Fiona H. Rohde

Enhancing IT governance practices: A model and case study of an organization's efforts

For many organizations, Information Technology (IT) enabled business initiatives and IT infrastructure constitute major investments that, if not managed properly, may impair rather than enhance the organizations competitive position. Especially since the advent of Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX), both management and IT professionals are concerned with design, implementation, and assessment of IT governance strategies to ensure that technology truly serves the needs of the business. Via an in-depth study within one organisation, this research explores the factors influencing IT governance structures, processes, and outcome metrics. Interview responses to open-ended questions indicated that more effective IT governance performance outcomes are associated with a shared understanding of business and IT objectives; active involvement of IT steering committees; a balance of business and IT representatives in IT decisions; and comprehensive and well-communicated IT strategies and policies. IT governance also plays a prominent role in fostering project success and delivering business value.

IS/IT outsourcing practices of small- and medium-sized manufacturers

Abstract Firms began outsourcing information system functions soon after the inception of electronic computing. Extant research has concentrated on large organizations and large-valued outsourcing contracts from a variety of different industries. Smaller-sized firms are inherently different from their large counterparts. These differences between small and large firms could lead to different information technology/information system (IT/IS) items being outsourced and different outsourcing agreements governing these arrangements. This research explores and examines the outsourcing practices of very small through to medium-sized manufacturing organizations. The in-depth case studies not only explored the extent to which different firms engaged in outsourcing but also the nuances of their outsourcing arrangements. The results reveal that all six firms tended to outsource the same sorts of functions. Some definite differences existed, however, in the strategies adopted in relation to the functions they outsourced. These differences arose for a variety of reasons, including size, locality, and holding company influences. The very small and small manufacturing firms tended to make outsourcing purchases on an ad hoc basis with little reliance on legal advice. In contrast, the medium-sized firms often used a more planned initiative and sought legal advice more often. Interestingly, not one of the six firms outsourced any of their transaction processing. These findings now give very small, small-, and medium-sized manufacturing firms the opportunity to compare their practices against other firms of similar size.

Determinants of Performance in Advanced Undergraduate Management Accounting: An Empirical Investigation

This exploratory study empirically investigates the performance of students in advanced management accounting. Findings are that English language as the first or subsequent language has no differential impact on introductory level performance. However, at advanced levels and in other subjects requiring the application of concepts to unfamiliar situations, students whose first language was English outperformed others. Similarly, students who had studied prerequisite subjects at the same university outperformed their exempted colleagues (both overseas and local) in advanced management accounting. These findings indicate that the difference due to language differences may not actually be due to language, but rather that language may simply be proxying for something else such as a different learning style.

An Integrative Review and Synthesis of XBRL Research in Academic Journals

ABSTRACT:  Extensible business reporting language (XBRL) was developed from an established markup computer language (eXtensible Markup Language, XML). XBRL facilitates data and information exchange between different information systems (IS). This important feature has attracted much research since the early 2000s. This article aims to provide a framework for XBRL researchs contributions to information systems (IS). An integrative review is needed to draw an overall picture and canvas key findings regarding the various XBRL topics examined in past studies. Such a review also identifies research opportunities and guides future XBRL research. We conducted thematic analysis using an integrative literature review. A sample of 150 XBRL articles obtained from various peer-reviewed academic journals was used to understand past XBRL studies and suggest XBRLs future research direction. This article identifies and proposes four current XBRL research streams; namely, XBRLs impact on business, XBRLs adoption, XBRL...

The Effect of Enacted Capabilities on Adoption of a Government Electronic Procurement System by Malaysian SMEs

Prior studies have shown that innovative information systems (IS) adoption behaviour by small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is greatly dependent on organizational and environmental characteristics. Government influence (i.e., federal and local government agencies) was found to play an important role in the promotion or enforcement of innovative IS adoption by SMEs, and it is vital for ensuring adoption of nationwide innovative IS, particularly in developing economies. This study introduces the construct of enacted capabilities and examines the enacted capabilities that motivate SMEs to use innovative IS (i.e., a governments electronic procurement systems) to its full potential. A model of how enacted capabilities affect IS adoption behaviour through perceived net benefits and attitude is developed. A survey (and follow-up interviews) of CEOs/owners from Malaysian SMEs was conducted. Results indicate the enacted capabilities possessed by SMEs play a prominent role in determining the adoption of government electronic procurement systems by these enterprises.

