Simha R. Magal

Curriculum Integration Using Enterprise Resource Planning: An Integrative Case Approach

Efforts to achieve greater curriculum integration in schools of business have included team teaching, student group projects, multidisciplinary cases, and, more recently, the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Although these approaches are beneficial, they tend to be implemented on an ad hoc basis rather than through curriculum redesign. In this study, the authors address this limitation and describe an alternative approach that makes use of a fictional company that is simultaneously developed as a case and implemented in an ERP system. This approach offers the opportunity to achieve multidisciplinary, curriculum-wide integration.

An Exploratory Investigation of Organizational Factors and e‐Business Motivations Among SMFOEs in the US

It is well recognized that e‐business supports all parts of an organizations value chain, and offers valuable competitive advantage to firms. SMFOEs (Small and Medium‐sized Family Owned Enterprises) represent the majority of firms worldwide and yet many have lagged in their adoption of e‐business. This paper investigates the influence of key organizational demographics, owner/manager characteristics, and organizational strategy on SMFOEs motivations for e‐business. Eight hypotheses were formulated and tested. Characteristics found to have the greatest influence on e‐business motivation are the business strategy of the firm, new product strategy, and market scope. Owner/manager education, industry sector, and firm size were also influential, but to a lesser degree. The overall conclusion is that e‐business is in the early stages of evolution in small organizations and is favoured largely by entrepreneurial and innovative firms.

Using Importance-Performance Analysis to Evaluate E-Business Strategies among Small Businesses

Contrary to early predictions, the evidence suggests that e-business has had limited impact on small organizations. One of the key reasons is a lack of understanding of these firms’ motivations for engaging in e-business. Given that the vast majority of businesses are defined as small, it is important to understand what drives adoption of e-business applications. Importance-Performance analysis (IPA) offers a simple, yet useful method for simultaneously considering both the importance and performance dimensions when evaluating or defining strategy. This technique has been successfully used in a variety of settings to define priorities and guide resource allocation decisions. This study uses IPA to evaluate e-business strategies among small organizations and to make resource allocation recommendations. The results indicate that small organizations are in the early stages of implementing e-business, primarily for customer-focused reasons, while recognizing the potential for more sophisticated uses.

Using importance performance analysis to understand and guide e‐business decision making in SMEs

Purpose – E‐business adoption among small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) has been limited because of resource constraints and a failure to understand the strategic value of e‐business. To facilitate decision making concerning e‐business applications and their implementation, simple, low cost tools are needed to assist in analyzing and developing effective e‐business strategies. This paper aims to evaluate the use of e‐business applications among SMEs, to test the robustness of importance‐performance (IP) analysis models and to present IP mapping as a resource/tool for decision making.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 19 e‐business motivations were identified from the literature and incorporated into a self‐administered survey questionnaire. Data were collected from 439 SMEs located throughout the US.Findings – Most IP studies have assumed that importance and performance are independent; however, three recent studies have argued otherwise, identifying positive, negative and v‐shaped relationshi...