Potential Impact Of Information Technology Research Articles

Information technology in supply chain management: Perspectives from key actors in the Nigerian petroleum sector

This research examines the potential impact of information technology (IT) on supply chain management (SCM) in the Nigerian petroleum industry. Specifically, the study seeks to identify the IT systems utilized by the key actors in the industry, the challenges facing SCM operations, and the potential benefits of IT for addressing these challenges. The field survey used 266 individuals, comprising regulators, production units, transporters, vendors, and customers. The study employed inferential statistics, and hypotheses were tested using the chi-square statistical test. The findings reveal that enterprise social networks, real-time track and tracking systems, warehouse management systems, and electronic invoice and fund transferring systems are the IT systems most commonly utilized by the key actors in the Nigerian petroleum industry. However, monitoring and evaluation remain the most challenging area for IT development in SCM operations. The study recommends that the government implement policies that encourage the adoption of IT in SCM operations, as well as incentives to encourage industry players to digitize data. The original contribution of this research is that it identifies the key IT systems utilized by the actors in the Nigerian petroleum industry and the challenges facing SCM operations, as well as proposing policy recommendations.

The Impact of Information Technology on Library Management : A Marketing Perspective

The analysis of information technology has important implications for marketing in the identification of a library’s competitive position. This paper demonstrates that effective use of Information Technology (IT) will enhance the current operations of university library and assist the library users to carry out their various activities in the library. The prime objective of this paper is to examine the potential impact of Information technology on library management for the purpose of marketing University library and library services. The research study focuses on analysis of perception of 485 users of University of Ilorin library. The result of the investigation reveals that the critical success factors for University libraries in the strategic time-frame will be a type of technology management that requires a high degree of integration within the areas of user-oriented services (marketing) and personnel competence. The paper concludes that Information technology and marketing are relatively new strategic weapons for libraries. The results show that information technology will assist university library strategically for competitive advantage, operational efficiency and help users to cope with the technological changes.

Alignment of University Information Technology Resources With the Malcolm Baldrige Results Criteria for Performance Excellence in Education: A Balanced Scorecard Approach

The authors suggest using a balanced scorecard (BSC) approach to evaluate information technology (IT) resources in higher education institutions. The BSC approach illustrated is based on the performance criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in Education. This article suggests areas of potential impact of IT on BSC measures in each of the Baldrige Results Categories of the performance criteria. Many of the identified areas of measurement and expected improvement are unique to educational institutions. The multiple-faceted evaluation approach should provide improved assessment of an institution's IT resources and offer a broadened perspective of IT usage in the academic setting.

Information Technology and the Emergent Organization

The potential impact of information technology on the workplace is greater than simply changing how work is performed by individuals. Our assumptions regarding information systems in traditional organizations are out of date and being challenged by the capabilities provided by new information technologies. The organization of the future will require a much higher degree of system integration in order to respond to the increasing demands for flexibility and rapid change in the global marketplace. This will require a complete re-thinking of current organizational assumptions and a whole system re-design effort at the organizational level. Performance technologists, in order to play a vital role in building this new organizational future, will need to apply their collective knowledge on the whole system rather than on isolated elements, and to understand the interaction between the technology and the organization.

From Origins to Implications: Key Aspects in the Debate over the Digital Divide

Defined as the differential extent to which rich countries and poor countries benefit from various forms of information technology (IT), the global digital divide has been extensively measured and described in national as well as international debates. The problem, however, is that the topic is highly fragmented in the literature, with few attempts to put the parts into a coherent analytical framework. More precisely, there has been no specific attempt to pinpoint the main issues that influence one's view of the importance of the digital divide and the policies demanded by the different points of view. The goal of this paper, accordingly, is to fill this important gap in the literature in an analytical schema that recognizes the ways in which the impact of innovations depends heavily on how they are generated and diffused. At each stage of this sequential process are key issues that influence one's view of the digital divide. It matters a great deal for instance on whether the divide is in some sense unique, or just another manifestation of the general technological relationship between rich and poor countries. It is also the case that the size of the divide depends heavily on how it is measured. Yet another example is that the extent of the potential impact of IT will influence our view of the foregone opportunities associated with limited uptake of this technology in developing countries.

Transaction Costs, Information Technology and Development

This paper explores potential channels through which information technology (IT) affects economic development. The channel emphasized here is the reduction of transaction costs through the use of information technology. We discuss the nature of transaction costs, their possible impacts on economic outcomes, and the impacts of IT on transaction costs. We provide a theoretical discussion of how a reduction in transaction costs may affect the number of intermediate goods that are produced, and in turn how that number may affect the development path of the economy. We then draw on our fieldwork in rural India that examined the economics of rural Internet kiosks, and relate this multifaceted case study to the theoretical discussion of transaction costs. We conclude with a broader discussion of the potential impact of IT on developing economies.

