Enterprise Systems in International Business Operations: The Benefits and Problems of Fit in International Enterprise Systems Implementation

This research strives to create an in-depth understanding of the benefits and problems of fit in international enterprise systems in both head offices and local business units. Through case study of four international organizations this study intends to assess the alignment between international organizational operations and enterprise systems configuration. Different aspects of the impacts on both head office and local units are then analyzed. Major findings are: l A misfit between international ES configuration and business operation can still lead to successful implementation and beneficial system utilization if the after-implementation business operation fits the ES operation. l ES can be applied by international enterprises to transform the global operation. l International ES implementation can run smoother if BPR is applied. It is hoped that the broad-scope, multi-dimensional impact analysis of international ES fit could provide a useful insights for understanding the various consequences of ES fit in international business operations

The Formation Of The Big Data Industry And Related Strategies

Big Data, as moving into the post-cloud era in year 2015, is changing the way software is applied by industries. Meanwhile, the Open Data is transforming the sources of value for software development in which comprehensive digital data value creation is set to be the mainstream in IT application strategies. Big Data applications can enhance the knowledge level of technology applications as well as drive value growth for products and services. The key issue affecting Big Data development is the question of how to leverage mechanisms for joint creation by the general public to identify the value that Big Data can provide. This paper proposes that an effective Big Data industry ecosystem should encompass data owners, application innovators, technology leaders, and open API platforms. Using the methods of design science, the paper evaluates the way in which Big Data creates value in the industrial development process, and argues that it is important to attract mass participation and to satisfy the needs of both industrial and social development when putting forward a value proposition. Moving further, the next step is value creation initiatives, in which the first priority should be to promote the digitalization of industry seeking to create digitalized industries that can contribute to the gradual optimization of the industrial ecosystem as a whole

A Study Of Virtuous Cycle Of Service Participation On Crowdsourcing Platforms

Competition has undoubtedly increased substantially over the last decade for several reasons. The Internet has been far and away the largest contributor to the rise in competitive markets due to establishing an online business has lower operating costs and greater flexibility. Companies must have internet business ideas to survive to stay competitive in today’s markets. Crowdsourcing is a phenomenon receiving highly attention both inside and outside of academia. With the rapid development of Web2.0 and social media, an emerging business model like a raging fire impacts on the market: a crowdsourcing platform. Crowdsourcing platforms provide a good environment to fulfill people’s needs and seize value from providing products and services. It is important to understand what drives people to deliver and capture values from a crowdsourcing platform. The purpose of this paper is to explore how service participation works on successful crowdsourcing platforms in their cycles. We focus on why do participants (both sides of supply and demand) are willing to join into the platform to provide services and request services, finding out their virtuous cycles on the platforms in different applications. This study is the first of its kind to explore how service participation works on successful crowdsourcing platforms in their cycles. We will use a qualitative multiple case study, which facilitated an exploration of the phenomenon in an area that has received little theoretical development and allowed us to study the cycle of service participation on crowdsourcing platform in a real-life context. The results may reveal us some significant driving factors on why people are willing to provide and request services on crowdsourcing platforms and what important strategies should be taken while running a crowdsourcing platform. This not only gives us a more broaden view of crowdsourcing and platform operating, but also provides companies, which use crowdsourcing platform to run their business, a more realistic decision making references

Can Blockchain Really Remove All Intermediaries? A Multiple-Case Study in Different Industries

Blockchain is a disruptive and innovative technology. How will the blockchain technology disrupt different fields? Blockchain technology has disrupted the existing processes and will improve the efficiency of many operations. With improved efficiency, will blockchain remove all intermediaries in the chains? Further, will all positions of the intermediaries agree to be replaced by blockchain? Many intermediaries have demonstrated their liberal attitudes toward embracing blockchain technology. What are the intended purposes behind the ambition of the intermediaries? The research is still in progress and will adopt a multiple-case study and summarize the research intentions into a cross analysis table. The table will briefly show the role of users and indicate whether intermediaries are necessary in the ecosystems or they transfer into new roles and create new business models after deploying the blockchain technology

