Frantz Rowe

Strategizing information systems-enabled organizational transformation: A transdisciplinary review and new directions

Twenty years after the promise of Information Systems enabling Organizational Transformation (IS-enabled OT), what have we learned? This paper reviews the literature in order to better understand this phenomenon. As specialists in IS, strategy and organizational studies, we analyze the discourse on OT found in the strategy, organizational theory and IS literature, and identify four structuring themes: organizational inertia, process, agency and performance. We apply the coding derived from these themes to a set of 62 empirical papers and discuss the results. Ten research avenues are then identified to show that IS-enabled OT is still a new frontier for strategic information systems research.

The effects of enterprise resource planning implementation strategy on cross-functionality

Abstract.  Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are characterized by specific features such as the scope of the ERP modules, interdependent relationships, single database and standard management and processing rules, all of which are capable of causing various degrees of change within the company and, potentially, encourage a more cross‐functional overview of it. This paper develops a theoretical distinction between cross‐functional integration and cross‐functionality as it raises peoples awareness of the transverse and coupled nature of work process across different organizational units. It aims to test and discuss the impact of ERP implementation strategy (organizational vision, process re‐engineering, the scope of the ERP modules implemented and speed) on cross‐functionality. The methodology is basically based on a survey of 100 French companies, of which the results are further discussed in five case studies. The results show that all previously mentioned factors play significant roles. These roles should be addressed in future research.

An Empirical Study of Determinants of E-Commerce Adoption in SMEs in Vietnam: An Economy in Transition

Experts and business pundits forecasted drastic changes in Vietnams fledgling e-commerce when the Southeast Asian country became an official member of the World Trade Organization WTO in 2007. Over the past few years, as part of the Reform-called Doi moi-some Vietnamese enterprises have adopted e-commerce and already benefitted from it. In this research, the authors adapt the Technology-Organization-Environment TOE framework and test a model of e-commerce adoption including numerous internal and external factors identified in empirical studies. The final sample of 926 small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam includes both adopter and non-adopter firms. The policy implications of this study on promoting e-commerce adoption by SMEs in transition economies, such as Vietnam, are discussed.

Toward a richer diversity of genres in information systems research: new categorization and guidelines

European Journal of Information Systems (2012) 21, 469–478. doi:10.1057/ejis.2012.38 In this editorial I would like to make a general and effective call for more diversity in information systems research genres. This is a general call that goes beyond a particular journal and attempts to provide some practical guidelines. One can be sympathetic to the vision of opening up to a new wider set of research and presentation genres such as the one developed in my former editorials (Rowe, 2010, 2011), but without some guidelines this call for increasing diversity in IS research genres might hang fire. In other words, to encourage potential authors to be more confident in these endeavors, we need to indicate which lampposts might be worth approaching when building their research. Journals play an important institutional role in signaling and promoting certain categories of research. Hence, the two objectives of this editorial are as follows:

An empirical study of IS architectures in French SMEs : Integration approaches

This paper, based on a cross-sectional empirical study of information system (IS) architectures within 143 small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in France, reports findings on how SMEs architect to achieve IS integration and interoperability. This research provides an empirically derived taxonomy of enterprise architectural variants of the types often described in the literature for large firms. This study finds indications that for SMEs the immediate goal of interoperability prevailed over fuller and more formal system integration. The most common means for approaching enterprise architecture and any form of integration is via the construction of software bridges and interfaces. Partially standardized architectures based on Enterprise Systems (ERP) are the next most common type. Hybrid architectures – mixed Enterprise Applications Integration and ERP – are the third most common. The contribution of this paper lies not in the identification of the three types but resides (1) in the description of their distribution in SMEs; (2) in the absence of other integration/interoperability types in this population; and (3) most importantly in the interpretation of the organizational and historical rationale explaining the emergence of these types in this organizational context.

Cultural values, media richness and telecommunication use in an organization

Abstract This paper deals with adapting the telecommunication services of an organization to the diversity of individual value orientations related to culture. After a discussion of the processes linking telecommunication use to cultural values, we show on empirical grounds the relationship between the preference of the individual for organizational cultures and his or her telecommunication use (fax, email (electronic mail), vmail (voice mail) and telephone). The cultural values were measured for 223 individuals in a French company using Q sort with balanced block design while telecommunication use was measured through a diary method. The final analysis was performed on 799 internal communications of 145 individuals having access to the four telecommunication services. In particular we found that the use of new media was more related to an orientation towards innovation or reactivity or entrepreneurship than the telephone. Email appeared as associated to relation-oriented rather than task-oriented value and suggests that the amount of feedback plays a role in the process of telecommunications media choice. We argue that cultural analysis is not only an interesting complementary approach to information richness theory for understanding telecommunication choices, but can also lead to different decisions. As an example, we examine the decision to withdraw either vmail or email in a downsizing situation.

Are decision support systems getting people to conform? the impact of work organisation and segmentation on user behaviour in a French bank

The longitudinal study of the most sophisticated decision support system (DSS) for the management of debit accounts provides new answers to the question of conformity in French banking. In 2003, the analysis of 45 observations and qualitative interviews showed that the advisor maintains his free appreciation of risk. However, even if conformity does not exist, the results on the modification range show that the DSS does exert an influence on user behaviour. In addition, the interpretation and acceptance of DSS recommendation are different according to the type of portfolio managed and how the work is organised. The less the financial advisor knows the client, the greater the influence of the DSS. Recent decisions regarding the division of labour for the management of lower segments heighten the risk that DSS used without knowing the client leads to more conformity, or at least to what we conceptualise as strategic conformity, and a taylorisation of services.

Cores and Definitions: Building the Cognitive Legitimacy of the Information Systems Discipline Across the Atlantic

The issue of the legitimacy of Information Systems is important for researchers in this field because other disciplines have begun to lay claim to research topics often thought to belong to the domain of IS research, and the field itself is under challenge in academic intuitions around the world (Avison 2002). Benbasat and Zmud’s (2003) opinion is that IS has gained socio-political legitimacy but not cognitive legitimacy in large measure because the object of study in much IS research is not clearly delineated. In part, they are defining a disciplinary boundary issue and beginning to define criteria by which our field may be distinguished from reference disciplines or other related disciplines. Therefore, to gain more cognitive legitimacy, a clearer understanding of what we mean by “an information system” and of the central issues driving its creation and use is needed if it is at the core of that which we study. This paper advances that discourse by examining the role of a handful of French scholars, many of whom are not well known out of French academic circles, but whose thoughts on the issue are useful in furthering the debate on the ontological grounding of our field.

What does PLMS (product lifecycle management systems) manage

Software vendors offer a portfolio of applications that can be integrated with each other to form product lifecycle management systems (PLMS). Such systems are implemented to create an integrated product information environment. Product information can take the form of relational data, electronic documents, or both. However, implemented PLMS do not have the same capability to handle product information at the product relational data level and the document level. Due to limited resources, many Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) have only one PLM application supporting the NPD process at one of these levels. Information needs not met by this PLM application are managed more or less efficiently by complementary means. Which PLM application type should a SME use to start implementing a PLMS?In this article, we make eight proposals distinguishing document-oriented PLM applications and relational data-oriented PLM applications to help practitioners choose and implement the PLM application best suited to their companys needs. These proposals are illustrated by the comparison of two real cases: one document-oriented and the other relational data-oriented. Overall, this article deals with the complementarity of document management and product relational data management to meet PLM issues in most SMEs.

Towards a greater diversity in writing styles, argumentative strategies and genre of manuscripts

European Journal of Information Systems (2011) 20, 491–495. doi:10.1057/ejis.2011.29 EJIS values diversity in all domains: topics, research methods, philosophy of science, origin of scholars and writing styles. This strategy aims at making wider connections and avoiding conformism at the expense of pluralism. In certain aspects of the academic writings norms are good things. An introduction section and a unique format for references section considerably facilitate reading and understanding. But enforcing such elementary presentation norms should not lead by extension to conformism and academic myopia regarding the phenomenon studied and the relevant literature. If pressed by governing institutional bodies or particular interests to publish more and quickly, academic circles adopt a single type of literature genre – for example the journal article testing a two by two model or any other – such a unique norm would precipitate sooner or later the fall of any scholarly community (de Marco in Loos et al., 2010). Naturally, we as academics are free from all these pressures and we know this will not happen. Nevertheless if we imagine the case of a single genre taking over, this would be even more dangerous for EJIS because it is in contradiction with the spirit of the IS discipline and the invitation in the aims and scope of EJIS to remain critical. The variety of conceptualizations and definitions we can adopt for an information system underlines the necessity for the IS community to be open to knowledge building. Such knowledge builds upon a wide range of disciplines not limited to, and as different from each other as, anthropology, history, linguistics, psychology, sociology, economics, computer science and mathematics. Naturally, this variety of disciplines helps not only to examine different theory bases, but also to bring different tools or research methods into the study of IS-related phenomena. In this editorial I would like to focus on writing styles, argumentative strategies or rhetoric and genres. The diversity of styles is important if we want to build an international community (Rowe, 2010), For example, not even mentioning the typical long sentences of Bourdieu, consider the prevalent French style in which the main arguments fall as a conclusion of each section and coalesce to let the main point in the conclusion of the article emerge and for which announcing the plan at the end of the introduction is neither elegant nor necessary because a good structure speaks for itself (e.g. Bourdieu, 1974; Latour, 1994; Laroche, 1995). This is quite the opposite from the dominant writing styles in the top NorthAmerican IS journals, making it, not impossible, but certainly more difficult, costly and overall a much longer journey to publish in those journals. As an international journal with a European spirit and title we should not impose a particular writing style, but only clarity of the arguments. At a more global level of the article structure, de Vaujany et al. (2011) distinguish three types of argumentative strategies that motivate the article – (1) deepening of knowledge where authors start from the identification of a gap in the literature, (2) solving an enigma characterized European Journal of Information Systems (2011) 20 , 491–495 & 2011 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved 0960-085X/11