Characteristics Of Information Technology Research Articles

The differential impact of IT investments in the long term: a long-horizon event study

PurposeThis research investigates the differential impact of information technology (IT) investments based on their features, such as investment in data management capability, security improvement, IT outsourcing or new IT infrastructure. The Long-Horizon Event Study (LHES) is essential for providing a more appropriate measure of the value of IT investments because firms' strategic decisions often set long-horizon and large-scale organizational goals, and there is inherent uncertainty regarding future cash flows resulting from these investments. Therefore, the authors aim to analyze how announcements of IT investments affect the firm's abnormal stock returns over the long term and to compare the differential impact of different features of IT investment.Design/methodology/approachThe authors gathered IT investment announcements and stock data of listed firms in Korea between 2000 and 2018, and the monthly stock market returns over the 5 years after the announcements. To measure the differential impact of IT investments based on the investment features, the authors separate announcements data into five groups. A LHES is used to estimate the long-term effects of IT investment announcements.FindingsThe results indicate that announcements of IT investments had a long-term positive effect on firm performance. Additionally, the findings reveal differential effects of IT investments across industries and investment features. Notably, news of self-developed IT investments and IT investments in the manufacturing industry had significantly positive effects. However, contrary to common belief, announcements of investments in so-called essential IT areas such as data, security, or new IT infrastructure did not yield significant effects.Originality/valueAlthough the need for LHES has been emphasized in information systems research, few follow-up studies have been conducted since Barua and Mani (2018). This is primarily due to the challenges associated with collecting large-scale abnormal stock returns data over a long horizon. This research represents the first LHES to investigate the differential impact of IT investments based on their features. By doing so, this study can provide valuable insights for decision-makers within firms, helping them understand the time horizon of market outcomes of IT investments based on their features. Furthermore, this work extends the scope of LHES to comprehend the differential impacts of investment features. For instance, managers need to grasp that so-called essential IT investments, such as data management, security enhancements or new IT infrastructure, may not necessarily generate long-term market value.

Factors affecting success in information technology utilization in business operations of agri-tech startups in Southern Thailand

This study aimed to explore the factors that affect the success of information technology utilization in the business operations of agri-tech startups in Southern Thailand. Purposive sampling was used for random sampling, and the samples consisted of startup entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector in the south, registered with the department of business development, and a trade association to promote new technology entrepreneurs in 2019. The total number of cases was 48, and there were five experts in information technology management, startup business management, and executives involved in the startup business. Data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire with a 5-point rating scale. Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis were applied using the R program. The results showed that 11 factors were associated with the successful use of information technology in operating a startup. The main predictor of success in information technology utilized in business operations of agri-tech startups in Southern Thailand were the characteristics of Information technology (X1), behavior on using information technology (X3), familiarity with basic technology in the organization (X6), financial technology (X10), and policy and law (X11) (R2 = 0.511, P < 0.05). The results of the study could provide useful guidelines for developing and improving information technology, innovation utilization, and for setting policy suggestions regarding needs analysis, developing information technology in supporting agriculture entrepreneurs, and other businesses in Southern Thailand to manage the startup ecosystem.

Innovation of Public Management Mode in Higher Vocational Colleges under the Background of Informatization

Information technology has promoted the innovative development of the current public management mode in higher vocational colleges, brought new development opportunities and challenges to the public management work, and changed the traditional work mode and method. We should strengthen the effective application of information technology, reflect the advantages of information technology application in public management of higher vocational colleges, and give more development and extension space for public management. At this stage, the study of public management innovation in higher vocational colleges under the background of informatization has become a key topic, which has certain practical research significance. It is conducive to better promote the in-depth development of public management in higher vocational colleges, and more in line with the development trend and characteristics of information technology in the current era.

New EHR certification requirements and their association with duplicate tests and images.

