Search results

What is the underlying trend in IT structures? Why have individual businesses taken different stands with regard to their IT structures? There has been an ongoing debate concerning these questions with limited resolution. The issues surrounding IT structures are analysed in order to prepare managers to cope with the above two questions throughout the 1990s. Owing to the continuing progress in hardware and software technology, decentralised IT structures will continue to become more accessible and attractive in the 1990s. As a result, the users of IT services will assume an increasing share of responsibilities for producing their locally needed IT services. Generally speaking, the responsibilities of central IT departments will continue to decrease during the 1990s. Meanwhile owing to differences among businesses with respect to their organisational context variables, individual businesses will continue to subscribe to different IT structures ranging from relatively centralised to relatively decentralised.

The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive advantage provided by BI capability is not well researched. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for successful BI deployment and empirically examines the association between BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage. Taking the telecommunications industry in Malaysia as a case example, the research particularly focuses on the influencing perceptions held by telecommunications decision makers and executives on factors that impact successful BI deployment. The research further investigates the relationship between successful BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage of the telecommunications organizations. Another important aim of this study is to determine the effect of moderating factors such as organization culture, business strategy, and use of BI tools on BI deployment and the sustainability of firm’s competitive advantage.

This research uses combination of resource-based theory and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory to examine BI success and its relationship with firm’s sustainability. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and a two-phase sequential mixed method consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. The chapter presents a qualitative field study to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. The study includes a survey study with sample of business analysts and decision makers in telecommunications firms and is analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that some internal resources of the organizations such as BI governance and the perceptions of BI’s characteristics influence the successful deployment of BI. Organizations that practice good BI governance with strong moral and financial support from upper management have an opportunity to realize the dream of having successful BI initiatives in place. The scope of BI governance includes providing sufficient support and commitment in BI funding and implementation, laying out proper BI infrastructure and staffing and establishing a corporate-wide policy and procedures regarding BI. The perceptions about the characteristics of BI such as its relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, and observability are also significant in ensuring BI success. The most important results of this study indicated that with BI successfully deployed, executives would use the knowledge provided for their necessary actions in sustaining the organizations’ competitive advantage in terms of economics, social, and environmental issues.

This study contributes significantly to the existing literature that will assist future BI researchers especially in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In particular, the model will help practitioners to consider the resources that they are likely to consider when deploying BI. Finally, the applications of this study can be extended through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

In 1989, the Cleveland based law firm Reminger and Reminger in conjunction with the Personnel Journal conducted a survey on Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) issues facing America. This survey focused on various types of EEO complaints (Reminger, 1991). Of the 653 corporations who participated in the study, approximately 18% reported racial discrimination as their number one EEO problem. The survey revealed that race discrimination complaints were the highest among the government and manufacturing sectors (Reminger, 1991). In the 1990s, racial inequality continues to be of primary concern.

When an organization acquires a computer system, accounting is normally the first business application that is computerized. In the past most business had to develop their own accounting software, or continue to operate without one, because of the lack of suitable off‐the‐shelf accounting software packages. In recent years, software companies have been developing a wide spectrum of accounting software packages and currently there are well over 100 accounting software packages on the market ranging from simple cheque‐book programs to powerful modular systems. Selecting the right accounting package has become increasingly complex, and a business needs to evaluate various accounting packages to select one that will best satisfy the company′s current and future financial information needs.

The main motivation of the present study is to understand the severity of the effect of health shock on Iran's oil economy and analyze the role of government under these conditions.

Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models can show the precise interactions between market decision-makers in the context of general equilibrium. Since the duration of the virus outbreak and its effect on the economy is not known, it is more appropriate to use these models.

The results of the survey of hands-on policies scenarios compared to the state of hands-off policy indicate that the effect of government expending shocks on the economy under pandemic disease conditions has much less feedback on macroeconomic variables.

As a proposed policy, it is recommended that the government play a stabilizing role under pandemic disease conditions.

1. There is no study regarding health shock and its economic effects in Iran using DSGE models. Also, in foreign studies, the health shock in an oil economy has not been modeled.

2. The general idea in the present study is how the prevalence of a pandemic infectious disease affects the dynamics of macroeconomic variables.

3. In three different scenarios, according to the persistence of health disaster risk and the deterioration rate of health capital due to this shock, the model is simulated.

4. In modeling pandemic diseases, quarantine hours are considered as part of the total time of individuals.

5. According to the research findings, it is recommended that the government, as a policy-maker, play a stabilizing role under pandemic crises conditions.

There is no study regarding health shock and its economic effects in Iran using DSGE models. Also, in foreign studies, the health shock in an oil economy has not been modeled.

The general idea in the present study is how the prevalence of a pandemic infectious disease affects the dynamics of macroeconomic variables.

In three different scenarios, according to the persistence of health disaster risk and the deterioration rate of health capital due to this shock, the model is simulated.