An Examination The Implicit Costs on Emerging ICT-Driven Innovations

Innovations have been regarded as the key driver for business to achieve business competitive advantages and survive in a rigorous environment. Businesses need to continuously adopt innovative business models and exploit opportunities from new technologies. The information and communication technologies (ICT) are claimed not only important sources for efficiency, effectiveness, and quality but also essential drivers for business innovations. In particular, the recently emerged social networks and mobile applications have increased the speed of evolving business models and the content of a variety of services. Social networking services have radically changed our life over past few years. McKinsey & Company indicated that “It took 13 years for commercial television to reach 50 million households and 3 years for Internet service providers to sign their 50 millionth subscribers. Facebook hit the 50 million–user mark in just a year and Twitter in 9 months.” With continuous and seamless interaction between entities, the nature of social networking services keeps consumers stick with these innovations. On the other hand, mobile applications are also accelerating the pace of adoption by worldwide consumers, even in the developing nations. Given the continuously development of networking, mobile devices, and social media applications, those technologies have changed not only the way messages transferring but also the cost, frequency, and speed of transferring. While those innovations have accumulated a pervasive population, more businesses are interested in adopting those emerging ICT-driven innovations in order to capture opportunities in building channels and creating values. However, the characteristics of emerging ICT are totally different from traditional ICT, such as the adopting cost and implementation time. In difference to traditional technologies such as enterprise resources systems and supply chain systems which require great investment in money and time, emerging ICT present a more accessible and easier way to implement. For instances, Facebook’s Fan-page is a new channel for brands in social networking. This application is effective to access a great number of consumers that most of the worldwide brand such as Coca-Cola, Disney, and McDonald\u27s have created Fan-pages to seamlessly promote services and closely interact with netizen. In addition, this application is free and even a start-up company can offer. As a platform to communicate with consumers, Fan-page communication as well as other innovative applications, such instant messaging, social games, and mobile ordering, are characterized with a consumer-to-consumer communication and a low cost of establishment. In spite of the convenience characteristics of the social technology, potential problems may exist. The technological convenience may lead businesses easy adopt and easy drop the innovation without further consideration. This research tries to examine the unexpected results associated with the dropping of the emerging social technology and provide a framework of the implicit costs associated with the termination of business model innovations. Related to the explicit costs such as material, equipment, wage, and other expenses, the implicit costs are easily hidden, unavoidable, and immeasurable. The implicit costs may occur when companies adopt and drop emerging ICT-driven innovations without elaborated consideration. First, distorted messages. The frequency and speed of message transferring is the key characteristics of emerging ICT. While complex and plenty of messages are provided, enterprise decision-makers may become overwhelmed and confused in make accurate and proper decision. Second, the deployed deficiency in the human resources may occur. While all enterprises rely on the deployment of human resources to coordinate the physically and virtually networked resources, most enterprises may notice the cost of human resources in physical stores but ignore the service support needed on virtual platforms. Emerging ICT-driven applications require adequate deployment of the human resources to survive and react to the quickly distributing online WOM (word-of-mouth). Third, the disruption of consumer loyalty. While the online WOM quickly distribute, it would be a crisis when companies don’t deal well with any emergency or negative rumors. Moreover, the nature of Internet have intensified the negotiating power of consumers online. Companies have to carefully treat every consumers and keep away from concentrating and activating the angry netizens. The objective of this research is to discuss the realistic result of quickly adopted and dropped business innovations with emerging ICT. There are three contributions to the field of innovation study. Given the different characteristics between traditional and emerging technology, the study of emerging ICT innovations can lead to unexpected effects and additional costs which is rarely discussed so far. Second, in difference to most literatures which are focused on the benefit and competitive advantages gained by innovation adopters, this research tries to examine the causes of innovation failures. Lastly, this research tries to provide a framework of implicit costs for companies to plan for the risks in adopting emerging ICT-driven innovations

