A web survey implementation framework : evidence-based design practices

Web surveying is growing in acceptance and use. However, web-based surveys appear to have lower response rates than traditional mail surveys. That may be the result of ineffective strategies for web survey implementation. This work puts together a set of important aspects to be taken into account through several phases of web survey implementation. The resulting framework has been developed to guide researchers in building a successful web survey implementation and is structured in terms of software tool selection, questionnaire design and survey administration phases. Research foundations and delivery concerns are also included in a framework to guide researchers in building an instrument able to increase response rates. Particular attention is given to key design practices under the evidence of their contribution for a successful web surveying implementation

Workforce Incentives at IT companies : the Google’s Case

Organizations may have much to gain in attracting and retaining IT professionals than can help to reduce costs and improve the productivity of the business. That is even more crucial for IT companies that rely upon talented IT professionals to add value in their core business processes and not just to support them. Thus we need to better understand what motivates and keeps satisfied an IT workforce. As a successful IT company, Google may be a good example to look at adequate incentive policies for IT professionals. Using a netnographic approach, this study examined a blog discussion with the participation of past and present Google employees. The collected data was analyzed under a total rewards model, a framework from WorldatWork to encompass a diversity of topics in building a reward strategy. One of those topics, work-life, was significantly discussed showing that Google´s incentive policies take into consideration work-life sub-topics such as health and wellness, cultural environment, community involvement and work flexibility to attract and retain IT professionals. Adding to the sub-topics already proposed in the framework, some new ones popped out still under the work-life topic: equipment and technology, administrative efficiency and workplace stability. Although compensation and benefits are certainly incentives to not be disregarded, it seems there may be something else also important as work-life incentives to attract and retain an IT motivated workforce, specially, at an IT company

Employee incentives in IT companies : what can we learn from Google?

PreprintAttracting and retaining IT professionals have emerged as top management concerns in the last years. This is particular relevant for companies with core business processes in IT that have much to gain from talented IT professionals. Google is one of those companies. Showing a considerable growth in recent years and pointed out as one of the best companies in US to work for, Google presents itself as an interesting case for studying employee incentives policies in IT companies. Using a netnographic approach to look into a work life blog discussion with the participation of present and past Google employees, a total reward strategy framework is used to analyze the data and generate new insights. Work life topics suggested upfront such as community involvement, health and wellness, work flexibility and cultural environment are particularly important. Administrative efficiency, workplace stability and equipment and technology are some new topics that may be worth to consider in a framework to guide incentive policies for a total reward strategy in IT companies.(undefined

Developing an instrument to assess information technology staff motivation

Motivation is a key factor that influences individual effort, which, in turn, affects individual and organizational performance. Nevertheless, motivation at work depends on the organizational rewards and incentives, according to individual goals. This paper reports on the development of an instrument designed to measure the motivation of Information Technology people at their workplace. Psychology theories and work addressing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have been studied. Some motivation instruments were reviewed and analyzed. Specificities and special characteristics regarding IT workers were evidenced and combined with other more general motivation factors. The instrument has been developed according to the five dimensions of the Worldatwork framework, resulting in a set of 30 scale items addressing 23 variables. Besides measuring the IT motivation levels, the tool may also help any organization to understand the weaknesses and strengths regarding incentive policies, and therefore, assist on the definition of new ones

Influence of incentive policy in the alignment of business and information technology

