Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Adoption

A review of the literature showed that there appears to be very little research undertaken on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) adoption by small to medium sized business (SMEs) particularly in Singapore. This study is a preliminary attempt to quantify this area. Using a survey-based methodology, the research examined EDI adoption. Results indicate that Singapore SMEs confirm findings by some researchers that EDI adoption is significantly associated with a firm’s annual sales but is not significantly associated with employee size as other studies have shown (Rogers, Daugherty, & Stank, 1992). This study is at odds with previous single-dimension EDI adoption studies indicating a significant relationship between firm size (annual sales) and EDI depth (Williams, Magee, & Suzuki, 1998). Organization size showed a significant relationship with the volume and diversity of EDI use but not with the depth and breadth. The most important reason for Singaporean SMEs to adopt EDI was pressure from their EDI-capable trading partners, treating pressure from their competitors as the least important.

A Multi-Methodological Approach to Study Systems Development in a Software Organization

Large-scale systems development is a complex activity involving number of dependencies that people working together face. Only a few studies concentrate on the coordination of development activities in their organizational context. This research study tries to fill at least part of this gap by studying how systems development process is coordinated in practice. The study uses a multimethodological approach to interpret coordination of systems development process in a contemporary software organization in Finland. The methodology is based on the empirical case-study approach in which the actions, conceptions, and artefacts of practitioners are analyzed using within-case and cross-case principles. In all the three phases of the study, namely multi-\site coordination, requirement understanding, and working with systems development methods, both the qualitative and quantitative methods were used to an understanding of coordination in systems development. The main contribution of this study is to demonstrate that contemporary systems development is much more complex and more driven by opportunity than is currently acknowledged by researchers. The most challenging part of the research process was the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, because of the lack of multimethodological work done in IS discipline.

Applied Multi-Case Research in a Mixed-Method Research Project

Even though information systems is a maturing research area, information systems case study reports generally lack extensive method descriptions, validity defense, and are rarely conducted within a multicase research project. This reduces the ability to build theory in information systems research using case study reports. In this chapter we offer guidelines, examples, and improvements for multicase studies. If information system researchers stick to these guidelines, case study reports and papers will get published more often, improving the rapidly maturing research area of information systems.

A Guide to Non-Disclosure Agreements for Researchers Using Public and Private Sector Sources

This chapter provides a set of guidelines to assist information systems researchers in creating, negotiating, and reviewing nondisclosure agreements, in consultation with appropriate legal counsel. It also reviews the use of nondisclosure agreements in academic research environments from multiple points of view, including the perspectives of both public and private sectors. Active academic researchers, industry practitioners, and corporate legal counsel all provided input into the compiled guidelines. An annotated bibliography and links are provided for further review.

The Challenge of Transdisciplinarity in Information Systems Research

Research in the Information Systems (IS) field has been characterised by the use of a variety of methods and theoretical underpinnings. This fact recently raised concerns about the rigour of scientific results of IS research and about the legitimacy of the IS academic field. On the other hand, a number of IS researchers have argued for a view that values diversity as a strength of the IS field. This chapter supports this viewpoint and analyzes the relation between IS research and concepts originating from theoretical debates around transdisciplinarity. We present results from a group of researchers of various disciplinary backgrounds towards an integrative platform for the orientation of transdisciplinary IS research. The Mikropolis platform provides researchers with a common language, allowing the integration of different perspectives through exchange of experiences and mutual understanding. We also discuss some practical issues that arise from the transdisciplinary cooperation in IS research.

Understanding Ontology and Epistemology in Information Systems Research

This chapter introduces ontological and epistemological elements in information systems research. It argues that ontology, epistemology, and methodology intertwine in a dynamic way. Ontology, as well as epistemology, is both an antecedent and a consequence of methodology. This complex relationship has an impact on the methodology which will affect the outcome later on. Understanding how these three elements can be related to each other can help researchers develop better methodologies for information systems research.

Empirical Studies for Web Effort Estimation

Web technologies are being even more adopted for the development of public and private applications, due to the many intrinsic advantages. Due to this diffusion, estimating the effort required to develop Web applications represents an emerging issue in the field of Web engineering since it can deeply affect the competitiveness of a software company. To this aim, in the last years, several estimation techniques have been proposed. Moreover, many empirical studies have been carried out so far to assess their effectiveness in predicting Web application development effort. In the chapter, we report on and discuss the results of the most significant empirical studies undertaken in this field.

Mobile Marketing

Recently, cellular phones capable of accessing the Internet are prevailing rapidly in Japan. First, their functions and features are examined: Classification of services offered at i-mode; Characteristics of cyberspace communication tools and their comparisons with mobile instrument; Strengths and weaknesses of mobile phones. Then, mobile marketing is discussed on from the following perspectives. (1)Ability to use real-time marketing, (2) Ability to use online coupon marketing, (3) Ability to navigate customer easily to shop, (4) Ability to make purchase procedures seamless—from the notification of special offers (by retailers) to the payment (by customers), (5) Retrieval and utilization of information without time and spatial restriction. Third, we analyze the differences in meaning between so-called four Ps in real commerce marketing and those in cyberspace marketing. Finally, several cases using cellular phones are analyzed: coupon marketing, production/construction status control, and distribution control.

The Retaliatory Feedback Problem

Online auctions are an increasingly popular avenue for completing electronic transactions. Many online auction sites use some type of reputation (feedback) system—where parties to a transaction can rate each other. However, retaliatory feedback threatens to undermine these systems. Retaliatory feedback occurs when one party in a transaction believes that the other party will leave them a negative feedback if they do the same. This chapter examines data gathered from E-Bay in order to show that retaliatory feedback exists and to categorize the problem. A simple solution to the retaliatory feedback problem—feedback escrow—is described.

Towards Google Earth

Using geographical information systems (GIS) has been of great interest lately. A lot of GIS applications are being introduced to regular and noncomputer-expert people through their everyday used machines such as cars (GPS), mobile (location systems), Internet (locating systems and direction guiders), and others. ”Google Earth,” a free online application, is one of those online geographical systems that provide users with a variety of functionalities towards exploring any place on the earth. The software uses Internet to connect to the online world database and travel in seconds between cities. This chapter briefly explores “Google Earth” and presents a possible future view and an extension of this GIS application by adding a time feature that gives “Google Earth” the ability to store the history of the geographical information that leads towards a new “Google Earth: A History of Earth Geography.” For this purpose, the chapter presents storage and indexing approaches to be used for the storage, indexing, retrieval, and manipulation of geographical data used by the geographical database of the world used by “Google Earth.”