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The use of a multi‐disciplinary research team can often enhance the investigation of IS phenomena ‐ particularly when the construct under study is multi‐dimensional. This paper explores the challenges and benefits of carrying out IS research with a multi‐disciplinary team. By way of illustration a study is described which purposefully pulled together researchers from different (but related) disciplines to carry out an IS research project. The challenges confronting the team included miscommunication, initial disagreement concerning research constructs, and the amount of time required for meetings. The benefits far outweighed the difficulties. Benefits accrued to the study itself and to the research participants. The study was more holistic and included better construct definition. The participating researchers benefited from critically examining their own views and outlooks whilst being exposed to viewpoints from other disciplines.

The adoption of Internet technologies by the small business sector is important to their on‐going survival. Yet, given the opportunities and benefits that Internet technologies can provide it has been shown that Australian small businesses are relatively slow in adopting them. This paper develops a model from recent literature on the facilitators and inhibitors to the adoption of Internet technologies by small business. Cross‐case analysis of findings from three case studies are presented. Findings indicate that perceived lack of business benefit, mistrust of the IT industry and lack of understanding of Internet technologies are major inhibitors to Internet adoption by small business.

E‐Teaching as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education is of growing importance for educational theory and practice. Many universities and other higher education institutions use ICT to support teaching. However, there are contradicting opinions about the value and outcome of e‐teaching. This paper starts with a review of the literature on e‐teaching and uses this as a basis for distilling success factors for e‐teaching. It then discusses the case study of an e‐voting system used for giving student feedback and marking student presentations. The case study is critically discussed in the light of the success factors developed earlier. The conclusion is that e‐teaching, in order to be successful, should be embedded in the organisational and individual teaching philosophy.

Most research about relationships and networks concentrates on social bonds such as trust and commitment. Little research considers technical bonds and how they interact with social bonds within a relationship. Thus this research investigates how technical bonds of information technology link with social bonds in the relationship between two organisations in a business system, in particular, between a franchisor and franchisees within a franchise system. First, a framework of the structure of a relationship between business alliance partners was synthesised from the business‐to‐business literature. Then Australian franchisors were surveyed about the effects of their investments in information technology upon their franchisor‐franchisee relationship. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to analyse the survey data. The results provided support for the framework, with the franchisor’s increased technical competence from information technology improving the social bonds in a relationship but those bonds being secondary to further technical investment. An implication for managers is that investments in information technology operate through the social bonds within their business.

Since the advent of non‐proprietary technologies fostered by the internet, the travel distribution model has been subjected to significant changes. One of the primary changes has been the expanding potential of interoperability between systems brought about the advent of extended markup language‐based specifications developed and published by the Open Travel Alliance (OTA). The potential impact of the underlying technology (web services) in use for developing these standards is significant. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate strategic perspectives from key industry players over the potential of this technology and examine the factors pertaining to their adoption.

Data for this came from a series of 30‐45‐minute interviews with senior executives of four major travel suppliers (included three major hotel chains and one leading car rental company) as well as three major intermediaries (comprised two global distribution system companies and one major online travel agency). Interviews were guided using two types of signposts – conceptual and industry‐level phenomena.

Findings indicate that suppliers and intermediaries see distinctive levers of advantage from OTA messaging specifications. While suppliers seek to build flexibility to add/delete channels and subsequently leverage greater control over inventory distribution, intermediaries seek to consolidate on their aggregation capabilities through wider content and enhance dynamic packaging as value for end‐customers.

This is a qualitative study comprising in‐depth interviews with a selected few respondents that limit the generalizability of the results. Additionally, the perspective is limited to the larger players in the travel distribution space.

The study is the first in hospitality/travel marketing literature to examine the issues of interoperability specific to a major initiative such as the OTA.

The institutionalization of an organizational innovation, such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, takes place as a continuous adaptation process that includes the development of a support organization, infrastructure, regulations, and norms, as well as the acquired knowledge of the organizational members. This paper aims to provide a structured road map for understanding this complex process and to explain some of the critical issues in institutionalizing ERP in the organization.

Multiple case studies were employed as the research approach. A multiphase design was used to introduce structure to the methodology.

The paper, using a reasonably representative sample, provides valuable insights into the ERP institutionalization process within organizations. It identifies and documents a number of key challenges that organizations face in the three phases of the institutionalization process.

A number of findings from the paper may help managers in successfully institutionalizing ERP systems. The paper identifies 15 key activities and several challenges in executing those activities along with coping strategies that firms employed to face these challenges.

