How information systems influence user decisions: a research framework and literature review

Technology has created new information alternatives that may influence the way information system users make decisions. This paper proposes a research framework for examining how features of an information system affect the decision-making process. The framework is synthesized by merging frameworks from the accounting information systems (AIS) literature and the human information processing (HIP) literature. The framework is then used to organize a literature review of 15 journals from 1987 through mid-1999, which identified 57 decision-making studies. Findings indicate that a wide range of opportunities is available for information systems research on issues of contemporary importance. This discussion includes changes in the decision process initiated by implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, data warehouses, electronic commerce, virtual organizations, on-line financial reporting, and disaggregated financial statement information.     

The role of moderating variables on music festival volunteer management

The growth and popularity of festivals and events has led to a need for examination of volunteer program management. An increase in music festivals in the United States in the last decade has resulted in managers recruiting and managing volunteers to operate music festivals. This research examines relationships between moderating variables and factors of self-image congruency, motivation, satisfaction, and intent to return as a volunteer at Austin City Limits, a large-scale music festival in the United States. This research demonstrates the benefit of incorporating self-concept theory in volunteer, event, and tourism research and provides practical implications for practitioners who manage volunteer programs.     

The influence of guided preparation on the long-term performance of new ventures

This article further develops a theory of guided preparation and new venture performance and tests its fundamental relationships on a sample of 159 new ventures that received outsider assistance 5–9 years earlier and had been in business for 3–8 years. The results suggest that the long-term growth of the ventures since start-up is significantly related to guided preparation. However, a curvilinear model rather, than a linear model, was found to best capture the relationships of interest. This suggests that there are diminishing marginal returns associated with guided preparation and that too much may even have a negative influence on performance.     

Understanding Top Management and Organizational Change Through Demographic and Processual Analysis*

abstract Top management theory has been strongly influenced by demographic studies of top management teams (TMTs), but not by research into organizational adaptation to conditions of extreme institutional turbulence. This article analyses the transformation of a post‐socialist enterprise through a combination of demographic and processual methods to develop an enriched account of the micro‐processes through which top management constructed organizational change. Adding layers of narrative data and processual explanation directly addresses the well rehearsed problems in demographic TMT studies. From the findings, we propose a set of theoretical arguments that conceptualizes top management in terms of management regimes, to which TMTs are politically tied and through which they seek to realize their values and strategies in organizational outcomes.     

Consumers engaged in a member-gets-member campaign: an agency perspective

In this article, the use of member-gets-member-campaigns is perceived as an agency problem: the agent (a consumer) is going to take some action on the principal's behalf (a manufacturer). However, before the principal decides to engage the agent in their member-gets-member campaign, the principal needs to know whether a particular agent has the appropriate characteristics and whether the agent will have the proper motivations to behave in accordance with the principal's goals. Moreover, the principal needs to know how the agent's ideas and behaviour can be changed. In this article, concepts from opinion leadership, social network theory and attitude research are used to test and evaluate the characteristics of the agent, who voluntarily participated in a member-gets-member campaign of a large producer of several brands of dog food. The outcomes show that agents that participate in the member-gets-member campaigns have characteristics which might be desirable for the manufacturer: these agents are opinion leaders and have a positive brand attitude. To some extent, these agents also ask permission from the consumer whether they are allowed to make them members and seek membership from people with whom they have close ties. The results also show that the agents positively respond to incentives used by the manufacturer. In general, the agents are not motivated to oversell the membership to the consumers.     

Accelerating New Product Development: A Preliminary Empirical Test of a Hierarchy of Implementation

Although time to market and a product's profitability are closely linked, simply speeding up new product development (NPD) is no guarantee of success. In fact, haphazardly adopting the numerous methods for accelerating NPD may jeopardize the potential success of the new product and the company. An article in a previous issue of The Journal of Product Innovation Management suggests that companies seeking to speed up their NPD process should take a hierarchical approach to implementing the various acceleration techniques. To improve the likelihood that efforts to accelerate NPD will pay off with shorter development time, greater market share, and improved profitability, it is recommended that a company start by focusing on simplification of the NPD process. From there, the company can proceed in sequence through techniques involving the elimination of unnecessary steps in the NPD process, parallel processing (i.e., performing two or more NPD steps at the same time), the elimination of delays, and speeding up of the NPD process. Ed J. Nijssen, Arthur R. L. Arbouw, and Harry R. Commandeur follow up on this earlier work by addressing several key questions regarding the proposed hierarchy of techniques for accelerating NPD. First, do companies that make extensive use of the proposed hierarchy develop new products faster than companies that do not? Second, do companies that make extensive use of the hierarchy enjoy better financial performance than those that do not? Third, regardless of the hierarchy, are products developed faster by companies that make more intensive use of acceleration methods than by companies that use fewer methods of acceleration? Finally, how does financial performance compare among companies that make more intensive use of acceleration methods without following the hierarchy and those that use fewer methods of acceleration? A survey of Dutch companies finds that the proposed hierarchy of techniques has a positive effect on NPD speed. The survey results also suggest that faster NPD is possible through the use of the various acceleration methods without regard for the order in which they are implemented. However, a strong positive relationship is evident between the hierarchy and the profitability of the product and the company. In other words, a random approach to NPD acceleration does not improve financial performance. By trying to accelerate NPD in accordance with the proposed hierarchy of methods, a company can avoid critical mistakes that might otherwise limit financial results.     

Union commitment and participation among Hong Kong firefighters: a development of an integrative model

This paper examines the factors influencing members' intent to participate in their union, drawing on a study of Hong Kong firefighters. As in Western studies, the main direct predictor of intent to participate is affective union commitment, but instrumentality is a relatively more important antecedent of affective union commitment and participation than in the Western studies. We found some evidence of frustration-aggression effects on intent to participate in ‘militant’ and ‘general’ union activities, although the latter was significant only among individuals who perceive management–employee relations as co-operative and trusting.     

Declining sectors and strategies within the area of human resources: a case study from Spain

Based upon the existing theoretical framework, empirical research on successful generic strategies has resulted in various recommendations for strategic management in declining sectors. However, these studies do not consider (aspects of) strategy implementation, and thus ignore the importance of aspects of the implementation for the ultimate success of the proposed strategy. Consequently, it is difficult to uncover some important factors that contribute to the success or failure of the proposed strategies. One such factor is the congruence between the generic 'decline strategy' and its concurrent social strategy. Although some theoretical proposals on this congruency exist, empirical studies on this topic are lacking.

Given the exploratory, 'real-life' and process nature of the study, the case-study method is used. This allows us to establish a dialectic relationship between the theoretical proposals available and the empirical observations. The company that is studied is a Spanish state-owned shipyard. Following a brief analysis of the sector and its specific characteristics of decline, the evolving congruence between the generic and social strategies within the company is analysed. Basically, the study focuses on the process of continuously adjusting and balancing the two types of strategies. Also, the resulting implementation issues and difficulties are assessed. Conclusions are based on the permanent comparison and confrontation of field data and theoretical insights.