International tourism and business productivity: does eco-friendly technologies matter?

This research is aimed at determining whether eco-friendly technologies go beyond and above in providing business productivity in international tourism. For this, the study obtained data from different databases, and this data range consisted of 2010-2020. The study applied the co-integration analysis, random and static technique, regression analysis technique, split analysis technique, and mediating effect tests on Chinese data. This research shows that tourism business innovation contributed 12%, value proposition as 9%, internal marketing as 16%, customer relationship management as 19.3%, tourists motivation as 34.05%, tourists time as 18.94%, green technological adoption as 17.3%, tourists visit intention as 8.11%, and green technical transfer as 28.1% in study model. Thus, the findings confirmed that international tourism and business productivity have a dynamic empirical nexus with the mediating role of eco-friendly technology adoption. Furthermore, such findings are robust empirically and validate the empirical connections among the study variables. These results imply that Chinese tourism industry stakeholders may use eco-friendly technologies to good effect, significantly enhancing tourism business productivity, international tourists' satisfaction, and tourists' revisit intentions. Hence, the study also directs practical implications related to the study topicality and China's tourism industry for prudent growth acquisition.

How finance shared services affect profitability: an IT business value perspective

Shared services have become an important IT-enabled organizational form for providing support business functions to internal users. The information systems that implement and deliver shared services are part of the organizational IT infrastructure that has a twofold effect on firm financial performance. On the one hand, with the shared services model, the IT infrastructure consolidates so that the costs are lowered for providing the common functions firm-wide. On the other hand, the systems delivering the shared services embody the workflow and business functions so that the value of shared services can be gained from improvements in the function performance at the process level. We perceive finance shared services as IT-enabled services for corporate finance and accounting functions, and propose that finance shared services improve firm profitability via cost savings at firm level and via increased working capital efficiency at the process level. We test our hypotheses with data on Chinese public firms from 2008 to 2019. Data analysis results show both direct effect of finance shared services on profitability and mediating effect of working capital efficiency. This study expands our understandings about impacts of shared services, and contributes to empirical research in IT business value.

Limited Effectiveness of IT/IS Investments in an Emerging Economy

The business value of investments in information technology/information system (IT/IS) has been the subject of active research over several decades. Even though a plethora of similar studies analyzing the impact of promised IT/IS investments on firm performance exists, the results, largely inconclusive, mostly concentrate on the developed countries. In this backdrop, and with an expected manifold rise in IT/IS investments in India in the coming years, an assessment of the relationship between investments and firm performance can be noteworthy. The study explores this important issue by analyzing the impact of IT/IS investments on the firm's performance in India based on data of around 6500 IT/IS investments during 2000-2016. We deploy a series of univariate and multivariate analyses and complement those with several robustness tests. Our principal findings indicate that IT/IS investments on the average in India have been mostly unsuccessful in impacting firm performance positively, in line with "productivity paradox" phenomenon previously documented in the U.S. and other markets. We substantiate our principal results using several robustness tests. We offer several possible explanations of our results spanning across both IS as well as finance literature and discuss the implications of future investment prospects for firms. The results highlight the need for adoption of caution by firms operating in emerging economies like India while considering future IT/IS investment decisions. These suggestions are likely to serve as a good reference point in other emerging economies as well.

IT Knowledge Spillovers, Absorptive Capacity, and Productivity: Evidence from Enterprise Software

We examine the productivity implications of external knowledge flows obtained through an internet-mediated discussion forum in which IT professionals help one another solve problems related to the implementation and use of enterprise software. We extend elements of the absorptive capacity (ACAP) framework that have not previously been studied in the information systems (IS) literature to a new context. Consistent with prior results from the IS literature, we first show that IT spillovers—acquired through employees’ participation in this forum—only accrue to firms with prior related investments in enterprise software. We then demonstrate boundary conditions for ACAP based on characteristics of external knowledge affecting the ease of learning. Our results show that IT spillovers are not “free”; the ability to derive the value of IT spillovers through informal channels—such as online communities—critically depends on both prior related IT investments by the recipient firm and the novelty of external knowledge. Less intuitively, when knowledge originates from relatively novel or emergent domains, the role of prior related knowledge in absorbing spillovers becomes more important.