Certified electronic health record (EHR) technology has been adopted by most hospitals and health care providers. In 2015, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) published new EHR certification requirements, known as the 2015 Edition. To date, no research has examined the impact of hospitals' adoption of the 2015 Edition on health care delivery. We analyzed aggregated, longitudinal data drawn from a repository of deidentified health insurance claims collected by FAIR Health, the repository was estimated to represent about 75% of the privately insured in the United States. These data were linked with the American Hospital Association (AHA) Information Technology Supplement Survey to obtain hospitals' health information technology characteristics. A fixed effects specification was used to assess the incidence of duplicate testing and imaging in both inpatient and outpatient settings before and after the hospitals' adoption of the 2015 Edition. Hospitals with the 2015 Edition were less likely to perform duplicate imaging for inpatients by 5 percentage points (or 50% from baseline). Hospitals that adopted the 2015 Edition and actively engaged in interoperable data exchange were even less likely to perform duplicate lab tests. Adoption of the 2015 Edition certified EHR was negatively associated with the incidence of lab and imaging test duplication in both the outpatient and inpatient settings. However, the results were not robust across specifications. Given that multiple factors influence care delivery decisions, improvements in certification standards alone are unlikely to eliminate unneeded duplicate lab and imaging tests.

Avoidance of Cybersecurity Threats with the Deployment of a Web-Based Blockchain-Enabled Cybersecurity Awareness System

Modern information technology (IT) is well developed, and almost everyone uses the features of IT and services within the Internet. However, people are being affected due to cybersecurity threats. People can adhere to the recommended cybersecurity guidelines, rules, adopted standards, and cybercrime preventive measures to largely mitigate these threats. The ignorance of or lack of cybersecurity knowledge also causes a critical problem regarding confidentiality and privacy. It is not possible to fully avoid cybercrimes that often lead to sufficient business losses and spread forbidden themes (disgust, extremism, child porn, etc.). Therefore, to reduce the risk of cybercrimes, a web-based Blockchain-enabled cybersecurity awareness program (WBCA) process is introduced in this paper. The proposed WBCA trains users to improve their security skills. The proposed program helps with understanding the common behaviors of cybercriminals and improves user knowledge of cybersecurity hygiene, best cybersecurity practices, modern cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and trends. Furthermore, the proposed WBCA uses Blockchain technology to protect the program from potential threats. The proposed program is validated and tested using real-world cybersecurity topics with real users and cybersecurity experts. We anticipate that the proposed program can be extended to other domains, such as national or corporate courses, to increase the cybersecurity awareness level of users. A CentOS-based virtual private server is deployed for testing the proposed WBCA to determine its effectiveness. Finally, WBCA is also compared with other state-of-the-art web-based programs designed for cybersecurity awareness.

Paradigm of Historiography, Based on Historical Methodology of Information

Based on the analysis of the application of the paradigm in the study of history and the characteristics of information technology, this paper expounds the advantages of the paradigm in the study of history in information era. Using the methods of document analysis, content analysis and case study, this paper makes an in-depth analysis concerning the changes of historical research methods brought by information technology. It is believed that the use of information technology makes the framework of historical research more reasonable, the data analysis more accurate, and the protection and display of historical data more intuitive. In addition, the paper explores the promoting effect of the research method on historiography, and this new method is the supplement of the research paradigm of new historiography. paper also discusses the unique advantages of historical research methods such as historical digitization, film and television history, big data technology and quantitative database.

Disrupting Unwanted Habits in Online Gambling Through Information Technology

The instant access to gambling anytime, anywhere, has made online gambling highly habitual for some people. As a result, some online gamblers choose to volitionally enable the website-provided disruptive information technology (IT) features to control their gambling routines. The objective of this study is to examine the role of these features in regulating online gambling behavior. It is worthwhile to note that in this research, we do not make the assumption that habitual or regular online gambling is a bad thing; nor does the development of our conceptual framework — which focuses on the effect of disruptive IT features and moderating roles of individual regularity and game type in modifying gambling routines — depend on such an assumption.Drawing on theories of habitual automaticity and habit disruption, the conceptual framework theorizes the efficacy and mechanism of disruptive features while taking into account heterogeneity in individual regularity and game type. We tested the model using data collected over 10 years from 3,526 users of a gambling website. First, we found that individuals’ repetitive gambling patterns weakened as the duration of exposure to disruptive features increased. Second, the behavior of more regular gamblers was more resistant to the disruptive features, because more regular gamblers exhibited a stronger habitual pattern. Third, disruptive features were less effective on sports games compared with casino games, because sports gamblers tended to exhibit stronger gambling routines. Overall, the present study contributes to the information systems (IS) literature by clarifying how simple IT features may disrupt unwanted and difficult-to-break online gambling habits as judged by the gamblers. Our findings are likeliest to apply to broader areas of online services in which the application in question is integrated into everyday life and the system can offer a disruptive mechanism.

