Computer Information Systems Working Papers

Radio Frequency Identification: Supply Chain Impact and Implementation Challenges

Suhong Li et al. — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 11:38:24 PST

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has received considerable attention from practitioners, driven by mandates from major retailers and the United States Department of Defense. RFID technology promises numerous benefits in the supply chain, such as increased visibility, security and efficiency. Despite such attentions and the anticipated benefits, RFID is not well-understood and many problems exist in the adoption and implementation of RFID. The purpose of this paper is to introduce RFID technology to practitioners and academicians by systematically reviewing the relevant literature, discussing how RFID systems work, its advantages, supply chain impacts, and the implementation challenges and the corresponding strategies, in the hope of providing guidance for practitioners in the implementation of RFID technology and offering a springboard for academicians to conduct future research in this area.

IT Enablers and Partner Relationship, the Keys to the Practices of Supply Chain Management

Suhong Li et al. — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:36:46 PST

Many researchers consider information technology (IT) a great enabler for the practices of supply chain management (SCM). Meanwhile, the practices of SCM depend on good partner relationship, which is built on trust, commitment and shared vision between supply chain partners. This research develops and validates a set of measurements of IT enablers and partner relationship and provides a framework to understand the relationships between IT enablers, partner relationship, and SCM practices. Data for this study were collected from 196 organizations and the relationships proposed in the framework were tested using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that higher levels of IT usage directly lead to better partner relationship and higher levels of SCM practice. Also, partner relationship has a direct, positive impact on SCM practices.

Predictive Analysis for Leveraging Product Sales Performance

Richard Glass — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:28:04 PST

Managers recognize that quality information is key to effective decision making. However, gathering information is only a first step in the decision process. Decision makers must also be able convert information into the knowledge needed to take reasoned action. This paper describes how predictive analysis techniques may be employed by information users to create knowledge and develop action plans. A six-step development process that leads decision makers through a natural process of exploration, discovery, prediction and action is introduced and an example of a sales / marketing application is presented.

An Empirical Investigation of Student Perception and Selection of a CIS Minor Program in the College of Business

Suhong Li et al. — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:24:59 PST

This study aims to investigate the factors (gender, major, a priori knowledge) influencing student perception of a CIS minor and whether they select a CIS minor, in the hope of providing insight to colleges/universities in developing a strategy to successfully manage the recruitment process of students to the CIS minor. It was found that students? gender, major and a priori knowledge do directly impact their perception of the usefulness of a CIS minor. In addition, the study also found that a person?s gender directly impacted their decision to select a CIS minor. However, students? major and a priori knowledge did not seem to significantly influence their decision about actually selecting a CIS minor.

Securing Information Sharing in Internet-Based Supply Chain Management Systems

Chen Zhang et al. — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:17:45 PST

Information sharing is a key ingredient in any supply chain management (SCM) system and is critical for improving supply chain performance and enhancing competitive advantage of an organization. However, many organizations are reluctant to share information with their supply chain partners because of lack of trust, the fear of information leakage and security breakage from malicious individuals or groups. Through extensive literature review, this paper examines the possible security threats/attacks in a SCM system and identifies the key technologies in supporting the security and privacy of information sharing in SCM, in the hope of facilitating organizations? willingness and capability in sharing information by recognizing and implementing effective security measures.

The Impact of Supply Chain Management Practices on Competitive Advantage and Organizational Performance

Suhong Li — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 08:29:24 PST

Competition is no longer between organizations, but among supply chains. Effective Supply Chain Management (SCM) has become a potentially valuable way of securing competitive advantage and improving organizational performance. This research conceptualizes, develops, and validates six dimensions of SCM practices (strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship, information sharing, information quality, lean system, and postponement) and provides a framework to understand the relationships between SCM practices, competitive advantage, and organizational performance. Data were collected from 196 organizations of various industry, size, and location to develop an instrument to measure SCM practice and test the relationships in the framework. Relationships were tested by structural equation modeling using LISREL. The results indicate that higher levels of SCM practices directly lead to enhanced competitive advantage and improved organizational performance. Also, competitive advantage has a direct, positive impact on organizational performance.

Small Business and the World Wide Web: A New Way of Doing Business for the New Millennium

Kenneth T. Fougere et al. — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 08:05:30 PST

This research was developed to ascertain the level of use and experience with Internet technologies by small businesses in the state of Rhode Island. It focused specifically on the level of use of the World Wide Web in addition to email use in the daily operations of their businesses.

