Corporate Information Technology Research Articles

Clinical research evolution. In parallel with the current changes in welfare expectations and information technology incorporation, study designs and data collection and analysis are quickly changing as well

The development of both technology, biological, and clinical knowledge leads to remarkable changes of scientific research methodology, including the clinical research. Major changes deal with the pragmatic approach of trial designs, an explosive diffusion of observational research which is becoming a usual component of clinical practice, and an active modelling of new research design. Moreover, a new healthcare landscape could be generated from the information technology routinely used to collect clinical data in huge databases, the management and the analytic methodology of big data, and the development of biological sensors compatible with the daily life delivering signals remotely forwardable to central databases. Precision medicine and individualized medicine seem to be the big novelties of the coming years, guiding to a shared pattern of patient/physician relationship. In healthcare, a huge business related mainly, but not exclusively, to the implementation of information technology is growing. This development will favor radical changes in the health systems, also reshaping the clinical activity. A new governance of the research strategies is needed and the application of the results should be based on shared ethical foundations. This new evolving profile of medical research and practice is discussed in this paper.

Transnational capital and the technology of domination and desire

The revolution in information technologies has brought about a fundamental shift in the productive forces. It has become the organising tool of the transnational capitalist class in their drive to global financialisation and production. In important areas information technology has radically reduced the socially necessary labour time to produce great concentrations of wealth, the results of which have significant impacts on social relations. Additionally, the desire for new information technology products, particularly in the realm of social networking and media, has led to a monetarisation of our private information. The control of mega data servers, by both the state security apparatus and information technology corporations, has led to new forms of coercion. This dialectic, of consent and coercion, is consistent with Gramsci’s theory of cultural and ideological hegemony.

Self-care management programme for older adults with diabetes: An integrative literature review.

This paper summarizes evidence on effectiveness of diabetes self-care interventions for older adults with diabetes, and identifies factors influencing self-care behaviours. The search for articles published from 2002 to 2012 was done using electronic databases, namely, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, PsycINFO and PubMed. Search terms include diabetes, self-management, self-care, barriers and intervention. Out of 261 articles screened, 21 were selected for review. Findings revealed that interventions using concepts of self-efficacy, self-determination and proactive coping, and interventions incorporating information technology were effective in influencing diabetes self-care behaviours with improved health outcomes. Psychosocial factors influencing self-care include motivation, socioeconomic status, literacy, knowledge, social and health-care providers' support, and particularly for older adults, the key factors were their self-efficacy, motor skill and literacy in self-care activities. This review provides important insight for nurse practitioners to address psychosocial issues in developing self-care management programmes for older adults with diabetes.

Developing Intranet Strategy: An Interdisciplinary Building Block Model

Abstract Intranets became the central platform for internal corporate communication, business processes and information technology in the last decade. This huge application scope leads to severe project traps: How can a corporate-wide, interdisciplinary intranet strategy be developed, established and maintained? This article shows the challenges and potential problems for the development of an intranet strategy. It introduces a building block model for intranet strategy. The model includes strategic dimensions as well as cultural aspects and project scope.

Analysis of university graduates’ competencies for the position of internal auditors: Perspective of internal auditor practitioners

A B STRA C T This study aims to determine what competencies are required when recruiting internal auditors. It is expected that the results of this study can be used as a guide for developing accounting curriculum related to internal audit. Beside, it can be used to design training to further sharpen internal audit skills in preparing students to enter the internal audit position. The study involved 99 practitioners of internal auditors of various companies’ types in Indonesia. This study used a Likert scale to measure the competencies considered by the internal audit manager in recruiting university graduates. Each statement is analyzed on the distribution of respondents by counting the frequency of respondents' answers. It shows that there are seven essential factors that must be considered when hiring internal auditors. They are the core curriculum which must include mastery of the material consist of ethics and corporate governance, information technology, internal audit, and business communications; factors associated with student activities such as the ability to work individually and in teams, the using of information technology to complete the task, and the analyzing accounting problem comprehensively. All factors associated with the certification of students are essential in recruiting internal auditor.

