Bruce R. Lewis

A methodology for construct development in MIS research

This paper presents a comprehensive methodology for developing constructs in MIS research. It is applicable to both individual and organizational levels of analysis, depending on the nature of the concept under study. The methodology is presented as a research guide progressing through three stages: (1) domain definition, (2) instrument construction, and (3) evaluation of measurement properties. The methodology addresses six key measurement properties (content validity, factorial validity, reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, nomological validity), which are discussed in detail. An assessment of the proposed methodology indicates that its adoption in MIS research would greatly improve the rigor of construct development projects. This is evidenced by the wide range of quality publications that have used its techniques and its performance when compared to a number of prominent standards for assessing construct development research.

The leveraging influence of strategic alignment on IT investment: An empirical examination

Businesses have invested enormous sums in information technology (IT). The challenge now is to optimize these investments. We empirically examined the influence of the alignment between IS strategy and business strategy (strategic alignment) on the payoff of IT investment. Many studies have been performed on the value of IT investment and strategic alignment separately, in the past, but here we combined them by investigating the moderating affect of strategic alignment on the relationship between IT investment and firm performance for a group of manufacturing firms. The results indicated that there is a synergistic coupling between strategic alignment and IT investment with firm performance. Firms that have aligned IT and business strategies can invest in additional IT resources with some assurance that they will be leveraged substantially. One of our main contributions was in the examination of four differing perspectives of strategic alignment and their relationship with the payoff of IT investment.

Development of a Measure for the Organizational Learning Construct

The concept of organizational learning (OL) is receiving an increasing amount of attention in the research and practice of management information systems (MIS) due to its potential for affecting organizational outcomes, including control and intelligence, competitive advantage, and the exploitation of knowledge and technology.As such, further development of the salient issues related to OL is warranted, especially measurement of the construct. Based on a domain definition grounded in the literature, this research represents the initial work in developing an empirically reliable and valid measure of organizational learning. The rigorous method utilized in the derivation of this measure, which integrates two methodological frameworks for instrument development, is the main strength of this work. The result is an eightfactor, 28-item instrument for assessing OL, derived from a sample of 119 knowledge-based firms. The empirically derived factors are awareness, communication, performance assessment, intellectual cultivation, environmental adaptability, social learning, intellectual capital management, and organizational grafting. MIS function managers can use these factors to gauge organizational or subunit success in the creation and diffusion of new applications of information technology.

An empirical assessment of the information resource management construct

The concept of information resource management (IRM) has been surrounded by confusion for almost two decades. This study first defines the IRM construct as a comprehensive approach to planning, organizing, budgeting, directing, monitoring, and controlling the people, funding, technologies, and activities associated with acquiring, storing, processing, and distributing data to meet a business need for the benefit of the entire enterprise.The study then operationalizes the IRM construct by developing a measurement instrument. The instrument demonstrates acceptable content validity as well as construct validity and reliability. Eight dimensions underlying the IRM construct were found via exploratory factor analysis: chief information officer, planning, security, technology integration, advisory committees, enterprise model, information integration, and data administration. The instrument serves two functions: (1) to create a coherent, theoretical foundation for further research on the IRM construct, and (2) to provide reference norms for practicing managers to use to assess the extent of IRM implementation in their organizations.

Development of a measure for the information technology infrastructure construct

The goal of this research was to operationalize the information technology infrastructure (ITI) concept by identifying its underlying dimensions and establishing a valid and reliable measure for the construct. In order to accomplish this task with the highest degree of certainty, two approaches were sequentially applied: exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. In evaluating the confirmatory factor model, a step-by-step process was employed, assessing unidimensionality, reliability, discriminant validity, and nomological validity. The dimensions of ITI were determined to be: Chief Information Officer, IT Planning, IT Security, Technology Integration, Advisory Committee, Enterprise Model, and Data Administration. Researchers may now make use of this validated ITI measure to conduct investigations of ITI and other organizational measures. Implications of the ITI measure with other organizational initiatives such as electronic commerce and knowledge management are explored.

