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The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the payoffs of a corporate portal in an academic institution in Oman and its impacts on business processes and employees.

The study included 100 employees, mostly instructors, in an academic institution. The questionnaire included indicators related to the portal usage, employees’ benefits (learning, adaptability and job satisfaction) and business processes’ benefits (effectiveness, efficiency and innovativeness) constructs. Data were analyzed by PLS‐Graph 3.0, a variance‐based structural equation modeling software.

Results revealed that corporate portal has significant returns on employees’ learning, adaptability and job satisfaction, and business processes’ effectiveness, efficiency and innovation. All six hypotheses in this study were supported.

The paper provides empirical evidence for practitioners and researchers on the benefits of a corporate portal in an academic institution in Oman.

Information is now coming centre stage in companies anxious to maintain their competitive advantage in the dot.com economy as electronic business‐to‐business exchanges rapidly emerge. The technical issues of being able to search across a wide range of different database and document types are now being solved through enterprise information portal applications (EIP), often referred to as corporate portals. These provide users with access to internal and external information resources through a customisable Web browser interface. This paper outlines the generic features of EIP applications, and categorises the different approaches being taken by EIP vendors, many of whom are adapting software developed for document management and information retrieval purposes. Emerging roles for information professionals in the deployment of EIP applications are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of shared services by end-users and why this may conflict with the use as intended by the shared service center (SSC) management.

By applying structuration theory, this empirical study draws on qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews with managers and end-users of an SSC. This SSC is part of a Dutch subsidiary of a multinational corporation that produces professional electronics for the defense and security market.

We find two main types of shared services usage by end-users which were not intended by the SSC management: avoidance and window-dressing. These forms of unintended usage were the result of contradictions in social structures related to the centralization and decentralization models as appropriated by end-users and management.

Our findings show that the benefits of shared services depends on how well contradictions in managers’ and end-users’ interpretive schemes, resources, and norms associated with centralization and decentralization models are resolved.

A popular argument in existing studies is that the benefit of shared services follows from the design of the SSC’s organizational structure. These studies overlook the fact that shared services are not always used as their designers intended and, therefore, that success depends on how the SSC’s organizational structure is appropriated by end-users. As such, the originality of this study is our focus on the way shared services are used by their end-users in order to explain why SSCs succeed or fail in reaping their promised benefits.

Develops an original 12‐step management of technology protocol and applies it to 51 applications which range from Du Pont’s failure in Nylon to the Single Online Trade Exchange for Auto Parts procurement by GM, Ford, Daimler‐Chrysler and Renault‐Nissan. Provides many case studies with regards to the adoption of technology and describes seven chief technology officer characteristics. Discusses common errors when companies invest in technology and considers the probabilities of success. Provides 175 questions and answers to reinforce the concepts introduced. States that this substantial journal is aimed primarily at the present and potential chief technology officer to assist their survival and success in national and international markets.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This paper explores the influence of an organization’s information ecology, or internal information environment, on a firm’s electronic commerce initiatives and plans. To investigate this problem area, results are reported from a recent case study investigation on the adoption and use of a specific e‐commerce initiative – namely a corporate portal – by 20 participants at a large Canadian company. Data collection involved semi‐structured interviews and field observations, while analysis comprised a variant form of grounded theory. Factors of the information ecology influencing portal utilization are identified. From these, implications are drawn to e‐commerce solutions in general. Specific recommendations include the need to create a democratic steering committee to oversee the development of e‐commerce solutions, gain support of upper management, and market and train organizational workers on the functionality and strategic importance of a company’s e‐commerce initiatives and plans.

Intranets and portals are supposed to provide an infrastructure through which end‐users can gain effective access to information sources needed to assist in daily tasks such as effective decision making, planning and research. This paper discusses the current lack of clarity on how to address the external information issue in conjunction with the current popularity of portals and their multiplicity, emphasising in particular the confusion in regards to what constitutes each portal type. The issue of definition intensifies when the term information portals becomes added to the current list of portal categories. Does the latter belong to a unique category of portals or should it rather be seen as an umbrella term for other portals? When is a portal an information portal? To conclude, what should a strategy entail to ensure that external information sources are perceived by an enterprise as of strategic importance?