Tese de Doutoramento (Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação)Os executivos de topo de muitas das maiores empresas mundiais estão hoje conscientes de que as novas tecnologias estão a redefinir as cadeias de valor e que as suas empresas precisam de permanecer atentas para continuarem relevantes no mercado. Os negócios modernos precisam de articular as necessidades do negócio com tecnologias de informação (TI) inovadoras. De facto, a necessidade de um melhor alinhamento entre o negócio e as TI tem sido continuamente considerado como uma das maiores preocupações que executivos de topo de TI enfrentam. Esta preocupação é talvez apoiada na convicção, suportada em um número significativo de estudos, de que um melhor alinhamento pode influenciar positivamente o desempenho do negócio. Na verdade, este alinhamento é considerado uma das áreas mais importantes da governação das TI e a sua importância é reconhecida e abordada por alguns dos mais importantes normativos das TI, como o COBIT, o ITIL ou o TOGAF. Embora o alinhamento tenha sido abordado por muitos estudos no passado, a preocupação constante com ele na última década sugere que não tem havido progresso suficiente sobre esta questão. Por outro lado, o alinhamento é feito por pessoas. E, quanto mais as pessoas estiverem motivadas nas organizações, mais e melhor elas trabalham. A influência que os incentivos de alguns gestores têm no seu comportamento e, assim, na sua atividade e produtividade profissional tem sido bastante abordada na literatura. Na verdade, é habitual as empresas darem pacotes de incentivos aos seus gestores, desejavelmente concebidos para serem alinhados com os objetivos organizacionais. Este trabalho investigou a influência de políticas de incentivo na promoção de um melhor alinhamento. Além da revisão da literatura mais importante sobre estas duas áreas, foi proposto um novo modelo que relaciona o incentivo com o alinhamento do negócio e das TI. É proposto e aplicado um novo instrumento para medir o nível de incentivo de uma organização e também adaptado e aplicado um instrumento existente para medir o nível de alinhamento. Após algumas fases prévias, como pré-teste e teste piloto, os instrumentos foram aplicados na amostra completa, através duma plataforma de inquéritos online. A amostra, provida pela Informa Dun & Bradstreet, foi expandida com base na rede social LinkedIn, suportada no método "bola de neve”, que ajuda o estudo de populações difíceis de alcançar. Foram recolhidas respostas de mais de quatro centenas de gestores de negócio e TI, de mais de duas centenas de médias e grandes empresas portuguesas, representando, ao que se sabe, o inquérito mais vasto já feito em Portugal sobre alinhamento. O modelo, de componentes hierárquicas, foi estimado usando um modelo de equações estruturais (SEM) com a técnica dos mínimos quadrados parciais (PLS). A confiabilidade e validade do modelo de medida (reflexivo) foram garantidas depois de descartados alguns indicadores. A avaliação dos componentes de ordem superior do modelo (formativo) foi assegurada por uma sólida validação de conteúdo dos constructos “incentivo” e “alinhamento”. Os resultados principais são apresentados, discutidos e interpretados através de vários ângulos, respetivamente, a área funcional dos respondentes, o seu género, a sua geração, a atividade económica das empresas, por cada variável manifesta do incentivo e alinhamento e dimensão das empresas. Por fim, os resultados do modelo proposto são discutidos e interpretados. Ao propor uma explicação do alinhamento com uma única variável, o incentivo, este é talvez um dos modelos mais parcimoniosos do alinhamento apresentados até agora. Este estudo também permite suportar aquele que é, talvez, o seu maior contributo, que é facto do incentivo explicar a maior parte do alinhamento. Algumas recomendações para a prática e para investigação futura são ainda propostas.The chief executive officers from many of world’s largest companies are aware that new technologies are redefining value chains and that companies need to remain aware to remain relevant in the market. The modern businesses need to articulate business needs with innovative information technologies. In fact, business and IT alignment (BIA) has been continually considered as one of most important concerns that top IT executives face. This concern is probably supported on the conviction, sustained on a significant number of studies, that achieving a better alignment can positively influence business performance. Actually, this alignment is considered one of most important areas of IT governance and its importance is recognized and addressed by some of most important IT frameworks, as COBIT, ITIL or TOGAF. Although alignment has been focused by numerous researches in the past, the ongoing concern with it in the last decade suggests that there was not been sufficient progress in addressing this issue. Still, the allignment is made by people. And, the more people are motivated in organizations, the more and better they work. The influence that incentives have on managers behaviour and, thus, on their professional activity and productivity has been widely addressed in the literature. Indeed, it is a common practice among companies giving packages of incentives to their executives, desirably designed in order to be aligned with organization objectives. This work investigated the influence of incentive policies to promote a better alignment. Besides reviewing most important literature about these two areas, this study proposes a new model that relates the incentive with the alignment of business and IT. It proposed and applied a new instrument to measure the incentive maturity of an organization and it also adapted and applied an existing instrument to measure the alignment maturity. After some preceding phases, as pretesting and pilot testing, the instruments were administered on a full scale sample, through an online survey platform. The sample, provided by Informa Dun & Bradstreet, was expanded with the help of the social network LinkedIn, supported in the snowball method, which helps on the study of hard-to-reach populations. Responses were collected from more than four hundred business and IT managers, from more than two hundred medium-size and large Portuguese companies, representing, as far as is known, the wider survey ever done in Portugal about the alignment between business and IT. The model, a hierarchical component model, was estimated using a structural equation model (SEM) with partial least squares technique (PLS). The reliability and validity of the measurement model (reflective) were guaranteed, after some indicators have been discarded. The model assessment concerning the higher-order components (formative) was assured through robust content validity procedures of incentive and alignment constructs. The major findings are presented, discussed and interpreted by different angles, respectively, by the functional area of respondents, by respondents' gender, by respondents’ generation, by companies’ economic activity, by each one of the manifest variables of incentive and alignment and by companies’ size. Finally, the results of the proposed model are discussed and interpreted. By proposing an explanation of alignment with just one latent variable, the incentive, this is probably one of the most parsimonious models of alignment presented until now. The study also allows supporting the one that is perhaps its greatest contribution, which is the fact that the majority of the explanation of alignment is made by incentive. Some recommendations for practice and future research are also proposed

