An Exploratory Study of the Implementation of an Energy Management Information System using an Adapted Adaptive Structuration Theory Model

Oil prices globally have risen 500% since 1999. Ireland will have to pay €1.45bn in penalties next year and up to €4.3bn by 2012, as CO2 emissions are currently 23% over the agreed Kyoto allowances. Over the next 25 years, population and economic growth will cause global energy needs to increase by approximately 50%. Consequently, Energy Efficiency (EE) has become an essential part of most organisations. This paper reports on research-in-progress which explores the implementation of an Information System (IS), which is used to manage and monitor energy usage and implement energy efficiencies within several organisations. Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) provides the conceptual model that helps to capture the longitudinal change process. There is currently no published research in the area of IS implementation investigating an energy management system using AST. Preliminary results show that stricter imperatives to adopt the IS will not necessarily lead to a successful system

Implementation Strategies for eGovernment: A Stakeholder Analysis Approach

This paper reports from a comprehensive study of e-government implementation in Ireland, conducted over the last two years. An in-depth case study is presented detailing the development of a dual strategy for implementation and provides a comparison of the results from this approach. The success and shortcomings of both approaches are identified, providing in-depth analysis into the identification and management of critical concerns in the implementation of citizen-centred e-government. Specifically, this paper highlights the importance of accounting for social and political features, unique to the public sector, which in this case have had a decisive impact on e-government implementation. Public sector organisations in particular present unique challenges to the implementation process and implementation strategies often require particular attention to the social and political elements inherent in organisational change. In e-government implementation, the main barriers are not technical but social and cultural. Implementation strategies should therefore support the process of managing stakeholder relations in order to reduce the risk of stakeholder conflict and ensure the success of e-government initiatives

Linking Threat Avoidance and Security Adoption: A Theoretical Model For SMEs

A deficiency exists in the Information Systems Security literature because of the tendency to regard IT threat avoidance and IT security adoption as separate behaviours. In addressing the deficiency this research in progress focuses on SMEs, for several reasons including their strategic importance globally, the current trend among cybercriminals to conduct more high volume, low risk attacks against weaker targets and also because of the individualistic behavioural patterns in SMEs. Drawing on several well-established behavioural theories, this paper synthesises elements of these theories into a holistic model, with coping theory placed firmly at is centre. This study will make several contributions to the field, initially creating an empirically validated model for behaviours surrounding both avoidance and preventative actions in small firms and also in presenting and prioritising a specific view of the external factors influencing how threats are appraised, assessed and dealt with

Contextualising the Insider Threat: A Mixed Method Study

The insider threat is potentially the most damaging and costly threat to organisations, and while there is a considerable body of literature aimed at understanding this phenomenon, we contend that the theories contained in such literature are most beneficial if they can be utilised in a way that is contextually relevant. Our research, and this paper, is specifically focussed on developing and improving this contextual validity. We find that malicious acts arising from disgruntlement are perceived as very real problems in practice. We also present a current list of non-malicious aberrant behaviors and show how they rank in relative seriousness to one another. Given that the primary motivation for conducting this study is the view that reliance on the traditional conceptualization of a boundary or perimeter is no longer viable, our essential contribution lies in devising a series of vignettes that empirically reflect this current contextual validity