An investigation of the factors that influence electronic information sharing between state and local agencies

This study investigates the factors that influence local government participation in electronic information sharing with state agencies. Although electronic information sharing has the potential to help government agencies to increase productivity and performance, improve policy-making and provide better public services to the citizens, there is still little information available about the factors that antecede electronic information sharing between local and state agencies. Synthesizing the pertinent literature on interagency information sharing and well-established theories such as diffusion of innovations theory, critical mass theory and social exchange theory, this study proposes that local government participation in electronic information sharing with state agencies will be determined by electronic information sharing characteristics, agency characteristics, and environmental characteristics. This study employs both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. The first part of the study involves the collection and analysis of survey data from local law enforcement agencies to test the proposed research framework and hypotheses. The second part of the study involves the collection and analysis of qualitative data related to a major state-local electronic information sharing initiative to seek additional support for the findings of the quantitative data analysis, as well as identify factors that remained undiscovered in the quantitative analysis. The findings of these studies suggest that electronic information sharing characteristics, agency characteristics, and environmental characteristics, as well as other factors tend to influence local agency participation in electronic information sharing initiatives. The study has a number of theoretical and practical implications. It contributes to the state of the knowledge in the information systems, public administration and management domains. The findings of this study are important and relevant to federal, state and local government agencies and the directors and IT managers of these agencies. Once the factors that facilitate or hinder participation in electronic information sharing initiatives are identified, specific strategies can be developed to increase electronic information sharing among government agencies. Based on findings of the quantitative and qualitative studies, a preliminary set of strategies is offered, which could be potentially used to increase local agency participation in electronic information sharing initiatives

The Impact of the Introductory IS Course on Students\u27 Perceptions of IS Professionals

Increasing the number of students pursuing Information Systems (IS) majors and careers is vital to the advancement of our knowledge-based economy. Literature suggests that one of the main reasons for students’ lack of interest in IS has been the negative stereotypical image of IS professionals. Research has also emphasized that the introductory IS course plays a significant role in busting prevailing myths about the IS profession and in attracting larger pools of students to the discipline. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand students’ perceptions of IS professionals before and after they were exposed to the IS field and careers through the introductory IS course. The findings suggest that students’ image of IS professionals might not be as negative as previously thought. Furthermore, the study confirms the importance of the introductory IS course on how students view the IS field. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings, implications, limitations, and future research directions

Improving IS Enrollment Choices: The Role of Social Support

Over the last decade, enrollment in Information Systems (IS) and related programs has dropped worldwide and still remains low despite positive job market predictions. Given the significant negative consequences of low enrollments on both academia and industry, the IS community has focused its efforts on mechanisms to increase enrollments. This study investigates how such a mechanism – social support – influences students’ aspirations to pursue an IS degree. More specifically, the study suggests that social support, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interests independently and cumulatively affect students’ choice of IS as their major

A Measurement Instrument for Understanding Student Perspectives on Stereotypes of IS Professionals

Academic and popular literature suggest that one plausible explanation for declining enrollments in the Information Systems (IS) discipline is the negative stereotypical image students have about IS professionals and the profession. However, there is a lack of empirical research that investigates the image of IS professionals. This study addresses this research gap. First, an instrument was developed to measure stereotypes of IS professionals. A series of empirical analysis was conducted to establish the measure’s psychometric properties. The findings revealed a five-factor, 15-item instrument that measured IS stereotypes in terms of geeks, gender, intelligence, managerial and technical dimensions. Then, the presence of stereotypes along each of these dimensions was examined. The literature has generally assumed that IS professionals are viewed as geeks, mostly male, intelligent, technically oriented, and lacking managerial skills. The study uncovered that strong stereotypes do exist along these dimensions. However, interestingly, most of the stereotypes were found to be in the opposite direction than the literature suggested. Students disagreed that IS professionals were geeks, that the IS profession was typically dominated by men, and that IS professionals were too technically oriented. They agreed that IS professionals possessed good managerial skills and were intelligent. The paper concludes with implications for theory and practice

The Road to ERP Success: Understanding End-User Perceptions

Even though there is a growing body of literature that focuses on improving the success rate of enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects, there is a lack of research aimed at understanding end- users perceptions of ERP systems. Given that employee expectations and attitudes play an important role in the success of ERP projects, the purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of end-user perceptions of ERP systems. In order to achieve this objective, we provide empirical evidence from two companies that have recently implemented ERP systems. We also offer strategies that could be utilized by managers, project leaders, and vendor companies to enhance user satisfaction with ERP systems

Using the ERP Simulation Games to Teach Managerial Decision-Making

This paper reports the results of the introduction of the ERPsim games into an undergraduate managerial decision-making class. To date, the games have been principally used to teach ERP and business processes to business and information systems students. The objectives in introducing the game to these students was to give them some exposure to the use of information in tactical and operational decision making, illustrating concepts such as anchoring, bias and bounded awareness taught in the course. The students’ satisfaction with the game as a teaching tool was measured and is reported here. The objective of the study was to determine whether the use of the games improves the course and enhances student understanding. The results were mixed with some students (the majority) enthusiastic, others much less so. It appears that satisfaction and student perception of achievement of learning objectives are largely driven by their attitude to the game and the amount of effort required

The Role of Gender in Students’ Decisions to Major in Information Systems

In order to understand the reasons for women’s underrepresentation in IS, we extended the IS Major Choice Goals Model, which identifies the major factors that influence students’ pursuit of IS majors and careers. There were significant differences between female and male students in terms of self-efficacy, interests, and choice goals. Significant gender differences were also found in the relationships among the key determinants of the model meaning that females and males differed with respect to how they developed aspirations to major in IS. The relationship between self-efficacy and interest was stronger in females than in males, as well as the relationship between self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Self-efficacy influenced choice goals more strongly for males than it influenced females. The relationship between outcome expectations and interest was stronger in males than in females. Interest influenced choice goals more strongly for female students than it influenced male students

Unanticipated Software Use by Adolescents Following Mandatory Adoption

This research proposes a model to predict unanticipated use of software by high school students after mandatory adoption. We define unanticipated use as voluntarily extending the use of a software product to new tasks and new settings after mandatory adoption for a specific task in a specific setting. We are basing our model on TAM2 (Venkatesh and Davis 2000), which is an extension of the original technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis 1986). Typically, research in this area investigates technology acceptance in voluntary settings. However, a few studies have looked at acceptance in mandatory settings (Rawstorne et al. 2000). Our research involves actual behavior so we have removed the intention to use construct from the original TAM2 model. Due to the nature of our subjects and the educational setting, we have also removed the following original TAM2 constructs: output quality, voluntariness, and job relevance. We have added personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology (PIIT) (Agarwal and Prasad 1998) and computer self- efficacy (CSE) (Compeau and Higgins 1995)