Adoption of IS Development Methods Across Cultural Boundaries

In IS practice as well as in the literature, IS development methods are prominently espoused. IS development methods are used around the world and globalization of business stimulates their harmonization. To our knowledge, no empirical research has been reported regarding the effect of national cultures on the actual (non-)adoption of IS development methods, which is the focus of this research project. The study is based on Hofstedes well-known research (conducted within IBM), which has provided a conceptual foundation for cross-national research over the past two decades. Data encompassing approximately 40 countries were collected within one global consulting firm. The outcomes of this study are expected to have implications for how global organizations can introduce new development methods more effectively

Business Practices in Information Industries

Industries with products that consist solely of information are the purest case of doing business in the Information Age. Current business thinking is generally (still) rooted in the Industrial Age, which was concerned with producing physical goods. Research into the business practices of Information Businesses is scant at best. This paper outlines the motivation to define a research agenda to understand the business practices of the Information Industry

Management Principles Associated With IT Project Success

Success in information technology (IT) projects remains elusive, even after decades of efforts to improve it.   Most of these efforts have focused on variations of the traditional project management paradigm as promulgated by PMBOK.  We suspected that a potential cause of high IT project failure is with the paradigm, which focuses on the project itself and on meeting time and cost targets.  A new paradigm called Value-Driven Change Leadership (VDCL) originated from discussions of a panel of project management experts.  This paper describes the principles of that paradigm.  It also reports the results from a survey of four project managers on the association between project success and management principles from VDCL and PMBOK

Are there First-Mover Advantages in B2B eCommerce Technologies?

Recently,"dot-com" startups relied on the well-known concept of "first-mover advantage" to justify huge marketing expenses and large financial losses. The idea was that once the firm had gathered customers, it would keep those customers because it had a first-mover advantage. But was that assumption valid? We analyzed whether first-mover advantage actually occurred in 19 Information Technology product categories that enable B2B eCommerce (and 6 that enable B2C eCommerce). Consistent with earlier studies in other industries, we found that, in half the product categories, the current leaders were among the first three entrants. However, we identified an important refinement. In at least 80% of the product categories in our sample, the first movers lost their initial advantage. This paper presents detailed results, including pioneer lead times and leader lag. It also presents implications for strategic management practitioners, as well as suggestions for further research