Does Mobile Technology Matter? A Student Centric Perspective

Based on a student-centric perspective, this study seeks to understand how mobile technology influences students’ learning experiences. Our research motivation is driven by the increasing attention paid to mobile technology in the research and business community. Set in a public university setting, our investigation seeks to shed light on how teaching and learning could be reshaped by mobile technology, most specifically, emerging tablet PCs. The findings, based on two MIS (Management Information Systems) courses, one graduate and the other undergraduate, suggest that overall students perceived the mobility of tablet PC positively. In addition, graduate students expressed a higher degree of learning satisfaction and greater expectation of future technology usage than undergraduate students. Indeed, mobile technology seems to matter to students’ learning in general. The finding is particularly relevant when considering how to incorporate mobile technology into teaching practice as such technology-driven teaching practice is increasingly being expected in the contemporary networked society. Additional insights for managers, technology vendors, and college instructors are also discussed

Critical Factors and Multisite Implementation of ERP: A Case Study in the UAE

Despite extensive studies in the ERP literature, little empirical understanding has been reached in relation to ERP implementation experiences in developing markets, particularly in the UAE context. Derived from the notions of critical successful factors and multisite implementation, two of widely researched areas in ERP studies, this paper thus seeks to provide practical insights about organizations’ ERP implementation experiences in the UAE setting. More specifically, it describes and contrasts critical factors and multisite implementation experiences in two case organizations situated in the UAE. These case organizations, one being categorized as a global company and the other local, provide interesting comparison of ERP implementation because of their complementary organizational structure and business strategies. In contrast to traditional ERP frameworks’ suggestions, these case organizations’ experiences reveal that contemporary ERP implementations might be more complex than previously expected since none of these case organizations’ ERP experiences follows suggestions made by frameworks based. Further discussion about how to better understand and examine maturing ERP technology in an increasingly globalized business environment such as the UAE is provided

Theorizing Collective Green Actions

The notion of “green” has gained increasing attention over the years. Many major companies have made significant attempt to better fit into the green concept. Are these corporate marketing endeavors purely based on their environmental consciousness or driven by their intention to gain social recognition which could in turn reshape their corporate image that better reflects the concerns of environments, climate change, and green IT issues? This question is interesting to explore because the complexity and difficulty of ‘green endeavor’ has been widely addressed among practitioners and researchers. Based on an institutional perspective, this paper thus proposes a theoretical framework that helps organizations analyze these green issues in the competitive marketplaces. Propositions of the framework theorize that organizations will inevitably face various isomorphic pressures that lead them to initiate or follow green actions collectively. Those isomorphic pressures usually stem from influential agencies or initiatives in their respective fields such as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), the Green Grid, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and European Waste Catalogs (EWC). The implications of this theoretical framework suggest that organizations need to undertake green actions shiftily in order to continuously validate their competitive status in the global, networked economy. The cost of failing to do so, i.e. being ‘not’ green, might be beyond any organization’s measure in the long term. Further implications of collective green actions are made to the UAE local industries and research community

IT Politics in the Domain of Knowledge Workers: A Chronological Analysis

Markus’s study of IT politics has been influential for the IT implementation literature since the 1980s. However, mistakes of the top-down implementation approach could still be easily found in many organizations. Derived from Markus’s notion of interaction theory and Drucker’s work on knowledge workers, this paper illustrates a LMS (learning management systems) implementation case that evolves from such traditional top-down approach. Based on a chronological analysis, the case study narrates how IT politics was shaped in a context where most stakeholders were highly skillful knowledge workers whose academic autonomy was largely overlooked. Reflective discussion suggests how the implementation process might have been better managed. Evidently, even decades after Markus’s and Drucker’s influential work, history still repeated itself and IT politics continued to provide lessons for contemporary IT managers and researchers. Future strategy and implementation approach for campus IT projects and LMS implementation in particular are recommended

The Leapfrog Effects of Wireless Networks for SMEs: Preliminary Findings from a Community Hospital

This article briefly summarizes a case study that investigates how wireless networks renovate a community hospital’s competitive operations. Due to limited resources, this small community hospital failed to follow specific implementation patterns that most large or more advanced hospitals experienced. Consequently, older versions of wireless networks have never been implemented in this hospital. Interestingly, as technology capabilities of wireless networks continued to emerge in the industry, certain leapfrog effects of these emerging wireless technologies helped this hospital to surpass many of its larger competitors who continued to operate on older versions of wireless networks and relevant technologies. This community hospital’s experiences thus provided insightful lessons for other SMEs that are facing constant technological changes in their respective fields

E-Services and Tourism: A Case Study of UAE Hotel Industry

This proposed study seeks to develop specific e-service (electronic service) strategies that could help enhance competitiveness of Abu Dhabi’s tourism in the global market in general and in the Gulf region in particular. As e-commerce (electronic commerce) increasingly transformed business operations in the contemporary networked economy, services provided by these emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) became essential for global competition in tourism as well. With high growing number of luxury hotels, Abu Dhabi is in critical need of e-service framework that could help attract international tourists and better position itself in today’s competitive global market. The proposed study could thus benefit the local hospitality industry in the following ways. It could first call for critical attention to e-service strategies that play a significant role in hospitality competition in many advanced economies but are seemingly overlooked by the local industry. Secondly, the framework that the proposed study intends to develop would systematically outline strategic guidelines that are tailored to the specific social and cultural needs of the local hotel industry and in turn help utilize these emerging ICTs for competitiveness enhancement. Consequently, an advanced tourism image that differentiates Abu Dhabi from other major cities in the region or in the world could be established

Conceptualizing Emerging Technology in Local Contexts: An Ethnographic Study of RFID in an Emirate’s Farming Industry

Situated in an emirate’s farming industry, this ethnographic study develops a framework to help bridge the existing knowledge gap about what and how local contexts interact with emerging technology, RFID in particular. Findings suggest that numerous local factors pertaining to the researched emirate’s unique environmental, project, cultural, and societal/political contexts shape and/or are reshaped by RFID implementation. For example, geographic landscape demands systems modification and device adaptation; religious custom increases project difficulty, and the systems, in turn, requires changes in certain religious practice; the notion of social sustainability establishes objectives for RFID project, while the latter helps reshape social welfare systems. As these local factors have rarely been empirically examined, my framework can help contribute to future RFID implementation in different local contexts. More specifically, insights gained urge stakeholders involved to carefully manage unique factors of the emirate or similar contexts for intended RFID projects. The findings also suggest that stakeholders should be aware of RFID’s reshaping effects on the local context particularly because those effects might be unexpected

Politically Sensitive IT Practice: A case story of wireless network implementation

Drawing from social perspectives, we narrate a case story of wireless network implementation situated in a socially connected but politically segregated environment. We seek to understand how the interplay between radical IT implementation and organizational structure shapes and reshapes organisational members‟ perception of implementation success and how unintended consequences of popular mobile technology emerge in a politically sensitive workplace. Detailed narrative analysis reveals that many subtle conflicting issues intertwined among various stakeholder groups. Those issues not just reshape how organisational members perceive IT implementation success but also how future IT management take place. The insights gained from this case story thus suggest that a more socially and politically sensitive IT practice in general and wireless network management in particular might be essential in the contemporary service oriented IT environment