BI and CRM for Customer Involvement in Product and Service Development

Customer involvement in product and service development (CIPS) is recognized as important for firms; yet the role of Information Technology (IT) in facilitating CIPS is understudied. We examine two enterprise technologies which improve knowledge available to decision makers: Business Intelligence (BI) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). While CRM provides transactional information and knowledge about customers, BI provides market-sensing and analytics capabilities to leverage customer knowledge. Drawing on this theoretical basis, we posit that BI and CRM, individually and in combination, facilitate CIPS. Our large-sample empirical analysis of U.S. firms broadly supports our propositions. In supplementary analysis, we find that CIPS is associated with higher likelihood of benefits from customer-management systems in terms of development of new or improved products/services resulting from customer feedback. This suggests that customers can be effective contributors to innovation-related value from IT. Our study contributes by showing the role of BI and CRM in CIPS

Leveraging IT for Business Innovation: Does the Role of the CIO Matter?

The evolving role of Information Technology (IT) in business innovation places increasing emphasis on the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Yet, the role of the CIO in business innovation is understudied in the extant literature. Drawing on organizational theory of boundary spanning leadership, we posit that the CIO’s cross-functional role pertaining to entities and functions outside the IT organization help explain the firm’s propensity for IT-enabled business innovation. Our large-sample empirical analysis of U.S. firms largely supports our theoretical propositions. We empirically find that IT-enabled business innovation is more likely when the CIO reports to the Chief Executive Officer, has more interactions with the firm’s customers and is more involved in new product development. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of the CIO in IT-enabled business innovation and provides implications for practice

Dancing in the Tigers’ Den: MNCs versus Local Firms Leveraging IT-Enabled Strategic Flexibility

Institutional settings in emerging markets pose challenges for multinational corporations (MNCs). We argue that information technology (IT) can be used to develop strategic flexibilities to complement organizational capabilities in emerging markets. We explore how MNCs and local firms compare in leveraging IT-enabled strategic flexibilities and organizational capabilities to improve performance in emerging markets. We focus on two capabilities: marketing capability and relational capability. We theorize that IT-enabled strategic flexibility in customer services (ITCS) complements the firm’s marketing capability, and IT enabled strategic flexibility in transaction services (ITTS) complements the firm\u27s relational capability to influence firm performance. Further, we posit that the complementary effect of ITCS with marketing capability is lower for MNCs than for local firms, whereas the complementary effect of ITTS with relational capability is higher for MNCs than local firms. Our empirical analysis of primary data collected from MNCs and local firms in India broadly supports our theory

Antecedents and Effect of IT Usage on Performance: A Research Framework and Empirical Study

Information Technology (IT) Usage is an important construct in Information Systems research. While the relationshipbetween IT Usage and Performance is well studied along with the antecedents of IT Usage, extant research has not yet fullyexplored an integrated model of IT Usage, its antecedents and impact on performance. In this paper, we propose an integratedtheoretical framework for such an effort. We detail our preliminary results for a section of the theoretical model todemonstrate the viability of the research model. We find that for our research context, the preliminary results align well withtheoretical predictions. We show strong statistical relationships between actual IT Usage and performance at the business unitlevel in both cross sectional and panel data analysis. We conclude by discussing the proposed data collection and analysisapproach for testing the integrated theoretical framework for the relationship between IT Usage, its antecedents and impacton performance

The Role of Green IS Governance: Climate Change Risk Identification and Carbon Disclosure Performance

Climate change is a global risk. Perception of this risk differs from business to business, influencing the variation in responses. Prior studies suggest that businesses need to prepare and respond to climate risk, while embedded within their institutional settings. Less is known about the role of information systems (IS) in this process. In this study, we explore the role of green IS in sustainability governance to influence firms’ carbon disclosure performance. We hypothesize that implementation of green IS and the verification against standards, moderate the effects of climate change risk-intensity perception on the carbon disclosure performance, either positive or negative, depending on the institutional environment in which the firm is situated. We use samples of firms from the United States and Europe to test and validate our hypotheses. The main contribution of this study is proposing and validating institutional variations of the green IS in the sustainability governance framework

Navigating the Paradox of IT Novelty and Strategic Conformity: The Moderating Role of Industry Dynamism