ERP systems mark a major shift in the organizational approach to information systems. The paper uses empirical data from case studies to explore and delineate the ERP institutionalization process in the adopting organizations.

This paper aims to investigate empirically the decision of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt the internet in their businesses.

Using a survey of 465 sampled SMEs from Klan valley area in Malaysia, this study tests seven hypotheses about the factors that influence internet adoption.

The findings show that manager's characteristics, perceived benefits, organisational culture, technological competency and cost of adoption have significant relationships with internet adoption. The results of the study of highly educated managers of SMEs also revealed a non‐significant relationship between language, growth of web and internet adoption.

The study provides more understanding of managers' perceptions about internet adoption in their businesses. Those interested in promoting the web may find these results helpful in guiding their efforts.

The customer relationship management (CRM) technology adoption process in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is an under-researched area and the purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge and offer greater understanding of the CRM adoption process through an empirical study in the USA.

In this study it is hypothesized that the likelihood of CRM technology being adopted is dependent on management characteristics, organizational characteristics and management's perception of CRM technology. To investigate the proposed model a survey of SMEs in the retail, manufacturing and services sectors was conducted in Southern California, USA.

The results indicate that management characteristics significantly influence a firm's perception of CRM technology specifically innovativeness and positive attitude to CRM. Organizational characteristics such as the employee, information technology (IT) resources, a firms’ innovativeness influence the likelihood that CRM technology will be adopted and the extent to which CRM technology will be implemented.

First, the industries focused on were in retail, manufacturing and services. Second, the sample was geographically specific to Southern California. Third, the sample size in this study was relatively small, although it is within the testable range. Finally, only one respondent was surveyed from each firm.

Management regardless of gender, age or education level, must be supportive, innovative and have a positive attitude towards the new IT application, as positive perception will likely to lead to decision to adopt. In addition, there must be innovation within the organization and the firm must have the ability to absorb knowledge and to use it. There must be an availability of IT resources, both infrastructure and skills to support the change.

The results of this study have implications for CRM adoption in SMEs. More importantly, they suggest a framework which demonstrates the necessary linkage between organizational characteristics and CRM adoption process.

The objective of this study is to analyse the influence exerted by technological compatibility upon the intensity of use of the new online management programs made by information technology (IT) sector (new technology companies).

The concept of perceived compatibility, first defined by Rogers, has been adapted to the specific characteristics of the company as the user of technology, subsequently testing its dimensionality through confirmatory analyses. Additionally, a causal study was made in order to determine the importance of technological compatibility in the intensity of use of online business management. The statistical techniques employed are based on structural equation methodology.

The results demonstrate that the concept of technological compatibility is composed of several dimensions, which these differentiate the technologies previously applied by the company on the basis of their level of complexity; the overall concept achieves an explanatory power of 56 per cent with regard to subsequent technological development.

Knowledge derived from technological compatibility permits the correct evaluation of whether to accept a new IT application, providing the company with a series of positive synergies which increase the advantages of its online business management.

The originality of this study stems from its innovative treatment of the company as the IT user, adapting to this end the concept of compatibility hitherto exclusively applied to the analysis of the individual. Similarly, in distinction to the unidimensional approach of other research, this study has taken into account the need to establish different constructs for the measurement of technological compatibility and has demonstrated its importance in company technological development.

The impacts of information technology on business relationships have been of interest to managers for decades, and this stream of research has also steadily gained recognition among academics. However, the emergence of mobile technologies and the use of mobile solutions within business relationships is a less well studied area. Thus, the purpose of this research is to show how mobile solutions can be deployed within industrial buyer‐supplier relationships to enhance processes, coordination and overall value creation.

The empirical part of the research presents an in‐depth case study in the context of the steel industry.

It is shown that mobile technology usage has a central role in key business relationships to improve internal and inter‐organizational coordination. Mobile technology usage grid was conceptualized from the literature to categorize the possible impacts of mobile technology deployment on coordination.

As a practical result, this research shows that a wi‐fi infrastructure based system that uses handheld devices like PDAs can be used to shorten and cut costs of internal and interfacing processes between buyer and supplier. In practice, the steel hardness test report measurements and transmissions from one organization to another are made more effective.

The limitation of the research is the use of only one case study and the resulting lack of generalizable results. Future studies could include case studies in other contexts, and later a quantitative study could be conducted to validate and broaden the findings.

The paper presents how mobile technology is used in a business relationship and what kind of impacts the usage has on the relationship. The paper contributes to the evolving bonding discussion in business relationships as well as indicates ways to use mobile technology effectively in a business relationship.