Incorporating Information Technology into Accounting and Finance Higher Education Curricula in Greece

Changes in world economy caused by globalization, the requirements for transparent financial information reporting accentuated by the economic crisis and the emergence of ethics and corporate responsibility as a vital integral component of business conduct and of information as a critical resource have posed significant new challenges on accounting and finance professionals. Aiming to address these challenges, the accounting profession looked at Information Technology (IT), which evolves and advances with an ever increasing pace, as a crucial facilitator. Today, modern IT systems enable accountants to have real time access to more and new types of information. New technologies with extraordinary analytical capacity, created a situation where voluminous data can be collected, processed and presented in ways and at times that could not even be imagined in the past. These developments necessitated the extension of the accountants’ role, regarding IT systems, from plain users to managers, designers and evaluators. Consequently, IT became one of the core required skills of modern accounting and finance professionals. This had to be mapped onto the accounting and finance higher education curricula, whose IT content has been constantly under a close inspection and revision by educators, professionals and national and international accounting bodies, over the past years. However, despite the fact that several attempts have been reported to develop a standard, the current situation shows that there are plenty of diverse approaches to incorporate IT into accounting and finance curricula and that we are far from reaching a widely accepted consensus. The present study presents a charting of the IT content of accounting and finance curricula offered in Greek higher education institutes, as part of a research project aiming to investigate the compliance of Greek curricula with the emerging trends in Accounting & Finance Education. Information about the curricula was drawn from the websites of all the accounting and/or finance departments of Greek higher education institutes.

Student Attitudes toward Information Systems Management as Major and Career Options

 Abstract—In today's world of fast paced technology growth and the ability in incorporating information technology (I.T.) into business, students who desire careers in Information Systems Management (ISM) are declining. The decline is due to a number of causes, including outsourcing of jobs and recent lackluster economic activity. Information Systems Management is a major where students study how to analyze, design or prescribe and manage systems which integrate data a company creates into value-addedand usable information for use at the management level. Information Systems professionals' foci include but not limited to, managing databases for a company and ascertaining that data captured and maintained within the databases and systems provides integrity and value. Careers in Information Systems Management has high job security in today's marketplace and a higher than average salary. But, there is a stigma associated with those career options and it is preventing current generation of students from considering the major. There has been such a severe shortage of trained professionals within the field of Information Systems Management that companies have to continue to outsource because there are relatively few or no qualified individuals available domestically for hire. The main reasons for the decline are students' misperception of Information Systems Management as a field of study and that young college entrants are not educated aboutits career possibilities and future prospects in the field.

Integrated tools for environmental management of large hydroelectric reservoirs and their surrounding areas

Brazil has the largest electricity market in South America and has the largest capacity for water storage in the world. However, the recent economic growth in Brazil has resulted in a strong demand for expansion and modernization of the nation's electric infrastructure. In order to meet these needs, power companies are increasingly looking for Information Technology (IT) solutions that can ensure more efficiency in their business. Moreover, new regulatory rules directly impacts the way companies should acquire, maintain and report information about concession areas, and demand the modernization of companies' information systems. This paper presents a corporate IT solution developed in our Labs to the Sao Francisco's Hydroelectric Company (CHESF), a unit of Brazil’s state-run power utility that generates and transmits electric power to all of the cities in the northeast of Brazil. This project aimed to facilitate the monitoring of concession areas to meet a new normative resolution that establishes particular procedures to be followed by the concessionaires for collecting and maintaining georeferenced information in the granting areas of hydroelectric plants, including all properties around the explored reservoirs. The main aim of monitoring reservoirs and their surrounding areas is to prevent the occurrence of undesired events of land-use or water-use, such construction of buildings and aquaculture; and undesired environmental events, such as fish mortality and water contamination by waste. Our solution provides means of managing different types of information about the properties located within the monitored area; comprises a mobile application that helps collect in-loco information about events; and provides a GIS-based module to facilitate the access and management of georeferenced information.

Tagging Communication and Information Technology Issues in Developing Countries

It is important for developing countries to enact IT policies that enable them to take advantage of the new technologies and any consequent economic development. This paper attempts to gain an understanding of how developing countries, in particular Venezuela and Nepal, could incorporate information technology in the overall socio-economic development through a definite information technology strategy.

Guiding Principles for Successful Enterprise Performance Solution System Implementations

Enterprise Performance Solution Systems (EPSS) encompass a critical niche capability within the greaterspectrum of Business Analytics systems. Significant financial reporting and management theory challengesrelate to the design, implementation and successful utilization of these powerful corporate capital planning andanalysis systems. Chief among the technical challenges are the metadata and fact data integrations with legacy,data warehouses and ERP repositories. Management theory challenges may be even more significant and relateto conflicts between and within corporate information technology and financial reporting cultures, datagovernance practices, and understanding oftentimes disparate forecasting and budgeting methodologies withinaspects of the organization. Guiding principles are explored in this paper with the objective of mitigatingcommon technical and functional area hurdles which can impact the success of these implementations. Strategiesfor enhancing the system design process and interactions between operational management end users and systemdesigners are also explored.

