Innovative Information Systems Research Articles

Health information systems and the role of state government.

State government entities have created a range of innovative electronic information systems to support their diverse and evolving roles in the health care system. Primary goals of these initiatives include improvement of traditional public health programs, meaningful oversight of providers, simplification of administrative procedures, and support of state purchasing decisions. We establish a taxonomy of state efforts, describing primary capabilities to (1) provide meaningful data to state decisionmakers; (2) disseminate information to purchasers and consumers; (3) coordinate and improve government services; (4) establish mechanisms for electronic transactions; and (5) support telemedicine services. Reductions in the costs of technology and use of the Internet have dramatically increased state capabilities in recent years. Both the successes and failures of existing programs offer important lessons for states that are initiating new electronic communication initiatives.

Support strategies to foster adoption of interorganizational innovations

The authors develop strategies that suppliers can use to foster the adoption of interorganizational information systems innovations, The strategies focus on adoption support to overcome innovation adoption barriers, accounting for the effect of the innovation on ongoing supplier-customer transactions. Modeling a dimension of the customer (organizational innovativeness) and a dimension of the innovation (radicalness) they derive optimal supplier strategies for when the supplier can differentiate individual customer innovativeness and when it cannot. In the former case, knowledge of individual customer innovativeness results in a triage model-some customers adopt without support, some require support to adopt, and some do not adopt and should not be supported. A lack of knowledge of customer innovativeness results in an undifferentiated strategy directed at all customers. Knowledge of customer innovativeness increases overall adoption and supplier profits and lowers adoption support to those customers that receive support in both cases.

Novel chips for the communication age — Joint effort on III–V electronics a success

With convincing solutions to realize key components of both mobile communication and mm wave sensor systems, a 5-year joint effort on III–V electronics in Germany was recently finalized. Some of the results concerted action that was funded by the Germany Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology (BMBF) have already found commercial applications as products of the III–V semiconductor technology which is of particular importance for implementing innovative information and communication systems. As the most renowned representative of this technology GaAs forms the substrate wafer base of high-performance ICs for applications such as mobile radio, optical telecom and ultrafast digital processing with low power dissipation.

Is Innovation and Organizational Alignment – a Professional Juggling Act

The securing and maintaining of alignment between business strategies and information systems (IS) strategies is frequently cited as a critical concern of IS managers. Consequently it has been ranked as an important issue for IS research agendas over the last decade. Very few empirical studies, however, have been reported with the result that there is no firm evidence to support the need for alignment, far less evidence for the way that strategies might interact. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study which examines both IS and business strategies using an external-internal alignment model. After four years of data collection and analysis there is strong support for an alignment model which follows a lead-lag strategy. This implies that alignment is not a steady state but will reflect a dynamic model of change. In order to foster innovation in IS this change model requires to be managed through a ‘r'evolutionary cycle. This resembles a professional juggling act rather than a managed stage growth process. The alignment and change models are described and related to the management of innovation and organicity. In addition a continuing and future research agenda is identified.

IS innovation and organizational alignment — a professional juggling act

The securing and maintaining of alignment between business strategies and information systems (IS) strategies is frequently cited as a critical concern of IS managers. Consequently it has been rank...

回想：村落研究をめぐって

The environmental framework of rural studies, which was once proposed by the author, is further discussed. The environment for a human being consists of nature, culture and climate. A human being reacts against the environment in three modes : receives (internalizes and adopts) from nature, responds (adapts and develops) against climate and communicates in cultural and social settings. My researches on Japanese rural community (mura) , upon environmental framework, are focused around the cultural and social change. Contemporary Japanese rural community should have changed from such typical image of mura as observed through Meiji to Showa periods. Changing perspectives on farm land is one example. The direction of drastic change from now will be studied paying special attention to technological innovation in farming systems and information systems.

情報機器のハードウェア技術と精密工学 マルチメディア情報・通信機器とマイクロシステム技術

情報機器のハードウェア技術と精密工学 マルチメディア情報・通信機器とマイクロシステム技術

Measuring user involvement

User involvement is a need-based motivational attitude toward information systems and their development. As such, it has important implications for the successful creation and deployment of information systems in organizations. This paper reports on the development and validation of an instrument to determine if the distinction between a user's involvement in the process of information system diffusion can be measured independently of that user's involvement with the information system innovation itself. Utilizing previously-validated instruments from consumer behavior research, these two object-based categories of user involvement were operationalized.A longitudinal field study was conducted of users in a large financial institution during the implementation phase, in particular the later activities of the adaptation stage, of the information system diffusion process. During adaptation, the information system product becomes available for use in the organization. Late adaptation stage activities include hardware installation, system conversion, and training. The instruments were pre-tested and assessed as to their content validity, internal consistency, convergent validity, unidimensionality, temporal stability, discriminant validity, predictive validity, and factorial validity. The evidence indicates that the measurement scales are reliable and valid. The primary question of scale independence was examined by discriminant validity. The empirical evidence supports the theoretical distinction between user process involvement and user system involvement. The implications of these findings to research and practice are discussed.

