“One-Size-Does-Not-Fit-All”: Teaching MBA Students Different ERP Implementation Strategies

This teaching tip discusses an approach to educating MBA students regarding strategies to select, design, and implement enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The teaching approach presented here discusses how to teach students about different strategies based success stories from three different organizations, namely Cisco, Tektronix, and Harley-Davidson (Harvard Business School cases), in one 2 ½ hour (or two 1 ¼ hour sessions). The emphasis of the discussion will help students appreciate the need for different strategies in different organizational environments. In addition to my subjective reports of enhanced student learning, student ratings of effectiveness, efficiency, and enjoyment are presented

Implementation of an Information and Communication Technology in a Developing Country: A Multimethod Longitudinal Study in a Bank in India.

India is an important frontier for economic growth, investments, and development. The service sector, like the manufacturing industry, in India is booming. Following the trend of their western counterparts, service organizations in India are implementing enterprise-level information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support service processes. In this paper, we used socio-technical systems theory to develop hypotheses about the effects of ICTs on the five job characteristics, i.e., skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, in the job characteristics model (JCM) in a service organization (a bank) in India. We also tested the entire JCM that relates job characteristics to job satisfaction and job performance via various mediators and moderators. In a 32-month longitudinal field study of 1743 employees, we gathered one wave of data before an ICT implementation and two waves after the implementation. We found that, although the ICT enriched employees' job characteristics, employees reported significantly lower job satisfaction and job performance. To understand this puzzling finding, we conducted a qualitative study and identified four contextual forces that contribute to these results and hinder successful implementation of ICTs in the service sector in India and, possibly, other developing countries: environmental barriers, learning difficulty, culture shock, and employee valuation

Publishing Papers in Premier Journals: Learning to Identify Important Research Questions and Framing the Paper

Choosing and researching the right problem is a critical driver of successfully publishing papers, especially in high-quality journals. Although in recent times, gap spotting approaches to doing science has been criticized in favor of assumption challenging and paradigm changing work, the PDW will address the need to balance different types of research problems/questions. Finally, the PDW will discuss how to write an effective introduction that captures and frames the important problem being studied. Together, this PDW will help participants in their journey of pursuing the right question and packaging it effectively in an introduction for a journal article

Exploiting Big Data for Customer and Retailer Benefits: A Study of Emerging Mobile Checkout Scenarios.

Purpose – Mobile checkout in the retail store has the promise to be a rich source of big data. It is also a means to increase the rate at which big data flows into an organization as well as the potential to integrate product recommendations and promotions in real time. However, despite efforts by retailers to implement this retail innovation, adoption by customers has been slow. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Based on interviews and focus groups with leading retailers, technology providers, and service providers, the authors identified several emerging in-store mobile scenarios; and based on customer focus groups, the authors identified potential drivers and inhibitors of use. Findings – A first departure from the traditional customer checkout process flow is that a mobile checkout involves two processes: scanning and payment, and that checkout scenarios with respect to each of these processes varied across two dimensions: first, location – whether they were fixed by location ormobile; and second, autonomy – whether they were assisted by store employees or unassisted. The authors found no evidence that individuals found mobile scanning to be either enjoyable or to have utilitarian benefit. The authors also did not find greater privacy concerns with mobile payments scenarios. The authors did, however, in the post hoc analysis find that mobile unassisted scanning was preferred tomobile assisted scanning. The authors also found thatmobile unassisted scanning with fixed unassisted checkout was a preferred service mode, while there was evidence that mobile assisted scanning with mobile assisted payment was the least preferred checkout mode. Finally, the authors found that individual differences including computer self-efficacy, personal innovativeness, and technology anxiety were strong predictors of adoption of mobile scanning and payment scenarios. Originality/value – The work helps the authors understand the emerging mobile checkout scenarios in the retail environment and customer reactions to these scenarios

Assessing a Firm's Web Presence: A Heuristic Evaluation Procedure for the Measurement of Usability

