Dieter Fink

Guidelines for the Successful Adoption of Information Technology in Small and Medium Enterprises

Research was conducted to establish the factors that lead to the successful adoption of Information Technology (IT) by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in todays turbulent times. The opinions of owners and managers of Australian SMEs on 10 factors representing modern IT adoption practices were obtained. The analysis of their responses identified three major IT acquisition phases and their significance. First, SMEs should assess IT benefits, the organisational culture and IT suitable for the firm. Second, they should determine if sufficient internal resources are available and appropriate procedures exist for the successful selection and implementation of IT. Third, SMEs need to evaluate the external environment, support and resources, particularly if inhouse resources and support are lacking. At the end of each phase, the decision should be made on whether or not to continue with IT acquisition. The recommended phased approach minimises the overall risk of technology acquisition.

Internet banking adoption strategies for a developing country: the case of Thailand

Purpose – The objective of the paper is to identify the factors that encourage consumers to adopt internet banking services in Thailand and to use the studys findings to develop strategies for banks on how to maximize the rate of adoption.Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative research with a sample size of 600 achieved by sending questionnaires to 15 people in each of 40 large companies in Bangkok. The study is based on the Decomposed Planned Behaviour.Findings – The attitudinal factors that appear to encourage the adoption of internet banking in Thailand most are “Features of the web site” and “Perceived usefulness”, while the most significant impediment to adoption is a perceived behavioural control, namely “External environment”. The significant moderating factors are gender, educational level, income, internet experience and internet banking experience, but not age.Research limitations/implications – In this study, encouragement factors are those that are able to be controlled by banks, while im...

The intellectual capital web: A systematic linking of intellectual capital and knowledge management

The twenty‐first century knowledge driven economy has seen increasing importance being placed on maximising the organisations intellectual capital (IC). At the same time knowledge management (KM) systems are being developed. The paper establishes similarities between the two and proceeds to develop a systematic approach to linking them through the intellectual capital web (ICW). There are six components with the ICW: strategic objectives, management systems, measurement systems, knowledge workers, catalysts and reward and incentive systems. The integration of IC and KM requires alignment of KM processes with IC assets to meet the organisations strategic needs. A theoretical conjecture is developed in which the components of elements of ICW are interweaved to achieve strategic objectives. The systematic approach outlined in the paper should offer organisations valuable guidelines to maximising their IC assets and managing their knowledge management processes.

Perceptions of web site design characteristics: A Malaysian/Australian comparison

Compares the perceptions of Malaysians (representing eastern, Asian culture) and Australians (representing western, European culture) for four Web site design characteristics – atmospherics, news stories, signs and products and services – as part of the integrated Internet marketing model. Under controlled laboratory conditions, two groupings of 30 subjects evaluated eight Web sites – four in Malaysia and four in Australia – in the retail and services sectors. Hypothesises that the predominant culture is not generalised to another culture. Some tentative support for the research premise is found since where a group’s perceptions for Web design characteristics and their effectiveness was significantly higher, it was for sites originating in that group’s country. Furthermore, perceptions both support and contradict previous research suggesting that Australians prefer an environment of low context and high explicit communications while Asians operate in an environment of high context that stresses implicit communications.

International case studies: To what extent is ICT infused into the operations of SMEs?

Purpose – The paper seeks to overcome previous research limitations by examining both macro (industry, country) and micro (functions, enterprise) level phenomena within the information communication technologies (ICT) use of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Australia and Germany were chosen because both recognise the importance of SMEs.Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted an interpretivist philosophy and a qualitative case study method that enables gathering data which are rich in detail. Semi‐structured, on‐site interviews were carried out in eight firms of various classifications.Findings – The study found that, for micro enterprises, ICT is only emerging in the form of systems that have the potential to facilitate the interactions with the outside. Small enterprises rely heavily on personal interactions, which they supplement with the use of ICT. In medium enterprises, ICT is more extensively used in interactions, both internally and with the environment. The differences between Au...

