IS

El Sawy, Omar A.

Research Interests (21)

List of Topics (21)

Topic Weight Topic Terms
0.899 supply chain information suppliers supplier partners relationships integration use chains technology interorganizational sharing systems procurement
0.766 competitive advantage strategic systems information sustainable sustainability dynamic opportunities capabilities environments environmental turbulence turbulent dynamics
0.624 implementation systems article describes management successful approach lessons design learned technical staff used effort developed
0.623 business digital strategy value transformation economy technologies paper creation digitization strategies environment focus net-enabled services
0.433 theory theories theoretical paper new understanding work practical explain empirical contribution phenomenon literature second implications
0.241 memory support organizations information organizational requirements different complex require development provides resources organization paper transactive
0.218 capabilities capability firm firms performance resources business information technology firm's resource-based competitive it-enabled view study
0.212 information systems paper use design case important used context provide presented authors concepts order number
0.212 boundary practices capacity new boundaries use practice absorptive organizational technology work field multiple study objects
0.205 knowledge transfer management technology creation organizational process tacit research study organization processes work organizations implications
0.192 process business reengineering processes bpr redesign paper research suggests provide past improvements manage enable organizations
0.182 uncertainty contingency integration environmental theory data fit key using model flexibility perspective environment perspectives high
0.179 electronic markets commerce market new efficiency suppliers internet changes marketplace analysis suggests b2b marketplaces industry
0.177 executive information article systems presents eis executives overview computer-based scanning discusses investigation support empirical robert
0.177 design designs science principles research designers supporting forms provide designing improving address case little space
0.166 information environment provide analysis paper overall better relationships outcomes increasingly useful valuable available increasing greater
0.144 model research data results study using theoretical influence findings theory support implications test collected tested
0.116 customer customers crm relationship study loyalty marketing management profitability service offer retention it-enabled web-based interactions
0.105 information research literature systems framework review paper theoretical based potential future implications practice discussed current
0.103 digital divide use access artifacts internet inequality libraries shift library increasingly everyday societies understand world
0.101 decision support systems making design models group makers integrated article delivery representation portfolio include selection

Coauthor Network

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List of Coauthors (11)

Malhotra, Arvind 4 Gosain, Sanjay 2 Pavlou, Paul A. 2 Bowles, Gene 1
Donoven, Paul F. 1 Gosain, San Jay 1 Housel, Thomas J. 1 Park, YoungKi 1
Walls, Joseph G. 1 Widmeyer, George R. 1 Young, Kerry M. 1

Article Keywords (64)

dynamic capabilities 2 environmental turbulence 2 adaptation 1 adaptive partnerships 1
absorptive capacity 1 bonding 1 boundary objects 1 bridging 1
business process redesign 1 competitive advantage 1 competitive dynamics 1 configuration theory 1
Crisis management 1 Customer support process 1 CIO 1 configuration approaches 1
Design theory 1 digitally enabled extended enterprise 1 digital systems 1 digital disruption 1
digital ecodynamics 1 distribution industry supply chain management 1 Executive information systems 1 Executive scanning 1
ecosystem dynamics 1 e-business 1 electronic commerce 1 electronic economy 1
Electronic value chains 1 extranet 1 fast response 1 group decision support systems 1
holistic perspective 1 Information system design 1 Issue management 1 improvisation 1
improvisational capabilities 1 IT-leveraging capability 1 information systems strategy 1 IT systems 1
information systems design 1 information systems evaluation 1 information systems implementation 1 information technologies for customer integration 1
intermediation 1 Internet 1 intranet 1 IT architecture 1
interorganizational information systems 1 knowledge management. 1 learning organization 1 new product development 1
Open loop control 1 process modularity 1 rich information 1 standard electronic business interfaces 1
supply chain partnering 1 strategic information systems 1 systems approach 1 supply chain 1
time-based competition 1 total quality management 1 Vigilance 1 value innovation 1

Articles (8)

