Individuals' knowledge does not transform easily into organizational knowledge even with the implementation of knowledge repositories. Rather, individuals tend to hoard knowledge for various reasons. The aim of this study is to develop an integrative understanding of the factors supporting or inhibiting individuals' knowledge-sharing intentions. We employ as our theoretical framework the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and augment it with extrinsic motivators, social-psychological forces and organizational climate factors that are believed to influence individuals' knowledge-sharing intentions. Through a field survey of 154 managers from 27 Korean organizations, we confirm our hypothesis that attitudes toward and subjective norms with regard to knowledge sharing as well as organizational climate affect individuals' intentions to share knowledge. Additionally, we find that anticipated reciprocal relationships affect individuals' attitudes toward knowledge sharing while both sense of self-worth and organizational climate affect subjective norms. Contrary to common belief, we find anticipated extrinsic rewards exert a negative effect on individuals' knowledge-sharing attitudes.
Object-oriented (OO) technology was expected to rapidly replace traditional functional software technology due to its productivity and quality improvement potential in software development. Still, OO technology is not yet fully understood and utilized by information systems (IS) organizations. Despite the growing interest and attention of the IS researchers and practitioners, empirical research on the assimilation process of OO technology has been limited. The present study assesses the current status of OO technology assimilation in IS organizations and identifies the factors influencing such assimilation from a software process innovation perspective. Innovation attributes and organizational characteristics were tested as determinants of the organizational OO technology assimilation based on a survey of 220 organizations. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the relationships of innovation and organizational variables with the level of OO technology assimilation. The findings indicate that, among the innovation characteristics, perceived complexity and perceived maturity of technology have been found to have positive relationships with organizational assimilation of OO technology. Among the organizational characteristics, intensity of new technology education was positively related to organizational assimilation of OO technology, and satisfaction with existing technology was negatively related to organizational assimilation of OO technology.
Recently, increasing attention has been paid to building successful partnerships in information systems (IS) outsourcing. This study establishes partnership quality as a key predictor of outsourcing success. The authors propose a theoretical framework for outsourcing partnership based on a social, rather than an economic, perspective. They identify the partnership-related variables from the relevant literature and clarify the concept of partnership quality by distinguishing between its components and its determinants. They then examine the impact of partnership quality on outsourcing success. Hypotheses on partnership quality were tested for 74 outsourcing relationships between 36 service receivers and 54 service providers. Results indicate that partnership quality may serve as a key predictor of outsourcing success. Partnership quality was found to be positively influenced by factors such as participation, communication, information sharing, and top management support, and negatively affected by age of relationship and mutual dependency.
While information is recognized as an important corporate resource, its management has not been accomplished to the extent of other major resources. A major reason for this condition is that the information resource is not as well defined as other resources. To manage any resource effectively, the nature of that resource must be well defined. In this article, we first propose a model for corporate data. This model represents the data definition or "metadata" for Information Resource Management (IRM). Through this metadata we define the "state" of the information resource. We characterize a set of dimensions for metadata and discuss its representation and management. Concepts from Information Resource Dictionary Systems (IRDS) are described as they support metadata management. We include IRDS contents, capabilities, and implementation issues. Finally, we assess the diverse impacts of metadata management on related Information System (IS) issues such as end-user computing, corporate is planning, information architecture development, and information system development.