In modeling pandemic diseases, quarantine hours are considered as part of the total time of individuals.

According to the research findings, it is recommended that the government, as a policy-maker, play a stabilizing role under pandemic crises conditions.

Examines ‐ in a study involving 92 large publicly‐held organizations ‐ the relationships between information technology (IT) structure, control and industry turbulence. Notes that despite the fact that some have called centralized systems electronic dinosaurs, many companies are turning to this traditional approach because it does offer one thing that decentralized systems generally lack, namely, control. Cites results indicating that information technology structure (centralized versus decentralized) is strongly related to management equity ownership, concentration of stock holdings, and the level of turbulence which firms face. Notes, for example, that an organization where top executives and managers own a relatively high percentage of the company’s stock possesses a more centralized IT structure than an organization with a relatively lower percentage of management ownership. Points out that this means that user departments in the latter have more control over their IT functions than do users in the former, but that, on the other hand, companies with high levels of stock concentration have more decentralized IT structures. In addition, concludes that the research revealed a statistically positive significant relationship between the level of turbulence firms face and the degree of IT centralization.

Seeks to isolate those intra‐organizational factors affecting the information technology (IT) structure of the firm. Analyses this phenomenon from two management perspectives: the agency and governance perspective on the one hand, and the management characteristics perspective on the other. Using a sample of 72 large organizations, empirical results indicate that information technology structure (centralized versus decentralized) is strongly related to management equity ownership, to concentration of stock holding and to the age of the CEO. For example, an organization where top executives and managers own a relatively high percentage of the company′s stock, possesses a more centralized information technology structure than an organization with a relatively lower percentage of management ownership. This means that user departments in the latter have more control over their IT functions than users in the former. On the other hand, companies with a high level of stock concentration have a more decentralized IT structure. The research also revealed a statistically significant relationship between a company′s equity‐to‐debt ratio and the age of the CEO on the one hand, and the level of IT centralization on the other.

The purpose of the current paper is to analyze the simultaneous effects of oil sanctions and financial sanctions on Iran's macroeconomic variables in a small open economy in the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) framework.

A DSGE model with the new Keynesian approach has been designed for the above mentioned purpose giving consideration to households, production, trade, oil, government and central bank sectors. All of the parameters were calibrated by using geometric means of macroeconomic variables in 2004–2017 as the steady-state values of the variables in the static model.

Amplifying the intensity of the oil sanctions reduces oil production due to decreasing investment, technology and export of oil and reduces the central bank's foreign reserves ratio to the money base that leads to an increasing exchange rate. Furthermore, oil sanctions decrease the government revenues due to a decrease in oil export and by the government imposing an expansionary fiscal policy in the form of increasing current expenditure and preserving construction expenditure to prevent deepening the recession, which causes budget deficit and then the issue of more bonds with a higher nominal interest rate. On the other hand, financial sanctions raise transaction costs and marginal costs in the trade sectors that lead to inflation and a decrease in nonoil export and various kinds of imports. Due to inflation and uncertainty, consumption of a household increases and investment expenditure of a household decreases.

To the best of the author's knowledge, few studies in the world have analyzed the economic effect of the sanctions in the framework of DSGE models. There is no study in Iran to date which investigates the effects of the sanctions in the form of a DSGE model. So, this paper is the first study in Iran and one of the few studies in the world using a DSGE model for analyzing the effects of sanctions. Imposing three kinds of oil sanctions in addition to a financial sanction is another innovation of the current paper.

To establish and sustain their KM programs organisations need to establish mechanisms to ensure their governance. KM programs require business integration, senior management involvement and decision making authority. The present research aims to investigate the KM governance mechanisms organisations use to guide and control their KM programs. The research seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the governance of KM and to support organisations in the development of their KM programs.

The study employs multiple case research methodology to analyse the KM governance arrangements of 12 international organisations and identify patterns in their governance configurations.

The analysis identifies a range of structural, process and relational mechanisms that are critical for governing an organisational KM program. Different patterns among the KM governance mechanisms are identified which lead to the development of generic KM governance typologies.

The development of the KM governance framework allows future research to systematically investigate the KM governance phenomenon. As the present study is based on a configurational analysis, future research should particularly target the performance implications of different KM governance configurations.

The research provides insights into the diversity of KM governance mechanisms and their impact on a KM program. The KM governance framework can assist managers in reviewing their present and prospective KM programs and thereby support benchmarking or re‐organisation efforts.

Building on prior research that has focused on individual KM governance aspects, the present study adopts a comprehensive perspective integrating structural, process and relational governance mechanisms.

THE VALUE OF ABSTRACTS AND THEIR USE ‐ MCB is not a company to rest on its laurels. In the vernacular of modern‐day management literature, the company can rightly claim to be a learning organization; one that seeks to regenerate and develop itself in accordance with current trends, most notably customer and market requirements.