Lapo Mola

Escaping ‘localisms’ in IT sourcing: tracing changes in institutional logics in an Italian firm

Organizations are limited in their choices by the institutional environment in which they operate. This is particularly true for IT sourcing decisions that go beyond cost considerations and are constrained by traditions, geographical location, and social networks. This article investigates how a company can disentangle itself from the constraints of the institutional environment. We do so drawing on a longitudinal case study of an Italian SME active in the steel industry that successfully changed its institutionally sound, but increasingly inefficient, IT sourcing practice. Our main result suggests that by attending steadily to institutional logics, organizations can become selective in how the institutional environment influences them and act more purposefully in their decisions. In particular, through the creation of companywide IT management competencies and targeted hiring practices, organizations can strike a balance between the different institutional logics guiding IT sourcing decisions and eventually shift from the dominant logic of localism to a logic of market efficiency. This change does not depend from a choice but rather builds on a process through which IT management competences are slowly integrated in the organization.

The Role of ECM and its Contribution in Decision-Making Processes

The aim of this paper is to investigate the correlation between competitive advantage, associated with the improvement of the decision-making process, and knowledge management through Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platforms. As a result of our study we found that ECM platforms can be seen, as Decision Support Systems as they increase the quantity and the quality of the information needed by the decision makers and the decision processes. This study also analyses how organizations tend to modify their processes according to their capability in managing information.

Escaping "localisms" in IT sourcing: tracing changes in institutional logics in an italian firm

Organizations are limited in their choices by the institutional environment in which they operate. This is particularly true for IT sourcing decisions that go beyond cost considerations and are constrained by traditions, geographical location, and social networks. This article investigates how a company can disentangle itself from the constraints of the institutional environment. We do so drawing on a longitudinal case study of an Italian SME active in the steel industry that successfully changed its institutionally sound, but increasingly inefficient, IT sourcing practice. Our main result suggests that by attending steadily to institutional logics, organizations can become selective in how the institutional environment influences them and act more purposefully in their decisions. In particular, through the creation of companywide IT management competencies and targeted hiring practices, organizations can strike a balance between the different institutional logics guiding IT sourcing decisions and eventually shift from the dominant logic of localism to a logic of market efficiency. This change does not depend from a choice but rather builds on a process through which IT management competences are slowly integrated in the organization.

Developing Municipal e-Government in Italy: The City of Alfa Case

The paper aims to analyze the new trends in the public administration’s way of doing government business. Specifically, it takes stock of the various actions developed to modernize the administrative and management structures of public companies (PA) and their outcomes. The modernization effort is the result of two macro actions: public administration reforms and the successive pervasion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The e-Government process is driven by ICTs and the search for a new way to govern. Given that many aspects of the reforms highlight the PA’s multifaceted nature, the outcome of the phenomenon also needs to be defined and studied by taking into account how it straddles the technological, organizational, managerial, informatics, relational and cultural dimensions. The paper analyzes a case study of e-Government implementation in a mid-sized municipality in Northern Italy; the aim is to understand how Italy’s new reforms and the advent of ICTs have shaped the City of Alfa’s route to change.

Organizational Factors as Determinants of SaaS Adoption

The present study investigates outsourcing according to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, with reference to transaction cost theory and the resource-based view. Specifically, this research determines the key organizational factors that influence decision making about SaaS adoption, including people, operative processes, and providers. Economic and technological aspects further enable SaaS adoption. In turn, the innovative choice of SaaS on a strategic level makes operating processes more efficient and reduces time to market. The choice of SaaS provider depends on its expertise related to the client’s business processes, its reliability, and the strength of its relationship with the client.

The Strategic Role of Business Intelligence Systems: An Assessment Model

This work includes an analysis of the most significant studies in the academic literature on the evaluation and measurement of Decision Support Systems and Business Intelligence Systems (BIS).

The organisational impact of SaaS adoption on CRM applications

Software as a service (SaaS) approach is a demand-driven application that provides network-based access to an integrated portfolio of applications across the virtual value chain of an enterprise. Therefore, the aim of the present paper is to investigate the organisational technological and economic factors, which influence the adoption of SaaS for customer relationship management (CRM) applications. The theoretical framework refers to transaction cost theory (TCT) and resource-based view (RBV) theory. The research is based on the case study method and analyses four companies of big dimensions, which have adopted the SaaS, approach at least for three years. The results show the importance of some organisational factors such as the optimisations of marketing processes, while other factors such as costs are strongly connected to the reduction of financial risks more than to the costs control in a strict meaning.

The Role of IT in Organizational Networks, Individual Networks, and in Bridging These Two Levels

In this paper, we seek to understand the role of technology at the nexus between the two network levels: as outcome of the decision process at the organizational level and as object of use and performance at the individual level. We aim to capture the role of IT in bridging the individual practices in the context of the larger network system [22]. To do so, we draw on a longitudinal case study of the development and diffusion of a software for the operation and management of nursing homes.

Le implicazioni organizzative di una intranet adottata come tecnologia di coordinamento

The purpose of this paper is to provide a contribution in the mainstream of Information Systems literature, which analyses the effects of the adoption and utilization of communication technology (ICT) into complex organisations. Considering the ICT’s scene, the study has been focused on the Intranet as a decisional coordination’s tool. The idea of this research is applied to the bank industry and it is led by the consideration that this sector is characterised by a widespread utilisation of Intranet tools. On the other hand, this research tries to understand what are the organisational impacts caused by the adoption of an Intranet. The analysis has been focused on the substantial reduction of the organisational complexity due to the adoption of an Intranet as a coordination technology and as an instrument for organisational interdependency management. This research is based on a case study of a Northern Italy Bank. Considering the outcoming results it can be pointed out that the Intranet adoption cannot reduce the coordination costs in an organisation with strong hierarchies and high level of decisional centralisation.

ICT and Procurement: The E-sourcing Systems of an Italian Bank Group

The purpose of this work is the analysis of the benefits that the enterprises may enjoy with the adoption of e-procurement solutions. In particular the analysis concerns the e-sourcing solutions implemented by an Italian bank group and the main organizational implications connected to the use of such systems within the purchasing department.