E-procurement adoption by European firms: A quantitative analysis

We explore country differences in adoption of electronic procurement. Data are used from the EU-initiated e-Business W@tch survey 2003. Analyses are conducted on 3475 organizations from seven different European countries that were stratified according to nine different sectors and three size categories. It appears that there indeed are country differences with respect to e-procurement adoption, and that firms from countries with a low uncertainty avoidance such as Germany and the UK are the early adopters of e-procurement, while countries that are less reluctant to change such as Spain and France have lower adoption rates.     

Bullying as Unacknowledged Organizational Evil: A Researcher's Story

The role of the sociopathic bully is considered in terms of his/her responsibility for acts of evil in organizations. First, the literature on bullying is considered with the suggestion made that the term bully may be something of a euphemism, contributing to the problem of bullying not being taken sufficiently seriously. Bullying is then considered as a means of torture in organizations. The case study is introduced, where the author—an academic—is daring to share her story. Several of Biderman's constructs of coercion (Amnesty International, 1975. Report on Torture. London: Gerald Duckworth.) are used to showcase the case material shared which, when taken together, depict the relentless and deliberate nature of the bullying that took place. The paper concludes with an evil outcome of the bullying but, also, the success of the target in surviving. Some practical considerations as to what to do if bullying takes place are considered.     

Organizational culture as determinant of enterprise information systems use in police investigations

Police investigation units represent a knowledge-intensive and time-critical environment. The amount of information that detectives come into contact within the course of their work is astounding, and enterprise information systems are applied to support knowledge work. Organizational culture is found to have a significant influence on the extent of systems use. Four dimensions of occupational culture were applied in this research: team culture, planning culture, theoretical culture, and traditional culture. Only the extent of team culture was found to have a significant influence on the extent of systems use.     

Individual adoption of HR analytics: a fine grained view of the early stages leading to adoption

Abstract

High performing organizations are using analytics for evidence-based decision-making. However, the human resource (HR) function in many organizations has been slow to adopt this innovation. This study applies innovation theory, informed by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), to examine the individual’s decision to adopt HR Analytics in an effort to identify why the adoption rate is lagging. We examined early stages of the individual decision process beginning from Stage 1 (knowledge) and leading to Stage 3, (the decision) to adopt or not to adopt the innovation. We found several points in the process that can act as barriers or facilitators. Organizations and champions of this innovation wishing to facilitate HR analytics adoption can take action to remove as many of these barriers to the individual’s decision as possible. Further research should focus on the best way to remove these barriers.     

Effects of two national environmental factors on e-commerce functionality adoption: a cross-country case study of a global bank

In order to offer new services and gain competitive advantages, e-commerce has been widely adopted, particularly in the banking industry. Unfortunately, despite the growing adoption of e-commerce in the banking industry, the issue that web-based B2C e-commerce functionality adoption varies between banks or a bank's branches across nations has not received sufficient attention. Many factors affect e-commerce functionality adoption. However, two national environmental factors (information infrastructure and demographics) are particularly important because they relate to the availability of technologies in use and the characteristics of customers, respectively. This research conducts a cross-country case study of a global bank's Beijing (China), Chicago (USA), and Dubai (UAE) branches to investigate how the two national environmental factors affect e-commerce functionality adoption. The specific objectives are to discover how information infrastructure (measured by number of PCs per 1000 people and Internet access cost) and demographics (measured by population composition and income) affect e-commerce functionality adoption of the global bank's three branches. Secondary data were collected for information infrastructure and demographics; additionally, focused interviews with these three branches' IT and business managers provided sources for answering ‘how’. The key finding demonstrates that the differences in e-mail ordering and online shopping adoptions between these branches are mainly attributed to proposed factors of population composition and Internet access cost, and the new factor of individual credit reference system. This research contributes to theory development in this emerging important research subject.     

Groupware adoption in a distributed organization: transporting and transforming technology through social worlds

In this paper, we draw on theory from social worlds to analyze how different organizational contexts affect groupware adoption. We report on a study of the adoption of data conferencing in a large distributed organization. Our data show that the diffusion process, which was driven by the users, was a result of communication and transformation of the technology across different social worlds. We also discovered that membership in multiple social worlds in an organization creates a tension for the potential adopter who is in a distributed team. To function effectively, team members must uniformly adopt the technology, yet some may face resistance from other social worlds to which they belong. Our study showed that adoption was affected by organizational sites having conflicting views of the value of collaboration, different amounts and needs for resources, and different acceptance of technology standards. Potential technology adopters on distributed teams are faced with conflicting loyalties, constraints, and requirements between their distributed collaborations and organizational homes.     

