Reasons behind ERP package adoption: a diffusion of innovations perspective

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages have been widely adopted and it is becoming clear that this is driven by multiple rationales that may be simultaneously at odds and complimentary. In this paper, we aim to develop a greater understanding of these rationales by taking ERP packages to be innovations and analysing their adoption with reference to the theory of diffusion of innovations. In particular, we consider the attributes of ERP packages that may affect their adoption such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexiblity, trialability and observability. We argue that users’ perceptions of these attributes are not always accurate and these ’misconceptions’ can further explain reasons for ERP adoption or rejection. Although our analysis aims to provide rich insights into the adoption of ERP packages, the results of the study are arguably of further interest to the more general study of packaged software and the more established literature on custom development

Selling packaged software: an ethical analysis

Within the IS literature there is little discussion on selling software products in general and especially from the ethical point of view. Similarly, within computer ethics, although there is much interest in professionalism and professional codes, in terms of accountability and responsibility, the spotlight tends to play on safety-critical or life-critical systems, rather than on software oriented towards the more mundane aspects of work organisation and society. With this research gap in mind, we offer a preliminary ethical investigation of packaged software selling. Through an analysis of the features of competition in the market, the global nature of the packaged software market and the nature of product development we conclude that professionalism, as usually conceived in computer ethics, does not apply particularly well to software vendors. Thus, we call for a broader definition of professionalism to include software vendors, not just software developers. Moreover, we acknowledge that with intermediaries, such as implementation consultants, involved in software selling, and the packaged software industry more generally, there are even more “hands” involved. Therefore, we contend that this is an area worthy of further study, which is likely to yield more on the question of accountability

Bodily impositions : a phenomenological re-casting of space and architecture

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.Bodily (Im)postitions explores the intersections between the body, space, architecture and the phenomenological ideas of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Despite the seemingly pivotal role space plays in the understanding of architecture there is a paucity of material covering this issue. This thesis proposes that, by applying Merleau-Ponty’s particular explanation of the body to architecture, a gap in the understanding of space and architecture will be filled. Phenomenology is a philosophy that avoids systemization. Therefore, the nature of this thesis is one that, while organized into specific chapters and sections, does not preclude the material from one section bleeding into another. Indeed, the reader will find many topics are outlined initially in earlier chapters and then recapitulated in later chapters where they can be properly re-examined and infused with new information. The concept of the body is imposed onto a discourse of architecture and space that has shown an unwillingness to accept the intrinsic part the body plays in their configuration. In this way both space and architecture are recast, using the phenomenological body of Merleau-Ponty as the mould. This is, however, not a one-way or one-off rigid re-casting. It is also suggested here that the understanding of the body is re-cast by phenomenology. Hence, space and architecture are also re-cast in another way. They are ‘cast again’ as active players that in turn effect and affect the body. In this way it is demonstrated that, while the body reconfigures space and architecture, at the same time architecture and space reconfigure the body. The term casting implies another meaning, that of fishing or angling. This implication is also applicable to this thesis in terms of its casting out of a line of ideas. In this regard the body, space, architecture and phenomenology have been brought together simply to discover what implications might arise from their conjunction. It is through the body that we are orientated in space and know it to be the world. It is also thorough the body and its associations with ‘the flesh’ of Merleau-Ponty that we can communicate with others. Indeed it is argued that it is only through the movement of the body, that space can exist. Further, it is demonstrated that, far from being a supplementary part to architecture, the body is the very reason architecture exists and has meaning. It is suggested here that only by living space with our body can we understand architecture

Error estimates for interpolation of rough data using the scattered shifts of a radial basis function

The error between appropriately smooth functions and their radial basis function interpolants, as the interpolation points fill out a bounded domain in R^d, is a well studied artifact. In all of these cases, the analysis takes place in a natural function space dictated by the choice of radial basis function -- the native space. The native space contains functions possessing a certain amount of smoothness. This paper establishes error estimates when the function being interpolated is conspicuously rough.Comment: 12 page

Funding and Asset Allocation in Corporate Pension Plans: An Empirical Investigation

This paper contrasts and empirically tests two different views of corporate pension policy: the traditional view that pension funds are managed without regard to either corporate financial policy or the interests of the corporation and its shareholders, and the corporate financial perspective represented by the recent theoretical work of Black (1980), Sharpe (1916),Tepper (1981), and Treynor (1971), which stresses the potential effects of a firm's financial condition on its pension funding and asset allocation decisions. We find several pieces of evidence supporting the corporate financial perspective. First, we find that there is a significant inverse relationship between firms' profitability and the discount rates they choose tor eport their pension liabilities. In view of this we adjust all reported pension liabilities to a common discount rate assumption. We then find a significant positive relationship between firm profitability and the degree ofpension funding, as is consistent with the corporate financial perspective. We also find some evidence that firms facing higher risk and lower tax liabilities are less inclined to fully fund their pension plans. On the asset allocation question, we find that the distribution of plan assets invested in bonds is bi-modal, but that it does not tend to cluster around extreme portfolio configurations to the extent predicted by the corporate financial perspective. We also find that the percentage of plan assets invested in bonds in negatively related to both total size of plan and the proportion of unfunded liabilities.The latter relationship shows up particularly among the riskiest firms and is consistent with the corporate financial perspective on pension decisions.

The breakdown of the municipality as caring platform: lessons for co-design and co-learning in the age of platform capitalism

If municipalities were the caring platforms of the 19-20th century sharing economy, how does care manifest in civic structures of the current period? We consider how platforms - from the local initiatives of communities transforming neighbourhoods, to the city, in the form of the local authority - are involved, trusted and/or relied on in the design of shared services and amenities for the public good. We use contrasting cases of interaction between local government and civil society organisations in Sweden and the UK to explore trends in public service provision. We look at how care can manifest between state and citizens and at the roles that co-design and co-learning play in developing contextually sensitive opportunities for caring platforms. In this way, we seek to learn from platforms in transition about the importance of co-learning in political and structural contexts and make recommendations for the co-design of (digital) platforms to care with and for civil society