Editorial

Citation

Irani, Z. (2011), "Editorial", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 24 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim.2011.08824caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Volume 24, Issue 3

It gives me great pleasure to welcome our readers to volume 24, issue 3 of Journal of Enterprise Information Management (JEIM), and to thank them for their continued support over previous years. 2011 represents yet another period of growth for JEIM as evidenced by the quality and quantity of submissions to the journal. The continuous update of the journal’s scope to promote theory and practice has led to an increase in regular research paper submissions and viewpoints and more importantly, for this issue we have quality submissions and a viewpoint focusing on themes that provide a mixture of conjectural and practical contributions. Notwithstanding, JEIM continues to identify and select ‘best’ papers from leading conferences.

This issue of JEIM starts with a viewpoint article from Jimmy Huang and Robert D. Galliers who aim is to outline the importance of organisational rhetoric as a valuable theoretical lens to examine and conceptualise information systems (IS) adoption. From a research approach perspective, their paper is based on a critical, yet selective, review of some relevant literature on rhetoric and IS adoption. Their paper outlines four distinctive yet interrelated elements of rhetoric, namely, different types of rhetoric and their implications; the role of stakeholders; the notion of rhetorical congruence, and rhetorical situations and strategies. These provide a means of operationalising the rhetorical dimension in researching IS adoption. The main contribution as claimed by Huang and Galliers is to enrich the existing repertoire of IS adoption theories and perspectives by adding the dimension of rhetoric.

Then we have Naimatullah Shah focusing onthe relationship between organisational justice and employee readiness for change. From a conceptual perspective, Shah asserts that the change management literature contains a growing body of research addressing employee attitudes and behaviours during organisational change programs. Understanding employee attitudes and behaviours have made possible the successful of organisational change. Change agents and managers are often worried about knowing what constitutes employee readiness factors. This paper aims to examine the relationships and predictive power of organisational justice factors such that distributive and procedural justice along with demographic factors towards the employee readiness for organisational change in a developing country. In so doing, this paper uses random sampling of a large public sector organisation in a developing country. This is a cross sectional study where the researcher has used a self-administered survey questionnaire for data collection. The researcher used analytical techniques such as descriptive statistics, factor loading and Pearson’s correlations. Finally, hypotheses were tested using the multiple regression analysis onto Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Using this research approach, Shah concluded that employee(s) of public sector organisation in a developing country can develop their positive attitudes and behaviours for organisational change on the basis of distributive and procedural justice. Furthermore, the findings of the paper hold that demographic variables such that gender, age and marital status have no positive and significant relationships to employee readiness. This study contributes to the literature on change management, human resources management, organisational behaviours and organisational development. This study may support the management and practitioners of change management in assessing and evaluating organisational change programmes particularly in the developing country. The originally of paper lies in the use of a multivariate statistics on the organisational justice variables in order to examine the employee attitudes and behaviours to the employees of a public sector employee of a developing country.

The latter research is followed by an applied study explored by Payam Hanafizadeh and Mohsen Shafiei Nikabadi. The main aim of their study is to propose a framework for selecting appropriate electronic business (e-business) model in managerial holding companies with chain structures acting in the area of automobile industry. This paper initially identifies factors affecting the selection of an appropriate e-business model in managerial holding companies with chain structure using the literature and by expansion of the conceptual model of Hayes and Finnegan (2005). Then, these factors are measured within the framework of a case study in Iran Khodro Co. (one of the largest managerial holding companies of auto industry in Iran) so that the appropriate e-business model can be determined for this company. From a research approach perspective, initially the factors affecting selection of an appropriate e-business model in managerial holding companies with chain structure in auto industry are identified through a survey and then the testing of hypotheses. Then, these factors are measured through a case study in Iran Khodro Co. so that the appropriate e-business model can be determined. From findings, 18 different factors were explored from the five main criteria in identifying e-business. From the survey results, only three factors of internal and external integration of human resources, flexibility, and decentralization in the responsibilities were identified as less important factors in identifying an appropriate model of e-business. Finally, using a case study, an appropriate e-procurement model of electronic preparation was selected for Iran Khodro Co. Therefore, the innovative aspect of the research is in the identification of the collection of factors affecting determination of the appropriate e-business model and evaluating them in the managerial holding companies with chain structure.

Following the e-business research as above, is the work by presented byMário Franco, Heiko Haase, André Magrinho and Joaquim Ramos Silva. These researchers analyse the environmental scanning practices and information sources used by large companies as well as by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the latter being relatively absent from scientific scrutiny. In doing so, the authors endeavoured to contribute to a better understanding of the scanning and information-gathering behaviour of SMEs, to develop measures to overcome their potential disadvantages in this respect. For their research, data were obtained from 165 Portuguese firms. Respondents were required to evaluate their use of eleven different environmental scanning practices and 12 information sources. For data analysis, the variables were classified using principal component analysis. Subsequently, the retained components and variables underwent a one-way variance analysis. Results indicate that smaller firms do not scan as broadly and as frequently as their larger counterparts do. Although external information sources are equally used by larger and smaller enterprises, in general there is also a positive relationship between the exploitation of information sources and firm size. Findings are taken from the Portuguese context, with its own idiosyncratic economic structure and climate. Generalisations should therefore be made with caution. As the “size effect” influences the propensity for environmental scanning, SMEs are urged to adopt inter-firm strategies to achieve a critical mass. The importance of building scanning and information networks among SMEs must be highlighted. Franco et al., claim that the research on environmental scanning in SMEs and comparative studies of the firm size effect has been relatively scarce. Their findings reveal that firm size matters, insofar that the use of different scanning practices and information sources mostly augments with increasing firm size.

Finally, we have Anders Haug and Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn seeking to investigate the barriers of data quality. These researchers state that while few would disagree that high data quality is a precondition for the efficiency of a company, this remains an area to which many companies do not give adequate attention. Thus, this paper aims to identify which are the most important barriers preventing companies from achieving high data quality. Improving the consciousness on which barriers to focus on, companies are provided in a better position for achieving high quality data. From a research approach perspective, initially a literature review of data quality and data quality barriers is carried out. Based on this literature review, the paper then identifies a set of overall barriers to ensuring high data quality. The significance of these barriers is investigated by a questionnaire study, which includes responses from 90 Danish companies. Because of the fundamental difference between master data and transaction data, the questionnaire is limited to focusing only on master data. The findings of the survey indicate that a lack of delegation of responsibilities for maintaining master data is the single aspect which has the largest impact on master data quality. Also, the survey shows that the vast majority of the companies believe that poor master data quality does have significant negative effects. The contributions of this paper represent a step towards an improved understanding of how to increase the level of master data quality in companies. This knowledge may have a positive impact on the data quality in companies. However, since the study presented in this paper appears to be the first of its kind, the conclusions drawn need further investigation by other research studies in the future. This paper identifies main barriers for ensuring high master data quality and investigates which of these factors are the most important. By focussing on these barriers, companies will have better chances of increasing their data quality. The study presented in this paper appears to be the first of its kind, and it represents an important step towards better understanding why companies find it difficult to achieve satisfactory data quality levels.

This issue of JEIM offers an eclectic picture of the enterprise information management landscape. I do hope you enjoy reading this issue!

Zahir IraniEditor-in-Chief (Zahir.Irani@brunel.ac.uk)