Internet Enabled Reverse Auctions: A Literature Synthesis

Internet enabled Reverse Auctions (RAs) have been in use for more than a decade. RAs were primarily employed by firms as cost saving measure, but they are now increasingly being used to explore and expand their supply base. The use of RAs is hence multi-faceted and has evolved over years. This evolution has hence attracted wide attention from the research community. Many aspects of RAs including the auction format, visibility type, strategic implications of RAs on buyer-supplier relationship etc., have been well scrutinized. In this paper we put forward a framework which categorizes the empirical findings according to the chain of inherent processes involved in the implementation and conduction the RAs. This framework will assist researchers not only to categorize and map their findings to a proper methodical base, but also it will help them identify the gaps in the current theoretical understanding of RAs

Risks, Controls and Business Value of IT-Enabled Interfirm and Intrafirm Processes

There have been significant advances in the information systems (IS) literature about the business value that can be realized through information technology (IT) investments and the mechanisms through which IT creates different facets of business value. We identify three important gaps in understanding the literature on IT business value. First, it is unclear how risk arising from deficiencies in a firm’s information environment, along with internal and external contextual factors, affects a firm’s IT implementation choices. Second, it is unclear how IT resources in a focal domain need to be combined with knowledge resources in the same domain and IT resources in other domains to develop process capabilities and create process-level benefits. Third, it is unclear what risks IT-enabled process innovations create for different process stakeholders and what controls can be applied to mitigate these risks. My dissertation addresses the above three gaps in three essays. The first essay examines the influence of a firm’s information risk on its prioritization of accounting enterprise systems (AES) relative to complementary enterprise systems and the moderation of this relationship by the weaknesses of internal controls and environmental uncertainty characteristics. The second essay focuses on the impact of AES implementation on a firm’s internal controls process, and the complementary roles of managerial competence and enterprise systems implemented in other domains related to the internal controls process of the firm. The final essay explores the risk factors that can arise for buyers and suppliers due to the use of reverse auctions, and the controls that can be applied to mitigate the key risk factors. In terms of research methods, the first two essays apply econometric analysis to panel datasets constructed from multiple sources and the third essay uses a combination of Delphi studies and semi-structured interviews. Collectively, the essays advance our understanding of (1) the factors underlying a firm’s prioritization of IT investment choices; (2) the mechanisms through which IT resources, in combination with human expertise, create business value; and (3) the risks introduced for different stakeholders by the adoption of IT-enabled process innovations and the controls that can be used to effectively mitigate them

Chains of Control in Agile Software Development

Although extant literature on control in software development provides interesting and rich insights, it also indicates existing constructs are, in some ways, inadequate as intellectual means to support investigation of control practices. Most importantly, current theorizing distinguishes between two types of formal controls (outcome and behavior) and two types of informal controls (clan and self), making it impossible to investigate informal outcome and behavior controls and formal clan and self-controls. We therefore introduce a deconstructed framework for describing management controls and apply it to a holistic examination of controls in a case study of a multi-site agile software development organization. The empirical examination revealed consequent controls across a process and multiple representations of control across hierarchical levels of analysis. As a result, we offer a refined, deconstructed framework for investigating control practices, and the concept of chains of control as a useful tool for examining control practices in software development

What the History of Linux Says About the Future of Cryptocurrencies

Since Bitcoin’s meteoric rise, hundreds of cryptocurrencies that people now publicly trade have emerged. As such, the question naturally arises: how have cryptocurrencies evolved over time? Drawing on the theory of polycentric information commons and cryptocurrencies’ historical similarities with another popular information commons (namely, Linux), we make predictions regarding what cryptocurrencies may look like in the future. Specifically, we focus on four important historical similarities: 1) support from online hacker communities, 2) pursuit of freedom, 3) criticism about features and use, and 4) proliferation of forks. We then predict that: 1) cryptocurrencies will become more pragmatic rather than ideological, 2) cryptocurrencies will become more diverse in terms of not only the underlying technology but also the intended audience, and 3) the core technology behind cryptocurrencies, called blockchain, will be successfully used beyond cryptocurrencies