The Influence of Prohibitive Voice on Proactive Personality Traits of Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism

We investigated the influence of prohibitive voice on the proactive personality traits of extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, by applying the theory of planned behavior. Participants were 203 employee–supervisor dyads from an information technology corporation in China. The results indicated that both extraversion and conscientiousness were positively correlated with prohibitive voice, and neuroticism was a negative predictor of prohibitive voice. In this study we have bridged the gap in existing research on the relationship between proactive personality and prohibitive voice.

Evidence-Based Use of Electronic Clinical Tracking Systems in Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Education

Over the past decade, the federal government has mandated healthcare providers to incorporate electronic health records into practice by 2015. This technological update in healthcare documentation has generated a need for advanced practice RN programs to incorporate information technology into education. The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties created core competencies to guide program standards for advanced practice RN education. One core competency is Technology and Information Literacy. Educational programs are moving toward the utilization of electronic clinical tracking systems to capture students' clinical encounter data. The purpose of this integrative review was to evaluate current research on advanced practice RN students' documentation of clinical encounters utilizing electronic clinical tracking systems to meet advanced practice RN curriculum outcome goals in information technology as defined by the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties. The state of the science depicts student' and faculty attitudes, preferences, opinions, and data collections of students' clinical encounters. Although electronic clinical tracking systems were utilized to track students' clinical encounters, these systems have not been evaluated for meeting information technology core competency standards. Educational programs are utilizing electronic clinical tracking systems with limited evidence-based literature evaluating the ability of these systems to meet the core competencies in advanced practice RN programs.

가정용(家庭用) 가스 보일러의 보증기간내(保證期間內) 수리율(修理率)에 관(關)한 실증적(實證的) 연구(硏究)(I)

As Crosby notes, the most companies spend 15 to 20% of their sales dollars on quality costs. Generally the most effective way to manage quality costs is to avoid having defects in the first place. In this paper we have studied about the repair(service) problem of domestic gas boiler within warranty period. We develop a system, which man could find the cause of the problem at an early stage and could devise a countermove to the problem under supposing that the service(repair) rate follows exponential distribution and the product is manufactured lot-for-lot continually. Using the developed early sensing system. it is expected to improve the reliability of the product, to save expenses of company and to improve customer's satisfaction. And the system will be expended to incorporate information technology, which can detect the repair rate automatically.

Information quality and banking success: a theoretical model with empirical validation

Technology plays a key role in today’s business environment and is becoming increasingly necessary for all businesses to incorporate information technology solutions to operate successfully. The importance of information quality in the present business scenario has been drawing the attention of practitioners and academicians. This paper aims at broadening the understanding about information quality as a critical factor by which information technology spread its influences on banking success. In the context of Indian banking, this study examines how banking technology has benefited through information quality. A research framework and associated hypotheses are proposed based on process-based IS success model and instruments are developed to measure and validate information quality and banking success in IT investments. An empirical survey was conducted, and questionnaires were distributed to 600 bankers. A total of 499 valid observations was collected and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results suggest that information quality has a positive and significant effect on banking success from an internal user perspective.

Quality Control—An Approach Applying Multivariate Control Charts during the Operation of Systems Involving Human Processes

ABSTRACTQuality assurance during the operation of a system is critical for maintaining performance within desired specifications. Without proper monitoring and control, a system is capable of erratic behavior resulting in degraded performance, unplanned downtime for maintenance, or system failure. Statistical analysis has proven useful when appropriately applied for quality control activities, as is evidenced within the manufacturing industry. The collection of statistical techniques commonly applied to evaluate the performance of systems and/or processes is known as statistical process control. This paper presents an approach concerning the statistical process control technique of control charting, demonstrating its applicability to controlling and monitoring operational systems involving human processes with multiple quality characteristics. Typical control chart application assumes a normal distribution for analyzed data and sufficient data points necessary to collect an appropriately sized sample. The novelty of the proposed approach is in the intent of monitoring the overall operation of a process, focusing on initial inputs and final outputs, while utilizing 100% of process‐generated data from systems where the operational pace does not lend to the collection of large amounts of data points. In this paper, the applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated on a corporate information technology help desk. An approach designed for systems within the scope of this paper would be beneficial to multiple industries and organizations for evaluation of systems consisting of human‐involved processes.