How does information technology-based service degradation influence consumers’ use of services? An information technology-based service degradation decision theory

Information technology is crucial for modern services. Service delivery may include a complex mix of information technology and telecommunication providers, global networks and customers’ information technology devices. This research focuses on service failures that are caused by information technology problems, which we conceptualize as information technology-based service degradation (ITSD). When information technology-based service degradation occurs in a modern service, the information technology problem may originate from the service provider, another partner or any information technology equipment involved. But the customer may not be able to pinpoint the source of the problem immediately. We argue that existing research can only partially explain customers’ behavior following information technology-based service degradation; current research cannot account for the way in which information technology characteristics in information technology-based service degradation influence customers’ decisions to continue using or rejecting the service. To fulfill this gap, we interviewed information technology-based services’ customers. Our interviews suggest that the reasons affecting customers’ behavior may change and have differing importance during the information technology-based service degradation experience. We theorized the information technology-based service degradation experience into five stages: blaming, bypassing, tolerating, abandoning and overcoming. The first two stages contain stage-specific factors influencing the progression of service usage, and the final three stages contain stage-specific factors that matter in the decision to use or quit the service. As a new contribution, we propose a stage theory for explaining customers’ behavior following information technology-based service degradation. Our results outline new research directions in information technology-based service degradation, including further testing and refinement of our proposed theory in the case of different services. For service providers, our findings provide new information for improving service recovery strategies to keep customers engaged.

IT Investment Under Competition: The Role of Implementation Failure

How does competition impact firms’ incentive to innovate by investing in information technology (IT)? Prior literature suggests opposite predictions on the direction in which competition drives IT investment. This paper analyzes a game theoretic model of duopoly competition and shows that an important feature of IT sheds new light on firms’ investment decisions: IT implementation can fail. Without the possibility of implementation failure, the opportunity to invest in IT hurts firms’ profits because the productivity gains are competed away. Implementation failure creates a possibility of cost-based differentiation and mitigates competition, although these two effects can drive firms’ IT investment in opposite directions. Interestingly, a higher probability of implementation failure can lead to lower investment risks and higher expected profits. Firms in highly competitive markets are better able to recoup the returns to their IT investments and, therefore, more motivated to invest in risky IT than firms in less competitive markets. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.3005 . This paper was accepted by Chris Forman, information systems.

Cloud computing capability: its technological root and business impact

ABSTRACTCloud computing can help organizations create business value for long-term viability and sustainability by providing flexibility and versatility. We report a systematic analysis of the central role of cloud computing capability in bridging the information technology (IT) features of cloud computing and its business value. We posit that the IT features of cloud computing lead to measureable increase in business value on both dimensions of performance benefit and collaboration benefit through cloud computing capability. Survey data collected from 174 firms largely support our hypotheses. This study offers fine-grained insights into the mechanisms of how the IT features of cloud computing influence the business value stemming from cloud computing. Firms should focus more on cultivating organizational capabilities to effectively deploy cloud computing in order to harvest the benefits promised by cloud computing.

Building Data and Information Capacity in Environmental Public Health: A Best-Worst Scaling Experiment.

