Disaster Recovery Practices in Small Business: A Delphi Study of Factors Affecting Adoption

In response to the devastation of recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, this research in progress intends to identify small businesses that are at-risk of failing if they experience a data loss caused by a community-wide natural disaster. As guided by classical innovation diffusion theory, the phenomenon of adopting disaster recovery practices within small businesses is studied form the point-of-view of small businesses. Practitioner-oriented literature is reviewed to identify relevant disaster recovery practices that are classified within a risk management framework. A Delphi study is initiated among small businesses to (a) identify current disaster recovery practices employed to prevent data loss, and (b) ascertain the current levels of awareness and adoption of disaster recovery practices. The results of the review are reported along with the initial findings of a Delphi study still in progress

The Role of Social Media in U.S. County Governments: The Strategic Value of Operational Aimlessness

This study investigates the influence of citizens\u27 socio-economic characteristics on the presence of social media in county-level government. E-government is ostensibly citizen-driven and therefore variation in an area\u27s demographics would likely impact a government\u27s utilization of emerging technology, such as social media. Despite its transformative potential and widespread adoption, e-government development beyond basic stages has been sluggish. Social media is transforming the nature of interaction among individuals and organizations and has the potential to overcome some of the restrictive challenges of e-government. Understanding if, how, and to what end governments are harnessing social media will help make e-government a citizen-driven, democratic, transparent, and trustworthy platform. County governments are challenged by their size, resource scarcity, heterogeneous service area (urban and rural), and varying population density; thereby preventing them from gaining a critical mass of online users. By exploring social media\u27s role in e-government as related to citizen demographic factors, this study reveals an important paradoxical role of social media in government: operational ineffectiveness as a necessary precursor for exception events. Additional results reveal the presence of digital divide - counties with higher median household income and educational qualification tend to have social media presence in their e-government sites, which is also not related to population growth of the counties

Co-Creating Value: Student Contributions to Smart Cities

Given the interdependence of the public and private sectors and simultaneous and massive impact of widespread disasters on the entire community, this paper investigates the use of information technologies, specifically geospatial information systems, within the multi-organizational community to effectively co-create value during disaster response and recovery efforts. We present and examine in depth a participatory action research project in a disaster-experienced coastal community conducted during the 2006-2014 time period. The results of the action research project and analysis of a survey completed by stakeholders leads to a list of findings, in particular those related to developing a model of next generation learning design where students are co-creators of value to the smart cities

Psychological Capital and Professional Identity: A Study of Professional Business Students

This research article reports the results and findings of an online survey questionnaire administered to 593 Masters of Business Administration (MBA) students using the MCPIS-9 and PCQ-12 instruments that measure Professional Identity (ProfId) and Psychological Capital (PsyCap), respectively. The results indicated a strong sense of ProfId (M = 4.2/5.0, SD = 0.66, N = 593), and a significant and positive relationship (p < .01, ΔR2adj = .25, N = 593) between PsyCap and ProfId. The results of this study represent a fruitful, albeit initial, foray into the ProfId and PsyCap of professional business students. The implications of these results inform and equip program stakeholders to devise curricular and pedagogical approaches to support students’ sense of self in their career trajectory

Enterprise Resource Planning Research: Where Are We Now and Where Should We Go From Here?

The research related to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has grown over the past several years. This growing body of ERP research results in an increased need to review this extant literature with the intent of identifying gaps and thus motivate researchers to close this breach. Therefore, this research was intended to critique, synthesize and analyze both the content (e.g., topics, focus) and processes (i.e., methods) of the ERP literature, and then enumerates and discusses an agenda for future research efforts. To accomplish this, we analyzed 49 ERP articles published (1999-2004) in top Information Systems (IS) and Operations Management (OM) journals. We found an increasing level of activity during the 5-year period and a slightly biased distribution of ERP articles targeted at IS journals compared to OM. We also found several research methods either underrepresented or absent from the pool of ERP research. We identified several areas of need within the ERP literature, none more prevalent than the need to analyze ERP within the context of the supply chain

