现代信息技术环境下借贷记账法的改革

记账方法是会计理论的重要组成部分,是会计确认、计量、记录和报告的基础。现代信息技术在会计中的应用,从客观上要求对会计核算方法进行改革。本文从现代信息技术的特点出发,论述借贷记账法对会计核算的负面影响及其改革的必要性,阐述了I/O记账法的基本原理,说明了现代信息技术条件下运用I/O记账法构建的记账凭单数据库结构,提出了全面改革现代会计模式的初步设想。     

IT项目风险管理保障体系设计

IT项目风险管理保障体系是众多IT风险管理体系、模型和方法得以切实贯彻执行的前提,需要进行系统地规划和设计。由此从组织保障、制度保障和机制保障三个方面,论证了组织类型的选择原理、人力资源的配置方法、机制设计的优化思路,并总结了现有的制度标准和度量体系。     

American health politics, 1970 to the present: some comments

This article reviews the attempts of the 1970s and 1980s to rationalize health care provision in the United States. It critically discusses the contorted debate between competition and regulation as a means of controlling health care costs. The second part of the article takes up Eli Ginzberg's contentions about American health care. We agree that the United States has not been able to control medical inflation because it lacks the necessary condition of concentrated finance. But we present evidence from public opinion polls in the 1970s and the 1980s that challenges Professor Ginzberg's contention that "there is no evidence that the American people want to change [their] system" of medical care.     

IT Governance and Types of IT Decision Makers in German Hospitals

Growing expenses for health care services in hospitals stress the potential of a well applied IT governance for cost reduction, productivity gains and a possible source for competitive advantages. The underlying explorative study analyzes the current status of IT governance through a survey among 206 IT decision makers in German hospitals. The quantitative analyses show that the most important requirements of IT managers for IT are the optimization and standardization of processes, that IT investments shift from administrative to medical IT applications, and that private hospitals display relatively higher IT budgets than do non-profit or public hospitals based on financial turnover. Further, two types of future IT decision makers are empirically identified. The types differ regarding their future role as initiators for process optimization and regarding the degree of involvement in strategic decision making.     

基于IT能力的企业信息化非技术影响因素研究

企业要想从信息技术应用中获得利润,必须投资于培育整体的信息技术能力,而并非孤立的IT系统。信息技术能力不仅依赖于技术因素,还依赖于非技术因素,单一非技术因素的忽视就能直接削弱企业信息技术能力。很多企业在信息化中对非技术因素缺乏足够的认识和管理,形成了非技术因素管理缺口,从而造成信息化项目成功率不高、效益不高。因此,针对我国企业信息化过程中的非技术因素问题,探索性地提出了构建基于IT能力的非技术因素分析框架,并对高层领导支持、组织变革与变革管理、企业的文化管理三方面的非技术因素以及之间作用机制进行重点分析。对推进我国企业信息化进程和整体信息技术能力的提升具有重要的现实意义。     

过境交付服务贸易的发展及其影响

电子商务技术和国际外包活动等新型商务实践的发展明显促进了过境交付服务贸易的发展。本文在缺乏准确统计数据的情况下,通过对现有相关统计指标和统计数据的处理,就电子商务和国际服务外包引起的过境交付数字传媒产品、电子服务贸易、IT和商务处理服务贸易等的发展程度做了粗略估计,并就这些新型过境交付服务贸易产品发展所引起的关税损失、服务质量监管和知识产权保护、发展中国家的贸易收益和经济社会安全等特殊问题进行了初步探讨。     

公私医疗卫生支出与经济增长关系的实证分析

众所周知,医疗卫生支出不仅关系到一个国家社会福利政策的规划,还对经济增长具有不可忽略的促进作用。然而,现有文献对于医疗卫生支出与经济增长关系之间的研究结论却是众说纷纭。鉴于此,本文根据医疗卫生支出的支付主体,将其分为政府医疗卫生支出和居民医疗卫生支出,并通过建立双向固定效应模型对公私医疗卫生支出对经济增长的影响进行分析。结果显示：从全国平均水平来看,政府医疗卫生支出每增长100％,带动经济增长12．08％,居民医疗卫生支出每增长100％,带动经济增长15．85％;但与此同时,考虑到不同地区的经济发展非均衡化时,政府医疗卫生支出和居民医疗卫生支出带动经济增长的效应差异甚大,其中政府医疗卫生支出对经济增长呈现“倒U型”效应,而居民医疗卫生支出对经济增长呈现“阶梯型”效应。     

基于电子商务的连锁经营物流配送体系框架探讨

基于电子商务的连锁经营物流配送体系基本框架和相应的连锁物流运作系统,就物流配送的具体运作方式进行探讨,并就连锁经营物流配送过程中直供商品预测精度低造成的配货失衡问题提出“预测—预配—分配—修正”的解决方案。为其构建适应于电子商务环境的连锁经营物流配送IT平台体系的基本架构。     

中外信息产业技术创新体系建设的特点及启示

中外不同地区在发展信息产业时依据自身特点,采用不同的模式,形成了各具特色的信息产业技术创新体系。通过对中外信息产业技术创新体系不同特点的研究,力图寻求带有规律性的经验,为我国信息产业技术创新体系的建设完善提供帮助。     

Gender diversity issues in the IT industry: How can your sourcing group help?