An Empirical Investigation of Supply Chain Management Practices

Suhong Li — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 07:56:02 PST

This paper presents the results of a study on supply chain management (SCM) practices. Through extensive literature review, this paper first develops six dimensions (strategic supplier partnership, customer relations, information sharing, information quality, lean system, and postponement) that capture the content of the practices of SCM. Then, based on the 196 responses collected from the firms in various industries, t-tests and ANOVA are used to verify whether SCM practices differ by the firm size (measured by the number of employees and annual sales volume), the firm's position in the supply chain (supplier, manufacturer, or distributor/wholesale/retailer (DWR)) or the length of the supply chain that a firm is in. The results show that the top three SCM practices are customer relationship practice, lean system and strategic supplier partnership, while postponement has received the least attention in the firms. The results also show that there are no significant differences in all SCM practices in relation to the firm's position in the supply chain. But some differences do exist in certain SCM practices by the firm size and the length of the supply chain. We find that firms with larger employee size put more emphasis at customer relation practices than firms with less employees; firms with a higher annual sales tend to involve a higher level of strategic partnership with their suppliers, pay more attention to customer relation practices, share more information with their partners, and implement a higher level of lean system than firms with lower annual sales. We also find significant difference exists between information quality and the length of the supply chain. It appears that the longer the supply chain, the worse the quality of information shared across the supply chain.

Teaching Digital Multimedia as a Component of Business Education

Harold A. Records et al. — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 07:28:22 PST

The growth of the Internet and the explosion of digital communication technologies in the 1990s have given rise to the importance of digital multimedia in the American economy. We define multimedia as the transmission of content through a combination of text, graphics, pictures, sound, animation, video, and hyperlinks, resulting in communication that is multisensory and potentially interactive. Multimedia has had an impact on Internet marketing, the music and motion picture industries, the education industry, and healthcare. It is therefore relevant to marketing and information systems and would seem to have a place in business curricula. The purpose of this paper is to describe the potential role for digital multimedia in a business curriculum. A review of multimedia offerings in higher education indicates that the concepts, technical aspects, and creation of digital multimedia are taught variously in computer science, the creative arts, communication, or psychology but are largely absent from the domain of business disciplines. We report on our experiences teaching a three-credit, 15-week, junior/senior-level Digital Multimedia course under the Computer Information Systems heading. Topics associated with the course include conceptual understanding of digital multimedia, business and legal issues surrounding digital multimedia, and technical underpinnings and skills in the creation of multimedia. A key component of the course is a semester-long team project on a topic selected by each group of students. Challenges in teaching the course include cost of hardware, software, and facilities; containment of the scope of topics; differing expectations of students entering the course; and availability of support materials.

Investigation of Factors that Influence the Adoption of the Web in E-Learning Environments

Abhijit Chaudhury — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 07:28:22 PST

The research-in-progress investigates the relationship between technology acceptance, individual differences, organizational factors, and perceived risk in e-learning environments. It uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a basis for hypothesizing the effects of such variables on the use of Web technology as a knowledge transfer tool in the e-learning context. This study focuses on the usage behavior of instructors in universities. The contributions of this paper are four fold. First, this study may help identify eager users of new technologies for learning. Second, this paper is among the first to use the Technology Acceptance Model in the context of e-learning systems. Third, TAM has been mostly employed in environments where the user is presented with a finished system. In the case of e-learning, the user is an active participant who develops his/ her own systems for use. This will be among the first research into use of TAM to study acceptance of user-developed systems. Fourth, the paper integrates three situational factors: individual, organizational, and perceived risk, that have not been considered before in TAM literature.

Electronic Commerce: An Examination of Skills for a Successful Developer

Kenneth Sousa et al. — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:05:57 PST

The development of web-based, electronic commerce software has grown significantly in recent years. These software development applications have challenged information technology departments in business organizations to implement mission critical, strategic applications for their organization that in turn creates a significant demand for the technology personnel to support the development process. Therefore, the implementation of these systems requires talented personnel that have received formal training with the proper skills to develop successful applications. This research conducts a pilot survey of industry professionals to determine the necessary skills and training required of an undergraduate computer information systems professional seeking employment for these positions. In order to analyze the survey data, the difference between the respondents' rankings (market importance - student competency) were compared to determine whether students attained a level of competency that was equivalent to the skill's importance in the marketplace. Overall, the results illustrate that information systems graduates do not possess a high level of competency in several web-based development skills considered important by the marketplace. For the twenty-eight skills included in the survey, fourteen of the variables showed significant differences between the means scores as well as a negative value for the differences in the respondents' rankings. Specifically, the respondents believed that Java was the web development skill as having the largest gap between the market importance and the level of competency possessed by a graduating student.

The Internet, Value Chain Visibility and Learning

Abhijit Chaudhury — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 12:40:50 PST

The expansion of Internet-related activities includes not only an exponential growth in electronically mediated exchanges of goods and services but also significant changes in how information is accessed and used. This paper posits that the Internet has made possible a fundamental shift in the nature of an information system (IS) by increasing the visibility of the individual information value chain. The increased visibility means that the Internet model IS, in contrast to the transactional model IS, provides the user with the potential for more direct interaction with the upstream processes in the information value chain. This possibility of direct interaction is one reason the Internet enables the emergence of online communities, makes possible more effective information processing at the individual level, and thus offers the opportunity for more effective learning. The paper discusses the implications of these concepts for IS research and design and for individual and organizational learning.