Francesco Virili

Nonstationarity and data preprocessing for neural network predictions of an economic time series

The presence of stochastic or deterministic trends in economic time series can be a major obstacle for producing satisfactory predictions with neural networks. In this paper, we demonstrate the effects of nonstationarity on neural network predictions using the time series of the mortgage loans purchased in the Netherlands. We present different preprocessing techniques for removing nonstationarity, and evaluate their properties by producing multi-step predictions using a linear stochastic forecasting model and a neural network. The results indicate that detecting nonstationarity and selecting an appropriate preprocessing technique is highly beneficial for improving the prediction quality.

The strategic value of SOA: a comparative case study in the banking sector

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has helped to drive increasingly intense global competition. In turn, this intensity increases the need for flexibility and rapid changeability in ICT to support strategies that depend on organisational agility. We report a comparative, cross-cultural case study of the implementation of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) at a Scandinavian bank and a Swiss bank. The strategic rewards in the adoption of SOA appear to go beyond marketplace issues of ICT capability acquisition, and unexpectedly arise in the creation of an extensible organisational ICT architecture. The extensibility of the ICT architecture that results from the adoption of SOA provides potential for greater organisational agility (and thereby competitiveness).

Network effects in technology acceptance: Laboratory experimental evidence

This research analyzes network effects in technology acceptance. The hypothesis is that the size of the user network affects technology acceptance. Even today, empirical measurement of network effects is challenging and there is a lack of experimental evidence. In order to investigate and measure the relationship between network size (number of adopters) and user acceptance, technology acceptance research needs to broaden its scope and approaches. To overcome this limitation we reproduce a particular type of technology acceptance process in a laboratory experiment, controlling for user network size and testing its influence on user perceptions and, ultimately, on acceptance decisions. We measured user perceptions and analyzed the data using consolidated and tested technology acceptance models. The results confirm our hypothesis, showing a significant effect of user network size on user perceptions. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our approach and findings.

Value generation in e‐government from service‐based IT integration

Purpose – Understanding how value is actually generated in e‐government projects is one of the most challenging, and relevant, issues in e‐government research. This paper aims to investigate the contribution of service‐based information technology (IT) integration for generating value in the public sector, proposing a theoretical framework based on the theory of IT conversion effectiveness.Design/methodology/approach – The paper illustrates this novel approach to electronic government evaluation with an exploratory case study of a service‐based IT integration project developed by the City of Genoa, showing how and why IT integration can substantially contribute to value generation in the public sector.Findings – Contrarily to what one would expect according to the original theory of IT conversion effectiveness, value generation may happen even with no substantial growth in the pre‐existing IT asset portfolio. In fact, what is truly important is not only the availability of IT assets (policy output), but a...

Socio-technical Perspectives on e-Government Initiatives

ICTs are intended to be a powerful tool in support of government transition to the “Digital Age”. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of integrating a socio-technical perspective into the body of eGovernment practices. The current realisation in Italy of an “Action plan for eGovernment” is a source of interesting preliminary evidence for our purpose.

The enabling role of Web services in information system development practices: a grounded theory study

This study presents a grounded theory analysis of a case study in the banking industry with a view to showing the enabling role of “Web services” technology in information system development practices. The grounded theory analysis of the Cashier Management System development project at the Central Europe Bank (a pseudonym) shows that Web services technology is a key technological enabler for more agile forms of IS development, characterized by incremental analysis, requirements revision, requirements emerging in use and incremental implementation. In particular, an initial in-depth analysis phase, conducted in a traditional way, is then followed, during system development, by several iterative phases of requirements revision/addition, in fulfilment of emerging or previously unplanned user needs discovered along the way. Such system development practices, enabled by the Web services technology and influenced by a variety of contextual factors, cover a middle ground between methodical and amethodical development processes.

Cooperating Strategies in e-Government

Public administration (PA) has significantly shifted its interests to reach the innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), as a result of e-Government projects. The new challenge for public administrations is based on the exploitation of their knowledge resources in order to improve their processes and to offer better services to the users. The aim of this contribution is to investigate the spreading of cooperating strategies in public administrations in order to better understand why and how these organizational behaviors could assure advantages for PA and citizens.

Web Services and Value Generation in the Public Sector

Two basic questions are investigated in this contribution: 1) How can we explain the value generation process in the public sector? 2) What is the potential role of Web services technology in this process? Our approach has been to make use of the process theory on business value generation developed by Soh and Markus (1993), adapting the original framework of analysis to the public sector. According to these authors, IT can generate business value through a three-phase process: conversion, use and competitive deployment. We focus on the first stage of the model, where IT expenditures are converted into IT assets. The role of Web services technology in this conversion process is then depicted, evidencing some implications connected to its adoption in e-Government (e-Gov) projects. The analysis is intentionally limited to the intra-organizational level (i. e. we do not consider inter-agency systems) and to the first phase of the value generation process. In the future it may be possible to delineate a more complete picture of the e-Gov value generation process and the potential role of the Web services technology.

Full length articleWorking with tweets vs. working with chats: An experiment on collaborative problem solving☆

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

The Eiderdown Project

This chapter tells the story of the “Eiderdown project”, a graphical twodimensional map exploring the evolution of Organization and Information Systems, that Marco promoted and distributed with a group of friends, evolving it from a playful sensemaking tool to a smart interdisciplinary means of connecting people and generating ideas. The first release of Eiderdown appeared as a gigantic white-background table, and was therefore named “Lenzuolo” (= bedsheet). After several additions, the bedsheet grew in content and size, earning the name of “Eiderdown” (= duvet, continental quilt). The story is structured in four sections: 1) the reasons and background of the project, the founding group and its first objectives; 2) the underlying structure and principles; 3) the evolution and the contributions collected over time; 4) the final outcome, its use and some paths for further evolution.