A Comprehensive Analysis of Marketing Journal Rankings

The purpose of this study is to offer a comprehensive assessment of journal standings in Marketing from two perspectives. The discipline perspective of rankings is obtained from a collection of published journal ranking studies during the past 15 years. The studies in the published ranking stream are assessed for reliability by examining internal correlations within the set. Aggregate rankings are presented from the published ranking stream, as well as from the two predominant ranking approaches used in these studies (opinion surveys and citation analyses). A new data source for journal rankings is introduced—the actual in-house target journal lists used by a sample of Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)-accredited schools to evaluate faculty research, representing an institutional perspective. The aggregate journal rankings from these lists are presented, as well as the rankings in two subsegments of the sample (US/non-US and doctoral/nondoctoral). The publications from the discipline perspective are compared to data from the in-house target journal lists actually used by AACSB-accredited schools. A full set of rankings across both data sets (school lists and the published article stream) is presented and differences are discussed.

The Impact of IT Personnel Skills on IS Infrastructure and Competitive IS

The knowledge and skills of information technology IT personnel have become of critical importance as the strategic value of IT in modern organizations has become apparent. In addition to technical skills traditionally expected of IT personnel, organizational, functional, and managerial skills have been increasingly cited as mandatory for these employees. This paper used a well-accepted typology of IT personnel knowledge and skills, and investigated its relationship to desirable technological traits in organizations and to technological variables that have been closely aligned to competitive advantage in organizations. This exploratory examination used the statistical technique of canonical correlation analysis to investigate the relationship between IT personnel knowledge and skills and the flexibility of information systems IS infrastructure. Additionally, the same technique was used to test the relationship between the knowledge and skills of these personnel and measures of IT contribution to competitive advantage. In both cases, the relationships were significant and positive. Implications of these findings and a call for further research into the strategic value of IT personnel knowledge and skills are discussed.

An empirical study of the relationships between IT infrastructure flexibility, mass customization, and business performance

Information technology (IT) infrastructure deserves serious attention from both the practitioner and academic communities, especially concerning the factors for IT infrastructure flexibility. The issue of flexibility is viewed as a critical aspect of IT infrastructure, because organizations are faced with an ever-increasing rate of change in their business environments. One effort most business sectors have made to prepare for this change is the trend toward mass customization. Recently, many organizations have embraced mass customization in an attempt to provide unique value to their customers in a cost-efficient manner.The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate a sequential relationship between IT infrastructure flexibility, mass customization, and business performance. The process involves an investigation of the critical factors for IT infrastructure flexibility, along with the firms mass customization and business performance indicators. The findings of this study provide evidence that integration and modularity of an organizations IT infrastructure facilitate the organizations effort to accommodate mass customization. Additionally, the flexibility of the IT personnel, the human component of IT infrastructure, and mass customization directly affect the organizations business performance.

A basic primer on data mining

Abstract Just as gold mining is a process for sifting through loads of ore to find valuable nuggets, data mining is a process for sifting through massive amounts of data to find information useful for optimizing business decision making and operations. Although interest in data mining is growing, many IT professionals and business managers may not have more than a passing exposure to the term. the purpose of this paper is to provide an introductory tutorial on the topic of data mining. Included are a brief description of data mining methods, a review of data mining software tools, and a survey of examples of data mining applications.

The Quality of Business Ethics Journals: An Assessment Based on Application

With growth in the quantity of business ethics journals in recent years, assessments of journal quality are helpful to ethics researchers and administrators, as researchers consider available publication venues, and administrators consider the value of faculty research. The few published evaluations of business ethics journals have predominantly utilized two methods of journal quality determination: citation analysis and surveys of active researchers. This study employs a novel method to assess business ethics journals: 83 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) business schools provided their internally developed journal lists (IDJ lists) that were used to evaluate faculty research, and the submitted lists were then analyzed for the presence and assessment of business ethics journals. This analysis yielded a ranking of 24 business-ethics-centric (BEC) journals, and this ranking reflects the collective judgments of AACSB business school faculties. The results of this study are pragmatic in that the journal evaluation data employed metrics actually used by business schools to determine the quality of business ethics journals. These findings also provide additional impetus for the recognition of business ethics as a distinct business discipline and business ethics research as a unique field of scholarly endeavor. While studies of business ethics may be influential when they are published in non-BEC journals, such studies may be more powerfully impactful when published in BEC journals.