Strategic Sensemaking and Software Asset Management: Linkages Between Interpretation and Organizational Action

Software is a critical information technology (IT) asset as it plays a key role in the creation of organizational value and it ranks as the first or second most important IT budget disbursement. Organizations are expected to govern software to ensure its efficient use while protecting the copyright of software developers. Software asset management (SAM) focuses on the good governance and effective lifecycle management of software. SAM impacts the flexibility to support business strategies with software, and protects organizations against liability and security risks associated with software use. Since the 1990s, practitioners and scholars posit that SAM is a strategic issue that should be attended by top management. However, reports indicate that widespread SAM adoption is at early stages and a review of the literature reveals limited research on SAM. Studying SAM is relevant to practice and theory because it could explain the processes behind its adoption in organizations. Two different SAM actions are identified: Proactive and Reactive SAM. This study investigates the role of top managers and important antecedents of SAM actions. This investigation draws from strategic sensemaking to explain how top management team’s (TMT) interpretation of IS strategic issues (i.e., software asset issues) as an opportunity influences proactive SAM. It also draws from institutional theory as explanation of reactive SAM actions. Survey responses from 187 chief information officers were collected. The study used a scenario to elicit a strategic issue tested in three stages. In the first stage, scholars and practitioners validated the scenario and survey items. In the second, a pilot was conducted to validate the survey instrument and research model. In the third, a full-scale data collection and test of the research model was completed. Findings from this study indicate that TMT interpretation of SAM as an IS strategic issue influences the adoption of Proactive SAM. Also, coercive force has a direct influence on reactive SAM. This study contributes to the IS literature by developing an instrument to measure reactive and proactive SAM, identifying factors that influence TMT’s interpretation, and subsequent SAM action. For practice, the study corroborates the need to involve TMT in the SAM decision making processes because TMT interpretation is positively associated with the willingness to implement Proactive SAM

Brand Communities: another way to generate conversations and Public Relations

En este trabajo se exploran las ventajas de cultivar las llamadas comunidades de marca, término que proviene de la mercadotecnia pero que está en íntima relación con la comunicación, las relaciones públicas, el diálogo, y en general, las conversaciones y los lazos generados entre las personas a través de internet. El estudio se centra en Universidades por el estrecho vínculo que se crea entre éstas y sus egresados, y analiza el caso de las asociaciones Exatec (grupos de egresados del Tecnológico de Monterrey) para revisar los beneficios que estas agrupaciones brindan a la institución, así como las estrategias que la universidad desarrolla para mantener vivo el lazo con estas comunidades. A través de una metodología cualitativa (entrevistas) se explora este exitoso caso mexicano.Instituto de Investigación en Relaciones Pública

Radon Dose Determination and Radiological Risk in Some Mexican Caves with CR-39 Detectors

Radon (222Rn) is a radioactive gas, from the 238U decay chain, that contributes in large part of the natural radiation dose to which humans are exposed. Radon is the second cause of lung cancer after tobacco. The US-EPA considers a concentration of 148 Bq/m3 for homes and 400 Bq/m3 for workplaces as the reference level. Caves are closed spaces where 222Rn, which emanates from the surrounding minerals and rocks, can accumulate and reaches large concentrations that can represent a health risk for the guides, speleologists and visitors who spend time in these spaces. This work uses the previously recorded radon concentrations in 8 caves in Mexico and calculates the average dose range and the average annual dose for each of them with the “Wise” public domain program (http://www.wise-uranium.org/rdcrn.html) to determine the level of radiological risk with 2,000 1,000 and 500 working hours per year. Karmidas cave had the highest average 222Rn concentration with 27,633.3 Bq/m3 and for 2,000 working hours per year an average annual dose rate of 347.1 mSv/y. Los Riscos cave had the lowest average concentration with 384.7 Bq/m3 and for 2,000 working hours per year an average annual dose rate of 4.832 mSv/y. These results show that all the caves studied present values,with 2,000 working hours per year, that exceed 3 mSv/y for workplaces and must be considered by the people who work in these places. A casual tourist visiting the caves does not present any radiological risk, while guides and speleologists should consider it

