Stephen Flowers

Information systems failure: Identifying the critical failure factors

Despite the extensive literature surrounding the area, IS failures continue to occur with some regularity, imposing significant costs on the organizations involved. This article is an attempt to break this cycle of failure by identifying patterns of factors associated with IS development failure and proposing a predictive structure. The research analyzes six failed information systems developments and identifies a set of common factors that were associated with the occurrence of IS failure. It is proposed that these factors, termed Critical Failure Factors, may be applicable to all IS developments and may be used to predict and prevent IS failure occurring and capture the important lessons that may otherwise be lost. Copyright © 1997 Cognizant Comm. Corp. All rights reserved.

CONTINGENT CAPABILITIES AND THE PROCUREMENT OF COMPLEX PRODUCT SYSTEMS

This paper focuses on how organisations utilise external capabilities to procure high-technology products and services. It is argued that the conceptual frameworks developed in the context of organisations which manufacture such products need to be modified to explain the behaviour of organisations that buy them. The use of third-party consultants in the procurement process is explored and a new class of temporary capabilities, termed Contingent Capabilities, is proposed. This class of capabilities occupies the boundary between accepted notions of core and non-core, and play an essential role in the innovation process. The roles of two distinct categories of Contingent Capabilities, strategic and tactical, within the innovation process are explored. The paper concludes with an agenda for further work in this area.

Implementation strategies for educational intranet resources

Recent events in UK Higher Education have caused university schools to look toward alternative means of enhancing and monitoring the quality of the service they provide. One approach utilises networked learning and teaching resources, in particular intranets. Two Schools at the University of Brighton commenced independent implementation of intranets at similar times. The subjects of the case studies are the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences Intranet (SPI) and the Business School Intranet (BSI). This paper describes the two alternative strategies for intranet implementation, demonstrates the differing degrees of staff and student utilisation of these learning and teaching assets, identifies barriers to success within each and proposes solutions to address them. The paper proposes a unified strategy for effective intranet implementation and suggests measures to manage organisational resistance to change.

Exploring innovation in Shanzhai: the case of mobile phones

Chinese innovation in low-cost, ‘good enough’ electronic products has been very active. Such products may be copies of current branded goods that are positioned as straightforward counterfeits, knock-offs, or Shanzhai. In this paper, we argue that this simplistic analysis is inadequate to describe novel approaches to the production of new goods and that a new system of innovation is emerging. This novel innovation system has a distinct set of context specific actors and intra- and inter-firm structures that have aided the technology innovations and the development of new business models. This paper employs a case study method and uses qualitative data to explore how innovations emerge in new mobile technologies and the innovation system that supports their emergence. It examines the Shanzhai mobile phone industry as a case and provides a first attempt to map the innovation system that has developed. The results suggest that the distinctive characteristics of the Chinese innovation system contribute to the innovations around the product and the production processes. It further confirms the suitability of applying the innovation system approach to Shanzhai phenomenon, and explores new forms of innovation dynamics. The paper concludes with an initial agenda for further research in this area.

Drawing Users into Innovation Policy: A Study of the Danish Policy on User-Driven Innovation

This paper is a study of how Denmark came to be the first country to recognize and formally support users as part of their innovation policy. Starting in 2007, the policy provided for grants to research institutions, universities and companies for product development. Drawing on a wealth of published information and 39 interviews of senior policymakers we document the development and implementation of this world-first policy initiative. We find that this policy is a good beginning for supporting innovative users but that it is important for policymakers to consider how users will be involved depending upon the driving innovator - producer or user. If users are the innovators, the government needs to support innovation in a different way from traditional public policies in this area.

Capturing the Innovation Opportunity Space: Creating Business Models with New Forms of Innovation

Innovation is changing and this exciting book explores how the shift to more collaborative ways of working with users, on-line communities and the crowd opens up novel business possibilities. The Innovation Opportunity Space approach enables managers, policymakers and academics to better understand emerging new business opportunities. Drawing on the findings of international research, the book provides a systematic and clear understanding of the radical business models new forms of innovation are making possible. These are explored across a wide range of examples and case studies, with the final chapter including a series a tools for those who seek to capture their own Innovation Opportunity Space?

From High Level Clarity to Ground Level Confusion: Exactly Where do IT-Mediated Education Policies Fit?

Time for inclusive debate on policies regarding the structure and use of IT mediated learning (ITML) within higher education (HE) is rapidly running out. Currently, particularly in the UK, institutional debate remains at an early stage and clear policy is marked more by asymmetry than any coherent pattern. The pace of technology escalation and installation however is forcing staff, students and administrators to make some important resource allocative decisions at national, regional, institutional and departmental level. Whether foreshadowed in the rhetorical call for a response to the “mega” on-line institutions in the US (Newby, 2000) or the dire predictions of a commoditized future (Noble, 1997), there are clear signs that the benevolent dot.edu bubble may be about to burst.

Towards new Triple Helix organisations? A comparative study of competence centres as knowledge, consensus and innovation spaces

REF Compliant by Deposit in other institutions Repository: Kents repository on 16/09/2018: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/69111