Human Processes in Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a combination of people, processes, and technology that seeks to provide understanding of customer needs, to support a business strategy, and to build long-term relationships with customers. Successful utilization of the integrated technology requires appropriate business processes and organizational culture to adequately address human behavioral elements. Because it is not simply a technology solution, success in CRM business revolves largely around people. In order to build a clearer understanding of the content and role of the human processes of CRM, this study analyzes the literature on CRM processes and people dependencies and forms propositions about the need for human processes in CRM. It emphasizes the responsibility of executives and operational staff in making critical decisions and using intimate communications to conduct relationship management with their customers. Typical CRM human processes are those that are difficult to implement or that cannot be carried on using technology solutions alone, including such activities as planning customer strategy, designing CRM processes, coping with customer problems, understanding customer needs, handling intimate communications, and integrating customer responses. Factors that affect the dependency of human processes in CRM are related to customer factors, the content of information, employee capabilities, and the organizational environment. Propositions formed in this study are that the dependency on human processes in CRM is affected by (1) customer emotional needs; (2) the need for tacit customer information; (3) employees’ experience; and (4) the organizational culture

An Industry Policy Toward Cloud Service Brokerage

The development of the cloud computing industry re-shapes the global IT industry. Cloud computing technology and its service applications are taking off around the world. The governments around the world have gradually adopting cloud computing as the new way of public services provision, while industry partners have lack of confidence on adopting cloud-based solutions. The primary research question is how the national cloud computing strategy leads to design a mechanism to bridge providers and users in a flourishing industry. By using the action research method, this study proposes a cloud service brokerage mechanism as an intermediary of cloud service delivery. The contribution will present firms or policy makers an industry policy guideline for drawing up the cloud computing development strategy, which will shed light for future researches on cultivating an industry development scheme

A Model for Understanding the Market Orientation Effects of CRM on the Organizational Process

To build an understanding of the impacts of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) on organizational behaviors and processes this study strives to develop a model of CRM effects on work practice, value-creation processes and organizational performance. Moderating factors that affect the transition results are also studied. The model is developed by iterative steps of content analysis. The objectives of building this model are: 1) to establish a framework with propositions about the chained effects of CRM on organizational performance and the influential management activities and 2) to develop a measurement instrument of the CRM effects on market-oriented behaviors and performance. Although the model testing and enhancement are in progress, the preliminary findings reveal that behavioral changes towards market-orientation can be reflected in two levels of work practice: coordinated intelligence management in the team work and proactive attitude with individuals. With such a market-oriented focus, CRM user organizations are more likely to develop positive market performance as well as process performance, and indirectly bring up financial performance

Leveraging Smart Technology for User Experience Personalization – A Comparative Case Study of Innovative Payment Systems

Background: This study seeks to understand how the attributes of smart technology (SMT) can be leveraged to enable personalized services and optimize unique user experiences to attract and retain customers. Based on Kang et al.’s (2020) study of SMT attributes and quality effects and Liang et al.’s (2006) study on personalized recommendation and user satisfaction, we constructed a SMT personalization model to analyze how the SMT attributes of smart functionality and smart content enable personalization in different ways and create unique customer experiences throughout the user journey. Method: Two representative payment systems were selected to depict how they integrated the strengths of personalized smart functionalities and contents to innovate their business models, optimize user experiences, and sustain business growth. Results: Based on the comparative analysis of the two payment cases, the functionality and content attributes of smart chips and omni-channel platforms were explored, and the tailored advisory and responsive support for customers both offline and online were validated. Conclusion: The life-enriching service innovations provide valuable insights for leveraging SMT for personalization. It is hoped that the SMT personalization model can be extended to other types of SMT applications and can be used as a framework for designing innovative services

A Model of Market-Orientation Effects of Customer Relationship Management on Organizational Processes

[[abstract]]This study constructes a model of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) effects on work practice, value-creation processes, and organizational performance. Through iterative literature review and content analysis, this study builds a preliminary understanding of the possible effects and consequences of CRM use on the overall organizational behaviors and processes. The study then conducts case studies on five credit card companies in Taiwan to gain in-depth knowledge of the chain effects of CRM use. Based on the case studies, five propositions are formed: (a) the greater the use of CRM systems, the greater the market-oriented behaviour; (b) the greater the market-oriented behavior, the greater the impact on value-creation processes; (c) the greater the behavioral changes in value-creation processes, the higher the market performance; (d) the greater the market-oriented behavior, the higher the market performance; and (e) the effect of top management initiatives is greater on market-oriented behaviors in the cases of a greater use of CRM than in the cases of a lower use. This research finding provides a base for enhanced understanding of the potential of CRM in different organizational processes and performances. It is hoped that managers of CRM can benefit from the insights presented and implement more effective management of CRM use.[[notice]]補正完