Wen-Lung Shiau

Development of measures to assess the ERP adoption of small and medium enterprises

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of measures to assess the ERP adoption of small and medium-sized enterprises. Design/methodology/approach – The paper follows Churchill’s guideline for developing measures that have desirable reliability and validity. The pilot data are used to develop a proper measurement. The survey data, based on the 126 valid responses of 328 companies, are analysed by structural equation modelling (SEM) statistical methods. Findings – The paper finds that the dimensions affecting ERP adoption show that characteristics of the CEO and perceived benefits possess positive effects on ERP adoption, while cost and technology have negative effects on ERP adoption. However, only “perceived benefits” is a significant dimension. It is surprising that the cost of the ERP system does not significantly affect ERP adoption. Research limitations/implications – The paper shows that the sample size should be taken into consideration when generalising the findings, and extended data and measures are required for further in-depth investigation in specific areas. Practical implications – The paper points out that the managers of SMEs with limited resources can find many ways to get more resources from governments. Government managers should be more realistically set the goal of helping firms in a healthy condition to adopt e-business instead of setting the goal of improving the e-business readiness of all SMEs. To help all CEOs of SMEs to realise the potential benefits, governments can work with academic research groups to set up forums and workshops to broadcast knowledge. Originality/value – The paper develops measurements to assess the ERP adoption of small and medium-sized enterprises. The results offer practical help for government managers to better understand ERP adoption with institutional help in Taiwan. Meanwhile, researchers interested in

A profile of information systems research published in expert systems with applications from 1995 to 2008

Expert systems with applications (ESWA) has been regarded as one of the highly qualified journals in the information system. This paper profiles research published in ESWA from 1995 to 2008. Based on the multidimensional analysis, we identified the most productive author and universities, research paper numbers per geographic region, and the most employed issues and methodologies used by the most highly published authors. Our results indicate that (1) ESWA is clearly an internationalized journal, (2) the most employed methodologies are fuzzy ESs and knowledge-based systems, and (3) the leading highly published authors always have diverse methodologies and applications. Furthermore, the implications for researchers, journal editors, universities, and research institution are presented.

Knowledge sharing intention in the United States and China: a cross-cultural study

In today’s knowledge-based economy, most of the knowledge-sharing studies have investigated the effects of cultural values at the national level. However, individual beliefs and behaviors might also be influenced and modified by individual cultural values. To understand the effects of cultural values, cultural effects at both the individual and country levels should be considered. This study is to investigate the integrative effects of the individual’s and country’s cultural values on knowledge sharing. We examine motivational factors affecting knowledge-sharing intentions based on social exchange theory and incorporate individualism/collectivism and uncertainty avoidance as moderators. On the basis of a survey of 394 employees conducted in the United States and China, the results show that rewards are significantly related to knowledge-sharing intentions for Chinese employees but not for American employees. Reciprocity and knowledge self-efficacy significantly impact knowledge-sharing intentions in the two countries. Our results also demonstrate that the individual’s and country’s cultural values play important roles in knowledge sharing. In the United States, individualism/collectivism is found to moderate the relationship between rewards and knowledge-sharing intentions. In China, individualism/collectivism is found to moderate the relationship between reputation and knowledge-sharing intentions, while uncertainty avoidance is found to moderate the relationship between knowledge self-efficacy and knowledge-sharing intentions.

An empirical study of managers' usage intention in BI

In a changing business environment, data within and around organizations rapidly accumulate. In recent years, many organizations have implemented business intelligence (BI) to manage and refine the vast stocks of data. The effective use of BI can support managers to make faster and better decisions. The goal of this study is to investigate how to increase a manager’s intention to read information and to create reports. Based on the technology acceptance model, a research model is developed and tested to assess the factors (i.e., usefulness and ease of use) affecting a manager’s intention to use BI. In addition, the relationship between the intention to read information and the intention to create reports is linked using Dholakia and Bagozzi (D&B) model. A survey of 271 managers supports the proposed model. The empirical results show that the usefulness of BI directly and indirectly affects the intention to read information. Both the reading and creating interfaces of BI affect the intention to read information and the intention to create reports, respectively. The intention to read information positively and significantly affects the intention to create reports. Given the empirical findings, this study provides theoretical and managerial insights for organizations and managers.

