Coping with COVID-19 in Mexico: Actions for Educational Inclusion

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused challenges for universities worldwide—especially for educational institutions in developing nations where social inclusion and the digital divide have great relevance. In this paper, I describe the main problems that many educators in Mexico have faced and the actions that stakeholders at its main university took to ensure the academic community could continue academic life. I also review items that education institutions need to address in the future to not only survive the crisis but also benefit from it

International IT Transfer in Multinational Corporations

Multinational Corporations (MNCs) compete in a dynamic environment that calls for process integration and leverage of resources. MNCs require maximizing flexibility and local responsiveness, while maintaining control and integration. The appropriate global management of Information Technologies (IT) may aid in this endeavor by fostering the transfer of valuable IT, resulting in the reduction of development efforts duplication. Few research works have focused on the IT transfer process across national borders. Even fewer do so within the boundaries of organizations, rather than between firms. This research explores the factors that determine the extent to which subsidiaries of MNCs adopt usable IT that was developed at headquarters, thus fostering integration and leveraging the development resources

Defining and Measuring Digital Transformation

There are many models that have been developed over time to measure the capacity of organizations to benefit from the implementation of Information Technologies (IT), so that efficiency and efficacy advantages may be obtained. However, the potential impact of IT has grown exponentially. Today, the profound appropriation of IT in organizations is represented by the concept of Digital Transformation. In the knowledge era, it is ever more important to understand the value that IT initiatives may bring to organizations. Many terms have been used and evolved to describe this evaluation, from IT maturity to Digital Transformation., along with e-readiness. However, the evolution has been slow, starting with simple studies on the profitability of establishing and IT infrastructure, and moving all the way to the concept of Digital Transformation. An ongoing research project in Latin America seeks to review the most important models that have emerged and evolved to the present day, now that we are immersed in the realm of Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0, to propose an integrated Digital Transformation model and an instrument to assess its state in a particular organization, Measuring its level of maturity, would provide a business the needed steps to follow, in order to better profit from an intelligent use of IT that takes into consideration the opportunities and challenges of a dynamic competitive environment. Based on classical models for IT productivity (Brynjolfsson 1993), IT planning and alignment (Zachman 1984; Kaplan and Norton 1992; Henderson and Venkatraman 1999; Luftman 2000), e-Readiness and Digital Maturity (Venkatraman 1994), and more recent models for Digital Transformation (Heilig, Schwarz and Voß, 2017; Rossman 2018; Morakanyane, Grace, and O\u27Reilly2017; Matt, Hess & Benlian 2015; Osmundsen, Iden & Bygstad 2018), an integrated model is proposed, comprised by a matrix relating five organizational dimensions and three transformational objectives. Innovation and financial aspects are included to impact across all combinations. Based on this model, a quantitative five-point scale instrument was developed to establish the level of Digital Transformation maturity of an organization. Such instrument is being pilot tested in five different countries for reliability, face, and content validity. Given its length, a possibility exists for dimension reduction. It is expected that the adjusted instrument will allow testing the model in a greater sample, and a practical consulting methodology can be derived from it for industry application. The validated model, could provide cohesion to previously developed research, as well as adaptation of the body of knowledge to the current times and need of Society 5.0. The Latin American context will provide a valuable testing ground, provided the particular challenges faced by organization located in countries where infrastructure and digital awareness may be strong limitations to the success of IT initiatives. Nonetheless, it is likely that the level of external validity will be more than acceptable, and the model may prevail after testing in different contexts

Factors Affecting the Adoption of Knowledge Management Technologies: An International Perspective

As global competition continues to heighten, organizations are realizing they must effectively use and manage employee knowledge to remain competitive. Information technology (IT) facilitates knowledge management through enabling rapid dispersion of knowledge, collaborative work efforts, and effective storage and retrieval of knowledge. While theoretical and case-based research has explored facets of knowledge management, empirical work concerning the factors that enable adoption of knowledge management technologies is lacking. This research will investigate this important issue through a sample survey of IT executives in the United States, Mexico and Japan. A framework consisting of three categories of variables is used: organizational, technical, and environmental. Findings in each of these areas offer important implications for research and practice

IT Workforce Competence Development in the Knowledge Society: Challenges and Research Directions

As organizations have increasingly invested in information technology (IT), they have looked for an IT workforce not just with technical skills but also with managerial ones. It has thus been paramount for the IT workforce to pursue a balance between two streams - the technical and the managerial one. Accordingly, the IT professionals have had difficulties to deal with the increasing technical and managerial challenges that they have been submitted to. In this context, one problem has arisen very often: the turn-away – in which the IT professional abandons the field, assuming a position in a different functional area in the same organization or in another, most often in an executive position

Information Technology Training for a Globalized Workforce – Challenges, Tools and Research Directions

IT training research is one of the dominant themes in IS research for the past two decades and has provided a rich knowledge base of tools and techniques to impart IT training to employees (Compeau et al. 1995; Sharma and Yetton 2007). IT training is a critical enabler of information system acceptance and use, because employees who undergo training have higher positive attitudes than those who do not (Cooper and Zmud 1990, Xia and Lee 2000). But conducting business in a global workspace has created additional challenges for IT training professionals and organizational consultants. Training service firms with names such as “Global Computer Education,” “International Training Services,” Training for a Global World,” are becoming quite commonplace. Business Information systems, instead of being simple one-user systems, have become complex, large, integrated systems used by many different employees and require more learning and coordination efforts on the part of employees (Gattiker and Goodhue 2005, Santhanam et al. 2007, Sharma and Yetton 2007). Hence, new training methods such as virtual training, situational learning, and behavior modeling are being researched to support employee learning and expand upon the traditional face-to-face lecture based training (Alavi and Leidner 2001, Yi and Davis 2003, Gallivan et al. 2005, Santhanam et al. 2008). IT support staff also have to play a critical role as trainers as they support employees’ learning process long after training programs are completed (Haggerty and Compeau 2002, Pawlowski and Robey 2004). IT staff/trainers can learn from these research findings that could help them better manage training on new information technologies and cope with training employees in a global workspace