Intermediaries as Value Moderators in Electronic Marketplaces

The growth of E-commerce had suddenly changed the ground-rules for conducting business, linking the consumer directly to the producer. The digitization of content also meant faster and easier transmission of information from one point to another in a network, thus reducing the need for an intermediary. It was assumed that intermediaries would disappear resulting in frictionless commerce. This paper reexamines such claims of disintermediation and whether intermediaries generate friction in transactions. Theoretically, it argues the contrary, suggesting that intermediation is a necessary evil in e-commerce transactions. In order to justify such claims, the paper assumes that e-commerce exhibits network externality and reviews intermediation in the light Transaction Cost Economics and Agency Theory

Digital Transformation of the Italian Public Administration: A Case Study

This case study looks at the Italian Public Administration’s digital transformation. With 60 million people, 8,000 municipalities, and 23,000 local administrations, this digital transformation case highlights how a digital renaissance prefaces innovative disruption challenges. The digital transformation case uses Italy as the backdrop and Team Digitale, a team of talented individuals embarked on building public administration efficiencies and rebooting Italy’s digital innovation footprint, as the protagonist. Digital transformation is rarely, if ever, a technical solution. Instead, digital transformation is a socio-technical and socio-political solution, especially in large and complex democracies or companies with diverse, contending stakeholders. In the process, the case surfaces best practices and challenges faced when trying to tackle a mega-project across an entire economy. The case offers digital transformation recommendations that one can generalize across any global democracy. This case surfaces best practices and challenges faced when trying to tackle a mega-project across an entire economy

A Modular Systems Perspective of IT Infrastructure Configurations and Productivity

Research on IT infrastructure investments and organizational productivity has been marked with ambiguity, evidenced by the much debated productivity paradox. Part of the ambiguity arises from a paradigmatic aggregated treatment of IT infrastructure and productivity constructs along with a disregard for contingencies and time lags. The focus in this paper is to extend the component based view to understand IT infrastructure productivity. Using a modular systems perspective, revisiting the constructs in an attempt to disaggregate them for a more detailed examination is proposed. This study adds to the body of knowledge through a holistic examination of the relationship between IT infrastructure configurations, contingencies, and organizational productivity

Where have all the flowers gone?: a modular systems perspective of IT infrastructure design and productivity

Assessing value of IT infrastructure investments has been both difficult and ambiguous. This research develops and tests a conceptual framework to understand the productivity process. A lagged and recursive framework is used to trace the relationship between IT infrastructure investments, infrastructure design, and organizational productivity along with contingencies of IT management and the environment. A major contribution of this study is the use of the systems perspective to disaggregate the concepts of IT infrastructure and productivity into collectively exhaustive types. Findings reveal that IT investments do not significant affect productivity but do so when used to develop an IT infrastructure design. IT management is seen to strongly influence IT infrastructure design. Similarly, organizational environment appears to significantly influence the type of productivity focus for a firm. The study adds to the existing body of knowledge through a holistic investigation of the multi-level relationship between IT infrastructure configurations, contingencies, and productivity

PREVALENCE, ETIOLOGY AND CLINICAL FEATURES OF SKELETAL FLUOROSIS: A CRITICAL REVIEW

Fluorosis is endemic in different parts of the world. The condition may be manifested as dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis and other types of fluorosis (non-skeletal fluorosis). Most importance is given to dental fluorosis by the researchers. But, skeletal fluorosis is another form of fluorosis which is often neglected; though this form of fluorosis can cause criplling of a person. In the present study a thorough review has benn undertaken about the prevalence, etiology and clinical features of skeletal fluorosis

Examining Inefficiencies and Consumer Uncertainty in E-Commerce

The popularity of e-commerce can be attributed to open (and mostly unbridled) competition with minimal barriers to entry. Yet, recent surveys suggest a general lack of consumer confidence in transacting online. Such findings are troubling — pointing to probable inefficiencies in e-commerce. The question then is: what are these inefficiencies and how do they prompt such consumer uncertainty? In answering the question, this paper surfaces three core e-commerce inefficiencies: seller anonymity, lack of product transparency, and lack of process transparency. It is also contended that consumer uncertainty is not an intrinsic buyer characteristic. Rather, it is contingent upon the information specificity of specific products that consumers transact in B2C and C2C e-commerce. Tying together threads from behavioral economics, this paper offers a novel perspective toward understanding electronic market inefficiencies and its consequent effects on consumer uncertainty. Apart from proposing a model of consumer uncertainty in e-commerce, the study offers a preliminary empirical validation of the proposed model. Findings suggest that inherent Ecommerce inefficiencies of anonymity and lack of product and process transparencies cause consumer uncertainty. The findings further evidence how buyer uncertainty increases when planning to buy products with high information specificity, especially when product transparency is lacking

An Empirical Identification of Social Media Key Performance Indicators from the 2014 General Elections

The necessity for a politician to actively engage via social media increases with each passing election. The come-from-behind primary victory and the ultimate election of President Obama in 2008 are often partially attributed to the campaign’s social media prowess. Anecdotal evidence abounds regarding the negative effects of politician’s usage of social media, for example congressman Anthony Weiner in 2011. However, contemporary recommendations towards successful campaigning via social media are generally limited to anecdotal success stories and top ten lists. This research addresses this gap by capturing over 6 million social media messages and weekly statistics from over 1,300 official campaign accounts from September through November during the 2014 U.S. general election. Non-parametric analyses empirically establish many key performance indicators related to social network size, churn and various messaging activities. Although this exploratory investigation does not address causality, we contribute by producing empirically validated KPIs and their associations with election outcomes

Adoption of WLANS in the Hospitality Industry: A Theoretical Cost Analytic Framework

Wireless technologies are gaining popularity as a “trendy” solution to attract customers; many hospitality-related companies such as Starbuck’s or McDonald’s are trying to offer these services to their patrons (Wrolstad, 2004). While several hotel corporations are trying to jump on the bandwagon, there are a number of factors potentially influencing the decision of whether or not to implement wireless technologies in hotel properties. This research in progress paper provides an overview of the use of this technology in the hospitality industry. The paper uses a cost-theoretic model to analyze adoption decisions using social, technical, and organizational standpoints