Web site usability is a critical metric for assessing the quality of a firm's Web presence. A measure of usability must not only provide a global rating for a specific Web site, ideally it should also illuminate specific strengths and weaknesses associated with site design. In this paper, we describe a heuristic evaluation procedure for examining the usability of Web sites. The procedure utilizes a comprehensive set of usability guidelines developed by Microsoft. We present the categories and subcategories comprising these guidelines, and 7discuss the development of an instrument that operationalizes the measurement of usability. The proposed instrument was tested in a heuristic evaluation study where 1,475 users rated multiple Web sites from four different industry sectors: airlines, online bookstores, automobile manufacturers, and car rental agencies. To enhance the external validity of the study, users were asked to assume the role of a consumer or an investor when assessing usability. Empirical results suggest that the evaluation procedure, the instrument, as well as the usability metric exhibit good properties. Implications of the findings for researchers, for Web site designers, and for heuristic evaluation methods in usability testing are offered

User Acceptance of Information Technology: Inside the American Home

It is indeed appropriate to begin this abstract with a quote from the call for papers for ICIS 1996: “There is great debate on how the forthcoming digital revolution will change the nature of. . .home life and society. Some predict that. . .homes will no longer need to be located near centers of commerce.” While interesting, this prediction cannot come to pass if information technologies (IT) are not adopted in homes. “Many people remain detached from information technology and its benefits” (Machrone 1994, p. 87) as evidenced by the fact that only 12% of households had a personal computer (PC) with a modem in 1994 (PC World, 1994). Another indication of the apprehensions and uncertainties about adopting technology for personal use is the lack of acceptance of the Apple Newton, a personal digital assistant (Mossberg 1993). This new and innovative informationtechnologyfailedtoreceiveuseracceptanceasexpected. Thisexamplesuggeststhatconsumersarenotenamored with technology simply for the sake of technology. Thus, user acceptance, adoption, and use continue to be issues that deserve attention, particularly in this ever-expanding context that extends from the workplace into our homes

Research Perspectives: The Rise of Human Machines: How Cognitive Computing Systems Challenge Assumptions of User-System Interaction

Cognitive computing systems (CCS) are a new class of computing systems that implement more human-like cognitive abilities. CCS are not a typical technological advancement but an unprecedented advance toward human-like systems fueled by artificial intelligence. Such systems can adapt to situations, perceive their environments, and interact with humans and other technologies. Due to these properties, CCS are already disrupting established industries, such as retail, insurance, and healthcare. As we make the case in this paper, the increasingly human-like capabilities of CCS challenge five fundamental assumptions that we as IS researchers have held about how users interact with IT artifacts. These assumptions pertain to (1) the direction of the user-artifact relationship, (2) the artifact’s awareness of its environment, (3) functional transparency, (4) reliability, and (5) the user’s awareness of artifact use. We argue that the disruption of these five assumptions limits the applicability of our extant body of knowledge to CCS. Consequently, CCS present a unique opportunity for novel theory development and associated contributions. We argue that IS is well positioned to take this opportunity and present research questions that, if answered, will lead to interesting, influential, and original theories

From Design Principles to Impacts: A Theoretical Framework and Research Agenda

In this paper, we integrate three streams of research in information systems (i.e., IS success, technology adoption, and human-centered design principles) to extend our understanding of technology use. We present a theoretical framework that incorporates the core ideas from these three streams of research. We leverage the proposed framework to present propositions that could guide future work. Specifically, the propositions we develop relate system-design principles to use and net benefits (i.e., job performance and job satisfaction) and rich use to job performance. We further suggest several broad potential future research directions

Transitioning to a Modular Enterprise Architecture: Drivers, Constraints, and Actions

Best practice suggests that a modular enterprise architecture, where interfaces between and among business processes and services are standardized, is a key IT capability for firms to achieve profitable growth. But few firms have successfully designed, implemented, and maintained such an architecture. This article presents findings on the drivers, constraints, and actions taken by two companies that transitioned to a modular enterprise architecture in response to competitive pressures from their business partners or customers. One company implemented an industry standard and the other developed custom partner interface processes (PIPs) to achieve business modularity. The lessons from these two case studies show how companies can smoothly transition to a modular enterprise architecture