AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CONTINGENCY THEORY OF MIS

The purpose of this paper is to define and critique the use of contingency theory in the field of Management Information Systems (MIS). The existence of such a theory is demonstrated through a detailed review of the MIS literature. The development of contingency theory in MIS is compared to the development of Organization Theory. The developments in the two fields have been remarkably similar and the field of MIS can benefit from the experiences of organization theorists. We argue that since MIS is at an early stage of development, it is now repeating some of the unproductive assumptions and lines of development of contingency theory. The conclusion from this analysis is that the contingency theory implicit in MIS research is inadequate. Progress in the field has been hampered by the adoption of a naive meta-theory and a narrow research perspective. This has resulted in highly mixed empirical results, a premature quantification strategy, and ill-defined concepts of performance and fit. A series of recommendations for improving the theoretical basis of MIS are given. These recommendations include relaxing the assumptions that constitute the naive meta-theory of a contingency theory in MIS. A more subjectivist, less functional, less unreflexive and less deterministic approach is advocated. In addition, changes in research methodologies are recommended. An increased emphasis on training in case study methodologies, longitudinal research and ethnographic approaches is suggested.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

INVESTMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Information technology (IT) is essential to many businesses, but there are few guidelines for determining the adequate level of investment in IT. The purpose of this paper is to further understanding of the mechanism of IT investment. Previous studies on IT investment are briefly presented. The authors performed six-mini case studies of large companies in five different industries; these studies addressed the questions of how firms define IT and how they manage their investment in IT. Our goal was to formulate a model of the relationship between IT investment and organizational performance. We present the model and pose questions for investigating this important relationship more closely. Findings of interest relate to the definition of IT, the importance of political considerations, the concept of an industry-based threshold investment, the conversion effectiveness of IT investment, and the concept of productive capacity. The most important finding relates to the separation of different types of IT investment and their logical matching to particular performance measures.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Lie series for celestial mechanics, accelerators, satellite stabilization and optimization

Lie series applications to celestial mechanics, accelerators, satellite orbits, and optimizatio

Critical Behavior of Light

Light is shown to exhibit critical and tricritical behavior in passive mode-locked lasers with externally injected pulses. It is a first and unique example of critical phenomena in a one-dimensional many body light-mode system. The phase diagrams consist of regimes with continuous wave, driven para-pulses, spontaneous pulses via mode condensation, and heterogeneous pulses, separated by phase transition lines which terminate with critical or tricritical points. Enhanced nongaussian fluctuations and collective dynamics are observed at the critical and tricritical points, showing a mode system analog of the critical opalescence phenomenon. The critical exponents are calculated and shown to comply with the mean field theory, which is rigorous in the light system.Comment: RevTex, 5 pages, 3 figure

Governance of Offshore IT Outsourcing at Shell Global Functions IT-BAM Development and Application of a Governance Framework to Improve Outsourcing Relationships

The lack of effective IT governance is widely recognized as a key inhibitor to successful global IT outsourcing relationships. In this study we present the development and application of a governance framework to improve outsourcing relationships. The approach used to developing an IT governance framework includes a meta model and a customization process to fit the framework to the target organization. The IT governance framework consists of four different elements (1) organisational structures, (2) joint processes between in- and outsourcer, (3) responsibilities that link roles to processes and (4) a diverse set of control indicators to measure the success of the relationship. The IT governance framework is put in practice in Shell GFIT BAM, a part of Shell that concluded to have a lack of management control over at least one of their outsourcing relationships. In a workshop the governance framework was used to perform a gap analysis between the current and desired governance. Several gaps were identified in the way roles and responsibilities are assigned and joint processes are set-up. Moreover, this workshop also showed the usefulness and usability of the IT governance framework in structuring, providing input and managing stakeholders in the discussions around IT governance

INVESTMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Information technology (IT) is essential to many businesses, but there are few guidelines for determining the adequate level of investment in IT. The purpose of this paper is to further understanding of the mechanism of IT investment. Previous studies on IT investment are briefly presented. The authors performed six-mini case studies of large companies in five different industries; these studies addressed the questions of how firms define IT and how they manage their investment in IT. Our goal was to formulate a model of the relationship between IT investment and organizational performance. We present the model and pose questions for investigating this important relationship more closely. Findings of interest relate to the definition of IT, the importance of political considerations, the concept of an industry-based threshold investment, the conversion effectiveness of IT investment, and the concept of productive capacity. The most important finding relates to the separation of different types of IT investment and their logical matching to particular performance measures.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Heart and Lung Transplantation in the United States, 1997–2006

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73552/1/j.1600-6143.2008.02175.x.pd

Higher-Order Correlations in Non-Stationary Parallel Spike Trains: Statistical Modeling and Inference

The extent to which groups of neurons exhibit higher-order correlations in their spiking activity is a controversial issue in current brain research. A major difficulty is that currently available tools for the analysis of massively parallel spike trains (N >10) for higher-order correlations typically require vast sample sizes. While multiple single-cell recordings become increasingly available, experimental approaches to investigate the role of higher-order correlations suffer from the limitations of available analysis techniques. We have recently presented a novel method for cumulant-based inference of higher-order correlations (CuBIC) that detects correlations of higher order even from relatively short data stretches of length T = 10–100 s. CuBIC employs the compound Poisson process (CPP) as a statistical model for the population spike counts, and assumes spike trains to be stationary in the analyzed data stretch. In the present study, we describe a non-stationary version of the CPP by decoupling the correlation structure from the spiking intensity of the population. This allows us to adapt CuBIC to time-varying firing rates. Numerical simulations reveal that the adaptation corrects for false positive inference of correlations in data with pure rate co-variation, while allowing for temporal variations of the firing rates has a surprisingly small effect on CuBICs sensitivity for correlations