Denise Johnson McManus

Intraorganizational Versus Interorganizational Uses and Benefits of Electronic Mail

The success of an organization depends on rapid, reliable, and direct communications within the organization and with the outside world. To determine if electronic mail e-mail provides a competitive benefit, a sample of 99 management-level participants in 41 companies responded to a survey that assessed their intraorganizational internal and interorganizational external uses of e-mail. Through the use of factor analysis and regression methodologies, the researchers investigated whether a significant relationship exists between the internal and external uses and benefits of e-mail. The intraorganizational uses of e-mail indicated a significant and positive relationship with the organizational benefits of e-mail, thus, supporting the electronic exchange of information within organizations.However, the results indicated that interorganizational uses of e-mail did not promote corporate communication outside the company. Thus, managers need to know which communication technology is appropriate for intraorganizational and interorganizational uses.

Information Infrastructure Centrality in the Agile Organization

Abstract Modern organizations face increasing pressure to find new ways to compete effectively in a dynamic global market. Many firms are turning to E-commerce and virtual structures, such as virtual organizations and virtual teams, to improve organizational agility and to expand globally. These solutions elevate the importance of information flow within the firm and among firm partners. New technologies are emerging at a rapid pace to support this increased flow of information. As organizations grow to depend upon these new technologies, their opportunities to expand into new geographic regions might be limited by the ability of the remote information infrastructure to support the organizations modernized requirements. Thus, firms seeking to improve their ability to compete globally might actually impede future expansion.

An Investigation of Telecommunications as a Plan Location Decision Criterion

The concept of site selection has received extensive attention throughout history. Although plant location decision issues have always been important to US manufacturing firms, the impact of global competition has increased recognition of their importance. To successfully compete globally, manufacturers must have an effective global supply chain infrastructure, which requires effective communications. However, plant location strategies change over time, because of the dynamic nature of the variables that determine a location decision. This study was conducted to extend the location decision taxonomy by including telecommunications. The research included a specification of telecommunications attributes that impact site selection, the importance of telecommunications as a location decision criterion and the differences in location decision criteria between domestic US and foreign sites. The telecommunications-specific attributes determined in this study include: telecommunications infrastructure, cost, reliability, bandwidth, personnel, local and US government restrictions, and local and US government regulations on exporting and importing data. The conclusions of this study not only present evidence that telecommunications is influencing decision-makers in site selection, but also provides a list of criteria that are critical to site selection.

An exploratory analysis of the impact of global telecommunications on electronics manufacturing site selection

The increased cost of doing business domestically and the impact of global competition are two reasons companies establish plants in foreign locations. To have a successful global business, manufacturers must have an effective global supply chain infrastructure, which requires effective information technology. Firms now routinely consider remote domestic and international locations when evaluating potential sites. Many factors must be considered when choosing the right location for manufacturing facilities. These include: physical infrastructure, proximity to suppliers and customers, tax considerations, international trade conditions, and as this research explored, telecommunications infrastructure. This study examined the degree to which the telecommunications infrastructure impacts the decision to select a specific foreign manufacturing site for the organisation. The results of four case studies of electronics firms indicated that telecommunications is a necessity to conduct business. Two of the firms indicated that telecommunications was considered in their most recent site selection. Although the other two firms did not overtly consider telecommunications in the site selection criteria, they did indicate that it is critical to the success of the company in a global market.