The effects of cognitive apprenticeship and co-regulated learning on improving students’ computer problem-solving skills, learning motivation, and exp

This study makes use of online teaching in this environment and adopts it for use in a required computer skills course with Cognitive apprenticeship (CA) and Co-regulated learning (CRL) teaching methods to improve students’ computer skills, learning motivation, and experience of online learning. The subjects of this study are first-year students of a non-information-related department at a private university in northern Taiwan. A total of four classes comprising 111 students participated in the research. The CRL and CA group (C1, n=24) concurrently received CRL and CA treatments; the non-CRL and CA group (C2, n=25) received only the CA teaching method, and the CRL and non-CA group (C3, n=40) only the teaching method of CRL. The non-CRL and non-CA group (C4, n=22) served as the control group. The results show that the use of CA can significantly improve students’ computer skills; however, the expected effects of CRL were not found in this study.

A Systematic Literature Review on 30 Years of Empirical Research on Information Systems Business Value

Information Systems Business Value (ISBV) has been a key research topic for the IS research community. While the vast majority of ISBV research demonstrates the positive relationship between IS and firm performance, the fundamental question of the causal relationships between IS and business value remains partly unexplained. Moreover, researchers do not share a unified understanding of ISBV concepts. Therefore, this research intends to synthesize the past 30 years of empirical ISBV research, identify the gaps and shortcomings, conceptualize the ISBV concepts, and propose possibilities for further research that will widen the current narrowly shared ISBV bottom line. We aim to synthesize (1) different operationalization of concepts in existing ISBV research; (2) IS determinants, consequences, and the relations among the variables; (3) the role of contextual factors; and (4) the adopted theoretical views.

Evaluating the Sustainable Operating Performance of Electronics Industry Groups: Taiwanese Firms in Mainland China

Mainland China’s economy is growing rapidly, with China-made electronic products selling around the world. Taiwan’s electronics groups running operations or production locations in Mainland China have performed strongly in recent years. At one time more than 90% of the world’s laptops were manufactured by Taiwanese makers, largely in China. This study assessed the sustainability operating performance of the top 20 Taiwanese electronic groups (including 272 companies) with an average of 38 years of sustained operation in China, using the Data Envelopment Analysis Method (DEA) to measure the performance and operating efficiency of the group as a whole, with net operating revenue and pre-tax profit margin as the output elements, and total assets, capital, and total expenses as input elements, to assess whether changes in operating performance and productivity over the three-year period (2018–2020) are significant. The results showed that two Taiwanese electronics groups (Quanta Computer and Catcher Technology) were relatively efficient during the study period and that the overall productivity of the electronics groups was in a state of sustainability. This study uses the industrial cluster viewpoint to evaluate the sustainability operating performance of the groups. Results show that using DEA for performance evaluation is both comprehensive and practical. The findings of this study may be used as a reference in creating sustainable operations and improving a firm’s production efficiency through the evaluation of firm resource allocation.

After the disclosure: measuring the short-term and long-term impacts of data breach disclosures on the financial performance of organizations

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate changes to the financial performance of organizations in the 1–4 quarters following a data breach event. The study introduces two new variables, “intangible assets” and “extraordinary losses” to the discussion on the impact of data breaches on an organization’s financial performance. Intangible assets allow us to gauge the data breach’s impact on the organization’s brand reputation and intellectual capital reserves. Extraordinary losses allow us to gauge if organizations considered data breaches truly detrimental to their operations that they rose to the level of “extraordinary” and not an event that could be incorporated into its usual operating expenses.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a matched sample comparison analysis of 47 organizations to understand the short-term and long-term impacts of data breach events on an organization’s financial performance.

