Kevin R. Parker

The impact of color in the e‐commerce marketing of fashions: an exploratory study

As the number of Internet purchases of fashion items increases, the problem of inaccurate color representation on the Web becomes more significant. Color inaccuracy has many negative consequences for marketers, including loss of sales, increased returns and complaints, and customer defections. This research reports the findings of a survey conducted as part of an initial investigation into consumer opinions about fashion merchandise purchasing over the Internet. Results indicate that companies are losing customers and sales as a result of having colors on e‐commerce sites that do not accurately represent the actual colors of the products being sold. Increased dissatisfaction on the part of consumers leads to greater costs in both customer service and reverse logistics. Further, a majority of the respondents indicated that they would not make additional purchases from an e‐tailer if they received items in colors different than they expected. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

Environmental scanning and organizational culture

This paper examines the connection between environmental scanning for market intelligence, organizational culture and generic strategies. The generic strategies, based on the Miles and Snow typology, are related to the organizational culture types developed by Deshpande et al. An enhanced model of the one proposed by Deshpande et al. is presented. By providing a more complete model, it is possible to more accurately represent an organizations interaction with its environment with respect to its generic strategy and scanning approach. Propositions are presented pertaining to the type of scanning approach utilized by organizations in each quadrant. The paper concludes with planning implications for each quadrant.

Libraries as knowledge management centers

Purpose – This paper proposes enhancing libraries to act as knowledge management centers for small businesses, providing both knowledge management (KM) and competitive intelligence (CI) services. Design/methodology/approach – The requirements for a Library Knowledge Management Center (LKMC) are presented and briefly examined. KM, CI, ontologies, and the Semantic Web are all considered, and the steps needed to realize a LKMC are presented. Findings – An approach to developing a LKMC is provided, as is a rationale for the proposal. Future research issues for realization of this proposal are addressed. Research limitations/implications – This paper presents a conceptual overview of a project that is still in its early stages, and as such its practicality is difficult to evaluate. Practical implications – This proposal, if followed up with future research, will prove beneficial to both small business and to libraries. Small businesses are not always able to gather sufficient internal and external knowledge to assist in strategic planning and positioning, and thus are unable to compete with larger rivals whose resources allow them to develop sophisticated KM and CI systems. LKMCs hold promise to level the playing field. Libraries benefit because this reaffirms their relevance in a digital age in which so much information is freely available to patrons. Originality/value – This paper proposes a new service for libraries, one that will assist small businesses in competing more effectively with larger competitors.

Multi‐class interest profile: applications in the intelligence process

Noting that accurate information needs overlay the entire intelligence cycle from planning to reporting, the authors propose a new concept to fine‐tune the process of electronically gathering information. Since most tools are nondiscriminatory in information gathering, a new concept is needed to assist managers at all levels of the organization. The proposed multi‐class interest profile (M‐CLIP) provides the capability of expanding the representation of interests to reflect the assorted areas that make up a manager’s information needs. The M‐CLIP covers project, organizational, and industry class interest areas. Each area is customizable to make the search pertinent to the user while considering the need for both recall and precision. Supporting features, such as profile expansion, and fine‐tuning are also considered.

Requirements Elicitation Problems: A Literature Analysis

Requirements elicitation is the process through which analysts determine the software requirements of stakeholders. Requirements elicitation is seldom well done, and an inaccurate or incomplete understanding of user requirements has led to the downfall of many software projects. This paper proposes a classification of problem types that occur in requirements elicitation. The classification has been derived from a literature analysis. Papers reporting on techniques for improving requirements elicitation practice were examined for the problem the technique was designed to address. In each classification the most recent or prominent techniques for ameliorating the problems are presented. The classification allows the requirements engineer to be sensitive to problems as they arise and the educator to structure delivery of requirements elicitation training.

Criteria for the selection of a programming language for introductory courses

Historically, the selection of a programming language for an introductory programming course has been a process consisting of faculty evaluation, discussion, and consensus. As the number of faculty, students, and language options grows, this process is likely to become increasingly unwieldy. In addition, the process lacks structure and cannot be easily replicated. The selection process will, in all likelihood, be repeated every two to three years. Providing a structured approach to the selection of a programming language would yield a more thorough evaluation of the options available and a more easily justified selection. Developing and documenting an exhaustive set of selection criteria, and an approach for the application of these criteria, will allow the process of language selection to be more easily repeated in the future. This paper presents a comprehensive set of criteria that should be considered when selecting a programming language for a teaching environment, and proposes several approaches for the application of these criteria.

Technology in Education: An Agile Systems Approach

Innovative use of technology in education often comes about through a champion exploring possibilities. Because this approach is often informal, the need to assess the effectiveness of the technology is often overlooked. An agile systems approach to the introduction of new technology in education can provide effective ways of measuring outcomes. The agile approach also allows us to build on the experience gained from using technology in other areas. Evidence from two case studies is used to demonstrate the value that can be gained from taking an agile systems approach.

Navigating the framework jungle for teaching web application development

Studies indicate that information systems and computer science programs should place more emphasis on software design topics.Because little significant software in a commercial environment is developed using only programming skills,students without exposure to design patterns and frameworks will be ill-prepared for the workforce. This paper investigates whether PHP-based web development courses should use PHP frameworks to guide program development and how to select an appropriate framework. The paper begins with a literature review of the concept of design patterns, particularly the Model-View-Controller(MVC) pattern. We review studies that argue that design patterns and frameworks are essential pedagogical tools. Finally, we report on our work to select an appropriate framework for incorporation into web development courses as well as the process by which some of the major PHP MVC frameworks were assessed to determine which is best-suited for use in an academic environment.

Improving competitive intelligence for knowledge management systems

Knowledge management encompasses the entire intelligence cycle from planning to reporting. One aspect that is often overlooked or minimised is the inclusion of competitive intelligence. This paper proposes a new concept to fine-tune the process of electronically gathering competitive intelligence – a key activity in knowledge management systems. Most tools are nondiscriminatory in information gathering, and a structured approach is needed to assist managers at all organisational levels in the needs identification process. The proposed multiclass interest profile provides the capability of expanding the coverage of critical intelligence areas to reflect the assorted topics that make up an organisations information needs. Each component is customisable to make the information that is gathered pertinent to the organisation, and supporting features such as profile expansion and fine-tuning are also incorporated.

Selecting software tools for IS/IT curricula

The evaluation and selection of software tools for use in an IS or IT curriculum is difficult not only because actual industry software tools are often used but also because there is no formal approach to guide the process. How does one choose between SQL Server and MySQL, or Dreamweaver and Expression Studio? IS and IT educators must periodically go through the process of assessing the most suitable tools for their courses. Given how common such decisions are and how frequently they must be made, it is surprising to find that there is a lack of literature that deals with comparative studies of software tools for higher education. This paper proposes a set of criteria for the selection of software tools for IS and IT programs, explains how multi-criteria decision analysis can be used to weight those criteria, and details an approach for the application of those weighted criteria. The proposed approach is structured and replicable, and allows for a more thorough evaluation of the available options and a more easily supportable selection.