Evaluating IPv6 on a large-scale network

We evaluate an ideal model and a real large-scale network environment using available end-to-end measurement techniques that focuses on a large-scale IPv6 backbone and made performance comparisons between the current Internet (IPv4) and next generation Internet (IPv6). In this paper, we compiled the performance statistics of each network in terms of TCP and UDP throughput, delay jitters, packet loss rate, and round trip time. Our conclusions show that, in a real large-scale network environment, a minor degradation in the throughput of the TCP, a slightly higher throughput of the UDP, a somewhat emerging frequency of the delay jitter, a lower packet loss rate, and a slightly longer round trip time happens when we compare the IPv6 network to the IPv4 network.

The Evaluation of Post Implementation ERP Investment Performance by DEA Approach

The information technology (IT) management has become one of the critical factors that enterprises want to assess the business benefits and performances of ERP systems. This research tries to evaluate the relationship between ERP continuous investment and technical efficiency by using DEA approach. This study also utilizes the Tobit regression to investigate the relationship between efficiency scores and ERP continuous investment based on the concept of total costing ownership (TCO) for technology assets. The research results show as follows: (1) Maintenance expenses of ERP system whether on line or on the scene, has a favorable impact on companys technical efficiency. (2) Salary expenses of ERP personnel, has a favorable impact on companys technical efficiency. (3) Training expenses of ERP staffs has no significant impact on companys technical efficiency. (4) The company invests on ERP system continuously has positive affect on technical efficiency. (5) The local ERP systems show higher technical efficiency than international brands for those surveyed companies in Taiwan.

The Effects of Individual and National Cultures in Knowledge Sharing: A Comparative Study of the U.S. and China

A major challenge for multinational companies is to motivate employees with different individual cultural characteristics and national cultures to share knowledge. Although comparative studies across different countries have been conducted, little is known about the effects of individual cultural differences in this context. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of individual and national cultures in knowledge sharing. The individual cultural characteristics of power distance, individualism/collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance are incorporated into the model as antecedents of knowledge-sharing motivations organizational rewards, image, and reciprocal benefits. National cultural differences are examined by subjects conducted in the U.S. and China. Results show that power distance is significantly related to reciprocal benefits for the U.S. but not for China. Individualism/collectivism is related to organizational rewards and image for the U.S. but not for China, while individualism/collectivism is significantly related to reciprocal benefits for China but not for the U.S. Uncertainty avoidance is significantly related to reciprocal benefits for the U.S. but not for China. This study provides knowledge-sharing practices and managements for multinational companies attempting to motivate U.S. and Chinese employees to share knowledge.

The effect of customer power on enterprise internal knowledge sharing: an empirical study

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer power of environmental factors affects customer support (CS) engineers’ personal motivations in a knowledge-sharing context. The authors examine extrinsic (i.e. organizational rewards, reputation, and reciprocity) and intrinsic motivations (i.e. knowledge self-efficacy) affecting knowledge-sharing intentions based on the social exchange theory (SET) and self-efficacy theory. Furthermore, the authors introduce the concept of the social power theory to investigate the moderating effect of customer power on the relationships between personal motivations and knowledge-sharing intentions. , – This study collects 349 questionnaires of CS engineers from 16 countries, including the USA, China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. After the data collection, the research model and hypotheses are tested using partial least squares. , – The empirical results show that reputation, reciprocity, and knowledge self-efficacy are significantly and positively related to knowledge-sharing intentions. Also, the results show that customer power can significantly moderate the relationships between personal motivations and knowledge-sharing intentions. , – The findings help multinational corporations employ the perception of customer power to motivate CS engineers to share knowledge. Especially, the results can help organizations increase customer added value through effective knowledge sharing. , – The research model integrates personal motivations derived from the SET and self-efficacy theory and customer power of environmental factors. Additionally, this study is the first to investigate the moderating effect of customer power on employees’ personal motivations and behavioral intentions.

What Happened to Preferences for Next Generation Internet? A Survey of College Students in Taiwan

The growing popularity of the Internet has resulted in attracting many enterprises to do business transactions over the Internet. The current Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) has been used for over 20 years. Even though IPv4 applications have been quite successful, it faces a problem of shortage in IP addresses, ineffective security mechanisms, and a lack of service quality management, etc. Scientists and engineers have devoted considerable effort to the development of next generation Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6), which is the core component of Next Generation Internet (NGI) to meet the future requirements of the Internet. Even though NGI is technically superior to the traditional Internet and is being established worldwide, few people have transmitted data through it. According to the Innovation Development Process in the Diffusion of Innovation theory, IPv6 is currently in a stage of technological diffusion. The research studies whether educating potential customers with more IPv6 knowledge created in the innovation process can increase their preference for the technology. With surveys collected from 596 undergraduate students, the results show that knowledge of the commercial applications of IPv6 in mobile communications and information appliances significantly contributes to a preference for the IPv6 technology.