A critical review of Luftman´s instrument for business-IT alignment

Business and Information Technology alignment remains one of the most important issues among IT managers. To assess it, many proposals have been put forward over the years. As one of the most cited in Google Scholar, the Luftman’s survey instrument emerges as a promising one to assess business-IT alignment. This work presents a critical review of the Luftman’s proposal for assessing business-IT alignment by comparing it with six other relevant proposals in the literature. Each one of the selected proposals was studied in terms of the coverage of the dimensions of the Luftman’s instrument: communications, competency/value measurements, governance, partnership, technology scope and skills. Governance was the dimension better covered followed by the technology scope but the remaining dimensions were not so well covered with the skills dimension being the worst one. In fact, none of the selected proposals showed up as complete as the Luftman’s proposal. Some research has already been carried out to validate and test the Luftman’s instrument as a useful tool for practitioners and managers. The result, a more parsimonious instrument than the original one, seems a promising tool calling for further attention and use in research to get to an acceptable and recognized valid instrument to assess business-IT alignment.This work is supported by FEDER funding through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme – COMPETE and national funding through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology under the project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022674

Strategic quadrant for companies implementing open source ERP systems - Cases of Odoo ERP implementers in Portugal

The increasing adoption of ERP systems, in particular, open source systems implemented in SMEs continues to merit research because of their relevance. Although the use of ERP systems in SMEs is in percentage terms smaller than in large enterprises, the adoption of such open source systems represents a great opportunity for SMEs. This article presents an investigation that sought to clarify the rationale underlying the adoption of open source ERP solutions through the case study of three Odoo ERP implementers in Portugal. It was clarified that, although acting in the same market, one of these companies tended to adopt a value-driven business model and the others a cost-driven model. Finally, a methodological proposal is made for the positioning of implementing companies in a strategic quadrant, exemplified by the three cases studied. Future virtues and opportunities of the proposed strategic framework are discussed at the end

Most valued factors in rural tourism: An analysis of Portuguese customer comments on a booking platform

This study aims to discover and analyze the most valued factors in rural tourism. An analysis of a sample with 9,939 comments obtained from the booking platform Booking.com on stays in rural tourism establishments located in Portugal is presented. Using text mining techniques and topic modeling in order to find the most valued factors, word clouds were obtained that allow a quick and intuitive analysis of the data. The LDA algorithm allowed to extract ten topics coherent with the word clouds. The results point out that breakfast, the friendliness of the staff, the hosts and the outdoor space are the most relevant factors for guests. These results have implications for the management of rural tourism units as they identify the factors to be taken into account by those in charge of these units

O impacto organizacional e social da inteligência artificial

A Inteligência Artificial (IA) já permite e permitirá novas e significativas mudanças na forma como vivemos, trabalhamos e interagimos. Neste capítulo, apresenta-se uma breve revisão da evolução da IA e são apresentadas áreas como a economia, finanças, educação, saúde e cognição ou sociedade aproveitam atualmente potencialidades da IA e como podem vir a revolucionar ainda mais o nosso futuro. Os impactos organizacionais e sociais da IA são enormes. Nas últimas décadas, os sistemas informáticos permitiram trocar tarefas humanas repetitivas por máquinas, substituindo empregos de «colarinho azul». Atualmente, começam-se a substituir «colarinhos brancos», ameaçando não apenas profissões da produção, administrativas e retalho, mas também direito, finanças, educação ou medicina. Em Portugal, a aposta na IA é grande e são inúmeros os atuais exemplos em diversas áreas de aplicação que ilustram esta dinâmica de inovação. Apresentam-se as dez maiores startups portuguesas de IA, em fevereiro de 2019, com base no seu financiamento

Factors Influencing School Success in Undergraduate Programs at a Portuguese Higher Education Institution

This article presents a project of knowledge discovery in databases, which intended to help understand the influence of some factors on the academic success of undergraduate students of a Portuguese higher education institution. The steps in this process included tasks such as business understanding, data understanding, preparation of data, modelling and evaluation of results. The research contemplated predictive and descriptive activities, using the techniques of induction of decision trees and grouping. A survey, made to 86 students, included factors such as attendance in class, time of study, group study frequency, distance to the place of residence and school success. The induced induction trees revealed that the most explanatory factor of school success is the time of study and classified this success in function of the various explanatory factors. The clustering results allowed characterizing the typical student and the two or three main groups of students