Robert P. Marble

A system implementation study: management commitment to project management

Recent literature has shown a renewed interest in systems implementation research. Current trends in the organizational deployment of IT have motivated new studies of implementation efforts. This paper reports on one phase of a pluralistic investigation of systems implementation projects. A survey instrument, based on previously validated Measurement items, is described; it was tested and validated. In the process, a method for appraising the significance of interaction effects was determined. The results of the analysis show that, for the data of this study, the organizational priority given to implementation projects by top management is only associated indirectly with improved user information satisfaction (UIS). Only when this priority occurs in the management of continuing development and enhancement, does top management support seem to be significant to users. It was also found that the efficiency and flexibility of the development process was significant in its own right, even without any effects of top management support.

Farmer Education and Efficiency: A Frontier Production Function Approach.

Abstract A stochastic frontier production function is constructed and used to measure the effect of farmer education on farm productivity in Guatemala. The frontier function follows the Corrected Ordinary Least Squares method of Forsund et al . It allows for efficiency to he measured against a standard derived from the operations of the most efficient farmers. Results show that in Guatemala a threshold effect exists, with four or more years of schooling causing an increase in productivity. In contrast, an ‘average’ production function analysis found no significant effect.

Operationalising the implementation puzzle: an argument for eclecticism in research and in practice

Efforts to implement organizational information systems (IS) have evolved through the years from purely technical processes to multi-faceted organizational change activities. Largely in reaction to implementation failures, numerous research models have been developed to prescribe appropriate implementation strategies and tactics. A multiple of such contributions has made the theory quite diverse and somewhat chaotic. This paper presents a survey of implementation models, research approaches, and investigation methods that have surfaced in the literature of the field. Using an implementation framework of Swanson (1988), an eclectic perspective of IS research, and an expert knowledge integration approach, a perspective is proposed that demonstrates the possibility of a unified view of IS implementation theory.

A neural network approach to the diagnosis of morbidity outcomes in trauma care

This paper introduces the application of artificial neural networks to trauma complications assessment. The potential financial benefits of improving on trauma center diagnostic specificity in complications assessment are illustrated and the operational feasibility of the use of diagnostic neural models across institutions is discussed. A prototype neural network model is described, which, after training, succeeds in diagnosing the complication of sepsis in victims of traumatic blunt injury. Its diagnostic performance with 100% sensitivity and 96.5% specificity is accomplished with test data from a regional trauma center. The model is further shown to have correctly detected, during training, incorrectly coded data. The potential this suggests, for parsimonious database scrubbing through the use of neural network models, is discussed.

Technological switchbacks: the transition to western information systems in privatised firms of the former East Germany

The work of this paper centres on a study of business organisations of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), whose continued existence after the reunification of Germany was accomplished by management buyout (MBO), rather than through acquisition by Western firms. The goal was to investigate the circumstances surrounding the sudden and total upgrade of information technology and systems enabled (and necessitated) by the end of Eastern Block isolation from the West. The paper reports on 1992 contacts and site visits with four MBO privatised firms and 1999 follow-up contacts and site visits with the two surviving firms of that group. Analyses are presented, which draw on literature devoted to IT transitions and IS implementation. The notion of technological switchback is introduced to characterise the unique circumstances embodied by the situation under study. It involves a necessary and sudden advance in information technological capabilities, which comes at the expense of a significant and undesirable regression in information system effectiveness. Parallels are drawn to the plights of firms in other transitional economies and firms facing emerging ‘technological imperatives.’ Conclusions are elucidated, regarding effective short- and long-term adjustment to such situations.

Preliminary validation of a model for describing the ethical climate of a business community

This paper describes the development of a model for representing the ethical climate of a business community. It describes the steps followed in identifying the model’s components and in validating the model’s structure. Expert panel validation methodologies were used to garner qualitative and quantitative data about the model. They have yielded support for the components of an initial, literature-based model, ideas for expanding that model and operationalising its components, and statistical validation of the expanded model. This is part of a larger research project intended to result in a validated instrument for measuring and comparing ethical climates of different business communities.