Jeffrey A. Wong

The Impact of Information Technology Investments on Downside Risk of the Firm: Alternative Measurement of the Business Value of IT

We examine the effect that investments in information technology (IT) have on downside risk profiles of companies that made public announcements of their investments in technology. Given the limitations of financial and decision theory perspectives on risk, we adopt the strategic management perspective that stresses downside risk as an important alternative measure of firm performance. We examine whether different types of IT investments have a differential impact on firm downside risk. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm and the real options perspective, we find evidence that IT investments and their timing influence organizational downside risk. Transformational and informational IT investments lead to a reduction in downside risk only if they lead to strategic IT investments in the industry. For competitive necessities such as IT investments that automate business functions, a reduction in downside risk is realized by investing in parity with industry participants. Our study contributes to the literature by offering an alternative perspective on the benefits of IT investments, particularly where no apparent incremental financial results may be evident. It also generates insights on IT investment strategies that may help firms keep up with or stay ahead of the competition.

Antecedents and Consequences of User Satisfaction with E-Mail Systems

E-mail is an important component of the e-collaborative environment. This study contributes to the literature by using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) framework to model the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction with e-mail systems. We employ a survey to gather empirical evidence to test the modified ACSI model for e-mail systems. Additionally, we test whether spam has an influence on a user’s satisfaction with his or her e-mail system. Our results generally support the notion that the ACSI framework can be used to model e-mail user satisfaction, but we do not find statistically significant evidence that spam affects overall user satisfaction with their e-mail system.

A strategic management support architecture: integration of the balanced scorecard and enterprise resource planning

The power of information technology to support strategic management at the executive level may currently be underutilised. A recently developed strategic management system incorporating extensive domain knowledge can be integrated with advanced data utilisation technology to form a comprehensive strategic management architecture. Specifically, we propose an information architecture that exploits the synergies between the balanced scorecard business model, data warehousing and data mining to more completely support management and performance measurement. Our proposed strategic management support architecture may provide new perspectives on how information technology can add value to enhance strategic management.

Data architectures for an organizational memory information system

A framework is developed that supports the theoretical design of an organizational memory information system (OMIS). The framework provides guidance for managing the processing capabilities of an organization by matching knowledge location, flexibility, and processing requirements with data architecture. This framework is tested using three different sets of data attributes and data architectures from 147 business professionals that have experience in IS development. We find that trade‐offs exist between the amount of knowledge embedded in the data architecture and the flexibility of data architectures. This trade‐off is contingent on the characteristics of the set of tasks that the data architecture is being designed to support. Further, the match is important to consider in the design of OMIS database architecture.

The Effects of Investments in Information Technology on Firm Performance: An Investor Perspective

Analyzing the beneficial effects of investments in information technology IT is an area of research that interests investors and academics. A number of studies have examined whether investments in IT have a positive effect on some measure of earnings or other form of financial return. Results from these studies have been mixed. This paper extends the literature by adopting an investors perspective on firm performance when IT investments are made, using the preservation of capital as a performance measure. The authors examine companies that made public announcements of their investments in technology to see if they were able to mitigate losses to investors by reducing their downside risk to investors. This study further discusses whether different types of IT investments have different impacts on firm risk from an investors viewpoint. Findings suggest that IT investments impact a firms downside risk, and the authors offer an alternative perspective on the benefits of IT investments, particularly where no positive incremental financial results are evident.

Enhancing customer value through IT investments: a NEBIC perspective

The Net-Enabled Business Innovation Cycle (NEBIC) is a holistic theory that describes a pathway firms may use to leverage net-enablement. We assert that the strategic information system role constructs used in past studies are related to the stages found in the NEBIC. This suggests that information technology announcement studies should consider the role of net-enablement in creating customer value. We use the event study methodology to test the markets reaction to 298 announcements of technology investments that correspond to different information technology role constructs and the related NEBIC stages. Our findings suggest that customer value is added to firms through the value creation process described by the NEBIC.