Towards a Theoretical Framework of Information Systems Development Strategy: The Contingent Effects of Organizational Culture and Project Uncertainty

Although practitioners are facing increasing complexities and high rates of failure in IS development, research in the field has not yet developed adequate theory to address the issues involved. This study first analyzes the benefits and shortcomings of existing strategies of IS development, agile and traditional development, and then theorizes four underlying dimensions along which these strategies differ: change responsiveness, knowledge tacitness, people-driven, and customer collaboration. The strategy contingency perspective is utilized to theorize the effects of organizational culture and project uncertainty of IS development strategy. Using this perspective, a framework is developed that identifies two new strategies of IS development, in addition to the existing traditional and agile strategies. These two strategies of IS development are labeled the responsive process strategy and the creative optimization strategy. This may help explain practitioner surveys that report that most organizations adopt agile practices for some projects and not others, and tha

Empowerment of Slum Children in Developing Countries Through Information Technology: Human Capabilities Versus Environmental Determinism

Urban migration in developing countries is expected to increase the number of slum inhabitants from 940 million in 2003 to over two billion by 2030. As socio-economic status at birth is a strong predictor of future socio-economic status, slum children seem destined to a life of poverty. However, emerging examples of empowerment appear to demonstrate possibilities of information technology to benefit the lives of slum children. In this paper, we use social cognitive theory to study why children participate in IT learning in the absence of formal training courses, using the constructs of symbolizing, forethought, visceral, self-regulating and self-reflecting human capabilities. In doing this, we attempt to validate a theoretical basis for human capabilities of slum children to overcome the forces of environmental determinism working against them

The Resource Based View of IT Business Value: Complementary Investments or Embedded Knowledge?

In this paper we test a primary postulate of the resource-based theory of IT business value. From this perspective, IT is not rare but pervasive, and it is only the combination of investments with other resources that makes the investment inimitable. Therefore, the effect of IT on firm performance cannot be direct effects, but rather firm performance can only be affected when IT expenditures are combined with other investments. We test this theory using panel data of large firms spanning 7 years. Firm level data is gathered from Compustat and matched to IS Budget data from InformationWeek\u27s annual rankings. We find that no support for the RBV postulate that IT Expenditure cannot have direct competitive advantage but must be combined with expenditure on other assets to effect firm performance. Instead we find support for the opposing hypotheses: IT expenditure and capital expenditures have independent, direct effects on firm revenue as well as firm profit, even in the presence of the interaction variable. The results imply that IT investments may be a source of direct competitive advantage, unlike the postulate of the resource-based view theorists. This may be because an IT system has embedded knowledge and creates knowledge, making it rare and imperfectly imitable. Rather than investing in generic IT systems and trying to obtain uniqueness from investments in complementary resources, firms can try embedding firm-specific knowledge when designing or modifying their systems and using their systems to create knowledge. This is the first study to test the resource-based view\u27s postulate that value from IT comes only with the combination of IT investments and investments in other assets and not from direct effects. By disproving this postulate, we open the door to new hypotheses based on knowledge in and from IT systems

Agility versus Maturity: Is There Really a Trade-Off?

Most agile teams use some upfront design, and most formal methods are iterative

Using ICT and Service Learning in Rural Senegal

In 2010, Fairfield University received a three-year grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through Higher Education for Development (HED), to support a university service-learning program to deliver educational material on health-related topics to middle school students in Bambey, Senegal, a rural area, 60 miles east of the capital, Dakar. Fairfield University must work with the selected partner, Université de Bambey, which has four rural campuses, about 20 miles apart, connected by both paved and dirt roads. Resources are scarce, as is a consistent electricity and water supply. However, the faculty is dedicated and competent, and the students are vibrant, intelligent, and hard working. The various courses of study are distributed across the campuses, unlike the variety on a single campus in the United States. Each Université de Bambey campus might have just two or three majors of study. The USAID/HED grant specifies that Service- Learning must be used to deliver the training, and the use of computer technology is essential. The project will begin with pretesting of the professors and students, followed by testing at the end of the project, to assess the success of the project

TOWARDS A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY: Abstract THE CONTINGENT EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND PROJECT UNCERTAINTY

Although practitioners are facing increasing complexities and high rates of failure in IS development, research in the field has not yet developed adequate theory to address the issues involved. This study first analyzes the benefits and shortcomings of existing strategies of IS development, agile and traditional development, and then theorizes four underlying dimensions along which these strategies differ: change responsiveness, knowledge tacitness, people-driven, and customer collaboration. The strategy contingency perspective is utilized to theorize the effects of organizational culture and project uncertainty of IS development strategy. Using this perspective, a framework is developed that identifies two new strategies of IS development, in addition to the existing traditional and agile strategies. These two strategies of IS development are labeled the responsive process strategy and the creative optimization strategy. This may help explain practitioner surveys that report that most organizations adopt agile practices for some projects and not others, and tha

The Interaction of Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management in Organizational Decision-Making

While Knowledge Management (KM) has been subject of conceptual debate and empirical work, the related concept of Business Intelligence (BI) has not received much debate on its concepts, and has very little empirical work or testable propositions. Consequently, BI research has been slow to address the question of why some organizations have not gained business benefits from BI while others have. This paper studies the specifics of the interaction between BI and KM to create business value through decision-making. We develop specific testable propositions to be used in future empirical work and to help businesses gain value from BI