From Measurement to Management: the Influence of IT on Service Operations

The state of service management practice and the developments in IT-efficiency research prompt the call for managerial relevance, normative theory building and the conceptualization and measurement of the impact of Information Technology (IT) on service efficiency. Drawing on theoretical insights from economic and behavioral literature, this article deduces a work system centered model of the service outlet and proposes a measurement methodology (ITIMPACT) geared towards the development of a business intelligence tool. The measurement follows a two-step methodology that first assesses compared-to-best efficiency, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and subsequently explains efficiency differences using a regression framework. An inter-disciplinary approach bases the first step on econometric logic, while the second takes its foundation in behavioral sciences, and information system research.Service industry;

Payment Systems For The Internet – Consumer Requirements

This paper examines the consumer requirements for payment systems on the Internet. According to previous literature, the eight important features of payment systems from a consumer’s point of view are: security, reliability, privacy, acceptability, person-to-person (P2P), flexibility, price, and ease of use. This research focuses on identifying the importance of these features in general and in specific situations. Five hypotheses are formulated.The results of a mail questionnaire indicate that there is indeed a clear preference ranking of the eight features. This ranking shows that security, reliability and privacy are the most important features of a payment system for Internet purchases.This ranking remains stable for unknown Web shops and expensive products. Internet users value price less then non-users. Buyers value security significantly more than non-buyers, although both groups rank security first. In addition, reliability is less important for buyers than for non-buyers.The research shows that current payment systems used on the Internet (mainly credit cards) do not satisfy consumer requirements. This may be a reason for the disappointing e-retailing sales.E-retailling;

Internet Adoption Barriers for Small Firms in the Netherlands

Small firms are not adopting the Internet with the same speed their larger brothers do. This despite the fact that Internet can offer a great deal of advantages to small firms. This study aims to explore several factors that influence small businesses in their choice of Internet use (e.g. benefits and barriers). The main barriers to Internet adoption and to developing a Web presences are simply the concern that the Internet or the Website would not lead to more efficiency or lower costs. However, the results show that a number of the benefits that Dutch small firms are deriving from their Websites can be described as “border-crossing”. These results seem to confirm the “international image of Dutch businesses, well aware of the small size of the local market and always searching for potential business opportunities abroad

Stickiness of Commercial Virtual Communities

The recent merging of the electronic market arena has enabled the creation of new environments in which consumers can interact with each other online – Commercial Virtual Communities (CVC). The strategic question facing internet businesses today is what are the components of the glue that makes consumers stay and return to websites in general and to CVCs in particular, i.e. how can one increase the stickiness of a CVC? This paper provides an insight into the nature of CVCs and the factors that drive their stickiness. The resulting framework is evaluated with the help of a survey among CVC experts. The results of the survey are presented.economics of technology ;

IT, Proactive Environmental Strategy and Firm Performance: A Resource-based Analysis

The study of the relationships between information technology (IT), environmental organizational issues and performance isa cutting-edge research topic for information systems (IS) research. However, at present we know very little about theserelationships. Drawing on the perspective of IT-enabled capabilities and the literature on organizations and the naturalenvironment, our study introduces the construct capability of proactive corporate environmental strategy (ES) to the IScommunity. Through a resource-based analysis, we propose that IT capability may enable the implementation of a proactiveES and that this strategy could play a significant role in determining the business value of IT. Using structural equationsmodelling (SEM) with data collected from 63 firms, we find that IT capability is an enabler of proactive ES and that thisstrategy plays a significant role in mediating the effects of IT capability on firm performance