School of Business IT, Kookmin University, 861-1, Jeungreung-Dong, Songbuk-Gu Seoul 136-702 Korea; City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong Hong Kong
This research investigates information security management as an administrative innovation. Although a number of institutional theories deal with information systems (IS) innovation in organizations, most of these institutional-centered frameworks overlook external economic efficiency and internal organizational capability in the presence of pressures of institutional conformity. Using Korea as the institutional setting, our research model posits that economic-based consideration will moderate the institutional conformity pressure on information security adoption while organization capability will influence the institutional confirmation of information security assimilation. The model is empirically tested using two-stage survey data from a field study of 140 organizations in Korea. The results indicate that in addition to institutional influences, our six proposed economic-based and organizational capability moderating variables all have significant influences on the degree of the adoption and assimilation of information security management. We conclude with implications for research in the area of organizational theory and the information security management literature, and for practices regarding how managers can factor into their information security planning the key implementation variables discovered in this study. The robust setting of the study in Korean firms allows us to generalize the theory to a new context and across cultures.
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.
Focus on individual outsourcing decisions in IT research has often yielded contradictory findings and recommendations. To address these contradictions, we investigate a holistic, configurational approach with the prevailing universalistic or contingency perspectives in exploring the effects of IT outsourcing strategies on outsourcing success. Based on residual rights theory, we begin by identifying three dimensions of IT out-sourcing strategies: degree of integration, allocation of control, and performance period. We then develop a model of fit-as-gestalt, drawing from literatures on strategy, governance, interorganizational relationships, and outsourcing. Next, based on data from 311 firms in South Korea, we test universalistic and contingency perspectives in explaining the relationship between IT outsourcing strategies and outsourcing success. We then identify three congruent patterns, or gestalts, of IT outsourcing strategies. We term these strategies independent, arm's-length, and embedded strategies. To establish the predictive validity of these gestalts and the viability of a configurational perspective, we then explore the effects of these congruent gestalts vis-à-vis noncongruent patterns on three dimensions of outsourcing success: strategic competence, cost efficiency, and technology catalysis. We also contrast the effects of each of the three gestalts on each of the three dimensions of outsourcing success. Our findings indicate the superiority of the configurational approach over universalistic and contingency perspectives in explaining outsourcing success.
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.