Issues in management information systems planning

lt has been advocated that management information Systems (MIS) planning is an important activity which an organization must perform in order to achieve organizational goals. In this paper, based on a field study of 131 large organizations, several issues related to MIS planning have been examined. These issues include: the impact of current MIS services on the overall competitive position of an organization; the impact of future MIS capabilities on the long-term competitive viability of the organization; the factors which prompted organizations to develop an MIS plan; the formal business planning processes used for the MIS function; the areas covered in the MIS plan; the main driving force in undertaking the development of a long-term MIS plan; and, the usefulness of the MIS plan in directing the organizational MIS activites.It has been shown that organizations vary significantly on each of these major MIS planning issues.     

The economic impact of the information sector in Singapore

The information sector, delineated as encompassing activities associated with the production and dissemination of information goods and services, is recognised as a dynamic growth sector in developed as well as newly-industrialising countries. Using an input-output methodology, this paper attempts to measure the magnitude and assess the economic impact of the information sector in Singapore. The results are found to be favourable although a number of caveats may be raised regarding its apparent import dependency and foreign exchange earning capability, which has turned from positive to negative over the ten-year period 1973–83. Other issues are also raised concerning the institutional framework, both domestic and international, necessary to support the sector both efficiently and flexibly. Policy implications are drawn from the results of the input-output analysis to consolidate and reinforce current policies to promote information technology in Singapore.     

Recent developments in French economic planning

Conclusions French planning seems to have had a very real effect on the economy in its early years. Industrialists' expectations were raised and new ideas were disseminated in a subtle way, and not merely because people believed the numerical values of published forecasts. In the early 1960s the idea of a consensus was extended beyond the need for greater private investment and the plan became the focus for a national debate on priorities. This exercise was valid and effective in a period of fast and accelerating growth but later the authorities chose instead to impose their own priorities, which included turning away from planning at the industrial level. This was partly because the underlying techniques of traditional French planning were seriously flawed in an open economy, but it probably also represented ideological preferences. However the consultative mechanisms continued to exist through the 1970s, though largely restricted to the macro-economic sphere. The 7th Plan generated a serious and powerful debate about responses to the recession but this was ignored by the authorities. Somewhat surprisingly, the reduced circumstances of planning did not affect the respect for its institutions in the eyes of other social actors: unions and business.¹⁰ In calling for a restoration of planning, the Socialists were therefore responding to a real need in a society with very limited channels for dialogue between social partners who nevertheless were forced to confront one another in the macro-economic sphere. But at the time of writing it looks as if an opportunity has been lost to carry out a detailed multi-scenario reflection on medium term economic policy.     

Efficient organization of information processing

The paper examines the application of the concept of economic efficiency to organizational issues of collective information processing in decision making. Information processing is modeled in the framework of the dynamic parallel processing model of associative computation with an endogenous setup cost of the processors. The model is extended to include the specific features of collective information processing in the team of decision makers which may lead to an error in data analysis. In such a model, the conditions for efficient organization of information processing are defined and the architecture of the efficient structures is considered. We show that specific features of collective decision making procedures require a broader framework for judging organizational efficiency than has traditionally been adopted. In particular, and contrary to the results available in economic literature, we show that there is no unique architecture for efficient information processing structures, but a number of various efficient forms. The results indicate that technological progress resulting in faster data processing (ceteris paribus) will lead to more regular information processing structures. However, if the relative cost of the delay in data analysis increases significantly, less regular structures could be efficient. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toward regional economic planning: The New England case

As a result of the current change in economic thinking toward planning, this article, using New England as a case, after some preliminary data analysis on the continuity of the two sets of time series data, and the rejection of a hypothesis on the similarity between the regional and national economic structures, proposes first to estimate and then to project the regional economic structure and its possible shift in terms of industrial shares of their 10 component industries. Possible contributions of this kind of study toward regional economic planning then conclude the article.     

Economic planning and information

Conclusions The central arguments for national planning put forward during the early part of this century were decisively refuted by Mises and Hayek during the 1920s and 30s (see Hayek, 1948). General equilibrium theory of the 1960s provides no more adequate justification for the version of indicative planning proposed in this article. It is disappointing to see that no account has been taken of the important recent developments in economic theory and analysis which provide a more realistic basis on which to compare the private market and government agencies.There is no doubt that the country's future growth and development depend upon identifying more profitable investiment opportunities in the British economy (p. 140). There is equally no doubt that an infinite number of such opportunities exist. But how to identify them? Regrettably, Paul Hare does not tell us.     

The contribution of the systems approach to planning

This paper attempts a three-part review and critique of the state of the application of systems theory to planning. The first part is a critique of McLoughlin's thesis expounded in his book Urban and Regional Planning. The critique emphasises the mechanistic bias and passivity assumed in McLoughlin's exposition and suggests directions in which the systems approach may be widened and strengthened to include in particular the political process and to include dynamic profiles of variables in the systems being analysed.The second part considers how far Chadwick in his book A Systems View of Planning has developed the approach, and comes to the conclusion that while the dynamics of the model are more rigorously treated the philosophical and social science assumptions, though hinted at, are not pursued to significantly greater lengths than by McLoughlin.The third part argues that while it is necessary to pursue the assumptions of the model, it is still permissible to continue model-building before the assumptions are finally tested and agreed as accurate, so long as accurate prediction on the basis of hypothetical assumptions is not taken in itself to constitute the proof of the accuracy of the assumptions.     

Multi-level analysis in information systems research: the case of enterprise resource planning system usage in China

Information technology (IT) usage within organisations is a multi-level phenomenon that is influenced by individual-level and organisational-level variables. Yet, current theories, such as the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, describe IT usage as solely an individual-level phenomenon. This article postulates a model of organisational IT usage that integrates salient organisational-level variables such as user training, top management support and technical support within an individual-level model to postulate a multi-level model of IT usage. The multi-level model was then empirically validated using multi-level data collected from 128 end users and 26 managers in 26 firms in China regarding their use of enterprise resource planning systems and analysed using the multi-level structural equation modelling (MSEM) technique. We demonstrate the utility of MSEM analysis of multi-level data relative to the more common structural equation modelling analysis of single-level data and show how single-level data can be aggregated to approximate multi-level analysis when multi-level data collection is not possible. We hope that this article will motivate future scholars to employ multi-level data and multi-level analysis for understanding organisational phenomena that are truly multi-level in nature.     

宏观经济管理信息协同系统探析

本文介绍了宏观经济管理信息协同系统的概念,深入探讨了协同系统的建设背景、建设目标、建设内容以及系统建设的效益分析,得出了协同系统建设的重大意义.