Findings

Data breach events have some negative impacts on the organization’s profitability more than likely leading to a depletion of the organization’s assets. However, organizations do not perform better or worse in the short-term or long-term due to a data breach event; the organizations can be considered financially sustainable in the 1–4 quarters following a data breach disclosure.

Originality/value

This study takes two approaches to theory development. The first approach extends the current literature on data breach events as negative, value declining events to the organization’s performance, which is referred to as the “traditional view.” The second view posits that a data breach event may be a catalyst for enhanced long-term organization performance; this is referred to as the organizational sustainability and resiliency view.

Designing Payment Contracts for Healthcare Services to Induce Information Sharing: The Adoption and the Value of Health Information Exchanges (HIEs)

Recent initiatives to improve healthcare quality and reduce costs have centered around payment mechanisms and IT-enabled health information exchanges (HIEs). Such initiatives profoundly influence both providers’ choices in terms of healthcare effort levels and HIE adoption and patients’ choice of providers. Using a game-theoretical model of a healthcare setup, we examine the role of payment models in aligning providers’ and patients’ incentives for realizing socially optimal (i.e., first-best) choices. We show that the traditional fee-for-service (FFS) payment model does not necessarily induce the first-best solution. The pay-for-performance (P4P) model may induce the first-best solution under some conditions if provider switching by patients during a health episode is socially suboptimal, making provider coordination less of an issue. We identify an episode-based payment (EBP) model that can always induce the first-best solution. The proposed EBP model reduces to the P4P model if the P4P model induces the first-best solution. In other cases, the first-best inducing EBP model is multilateral in the sense that the payment to a provider depends not only on the provider’s own efforts and outcomes but also on those of other providers. Furthermore, the payment in this EBP model is sequence dependent in the sense that payment to a provider is contingent upon whether the patient visits a given provider first or second. We show that the proposed EBP model achieves the lowest healthcare cost, not necessarily at the expense of care quality or provider payment, relative to FFS and P4P. Although our proposed contract is complex, it sets an optimality baseline when evaluating simpler contracts and also characterizes aspects of payment that need to be captured for socially desirable actions. We further show that the value of HIEs depends critically on the payment model as well as on the social desirability of patient switching. Under all three payment models, the HIE value is higher when switching by at least some patients is desirable than when switching by any patient is undesirable. Moreover, the HIE value is highest under the FFS model and lowest under the P4P model. Hence, assessing the value of HIEs in isolation from the underlying payment mechanism and patient-switching behavior may result in under- or overestimation of the HIE value. Therefore, as payment models evolve over time, there is a real need to reevaluate the HIE value and the government subsidies that induce providers to adopt HIEs.

Two sides, but not of the same coin: digitalization, productivity and unemployment

Purpose

This paper aims to examine how input from the digital restructuring of the workplace and productivity affects the risk of job loss and unemployment.

Design/methodology/approach

Relying on the concepts of technological unemployment and the productivity paradox as well as the theory of skills-biased technological change, the analysis incorporated micro-level individual determinants of job loss, macro-level economic determinants of input and the contribution from traditional (machinery and equipment) vs innovative (ICT) factors of production. The model has been also controlled for “traditional” indicators of “outsiderness” in the labour market. The Quality of Work Life Survey, which is a broad-based national interview survey produced by Statistics Finland, for 2018, the latest year available (N = 4,110) has been used in the analysis. Binomial logistic regression has been applied in order to estimate the effects of individual- and macro-level factors on the risk of job loss.

Findings

The results support arguments for the divergence between effects from labour- vs total-factor productivity on the risks of job loss, as well as the divergence between effects for temporary (layoff) vs permanent job loss (dismissal or unemployment). While the contribution from “traditional” factors of production to labour productivity potentially decreases the risk of permanent job loss, input from “innovative” factors of production on total-factor productivity potentially causes adverse effects (e.g. growing risks of permanent job loss).

