Grouping EIS Benefits: An Optimal Clustering Approach

Executive Information Systems (EISs) emerged in the late 1970s to meet the information needs of senior executives. Leading EIS research indicates three major groupings of EIS benefits: (1) Information delivery, i.e., providing more timely, accurate, relevant, and concise information; (2) Task improvement, i.e., improving the efficiency and effectiveness of executives; and (3) Supporting the accomplishment of strategic business objectives (Wallis 1989; Volonio and Watson 1990; Houdeshel and Watson 1987). Mintzberg (1975, 1980) classifies managerial activities into three broad groups -interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles. McLeod and Jones (1986) suggest that an EIS can be a valued tool if: it can provide and integrate external and internal information; it can offer information with richness (e.g. soft, human, contextual information to enhance hard information); and it can overcome problems typical of traditional MIS hard copy reports by providing accurate, timely, concise and relevant information (Watson, Rainer and Houdeshel 1992). According to Mintzberg (1975), managers use information in four decision roles: resource allocation (e.g. budgetary allocation), disturbance handler, entrepreneur and negotiator. An effective EIS primarily supports disturbance handling and entrepreneurial activity, and to a lesserextent resource allocation (McLeod and Jones 1986). Though prior research alludes to major managerial roles and/or activities, very little research explores grouping of EIS benefits and the implications of such groupings. The purpose of this study is to explore whether there are more than the three broad categories of EIS benefits found in the literature. Secondly, we identify the specific benefits within each category. We also tentatively confirm that these broad categories of benefits support the major roles of managers as specified by Mintzberg (1975, 1980). The findings of this study should be significant considering the fact that the success of an EIS is vital to the organization that has or plans to develop one. To gain insights to these questions, data were obtained from questionnaires sent to organizations that use EIS. The details of the study method and findings are discussed next

Willingness to Disclose Personal Information Online and its Effect on Ensuring and Protecting Privacy: A Two Country Study

Organizations rely on information disclosed by consumers during online interactions to render personalized services which can enhance the online experience. There are implications for businesses when consumers are willing to disclose information and subsequently, think about and act in ways to ensure and protect their privacy. In the global context, these concerns are magnified as companies rely on global networks to do business in other countries, and there are no international laws that adequately protect security of information. In this study, we conduct an empirical study of 809 consumers in U.S. and India to understand their information disclosing behavior online, their intentions to take and execution of protective actions during online interactions. Results suggest that there are differences between U.S. and India with regards to consumers’ willingness to disclose personal information, and their intentions and actions for privacy and security protection. Differences in how willing consumers are to disclose information and in how concerned they are with protecting themselves has implications for companies in considering local cultures when conducting international e-commerce

An Overview of Commercial Web Site Developmental Issues

As technology has advanced, the Internet has become a gold mine for those who have the vision, talent and expertise to exploit unbounded potential for business-tobusiness and business-to-consumer e-commerce. Good websites not only attract, inform and sell to customers during the first visit but also increases the potential for return visits and sales. This has important implications for companies contemplating web presence and presents them with some very pertinent issues to keep in mind when designing their web sites. This paper discusses some of the current issues and factors that affect commercial web site designs

Business Analytics in the Context of Big Data: A Roadmap for Research

This paper builds on academic and industry discussions from the 2012 and 2013 pre-ICIS events: BI Congress III and the Special Interest Group on Decision Support Systems (SIGDSS) workshop, respectively. Recognizing the potential of “big data” to offer new insights for decision making and innovation, panelists at the two events discussed how organizations can use and manage big data for competitive advantage. In addition, expert panelists helped to identify research gaps. While emerging research in the academic community identifies some of the issues in acquiring, analyzing, and using big data, many of the new developments are occurring in the practitioner community. We bridge the gap between academic and practitioner research by presenting a big data analytics framework that depicts a process view of the components needed for big data analytics in organizations. Using practitioner interviews and literature from both academia and practice, we identify the current state of big data research guided by the framework and propose potential areas for future research to increase the relevance of academic research to practice

Quality of Life Explorer Prototype to Address Socio-economic Problems: A Design Science Approach

