior research in this field. While some studies have examined how IT value differs across industries, there has been little research on how industry and firm attributes jointly affect firms’ returns on their IT investments. To that end, we develop cross-level hypotheses to examine how the latter is influenced by industry growth and firm size. By using a hierarchical linear model to test the industry-to-firm interactions, we are able to control for violations of statistical assumptions that are likely to bias cross-level estimates obtained using conventional statistical methods. Results of the analysis reveal that 93.25% of the variance in firm-level IT value lies within firms, while 6.75% is attributable to industrylevel factors. The implications of these findings for research and practice are examined

Environment determinants in business adoption of Cloud Computing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of Technology Providers, Public Administrations and R&D Institutions on Cloud Computing adoption. This research also considers Killer Applications and Success Cases as other environmental factors. Design/methodology/approach – Factorial analyses and structural equation models were used on a sample of high-technology firms located in technological parks in Southern Europe, with more than ten employees and sustained investments in R&D. Findings – Results show that Technology Providers and Success Cases are determinant in Cloud Computing adoption. Moreover, Killer Applications are a forerunner for Success Cases. Practical implications – An appropriate fit between the tools and resources provided by suppliers and the internal resources of the company is needed to create competitive advantages. Firms should evaluate Technology Providers, identify Success Cases to Cloud Computing adoption and implement technological benchmarking. Originality/value – This study contributes to Cloud Computing adoption literature because it includes Technology Providers, Public Administrations and R&D Institutions simultaneously as well as other variables as Killer Applications and Success Cases. The importance of the external agents on information technology (IT) adoption, especially when the technologies to be adopted are new and in an emergent stage, together with the lack of prior investigations focusing on specific environmental factors affecting the adoption of these new, emerging IT, justify the value of this research

Informational Determinants of Customer Acquisition and eTailer Revenue

Firms have leveraged the Internet in innumerable ways to derive business value from this technology. However, one class of firm that is distinctively dependent on this platform is the online retailer or eTailer. One aspect of this distinctiveness is that eTailers depend on their Web portals to attract customers, engage them in purchase activities, and execute transactions connected with a purchase ultimately leading to revenue generation. In this study, we wish to examine the informational determinants of this customer interaction and their relationship to eTailer revenue. We propose a two-phase path model of customer acquisition leading to revenue generation. Informational determinants are included in the path structure. The model is empirically tested using a dataset of 500 eTailers. The results indicate that the model is able to explain a large proportion of the variability in financial performance of these eTailers. We find that the type of information made available on the eTailer’s website, along with transactional capabilities and customizability, significantly correlate with customer acquisition. Analytical capability correlated significantly with the transition to phase two – which we refer to as conversion. These findings have implications for information technology governance within firms as they manage their IT investments to deliver maximum value

Prioritizing IT Projects: An Empirical Application of an IT Investment Model

Information Technology projects are organizational investments that anticipate positive returns. When viewed as such, the development of a diversified “portfolio” of projects helps reduce risk from a single project failure, and results in an overall positive return. Positive returns on IT projects are usually indirect, since they have value only insomuch as they enable the accomplishment of larger organizational goals. We present here a model that integrates elements of risk, cost, and internal rate of return that can be applied to individual IT projects. The model produces a numerical score that can be used to rank potential IT projects. Projects with higher scores return more value to the organization, and therefore should be given a higher priority. We apply the model using the IT project portfolio of a large state-charterd credit union. The results indicated that the credit union was prioritizing projects with more visibility but lower returns that other projects with less visibility but that offered greater returns. The implications of applying the model in other organizational settings are discussed

The Effect of Information Technology (IT) Investments on Firm-Level Performance in the Healthcare Industry

Background: The return on investment for information technology (IT) has been the subject of much debate throughout the history of management information systems research. Often referred to as the productivity paradox, increased IT investments have not been consistently associated with increased productivity. Understand individual IT factors that directly contribute to business value should provide insight into the productivity paradox. Purpose: The effects of 3 different firm-level IT characteristics on financial performance in the health care industry are studied. Specifically, the effects of IT budget, IT outsourcing, and the relative number of IT personnel on firm-level financial performance are analyzed. Methods: Regression analysis of archival survey data for 914 Integrated Healthcare Delivery Systems is performed. Results: IT budgetary expenditures and the number of IT services outsourced are associated with increases in the profitability of Integrated Healthcare Delivery Systems, whereas increases in IT personnel are not significantly associated with increased profitability. Each one tenth of a percentage increase in IT expenditures is associated with approximately $950,000 in increased profit for an average-sized Integrated Healthcare Delivery System. Implications: To increase profitability, IT administrators should increase IT budgetary expenditures along with IT outsourcing levels. IT administrators in the health care industry can use such findings during budgeting cycles to justify increased investments in IT personnel as being budget neutral while increasing organizational capacity