The arrival of the ‘information age’ holds great promise in terms of providing organizations with access to a wealth of information stores. However, the free exchange of electronic information also brings the threat of providing easy, and many times unwanted, access to personal information. Given the potential backlash of consumers, it is imperative that both researchers and practitioners understand the nature of consumers' concern for information privacy and accurately model the construct within evolving research and business contexts. Drawing upon a sample of 355 consumers and working within the framework of confirmatory factor analysis, this study examines the factor structure of the concern for information privacy (CFIP) instrument posited by Smith et al. (1996), Consistent with prior findings, the results suggest that each dimension of this instrument is reliable and distinct. However, the results also suggest that CFIP may be more parsimoniously represented as a higher-order factor structure rather than a correlated set of first-order factors. The implication of these results is that each dimension of CFIP as well as the supra dimension derived from the associations among dimensions are important in capturing CFIP and associating the construct to other important antecedents and consequences.
A hallmark of the new economy is the ability of organizations to realize economic value from their collection of knowledge assets as well as their assets of information, production distribution, and affiliation. Despite the competitive necessity of becoming a knowledge-based organization, senior managers have found it difficult to transform their firms through programs of knowledge management. This is particularly true if their organizations have long histories of process and a tradition of business success. This research examines the issue of effective knowledge management from the perspective of organizational capabilities. This perspective suggests that a knowledge infrastructure consisting of technology, structure, and culture along with a knowledge process architecture of acquisition, conversion, application, and protection are essential organizational capabilities or "preconditions" for effective knowledge management. Through analysis of surveys collected from over 300 senior executives, this research empirically models and uncovers key aspects of these dimensions. The results provide a basis for understanding the competitive predisposition of a firm as it enters a program of knowledge management.
Improving strategic planning within the realm of information technology management is consistently identified by top corporate executives as a critical competitive issue. While relevant literature in the area is replete with descriptions of planning tools and methodologies, investigations that examine this activity from the perspective of process-based characteristics, or "profiles," are still in the formative stages. Through multivariate analysis of data gathered from 253 organizations, the findings of this study suggest that five distinct profiles of strategic planning can be identified based on dimensions of comprehensiveness (extent of solution search), formalization (existence of rules and procedures), focus (extent of innovation versus integration), flow (top-down, bottom-up), participation (number and variety of planners), and consistency (frequency of planning). While each profile exhibits strength across particular measures of planning effectiveness, the profile associated with all measures of planning effectiveness seems to incorporate elements of rationality (high comprehensiveness, high formalization, control focus, top-down flow) and adaptation (high participation, high consistency). Postsurvey field study of selected firms suggests that the five approaches may represent distinct "schools" of thought that are reflective of deep-seated beliefs and attitudes about strategic planning. These schools (design, planning, positioning, learning, and political) are founded on very different assumptions and provide substantive interpretation for the empirical findings.
The article presents an executive overview of the article "Strategic Information Systems Planning Success: An Investigation of the Construct and Its Measurement," by Albert H. Segars and Varun Grover, in this same issue of "MIS Quarterly."
Orchestrating programs of organizational transformation that result in sustained process improvement represents a difficult managerial challenge. Yet, ever-changing customer requirements, electronic partnerships, and increasingly complex intraorganizational arrangements are forcing many well-established firms to transform themselves from function-based forms of organization into process-based systems of managerial, task, and evaluative arrangements. Through a program of managed transformation, the In formation Services (IS) function at Bose Corporation has realized dramatic improvements in the delivery of information products/services and is now "charting the course" for a sustained process management view that will define and measure business relationships well into the next century. In contrast to many well-publicized programs of change, the drive toward sustained process improvement and innovation by Bose IS resembles an evolutionary model of organizational learning and information sharing rather than a revolutionary model of immediate and drastic transformation. This study describes the defining stages, key events, and obstacles of the road traveled by Bose IS in transforming itself from a corporate utility into an enterprise-wide source of process innovation and improvement.
Sustainability of competitive advantage may be achieved by leveraging unique firm attributes with information technology to realize long-term performance gains. Information systems that cannot sustain competitive impact have only transient strategic value or may offer negative value if matched by a superior response by competitors. A research review of sustainability was conducted that resulted in the development of a framework depicting factors effecting sustainable competitive advantage. This study evaluates longitudinal changes in performance measures of 30 firms that have been cited as "classic" cases of strategic use of information technology. The results of this analysis indicate that not all of these classic cases can be touted as "sustained winners." Differences among strategic "sustainers" and "non-sustainers" were formally tested to determine those firm and/or industry factors that may be antecedents to sustained IT competitive advantage. Results indicate that managers must do more than simply assess the uniqueness or availability of emerging technological innovations in developing strategic IT plans. Specifically, the establishment of technological base along with substantial capital availability seem to be important prerequisites for "technologically derived" sustainability. Recognizing the need for a stronger prescriptive orientation to strategic IS, future research is outlined in an effort to develop a comprehensive framework that would link combinations of sustainability factors to actual performance.
This article notes the results of two studies by D. A. Adams et al designed to replicate previous work by Fred Davis in 1989 regarding perceived usefulness, ease of use, and their influence on the usage of information technology. The authors of the research employed structural equation modeling and utilized regression analysis. Unfortunately, the model fits were unsatisfactory. This author seeks to analyze these scales further by revisiting this research. The authors hope that this research will help researchers interested in statistically testing relationships between variables using structural equation modeling.