Ravi Nath

Business-to-business e-procurement: success factors and challenges to implementation

Purpose – The paper seeks to pursue the understanding of current business‐to‐business e‐procurement practices by describing the success factors and challenges to its implementation in the corporate setting.Design/methodology/approach – Members of the Institute for Supply Management and the Council of Logistics Management were asked to respond to a survey questionnaire. Factor analysis was used to analyze data from valid responses received from 185 firms.Findings – Factor analysis resulted in three e‐procurement success factors (SF):supplier and contract management; end‐user behavior and e‐procurement business processes; and information and e‐procurement infrastructure. Three challenge‐to‐implementation factors (CIF) also emerged: lack of system integration and standardization issues; immaturity of e‐procurement‐based market services and end‐user resistance; and maverick buying and difficulty in integrating e‐commerce with other systems.Research limitations/implications – A representative sampling design s...

A framework for mobile business applications

Many predict that mobile business (m-business) will revolutionise modern corporations as e-commerce did in the last decade. However, many unresolved technical, application, and global issues relevant to m-business are preventing companies from adopting m-business as a prudent business model. Furthermore, little academic research in this area has been attempted to provide practitioners with guidance to more effective utilisation of wireless technologies. To partially fill this void, this paper presents a framework for m-business applications that is designed to give managers a systematic approach to discovering m-business opportunities in their organisations.

Nomadic Culture: Cultural Support for Working Anytime, Anywhere

Abstract This article argues that a nomadic culture is required to achieve the competitive benefits of a workforce using ubiquitous computing technologies. A nomadic culture is defined as a collection of artifacts, beliefs, and basic assumptions based on a prior published model of organizational culture in general, the term nomadic culture is defined in this article. the authors provide lists of questions for managers to conduct an internal cultural audit.

An Empirical Examination of the Impact of Wireless Local Area Networks on Organization of Users

In recent years, the concept of nomadic computing has received considerable attention from the business community. As an early form of nomadic information environment (NIE), wireless local area network (WLAN) has gained tremendous popularity with organizations. Using mostly anecdotal evidences, WLAN equipment manufacturers and practitioners claimed that WLAN brought dramatic improvements in the forms of productivity gains and attainment of convenience, flexibility, mobility, and time saving to organizations and their employees. However, very little academic research has been conducted to verify these claims and further our understanding of this new phenomenon. By surveying end users and managers, this study investigates the impact of WLAN on users and their work. Finally, recommendations to researchers, managers, WLAN technology providers, and equipment manufacturers also are provided.

Understanding the underlying factors of Internet addiction across cultures

This study found that the underlying factors of Internet addition and their importance differ across cultures.The varying factors of Internet addiction across cultures have important implications to the diagnosis and treatment of Internet addiction.Internet addiction was found to be prevalent globally among young Internet users.E-commerce businesses have the ethical and legal responsibilities to help reduce Internet addiction.This study will allow future research projects to integrate Internet addiction to study user behaviors in the e-commerce context effectively. Studies have shown that technology addiction distorts the true intentions of technology users. This is primarily due to the maladaptive perceptions that form as a result of the addiction to technology. Internet is the vehicle for e-commerce; therefore, understanding Internet addiction (IA) is critical to developing a sustainable and healthy environment for e-commerce growth and ignoring it could lead to a myriad of business, societal, ethical and legal ramifications. Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is a well-established instrument for measuring an individuals addiction level. While IAT has been widely adopted clinically and in research in many countries, the differences in the underlying constructs of IA among various countries have not been sufficiently examined. Using the data collected from 488 US, 453 African, and 209 Chinese college students, this study focuses on discovering the differences in the underlying properties of IA from a cross-cultural perspective. The analysis shows that a sizable percent of the users in each region suffers from IA problems. More importantly, the results indicate that the key underlying IA psychometric constructs are substantially different in different cultural, economic and technological contexts. Further, the implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Impediments to mobile work: an empirical study

Enterprise mobility promises to transform how business is conducted and will profoundly affect the workforce and their work. This research presents the results of a study that examines the impediments and strategies related to mobile work from a socio-technical perspective. The data for this research was gathered by interviewing and surveying Chief Information Officers (CIOs). A factor analysis of the data identifies seven impediment factors to success with mobile work/workers. Also, several strategies are identified that can guide an organisation in achieving success in mobile work. Finally, the implications of the findings of this research for future research and practice are discussed.

Business analytics maturity of firms: an examination of the relationships between managerial perception of IT, business analytics maturity and success

ABSTRACT This study develops a measure for business analytics (BA) maturity and empirically examines the relationships between managerial perception of IT, BA maturity and BA success. The findings suggest that (1) BA maturity can be measured via BA integration & management support, process-level benefits of BA and technology & data analytics capabilities, (2) BA maturity positively affects organizations’ overall BA success, and (3) managerial perception of IT positively influence organizations’ achievement of BA maturity.