Untold Stories of ERP Systems Implementation: Role of Ownership and Governance, Scope Management, and Employee Empowerment

Much prior research on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems implementation has been conducted in western countries that have different social and organizational cultures from countries in the other parts of the world, such as the Arab World. In this paper, we examine ERP systems implementations in Saudi Arabia which is an important economic frontier in the world. Our key focus was to understand the role of three important aspects of ERP systems implementations—i.e., ownership and governance, scope management, and employee empowerment. We conducted six case studies and found that the nature of ownership and governance played a significant hindering role during implementation. We further found that Saudi organizations faced major challenges during implementation with respect to managing the scope of implementation. Finally, we found that owners and top management were deeply concerned about losing their control over employees following ERP systems implementations. We offer theoretical and practical implications

COMMUNITY INTELLIGENCE PLATFORMS: THE CASE OF OPEN GOVERNMENT

The focus on collaborative and participatory governance has led to interest in studying how ‘intelligence’ in citizen communities can be leveraged towards creating robust solutions for complex social and policy problems. In this paper, we present four models that uncover the process of leveraging community intelligence. We analyze multiple case studies that capture the varying roles of citizens and public agencies in the problem-solving process. Employing Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of citizen participation as an analytical tool, we outline the strengths and weaknesses of each model, and suggest design recommendations for the development of participatory platforms for open government

We’re In This Together: The Role of Team Characteristics in Enterprise Process Execution and Performance

Organizations face challenges after a new enterprise system (ES) implementation, including employee resistance and negative impacts on organizational outcomes. ESs are used by employees in coordination with their team members for executing business processes. Consequently, team characteristics are likely to play a critical role in influencing perceptions about effective process execution and performance when using ESs. Yet research has not investigated the influence of team characteristics, such as team coordination, shared mental models, and mutual trust, in overcoming challenges associated with process execution following a new ES implementation. We conducted a lab simulation to investigate the role of team characteristics to moderate the influence of process characteristics on team and process performance. We posit that even if teams initially perceive processes as complex, rigid, and radical, team characteristics can mitigate these perceptions and reduce their influence on performance outcomes

Out of Africa: A Story of Information and Communication Technology Implementation in Swaziland

Much prior research on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) implementation has been conducted in western countries that have different social and organizational cultures from countries in Africa. We examine the implementation of a centralized financial management system (CFMS) in the Kingdom of Swaziland, a country in Southern Africa. The Swazi government decided to implement CFMS to address the over-indebtedness situation of its government employees. We studied the role of socio-economic and political dynamics during the implementation of CFMS. We found that the Swazi economy benefited immensely from CFMS. However, a certain type of financial organizations (i.e., cooperatives) declined to use CFMS a few months after the implementation resulting in significant financial loss for other financial institutions that were still using CFMS. Based on our findings, we suggest that proactive government decision making and stakeholder support are key to the post-implementation success of centralized ICT initiatives in developing countries

Play for Performance: Using Computer Games to Improve Motivation and Test-Taking Performance

The importance of testing, especially certification and high-stakes testing, has increased substantially over the past decade. Building on the “serious gaming” literature and the psychology “priming” literature, we developed a computer game designed to improve test-taking performance using psychological priming. The game primed the concept of achievement to increase an individual’s expectation of success and motivation. Our results show that individuals who took a test immediately after playing the game significantly outperformed those who played a placebo computer game designed to have no effect. The effect size was medium (0.63). We believe that these results have important implications for information system education, including improving individual test-taking performance, identifying ways to develop information systems topic-specific games, and the need for more research to better understand how and why such games influence performance

Citizen Apps to Solve Complex Urban Problems

Tackling complex urban problems requires us to examine and leverage diverse sources of information. Today, cities capture large amounts of information in real-time. Data are captured on transportation patterns, electricity and water consumption, citizen use of government services (e.g., parking meters), and even on weather events. Through open data initiatives, government agencies are making information available to citizens. In turn, citizens are building applications that exploit this information to solve local urban problems. Citizens are also building platforms where they can share information regarding government services. Information that was previously unavailable is now being used to gauge quality of services, choose services, and report illegal and unethical behaviors (e.g., requesting bribes). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the range of citizen applications (“citizen apps”) targeting urban issues and to address their effects on urban planning, decision-making, problem solving, and governance. We examine citizen apps that address a wide range of urban issues from those that solve public transportation challenges to those that improve the management of public utilities and services and even public safety

Technology-Enabled Participatory Platforms for Civic Engagement: The Case of U.S. Cities

Technology-enabled participatory platforms are proving to be valuable canvases for engaging citizens in solving public-good challenges. Citizens are playing a more active role by either designing platforms themselves or participating on platforms created by public agencies. Unfortunately, our theoretical knowledge about the nature of these platforms is limited. In this paper, we take the first steps towards understanding technology-enabled participatory platforms. Through an exploratory analysis, following the spirit of a grounded theoretic methodology, we examined technology-enabled participatory platforms in the 25 most populated cities in the United States. We deduce four main archetypes—citizen centric and citizen data, citizen centric and government data, government centric and citizen data, and government centric and citizen-developed solutions of technology-enabled participatory platforms. We describe the intricacies of how collective intelligence is leveraged on these platforms. Implications for local government managers and urban planners are discussed. We hypothesize how the future of these platforms might evolve in the not so distant future

Leveraging Technologies in Public Agencies: The Case of the U.S. Census Bureau and the 2010 Census

Emerging technologies are transforming government agencies and the nature of governance and pose new challenges for public managers. Under the leadership of Steven J. Jost, associate director for communications, the U.S. Census Bureau leveraged emerging technologies during the 2010 Census to complete the project under budget while also engaging citizens through the design of viable participatory platforms. The 2010 Census campaign focused on increasing response rates and encouraging citizen participation through innovations in the communication process with citizens and through the infusion of technology. The Census Bureau also effectively managed risks associated with the use of emerging technologies. The authors examine the innovations, the risks, and the effort to manage those risks under Jost’s leadership

Considerations for information systems "backsourcing": A framework for knowledge re-integration

Backsourcing is motivated by opportunities arising from changes in the business situation, redefinition of the character of outsourced service declining in quality or due to the discovery of flaws in the contract. The situation of backsourcing clearly has major implications for an organization in terms of monetary investments, IS infrastructure and changes in employee requirements during and after the process. The paper considers a detailed analysis of two case studies of backsourcing reported from JP Morgan Chase (USA) and Sainsbury (UK). A major contribution of the paper is to identify important strategies to be followed in backsourcing projects to ensure efficient knowledge re-integration.</p

Out of Asia: Understanding the nexus between technology usage and research productivity in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan

Journal and conference publications are well-known measures of scientific and academic research productivity. Prior research on scientific productivity that studies dimensions such as research culture, technological support, and researcher collaboration focuses on Western world contexts. Asian countries, such as Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan have received attention recently for the quality of their educational institutions, which have increasingly emphasized research productivity. With a large number of established and funded public universities, these countries show a strong potential for future scientific research. Consequently, it is crucial to understand the factors that influence the research productivity of scholars in these countries. In this paper the focus is specifically on the research productivity of students and faculty members in three countries: Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan. We investigate an important factor that influences research productivity: technology usage, which we conceptualize as the summation of mobile phone and computer usage. In addition, we analyze the relationship between technology usage and international collaboration. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved