H. Roland Weistroffer

Information technology success factors and models in developing and emerging economies

Information technology (IT) projects continue to suffer from frequent cost and time overruns and failure to fully deliver on the expected benefits to the users or the organization. Furthermore, wha...

From the Special Issue Editors: Information Technology in Transition Economies

INTRODUCTION Although the Berlin Wall fell more than two decades ago and most formerly communist countries now actively participate in the global economic community, relatively little research on IT in these transition economies has appeared in the leading academic journals. Moreover, a quick review of the compositions of review boards of many leading journals in IS reveals that virtually none of the senior or associate editors is affiliated with an institution located in countries of the former Eastern Bloc. This is in spite of many of these journals recently having put substantial efforts into “internationalizing” their publication agenda. It appears though that the magnitude and importance of the political and economic changes in countries formerly behind the Iron Curtain, and the accompanying IT issues remain largely unrecognized by most main stream IS researchers and journal editors. This underrepresentation of published research on IT in transition economies provides the motivation for our special issue. In this editorial, besides introducing the contributed articles, we will also try to outline the scope of potential research on IT in transition economies. First, we clarify what, in our view, constitutes a transition economy, and how it might differ not only from a fully developed economy, but also from a developing or emerging economy. We point out typical characteristics of transition economies, and how those affect the business environment. Furthermore, we discuss how IT may be used differently in such an environment, and what factors may affect research on IT in transition economies.

Multiple Criteria Decision Support Software

We present an overview of the current state of multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) decision support software. Many approaches have been proposed in the literature to solve multiple criteria decision-making problems, and there is an abundance of software that implements these approaches. Much of the software is still quasi-experimental, developed by academic researchers to test specific algorithms or to solve a specific problem on an ad hoc basis.

Evaluating Multiple‐Attribute Decision Support Systems

Differences in the perceived usefulness of five multiple-attribute decision support systems versus a basic spreadsheet are empirically assessed. Twenty-four college faculty members participated in a repeated measures experiment in which they used decision support software for personal computers to analyse semistructured multiple-attribute problems. The software packages employed were Criterium, Expert Choice, Logical Decision, VIMDA, VISA and the spreadsheet package Quattro Pro. A questionnaire was developed to assess user-friendliness of the software, confidence in the procedure implemented by the software, and users’ confidence in their results when employing the decision aids. Time to reach a decision was also measured. Significant differences were fund in the overall way users ranked these aids, in the perceived user-friendliness and the confidence in procedure among aids, and in the time it took to arrive at a result. Comments from users are also reported.

The state of multiple criteria decision support software

Maturation of the field of operations research has resulted in giving more attention to providing direct support for the process of managerial decision making. The desire for models which more accurately reflect the real problems that need to be solved has led to the sub-field of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM). However, many multiple criteria decision making procedures proposed in the literature are not being applied in real decision problems to the extent one might expect. Developments in the field of information systems, previously known as data processing, have led to a shift in focus from automating business transactions to more directly supporting managerial decision making. Advances in informa-tion technology have made interactive and user-friendly decision support systems (DSS) feasible. In this paper we provide a survey of currently available DSSs that use MCDM methodology. The availability and increased awareness of these software packages may lead to improved utilization of MCDM methodology and further development of the software.

An approach for predicting and describing patient outcome using multicriteria decision analysis and decision rules

Patient outcome in brain trauma patients is affected by a multiplicity of factors, beginning with ambulatory transportation and routing, to the grade of the receiving facility and treatment therein, and finally the treatment and monitoring in definitive care (the brain trauma intensive care unit). Factors and events in each of these phases can be modeled as a multicriteria problem, where the objective is to optimize patient outcome; moreover, a more comprehensive model can embody the interactions of all three phases. This study focuses on modeling the factors that affect patient outcome in definitive care and on expressing these in machine readable format so that we can better describe or predict patient outcome using data mining tools. We use multicriteria decision analysis and decision rules for knowledge representation. Preliminary results suggest that the incorporation of a priori knowledge does help better predict or describe patient outcome when using decision tree induction.

Conceptualizing and Researching the Adoption of ICT and the Impact on Socioeconomic Development

Information and communication technologies (ICT) in developed countries have changed much of everyday life. How we communicate with each other, how we find desired information, how we work and conduct business, how we interact with government agencies, and how we conduct our social lives, are all dependent on ICT. While it is reasonable to assume that ICT has also had significant social and economic effects in less developed regions, the specific outcomes may be different, as culture, the existing infrastructure, and government regulations all influence the type and magnitude of the impact of ICT and ICT-enabled services. As ICT affects everyday lives, it also impacts the macroeconomic growth, which in turn further affects everyday lives by allowing improvements in infrastructure and a higher standard of living. User acceptance of ICT is essential for sustaining and expanding ICT-enabled services, which further heighten the socioeconomic impact. The papers in this special edition all deal with the adoption, acceptance, and the socioeconomic impact of ICT in some form. They deal with macroeconomic impact, sustained economic growth, human development, transformational policy-making, as well as with the factors that promote the adoption and user acceptance of ICT in transition and emerging economies. In this editorial, we will look at the factors that likely influence the effects of ICT investments and propose a conceptual framework for further studying these relationships, to stimulate and direct future research in this area (Jabareen, 2009). Frameworks dealing with some of these relationships have been proposed in the literature before (see, e.g. Shih, Kraemer, & Dedrick, 2008), but none encompassing all of the issues that we consider important for investigation of ICT impact on socioeconomic development. The objective of this framework is to clarify several concepts related to socioeconomic development and to identify vital interrelations among these concepts. This framework may serve other researchers in organizing their ideas and encourage further theory development, and most importantly promote viable research to spur genuine socioeconomic development in underdeveloped regions.

Documentation in Systems Development: A Significant Criterion for Project Success

Agile software development methods seem inherently suitable for today’s quick-paced business environment as they shorten the time to develop new systems and typically incur lower development costs compared to the conventional systems development life cycle (SDLC) approach. Software development project failures using conventional SDLC are often attributed to project delays, resulting in budget overruns. On the other hand, a well planned and documented systems development project is more likely to result in a system that meets the expectations of both the intended users and the software engineers. This paper takes another look at conventional SDLC methodology by focusing on an aspect that is often overlooked in systems development practice, namely the significance of good documentation.

Improving the relative efficiency of revenue generation from ICT in transition economies: a product life cycle approach

In order to attract domestic and international investors, transition economies (TE), i.e. economies in the transition from planned to market-driven, must demonstrate their ability to convert investments into revenues in an efficient and effective manner. In this study, conducted in the context of 18 TEs, we investigate strategies for increasing the relative efficiency of the production of revenues from information and telecommunications technologies (ICT). We use a four-step methodology incorporating data envelopment analysis and neural networks to determine the areas along the product life cycle curve where increased investments in ICTs will likely have the most macroeconomic impact in a resource-efficient manner. We use the framework of neoclassical growth accounting to support our inquiry. James Pick is the accepting Associate Editor for this article.

A merit pay allocation model for college faculty based on performance quality and quantity

Abstract The salary of most college and university faculty in the United States is based on merit and market factors, rather than on a fixed scale. This article proposes a structured model for faculty performance evaluation that explicitly considers both quality and quantity of faculty output in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service. Detailed criteria for measuring the quantity of performance outputs and for assigning quality weights are presented. The model allows faculty to emphasize different aspects of their work, e.g. teaching or scholarship. The model proposes merit pay allocation in proportion to a faculty members contribution to a departments overall performance output.