An investigation into effectiveness of different reflective learning strategies for learning operational software

Skill certification promotion is one of the main policies facilitated by the technological and vocational education, where application software instruction is regarded as the core curriculum to foster skill certification. With its close connection with problem-solving learning, application software instruction relies heavily on hands-on operation incorporating information technology to adequately unravel the challenges where living or working application is simulated as problem situations. According to Dewey (1963) and Edwards (1996), the process of reflection is characterized by the inference course where learners attempt to analyze and solve the problems. However, more evidence is needed to decide what reflective learning strategies are effective for students' learning. Application software operation is categorized as procedural knowledge. Repeated drills are requisite to reach the ultimate goal of spontaneous reaction without thinking. Features of CAL system offer a well-rounded environment to meet the demands. The purposes of this study were 1) to investigate how different reflective learning strategies can affect learning effectiveness of operational application software acquisition, 2) to identify effective learning strategies and to incorporate the CAL approach with instructional practices to foster learning performance. Aiming at characteristics of operational software, this study proposed operational software learning strategy theory model based on reflective learning and Adaptive Character of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) model theories. The proposed model modified the reflective learning theory and added cyclical loop into CAL to fit for operational software instruction. The CAL system is developed and incorporated into learning activities of reflective learning theory strategy model by collecting frequent operation errors made in the first-year experiment as the source drill items. This study is conducted in a two-year sequence. A total of 172 second-grade students was recruited from a vocational high school. Different reflective learning strategies, individual and group reflective learning strategy, are implemented on two experimental groups in the first year. CAL strategy is later added into the experimental groups in the second year. The results suggest that group reflective learning strategy can enhance learning effectiveness of the holistic and medium-score group students. When reflective learning strategy is incorporated with CAL, in addition to maintaining the first-year learning effectiveness, learning effectiveness of the holistic and low-score group students can be benefited by individual reflective learning strategy. Furthermore, reflective learning incorporating with CAL has greater learning effectiveness than the learning without CAL.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying has been identified by school leaders and researchers as one of the most serious adverse consequences of incorporating information technology into the classroom. This article examines the legal status of cyberbullying by conducting an analysis of selected federal appellate court opinions. This analysis identifies a set of legal considerations that school leaders must attend to in confronting cyberbullying in order to protect students, teachers, and the interests of the school district. The article concludes with recommendations to district and school leaders before and during investigations of off-campus cyberbullying.

Problems and Measurements for Electronic Human Resource Management in Chinese Universities

Researches on university human resource management have been a popular topic in China. University is a major locus of human resources. In information age, firms increasingly incorporate information technologies (IT) into human resource management (HRM) to cope with technological challenges[1]. HR managers achieve their goals by using analyzed information produced by IT. Besides, with IT evolving, HRM has entered into electronic-HRM (e-HRM) era with characteristics of self-service and intranet. Since e-HRM is gaining more attention nowadays, it is necessary to introduce e-HRM to the human resource management in universities. HRM in universities is of important significance for the development of the universities. In this case, managers should research on human resources development and management in universities practically. They should study university staff development and management issues. To understand human resource management in Chinese university with the overall situation, this article uses literature analysis to analyze university e-HRM in China. Then points out the electronic human resource management problems that Chinese university needs to solve. It also advises some counter measurements for the problems.

Study of the Hybrid Optical/Electrical Wavelength Routing Approach for OTN Backbone Network

Transmission platform built on the backbone data network scheduling, dispatching exchange network, switching network administration, conference television network, data communications network and other business networks, production and business management for the grid to provide a relatively rich voice, video and data services. In this paper, we investigated the OTN transport network structure and the corresponding optical elements with cross connector. We have presented several wavelength allocation algorithms to illustrate the further bandwidth planning. With the smart grid construction and corporate information technology development, so as to let the existing backbone transmission network capacity and reliability levels can meet the requirements of backbone transmission.

Effect of web-based education on nursing students' urinary catheterization knowledge and skills

Nursing is a practice-based discipline that requires the integration of theory and practice. Nurse educators must continuously revise educational curricula and incorporate information technology into the curriculum to provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of web-based education on students' urinary catheterization knowledge and skills. A convenience sample of 111 first year nursing students enrolled at two universities in Ankara during the academic year of 2011-2012 participated in this quasi-experimental study. The experimental group (n=59) received a web-based and web-enhanced learning approach along with learning and practicing the required material twice as much as the control group, whereas the control group (n=52) received traditional classroom instruction. A knowledge test of 20 multiple-choice questions and a skills checklist were used to assess student performance. There was no difference between the experimental group and the control group in knowledge scores; however, students in the web-based group had higher scores for urinary catheterization skills. The highest scores in knowledge and skills were obtained by students who experienced web-based education as a supplement to tradition instruction. Web-based education had positive effects on the urinary catheterization skills of nursing students, and its positive effect increased for both knowledge and skills when it supplements classroom instruction. Based on these results, we suggest the use of web-based education as a supplement to traditional classroom instruction for nursing education.