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the theoretical discussion about technological unemployment and productivity by means of including two different concepts into a single econometric model, thus enabling examination of the research problem in an innovative way.

Mobile Instant Messaging (M.I.M.) in Improving S.M.E. in Manufacturing: Case Study

It is reported in the literature that there are widespread adoption and use of Mobile Instant Messaging (M.I.M.) among businesses. However, there is a lack of academic publication in this area that demonstrates by means of a case study that the M.I.M. implementation for S.M.E.'s can improve operational processes. In this case study, the company recently moved much of its Product Ordering (P.O.) processes to a freely accessible M.I.M. app. The paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis to evaluate the impact of the change. Quantitative and qualitative analysis confirms that the introduction has enhanced the P.O. process. The analysis shows that the timeline for the full P.O. process is significantly shortened. The speed of communication allowed faster processing, approval and delivery. The paper presents the first case study that looks at how M.I.M. processes can enhance an S.M.E.'s operations.

The Role of Enterprise Architecture for Digital Transformations

In the current turbulent and unpredictable markets, competitive advantage can no longer be achieved through high product quality or efficient processes alone [...]

The Usefulness of the Two-Step Normality Transformation in Retesting Existing Theories

The Two-Step normality transformation has been shown to reliably transform continuous variables toward normality. The procedure offers researchers a capable alternative to more prominent methods, such as winsorization, ranking, and power transformations. We demonstrate its utility in the context of the Productivity Paradox literature stream, which is renowned for inconsistent results. This paper demonstrates that the Two-Step normality transformation, which has not been used in Productivity Paradox research, may produce greater goodness-of-fit and affect theoretical understandings on the topic. We use a classic Productivity Paradox dataset to show that compared to the prominent normality transformations, the Two-Step produces unique findings, including 1) regression coefficients more closely resembling the original data, 2) different effect sizes and significance levels, and 3) strengthening evidence for fundamental theories in Productivity Paradox literature. We demonstrate results that challenge uncertainties about the relationship between IT investment and firm performance. Our results imply that the Two-Step procedure should be considered a viable transformation option in future information systems research.

The dynamics of IT-business strategic alignment: evidence from healthcare information systems implementation

Purpose

This study intends to reveal how to manage the dynamic process of information technology business (IT-business) strategic alignment; managing this alignment is an unknown yet critical issue that must be addressed by any firm trying to unleash the business value of their IT investments.

Design/methodology/approach

This study presents our case study of a healthcare organization after healthcare information systems (HIS) implementation and investigates the strategic alignment between the implemented HIS and the organizational strategy from a dynamic perspective.

Findings

Two different patterns of alignment (i.e. an IT-strategy–driven pattern and a business-strategy–driven pattern) are identified, and a process model of the IT-business strategic alignment is developed. Moreover, this study focuses on the social dimension of strategic alignment and examines the role of this dimension, which is critical and fundamental with respect to other dimensions, in achieving strategic alignment.

Research limitations/implications

This paper makes important theoretical contributions to the understanding of strategic alignment by taking a dynamic view of alignment, identifying different patterns of alignment, emphasizing the role of social alignment and developing a comprehensive process model.

Practical implications

From a managerial perspective, managers should periodically scrutinize the IT-business alignment patterns of their organizations and develop dynamic capabilities for strategic alignment.

Originality/value

While most of the literature on the dynamics of strategic alignment have focused on confirming the dynamics of strategic alignment and identifying the factors that create dynamics in alignment, this study examines IT-business alignment as a continuous process over time, thus providing a novel perspective. Moreover, while the role of social alignment and its impact on downstream performance remain unclear in the current literature, this study incorporates the social dimension of alignment to investigate the role of this dimension in achieving IT-business strategic alignment.

