Mihir A. Parikh

Utilizing Internet technologies to support learning: an empirical analysis

The Internet has evolved into a universal platform to communicate and share information. It has profoundly impacted the way in which we organize, work, and learn. This paper proposes and evaluates a unifying framework that utilizes two Internet technologies, Web-based pull technology and push technology, in supporting classroom-based learning. We developed two fully operational education support systems based on the framework for two different types of courses. One system supports courses requiring extensive interactions, both communication and transfer of data files, among the course instructor, individual students, and student teams working on group projects. The other system supports courses requiring moderate interactions. One hundred and eighty-one students in eight classes across three semesters used and evaluated these systems. The study found that the systems supported learning by providing critical course information, study material, and assignments conveniently, timely, and in usable formats. The systems were user friendly and increased student productivity. The students were satisfied with the systems and found the systems useful. In addition, the study found that the system support for highly interactive courses was better than that for less interactive courses on all dimensions of system support.

The Effectiveness of Decisional Guidance: An Empirical Evaluation

Decisional guidance is defined as how a decision support system (DSS) influences its users as they structure and execute the decision-making process. It is assumed that decisional guidance has profound effects on decision making, but these effects are understudied and empirically unproven. This paper describes an empirical, laboratory-experiment-based evaluation of the effectiveness of deliberate decisional guidance and its four types. We developed and used a comprehensive model consisting of four evaluation criteria: decision quality, user satisfaction, user learning, and decision-making efficiency. On these criteria, we compared decisional guidance versus no guidance, informative versus suggestive decisional guidance, and predefined versus dynamic decisional guidance. We found that deliberate decisional guidance was more effective on all four criteria; suggestive guidance was more effective in improving decision quality and user satisfaction, and informative guidance was more effective in user learning about the problem domain, whereas dynamic guidance was more effective than predefined guidance in improving decision quality and user learning; and both suggestive guidance and dynamic guidance reduced the decision time.

Adaptive decision support systems

Abstract The effectiveness of decision support systems (DSS) is enhanced through dynamic adaptation of support to the needs of the decision maker, to the problem, and to the decision context. We define this enhanced DSS as adaptive decision support systems (ADSS) and propose its architecture. In an ADSS, the decision maker controls the decision process. However, the system monitors the process to match support to the needs. The proposed architecture evolves from the traditional DSS models and includes an additional intelligent‘Adaptation’ component. The ‘Adaptation’ component workd with the data, model, and interface components to provide adaptive support. The architecture also integrates enhancements proposed in the past research. In this paper, we have illustrated the proposed architecture with two examples, a prototype system, and results from a preliminary empirical investigations

Value creation in web services : An integrative model

Web services are redefining the way organizations exchange business-critical information internally and externally with customers, suppliers, and other business associates. In this paper, we develop an integrative model for understanding value creation in web services from a providers perspective. The model integrates the static representation of conventional business values with the fluidity of the emergent IT services domain. It captures the complexity and contradictions facing Web services providers in their drive towards market leadership, strategic differentiation and revenue generation from web services. The model comprises twelve propositions to guide our understanding and future research and practice in this increasingly important segment in the IT field. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Wireless commons perils in the common good

In the last few years, high-speed wireless access to the Internet has grown rapidly. Surprisingly, this growth has not come through cellular phone networks as many had expected, but through IEEE 802.11 standards-based wireless local area networks (WLANs). This rise of WLANs can be partly linked to the creation of a series of open standards, a precipitous fall in the costs of related hardware, and the explosive growth of home networking. WLANs have become commonplace in the education, transportation, and manufacturing sectors and are rapidly embraced in the retail, hospitality, and government sectors.

Purchasing process transformation: restructuring for small purchases

Purpose – Reducing purchasing costs remains an ongoing concern for most organizations. The standard purchasing process that works well for large purchases, however, generates proportionately much higher overhead and administrative costs for small purchases leading to purchase delays, high error rate, and poor vendor participation. There is a need to develop separate purchasing processes for small and large purchases and evaluate underlying factors that affect such process transformation. This paper aims to analyze a successful purchasing process transformation conducted at a utility company for small purchases.Design/methodology/approach – It uses a case study methodology to examine the transformation in detail and understand related issues such as benefits realization, resistance to change, and risk management involved in such transformation projects.Findings – It compares original and transformed purchasing processes and identifies resultant benefits to the company, participating vendors, banks, and emp...

Organizational Readiness for Business Process Outsourcing: A Model of Determinants and Impact on Outsourcing Success

In innovation adoption literature, the important role of the organizational context as a determinant of information systems (IS) success has long been pointed out. Various factors such as top management support, process formalization, and availability of resources have been shown to contribute to the successful implementation of new information systems. By drawing on relevant insights from IT innovations literature, our conceptual piece of research aims at identifying organizational context factors which are critical for the success of business process outsourcing (BPO) as part of a firms overall business process management activities. More specifically, process readiness, IT readiness and business management readiness are proposed to be important dimensions of organizational readiness for BPO. Furthermore, IT business alignment, as a routine-based process of knowledge sharing and creation, is proposed to be a driver of organizational readiness for BPO.

Legal and Tax Considerations in Outsourcing

Outsourcing is not new; it is as old as the ancient trade routes to China and India. Trading with the East provided the produce and products that were not farmed or manufactured in the West. Although it involved physical products, support services, such as banking, brokering, and logistics, were required on the global scale to make the trading easier. The consumers, traders, and producers started relying on other parties to perform those services; thus begun services outsourcing. While individuals and organizations can perform some activities themselves, they rather have those activities performed by others, because others can do it better and/or cheaper. As Adam Smith put it, “it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest” (Smith 2000, p. xviii).

Outsourcing: An IT-Capable Firm's Perspective

Recognizing the need to bridge the gap between the outsourcing and the IT capability literature, this study provides a framework for approaching outsourcing decisions from an IT-capable firms perspective. The paper lays the foundation for a micro-economic framework for contrasting the value-adding proposition of three sourcing options: insourcing (hierarchy), outsourcing (market), and IT outsourcing alliances (hybrid). We use this framework to identify a small and suggestive set of necessary and sufficient conditions under which an IT-capable firm may be able to extract incremental value from an IT outsourcing alliance.