组织变革、动态能力与创新绩效——基于多案例的研究

本文旨在探讨组织变革、动态能力以及创新绩效之间的影响关系。以新产品开发为视角提出基于NPD的三维动态能力,并利用探索性案例研究方法,以制造业三家具有代表性的企业为分析样本,证实了组织变革对需求识别能力、概念开发能力和产品设计能力与创新绩效之间的关系起到了部分中介影响作用。     

A resilience-based model for performance evaluation of information systems: the case of a gas company

Information systems (IS) are strongly influenced by changes in new technology and should react swiftly in response to external conditions. Resilience engineering is a new method that can enable these systems to absorb changes. In this study, a new framework is presented for performance evaluation of IS that includes DeLone and McLean’s factors of success in addition to resilience. Hence, this study is an attempt to evaluate the impact of resilience on IS by the proposed model in Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company via the data obtained from questionnaires and Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis (FDEA) approach. First, FDEA model with α-cut = 0.05 was identified as the most suitable model to this application by performing all Banker, Charnes and Cooper and Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes models of and FDEA and selecting the appropriate model based on maximum mean efficiency. Then, the factors were ranked based on the results of sensitivity analysis, which showed resilience had a significantly higher impact on the proposed model relative to other factors. The results of this study were then verified by conducting the related ANOVA test. This is the first study that examines the impact of resilience on IS by statistical and mathematical approaches.     

国际营销动态能力的制度驱动机制研究——基于四川长虹国际化进程的案例分析

随着国际市场动荡性的不断增强,国际化企业如何在持续变化的外部环境下获取和维持竞争优势成为战略营销研究的关注焦点;国际营销动态能力概念为企业应对激烈国际市场竞争提供了新的指导工具。本研究基于制度理论的视角,从管制、规范和文化认知三大系统中识别出若干制度因素;通过对四川长虹国际化进程的案例分析,考察了企业在不同国际化阶段驱动国际营销动态能力的关键因素及实现机制;最后对研究所提供的理论和实践启示进行讨论。     

面向复杂产品系统的研发团队组织有效性——探索性案例研究

本文采用探索型案例研究的方法,以4个复杂产品系统研发机构为案例,围绕着复杂产品系统的研发团队组织有效性进行了研究和分析。多案例研究发现：复杂产品系统的研发团队在组织形式方面呈现多层级、多类型的特征,而且这些特征与复杂产品系统自身的技术复杂程度、研制一体化程度、客户类型、产品交付周期等因素相关。通过案例分析和讨论,提出并构建了＂复杂产品系统的研发团队组织有效性模型＂,并对该理论模型中的测量变量给出了测量等级。     

Situated regional university incubation: A multi-level stakeholder perspective

From a macro perspective, it is widely acknowledged that University incubation models within a region are important stimulants of economic development through innovation and job creation. With the emergence of quadruple helix innovation ecosystems, universities have had re-evaluate their University incubation activity and models to engage more fully with industry and end users. However, within a given region, the type of University may influence their ability to engage with quadruple helix stakeholders and consequently impact their incubation activity. To date there is a scarcity of research which explores this 'meso' environment and its subsequent impact on University incubation models. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to use a stakeholder lens to explore University Incubation models within unique regional and organisational characteristics and constraints. The research methodology employed was based on a comparative case analysis of incubation of two different Universities within a UK peripheral region. It was found that variances existed in relation to the two universities incubation models which were found to result from both regional (macro environment) and organisational (meso environment) influences (i.e. university type). This research contributes to both regional and national agendas by empirically illustrating the need for appropriate design and tailoring of university incubation models (via acknowledgement of quadruple helix stakeholder influence) to incorporate contextual influences rather than adopting a best practise approach.     

Expectations of Consistency in Organizational Life: Stories of Inconsistency from People with Unseen Chronic Illness

This paper commences by considering that the current global climate of terrorism and human suffering demands a more critical consideration of flawed expectations. Addressed here is the flawed expectation of consistency in organizational life. Work life narratives from people with unseen chronic illness, that is, illness that is ongoing, may not be treatable or curable, and cannot be seen by colleagues, are considered to portray the problematic outcomes of expectations of consistency. Respondents of this phenomenological study demonstrate that expectations of consistency, from themselves and others, were unreasonable as their responses to situations and their illness demands varied from day to day and minute to minute—a problem for one working in the rational workplace. What is concluded is that recognition of the postmodern perspective, especially its appreciation of the multiphrenic qualities in these peoples lives, may assist understanding of these people's experiences, as well as the experiences of other traumatized individuals. Adherence to flawed expectations may make things worse.     