Are the Blockchain-Based Patents Sustainable for Increasing Firm Value?

Blockchain technology is changing conventional online transaction systems by eliminating payment gateway firms. The blockchain technology is highly attractive and has earned a lot of attention from investors and firms. To protect blockchain technology, firms acquire a patent of blockchain for enhancing the value of their blockchain technology. However, the sustainable value for a patent of blockchain has not been clearly explored. For this reason, our research attempted to explore the relationship between a patent of blockchain and firm value. We used a real options theory and built robust empirical tests based on United State Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) data. We collected the patents of blockchains from 2014 to 2018 and matched financial data from the Compustat database. In total, we found 153 panel observations. Our results suggest that a firm’s patent of blockchain originality and t-1 lagged effects for a firm’s patent of blockchain generality are positively associated with firm value in general. In addition, the sustainable value for the patent of blockchain affects firms differently based on their industry. We found that the sustainable value for the patent of blockchain originality was positively and exclusively associated with the software industry, while the sustainable value for the patent of blockchain generality was positively and exclusively associated with the hardware industry.

Towards Strategic Business Performance of the Hospitality Sector: Nexus of ICT, E-Marketing and Organizational Readiness

Purpose: This study aims to present a strategic business performance (SBP) model for firms operating in the hospitality industry by providing them guidance on how to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) and e-marketing to attain strategic performance. This paper also explores the moderating role of organizational readiness in the relationship between ICT and e-marketing. Methodology: Data were collected from the top, middle, and operational managers in 4-star and 5-star hotels. To test the mediating role of e-marketing in the relationship between ICT and SBP, Preacher and Hayes’s (2008) approach was used along with the bootstrap method. Regression analysis was carried out to examine the moderating role of organizational readiness. Findings: ICTs provide opportunities to execute e-marketing activities for achieving competitiveness. The empirical findings proved that the use of ICTs provides a basis for establishing a successful e-marketing mechanism that helps hotels to achieve SBP. Furthermore, ICTs’ influence on e-marketing is strengthened by organizational readiness. Originality/value: This paper adds to previous literature on ICTs, SBP, and e-marketing by examining the role of e-marketing and ICTs in positively contributing to the hotels’ SBP, which is a broader measure of firms’ business performance, as compared to the traditional financial or operational measures of a firm’s performance. Since previous studies on the links between ICTs, e-marketing, and firm performance are based on conventional measures of firm performance, this study offers new insights into the nexus of ICTs, e-marketing, and firm performance.

Selecting the Most Desirable IT Portfolio Under Various Risk Tolerance Levels

To better assist decision-makers (e.g., enterprise executives) in selecting the most desirable IT portfolio, this study proposes a new IT Portfolio Efficient Frontier model that incorporates the decision-maker's risk tolerance levels. The proposed model, built on portfolio optimization along with experimental design and simulation data, considers three IT portfolio scenarios: even distribution-based IT portfolios, uneven distribution-based IT portfolios, and dominant IT portfolios. Our findings show that the IT portfolio efficient frontiers derived from both an even distribution-based IT portfolio and an uneven distribution-based IT portfolio have a relatively positive relationship between IT portfolio risk and return. Our findings also indicate that if IT investments are part of a dominant IT portfolio, an inflection point of the IT portfolio efficient frontier appears under the decision-maker's medium risk tolerance level, and the most desirable IT portfolio is generated when a decision maker's risk tolerance level is medium or higher.

Impact of IT practices and business value of IT measurement

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to measure the business value of IT (BVIT) and illustrate the relationship between IT practices and BVIT.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a case study approach to collect the subject firm data over a period of one year. The data are about various IT systems used in the firm and their associated capital and operational cost components. The derived data are then compared with industry benchmarks.

Findings

The IT practices employed by the firm enable it to achieve a BVIT which is higher than the industry norm, from both strategic and operational perspectives.