In the information technology (IT) industry, women constitute only 33% of employees at the entry level and 17% at the leadership level. In this article, we outline the status of women in the workforce and discuss issues that affect their participation, with a specific focus on the IT sector. We claim that U.S. corporations can influence gender diversity in the IT industry by leveraging their relationships with IT suppliers. To this end, we propose the application of Nudge Theory during the strategic sourcing of IT services. We begin our narrative by describing the current state of gender diversity initiatives. Then, we detail gender diversity initiatives in the sourcing process as revealed by a survey on the topic related to IT suppliers. We then briefly define Nudge Theory and provide examples of this theory as applied to an organization’s supplier base. Finally, we present the details of our recommendation, which suggests that sourcing groups should include questions regarding women’s participation in the IT supplier’s workplace during competitive market events. We conclude with a call to action and a call to research.     

Process and intensity of internationalization of IT firms – Evidence from India

This paper provides insights and evidence related to the process and intensity of internationalization of firms in the Information Technology (IT) sector, which is the driving force of high economic growth in the Indian sub-continent during the last two decades. Research objectives were set as (i) to examine the existence of born global firms in the IT sector, (ii) to identify the process of internationalization adopted by firms in the IT industry, (iii) to measure the intensity of internationalization of IT firms. The paper is based on data collected from annual financial reports of firms listed in the CNX IT Index of National Stock Exchange of India. Two clusters were extracted using hierarchical clustering method followed by k-means clustering to analyze the characteristics of the variables. We find that the firms in both clusters are true global firms with 66 and 85% of their income from foreign markets with a very high level of international intensity. Though the findings provide some evidence for the gradual internationalization of Indian IT firms; the empirical results indicate that firm age has no impact on internationalization. The results from our study also show that firms, especially in certain industries such as IT, do have access to information that reduces the risk aversion.     

Ownership Sentiments Towards the Customer Care Function in E-Business Situations

ABSTRACT

Effective management of customer care is critically important for successful electronic commerce. The executive in charge of the customer care function in a business based on e-commerce might have a technical IT background, a marketing background, or be from general management. This empirical study examined the degrees to which a sample of 86 marketing and IT managers responsible for customer care in e-commerce environments felt they “owned” the customer care function, and the antecedents and consequences of powerful ownership sentiments. It emerged that heads of department with marketing backgrounds reported significantly stronger feelings of ownership of customer care than heads with IT backgrounds. The level of ownership sentiment varied with respect to the extent of the personal investment a manager had devoted to developing the customer care function, the belief that he or she was an expert in customer care, the person's commitment to the organisation as a whole (rather than to a specific function within it), and the degree of centralisation of the firm's decision making. People who felt strongly that they owned their company's customer care function experienced a heavy sense of responsibility for its effective management. However, the same individuals were more likely to be in conflict with managers of other departments and to resist change.     

Paperless healthcare: Progress and challenges of an IT-enabled healthcare system

For most Americans, a trip to the doctor's office or a hospital stay necessitates that medical personnel search through paper charts and records as care is administered. This remains the status quo, despite the increasingly large role that electronic communication plays in other aspects of our business and personal lives. The elevated use of information technology (IT) in healthcare settings—primarily via utilization of electronic health records (EHRs), which allow information to be readily communicated and shared among healthcare providers—has been advocated as a means of improving quality of care and helping to control healthcare costs over the long term. Yet, hastened implementation of healthcare IT will require considerable cost incursion in the near term, and will present various other challenges that must be addressed. Herein, we examine the merits and benefits of healthcare IT, as well as the costs and other challenges that may serve as obstacles to its wider implementation and use. We conclude with a set of recommendations designed to increase the likelihood that extensive expansion in the use of healthcare IT will yield the desired benefits.     

Gesundheitsfonds — effizientere Steuerung des Gesundheitssystems?

In 2009 the German central health fund was implemented. It was the result of a political compromise. One political party intended to equalise the risk structure among 130 different health care funds, and the other wanted to intensify competition and to improve efficiency among the different health insurances. The fund is flanked by a health-based risk adjustment and is aimed at sustainably ensuring the funding of the statutory health insurance system. It also constitutes the basis for competition among statutory health care funds, securing quality and efficiency in health care provision. To cover additional expenditures, health insurers had to charge flatrate premiums. A new law, which will come into effect in January 2015, will oblige health insurers to charge income related contributions. It is not clear how this will change competition among insurers. The federal government will not need to finance subsidies to low income individuals anymore. Income redistribution will only take place within the public health insurance system, exempting the privately insured and public servants from supporting low income individuals. The authors claim that the health care fund will not succeed in its aim of securing a sustainable financial basis for the statutory health insurance system. Most of the authors argue that there is no evidence of greater efficiency thus far, and they offer proposals on how to achieve improved performance.     