Environmental public health practitioners rely on information technology (IT) to maintain and improve environmental health. However, current systems have limited capacity. A better understanding of the importance of IT features is needed to enhance data and information capacity. (1) Rank IT features according to the percentage of respondents who rated them as essential to an information management system and (2) quantify the relative importance of a subset of these features using best-worst scaling. Information technology features were initially identified from a previously published systematic review of software evaluation criteria and a list of software options from a private corporation specializing in inspection software. Duplicates and features unrelated to environmental public health were removed. The condensed list was refined by a working group of environmental public health management to a final list of 57 IT features. The essentialness of features was electronically rated by environmental public health managers. Features where 50% to 80% of respondents rated them as essential (n = 26) were subsequently evaluated using best-worst scaling. Ontario, Canada. Environmental public health professionals in local public health. Importance scores of IT features. The majority of IT features (47/57) were considered essential to an information management system by at least half of the respondents (n = 52). The highest-rated features were delivery to printer, software encryption capability, and software maintenance services. Of the 26 features evaluated in the best-worst scaling exercise, the most important features were orientation to all practice areas, off-line capability, and ability to view past inspection reports and results. The development of a single, unified environmental public health information management system that fulfills the reporting and functionality needs of system users is recommended. This system should be implemented by all public health units to support data and information capacity in local environmental public health. This study can be used to guide vendor evaluation, negotiation, and selection in local environmental public health, and provides an example of academia-practice partnerships and the use of best-worst scaling in public health research.

Performance modelling for transparent computing using stochastic Petri nets

Massive applications, large-scale and disparity of demands tend to be the main characteristics of information technology. Therefore, to define an efficient computing paradigm with high quality of service has become an urgent issue both in academia and industry. An effective approach named transparent computing paradigm is proposed to meet the demands, which leaves computation and storage in different places. This paper studies the performance evaluation of such computing paradigm. We propose the stochastic Petri net models of transparent computing, based on which mathematical analysis is provided. Furthermore, we compare transparent computing paradigm with some traditional computing paradigms, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Building a framework for successful information technology transfer to developing countries: requirements and effective integration to a viable IT transfer

Based on the appropriateness of information technology (IT) for technoeconomic development in the Third World, the establishment of a reliable and effective framework for each country is a complex and crucial task. Approaching this task necessitates the implementation of two major stages: to understand the fundamental elements and characteristics of information technology along with local related constraints; and to address the fundamental bases on which a given country can constitute its own policy making and planning system of national IT transfer and development. Despite the first stage, the second stage has not been given adequate attention in the literature. Therefore, in this paper an attempt is made to improve and implement the second stage within a conceptual model. According to the mechanisms and conceptual discussions that are analysed in this paper and to those addressed in the literature, this paper will consider a set of five major components required for the establishment of a sustainable IT transfer framework.

Application of Information Technology in Engineering Thermodynamics

Information technology has been greatly developed in recent years and brings opportunities as well as challenges for engineering courses. This paper surveys the development and characteristics of information technology. Then different methods of information technology are analyzed and applied. The new teaching mode based on information technology – blending teaching as well as detailed teaching case is proposed in the course of Engineering Thermodynamics.

Health Information Technology and Hospital Patient Safety: A Conceptual Model to Guide Research

The literature indicates that health information technology (IT) use may lead to some gains in the quality and safety of care in some situations but provides little insight into this variability in the results that has been found. The inconsistent findings point to the need for a conceptual model that will guide research in sorting out the complex relationships between health IT and the quality and safety of care. A conceptual model was developed that describes how specific health IT functions could affect different types of inpatient safety errors and that include contextual factors that influence successful health IT implementation. The model was applied to a readily available patient safety measure and nationwide data (2009 AHA Annual Survey Information Technology Supplement and 2009 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases). The model was difficult to operationalize because (1) available health IT adoption data did not characterize health IT features and extent of usage, and (2) patient safety measures did not elucidate the process failures leading to safety-related outcomes. The sample patient safety measure--Postoperative Physiologic and Metabolic Derangement Rate--was not significantly related to self-reported health IT capabilities when adjusted for hospital structural characteristics. These findings illustrate the critical need for collecting data that are germane to health IT and the possible mechanisms by which health IT may affect inpatient safety. Well-defined and sufficiently granular measures of provider's correct use of health IT functions, the contextual factors surrounding health IT use, and patient safety errors leading to health care-associated conditions are needed to illuminate the impact of health IT on patient safety.