Understanding the potential impact of information technology on the susceptibility of organizations to fraudulent employee behavior

Although the infusion of progressively advanced information technology (IT) into business organizations can improve the capturing, processing, and reporting of critical decision-making information across the enterprise, such technology can also create an environment that is more vulnerable to fraud. In this article, we develop a framework based on the theory of planned behavior [Org. Behav. Human Decis. Process. 50 (2)(1991) 179] that addresses the potential impact of IT on the susceptibility of an organization to employee fraud. We believe that this framework can serve as a useful tool for management, internal auditors, and external auditors when assessing fraud risk.

A CGE Analysis of the Potential Impact of Information Technology on the Japanese Economy

In this paper we investigate the potential system-wide impact of information technology on the Japanese economy using a static computable general equilibrium model with base case calibrated for the year 1995. The information technology has two potential impacts: (1) it enhances the labour productivity, and (2) e-commerce improves the efficiency of marketing and reduces the cost of marketing, typically referred as "marketing margins" in the literature. There is a growing interest among policy makers in the impact of information technology on Japanese economy. The effect of e-commerce on the economy is through reduction in cost of B-to-B and B-to-C transactions. An existing estimate of the reduction in price due to the penetration of e-commerce in different sectors in Japan indicates that there is a possibility of price reduction between 1.39 percent in the automobile sector to 0.65 percent in the machine equipment sector and so on. Our model simulates the penetration of e-commerce in the Japanese economy, which will reduce market margins through direct selling on the Internet or the like. The results overall indicate that e-commerce has positive welfare benefits for consumers and that it also leads to structural changes in the economy. On top of this we impose IT-led, Harrod-type labour productivity gains and the results indicate that the Japanese economy would have large welfare gains through the penetration of IT into various sectors of the economy.

Developments in Information Technology: Implications for the Tourism Industry and Tourism Marketing

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to examine the present and potential impact of Information Technology (IT) on the tourism industry and tourism marketing. Recent developments indicate that some of the services provided by travel agencies, accommodation establishments and leisure companies will increasingly be undertaken personally by customers using IT. The paper considers current IT applications and likely future developments. It is proposed that tourism companies will need to establish appropriate marketing strategies which take account of these developments and the uncertain impact of consequent industry restructuring.

The Potential Impact of Information Technology on the High School Principal

AbstractThis study looks at the impact of information technology on the role of the high school principal. Findings suggest that the introduction of a management information system into the school resulted in changes in the clerical, managerial control, and strategic aspects of the principal’s role. Forty-three tasks representative of this role were investigated, all belonging to five domains: instruction administration, instructional processes, interactions between groups and individuals, school finance and logistical support, and interactions with groups and institutions in the community.

A Comprehensive Model for Measuring the Potential Impact of Information Technology on Organizational Strategic Variables*

ABSTRACTThe existing literature on the impact of information technology (IT) does not include rigorous theory building or empirical studies. This research seems to be the first comprehensive investigation towards the development of an empirically validated comprehensive model for understanding the potential impact of IT on organizational strategic variables. More specifically, organizational and industrial variables that appeared to be affected by IT are identified, measured, and operationalized in the form of a comprehensive model. This study is based on structured interviews with a carefully selected sample of 31 strategic managers who had experience using IT for strategic decisions. In addition, the variables included in the model are well grounded in the information systems literature. The variables are then empirically validated and their reliabilities critically tested. A comprehensive model is derived from these validated variables. The model is a first step towards measuring the overall potential impact of IT on an organization. The model can also be used to gauge IT's potential impact on individual strategic variables. A set of hypotheses is also presented for future research. The hypotheses primarily relate to the impact of IT on organizational strategic performance. The model provides an empirically validated foundation for testing of such hypotheses.

Information Technology: Personnel Management’s Lost Opportunity?

The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of information technology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern the personnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s involvement in the decision making and activities surrounding the choice and implementation of advanced technologies, and (c) their own use of IT in developing and carrying out their own range of specialist activities. The monograph attempts to explain why personnel’s involvement is often late, peripheral and reactive. Finally, an analysis is made of whether personnel specialists – or the Human Resource Management function more generally – will play a more proactive role in relation to such technologies in the future.

Strategy for Information Technology: One Step Beyond

Information Technology (IT) may lead to a change in a company's methods and personnel skills, leading to stress and strain within the “culture” of the organisation, and challenge the business, its methods and its objectives. Confronted by the potential impact of IT it has been suggested that management decisions on new technology be grounded in a carefully thought‐out strategy, exploring the “why”, “how” and “what if questions raised by the development of an IT strategy: how it can be implemented, and what its effects are likely to be. The use of IT in British banking and its effects are discussed.

Information technology and the use of energy

This paper assesses the potential impact of information technology on energy use in advanced economies. Irrespective of energy price movements, information technology is expected to raise the energy efficiency of economic activity through its direct application to reducing energy consumption in products and processes, and through the productivity improvements and structural changes it initiates which will not involve substantial increases in energy use. Economic growth will thus be less tied dynamically to the expansion of energy supply and demand than in previous phases of industrialization. While overall energy demand may not rise strongly, information technology will however tend to increase electricity's importance in the economy.