An Empirical Investigation of End-User Query Development: The Effects of Improved Model Expressiveness vs. Complexity

Data models provide a map of the components of an information system. Prior research has indicated that more expressive conceptual data models (despite their increased size) result in better performance for problem solving tasks. An initial experiment using logical data models indicated that more expressive logical data models also enhanced end-user performance for information retrieval tasks. However, the principles of parsimony and bounded rationality imply that, past some point, increases in size lead to a level of complexity that results in impaired performance. The results of this study support these principles. For a logical data model of increased but still modest size, users composing queries for the more expressive logical data model did not perform as well as users composing queries for the corresponding less expressive but more parsimonious logical data model. These results indicate that, when constructing logical data models, data modelers should consider tradeoffs between parsimony and expressiveness.

Cognitive style factors affecting database query performance

Abstract As end-user computing becomes more pervasive, an organizations success increasingly depends on the ability of end-users, usually in managerial positions, to extract appropriate data from both internal and external sources. Many of these data sources include or are derived from the organizations accounting information systems. Managerial end-users with different personal characteristics and approaches are likely to compose queries of differing levels of accuracy when searching the data contained within these accounting information systems. This research investigates how cognitive style elements of personality influence managerial end-user performance in database querying tasks. A laboratory experiment was conducted in which participants generated queries to retrieve information from an accounting information system to satisfy typical information requirements. The experiment investigated the influence of personality on the accuracy of queries of varying degrees of complexity. Relying on the Myers–Briggs personality instrument, results show that perceiving individuals (as opposed to judging individuals) who rely on intuition (as opposed to sensing) composed queries more accurately. As expected, query complexity and academic performance also explain the success of data extraction tasks.

Technology acceptance: Not all organisations or workers may be the same

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is widely accepted by researchers in the IT field as a reliable tool able to predict acceptance of new technology by individuals. The majority of these studies have used participants (both students and non-students) from within traditional businesses functions, e.g., accounting and finance. The ability of TAM to predict technology acceptance across all situations is not well documented. During the past decade there has been an increasing interest in research within Not-for-Profit (NFP) organisations. This paper considers whether people likely to pursue careers within the NFP sector have different attitudes to technology and whether such differences affect the measures used within technology acceptance models. A survey of business and social science undergraduate students, those most likely to enter careers in the Business vs. the NFP sector, indicated differences between the two groups that may impact on the technology acceptance models.

The effects of normalization on end-user query errors: An experimental evaluation

As a result of the shortage of professional programmers to extract timely information from databases, end-users are increasingly developing their own database queries. Because end-user querying is error-prone, characterizing the sources of query errors and using that knowledge to improve the effectiveness of end-user query development can improve the quality of information used for decision making. This paper reports the results of an experiment that investigated the effect of normalization level on query errors. The results show that query errors vary with the normalization level of the database structure and confirm previous findings about query errors increasing with task complexity. End-users querying a first normal form data structure make fewer errors than end-users querying an unnormalized data structure or a third normal form data structure. Furthermore, end-users querying a third normal form data structure make fewer errors than end-users querying an unnormalized data structure.

The impact of legitimacy-based motives on IS adoption success

Institutional pressures influence the success of information systems (IS) adoption via two success determinants.Coercive and normative pressure influence the chosen project management approach.Only mimetic but not normative pressure influences project team competence.Formality of the project management approach influences team competence.Project management approach and team competence influence IS adoption success. Firms frequently adopt new information systems (IS). To better understand IS adoption, research has been focused on motives for an IS adoption. In this study, three legitimacy-based motives (coercive, mimetic, and normative pressure) are examined for their impact on two success determinants (i.e., project management approach and team competence) and the subsequent impact of the success determinants on IS adoption success. In a quantitative study of Australian firms, we found that coercive pressure and normative pressure influence the project management approach, whereas mimetic pressure influences team competence. Both the project management approach and team competence in turn influence IS adoption success.