Information Systems Innovation Among Organizations

In an era of revolutionary new developments in basic information technology, innovation in its employment among organizations is increasingly crucial to competitive survival and success. The Information Systems (IS) unit within the business is largely responsible for meeting this challenge. Yet, current theory explains little about IS innovation and its role in organizational innovation in general. We suggest some needed foundations. IS innovations are posited to be of three types: Type I innovations confined to the IS task; Type II innovations supporting administration of the business; and Type III innovations imbedded in the core technology of the business. Diffusion among organizations is conjectured to occur by means of a communication circuit in which each IS unit is linked to its professional and business environments. Systematic differences in adoption and evolution patterns among IS innovation types are expected. Three specific IS innovations—data administration, the information center, and material requirements planning (MRP)—illustrate.

Organizational Health Maintenance: The Design of a Knowledge‐Based Strategy Support System

AbstractRather than reacting to strategic problems, a healthy organization should focus on preventing debilitating strategic decisions. This research takes the view that the implementation and monitoring of strategic plans should be more open to opportunistic and preventive intervention as made possible by the design and implementation of innovative information systems technologies employing recent knowledge‐based systems advancements. A knowledge‐based alerting approach to organizational health maintenance (OHM) is developed. Critical to this approach is the determination of a set of triggers for determining when actions are deemed necessary for preventing strategic problems. An OHM System architecture and implementation are described.

System Architectures for Complex Road Traffic Information and Control Systems

In this paper a procedure for designing system architectures for innovative road traffic information and control systems is presented and illustrated using dynamic route guidance as an application example. It is shown that the design procedure starts with a top down functional analysis by which basic subfunctions and the relevant architectural elements are identified. On the basis of this analysis a synthesis procedure is outlined using suitable tools from formal description techniques.

Educational information systems: Problems of the small educational organisation

<span>This paper describes the issues surrounding the provision of information systems to small educational organisations, in particular, the concerns which need to be considered when generating a comprehensive strategy for the implementation of an educational integrated information system. The paper reviews both information systems strategy research and innovations in educational technology, and reports on two studies of the problems in information systems strategy of educational professionals. In the major study, survey responses from 432 high schools were analysed to examine the relative use of microcomputer school information systems for efficiency of routine functions versus effective decision-making defined as greater use of information by school personnel. Schools showed significantly greater use of the systems for more efficient processing of routine tasks. However, operational factors related to the use of the systems as informing tools for more effective decision-making were able to be singled out, and relationships among measures of efficiency, effectiveness, decision-making and operational factors were identified. The article concludes with implications for institutional practice, related research and professional preparation of educational administrators.</span>

Competition and cooperation in information systems innovation

Information systems may be strategic and may have competitive impact on a firm and its industry. Properties of an innovation or an environment that may predict the competitive impact have already been studied; now the process of determining an information systems strategy must be addressed. Recent work in economics addresses a game theoretic approach to selecting strategy for an innovation, where the decision maker's key choice is when to adopt the innovations. A strategy can be selected, based upon: beliefs concerning cost of development as a function of time of introduction; and estimates of profits, with and without the innovation, and with and without introduction by competitors. This work can be modified to relate more closely to the selection of a strategy for an information systems innovation. Most specifically, since many information systems are expensive, offer scale advantages, and are available to all members of an industry, cooperation through consortium development may make more sense than competition. Thus the key aspects of an investment decision in strategic information systems are timing, as an early or late developer, and cooperation, as an independent innovator or as a member of a development consortium.

MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS AT THE INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE TWELFTH FIVE-YEAR PLAN

Five major research areas, debated at an unprecedented, four-day special session of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Geography, Academy of Sciences of the USSR in November 1986, are outlined. Some 30 officially recognized research themes encompassed by these areas represent the Institute's program of research under the Twelfth Five-Year Plan's emphasis on economic restructuring and intensification of resource use. Particular emphasis in the program of research is placed on the study of the interrelated problems of integrated physical geography, human-environment interactions, geosystem stability and instability, the territorial organization of productive forces and settlement, and technological innovations in information systems, modelling, and remote sensing (translated by Jay Mitchell; PlanEcon, Inc.; Washington, DC 20005).

Future of information systems design methodologies

The existence of information systems is no longer a novelty. Two things now rightly attract critical management attention: how good the systems are, and how well they were produced. Thus the key to information systems innovation is the methodologies whereby they are built. Three areas of general weakness in design methodologies are discussed: business strategy, technological progress and organizational aspects.

Systems analysts and the politics of organizational control

The introduction of major information systems into organizations can be fraught with difficulties. The negative effects of such systems can, for many important organizational members, be too great a price to pay for the supposed benefits. The advent of computerised information systems has served not merely to deskill the clerical ‘craft’ but can also be used as a strategy by top management to reduce the management control gap. However, by undercutting the organizational ‘rules of the game’, information systems innovation can produce severe strains and stresses in the political system. The proposals in the literature to combat the effects of innovation are examined. A broader, political perspective is used to reveal some of the inadequacies of these proposals and supporting data, gathered from interviews in several Canadian organizations, are presented to illustrate this. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of this broader approach.

Information Systems in Organizations

The 1960's were devoted mainly to computer hardware developments, and the 1970's to software tools. Now, the challenge is to put the technology to work. Information systems can touch the breadth and depth of an organization. Our guide to the future is in the study of successful innovations in information systems within organizations. Papers on information systems should describe current practical applications of information technology. While research is needed to guide practice, practice is a form of research which validates worthwhile systems and identifies limitations, problems, and issues for study. We seek papers that relate research to practice and practice to research.