Exploring quality perceptions of health care operations: a study of public hospitals of Mauritius

Patient care has become increasingly important in the health care environment of Mauritius. Patients' satisfaction and their expectations of health care are valid indicators of quality health care. The present paper reports the results of a survey of patient satisfaction with heath care, administered by face-to-face interview to 300 in-patient adults discharged from five main regional hospitals based in Mauritius. It examines the predictors and level of patients' satisfaction across the five regional hospitals of Mauritius. In this study, a modified version of HEALTHQUAL scale was used for determining patient satisfaction with health care in the regional public hospitals. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to understand the relationships among patients' perceptions of in-patient services and their overall perceptions of health care quality, and also satisfaction with their care and willingness to return or recommend the same hospital's services to others. The dimensions labelled as "Patients' perceptions of ward/hospital environment" and "Patients' perceptions of medical and nursing staff" served a significant impact on nearly all measures of patient satisfaction in the regional public hospitals of Mauritius.     

Buying centre consequences of technological convergence

The paper discusses how technological convergence, manifested in increased mobility in organisations, changes the way purchasing organisations buy and use telecommunications and IT systems. The aim of the paper is to analyse how the implementation of mobility in firms is linked to changes in the relationships between units within the buying centre, between the buying centre and supplying organisations, and to some extent also between the buying centre and its customers. The study builds on interviews with purchasing functions in 61 small-, medium-sized and large organisations in different industries. The concept of mobility is discussed and defined. Industrial network conceptualisations, loose coupling theory and a buying centre model constitute the theoretical framework. Results indicate that management plays a more central role in the buying centre when major IT and telecom contracts are signed. The interviews also indicate few large changes in the exchange relationships with supplying organisations as a result of the implementation of new system solutions for increased mobility.     

Analyzing and Managing the Impact of Cultural Behavior Patterns on Social Capital in Multinational IT Project Teams

This paper contributes to a better understanding and to mitigate negative consequences of cultural diversity in multinational IT project teams. Our research explores how culture-specific behaviors impact social capital among team members and how firms can manage the strains. In the existing IS culture literature, culture-specific behaviors are – if at all – traced back to single culture dimensions. In contrast, the approach proposed in this article goes one step further suggesting that it is necessary to combine several culture dimensions to better understand a certain culture-specific behavior and consequently be able to better manage resulting relationship problems in multinational settings. Conducting exploratory case studies in six multinational IT projects, two exemplary cultural behavior patterns (face maintenance in India and post-communism in the Czech Republic) are identified, and management actions to avoid project performance problems are derived. The results contribute to a better understanding and management of the negative impact of culture-specific behaviors in IT project teams and corroborate that research based on culture dimensions, such as those conceptualized by Hofstede or House et al., is valuable for understanding multi-country IS projects. The findings in particular suggest that aggregating these dimensions to cultural behavior patterns improves their explanatory power and consequently the management’s capability to mitigate the negative consequences of cultural diversity.     

Does Business and Society Scholarship Matter to Society? Pursuing a Normative Agenda with Critical Realism and Neoinstitutional Theory

To date, B&S researchers have pursued their normative aims through strategic and moral arguments that are limited because they adopt a rational actor behavioral model and firm-level focus. I argue that it would be beneficial for B&S scholars to pursue alternate approaches based on critical realism (CR) and neoinstitutional theory (IT). Such a shift would have a number of benefits. For one, CR and IT recognize the complex roots of firm behavior and provide tools for its investigation. Both approaches also note the importance of social context and IT, in particular, points to tangible sites where changes in (and outcomes of) corporate practices can be assessed. CR also has an emancipatory ethos which harkens a role for scholars in social change, while IT provides mechanisms to ground this ethos in tangible activities that go beyond appealing to managers’ strategic or moral sensibilities.     

How to Steer the IT Outsourcing Provider

IT executives entering into information technology (IT) outsourcing arrangements seek various strategic, economic, and technological benefits. However, although several cases of IT outsourcing are considered successful, cases of failure can also be observed. Problems and challenges associated with IT outsourcing often not only relate to the strategic decision whether or not to outsource, but to the operational level as well. Especially organizations with little experience of implementing larger IT outsourcing programs face problems with the steering of external outsourcing providers. In this paper, we propose a reference framework that structures the required processes for an effective steering of IT outsourcing relationships. The research is based on the design science paradigm in information systems research. In a first step, we derive a framework from related literature and knowledge in this particular area. We then undertake extensive fieldwork, including expert interviews and field studies to evaluate our framework and to develop it further. The suggested framework proves to be a viable instrument to support the systematic analysis of current processes and the definition of suitable target processes for the steering of IT outsourcing programs. This paper??s primary contribution therefore lies in providing an applicable instrument for practitioners as well as in extending the existing body of knowledge on IT outsourcing governance.