The Use of Text Analytics to Investigate Concepts in Intra- and Inter-disciplinary Software Piracy Research Inter-disciplinary Software Piracy Research

IS research has linked collaborators from diverse domains. IS research requires selecting and addressing an appropriate intradisciplinary or interdisciplinary scope. Identifying gaps in the current literature and deciding when and how collaborations among different disciplines may be fruitful poses challenges. We propose a process to analyze a corpus of documents from any topic, to identify potential collaboration areas. A text analytics process is used to find areas of commonality and exclusivity among questions addressed in existing IS work by analyzing abstracts in papers from multiple disciplines studying \u27software piracy.\u27 We use term-term co-occurrence to find all the terms used in close proximity to the topic. We identify which terms are most prominent in each discipline, show quantitatively how these usages coincide or diverge across disciplines, measure the overlap between pairs of disciplines, and identify clusters of terms shared among disciplines. Specific findings from this case of software piracy are presented

A new scaling property of turbulent flows

We discuss a possible theoretical interpretation of the self scaling property of turbulent flows (Extended Self Similarity). Our interpretation predicts that, even in cases when ESS is not observed, a generalized self scaling, must be observed. This prediction is checked on a number of laboratory experiments and direct numerical simulations.Comment: Plain Latex, 1 figure available upon request to [email protected]

Dust rings and filaments around the isolated young star V1331 Cygni

We characterize the small and large scale environment of the young star V1331 Cygni with high resolution HST/WFPC2 and Digitized Sky Survey images. In addition to a previously known outer dust ring (~30'' in diameter), the HST/WFPC2 scattered light image reveals an inner dust ring for the first time. This ring has a maximum radius of 6.5'' and is possibly related to a molecular envelope. Large-scale optical images show that V1331 Cyg is located at the tip of a long dust filament linking it to the dark cloud LDN 981. We discuss the origin of the observed dust morphology and analyze the object's relation to its parent dark cloud LDN 981. Finally, based on recent results from the literature, we investigate the properties of V1331 Cyg and conclude that in its current state the object does not show suffcient evidence to be characterized as an FU Ori object.Comment: 15 pages ApJ preprint style including 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ (Feb. 2007

The dusty disk around VV Ser

We have carried out observations at millimeter and centimeter wavelengths towards VV Ser using the Plateau de Bure Interferometer and the Very Large Array. This allows us to compute the SED from near infrared to centimeter wavelengths. The modeling of the full SED has provided insight into the dust properties and a more accurate value of the disk mass. The mass of dust in the disk around VV Ser is found to be about 4 10^(-5) Msun, i.e. 400 times larger than previous estimates. Moreoever, the SED can only be accounted for assuming dust stratification in the vertical direction across the disk. The existence of small grains (0.25--1 micron) in the disk surface is required to explain the emission at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths. The fluxes measured at millimeter wavelengths imply that the dust grains in the midplane have grown up to very large sizes, at least to some centimeters.Comment: To appear in Ap

The Use of Text Analytics to Investigate Concepts in Intra- and Inter-disciplinary Software Piracy Research

IS research has linked collaborators from diverse domains. IS research requires selecting and addressing an appropriate intradisciplinary or interdisciplinary scope. Identifying gaps in the current literature and deciding when and how collaborations among different disciplines may be fruitful poses challenges. We propose a process to analyze a corpus of documents from any topic, to identify potential collaboration areas. A text analytics process is used to find areas of commonality and exclusivity among questions addressed in existing IS work by analyzing abstracts in papers from multiple disciplines studying \u27software piracy.\u27 We use term-term co-occurrence to find all the terms used in close proximity to the topic. We identify which terms are most prominent in each discipline, show quantitatively how these usages coincide or diverge across disciplines, measure the overlap between pairs of disciplines, and identify clusters of terms shared among disciplines. Specific findings from this case of software piracy are presented