Development of web-based information technology infrastructures and regulatory repositories for green building codes in China (iCodes)

With the unprecedented pace of construction in China, reliable and consistent communication between the various building industry players (both local and international) throughout the whole building delivery process is of paramount importance for the successful achievement of green building improvement in China. In order to achieve the goals of the green building standards through integrated team work in a reformed building delivery process, a web-based information technology (IT) infrastructure named China Green Building Codes and Standards Online (iCodes) is developed based on advanced web application and database technologies. The principal strategic thrust of the work is to develop an integrated bi-lingual platform to support the processes involved in building energy efficiency practices as well as research and development (R&D) purposes. It aims to provide a consistent knowledge repository for generating educational material for teaching and training purposes that cover the life-cycle building delivery process. With the help of the fast growing and wide spread Internet technology in China, this integrated IT framework and features will enable efficient dissemination of green building practice related information throughout China.

When Does Technology Use Enable Network Change in Organizations? A Comparative Study of Feature Use and Shared Affordances

The goal of this study is to augment explanations of how newly implemented technologies enable network change within organizations with an understanding of when such change is likely to happen. Drawing on the emerging literature on technology affordances, the paper suggests that informal network change within interdependent organizational groups is unlikely to occur until users converge on a shared appropriation of the new technology's features such that the affordances the technology enables are jointly realized. In making the argument for the importance of shared affordances, this paper suggests that group-level network change has its most profound implications at the organization level when individuals use the same subset of a new information technology's features. To explore this tentative theory, we turn to a comparative, multimethod, longitudinal study of computer-based simulation technology use in automotive engineering. The findings of this explanatory case study show that engineers used the new technology for more than three months, during which time neither group experienced changes to their advice networks. Initially, divergent uses of the technology's features by engineers in both groups precluded them from being able to coordinate their work in ways that allowed them to structure their advice networks differently. Eventually, engineers in only one of the two groups converged on the use of a common set of the technology's features to enact a shared affordance. This convergence was necessary to turn the technology into a resource that could collectively afford group members the ability to compare their simulation outputs with one another and, in so doing, alter the content and structure of the group's advice network. The implications of these findings for the literatures on technology feature use, affordances, social networks, and post-adoption behaviors in organizations are discussed.

Influence of Information Technology on Education and Language Teaching

The turn of twenty-first century has witnessed tremendous scientific and technological innovations which have changed the patterns of life and society spectacularly. Information technology (IT) has flourished at a breakneck speed and people have moved towards automation from manual deed. It has exerted deep impact on educational system all over the world. Computer, internet and other technologies are now being used by teachers and learners in ever increasing rate and volume. Institutions are exploring ways to utilize IT effectively for the purpose of education. This paper considers various aspects of the influence of information technology on education, with special attention to language teaching (LT). It considers various features of IT which are found useful in education as well as how those features are best used by educationists and language teachers. The Bangladesh scenario vis-à-vis the use of IT in education has also been taken into account.

It-Enabled Management Control Systems Transformations: Lessons Learned From Savecom

Information technology (IT)-enabled organizational transformations are emphasized in a great deal of research. However, IT-enabled management control systems (MCS) transformations to facility management for steering an organization toward its strategic objectives have become relevant and important, yet underexplored. To address this gap, the present study illustrates how a business intelligence (BI) system enables the transformations of organizational MCS. Through an in-depth case study of a Taiwanese telecommunications company, the IT features, and their direct effects and induced effects to MCS are analyzed in terms of an organization’s belief systems, boundary systems, diagnostic control systems, and interactive control systems. The implications for the organizational MCS design of these effects are discussed.

Does Use of Advanced Information Technology in Commercial Minimum Data Set Systems Improve Quality of Nursing Home Care?

Information technology (IT) has been recommended to improve the quality of health care. Nursing homes use very little IT, but they have been required by the federal government to electronically submit resident assessments (via commercial Minimum Data Set [MDS] software). This article examines whether use of the advanced IT features commonly found in commercial MDS software is associated with better quality of care. This study employed a national survey of US nursing home administrators (N = 2397) regarding the use of 12 advanced IT features in commercial MDS software. Overall, the effects of using advanced IT features in commercial MDS software on quality were highly significant (P < .01) when controlling for the prior years quality as well as facility characteristics. Although nursing homes have been slow to adopt IT, the use of the identified IT in MDS software packages appears to offer the promise to improve quality of care.