Horizontal web portals fill an important place in the operation of the internet and this paper seeks to look at how these portals may become profitable. A portal is simply a gateway, and a web portal can thus be seen as a gateway to content and services on the internet, or on a corporate intranet. This paper aims to compare several different views of what constitutes a portal, and to offer a specific definition. The main focus of the paper is on general horizontal (or public) portals and the relationship between their business‐revenue models and the content they provide. This paper aims to briefly review the relevant literature before describing a revenue model consisting of players, strategies and content. This is then examined and synthesised to match various revenue models and content.

After proposing the model, the paper tests how the matches proposed between revenue and content in the model compare with two currently operating popular horizontal portals.

An examination of two popular portals (one world‐wide and one based in Australia) has provided typical examples of how the advertising/revenue can be employed by horizontal portals and shown that they appear to match fairly closely with the proposed revenue/content model. After having examined the content of these two well‐known portals, it appears at this early stage that the revenue‐content model may show some promise.

While the paper cannot claim complete generalisability of a model based on a comparison of only two horizontal portals, the results are promising and should be useful for horizontal portal managers looking for how to balance the revenue of their portal with the content that they generate and the services they offer.

When fully tested, the model will provide horizontal portal operators assistance with the process of determining suitable content for their portals to match their chosen revenue strategies.

It is believed that this model is one of the few revenue/content matching models developed for horizontal portals.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce enterprise portals and show their ability to provide integrated services in the local government domain.

This paper describes the development and early stage deployment of enterprise portals within two country councils in the UK.

In both cases the portal is seen as a key element of their e‐government activities, enabling the councils to meet Central Government targets in this area. The intention is for the portals to provide a single location for residents, businesses and council staff, wishing to access the online information and transactional services provided by the councils. The portals offer the councils a number of very significant benefits that will improve service delivery to citizens, including the ability to share information across their own directorates and also to improve working with other agencies.

This study is based on just two organizations, both based in the UK. Although the intention of case study research is not to provide generalisable truths, rather to explore the rich inter‐relationship in a given situation, undertaking further case studies, particularly in different countries, may allow common benefits and experiences to be identified.

Many governments in the developed world have placed significant emphasis on the adoption of e‐business throughout the public sector. The findings of this study will therefore be of interest to those involved in such developments, not just only in the UK but also in all other countries. The study will be of particular relevance to those interested in local government, which, it has been reported, is under‐represented in the e‐government research literature.

Enterprise portals are a relatively new development. Despite considerable coverage by vendors and consultants in practitioner journals, there is a paucity of academic papers in this area, with the few papers that have been published being theoretical in nature. The authors are unaware of any previous empirical studies in this domain and believe that this paper, although exploratory, represents one of the first such studies.

The purpose of this study is to examine the position of interoperability of government and corporate portals in technological adoption space in India in terms of three critical dimensions: data integration, process integration and communication integration.

This exploratory study was conducted through a survey questionnaire from 300 portals of government departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India. Data were also collected from portals of Indian companies and the results have been compared with those of the government portals.

The results show that the majority of government portals in India have initiated integration. Second, the portals of Indian companies are performing better than the portals of government and PSUs for achieving an interoperable position. Third, there is high dispersion in level of integration of government portals in India.

The portals with the lowest level of integration in government in India will determine when government will actually attain full horizontal integration and hence achieve an interoperable portal as there is high dispersion in level of integration of government portals in India. Also, for achieving an interoperable government portal, an organization needs to focus on the weakest factors of each dimension.

This study is the first to examine the position of interoperability in technological adoption space in India. The results lead to a number of recommendations for achieving interoperability for government portals in India. The study also highlights the weakest factors of each dimension that require more improvement than other factors.