A security evaluation approach for information systems in telecommunication enterprises

In recent years, information systems in telecommunication enterprises have been characterised by boundary expansion and increase of departmental-level applications. These changes increase the complexity of security evaluation and pose new challenges to enterprises' information security. Taking into account the behaviour characters of system users, we put forward a system security evaluation approach based on access paths. This approach can help evaluators and users find out potential security risks without figuring out the boundary of systems explicitly. It has no special requirements for system scale and can be used in the evaluation of enterprise-level and departmental-level systems. This paper also presents the formal definition of access path and related evaluation rules.     

From Theory to Practice: Policy Analysis,Cultural Bias and Organizational Arrangements

This article discusses the inter-relation between policy analysis (PA) in public policy making, cultural bias and organizational arrangements. It provides a theoretical explanation for differences of PA approaches based on adherance to various organizational contexts and political cultures and lays the ground for future research on an important but rather neglected study area.     

Structures,strategizing, and contested territories: A structuration perspective on strategy development in employer branding

This study examines strategy development in employer branding based on structuration theory, focusing on the interplay between employer branding structures and the (inter)actions of employer branding strategists. To analyse this interplay, this paper draws upon a series of strategy meetings in an employer branding project of a multinational construction company. This study adds to the current debate on employer branding by advancing the understanding of the structural embeddedness of strategizing in employer branding. Furthermore, the study proposes that strategy development shifts employer branding engagements into contested territory due to various and contradictory structures strategists need to deal with.     

Organizational design in public procurement: A stakeholder approach

Organizing the purchasing function for public bodies and other non-profit and/or non-market bodies starts with the selection of an appropriate organizational strategy. In order to be able to select between generic strategies like low cost and differentiator or strategies described as operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership, a stakeholder based model was used. The selected strategy forms the basis to design the nature of three organizational elements: policies (P), organization (O) and processes (P). The aspect system of the purchasing function and the sub-system of the purchasing department reflect the nature of these three POP elements. It helps to translate the selected organizational strategy into a appropriate supplier strategy and clarifies the idealized mix of suppliers in terms of portfolio archetypes. Ten policy aspects of purchasing and four organizational aspects are described to redesign purchasing.     

Recipes for Successful Sustainability: Empirical Organizational Configurations for Strong Corporate Environmental Performance

We examine 45 existing case studies of firms with strong corporate environmental performance (CEP) to empirically identify four organizational configurations for successful sustainability. These four configurations represent different combinations of variables describing a firm's external environment, organizational structure, and its strategy‐related activities. More specifically, these configurations vary in having a benign or challenging external environment, a mechanistic or organic structure, a low‐cost or differentiation strategy, hands‐on or hands‐off participation by the top management team, high or low consideration given to stakeholders, and a short‐ or long‐term time orientation. Taken together the four organizational configurations introduce an understanding of equifinality for achieving CEP. In other words, given an adequate variety of ingredients, there are multiple recipes for successful sustainability. Implications for scholars, practitioners and policy‐makers and other stakeholders are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Interactions Between Organizational Culture,Trustworthiness, and Mechanisms for Inter‐Project Knowledge Sharing

This research used a multiple‐case study approach to empirically investigate the complex relationship between factors influencing inter‐project knowledge sharing—trustworthiness, organizational culture, and knowledge‐sharing mechanisms. Adopting a competing values framework, we found evidence of patterns existing between the type of culture, on the project management unit level, and project managers’ perceptions of valuing trustworthy behaviors and the way they share knowledge, on the individual level. We also found evidence for mutually reinforcing the effect of trust and clan culture, which shape tacit knowledge‐sharing behaviors.     

Sustainable product innovation and changing consumer behavior: Sustainability affordances as triggers of adoption and usage

This conceptual paper argues that for sustainable product innovation to make a contribution to addressing sustainability issues, we need to understand not only why consumers adopt sustainable products but also what makes them use these in sustainable way. To explain how specific product features can change the ways in which consumers engage with sustainable products in the adoption and usage phase, we draw on affordance theory. Affordances refer to the potential for agentic action of users in relation to a technological object. We develop a conceptual framework that explains how sustainable product innovation can lead to the design of sustainability affordances that stimulate adoption and sustainable usage. The framework shows how three forms of agency—material, firm, and user agency—interact and together influence a product's sustainability affordances that drive adoption and a change in consumer behavior. The framework explains how trade-offs between a product's environmental features and consumer expectations regarding desired functionalities and user experience can be overcome.