Ranjan B. Kini

Shaping of Moral Intensity Regarding Software Piracy: A Comparison Between Thailand and U.S. Students

Software piracy is a major global concern forbusinesses that generate their revenues throughsoftware products. Moral intensity regardingsoftware piracy has been argued to be relatedto the extent of software piracy. Anunderstanding of the development of moralintensity regarding software piracy inindividuals would aid businesses in developingand implementing policies that may help themreduce software piracy. In this research westudied the similarities and differences indevelopment of moral intensity regardingsoftware piracy among university students intwo different cultures, the U.S. and Thailand. In particular, we studied the influence of theimmediate community of individuals, such asother students, faculty, and other universityemployees, on the development of moralintensity regarding software piracy of the twogroups of students. Results indicate that, ingeneral, there are significant differences inmoral intensity regarding software piracybetween students from the US and Thailand, andthat gender differences also exist. Though theeffect of the immediate community on theself-perception of moral intensity regardingsoftware piracy of students was significant,there appears to be very little significantdifferences in this effect between the studentsin the two different countries studied. Thefindings have implications for teachingbusiness ethics, and for developing andimplementing policies to curb global softwarepiracy.

An exploratory study of moral intensity regarding software piracy of students in Thailand

In the business environment that is becoming increasingly global and digital, the need for proper safeguards for protecting digital assets is increasingly becoming critical. Specifically, software piracy is becoming economically devastating to companies that develop and market software. Some researchers have argued that the level of moral intensity regarding software piracy of individuals may be related to the extent of actual software piracy behaviour. In order to empirically study this relationship, it is important to understand the concept of moral intensity towards software piracy. In this research, we study the concept in an international setting, a university in Thailand. We report the relationship between moral intensity and some important demographic variables and also explore the relationship between moral intensity of individuals and the perceived moral intensity of their community, the students, employees, and faculty. The results have implications for developing and implementing appropriate policies to reduce software piracy.

Critical Success Factors in the Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in Small and Midsize Businesses: Microsoft Navision Implementation

Use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems has been the mainstay of large enterprises since 1990s. Only recently has there been significant interest in the use of ERP in small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). Since then scholars have been studying the applicability of research results of successful implementation of ERPs in large enterprises to implementation in SMBs. In this research, the authors study the available research to discern the various ERP systems and Critical Success Factors (CSF) of ERP implementations, and delve into the real life experiences of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) that have installed Microsoft Dynamics Navision (NAV). Except for the CSF “management of risk†being found not as important almost all SMBs in the study found all CSFs found important by large businesses also important and indicated that CSF “user training†the most important.

Is price‐quantity discount dead in a just‐in‐time environment?

Companies have traditionally relied on taking advantage of price‐quantity discount (PQD) on large purchases. With the adoption of just‐in‐time (JIT) philosophy companies are encouraged to purchase materials in small lots to synchronize production with deliveries. This raised a question whether PQD is applicable in a JIT purchasing environment. Argues that though seemingly inconsistent, JIT and PQD can coexist. Develops an integrated JIT‐PQD model to allow a buyer to decide how much to purchase and how many shipments be placed per order.

Strategic information systems: a misunderstood concept?

The concept of the strategic information system (SIS) has been seriously discussed In both Industry and academia. Several attempts have been made to identify opportunities for the formal development of strategic systems as competitive weapons. Yet most instances of SIS success are retrospective, and most organizations have no definite plan to develop an effective SIS. This leads to questions concerning how much IS managers really understand about the development of strategic systems.

Vendor availability : a key factor for outsourcing in chilean ICT sector

Purpose – Currently, in various reports, Chile has been receiving better rankings than other Latin American countries, identifying it as a nation for offshoring many of the business process outsourcing (BPO) and information and communication technology (ICT)‐related services. So, it has become important to analyze the Chilean ICT sector and the maturity of the outsourcing industry internally, to consider Chile as an ICT outsourcing destination. This paper seeks to address this matter.Design/methodology/approach – A survey questionnaire is developed based on the ICT outsourcing literature, prior empirical research and outsourcing case studies. This questionnaire is translated into Spanish and distributed to CIOs of the 200 largest companies in Chile. The responses from the CIOs are used as the proxy measures and are analyzed for evaluation.Findings – This study is conducted to understand and analyze the strategy adopted by Chilean companies to evaluate the need for ICT outsourcing. Also, the outsourcing ca...

IT in manufacturing for performance: the challenge for Thai manufacturers

Earlier research showed through an empirical study of 60 US manufacturing companies that manufacturing proactiveness especially through investments in structural programs coupled with either high levels of manufacturing involvement or planned investments in infrastructural programs correlate with higher than average performance. To test and report if the same perception and practices are found in a developing country, here the same study is conducted in the developing country of Thailand. The results from 49 companies studied were mixed. They have not supported the findings in the developed country. Further analysis showed, in some cases, the findings are contradictory to prior results.

Part identification and group technology: A new approach

Abstract Part numbering, as it was practiced in the precomputer age, is showing major weaknesses for current information processing requirements. Manufacturing information systems are extensively involved with processing parts and part information in computer systems ranging from computer-aided design to computer-aided manufacture and computer-aided inspection. The hierarchically significant part numbering (HSPN) approach is a novel one that has shown improvement in efficiency for data processing, especially in the case of bill of material processing. Group technology applications have explored the use of several different part numbering schemes, and have discovered monocodes to be particularly useful. The HSPN approach introduced here shows considerable value for group technology applications.

Peer-To-Peer Technology: A Technology Reborn

Abstract Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are poised to be reborn in networking technology. the combination of proven P2P topology and recent advances in computer technology has led some analysts to predict that P2P will likely be the next major step on the Internet. P2P networking overcomes the existing client/server hierarchy to efficiently use the processing power, disk space, and data available in a network and promises a significant number of applications in information sharing and knowledge management. P2P is not expected to replace the client/server architecture employed in most contemporary networks, but rather merge to create a hybrid P2P-client/server network that is faster, cheaper, and more powerful.

An Empirical Study of Software Piracy and Moral Intensity among University Students

Software piracy, an unethical and illegal behavior, is pervading todays society. In a few recent studies, some scholars have argued that to decrease software piracy, it is more important to raise the level of moral intensity regarding software piracy than establishing a reward - punishment structure for following institutional compliance. In this study, authors developed a survey questionnaire and administered to about 800 undergraduate and graduate business students from two Midwestern state universities, to study the relationship between the level of moral intensity and eleven demographic variables. The results obtained were mixed. The most interesting results that were obtained are that moral intensity of software piracy is not affected by the use of computer, experience with computers or task orientation. The propensity toward moral intensity is affected by general demographic variables.