Charles E. Downing

Uncertainty Reduction Approaches, Uncertainty Coping Approaches, and Process Performance in Financial Services

Developing a better understanding of the impact of uncertainty on process performance has been recognized as an important research opportunity in service design (Hill, et al., 2002). Within this general research stream, our study focuses on the question of what managers can do to most effectively address operational uncertainty and mitigate its negative effects. To begin to address this question, we report on an exploratory study using a sample of professionals in the financial-services industry who acted as informants on 108 financial-services processes. These professionals were sampled from a population of graduates of a university in the northeastern region of the United States who were employed in the financial-services industry. Based on these processes, we empirically examine the relationship between responses to operational uncertainty and process performance after controlling for customer mix, other uncertainty sources, and process type characteristics. Our findings suggest that process improvement—an uncertainty reduction approach related to the internal functioning of the process—as well as several uncertainty coping approaches are associated with better performing processes. However, uncertainty reduction approaches related to customer involvement with, and demands on, the process are not associated with better performing processes. We discuss the implications of our findings for determining what actions managers can take to reduce the negative performance effects of operational uncertainty and how managers can decide which of these actions to take. We conclude with a discussion of the limitations of our study.

Information Technology Choices in Dissimilar Cultures: Enhancing Empowerment

Empowerment is an important and desirable state for employees within business enterprises around the world. Yet, the pursuit of empowerment across national boundaries may vary due to innate diferences within cultures. This may be particularly true with respect to choice of technologies for achieving empowerment. Using an interpretive field study of Fellows within the Japanese MITI and U.S. Department of Commerce Manufacturing Technology Fellowship (MTF) Program, this study suggests that the achievement of empowerment through choice of information technology is matched to cultural context. Specifically, employees of Japanese companies prefer, need, and use media-rich information technologies in their efforts to achieve empowerment. In contrast, employees of American companies prefer, need, and use collaborative information technologies in the pursuit for empowerment. These findings suggest that information technology is used synergistically with cultural attributes in the enhancement of employee empowerment.

The Value of Outsourcing: A Field Study

Abstract This article examines the effects of information systems outsourcing on the business processes of organizations. Rather than simply comparing outsourcing and not outsourcing, the study also addresses a third and increasingly common strategy, that of using software purchased “off-the-shelf.” An extensive survey was distributed to business process managers over a cross-section of financial services processes and companies. Results show that outsourcing information systems can create lower overall process costs and may lead to superior overall process performance compared to processes that used software purchased off-the-shelf. Further, information systems built in house lead to superior overall process performance compared to processes that used software purchased off-the-shelf. These results should assist business managers in gauging the possible effects of outsourcing information systems (or not) on their core processes.

Assessing Web Site Usability in Retail Electronic Commerce

In the increasingly competitive environment of electronic commerce, companies are paying careful attention to Web site design and function to attract and retain both traffic and customers. One key factor that has been shown to increase both is Web site usability. This paper presents and tests a Web site usability research framework derived from prior literature. Fourteen Fortune 500 retail Web sites are examined by 261 potential customers and rated on aspects of usability. Results show that Content and Ease of Use are givens with regard to usability, but Identity, Download Delay, Trust Assurance, Made-for-the-medium, Responsiveness and Emotion can all be differentiators.

Performance of Traditional and Web-Based EDI

Abstract This article examines three categories of companies with regard to electronic data interchange (EDI) usage: (1) companies that use no EDI at all, (2) companies that use traditional EDI, and (3) companies that use Web-based EDI. Performance is examined for these three types of companies using the following dimensions: process cost; operational efficiency; customer satisfaction, coordination, cooperation, and commitment between EDI partners; and overall performance. Results show that companies using Web-based EDI experience superior performance in commitment between EDI partners as well as overall performance, while companies using Web-based or traditional EDI experience superior performance in internal operational efficiency as well as overall performance.

Implementing and testing a complex interactive MOLP algorithm

Many business decisions can be modeled as multiobjective linear programming (MOLP) problems. MOLP algorithms seek solutions to these problems by interacting with decision makers to arrive at an acceptable solution. However, due in part to the increasing complexity of these algorithms, and in part to the failure of developers to use graphical user interfaces, testing and comparison of competing algorithms has been minimal. We present herein results of research designed to address this circumstance. Using widely available microcomputer tools, we designed and built a Decision Support System (DSS) capable of running MOLP algorithms, and conducted a field test which asked 98 decision makers to solve a business case using the system. Two algorithms were programmed into the DSS, one a new and more mathematically complex algorithm, and one a previously used benchmark. Results demonstrate that the more complex algorithm was preferred as a decision-making aid over the benchmark. Additionally, results show that users found the DSS equally easy to work with for both algorithms, suggesting that the graphical user interface sufficiently masked the complexity of the new algorithm. This result is encouraging for the possibility of the implementation and testing of increasingly sophisticated MOLP algorithms.

Transforming a Course to Blended Learning for Student Engagement

The rising costs of higher education, along with the learning styles and needs of modern students, are changing the instructional landscape. Students of today do less and less well in the “lecture only” format, and staffing this format with live faculty is extremely expensive. MOOCs and other technology-heavy options are low cost but quite impersonal. Blended instruction has promise, with the ultimate goal of cost-efficient student engagement. This paper reports on a major course transformation to achieve student engagement in a large, formerly lecture-only course. The resulting blended-learning course features clickers, web-based operationalization of students helping students, media-rich interactive online materials, event credit, and newly added student-produced video tutorials. Results show that the addition of the student-produced video tutorials increased the student engagement in the course.

Bringing Decision Support to the Customer Level

Customer-targeted systems represent a logical next step in the evolution of decision support systems (DSSs), but they have not proliferated because of organizational concerns regarding usage and satisfaction. A six-month study of an interactive telephone system in the financial services sector suggests that these concerns are unwarranted and that the initial cost of designing such systems is offset by increased customer satisfaction and more efficient use of organizational resources.