Technology management for doing business in the knowledge based economy

Abstract

This minitrack is the continuation of the former minitrack on Technology Management: Systems and Processes. The purpose of the mini-track is to stimulate applications of systems sciences to the management of technology (MoT) by providing a forum for the exchange of new research findings and concepts related to MoT and the creation of value. The scope includes both systems for managing technology (cases and models of success, the identification of critical success factors in MoT) and the social and psychological factors, models, and processes of organizational change and technology implementation throughout the value chain. The unifying theme is that of managing technology strategically so that an organization creates value for its stakeholders and learns from its implementation of technologies, particularly information technologies.The paper of Choo, Detlor and Turnball fits into this subject because it studies the influence of the technology on the way knowledge workers go about their work. Studying the impact of technology in practice is the basis for improvements in its application and helps to improve the strategic effects of investment in technology. Dhillon, Hackney and Quek present three case studies indicating that strategic changes in the organization have their consequences for the use of IT. The creation of boundary spanning units between organizations can be enhanced by information systems that facilitate communication and sharing of information.Gottschalk and Taylor studied the changing and more strategic role of IT in organizations in the USA, Europe and Australia and how this is reflected in changes in the position of the CIO. One of the interesting findings is that contacts between CIO's and CEO in Norway are increasing. This might be an indication for the growing strategic importance of IT. Van Reeken en Lindenburg present a paper in which the effects of electronic publishing on the publishing value system are described. The conclusion is that not the publishers themselves, but other parties in the distribution value chain will feel most consequences of the changes in technology. Finally Vermeer elaborates on the importance of data quality for evaluating the impact of EDI on global supply chains. This is an interesting topic since from the literature hardly anything is known on the impact of data quality on business processes.When we compare the papers in this track with the literature on the management of IT, we conclude that the general shift of attention from design to control and evaluation is reflected in the selection. Four out of the five papers assess the influence of changes in IT on organizations or vice versa. Remarkably the control process itself does not get very much attention. This in contrast to the large amount of interest for control frameworks like ITIL in the European situation and the growing importance of the COBIT framework for strategic control of IT in the field of IT auditing. At the end of this minitrack we would like to discuss with the participants whether these trends need more attention in coming HICSS conferences.