The "Third Hand": IT-Enabled Competitive Advantage in Turbulence Through Improvisational Capabilities. (Information Systems Research, 2010)
Authors: Abstract:
    Organizations are increasingly engaged in competitive dynamics that are enabled or induced by information technology (IT). A key competitive dynamics question for many organizations is how to build a competitive advantage in turbulence with digital IT systems. The literature has focused mostly on developing and exercising dynamic capabilities for planned reconfiguration of existing operational capabilities in fairly stable environments with patterned "waves," but this may not always be possible, or even appropriate, in highly turbulent environments with unexpected "storms." We introduce improvisational capabilities as an alternative means for managing highly turbulent environments; we define this as the ability to spontaneously reconfigure existing resources to build new operational capabilities to address urgent, unpredictable, and novel environmental situations. In contrast to the planned role of dynamic and operational capabilities and the ambidexterity that they jointly offer, improvisational capabilities are proposed to operate distinctly as a "third hand" that facilitates reconfiguration and change in highly turbulent environments. First, the paper develops the notion of improvisational capabilities and articulates the key differences between the two "reconfiguration"—improvisational and dynamic—capabilities. Second, the paper compares the relative effects of improvisational and dynamic capabilities in the context of new product development in different levels of environmental turbulence. Third, the paper shows how IT-leveraging capability in new product development is decomposed into its three digital IT systems: project and resource management systems, organizational memory systems (OMS), and cooperative work systems—and how each of these IT systems enhances improvisational capabilities, an effect that is accentuated in highly turbulent environments. The results show that although dynamic capabilities are the primary predictor of competitive advantage in moderately turbulent environments, improvisational capabilities fully dominate in highly turbulent environments. Besides discriminant validity, the distinction between improvisational and dynamic capabilities is evidenced by the differential effects of IT-leveraging capability on improvisational and dynamic capabilities. The results show that the more the IT-leveraging capability is catered toward managing resources (through project and resource management systems) and team collaboration (through cooperative work systems) rather than relying on past knowledge and procedures (through organizational memory systems), the more it is positively associated with improvisational capabilities, particularly in more turbulent environments. The paper draws implications for how different IT systems can influence improvisational capabilities and competitive advantage in turbulent environments, thereby enhancing our understanding of the role of IT systems on reconfiguration capabilities. The paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of building and exercising the "third hand" of improvisational capabilities for IT-enabled competitive dynamics in turbulence.
Seeking the Configurations of Digital Ecodynamics: It Takes Three to Tango. (Information Systems Research, 2010)
Authors: Abstract:
    This paper starts from the premise that the simultaneous increase in environmental turbulence, the requisite speed of organizational change, and the intensified ubiquity of digital technologies are spawning a phenomenon that is messy, complex, and chaotic. Accordingly, we need to change the way we examine how information technology (IT) can help organizations build a strategic advantage in turbulent environments. We propose a more systemic and holistic perspective to theory building and testing in the information system (IS) strategy area and correspondingly appropriate methods that capture the complexity of this phenomenon. We term this phenomenon digital ecodynamics, defined as the holistic confluence among environmental turbulence, dynamic capabilities, and IT systems-and their fused dynamic interactions unfolding as an ecosystem. We believe that a more holistic understanding of digital ecodynamics will fuel the next leap in knowledge in the IS strategy area. First, extending the strategic management literature that has mainly focused on two-way interactions between environmental turbulence and dynamic capabilities, we foreground IT systems as a third central element. We use a "threesome tango" analogy with strong mutual interdependence to accentuate our view of digital ecodynamics-while also stressing the emerging role of IT systems in triggering environmental turbulence and shaping dynamic capabilities to build a strategic advantage. Second, we propose a different paradigmatic lens (configuration theories) as an appropriate inquiring system to better understand the complexity of digital ecodynamics. The paper articulates the key aspects of configuration theories as inquiring systems, compares them with the more common variance theories and process theories, and illustrates the power of recent advances in configurational methods. Third, we create a preliminary roadmap for IS researchers to better examine digital ecodynamics using novel structural properties afforded by configuration theories (i.e., mutual causality, discontinuity, punctuated equilibria, nonlinear change). Fourth, we reflect on the broader opportunities that the configurational perspective of digital ecodynamics can create for IS strategy research. The paper ends by highlighting the double-barreled opportunity that digital ecodynamics renders, both as an energizing vision for IS strategy research and also as a reshaper of strategic management research and practice in a turbulent and digitized world.
Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to Enable Adaptive Supply Chain Partnerships. (Information Systems Research, 2007)
Authors: Abstract:
    Adaptive supply chain partnerships are a key factor in driving the ability of extended enterprise partners to achieve long-term goals in an environment characterized by disruptive environmental shifts. Adaptive extended enterprise arrangements allow participating enterprises to leverage their combined assets for collective exploration and exploitation. In the context of extended enterprises, where significant investments have been directed toward instituting common interfaces, this study examines the question: How does the use of standard electronic business interfaces (SEBIs) enable supply chain partnerships to become more adaptive? This study conceptualizes the use of SEBIs as a boundary-spanning mechanism that helps overcome boundaries that impede knowledge transfer between enterprises in supply chains. SEBIs enables partners to gain insight into their broader environments, enriching each partner's perspective (enhanced bridging). SEBIs also help strengthen the cooperative ties between partners, motivating each partner to adapt for collective gain (enhanced bonding). Our research model is empirically tested using data collected from 41 demand-side supply chain partnerships (between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), distributors, and retailers) in the information technology (IT) industry The results show that collaborative information exchange (CIE) between supply chain partners mediates the relationship between use of SEBIs and mutual adaptation (MA) and adaptive knowledge creation between supply chain partners. Interestingly, the use of SEBIs is found to be directly associated with MA but only indirectly associated with adaptive knowledge creation. The study points out that the strategic impacts of SEBIs go well beyond the exchange of transaction information and process integration. It also shows that multilateral, quasi-open, and information exchange-and process linkage-oriented SEBIs can result in both bonding and bridging across supply chain partners without binding them inflexibly to specific partners. Based on the model and results, the study offers practical implications for how SEBIs should be developed, adopted, and used.
ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY CONFIGURATIONS IN SUPPLY CHAINS: GEARING FOR PARTNER-ENABLED MARKET KNOWLEDGE CREATION. (MIS Quarterly, 2005)
Authors: Abstract:
    The need for continual value innovation is driving supply chains to evolve from a pure transactional focus to leveraging interorganizational partnerships for sharing information and, ultimately, market knowledge creation. Supply chain partners are (1) engaging in interlinked processes that enable rich (broad-ranging, high quality, and privileged) information sharing, and (2) building information technology infrastructures that allow them to process information obtained from their partners to create new knowledge. This study uncovers and examines the variety of supply chain partnership configurations that exist based on differences in capability platforms, reflecting varying processes and information systems. We use the absorptive capacity lens to build a conceptual framework that links these configurations with partner-enabled market knowledge creation. Absorptive capacity refers to the set of organizational routines and processes by which organizations acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge to produce dynamic organizational capabilities. Through an exploratory field study conducted in the context of the RosettaNet consortium effort in the IT industry supply chain, we use cluster analysis to uncover and characterize five supply chain partnership configurations (collectors, connectors, crunchers, coercers, and collaborators). We compare their partner-enabled knowledge creation and operational efficiency, as well as the shortcomings in their capability platforms and the nature of information exchange. Through the characterization of each of the configurations, we are able to derive research propositions focused on enterprise absorptive capacity elements. These propositions provide insight into how partner-enabled market knowledge creation and operational efficiency can be affected, and highlight the interconnected roles of coordination information and rich information. The paper concludes by drawing implications for research and practice from the uncovering of these configurations and the resultant research propositions. It also highlights fertile opportunities for advances in research on knowledge management through the study of supply chain contexts and other interorganizational partnering arrangements.
IT-INTENSIVE VALUE INNOVATION IN THE ELECTRONIC ECONOMY: INSIGHTS FROM MARSHALL INDUSTRIES. (MIS Quarterly, 1999)
Authors: Abstract:
    The emerging electronic economy is bringing with it new forms of IT-enabled intermediation, virtual supply chains, rapidly changing electronic commerce technologies, increasing knowledge intensity, and unprecedented sensitivity for time-to-market by customers. Customers are demanding more value, customized to their exact needs, at less cost, and as quickly as possible. The enterprises that will survive in such a demanding environment will need to innovate and invent new ways of creating value, and will require different enterprise architectures and different IT infrastructures. This article focuses on providing a framework for guiding an enterprise as it transforms itself to function more effectively in the electronic economy. Using the distribution industry in general and Marshall Industries in particular as a context, the article draws insights for transforming an extended enterprise's architecture and its IT infrastructure to enable new ways of creating value in the electronic economy. The article provides a staged junction box model for guiding the transformation and also articulates the elements of the new value logic for enterprises in the electronic economy.
Redesigning the Customer Support Process for the Electronic Economy: Insights From Storage Dimensions. (MIS Quarterly, 1997)
Authors: Abstract:
    This paper provides insights for redesigning IT-enabled customer support processes to meet the demanding requirements of the emerging electronic economy in which fast response, shared knowledge creation, and internetworked technologies are the dynamic enablers of success. The paper describes the implementation of the TechConnect support system at Storage Dimensions, a manufacturer of high-availability computer storage system products. TechConnect is a unique IT infrastructure for problem resolution that includes a customer support knowledge base whose structure is dynamically updated based on adaptive learning through customer interactions. The paper assesses the impacts of TechConnect and its value in creating a learning organization. It then draws insights for redesigning knowledge-creating customer support processes for the business conditions of the electronic economy.
Building an Information System Design Theory for Vigilant EIS. (Information Systems Research, 1992)
Authors: Abstract:
    This paper defines an information system design theory (ISDT) to be a prescriptive theory which integrates normative and descriptive theories into design paths intended to produce more effective information systems. The nature of ISDTs is articulated using Dubin's concept of theory building and Simon's idea of a science of the artificial. An example of an ISDT is presented in the context of Executive Information Systems (EIS). Despite the increasing awareness of the potential of EIS for enhancing executive strategic decision-making effectiveness, there exists little theoretical work which directly guides EIS design. We contend that the underlying theoretical basis of EIS can be addressed through a design theory of vigilant information systems. Vigilance denotes the ability of an information system to help an executive remain alertly watchful for weak signals and discontinuities in the organizational environment relevant to emerging strategic threats and opportunities. Research on managerial information scanning and emerging issue tracking as well as theories of open loop control are synthesized to generate vigilant information system design theory propositions. Transformation of the propositions into testable empirical hypotheses is discussed.
Information Systems for Crisis Management: Lessons from Southern California Edison. (MIS Quarterly, 1986)
Authors: Abstract:
    This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of an integrated voice-data-video information system for crisis management at Southern California Edison (SCE). It was developed for top managers to help prevent and control problems that might arise with their nuclear power generating station at San Onofre, California. The article describes some of the system's unique design features, and the lessons that SCE learned from implementation. It concludes by providing a generic set of prescriptions for the design and implementation of information systems for crisis management.