K. Ramamurthy

Success of data resource management in distributed environments: an empirical investigation

The trend toward distributed processing has significantly increased the awareness of data as a key corporate resource and underscored the importance of its management. In spite of this, there is a lack of empirical investigation of issues related to data resource management (DRM) in distributed processing environments. Being perhaps the first empirical attempt, this exploratory study identifies four information systems (IS) variables related to DRM in a distributed environment. It also seeks to examine the notion of gestalt fit to describe the nature of the relationships among these variables. In addition, the study evaluates whether intemally congruent groups outperform their opposites in realizing DRM success. The results of cluster analysis support the view of gestalt fit by identifying five clusters. The results also suggest that organizations represented by a well-blended configuration of high intersite data dependence, high centralization of IS decisions, high concentration IS resources at the central site, and low DRM-related autonomy granted to local sites appear to realize a greater degree of DRM success than the other groups. The implications of the study are discussed, and further research directions are proposed.

Multiple Conceptualizations of Small Business Web Use and Benefit

Small businesses play an important role in the U.S. economy and there is anecdotal evidence that use of the Web is beneficial to such businesses. There is, however, little systematic analysis of the conditions that lead to successful use of and thereby benefits from the Web for small businesses. Based on the innovation adoption, organizations, and information systems (IS) implementation literature, we identify a set of variables that are related to adoption, use, and benefits of information technology (IT), with particular emphasis on small businesses. These variables are reflective of an organizations contextual characteristics, its IT infrastructure, Web use, and Web benefits. Since the extant research does not suggest a single theoretical model for Web use and benefits in the context of small businesses, we adopt a modeling approach and explore the relationships between “context-IT-use-benefit” (CIUB) through three models—partial-mediator, reduced partial-mediator, and mediator. These models posit that the extent of Web use by small businesses and the associated benefits are driven by organizations’ contextual characteristics and their IT infrastructure. They differ in the endogeneity/exogeneity of the extent of IT sophistication, and in the direct/mediated effects of organizational context. We examine whether the relationships between variables identified in the literature hold within the context of these models using two samples of small businesses with national coverage, including various sizes, and representing several industry sectors. The results show that the evidence for patterns of relationships is similar across the two independent samples for two of these models. We highlight the relationships within the reduced partial-mediator and mediator models for which conclusive evidence are given by both samples. Implications for small business managers and providers of Web-based technologies are discussed.

Effective design of electronic commerce environments: a proposed theory of congruence and an illustration

We posit that the current electronic commerce (EC) systems are not user-oriented. Consumers in an EC environment find it difficult to deal with the inherent nature of virtual reality in their interaction. We propose a conceptual framework to address such an issue by drawing on insights from contingency research in information systems design and media choice behavior. The basic theme of this model, called the congruence model, is that for an EC systems environment to have favorable impact on a consumer, the system must have a good fit with both the products/services that are sold/provided and the users it supports. An initial validity of this conceptual framework is demonstrated by working with a few product and user types. A detailed evaluation of eight different commercial web sites dealing with four different product categories provides additional support to the proposed theory. We expect our conceptual model to spur significant future research on this important phenomenon.

Data Warehousing Process Maturity: An Exploratory Study of Factors Influencing User Perceptions

This paper explores the factors influencing perceptions of data warehousing process maturity. Data warehousing, like software development, is a process, which can be expressed in terms of components such as artifacts and workflows. In software engineering, the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was developed to define different levels of software process maturity. We draw upon the concepts underlying CMM to define different maturity levels for a data warehousing process (DWP). Based on the literature in software development and maturity, we identify a set of features for characterizing the levels of data warehousing process maturity and conduct an exploratory field study to empirically examine if those indeed are factors influencing perceptions of maturity. Our focus in this paper is on managerial perceptions of DWP. The results of this exploratory study indicate that several factors-data quality, alignment of architecture, change management, organizational readiness, and data warehouse size-have an impact on DWP maturity, as perceived by IT professionals. From a practical standpoint, the results provide useful pointers, both managerial and technological, to organizations aspiring to elevate their data warehousing processes to more mature levels. This paper also opens up several areas for future research, including instrument development for assessing DWP maturity

A Model of Data Warehousing Process Maturity

Even though data warehousing (DW) requires huge investments, the data warehouse market is experiencing incredible growth. However, a large number of DW initiatives end up as failures. In this paper, we argue that the maturity of a data warehousing process (DWP) could significantly mitigate such large-scale failures and ensure the delivery of consistent, high quality, “single-version of truth” data in a timely manner. However, unlike software development, the assessment of DWP maturity has not yet been tackled in a systematic way. In light of the critical importance of data as a corporate resource, we believe that the need for a maturity model for DWP could not be greater. In this paper, we describe the design and development of a five-level DWP maturity model (DWP-M) over a period of three years. A unique aspect of this model is that it covers processes in both data warehouse development and operations. Over 20 key DW executives from 13 different corporations were involved in the model development process. The final model was evaluated by a panel of experts; the results strongly validate the functionality, productivity, and usability of the model. We present the initial and final DWP-M model versions, along with illustrations of several key process areas at different levels of maturity.

Data Warehousing Infusion and Organizational Effectiveness

Data warehousing (DW) has emerged as one of the most powerful technology innovations in recent years to support organization-wide decision making and has become a key component in the information technology (IT) infrastructure. Proponents of DW claim that its infusion can dramatically enhance the ability of businesses to improve the access, distribution, and sharing of information and provide managerial decision support for complex business questions. DW is also an enabling technology for data mining, customer-relationship management, and other business-intelligence applications. Although data warehouses have been around for quite some time, they have been plagued by high failure rates and limited spread or use. Drawing upon past research on the adoption and diffusion of innovations and on the implementation of information systems (IS), we examine the key organizational and innovation factors that influence the infusion (diffusion) of DW within organizations and also examine if more extensive infusion leads to improved organizational outcomes. In this paper, we conducted a field study, where two senior managers (one from IS and the other from a line function) from 117 companies participated, and developed a structural model to test the research hypotheses. The results indicate that four of the seven variables examined in this paper-organizational support, quality of the project management process, compatibility, and complexity-significantly influence the degree of infusion of DW and that the infusion, in turn, significantly influences organization-level benefits and stakeholder satisfaction. The findings of this paper have interesting implications for both research and practice in IT and DW infusion, as well as in the organization-level impact of the infusion of enterprise-wide infrastructural and decision support technologies such as DW.

Consumer Selection of E-Commerce Websites in a B2C Environment: A Discrete Decision Choice Model

Despite the suggestions of friction-free information availability, considerable price dispersions for the same product are not uncommon across online retailers in the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment. Online customers do not necessarily always buy from the site with the lowest price, suggesting that other forces are at work. This paper presents and empirically examines a model that proposes that Web site value in terms of (perceived) Web site quality as well as awareness of the site and consumer differences (on price sensitivity) are key variables in explaining online consumer behavior in their choice of Web site despite the existence of price dispersions. Two hundred ninety-three students participated in a series of controlled laboratory experiments making use of two different types of products in terms of complexity and expensiveness (Canon digital camera Powershot S400 and digital versatile disc full-screen edition of Star Wars: Episodes I and II) that required them to interact with three different real-world Web sites offering each of these two branded products and make their decision on which of the three Web sites they will chose to buy the product from. The prices varied across the Web sites, as did the quality of the sites on various dimensions and site awareness of the participants. Conditional logit models of discrete choice for each of the two product types indicate differential influences of Web site quality dimensions and price sensitivity. A number of interesting implications emerge, and pointers to further extensions of the research theme are discussed.