Buyers’ Perceptions of the Risks of Internet Enabled Reverse Auctions

In addition to reducing the purchasing cost, Internet Enabled Reverse Auctions (RAs) are now being used by buyer firms toexplore new suppliers. The decision to use RAs is increasingly being recognized for its strategic importance to buyer firms.However, such decisions of strategic importance are presumably accompanied by equally serious risks. The first step tomanaging such risks is identifying what they are. Unfortunately, there is no validated check list of buyer risks that can assistfirms when using RAs. We have taken the first step towards addressing this issue by developing an authoritative list of theimportant risks associated with the use of RAs as a sourcing strategy. By employing a rigorous ranking type Delphi surveymethodology, we developed a comprehensive list of the key risks ranked by their relative importance. Implications of ourfindings for both researchers and sourcing professionals are discussed

Impact of Preexisting Adenovirus Vector Immunity on Immunogenicity and Protection Conferred with an Adenovirus-Based H5N1 Influenza Vaccine

The prevalence of preexisting immunity to adenoviruses in the majority of the human population might adversely impact the development of adaptive immune responses against adenovirus vector-based vaccines. To address this issue, we primed BALB/c mice either intranasally (i.n.) or intramuscularly (i.m.) with varying doses of wild type (WT) human adenovirus subtype 5 (HAd5). Following the development of immunity against HAd5, we immunized animals via the i.n. or i.m. route of inoculation with a HAd vector (HAd-HA-NP) expressing the hemagglutinin (HA) and nucleoprotein (NP) of A/Vietnam/1203/04 (H5N1) influenza virus. The immunogenicity and protection results suggest that low levels of vector immunity (<520 virus-neutralization titer) induced by priming mice with up to 107 plaque forming units (p.f.u.) of HAd-WT did not adversely impact the protective efficacy of the vaccine. Furthermore, high levels of vector immunity (approximately 1500 virus-neutralization titer) induced by priming mice with 108 p.f.u. of HAd-WT were overcome by either increasing the vaccine dose or using alternate routes of vaccination. A further increase in the priming dose to 109 p.f.u. allowed only partial protection. These results suggest possible strategies to overcome the variable levels of human immunity against adenoviruses, leading to better utilization of HAd vector-based vaccines

Increased MDSC Accumulation and Th2 Biased Response to Influenza A Virus Infection in the Absence of TLR7 in Mice

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in the induction of innate and adaptive immune response against influenza A virus (IAV) infection; however, the role of Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) during the innate immune response to IAV infection and the cell types affected by the absence of TLR7 are not clearly understood. In this study, we show that myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) accumulate in the lungs of TLR7 deficient mice more so than in wild-type C57Bl/6 mice, and display increased cytokine expression. Furthermore, there is an increase in production of Th2 cytokines by TLR7-/- compared with wildtype CD4+ T-cells in vivo, leading to a Th2 polarized humoral response. Our findings indicate that TLR7 modulates the accumulation of MDSCs during an IAV infection in mice, and that lack of TLR7 signaling leads to a Th2-biased response

DNA Vaccine Expressing Conserved Influenza Virus Proteins Protective Against H5N1 Challenge Infection in Mice

Influenza vaccination practice, which is based on neutralizing antibodies, requires being able to predict which viral strains will be circulating. If an unexpected strain, as in the 1997 H5N1 Hong Kong outbreak, or even a pandemic emerges, appropriate vaccines may take too long to prepare. Therefore, strategies based on conserved influenza antigens should be explored. We studied DNA vaccination in mice with plasmids expressing conserved nucleoprotein (NP) and matrix (M) from an H1N1 virus. After vaccination, mice were challenged with A/H5N1 viruses of low, intermediate, and high lethality. A/NP+A/M DNA vaccination reduced replication of A/Hong Kong/486/97 (HK/486), a nonlethal H5N1 strain, and protected against lethal challenge with more virulent A/Hong Kong/156/97 (HK/156). After HK/156 exposure, mice survived rechallenge with A/Hong Kong/483/97 (HK/483), although the DNA vaccination alone protected poorly against this highly virulent strain. In the absence of antigenically matched hemagglutinin-based vaccines, DNA vaccination with conserved influenza genes may provide a useful first line of defense against a rapidly spreading pandemic virus