Knowledge management and intellectual capital: an empirical examination of current practice in Australia

This paper reports the findings from a survey conducted in Australia to explore current practices relating to knowledge management (KM) and intellectual capital (IC). A systematic approach in the form of the intellectual capital web guided the research. Findings revealed that KM was perceived to be more about developing knowledge culture than about managing organisational processes and structure. IC was perceived to be more about human capital than about customer capital and organisational capital. It can therefore be concluded that human capital holds the greatest importance for KM and IC. However, when facilitators for knowledge creation and knowledge sharing were rated, organisation structure was perceived to be more important than organisational culture and information technology. For KM practices, participants indicated that more attention was paid to training and developing employees and less to measurement and reward and incentive issues. The importance of aligning the management of IC and KM was perceived to be more important than the difficulty of doing so.

Information technology governance: an evaluation of the theory-practice gap

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of information technology (IT) governance, from both a theory and practice perspective, and to identify current theory‐practice gaps within the organisations studied.Design/methodology/approach – This study developed a complementary and collaborative model of IT governance and used a multiple case approach in which IT governance is examined against the model in four major universities. Case study research is qualitative in nature enabling insights into the “how” and “why” of IT governance to be gained.Findings – Based on underlying theory, the study was able to develop propositions regarding IT governance practices, observe current practices within the participating universities and establish gaps between theory and practice. The study identified theory‐practice gaps in each of three IT governance dimensions: structure, process and people. Gaps ranged in significance from small to large. Two large gaps existed which require attention: they are...

Action: the most critical phase in outsourcing information technology

The paper examined the nature of information technology (IT) outsourcing decision making and developed a theoretical framework consisting of five phases of decision making. The phases augmented those of Simon and consisted of intelligence, analysis and planning, strategy selection, action, and evaluation and monitoring. Australias largest organisations and government agencies were surveyed by questionnaire to establish the importance of tasks and subtasks to be performed when completing each of the five phases. Participants possessed high experiences with IT in general and IT outsourcing in particular. When the importance of phases vis‐a‐vis each other were established, the action phase and evaluation and monitoring phase were found to be more significant than the other phases. For the action phase, which was statistically the most significant phase, the tasks of selecting an IT‐outsourcing vendor and determining a suitable IT‐outsourcing contract were dominant and strongly correlated. Findings from the study should help organisations identify and therefore better manage critical decision‐making activities during IT outsourcing particularly those related to vendors and contracts.

The Professional Doctorate: Its Relativity to the Ph.D. and Relevance for the Knowledge Economy

The Professional Doctorate (ProfDoc) is attracting increasing attention because of its perceived greater than the Doctor of Philosophy’s (Ph.D.’s) focus on meeting the needs of the knowledge economy. The paper examines the nature of the ProfDoc vis-a-vis the Ph.D. and identifies significant characteristics of the ProfDoc, especially in respect of relevance and performativity. It then analyses these characteristics in the context of the professional Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) in Information Systems (IS) at an Australian university. An ethnographic approach is used to examine the internal (university) and external (student) environments of the DBA(IS). Recommendations are made to increase its effectiveness for the knowledge economy, including moving to a greater student and industry centred approach. Finally, conclusions are drawn to determine its relevance to the knowledge economy.

Attitudes towards knowledge transfer in an environment to perform

Purpose – This paper seeks to determine attitudes that impact on knowledge transfer between academics (university teaching and research staff) employed in todays competitive, technology‐based university setting.Design/methodology/approach – The study generated a rich set of data by conducting, first, an exploratory, qualitative study followed by a confirmatory, quantitative study. Through this process, an initial list of 402 attitudes to knowledge transfer was derived which was narrowed to 75 for the quantitative survey which, through factor analysis, was further reduced to 24 variables. The 24 variables were grouped into four factors for which trust and motivation are more relevant to the knowledge provider and absorptive capacity and knowledge regeneration for the receiver.Findings – High levels of agreement were found for the propositions that senior academics lacked compensation for mentoring activities, and hence, the motivation to transfer knowledge, and that a heavy teaching load prevented the abs...