The essential components of disaster recovery methods: A Delphi study among small businesses

In response to the devastation of recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, this research identifies small businesses as being at-risk of failing if they experience a data loss caused by a community-wide natural disaster. Practitioner-oriented literature is reviewed to identify relevant disaster recovery components that are classified within a risk management framework. A Delphi study is conducted among small businesses to identify essential disaster recovery practices employed to prevent data and IS loss. The results of the review along with the findings of a Delphi study are reported and together establish a comprehensive portrait of the essential components of disaster recovery methods for small businesses in response to the threat of community-wide natural disasters

A Study of Local Government Website Inclusiveness: The Gap Between E-Government Concept and Practice

This study examines the concept of electronic government (e-government) inclusiveness and evaluates the inclusiveness of local e-government websites. Inclusiveness sets e-government apart from other types of websites (e.g. commercial or organizational sites) that only serve exclusive market segments. An evaluation for inclusiveness of 101 local government websites from Mississippi (an underdeveloped area by many health and social metrics) revealed (1) a high frequency of issues that prevent inclusive service (on average each site had 291.83 issues), (2) high variability in terms of number of issues (range = [2, 3171]), and (3) widespread absence of websites (87 of the 188 municipalities and county seats did not have discoverable websites). These results suggest there is a need for more inclusiveness, but the allocation of resources to accomplish this may not be feasible. To address this, two strategic options are presented to information technology (IT) policy-makers who seek to leverage e-government for development: an idealistic approach with traditional IT investment for future returns and a pragmatic one that resembles an entrepreneurial IT start-up venture. The study contributes in three ways: we identify the concept and criteria of e-government inclusiveness; develop an automated, software-based, and replicable evaluation method that can be used by local governments to improve a website\u27s inclusiveness; and present strategic options for using e-government to promote social and economic development

A Study of Local Government Website Inclusiveness: The Gap Between E-government Concept and Practice

© 2014 Commonwealth Secretariat. This study examines the concept of electronic government (e-government) inclusiveness and evaluates the inclusiveness of local e-government websites. Inclusiveness sets e-government apart from other types of websites (e.g. commercial or organizational sites) that only serve exclusive market segments. An evaluation for inclusiveness of 101 local government websites from Mississippi (an underdeveloped area by many health and social metrics) revealed (1) a high frequency of issues that prevent inclusive service (on average each site had 291.83 issues), (2) high variability in terms of number of issues (range = [2, 3171]), and (3) widespread absence of websites (87 of the 188 municipalities and county seats did not have discoverable websites). These results suggest there is a need for more inclusiveness, but the allocation of resources to accomplish this may not be feasible. To address this, two strategic options are presented to information technology (IT) policy-makers who seek to leverage e-government for development: an idealistic approach with traditional IT investment for future returns and a pragmatic one that resembles an entrepreneurial IT start-up venture. The study contributes in three ways: we identify the concept and criteria of e-government inclusiveness; develop an automated, software-based, and replicable evaluation method that can be used by local governments to improve a website\u27s inclusiveness; and present strategic options for using e-government to promote social and economic development

Perceptions of Electronic Health Records in Mississippi

The study reports perceptions of Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption among key constituents in Mississippi to inform health care professionals and administrators about factors that influence the adoption and integration of EHRs into practice. The results from a survey conducted at two statewide health conferences in Mississippi indicated a high degree of optimism in regards to successful EHR adoption, but less for specific practices and in rural areas. These results are relevant to healthcare decision and policy makers to determine needed professional preparation and programming, if any, for current and future healthcare professionals; and to identify workforce development challenges lending insight into the technology skills needed to adopt and utilize EHRs at a meaningful level. Further, the assessment identified potential factors that may be associated with the current level of adoption of utilization of EHRs