Although achieving strategic distinctiveness is critical for firms in dynamic industries, where the competitive landscape and market conditions frequently change, there is a paucity of research on the impact of information technology (IT) on a firm’s strategic conformity (or distinctiveness). Motivated by the importance of strategic conformity and emergence of novel technologies, we draw on institutional theory and hypothesize that IT Novelty positively impacts strategic conformity. Second, drawing on resource-based view, we hypothesize that market dynamism and competitive dynamism negatively moderate the effect of IT Novelty on strategic conformity. Third, we hypothesize that the moderating impact is stronger for market dynamism than competitive dynamism. We find support for our hypotheses using a fifteen-year dataset from over 300 U.S. manufacturing firms. Our study contributes to theory and managerial practice by combining institutional and resource-based view perspectives to examine how IT Novelty shapes a firm’s strategic conformity, particularly in dynamic industry conditions

An Integrated Model of Business Intelligence & Analytics Capabilities and Organizational Performance

Organizations can leverage business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) to transform themselves through a holistic integration process. Contrary to this proposition, many organizations implement BI&A without aligning or integrating it with organizational strategies. Some implement BI&A in a very ad hoc manner without any plans to leverage it. From a research point of view, we lack an integrated framework that can inform both academics and practitioners about adroit applications with business intelligence and analytics capabilities in organizations. We examine what significant BI&A capabilities organizations need to create value from BI&A. We conceptualize second-order constructs that affect the BI&A value-creation process: innovation infrastructure capability, customer process capability, business-to-business (B2B) process capability, and integration capability. We propose that these higher-order BI&A capabilities influence organizational performance through BI&A effectiveness’s the mediation effect. We developed a questionnaire instrument and collected data from 154 firms in India. Partial least squares analysis provides broad support for our hypotheses. Our contributions include identifying and empirically assessing key BI&A capabilities that directly impact how effectively an organization implements BI&A

Theories Used in Information Systems Research: Identifying Theory Networks in Leading IS Journals

Though use of theory is critical in Information Systems (IS) research, the theoretical foundations of IS research have been understudied. Using Social Network Analysis, we analyze theory usage in IS research published in MIS Quarterly and Information Systems Research from 1998 to 2006. We find Technology Acceptance Model, Resource- Based View and Game Theory to be the three most frequently used theories. While strong dominance is found in research focusing on Information Technology (IT) for individuals, organizations and markets, no theoretical dominance is found in IT for groups and IS development. Psychology, Economics and Sociology are disciplines IS researchers most frequently leverage for theories. Psychology contributes several theories representing a large fraction of the long tail of theories. Our analysis suggests that IS consists of a few distinctive clusters of research instead of a single core. Our results provide insights on theoretical foundations of IS and suggest research opportunities for scholars

IT Orientation Effects on Obstacles and Facilitators of Innovation: An Emerging Economy Perspective in Mexico

Innovation is a crucial determinant in the survival and growth of firms in emerging economies such as Mexico and other Latin American countries. These firms face obstacles in the form of institutional challenges and rigidity towards change. This study explores how two types of IT orientation to innovation –Internal IT Orientation to Innovation (IIOI) and External IT Orientation to Innovation (EIOI), help firms to overcome three types of obstacles to innovation typically prevalent in LATAM economies-economic, policy, and internal. We argue that IIOI has a mitigating role for internal obstacles, while EIOI enables firms to overcome policy and economic obstacles to innovation. We argue that IIOI complements economic facilitators, and EIOI complements policy facilitators to innovation. Using a unique dataset of Mexican firms, we provide support for our hypotheses. The results contribute to theory and practice by highlighting how specific IT orientations help overcome specific obstacles and complement specific facilitators

Theories Used in Information Systems Research: Insights from Complex Network Analysis

Effective application of theory is critical to the development of new knowledge in Information Systems (IS) research. However, theory foundations of IS research are understudied. Using Complex Network Analysis, we analyze theory usage in IS research published in two premier journals (MIS Quarterly and Information Systems Research) from 1998 to 2006. Four principal findings emerge from our analysis. First, in contrast with prior studies which found a lack of dominant theories at an aggregate level, we find stronger dominance of theory usage within individual streams of IS research. Second, IS research draws from diverse set of disciplines, with Psychology emerging as a consistently dominant source of theories for IS during our study period. Moreover, theories originating in IS were found to be widely used in two streams of research (‘IS development’ and ‘IT and Individuals’ streams) and more sparingly used in other streams. Third, IS research tends to form clusters of theory usage, with little crossover across clusters. Moreover, streams of IS research constitute distinct clusters of theory usage. Finally, theories originating from Economics, Strategy and Organization Science tend to be used together, whereas those originating from Psychology, Sociology and IS tend to be used together. Taken together, our results contribute to scholarly understanding of theory foundations of IS research and illustrate methodological innovations in the study of theory use by employing Complex Network Analysis