Research limitations/implications

In this study, a year’s worth of data from a single firm is considered. The temporal frame of the research data limits the generalization of the results. To improve the generalizability, data from many years and across many firms may be used.

Practical implications

The paper provides insights to managers to identify the measures of BVIT. Further, managers can make necessary interventions based on IT practices to derive IT capabilities which, in turn, impact the firm’s performance.

Originality/value

The contribution of the work is manifold: illustration of the relationship between IT practices and BVIT; illustration of a methodology to evaluate firm-level BVIT; and an approach to collect IT expenses – both capital and operational level.

Are ICTs Really That Important in Driving Industry Performance?

A decision tree is used to investigate how information and communication technologies (ICTs) and financial factors influence the performance of service and manufacturing industries globally. Industry performance is measured by average fixed asset purchases among firms at the industry level. In addition, industry sectors and geographic regions are included in the predictive model. The results show that financial factors are better predictors of performance than ICT factors. For example, access to bank loans or lines of credit is by far the best predictor among the variables included in the study. Having a website is the only ICT factor among the top five predictors. Geography also plays an important role in predicting industry performance.

Industry 4.0: A Solution towards Technology Challenges of Sustainable Business Performance

Technology adoption is always a difficult task for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) due to lack of resources and other market issues. Many technology challenges adversely affect the sustainable business performance of SMEs. However, the incorporation of Industry 4.0 can overcome various technology issues. The goal of Industry 4.0 is to attain an advanced level of operational effectiveness and productivity, as well as a higher level of automatization. Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the role of Industry 4.0 to promote sustainable business performance in SMEs in Thailand. A survey has been prepared to collect the data from managers of SMEs and analyzed with the help of Partial Least Square. The questionnaire was used to collect the data and questionnaires were distributed by using simple random sampling. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed amongst the managerial staff of SMEs located in Thailand. From these distributed questionnaires, 280 were returned and 270 valid responses were found. Data were analyzed by using Partial Least Square (PLS)-Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings reveal that Industry 4.0 is a key to the growth of sustainable business performance among SMEs. Elements of Industry 4.0 such as big data, Internet of Things and smart factory have a positive role in promoting information technology (IT) implementation, which contributes to sustainable business performance. Moreover, organization structure and process strengthen the positive relationship between Industry 4.0 and IT implementation.

Strategic IT management: how companies can benefit from an increasing IT influence

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the value of a strong decision-making information technology (IT) influence within organizations. Although research and managerial practice has repeatedly shown the importance of IT departments within firms and has commented on the influence of IT departments on business performance, prior research has still no evidence about the value of a strong decision-making IT influence yet.

Design/methodology/approach

To prove the influence of the IT department within the company, this study identifies and operationalizes a formative construct determined by four main specifics of the IT department: IT department size, IT department value assessment, IT experience of the top management and degree of digitization. A questionnaire was used to collect the data of 124 experts from companies that could be assigned mainly to the sectors manufacturing, trade as well as information and communication. The data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Further, partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was used to test the proposed model.

Findings

The results show that both investments in the size of the IT department as well as in top managers with IT experience, and a high degree of digitization in a company positively influence the role of the IT department. It also shows that a higher general appreciation of the IT department goes hand in hand with a higher influence of IT in the company. The measures are significant as companies, which do have an influential IT department, actually have higher monetary as well as non-monetary business performances.

Practical implications

The study is aimed equally at science and practice, as it provides information on the extent to which more importance should be attached to IT management in the future and what organizational adjustments need to be made.

Originality/value

Despite the ongoing discussions on the importance of IT management for business performance, no existing studies have delivered evidence that there is a significant direct link between the decision-making influence of IT and the extent of corporate performance. The present work therefore has two objectives. The theoretical goal is to clarify the impact of the IT department on business performance and to identify the factors that make up an influential IT department. The practical objective of the research is to provide recommendations on how firms could establish or expand the IT department.