This study develops a visualization Proof of Concept that is aimed at improving the quality of life for the city in the South-Eastern part of US as a case study. Using design science research method, we create interactive visual maps called the quality of life explorer (QoLE) for improving the livelihood of residents of the city under study. We then used analytics techniques to customize the map and enhance its visualization and interactivity capabilities in a way that is simple to understand and use. Furthermore, the QoLE website has a built-in capability that allows report generation as well as increase interactivity of Map and data distribution tables. The outcome of this study will help the city authorities and residents to better visualize the data in a smarter and realistic way so that they can make informed decisions in redeveloping their city. More specifically, the study outcomes will help the City authorities and stakeholders integrate the disparate data into a centralized location for easy accessibility and use for decision making

A Multi-Case Investigation of Electronic Health Record Implementation in Small- and Medium-Size Physician Practices

The American healthcare system has undergone significant changes as health information technology (HIT) has evolved. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2001), “Automation of clinical, financial, and administrative transactions is essential to improving quality, preventing errors, enhancing consumer confidence in the health system, and improving efficiency” (p. 16). HIT helps target improvements in patient care through improved adherence to clinical guidelines, improved monitoring of diseases, reduction in medical and medication errors, and access to more accurate and complete health information that aids in the decision-making process (Cecchini, 2011a). However, these improvements are not guaranteed just because an electronic health record (EHR) is implemented. Improvement in the quality of care is dependent on what the specific EHR offers in the way of functionality and how it affects providers and office staff (Carayon, Smith, Hundt, Kuruchittham, & Li 2009)

Build Your Dream (not just Big) Analytics Program

This paper reports on a panel discussion held at AMCIS 2014 and subsequent panel member research and findings. We focus on curriculum design, program development, and sustainability in business analytics (BA) in higher education. We address some of the burning questions the IS community has asked concerning the various stages of BA program building, and we elaborate challenges that institutions face in constructing successful and competitive analytics programs. Furthermore, given that the panelists have achieved outstanding accomplishments in academic and industrial leadership, we share our experiences and vision of a “dream” analytics program. We hope that our community will continue a dialog that encourages and engages faculty members and administrators to reflect on challenges and opportunities to build dream programs that meet industry needs

Knowledge Management: Practices and Challenges

Knowledge management (KM) is a process that deals with the development, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information and expertise within an organization to support and improve its business performance. Organizations are realizing that knowledge is a crucial resource for organizations and it should be managed judiciously. Organizations need to harness knowledge not only to stay competitive, but also to become innovative. KM requires a major shift in organizational culture and a commitment at all levels of a firm to make it work. Through a supportive organizational climate, ideally, through effective KM, an organization can bring its entire organizational learning and knowledge to bear on any problem, anywhere in the world, at anytime

AIS Women’s Network: Advancing Women in IS Academia

This paper highlights the efforts to support female academics in the information systems (IS) discipline over recent years. The development of the AIS task force on women in IS and the formation of the AIS Women’s Network have been significant initiatives to get the conversation started, yet much work remains. Findings from three separate events (an AIS- and Elsevier Foundation-sponsored survey, a pre-ICIS workshop panel update on the state of current research in the area of women and IS, and an in-depth discussion between workshop attendees at the 2015 AISWN Pre-ICIS Workshop on Advancing Women in IS), clearly indicate issues remain. Therefore, we also develop an agenda for future work to help advance women in the IS discipline

A Parallel Branch-and-Bound Method for Cluster Analysis

Cluster analysis is a generic term coined for procedures that are used objectively to group entities based on their similarities and differences. The primary objective of these procedures is to group n items into K mutually exclusive clusters so that items within each cluster are relatively homogeneous in nature while the clusters themselves are distinct. In this research, we have developed, implemented and tested an asynchronous, dynamic parallel branchand-bound algorithm to solve the clustering problem. In the developmental environment, several processes (tasks) work independently on various subproblems generated by the branch-and-bound procedure. This parallel algorithm can solve very large-scale, optimal clustering problems in a reasonable amount of wall-clock time. Linear and superlinear speedups are obtained. Thus, solutions to real-world, complex clustering problems, which could not be solved due to the lack of efficient parallel algorithms, can now be attempted