Impact of organizational and project factors on acceptance and usage of project management software and perceived project success

This study surveyed 497 participants to determine the factors that affect project professionals' acceptance of project management software and the perceived impact of software usage on their performance. The study finds that greater information quality and higher project complexity are the dominant factors explaining higher levels of system utilization, that greater system functionality and ease of use have a significant positive relationship with increased software usage, and that a strong positive relationship exists between higher usage of project management software and perceived project managers' improved performance. Inconsistent with prior research, more training was not found to be associated with project management software usage. The study explains more than 40% of the variation in project management software acceptance and adds project management software usage to project success factors by empirically confirming for the first time that project management software enhances project professionals' perceived performance and provides a positive impact on the results of their projects. The study provides practical implications for project professionals, their organizations, senior management, decision makers, software developers, and vendors. These findings support the call for further research that investigates the diffusion of information technologies in the project management field and their impact on project success and competitive position.     

Global marketing effectiveness via alliances and electronic commerce in business-to-business markets

Numerous changes in the global business climate have intensified global competition through new forms of competition as well as the addition of new competitors. As a result, domestic and international firms have to develop and implement marketing strategies that are aligned with the current global competitive realities. This study explores the influence of three overarching developments that stand out as having a dominating role in the shifting international competitive landscape: (1) the rapid growth of global business activities by existing firms and new entrants, for example, through increased international outsourcing (i.e., the intensification of importing activities); (2) the transition to managing supply chain systems through greater coordination of entire distribution channels, alliances, and relational exchanges; and (3) the emergence and increased strategic deployment of electronic forms of exchange, particularly with respect to information access, storage, and retrieval, as means of more efficient management of domestic and global network of operations and market intelligence. Managerial and research implications of these trends are discussed.     

An attempt to determine criteria for sensible rates of use of material resources

This article uses a systems framework to search for criteria for determining the rates of use of material resources. The existing criteria, which are found in the neoclassical economic theory and the environmental movement, are reexamined, and their limitations are discussed. The criteria for material resource use identified by this article emphasize that resources be selected from the environment on the basis of their regeneration time constant and consumed in a way that should maintain adequate organizational slack in the system. Based on these criteria, geological information about material resources appears to take precedence as the basis for determining their rates of use over their economic feasibility and efficiency of use.     

Segmenting corporate exporting activities: Sporadic versus regular exporters

The primary focus of this study is an examination of differences between characteristics and activities ofsporadic andregular exporters. This mode of classifying exporting firms, which has not previously been studied in a rigorous fashion is shown to be valid and has important policy implications. This classification is robust, with a high degree of convergent and internal validity. The two groups are shown to be similar along several key dimensions of exporting behavior such as size, age, and size of export orders. However, there are distinct differences with regard to such factors as initial market entry influences, export profit margins, export distribution channels, and information use. These critical differences relate to dynamism and level of exportmarketing activities undertaken. Conceptual, practical, and policy implications are discussed.     

全球化与国家间的收入差距：来自81个国家面板数据的实证分析

本文运用面板数据通过基于回归的不均等分解框架，研究了全球化对国家间收入差距的影响。这一框架不但可以帮助识别决定不均等的因素，还能量化这些因素对总的不均等的贡献。实证结果表明，用贸易和外商直接投资代表的全球化带来了不均等的上升，而贸易对不均等的贡献要大于外商直接投资。另外，全球化指标的绝对和相对贡献一直在持续增加。有趣的是，当我们根据收入水平对样本进行分组研究时发现，在过去二十多年中，高收入组国家间的不均等基本保持稳定，而低收入组国家间的收入差距则扩大了。在贸易方式上的巨大差别可以解释低收入国家间的收入发散。     

A model for holding strategy in public transit systems with real-time information

Holding strategies are among the most commonly used operation-control strategies in public transit systems. These strategies are most effective when used to control services characterized by high frequency. In this paper, a mathematical model for a holding control strategy is developed. Particularly, this model uses real-time information of locations of buses along a specified route. The objective of the developed model is to minimize the waiting time of passengers at all stops on that route. Furthermore, the model developed in this paper is characterized by the flexibility of adopting situations where bus occupancy could be either high, or low. A heuristic is developed to circumvent the complexity of the solution for the problem described. Numerical examples and computational results are presented and discussed.